Dec. 23, 2023 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards
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You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is the Political Cesspool.
The Political Cesspool, known across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program.
And here to guide you through the murky waters of the political cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow yourselves to be settled now and prepare your heart to hear the biblical account of the birth of Jesus Christ.
And to present that message to us once again is Pastor Brett McAtee of Christ the King Reformed Church in Charlotte, Michigan.
We encourage you to join his fellowship, even if you have to listen online, as so many people in our audience do, by going to charlotte reformed.org.
Pastor McAtee, I was just telling him during the break that as I hope members of this audience look forward to each guest that we have on as much as I do, I am looking forward as a listener to hearing the message that Pastor is about to present to us.
I'm going to sit back in my chair and savor every bit of this.
Pastor McAtee, it is great to have you back.
This is a long-standing tradition now that you appear with us on the last Saturday before Christmas and Easter, respectively, and throughout the year as well at certain points.
But tonight it is Christmas and God bless you for being back with us tonight.
Well, thank you, James.
And I hope that God's people will be blessed during this Christmas season.
It's a time of year that I really enjoy.
My wife and I make a big deal about Christmas here with our home and our family and the church.
I'm sure I'm like many of your listeners out there that sometimes I feel like I've been dropped into a world I don't understand.
And part of that is an email I received not too long ago.
I'm quoting from it here.
It says, we went to a really excellent service yesterday.
I wanted to tell everyone about it.
It was a Christmas message, the third in a four-part series, and boy, was I blown away.
The series uses Christmas movies to drive home an important point from the Bible.
At least we were told that was the purpose.
Well, it was really something.
We were treated to several three to four minute clips from Will Farrell's film, The Elf.
And I cannot begin to tell you how I was affected by seeing Will Farrell up there on the theater side screen in church on a Sunday morning.
Elf has the means by which to preach the gospel, we learned.
Oh, yes, indeed.
Elf left his home and travels the globe searching for his father, just like our Heavenly Father goes searching all over the world looking for his orphans.
And unlike James Kahn, he will never throw us out of his office.
Christmas Eve's final message will be presented, and the congregation will get to hear the gospel through.
It's a wonderful life.
Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed will be on the big screen teaching us the gospel.
How cool is that?
Unquote.
Well, I'm not very cool, and I won't try to tell the Christmas story by wrapping it all up in ethnic Hollywood films.
All I want to do tonight is just walk you through some of the Christmas record found in Scripture.
And in order to understand the Christmas account, we must first provide a little bit of context.
And that is a backdrop.
And the backdrop to Christmas is, as probably most of you know, that man is a fallen creature, created perfectly innocently by his creator.
He has fallen from his creator's hands.
That's what the first book of the Bible, Genesis, teach us.
And he was cast out of paradise as a penalty for his rebellion against his creator.
Without that backdrop, nothing else can be understood about Christmas.
Kind of like Jacob Marley being dead as a doorknown.
Without that, you can't understand it's a Christmas carol.
So you can't understand the Christian Christmas story apart from reality that man has fallen.
This is taught in Genesis.
And the Christmas story, as we said, cannot be understood apart from Genesis because Genesis is the beginning of the story of how paradise was restored with the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So the whole context of our story requires that we understand that apart from God's solution found in Jesus Christ for man's rebellion, man, as the scripture teaches, is without God and without hope.
That is the backdrop.
That is the context of understanding Christmas and of being able to say to one another with all earnestness, Merry Christmas.
The reason that Christmas is such a cheerful time is that at Christmas, we were reminded that God alone did everything so that man, the rebel, could once again be done with his rebellion against his creator.
Because of Christmas, man can once again be merry because Jesus is born to bear away our sin.
Indeed, you shall call his name Jesus.
Why?
For he shall save his people from their sin.
So to rejoice in Christmas, to understand Christmas, you don't need Will Pharaoh and an elf.
You don't need this a wonderful life.
You need to understand that man was fallen, that man has a sin problem, that man is not basically good, but rather that man is basically wicked.
And Jesus is born to bear away our sin and to restore us to God.
That whole idea, we use the big word in the churches, redemption or reconciliation.
Another thing we should say here is that the Christmas story presupposes the existence of the supernatural.
And I'm going to tease that out throughout the lessons we're looking at today.
Christians believe in God creating the world in six days.
Christians believe that God created Adam and then Eve out of Adam's rib.
Christians believe in talking snakes.
Christians believe that Adam was cast out of the garden.
We believe it all.
And without believing it all, none of the Christmas story makes any sense.
And the reason I want to emphasize that from the very start is there are pastors and churches out there who want to talk a great deal about Jesus and Christmas, but the Jesus and Christmas on their lips is not the Jesus and Christmas that we find in scripture.
And that's because they understand Jesus and Christmas without believing in the supernatural.
Yes, there's many pastors like that.
And the theology, to use the fancy word, is called neo-orthodoxy.
And they'll say they believe in Jesus and they'll write about Christ and they'll write about Christmas, but they don't believe in the supernatural.
But Jesus and Christmas without the supernatural is just the stuff of fairy tales.
So let's start the Christmas story with the fact that after man's rebellion, God promises someone who would restore paradise lost.
God said to the serpent who had been the agent of Lucifer, quote, and I'll put up open warfare between you and the woman and between your people of darkness and her people.
The champion of her people shall fatally crush your head and you shall only bruise his heel.
And there we find the proto-promise that blossoms throughout the scriptures of a champion coming to deliver us from our sin and to restore us to God to pay the penalty that sin deserved because we could not pay it.
Thus we see that the contest was set in Genesis and Christmas tells the story following the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation of how this promise of the coming champion, the champion of God, our champion, how all of that came to pass.
Before God's champion and our champion arrived on that first Christmas day, however, long millennium pass.
And with that, we'll kick it up at the other side of the break as we talk about that long millennium and the coming of Christ.
Ladies and gentlemen, the first of four parts of Pastor Brett McAtee's presentation of the Christmas story this year, Christmas 2023.
We'll be right back.
Hello, TPC family.
It's James, and I've got to tell you that I sleep better at night knowing that there are organizations like the Conservative Citizens Foundation.
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In message one, we said that Satan, the father of lies, John 8, 44, gave the left evil spiritual power the more they use the lies.
The political left today is the beast.
Now, the Bible confirms that the dragon gave him, the beast, his power.
Revelation 13, 2.
The extra evil spiritual power that comes from the beast by their lying is what accounts for the string of the leftist criminals in the government that have never yet been prosecuted.
It also explains why American capitalists support communism in the 21st century.
Note 1.
That behavior of capitalists was predicted by Vladimir Lenin, a cell of the beast.
Note 2.
Henry Ford was a capitalist and he would have never gone communist.
The difference between Ford and the present day end-time capitalists is that Ford was born and educated in the kingdom of Christ, 19th century America, the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21.
One of the most beautiful, one of the most majestic, one of the most important songs ever written, Silent Night.
Ladies and gentlemen, back with us this hour, giving us the honor.
Pastor Brett McAtee, he is the husband of a wife without peer, father of three children who walk as heroes in the land, and a grandfather of many more than that.
He's the author of Iron Inc, which is committed to thinking God's thoughts after him, and he has pastored Christ the King Reformed Church in Michigan for over 20 years.
It is a brick-and-mortar fellowship, and there is nothing that can adequately substitute being amongst a body of believers meeting in person.
But I know a lot of you cannot find that faithful fellowship in your particular area.
And I was telling Pastor Brett that just within the last two weeks, I have talked to a lady in Texas and then someone at Keith's Christmas party just last night who tuned in to without prompting.
They actually brought it up to me without me bringing up Brett to them, without prompting, shared with me that they listened to his online sermons, which you can find at charlottreformed.org.
And if you don't have a fellowship that you are currently attending, I would encourage you to check that out.
We need this strong Christian leadership.
And Pastor Brett provides it as he continues to provide the Christmas message tonight.
Pastor, continue.
Thank you.
Well, we're in Genesis and we've seen man rebel, what we call the fall.
But God has resolved that that's not going to be the end of the story.
He's going to provide a champion.
He makes that promise.
We look at Genesis 3.15, which is called the proto-evangelium.
And E, though, it seems that she expects that God's going to provide this champion promised immediately.
We get the hint of that because in Genesis, our mother Eve gives birth to Cain, and she says, look, the Lord has given a, behold, the Lord has given a man, as if that's the one that's promised.
But of course, Cain was not the problem, promised one, the champion, and our hopes were not fulfilled.
And throughout the Old Testament, there is this idea of looking for the champion who's going to return them to paradise.
But so long is the wait that even people begin to mock the idea that God will ever send a champion to deliver his people from their sin and to restore them to paradise loss.
A proverb begins to circulate among the Hebrew people.
Here is the proverb.
If you have a sapling in your hand and someone should say to you that the Messiah has come, stay and complete your planning and then go greet the Messiah.
So we understand this idea of the long wait and the anticipation.
We understand the lyrics from one of our favorite Christmas hymns, O Holy Night.
We sing.
Long lay the world in sin and error, pining till he appears and the soul felt its worth a thrill of hope.
The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn.
So the world lay long in sin and waiting for that champion.
The Christmas story then tells how God, in the fullness of time, provides a champion to deliver man from his continued rebellion against god.
The Christmas Christmas then tells the story of how God brings paradise restored.
It tells how our sin nature is healed.
And as we hinted at, the Old Testament scripture hints at all we might expect to find in a champion.
However, while there are many who are thought to be the long-expected champion that's promised, such as Noah or Abraham or David or Moses, to take care of the sin problem and to restore man to paradise, ultimately, none of them are the champion, even though they might be a picture of him.
But finally, things in God's time begin to stir.
First, we are given an account of the providential birth of the one who would be the herald of the champion.
This herald's name was John.
His birth is recorded in the Bible in such a way that it's clear that God is at work.
An old woman, long past childbearing age, conceives a child that is to be the herald of the king, of the long-promised champion.
His name, the herald's name, is John.
And his purpose, like all heralds, is to announce the time of fulfillment is at hand and that nothing could impede the arrival of the Messiah, God's champion, who will restore paradise and deal with the self-inflicted sin problem that mankind has carried since the failure of man's first father.
The opening then of Matthew and Luke, the Gospels, makes it clear that God is moving among his people in a supernatural way.
First, as we've noted, there's the birth of the herald John.
Second, Matthew teaches us that God is so superintendent history that this champion is from the exactly correct racial and ethnic line that God himself said that his champion had to descend from.
He had to be a descendant of David.
As an aside, then we see that the Christmas story teaches that race is not a social construct like it's so commonly said today.
Jesus had to come not only from the Hebrew people in general, but he had to come after long generations from a particular tribe and a particular family.
He had to be of the tribe of Judah and of the family of David.
Both Matthew and Luke go out of their way to demonstrate that God had been so superintending history that for generations and generations, he made sure that the right genetic line would be kept clean so that it would be undisputed that his champion could deliver and he would be a champion who had the right royal credentials.
He was the lion of the tribe of Judah, who as to his genetics was a descendant of David, a branch from Jesse's stump, as we are told in Isaiah.
This is just the first supernatural miracle in the Christmas story.
Let's continue to see how the supernatural is imprinted all over our true Christmas story.
The Christmas story finds Mary, a girl, a woman, perhaps as young as 14 or 15, being visited by an angel and told that she's going to conceive a child quite apart from the rudimentary requirements necessary in order to conceive a child.
Unlike Eve, who disregarded God's word, she says to God, may it be unto your servant as you say.
She is going to remain a virgin in this child's conception.
Further, virgin conception is a fulfillment of a prophecy given hundreds and hundreds of years prior in the book of Isaiah.
There is an assurance to Joseph concerning the child conceived in Mary.
We see all of this in the scriptures.
We see again that if we refuse to embrace the bald supernatural of genetic lines protected through the centuries, of angel visitations and yes, of even virgin births and of ancient prophecies fulfilled, we can't be Christians.
You cannot be a biblical Christian if you deny the supernatural.
You cannot be a biblical Christian if you deny the virgin birth.
In this Christmas story, then, we should pay attention, especially to the name this child has given.
The angel tells Mary that they are to give the name this champion of God.
They're to give him the name Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sin.
The name literally means Jehovah's salvation, as we mentioned earlier.
In Hebrew, the name is Joshua.
And we know what a warrior Joshua was in our Old Testament.
This champion, then, that was long ago promised after man's first rebellion is going to save man from his rebellious nature.
And it's hinted at that he is going to be God's warrior in order to do so.
You know, it's fine to think of Jesus Christ as a baby in a manger.
That's part of our Christmas story, but we can't miss also the reality that Christ is God's sent warrior in order to deal with the problem of sin.
Here we see that Christmas doesn't make any sense apart from the supernatural.
And apart from the reality that the majority meaning of Christmas is that, and here I'm going to slow down, the majority meaning of Christmas is that God has provided someone who will deal with the rebellion of the sin of our first parents and our own sin by taking it away, by paying the just punishment sin deserves, and by giving God satisfaction against sin, and so turning God's just anger away from us, by the paying of the debt that man owed to God's holiness as incurred by man's rebellion.
Here is the heart and the essence of Christmas.
The majority meaning of Christmas, I say again, is that God has provided someone who will deal with the rebellion of the sin of our first parents and our own sin by taking it away, by paying the just punishment that sin deserves, and by giving God satisfaction against sin, and so turning God's just anger away from us by the paying of the debt man owed to God's holiness as incurred by man's rebellion.
Here, here is why we can say with a little in our voice and joy, we can say Merry Christmas, because the thing that is our greatest problem has been taken away by the finished work of Jesus Christ, who was born for the very purpose of dying for our sin.
Here we learn in the name Jehovah's Salvation, the name Jesus, that man can have no peace with God apart from coming under the umbrella of the safety that can only be found in Jesus.
Jesus came that man may be saved from God, from his wrath.
This is why his name was Jehovah is salvation.
Apart from Jesus, it's the case that Jehovah is damnation.
That's why it said there is no other name under heaven by which he must be saved.
Christ alone is our salvation.
So now we are at the point in this true supernatural story that Mary's with child, but the wonder of it all is still ahead of us.
And we'll get into that at the top of the next.
Amen, Pastor Brett.
A great place to pause, and we will continue halfway through this year's accounting of the Christmas story with Pastor Brett McAtee.
Stay tuned, everybody.
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Intense clashes erupted in northern Gaza today as Israeli forces seek to establish full control of the region with the goal of concentrating efforts on Hamas fighters in the south.
These renewed hostilities follow a day after the UN Security Council's call for increased aid to Gaza, falling short of explicitly demanding a ceasefire.
Israel's chief military spokesman reported on Friday that the country's ground troops have nearly secured total control of northern Gaza and are gearing up to extend their offensive into the southern areas.
California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber is approaching a request to exclude Donald Trump from the presidential primary ballot with caution.
While acknowledging concerns about Trump's impact on public trust, Weber emphasized the importance of adhering to the legal process.
The request was made by the lieutenant governor in response to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision citing a violation of the Constitution's insurrection clause.
Weber highlighted the necessity for decisions in California to align with state laws and the Constitution, noting that Trump is the leading Republican nominee in the state.
On Super Saturday, over 140 million individuals are anticipated to engage in last-minute Christmas shopping.
This is part of their gift from mommy to them.
We've spent a lot of money because I got last-minute tickets for everything.
No, it did not stay on budget.
No.
But it's okay.
Once a year, who cares?
I'll be in debt for a little bit.
Who cares?
The National Retail Federation says 37% of Super Saturday shoppers plan to finalize their online purchases and venture to physical stores to ensure timely delivery of their gifts under the tree.
Medical professionals advise exercising caution as families gather for the holidays.
Dr. Marina Kellner from Westchester Medical Center highlights the increasing numbers of COVID cases, along with a surge in flu and the respiratory virus RSV.
COVID hospitalizations in New York State alone have shown a steady rise, with over 2,200 reported this week compared to 1,200 during the Thanksgiving holiday period.
I'm John Schaefer.
This is USA News.
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Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let Earth receive a healing.
Let every heart prepare him.
And heaven and nature sing.
And heaven and nature sing.
You Let men their songs apply.
When fears and hearts walk through the lanes, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy.
It's okay at this time of year to lay down your sword for a couple of days and reflect on the beauty and the majesty of the spiritual season.
The battle's going to begin anew in the coming year, perhaps in ways we've never seen before.
But I encourage you this Christmas weekend to listen to this message.
Share this message with your family in the broadcast archives tomorrow on Christmas Eve, Monday, Christmas Day.
Listen to these incredible carols, especially with this particular choir here, the voices of angels.
Couldn't sound more heavenly.
But remember this, that we're here to protect and preserve this faith that has given light to a dark world.
And it is our duty to ensure that that flame is never extinguished.
And a real blessing to have Pastor Magate back with us tonight, not just to share this message, although this is, of course, the primary reason and the most important reason, but he has become such a radio pro over these years.
We have the shorthand now.
He could take us in and out of breaks.
It's just a wonderful thing as a host to have him on to present the message.
And he makes my job so easy, and he continues it now.
Pastor Brad, it's all yours.
Thank you, James.
Well, we're looking at this Christmas story, and let's look at some of the guests we might say.
First of all, everybody knows about the shepherds, right?
It's interesting the shepherds, well, there may be some ins and outs of them that we're not conversant with.
It's thought by some, Eddersheim, for example, mentions this in his two-volume work in the life of Jesus, that those shepherds may well have been the shepherds who were assigned the task of keeping watch over the flocks which were used to call the sacrificial lambs out of to be taken up to the temple in order to be offered up as sacrifice.
And of course, if that's accurate, those lambs could only be offered up as sin offering that were without blemish and without spot.
It must be a perfect specimen.
Now, if that is the case, and that really makes what's going on here quite amazing, if it is the case that the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks, and those flocks were used for temple sacrifice, and the angels announced the birth of Christ to those shepherds who spent their lives watching over the flock from which the lambs for sacrifice were taken.
So they are thus then summoned away from the keeping of that which was symbolic, those lambs, to go and see that which was the fulfillment, that is Jesus the Christ.
And so it's quite amazing.
It's also interesting that the shepherds in this ancient culture were seen as being at the bottom of the societal pecking order.
In other words, they would be perhaps, I don't know if I could still say this today, but we would think of them perhaps as being the homeless in terms of the pecking order.
So God decides to bring shepherds who in this culture are the least of these to be his witness to the greatest of these, Jesus the Christ, the champion of God who's assigned the task of being the one who's punished for sin and so restoring man to paradise.
We would say, also, it's interesting the shepherds end up being evangelists as they spread the news of what they had witnessed.
Would that we had more of those shepherds' instinct about sharing the good news?
Well, the Christmas story here then continues the pace.
Eventually we know of the kings of the East who arrived to worship Jesus.
We're not told in scripture how many wise men there are, but of course, as you all know, we always think it's three.
The song We Three Wise Men is one reason why.
But we really don't know how many kings from the East showed up following that supernatural star.
And that by itself, the supernatural star and how God arranged all that in a supernatural, miraculous way, is another whole time together for the two of us.
There's some really great work that's been on with the star, but we don't have time to get to everything tonight.
Back to the kings of the East.
In this Christmas story, of course, they're not Hebrews, but they're Gentiles.
And some think these Gentile kings retained a residual amount of knowledge about the long-promised champion of God, coming to heal man of his rebellion because of the famous Hebrew Daniel that once lived among them many, many centuries prior.
It is thought perhaps that Daniel left behind a storehouse of knowledge that these kingly astronomers were familiar with.
Their importance of the Christmas story cannot be underestimated.
They represent the fact that not only are the lowborn present, but also the highborn as kings of the East.
And it reminds us that Christ is the only solution to God's wrath against sin, whether you're lowborn or whether you're highborn, whether you're Hebrew or whether you're Gentile, you must close with Christ.
You must look to Christ.
You must trust in Christ.
You must be anchored in Christ.
You must have union with Christ.
Christ is the center of the Christian faith, and he is the center of Christmas.
Also, we would say those Gentile kings, they represent the fact that Jesus has come to save men from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and not just the Hebrews.
The Hebrews were terrible about being ethnocentric.
But Jesus is God's champion for all nations, for all men, for all the elect.
Indeed, the Hebrews, according to God's predestined plan, the Jews reject God's champion, thus opening the door for the Gentiles to come in.
And we listening tonight have an interest in God's champion because the Jews rejected the Messiah that all men must bow to if they are to have peace with God, if they're to be delivered from their idols, if they're to be delivered from their sin, and if they're to be delivered from themselves.
The wise men thus are instrumental in the Christmas story for their presence there is promissory that we, we listening to tonight, can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, can be delivered from our sin problem, can be confident that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Indeed, it is this Christmas story that gave birth to Western civilization.
It's this Christmas story that gave birth to the greatness of that Western civilization.
Without man understanding the centrality of Jesus Christ, we're sinners.
Western civilization would not be what it was.
And the fact that we're wandering away from Christ is evident in the fact of how our civilization is crumbling down around our ears.
And the first thing we have to get right in order to see the West come back is to return to Christ and the understanding of the profound truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ articulated in the Christmas story.
The kings of the East, we note here, they come to offer worship.
And this teaches us that the only mindset that mortals should have towards the one who cures our sin is one of worship.
We aren't like Sarah Silverman who said, well, if I could kill Christ, again, I would.
No, our mindset is one of worship.
And so we ask ourselves, is this our mindset during Christmas of 2023?
The core characteristic of man is that he is homo atorans.
That is, man the worshiper.
All men are worshipers.
Worshiping is inescapable.
It's the center of their being.
During this Christmas season, we must ask if we're worshiping Jesus of the Christ.
Are our Christmases Christ-centered, or are they more often characterized by Jewish winter songs or smalty Hollywood films?
Anyway, I'm wandering from preaching and intermeddling now, but we go back to the wise men.
We must not forget the gifts of the wise men, for they're pregnant with meaning.
The gifts recorded, the wise men brought are gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Of course, gold is associated with the kings, and the king of kings has just been birthed, and so gold is presented before him.
Then there's frankincense.
It was a type of incense or perfume in that time.
And the Jews would use it in their temple worship.
It was mixed, frankincense was mixed with oil that was used for anointing the priests of Israel.
And by offering this gift, the wise men were pointing to Christ as our great high priest, as the high priest that would supersede the line of Levi and Aaron, who would be of the order of Melchizedek.
And yet still he is perfumed with frankincense in order to designate that he's our great high priest, without which we cannot be saved.
And while the priesthood was established to stand as representatives of Israel to God, Jesus would be our ultimate representative and would be perfectly righteous and pleasing to God the Father.
It shows Jesus' complete divinity apart from us.
And even now, my friends, even now, if you are in Christ, Jesus, our great high priest, intercedes before the right hand of the Father for you, for his church.
He intercedes and nothing he asks of the Father is denied him.
And he asks for his church and we can take great confidence that he's before the Father as our great high priest, incensed with frankincense, anointed to the end of being our champion.
And then, of course, we look at myrrh.
Myrrh is actually a rather inappropriate gift in most circumstances because it was used for embalming the dead.
It wasn't a good gift for an infant nor a king, but it's appropriate for Jesus because he came to die.
And with that, we turn into our next commercial set.
And I'm so thankful to be able to be speaking to you of the great champion, our Lord Christ.
Amen, Pastor Brett.
One more segment, if you can believe it, our last segment before Christmas, and Pastor Brett will present it right after this.
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I want to take this opportunity before we turn it back over to Pastor Brett to conclude his triumphant message tonight.
That if you are in need of spiritual resources, be sure to check out his church's website at charlotte reformed.org.
They have a YouTube channel there with the weekly sermons you can find.
And I would certainly encourage you to do that, ladies and gentlemen.
And one more thing.
My son has been palling around with me this weekend.
He was with me at Keith's Christmas party last night, and he came into the studio tonight.
And he's been listening intently with Keith's headset on, no less, to this entire message from Pastor Brett.
He wants to say, my nine-year-old son Henry wants to share this message with the audience.
Close to the microphone.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and Merry Christmas, Pastor Brett.
Merry Christmas, Henry.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
With that, my friend, Pastor Brett, it is back to you to conclude the Christmas story on TPC once again.
Before going on, I have to say that Henry reminds me of my own grandchildren who are about his age.
And it's the necessity to return to these essentials that I'm trying to articulate.
It's the necessity to do that for Henry and for me and for Brett and for William and for all my grandchildren.
It's standing on these truths, truths that we have to return to in order to see God glorified in our civilization once again be civilized.
Anyway, as we consider the kings, we're reminded that these kings come and worship and come and bow before our Lord Christ.
Remember then with our celebration of Christmas, we're celebrating that the king has come and with him the coming of the king, there is kingdom that he brings.
The kings of the east come and bow.
We see in Herod's rage, a wannabe king.
We see in his rage that Psalm 2, that the kings are to kiss the sun, lest the sun is angry and they perish in the way.
The king comes and of course he brings with him a kingdom.
And when Christmas rolls around each year, it's a celebration not only of salvation one, but also of triumph we have now.
And our guarantee will continue to come.
Christmas is a message of triumph.
Christ is called Christus Victor, which means Christ the victorious.
The king has come, and now all lesser kings must make their obedience.
The Bidens, the Soroses, the Gates, the Rothschilds, the demonic politicians drunk on idenachrome.
We bow before Jesus as king or spending eternity sharing quarters with Satan in hell.
With the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the age to come, the kingdom, the age of restoration, has come face to face with this present evil age, the age to come, because that age to come is rolling back this present evil age as the epics of time pass by.
And this is why Christmas not only fills us with gratitude that our sin has been delivered from us, but also fills us with confidence and hope, perhaps even a tad bit of moxie, that Christ reigning does reign, will continue to reign, and we move in terms of his reign.
Christmas is a time then where we remind ourselves that Christ is the victor, and he saves us.
He saves us to the end of making his victory known.
It's why we sing in our Christmas carols.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, let men their songs employ.
While fields and floods, rocks and hills and plains repeat the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns and thus ground.
He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.
Our Christmas carols are filled with us with his triumphant, victorious kind of language.
And we should let it get into our bloodstream again to remind us that Christmas is not only about being delivered from our sin, but it's also being risen and ascended with Christ and then moving in terms of obedience to his victorious intent.
It's not the case that we all end up losing in the end.
It's the case that Christ is victor and he's going to conquer every square inch of the globe.
Well, that's not what it once was and is being believed.
Once upon a time, the church did have this kind of what's called post-millennial or victorious mindset, but Christmas reminds us that God will have his way.
The words of one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, a guy named Rush Dooney, he said, the joyful news of the birth of Christ is the restoration of man to his original calling with the assurance of victory.
This has long been celebrated in Christmas, Christmas carols, in the cultural mandate, and the Great Commission.
And post-militism is either explicit or implicit in our Christmas carols.
We sing the idea that Christ is going to triumph, but it's so often, or so little, I should say, gets into our bloodstream so that we really believe it.
Jesus has brought the victory, and we as his people walk in that triumph of victory.
The book of Colossians even teaches that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear son, whom he loves.
We now live currently, presently, right now, in the kingdom of the king, and we are called to roll back this present evil age.
We press the crown rights of King Jesus into every area of life, every calling, every institution.
Jesus, the one who restored paradise and healed us of the sickness of sin, calls his people to disciple the nations, and because of Christmas, we can command all men everywhere to repent.
Our expectation is that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord, because they are now his kingdoms.
Our expectation is that the glory of the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
We're not doomsdayers.
We're not going around wringing our hands saying, we're all going to die.
No, it is the enemy that's going to die unless they repent.
Our expectation is that because Christ has dominion, Christ shall have dominion.
Our expectation because of Christmas is that the enemies of Christ will sue for peace, lest the sun become angry and those kings perish in the way.
Our expectation is the sons of Allah and the sons of the demon God of the Talmud will bow to the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
Our expectation because of Christmas is that before Christ returns, the globe will be converted and in space and time every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
Christmas then is a time to renew our confidence that though the wrong seems all so strong, God is the ruler yet.
And he has set his resurrected regent, our great high priest, the king of kings on Mount Zion, truly over the affairs of men.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
Merry Christmas.
And let's do battle for the already victorious King of Kings.
There's an offhand possibility, as I round off tonight, that there are those listening to whom this is all very strange.
Or perhaps there might be those, and perhaps more than a few who think that such claims are silly.
You really believe in the supernatural?
You really believe Christ died, that he resurrected, that he was born of a virgin?
Yes.
Yes, I believe all of that.
All I can say is that, well, Jesus does not plead or beg for you to come to him.
He is definitely not softly and tenderly calling.
And as we said, Jesus is Christ the victor.
And as the Christmas victor, he commands all men to give up their rebellion and own him as their master and commander.
Whether it's to doubters or to scoffers, I speak Christ that now is the appointed time of salvation.
Do not be found to be slow in suing for peace, pursuing with peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And to all whom own Christ and all who are owned by Christ, to all who are anchored in Christ and are looked to him as the final hope, to all who are tired and weary, to all who might be at the end of their life, I wish you as a son of Christ and as a son of the West, wish you Merry Christmas.
And I wish for you an understanding of the gospel message and the centrality that it has to restoring not only the personal and the individual, but also restoring what was once Christian civilization,
to restoring culture so that once again it can be rightfully named as a Christian culture, to restoring marriages so that once again wives are husbands and husbands are loving their wives as Christ loved the church.
The message of Christmas, it resonates in all these areas.
Without Christ, the center, without Christ, the center, man has no hope, either personally or individually or societal.
And so, friends, and to James and the crew there, God bless you and Merry Christmas.
And thank you for the opportunity.
Pastor, God bless you.
And thank you for doing it.
I know every time we talk on the phone, and I appreciate you saying it, that we're giving you an honor or an opportunity, but you got that one completely backwards, brother.
It is our honor that you decide to spend time with us on the radio and to share this message.
The most important message, two of the most important messages.
There couldn't be a more important message than this and the one you presented Easter.
Everything else we do is important.
But this is eternal here.
And Pastor, with about a minute remaining, well, I would first like to take this opportunity to again remind folk to check out your church, charlottereformed.org.
But next year, a lot of people looking at this with a lot of trepidation.
It's an election year.
A lot of people are hurting out there.
A lot of uncertainty in the world, as there always is, but it does seem as though, perhaps a little more so now than usual, and even more to come.
What's your message to them at this Christmas?
Well, my message is: I keep telling myself this because I do think 2024 is going to be a wild ride.
My message is God is sovereign.
The Lord God omnipotent reigns.
And we have to, as Christians, we have to hold on to that because if we don't hold on to that, we're going to start thinking that circumstances and situations are just randomly descending upon us.
But if we can hold on to the fact that Christ is the right hand of the Father and rules over the affairs of men, we'll make it through 2024 and beyond.
As we must, onward Christian soldiers, Merry Christmas, Pastor McAtee.
Merry Christmas to everyone associated with this program, the staff, the crew, the listeners.
One more show in calendar year 2023.
We'll bring it to you next week.
But first and foremost, and most importantly, spend Christmas with your family.