June 18, 2007 8:23 PM

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December 2004

They Have Taken Away My Lord

We send wishes for a Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Luke 2:10-11: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Whenever I think of the Christmas season in the United States today, my mind goes back to the Gospel of John 20:13, where Jesus said, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”

This world has never had room for our Lord Jesus. In Bethlehem, they begrudged Him a place to be born; so He was born in a cattle stall. There is no room for Him in the governments of this world including our own nation. Although the United States was founded upon the Judeo-Christian belief system, our present leaders have secularized America and have attempted to take away our Christian Foundation. We, the Church, have handed our society over to tolerant peacekeepers, which has resulted in our no longer being allowed to freely celebrate “Christmas” as we always have since our founding. Instead, we are told we must never mention “Merry Christmas,” lest we “offend” someone or anyone. We must now call it “winter break.” A city manager in Washington State recently told city employees they could not say, “Merry Christmas.” Instead, while they were on the job, they were forced only to say, “Happy Holidays,” lest someone or anyone be “offended.”

Our institutes of higher learning today find room for evolution, Bible criticism, new age ideas, humanism, how to avoid contracting aids, but not for learning the ten commandments or sexual chastity. Young people may carry condoms to school, but never their Bible. Jeremiah said it well in Jeremiah 4:22; “They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

Even many of our denominational institutions in our own country now deny Christ’s deity, miracles, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, the inspiration of the Scriptures and the uniqueness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. If someone interprets the Bible literally, today, it is called legalism and bondage. “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.”

The word “Christmas” means “Christ” and then “Gift.” Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ: God’s gift to mankind. Luke tell us, in Luke 2:11: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” In Luke 2:13-15; we are told when Jesus was born, He was worshipped by “a multitude of the heavenly hosts.” In Hebrews1:6,it says; “Again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, and let allthe angels of God worship him.” How many angels could that “all” be?

In Revelation 5:11, John the beloved said he saw, “ten thousand times ten thousand angels: and thousands of thousands.” If we were to add these numbers together, the least number there could have been would be 104 million angels worshipping at Christ’s feet. Think of it!

” If we were to add these
numbers together, the
least number there could
have been would be
104 million angels worshipping
at Christ’s feet. Think of it!

Just because our nation has tried to eliminate any reference to the Christ Child doesn’t change the fact He came. There is more historic proof of His coming than there is that George Washington was the first president of the USA.

Somehow, some people feel if they remove His name from public view, they will have eliminated Him. That is as foolish as it would be if you or I tore up a road map of the state wherein we might live and think we have just destroyed all the roads in that state. We can rage against what God has done, but all to no avail. They can write X-mas as long as they please, but it won’t change the reality that I serve a virgin born, sinless, suffering, crucified, resurrected, interceding, living Savior, who will come again as “Lord of Lords and King of Kings .”

For some of you who have experienced persecution from the Church and the world concerning your faith and convictions, may I remind you our Lord Jesus said in John 15:19 : “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you .” So will the religious leaders who “destroy Christ’s commands by their religious traditions.”

Whenever you or I stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, this world will come down on you like a hammer. James 4:4 says:“friendship of the world is enmity with God.” The Lord expects everyone of His followers to draw a line and say, “I don’t care what others say, do or think: I am standing up for Jesus Christ and His Word.” We know He came once as God’s perfect sacrifice and is coming again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! In Romans 8:18, Paul said; “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” That is enough!

Another area in which we are facing opposition today is in the arena of marriage and divorce. In Genesis 2:23, 24, Adam received Eve as his wife, by saying; “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, for she was taken out of man.” The moment Adam said those words, God spoke up and said; “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Malachi 3:14, calls this statement by Adam, “a covenant .” “Yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” It is so very important to remember this: to forsake your marriage partner for another is not just a sin, but it is the violation of a covenant. Sin can be forgiven, but a covenant can only be violated.

The term of a marriage covenant is “Till Death Do Us Part.” If we violate the terms of that covenant, which we made to God, it is sin. If we repent of our violation of the covenant (quit and forsake it), the Lord will forgive us. When we repent of any evil, (quit and forsake it): we can be immediately and completely forgiven of that sin. What we also need to realize however, is that our repentance, the confessing and forsaking of our marriage covenant violation, and our receiving forgiveness for that violation, has absolutely no affect on the terms of the original covenant. According to the “Law of the Marriage,” regardless of how many times you violate that covenant, you are still married to your first marriage partner and will be till one or the other dies. Only death ends the covenant which God Himself confirmed when He heard you say, “I Joseph take thee Patricia, to be my lawful wedded wife.” I said it here on earth, He heard it from heaven and confirmed it by permanently joining us together until death. Mark 10:9; “What therefore, God hath joined together, (literally) no man may separate.” No matter what my partner or I do, it does not destroy or break the lifetime covenant.

This truth is affirmed by every one of the earliest Church Fathers, through sixteen centuries. One of those fathers was Jerome, (A.D. 396) who translated the Bible into Latin. This Latin translation was called, The Vulgate. On the Biblical position of marriage, this fourth century believer clearly expressed the Early Church’s position on the marriage covenant, divorce and remarriage.

“So long as a husband lives, be he adulterer, be he sodomite, be he addicted to every kind of vice, if she left him on account of his crimes he is still her husband , still, and she may not take another.”

(Letters 55:3)(a).

Some highly regarded intellectual church leaders, peacekeepers but not peacemakers, have recently come up with what they think is a foolproof plan. “If saying ‘So long as we both shall live’ or, ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ establishes the covenant, we will just completely remove it from the ceremony.” How brilliant!!! What they don’t realize is, once I say, “I Joseph take thee Patricia to be my lawfully wedded wife,” it is done!

The rest of the ceremony is just defining what the Word of God describes are the terms or ramifications of that verbal commitment called marriage. The other words do not MAKE the covenant; they only describe what God has said a husband and wife relationship is to be.

If the real motivation of these maneuvers by pastors today is an attempt NOT to offend anyone, let it be known they are offending God. In reality, once you try to avoid the demands of a marriage relationship, you might as well have the candidates for the ceremony say something like: “I Joseph, take thee Patricia, agreeing to live with you in a fornicating relationship until I feel you no longer fulfill my needs. (So long as we both shall love.) I also recognize, according to God’s word, if I should die during this time of fornicating, I will plunge into hell. I feel however it is worth this risk if it allows me to do things my way.” Wouldn’t that be more honest?

Satan has persuaded some to turn the grace of God into licentiousness and call holiness, legalism. He has caused Professing Christian counselors to encourage couples to “divorce to experience emotional happiness.” Interestingly enough, a recent long term study, called “Does Divorce make people happy?” found that two-thirds of unhappily married spouses who stayed married reported that five years later their marriages were happy. Instead of giving up on their marriages, their commitment to their vows led them to fix the problems, and a majority indicated they succeeded.

Reality is, self-evident. Professing Christians invariably invent one way or another to get to heaven without holiness, in spite of the fact God said; “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.” Dear hearts, it is time for all men to realize God’s laws are unchanging and He hates divorce!

Just as man cannot remove the reality of Christmas by changing or eliminating words, and practices, man cannot change the reality of the permanence of the marriage covenant by avoiding certain words or phrases from the ceremony. May the Lord help each of us not to “be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Amen.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!