False prophets attempt to strip joy from believers

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.  Any many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.  By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

2 Peter 2:1-5 

            In the Christmas season, it is essential to meditate on the purity of the Word of God.  You have read in John 1, “The Word became flesh,” and this infinite miracle has been the pivotal point in which the mysteries of the Christ and the Gospel are understood to see His infinite glory and humility most clearly.  However, there are those who pervert and blaspheme the word of God and use the perfect pivotal point of the incarnation to create their own religion and turn aside to self-glorifying fables.  Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.  He is one-hundred percent God.  That means that He fully contains and infinitely maintains all the attributes and characteristics of God Almighty perfectly as defined in the Scriptures.  He is also one-hundred percent man, containing all the attributes and characteristics perfectly that defines a man as a human being.  Yet, Jesus Christ never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).  He is considered the Great High Priest because he was tempted in all ways as a human being, yet never sinned.  That, in itself, is a miracle that declares Him to be the Almighty and Great ‘I AM.’  His application of perfect sinlessness [i.e., never transgressed the law] distinctly separates Him from every other human and creature in the history of mankind.  Everything else, including every other human being that ever existed, plants, animals, cells and all the ground of the earth is cursed and dying due to the eternally devastating effects of original sin.  Therefore, any futile proclamation from the mouth of a sinner regarding the Gospel, God and Jesus Christ must have the Holy Spirit in charge in order to be declared and verified as truth according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 12:3).

            If we acknowledge these truths of the Christ, then we only begin to understand, with the assistance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the infinite measure of what the incarnation of God actually is or means.  The declaration of the Son of God coming to earth by conception of the Holy Spirit through a virgin shocks the human mind due to the obvious impossibility if it were a normal birth.  Even still, the Son of God was once a fetus, newborn and a child.  He developed in life exactly the same as a normal human being would.  The difference is that Jesus was and is the eternal God now manifested as a human being.  He is the God-Man.  This decree declares His status as infinitely humble and superbly majestic above all creation. 

“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,’Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.’”

Matthew 1:20-21

            The beauty of the incarnation to believers is that, in its “foolishness” and humility, it publicly and eternally shames the wisdom of the world.  Sinners don’t want to be humble and naturally hate humility.  The religions that acknowledge Jesus Christ as a good teacher, prophet or leader, but do not acknowledge and revere Him as the Almighty sinless God who has decreed to succumb Himself to human flesh, utterly blasphemes His very name and purpose, regardless of the supposed intent or “respect” of Him.

“Pilate Therefore said to him, ‘Are you a king then?’  Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king.  For this cause I was born, and that for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.’” John 18:37  It seems that Pilate has the same mindset of many cult heresies, i.e. Mormonism, Islam and Jehovah’s Witnesses, regarding who Jesus Christ was and is.  He asked, “Are you a king then?”  Pilate did not ask him this question as a reverent and contrite sinner, but as a completely arrogant, power-driven, self-righteous and ignorant man.  He presented himself to Jesus as if he had power over Him and did not see Him as God [John 19:10].  Pilate’s purpose to us is not to serve as an extreme example of one who personally ordered the murder [crucifixion] of the Son of God, but merely as an example regarding the natural futile and sinful thinking of someone who is directly under the wrath of God Almighty.  Pontius Pilate, like Judas Iscariot, merely served the purposed of, “crucifying the Son of God,” to fulfill the Scriptures as God had intended before the foundation of the world.  The mindset that Pilate and Judas were succumbed to have not changed since the fall.  In fact, all of sinful man thinks exactly like they do, due to depravity, apart from the Grace and Mercy of Christ.

            Many cults and heresies must not and cannot use the same Scriptures that God has Sovereignly ordained because the God-breathed Scriptures directly involve the foretelling, coming, humiliation, death, resurrection, ascension, return, worship and glorification of Jesus Christ alone.  To devise another “book” or “create another prophet” is to blaspheme God and divert the only way sinners can be truly cut to their heart of the deadly wickedness that dwells within them.  It is to attempt to snatch away the glory of God in Christ and clearly perverts the miracle of regeneration that must take place within a soul, wrought by the Holy Spirit of God to break a sinner’s heart of sin.  It is to make the cross of Christ foolishness and of no value to anyone.  The easiest way to know if a sinner is in error is to find if he is glorifying himself or working hard in a works-based religion, diverting attention away from Christ.

            Not many false prophets will dare mention anything “apart” from Jesus Christ.  Even if Islam makes him merely a prophet and Jehovah’s witnesses make him “a god,” they will still mention the name of Jesus.  Even atheists specifically attack the deity of Jesus Christ and usually not specifically Islam or Buddhism.  They claim they don’t believe in “any god or deity”, but they necessarily acknowledge biblical Christianity when they specifically quote from the Scriptures to attempt to refute it. In essence, they “borrow” a biblical worldview to say that it does not exist.  It is self-defeating logic and irrational circular reasoning.  It is like borrowing the engine of a car to try and prove that cars don’t exist.  It is the same with false doctrine, cults and heresy.  They all borrow the “idea” of a “God” or “Savior” from the Scriptures and then pervert and denounce anything sound in doctrine, according to the Scriptures.  It may have just enough “truth” in it to keep people listening and believing something that makes them feel important and part of something extravagant aside from being born-again to a new life in Christ.  The Apostle says that false teachers are as follows:

“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.  For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, they latter end is worse for them than the beginning.  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.  But it has happened to them according to the true proverb; ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

2 Peter 2:18-22

            Generally, whenever a baby is born, those gathered around it are awestruck at the wonder of how it happens [especially the mother].  It is a miracle of God that any child is born.  Without the providential Sovereignty of God, no one would ever be born.    There is something about viewing the newness of life that causes others to respond favorably to the presented gentleness and grace of a newborn child.  Visualize the same scenario, but with a completely sinless newborn baby.  It is an altogether infinitely greater type of miracle in magnitude and majesty when God wills Himself to be born, as a man, from a woman who has never been with a man. 

            The wonder and splendor of Jesus Christ is in light of His Glory and wonderful Grace that He freely lavishes upon undeserving sinners.  The incarnation is merely one point among an infinite number of points that makes Jesus Christ especially beautiful and glorious.  It is because He is the Son of God that chose to make Himself known, as the God-Man, to save a remnant out of the fallen and sinful human race.  He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17).  Even as a baby, He is the visible image of the invisible God, perfectly representing the Almighty.  The unfathomable portrayal of seemingly perceived weakness and vulnerability in the incarnation truly illuminates His infinite wisdom, humility and mighty power over all creation.  Since we are eternally unable and unwilling to save ourselves from sin that saturates our souls to the deepest part of our thoughts and intentions, God in His goodness and decree, came as Jesus Christ the sinless God-Man, to die a bloody death on the Cross that we should deservedly die to bring us back to God.  There is nothing left for man to do.  There is nothing left that man can do.  There is nothing left that man should want to do.  We are sinners that are in desperate need for a Savior.  Repent and believe.  Receive Him by faith and grace alone that you may have new life.  We cannot get this wrong. 

 What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

 Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.