The Birthday of the King

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Today is Christmas day. This is the time we celebrate the day the Lord Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger. Indeed we should celebrate the birth into the world of our Saviour and Lord. However, there is another day on which Christ is born. It is the day when He is born in our heart. In fact, every day of our Christian discipleship should be a day when Christ is born in our heart.

(12/25/2005) The Apostle Paul said he did not any longer know Christ according to the flesh. What did Paul mean? Paul meant that while he used to think about Christ being born of a virgin in Bethlehem, he no longer regarded Christ in this manner. Rather Paul was experiencing the birth of Christ in him.

Paul went on to say if any person is in Christ, that individual is a new creation. That which once was true of him, and was his life, is no longer his life. The old things of his nature have passed away. New things that are of God have taken their place in his personality.

Christ in us is the Kingdom of God. When we first come to Christ (really come to Christ, not just make a profession of belief), He gives us a part of His Life. Now we are two people. We have a first, adamic nature, and now a new nature. There are two lives in us. This is what it means to be born again.

If we are to bear lasting fruit, we must pay attention to the new life. Our adamic life will clamour consistently for our attention. It is our task to see to it that we pray each day; read our Bible each day; and meet on a regular basis with fervent disciples.

The promise of becoming a new creation is not to those who have made an initial profession of belief in Christ but to those who are "in Christ," that is, to those who are interacting with Christ many times during the day. They are speaking to Him. They are listening to Him. They are obeying Him diligently and strictly.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to earth to tell us about Heaven or to bring us to Heaven. Search the Scriptures! The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to fulfil the words of the Hebrew Prophets. The Hebrew Prophets spoke of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth; of the coming of righteousness and peace to the earth, the time when the poor and needy receive justice.

Christ came once, and yet the proclamations of the Prophets have not been fulfilled. Righteousness and peace are not filling the earth, as we hear in our Christmas carols. The poor and needy of the earth are not receiving justice. Wars are still occurring and sin is increasing. Seemingly the promises are not happening.

We know Christ is coming again. But this is not the manner in which the Glory of God will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, as has been promised. This is not the doing of God’s will in the earth for which Christians have prayed throughout the Christian Era.

However, the glorious hope we sing about in our carols shall be realized. But in what manner? By Christ being born. But not by Christ being born in a stable. By Christ being born in us.

If we are following Christ as we should, He is being born in us each day. Each day a part of our old nature is to be overcome. Each day more of Christ is to be added to us.

John the Baptist stated: "I must decrease. He must increase." This is the message. This is the whole Christian experience.

One may say, "I was born again ten years ago," as though this were some kind of unchanging state. Were you a new creation at that time? Not likely! But you had begun on the path toward the new creation.

We learn, however, in the parable of the sower, that it is possible for the Seed, the Word of God, to begin to grow in us and then to wither away because of a lack of roots or because it is choked out by the cares of life.

We do not instantly become a new creation in which the old has passed away and new things have come to us from God. The Bible speaks of patience, saying we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There are many exhortations in the New Testament directed toward those who are seeking to become a new creation. We will experience fiery trials. The righteous are saved with difficulty. But we never are to quit. If we do, we shall not inherit Christ.

The world, although it does not realize it, is waiting for Christ to appear. Not by Himself alone but in a company of sons. Through the sons of God the greater Son will bring to pass every declaration of the Hebrews prophets. Peace, joy, love, and righteousness will fill the earth. Little children will be able to play without fear among what today are the most dangerous of animals.

The knowledge of the Glory of the Lord indeed shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

What a glorious hope the Gospel of the Kingdom is! But the hope of the Kingdom cannot be brought to reality until there are people who are willing to set aside their own will and desires that Christ may be formed in them. When Christ has such a company of "new creations" He shall return and establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth.

How wonderful is God our Father that He has developed such an infinitely wise plan! Jesus Christ, and we as His coheirs, shall receive the nations of the earth for our inheritance and the farthest reaches of the earth.

Just a few more weary steps, Christian; just a bit more self-denial; just a continuing in diligent obedience to the Lord whether or not what He is commanding is understandable to you, and you shall behold Heaven coming to the earth. And—best of all—Heaven shall come to the earth through you and me because we were willing to proclaim every day of our discipleship as the birthday of the King.

Happy birthday, Lord Jesus.

At night I emphasized the travail we must experience if Christ, who always is with us, is to be brought forth in our personality. We see Him in us after a period of darkness.

The travail to bring forth Christ, the Ruler, in us, can be intense. But afterward we do not remember the pain because Christ has been born in us. The male Son of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation is Christ who is born in us.

The Christian religion is different from all others, as far as I know, in that the master of the religion changes his disciples into the personality and behaviour He desires by being formed in them and dwelling in them.

Christian believers are like sacks of seed in a barn. When God is ready to select one of the seeds to know Him and to bear fruit, He plants that seed in the ground. Now it is separate from the other seeds and begins the journey that at first is dark and lonely, and then emerges into the light as a son of God; as a member of the Kingdom of God.

You may hear the sermon at listen. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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