The Miracles of Christ - Incarnation Necessities

[0:00] We are going to refrain from our usual study of the miracles this morning in connection with this time of Christmas season and Christmas being upon us.

[0:14] And I want you to examine something that we've looked at in the past. In fact, I make this an annual thing. I don't know how long it has been, but it's been for many years that I have distributed this particular piece of information.

[0:30] And you can see that it originally came out in 1977. And it is authored by Marvin Rosenthal, who for a number of years was the president of Friends of Israel, a Jewish organization, Christian Hebrew organization, actually, that started with Dr. Victor Buxbazan, I think, in 1937.

[0:53] And he was president of that organization for quite some time. It is a ministry that primarily reaches out to the Jewish nation, the Jewish people.

[1:05] But, of course, it is evangelistic in many ways and incorporates Gentiles as well in their efforts. And about half the people on their staff are Gentiles. Years later, Marv Rosenthal moved to Florida, started his own organization called Zion's Hope.

[1:23] It has much the same agenda and much the same motivation as does Friends of Israel. And they are both, so far as I can tell, they are both really prospering before the Lord and reaching a lot of people.

[1:36] And Mark Rosenthal printed this up or came out with it. And we made copies of it a number of years ago. It is one of the most definitive and one of the, well, for the content that is involved, it is one of the most brief that I have seen that kind of puts everything together.

[1:57] And, of course, it all has to do with the incarnation or the enfleshment of deity. And I do not think that there is any greater concept that we can contemplate than God becoming flesh.

[2:17] Just that phrase is mind-boggling in itself. And yet that is precisely what happened. That is the Christmas message. And it is God was in Christ reconciling the world into himself.

[2:32] And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Virgin birth became a very, very important necessity once it was realized that that was what actually happened.

[2:43] It goes all the way back to Isaiah 7.14, the prophecy that is given there. And it is so absolutely critical because if Jesus was born of a woman who was not a virgin, he was necessarily contaminated with the sin factor like all the rest of us, he would have been an ineligible sacrifice to redeem us from our sin.

[3:06] He had to be the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish. Consequently, we know that Joseph was not the biological father. And we know that Mary was not the biological mother.

[3:23] It was not the seed of Mary that was fertilized because if it had been the seed of Mary that was fertilized, that too would have been contaminated and he would have been ineligible.

[3:33] It was a seed that was divinely planted in the womb of the Virgin Mary, allowing her to cultivate it, grow it, and give birth to the Messiah.

[3:47] Our Roman Catholic friends had a great deal of difficulty with that for a number of years. And the thing that they struggled with was how in the world could Jesus be born pure and spotless and yet be born of a woman, be born of the Virgin Mary, thinking, of course, that it was her seed that was the contributing factor.

[4:10] And they saw no other way to get around that. So I think it was in, don't quote me on this, but I think it was in 1857 that the present Pope at that time passed a papal edict or a bull declaring what is known and what is still recognized today among our Catholic friends as the perpetual virginity of Mary.

[4:39] So the idea that she was a virgin before Jesus was conceived, well, we know that, but that she was also a virgin afterwards and that the children that are referred to would have been from another relationship or another marriage.

[4:55] So what we really have is Mary is not contributing at all, but she is housing. She is housing and giving birth to our Lord Jesus.

[5:08] And this, of course, provided his humanity. But the seed was implanted. That holy thing, the angel said, which is in you, is of the Spirit of God.

[5:19] And he is the only person ever born as a theanthropic being. And the theanthropic is simply a combination of the word theology and anthropos, which is man, and it means a God-man.

[5:37] And that's the whole concept of Emmanuel, God with us, God in the flesh. Most incredible thing that has ever happened. And there I use that word again, ill-advisedly, because when you say something is incredible, that means it has no credibility.

[5:54] So it's just the opposite of that. But it's very credible. And we delight in the reality of it. So what he has set forth here has to do with that actual description of the incarnation.

[6:07] And let's just go over it. Follow along, if you will. As this Christmas season approaches, men and the world over will look back 2,000 years to the incarnation of the Son of God.

[6:21] But for more than 4,000 years, men living on the other side of the incarnation looked forward to that same event. The birth of the eternal Son of God was no accident.

[6:33] It was not the result of unforeseen or uncontrollable events. Jesus was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.

[6:44] And that, of course, is from God's perspective. God does not respond to human events. He superintends them. Nowhere is that more clearly seen or more profoundly delineated than in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:59] Down through the Old Testament period, there were definite prophecies concerning the ancestry of the Messiah who was to come and the conditions that must be fulfilled.

[7:14] For instance, one, he must be of the seed of Abraham. Genesis 12, 3 and 22, 17.

[7:25] Second, he must be of the tribe of Judah. Genesis 49, 10. He is described as the lion of the tribe of Judah. Three, he must be of the house of David.

[7:38] That is, of the... What am I thinking? What's the word? The house of David?

[7:51] It'll come to me. I'll think of it when I'm thinking of something else. And four, he must have the legal right to the throne of David. Isaiah 9, 7.

[8:02] He must be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7, 14. He must be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5, 2. And he must be God in the flesh.

[8:14] Isaiah 9, 6. All of these references are very, very telling. During Old Testament times, there were many determined efforts on the part of man, inspired by Satan, to interrupt the bloodline of the Messiah.

[8:27] Among them, the decree of Pharaoh to kill all the newborn male children among the Israelites. Exodus 1, 22. The attempt of Athaliah, a wicked queen, to exterminate all the seed royal.

[8:45] And she would have succeeded except for baby Joash, remember? 2 Kings 11, 1. It often appeared that the promise of the divine deliverer who would meet the required conditions had been rendered void.

[9:05] But God overruled man's wickedness and actually made it serve his purposes. God made two unchangeable and irresistible promises to David.

[9:16] Psalm 89 and verse 4. First, that the throne of David would endure forever. 2 Samuel 7, 12. Secondly, that his seed, that is his actual descendants, could sit upon the throne.

[9:33] 2 Samuel 7, 13. In other words, David was unconditionally assured that lineal descendants of his would be preserved to sit upon the throne.

[9:45] These promises, of course, looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Now David had several sons. But the right to sit upon the throne passed only to one of them.

[10:00] Namely, Solomon. 1 Kings 1, 30. Only whose were they of the kingly line inherited throne rights.

[10:10] In other words, one could be a descendant of David and yet not have a legal right to sit upon the throne. Now, for instance, David, what we'll see later on here.

[10:22] I won't interrupt. I'll just continue reading. The list of David's descendants to whom was given the right to sit upon the throne of Israel is given in Matthew 1.

[10:34] And this genealogy terminates with Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, indicating in verse 16. The genealogy beginning with Solomon is as follows.

[10:48] And I'm not going to read all of them, but you'll note that Solomon is listed as number one. And you can go to the text in Matthew chapter 1 and read these for yourself. And by the way, some are actually of the opinion that the genealogies that are given with all of these names listed, some of which are even difficult for us to pronounce, they don't matter.

[11:11] That's not important. That doesn't really further the narrative. Oh, but it does. Listen. Listen. There is not one single solitary word in the text of Scripture that does not need to be there.

[11:28] There's no superfluous content in the Bible. Everything is there by design and everything is intended. And everything in the book is connected with everything in the book.

[11:44] It is amazing. It is all interrelated. And as someone has said, I think it was Dr. Lewis Perry Chafer at Dallas Seminary many years ago, the Bible is a book such as man would not write if he could and could not write if he would.

[12:01] It is a divinely inspired book. And those who spend any amount of time in it will be absolutely awed at the connections that it makes.

[12:12] Those who approach it in just a superficial way, just a, what shall I say, just a grab and go kind of thing, they never are able to appreciate the depths of it.

[12:24] They never make the connections. They just, well, yeah, it's the word of God, but, you know, and it's just, it's too bad because they deprive themselves of what could be appreciated a whole lot more.

[12:35] So this begins with Solomon. This is in Matthew chapter 1, and it is establishing Joseph as the legal right to the throne.

[12:47] But there's a problem. And that will be discussed as we move on. Now you will notice verse number 14 in the list, right above, is Jeconiah, whose name also was Jeconiah or Coniah, and sometimes they have multiple names.

[13:05] You call one name in one place and another. Jeremiah 22.30 pronounces a curse on this king because of his sin.

[13:16] And in Jeremiah 22 and verse 30 we read, Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.

[13:43] In other words, the potential for this man or his descendants to sit on the throne is negated. He's canceled. He's out of the picture. He's still in the bloodline, but he has no official right to the throne.

[13:57] This curse did not mean that Coniah or Jeconiah would never have any children, but rather that none of his descendants would sit upon the throne of David.

[14:10] Those who had the legal rights to the throne were thus barred from occupying it. In Matthew 1, it is recorded that Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary, was a direct descendant of Coniah.

[14:30] This means that although Joseph inherited the legal right to the throne of David because descended through the kingly line of Solomon, yet he could not sit upon that throne because he came under the curse upon Coniah that no man of his seed would ever sit upon the throne.

[14:48] But it means something else of far greater importance. It means that if Jesus had been the real son or the biological son of Joseph, he too would corrupt or would be under the curse pronounced on Coniah because he would be in that line and would not have been able to sit upon the throne of David.

[15:12] This poses a problem. Three main conditions must be met that seem humanly impossible of fulfillment. One, Jesus must be a lineal descendant of David in order to fulfill God's promise to David that his seed would sit upon the throne.

[15:35] Two, he must also be the legal son of Joseph in order to inherit the right to sit upon the throne of David. Three, yet he cannot be the real son of Joseph or the biological son of Joseph without coming under God's curse on Coniah.

[15:56] Could such a problem ever be solved? Yes, and God solved it by the miracle of the virgin birth. Notice carefully. The genealogy in Matthew 1 traces the kingly line from David, the king, down to Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus.

[16:18] Jesus was not the real son of Joseph. At the same time of the Savior's birth, Joseph had never known Mary as his wife.

[16:29] And that phrase, never known, simply means that he had never had a sexual encounter with her. Doesn't mean that he didn't know her. Of course he knew her. They were espoused for probably a year.

[16:41] But Joseph adopted Jesus as his son, and thus the Lord inherited legal right to the throne of David. Jesus became the legal son of Joseph, even though he was not his real son.

[16:57] This leaves one condition unfulfilled, however. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be a lineal descendant of David.

[17:08] Was he? Well, the answer is found in Luke 3, verses 23 through 28, where Mary's family tree is recorded. Mary was a direct descendant of David, not through the kingly line of Solomon, upon which the curse of Coniah fell, but through another son of David named Nathan.

[17:31] Thus, the curse of Coniah did not affect her or her child. To summarize then, Jesus was the actual son of Mary, and thus a direct descender of David.

[17:45] In him, God's promise to David that he would always have a son to sit upon his throne is fulfilled. Jesus was the legal son of Joseph by adoption, thus inherited the legal right to sit on the throne of David, but he was not the real son of Joseph, and thus he escaped the curse of Coniah.

[18:05] Now the question must be asked, who worked out this wonderful interweaving of circumstances? Does not such design spread over centuries of human history demand a designer who spans the centuries?

[18:23] This is clearly the work of God. No human mind could ever trace the bloodline of the Messiah in such a way as to fulfill all the promises, and yet escape the curse through the miracle of the virgin birth.

[18:40] And so, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem lost mankind. This is Galatians 4, I think, in verse 5.

[18:53] The gift of Christmas is the gift of God's Son, a living Savior for a dying world. What a beautiful, beautiful thing.

[19:04] Only God could put it together like this. You know, someone has calculated the mathematical improbability of Jesus fulfilling all of the prophecies that are quoted and given in the Old Testament pertaining to him, of his fulfilling those coincidentally.

[19:28] And the numbers, the ratio is so staggering in the concept of mathematical probabilities that you can't even pronounce the number.

[19:42] That's how great it is. So, what we've got here is an absolute miracle from beginning to end. And for years, you know, people have looked at the genealogies of Joseph in Matthew and the genealogy of Mary and in Luke chapter 3 and they say, well, there's a contradiction there.

[20:02] The genealogies are different. Well, of course they're different. They have a difference because they come from two different sons of David. Mary didn't come from Solomon. She came from Nathan.

[20:14] Nathan was another of David's sons and he had multiple sons. But Solomon was the one who produced the line of Joseph. So, when you look at all of this and put it together, you can see how absolutely critical these genealogies are.

[20:31] They are not there just to take up space. They are very, very significant. And it's a very important concept. Joe? Mark, along this same thought, you mean how it makes the Bible so believable.

[20:43] And, you know, because of this, I've been studying the Messianic Psalms. The Messianic Psalms are the Psalms that tell us that Jesus is coming, what he's going to say, and what he's going to do on earth.

[20:56] And you get the exact word, and he used David, God used David, as if he was an actor, being Jesus. Because the words came out of David sometimes in the Psalms, just like it was Jesus speaking.

[21:11] Jesus was speaking these actual words. Well, you'll find in the Messianic, way back then, the Messianic Psalms that David wrote through the inspiration of Jesus, you'll find the same exact words that came out of his mouth in the Gospels, where Jesus is in the Gospels, here on earth, the same exact words that he spoke to David back then.

[21:36] And it just makes everything so really good. Thank you, Joe. And if you happen to have a New American Standard Bible, look at those references in the New Testament in reference to what Joe's talking about from the Psalms, and you'll see that they are capitalized, and in the marginal note, you'll see where in the Old Testament it's taken from.

[21:59] And the New American Standard does a great service that way by capitalizing all of the quotes from the Old Testament so you can spot it right away. And by the way, it is only as a result of paying close attention that you will discover that so much of the Old Testament, which is actually three times longer than the New, so much of the Old Testament is repeated in the New.

[22:30] And if you have that, like I said, the New American Standard, you get the quote in caps, and it is amazing how much of the Old Testament surfaces again in the New.

[22:41] There is a connection. These books belong together. Matter of fact, I am of the opinion that we are not actually talking about two books, although we tend to think of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and they are comprised as two books.

[23:04] But in reality, there is one book. The New Testament, I've made this point before, but it bears repetition. The New Testament has not actually been established.

[23:20] The basis for it has. That's what Jesus was talking about when he took the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

[23:32] And provision was made for the establishment of the new covenant or the New Testament, but it has never been fulfilled. And the reason it hasn't is because Israel as a nation has not signed on.

[23:47] With the adoption of the first covenant, and by the way, it was never called the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. It was the former covenant, and it didn't become that until the new, just like World War I didn't become World War I until after World War II started.

[24:08] It was called the Great War. So what we've got here, really, in reality, is one book. And it has a, it has a chronological gap between the two of about 400 years, and this is the principal thing that makes a lot of people think that it's two different books.

[24:28] But it isn't two different books. The Bible is actually one book. And even though the basis for the new covenant has been established in that Christ died on that cross and provided the basis for it, like he referred to in 2 Corinthians, he said that God has made us able ministers of the new covenant.

[24:47] And that means he can preach the provisions of it, which is based upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But the actual establishment of the new covenant will not be realized until Israel ratifies it just as they did the old covenant when Moses gave it to them and he said, this is what God is presenting.

[25:12] What do you say, Israel? Are you going to sign on? Remember, when Moses came down from the mount, he did not impose the law of Moses on the people.

[25:25] This is a common mistake. They think that God just dumped the law on Moses and Israel and they had no choice. That's not true. It was presented to them and they had an opportunity to reject it.

[25:41] Can't imagine what would have happened if they had, but they had an opportunity to reject it. And Moses gave them the law, read to them the tables of the law and said, so what do you think, Israel?

[25:51] We got a deal or not? And Israel said, all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And that was their saying, sign us up.

[26:04] So Moses took the blood of animals sprinkled the blood on the tables of the law and sprinkled the blood on the people ratifying the covenant.

[26:16] It was sealed with blood. A contract, if you will, sealed with blood. And then Jesus, when he was, when he was about to be arrested on the night that he was betrayed, took that cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

[26:35] And they did not understand exactly what he was talking about at all. I'm sure they just looked at each other and said, what, what, what, how is this going to work? What? And it would be ratified not with the blood of animals, but with the blood of Christ.

[26:49] So, when the concept of Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the world and Messiah of Israel was presented to Israel, and it was a formal presentation in Acts chapter 2 and repeated again in Acts chapter 3, and Peter was the one who delivered it, Peter made the offer, and he said to those Jews gathered on the day of Pentecost, all right, here's the deal.

[27:18] What do you say? And they said, we will not have this man to reign over us. And where I think a lot of people mistake, get a mistaken idea as to what happened was there were 3,000 who said yes, yes, they signed on.

[27:39] And they were baptized, and fellas, it wasn't a Christian baptism. It was the baptism of John. It was the baptism that they had earlier refused.

[27:52] And Jesus said, all right, if you buy into this now, Jesus being a concept of the Savior, a Redeemer, then you should submit to John's baptism, the baptism you rejected earlier, and 3,000 of them did.

[28:06] And we tend to think that there you've got the whole nation of Israel on board. No, no. No, no. The 3,000, 3,000 was just a minority of the huge number that was there.

[28:19] Why am I saying that? Because this was a Jewish feast day, Pentecost. There were tens of thousands of Jews all gathered there for these feast days.

[28:30] And the 3,000, I am convinced, the text doesn't say this, I don't want to read something into it that isn't there, but the text doesn't say this, but I am convinced that the 3,000 is a number that, would any preacher be disappointed with 3,000 converts?

[28:44] No, of course not. But I'm convinced that those 3,000 made up a small minority of the number who could have signed on. And who were the ones who really didn't?

[28:56] Who dug their heels in? Leaves. The shakers and movers. Leaves. They maintained their position, and Israel continued in a rejection mode of Jesus as their Messiah, and they maintain that to this day.

[29:10] So, questions or comments anybody has? Dan. If a person doesn't believe in the Bible, read Isaiah, before they say, what's he going to do?

[29:21] Come into town on a donkey? And they nailed it. It wasn't just, they nailed it. Now how can, and then it happens, and how can you refute that?

[29:32] Well, I don't see any logic maybe some can. I cannot see any logic. It cannot, it cannot be refuted, but what most do is they just turn a deaf ear and ignore it.

[29:43] There are, well, yeah, I understand that. There are, there are 50 prophets. If you want to get some real insight on this in a way that really lays it out beautifully, get a copy of Josh McDowell's book called Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

[29:59] All of this is, is contained in it, and it's in great detail, and all of the references. It's one of the more authoritative things that you can consult, and it is actually written for the average lay person.

[30:11] You don't have to be a theologian to read it or understand it. It's great content, and he depicts some 50, 50 prophecies regarding the Messiah that are spelled out in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.

[30:27] And to look at that and say, oh, well, what an amazing coincidence. Oh, come on. Give me a break. Coincidence? There isn't any way in the world that you could put these things together and logically call it a coincidence.

[30:42] This is all planned. It's all prepared. It's all dished out, and it is so obvious for anyone who is really looking for answers, and unfortunately, many are not.

[30:53] But other comments or questions? Yeah. I don't know. I think God blessed someone like this. He wrote this Rosenthal. He wrote this thing you read. Yeah.

[31:04] Mark Rosenthal. I've never heard anything so logical in all my life regarding how this happened and everything. And God has certainly left that man with some insight that the average children have.

[31:18] Mark Rosenthal has made a tremendous contribution to the cause of Christ. And I've told you about him before, I think, some time ago, but let me repeat this.

[31:30] Mark Rosenthal was Jewish, born into an Orthodox Jewish family. Family lived in Philadelphia in a Jewish community. His father ran a little Jewish delicatessen restaurant in downtown Philadelphia.

[31:46] And as a teenage boy, he began working there with his father, and he was assigned the responsibility of the cash register. And when customers would come up with their check, he would take them, just like we do here, he'd take their check and make change and give them their change and so on.

[32:03] Well, it just so happens that there was a little lady who was referred to as a home missionary. She was a spinster lady and never married. And she'd go around the community distributing tracts and giving out the gospel wherever she could.

[32:17] And she often stopped in at this little Jewish restaurant for lunch. And one day, she stopped in for lunch and as she was checking out and paying her bill and Marv Rosenthal, like a 17, 18-year-old kid standing there, and she said to him, Marvin, I want you to know I'm praying for you.

[32:38] And he said, you're praying for me? What would you pray for me for? And she said, I'm praying that you may be saved. And he said, the only thing I want to be saved from is nuts like you.

[32:58] And she went her way. And in time, Marv Rosenthal joined the U.S. Marines, served four years as Hitchin Marines.

[33:10] I do not know the exact circumstances of his conversion, but I do know that eventually he came to faith in Christ. And he's made an enormous contribution in so many ways.

[33:24] And what we just shared with you by way of that paper is just one of many. He's also authored books and many tapes and so on. And he's had a tremendous ministry globally with friends of Israel.

[33:36] So, does God have a sense of humor? The only thing I want to be saved from is from nuts like you. Wow. Roger?

[33:48] Did his family shun him? I'm sorry? Did his family shun him? I don't know about that, but typically that would be the case because now this is true with an Orthodox family.

[34:03] Most Jewish families today are Reformed. And that means they would be considered liberal by Orthodox standards. They don't keep a kosher diet.

[34:14] They don't necessarily observe the Sabbath. They very seldom go to the synagogue unless it's for a bar mitzvah or a wedding. And they're Jewish primarily in name and ancestry only.

[34:25] And they would not of course have a difficult... In fact, one of the big problems that Jewish people and the Jewish nation is having today is assimilation.

[34:37] And that is due to the fact that so many biological Jews, boys and girls, are not marrying within Judaism.

[34:50] Many of them are marrying Gentiles. And that's called the problem of assimilation. And the concept of Jewishness gets really diluted.

[35:01] and then they have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and so on and they become further and further removed from Jewishness. So, most Jews today are Jews by birth.

[35:14] They are Jews biologically. And that is true of all places. It's true in Israel. only about 20% of the Jewish population of Israel will be found in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

[35:33] and they will be keeping the kosher diet and they will be abstaining from certain things and so on. The vast majority of the Jews in Israel are secular.

[35:46] And they make it very clear. They say, I'm not a religious Jew. They mean they don't practice Judaism. They are Jewish by birth but not by practice. Joe? And they practice all the traditions of the Jewish faith, the feasts and so forth just like we practice Christmas.

[36:03] Yeah, many of them they do. No spiritual significance or meaning to 99% just based on tradition. Just tradition. Yeah. If you've seen Fiddler on the Roof and if you haven't seen Fiddler on the Roof by all means you should because it's very revealing.

[36:21] It gives you a real insight into Jewishness. One of the great films. One of the great things that Hollywood has done. Rick? Yeah, you were talking about a book by Josh McDowell.

[36:32] There's another book you wrote which is a much shorter version which I'm sure you're aware of. More than a carpenter. Oh yeah. I've handed that out. All my kids have a copy. I get it like $7 on Amazon and that can lead them to the more but more than a carpenter is one of the most compelling short books.

[36:50] Thank you. It is wonderful and we've given out an easy read. Given out hundreds of those too. Yeah. And just the title is kind of captivating. More than a carpenter. And that's who Jesus is.

[37:01] A lot more than a carpenter. Yeah, Dan. Just like Jews are doing what you said. You know, they're marrying out of the faith and so forth. Christians are becoming more and more practicing universalism.

[37:14] Oh yeah, you're right. They're staying away from what we talked about today and the proof. I mean, it's... The same thing has happened to Christianity. Absolutely. There are... You'd be surprised how many people consider themselves Christians Christians because they were born into a Christian family or a family that was associated with the church and they say something like this.

[37:35] I've been a Christian all my life. Which is the tip off that they really don't even know what a Christian actually is. Because while it is true, a Christian is somebody who has been born but someone who's been born again.

[37:54] Not just someone who was born biologically into a Christian family and people say things like, well, my father was a preacher and my grandfather and my great-grandfather was a circuit-riding preacher.

[38:05] That automatically makes... No, it doesn't either. Someone has said, God has children but He has no grandchildren. Think of that.

[38:17] Other comments or questions? Anybody? Yes. Mark, did you catch that article in the paper the other day where it said so many people in the United States now population-wise they say nun when they talk?

[38:29] Did you see that? In fact, I made a copy of that. I tended to bring it. Thank you for reminding me. I'll bring it next week. They're called nuns. Not N-U-N-S as in Roman Catholic nun.

[38:39] But it's N-O-N-E-S. What is your faith? Nun. Nun. And they're actually being classified in the U.S. Census Bureau as a district group.

[38:55] The nuns. N-O-N-E-S. And there are a number of reasons for that but that would be an interesting subject that we can pursue some other time.

[39:05] But it's very revealing as well. Other thoughts? Anybody? Yes, Rod? Wasn't there a bunch of contention on Mary having to furnish the egg so that it would be fully man, fully God?

[39:23] Is that all settled? Well, I don't think that Mary furnished the egg. Right. No. Mary did not furnish the egg.

[39:33] Had she furnished the egg it would have been a contaminated egg. And this, like I said, this became the basis for the Roman Catholic taking the position the perpetual virginity of Mary.

[39:47] And they take the position that Mary was actually herself virgin born. That's what made her eligible to give birth to the Savior.

[39:57] But then, when you extrapolate that, well now wait a minute, if Mary was virgin born, then how could she be born a virgin of a mother who was not?

[40:12] So how far back do you go? So the whole thing breaks down. The egg, the seed that was planted there was not from Mary. It was from God.

[40:24] He miraculously planted that seed. Mary nurtured that seed, fed that seed, gave birth to that seed, and provided the humanity and the delivery and everything.

[40:36] but make no mistake about it, it was not a contribution of Mary. Mary's contribution was the housing and the maturation and the development of the baby.

[40:49] But beyond that, yeah. Is there any better word than the thing that is in you? I'm sorry? Anything better than the word the thing that is in you? That just sounds awful. Yeah.

[41:00] Well, it's a seed. Sounds crude. It's a seed. And the seed, that's, by the way, if you stop and think about it, if you're a farmer, you know anything about farming, I've never gotten over the miracle of a seed.

[41:22] It has to die first. Of a seed. It is. A seed is just unbelievable. You take, you take one kernel of corn and plant that kernel and it gets nutrients from the soil, imbibes from the soil and from the rainfall and produces a stalk on which is multiplied ears of corn.

[41:52] We, we ought to stand in all of that. That is a very simple thing. When you look on a corn field out there, we just take it for granted.

[42:03] Yeah, you plant seed and you get corn. Oh man, I'll tell you what. Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.

[42:13] Die, yes, it's dead too. It abides alone. You can take that same kernel of corn and put it right here on the corner of the table and nothing's going to happen. But when you put with it what God has provided by way of water and sunshine and nutrients from the soil, think about it.

[42:31] Think about it. This thing attracts and absorbs nutrients from the dirt and makes a stalker.

[42:43] If you're not amazed by it, you just don't understand. It's the simplest thing. Bob? In the cattle industry, that's called embryo transfer. Where the recipient cow does not provide the egg.

[43:00] It's a multiple embryo that's produced from another cow that produces given medicine to produce a lot of embryos.

[43:14] Okay. She produces a lot of eggs and then she's artificially inseminated and that embryo, that live embryo is transplanted into another cow and that cow, the ending result is not related to the mother.

[43:33] That is absolutely mind-boggling, I tell you. It's just amazing. Absolutely amazing. Joe? That seed going in the ground is a symbol of Christ, what he did.

[43:46] Absolutely. He was talking about himself. He died. Yeah. He died. He was using himself as the principle of the seed. Absolutely. Life came to us, everybody.

[43:58] Yes. Yep. Okay, guys. Thanks for being here this morning and Merry Christmas and enjoy your meal in the day ahead.