<TITLE>03. Par 11-17</TITLE>L-11   Now, this morning, I have thought about speaking here to this chapter, which Phoenix has always been a place on my heart. I like Phoenix. I was here when I was a little boy, out here at Wickenburg just above. And lived down here at Sixteenth and Henshaw. It was a desert then. But I see it's right in the metropolitan, and, well, really in the heart of the city. Goes to show that there's a changing time, changing. But there's one thing I want to speak on this morning, is the unchanging One, that's God. God, in His program, His Word, It never changes. Times change, men change, systems change. But God never changes, He ever remains the same.

L-12   And I thought, being that we were facing the Christmas time, that we would... maybe I'd speak on a--a Christmas message. And now if you have your Bibles, and like to read, sometimes people do, behind evangelists or speaker, I want to read from Saint Matthew's Gospel, the 2nd chapter, for a portion of the Word.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that's born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king... heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he demanded... them where Christ should be born.
... they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophets,
And thou Bethlehem, of the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: but out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

L-13   May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. And now with some notes here, and some Scriptures to refer to. I like to have your undivided attention for a little while on the subject of: Why Little Bethlehem.

L-14 You know, at Christmas, I think we all, too many of us, I wouldn't say all, but too many of us lose the real value of what Christmas is. As I notice out here, even the palm trees are decorated; and in the East it's always the fir tree, or the evergreen. And months, or weeks, rather, maybe a month or six weeks before Christmas ever begins, it's always the tinsel and--and the great... They made it a commercial in the stead of what it really means.

L-15   I don't believe that Christ was born on the twenty-fifth day of December. I--I do not believe that at all. It would be impossible for the things to happen. The hills of Judea are snowier than, why, snow is waist-deep in there in the month of--of December, up in Judea. But we realize in studying history, Christ was probably born in the spring, along maybe April or May, somewhere like that. But when it was changed, this, they brought it, when Christianity was converted into Romanism, they made the sun-god's birthday, which was the solar at the twenty-fifth, from the twenty-first to the twenty-fifth of December, the sun setting, like, almost hardly changes at all. And then that was the sun-god's birthday, so they changed it to the Son of God.

L-16   But, remember, what ever what day it might be, we still doesn't take away the sacredness of what its supposed to be. Where Satan has robbed us of this, has made the great commercial, and Santa Claus stole all of the worship. And it's become a--a day like Easter, like bunny rabbits and pink ducks. And--and then what's that got to do with Easter? What's that got to do with the resurrection of Christ?

L-17 It's just like the world today, they, the kids on the street can tell you more about Davey Crockett than they could about Jesus Christ. They can tell you more about some outlaw, some criminal of days gone by, than they can the Prince of Life that--that was born nineteen hundred years ago. But that doesn't take the real thing away from we Christians.


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