Time children dismissed for children's church and most of these passages will be up on the screen this morning but we will be in Genesis chapter three here in just a moment. If you would like to turn there. But I do wanna read this verse from on the screen, to start with this morning. Christmas, among other things, is about God keeping his promises, and God always keeps his promises. The coming of Jesus into the world was a promise of the father that was kept and that has changed all of human history and our life.

A very important promise, a very important fulfillment in Jesus Christ who came to this earth to die for sinners of whom Paul says, I am chief. Here in second Peter three nine, we read one of many verses in scripture. I I found many that have this word promise in it. And many of them are in regards in one way or to another to Jesus Christ and our salvation in Christ. That is true of this one.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. In other words, he isn't hasn't forgotten promise that he made. Okay? As some men count slackness, as we sometimes do, but not God. But is long suffering to usward, patient, not willing that any should perish, that is die in their sins, but that all should come to repentance.

That is faith in Jesus Christ and salvation in Him. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. He has kept it and he will keep it. And of that, we can be certain. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning.

Thank you Lord for all that you've done, for these that have come this morning to honor you, to acknowledge Lord your birth, your life, your ministry, your death on the cross for our sins, your resurrection from the dead, your ministry of reconciliation and intercession in behalf of all those who come to you in faith today that we might be saved and become the children of God. Lord, thank you for that blessed opportunity for the grace and mercy of our heavenly father and of our savior Jesus Christ. We pray that you would be honored today. And we thank you, Lord, that as we can trust in the promises of the past, we can trust the promises of the future that one day you are coming again. In Jesus' name, we do pray.

Amen. I'm going to read several verses. Many of them will be up on the screen this morning for you. As we celebrate the Lord's birth by remembering the promises that God made concerning Jesus Christ, his son, their fulfillment, and some promises that pertain to us today and in the future. Remind us that we can trust in our God who always keeps his promises to us.

Genesis three fifteen, God said this to the serpent, to Satan, he said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It, that is the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. Now God just wasn't talking about the seed of the woman stepping on a snake. Okay? This is a prophecy.

It's made clear in the New Testament. It's a prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord Jesus Christ is the seed of the what? The seed of the woman who will come and conquer the plans of the enemy, Satan, who has bound humanity in sin. In Galatians, we read this.

This is my favorite Christmas passage, and this this may not ring to you as a Christmas passage, but to me it is. But when the fullness of time was come, when the time was right, ready, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, Mary, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, under its condemnation, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Satan in the garden stole away God's most precious treasure, Adam and Eve, to try to build his kingdom in opposition to the Lord's here. He is the enemy of all mankind, not the friend. But God already had a plan to send his son, the seed of the woman, to defeat the plans of the enemy and redeem us to bring us back, that we might be reconciled together with him.

This was the promise of God all the way back there in Genesis three fifteen. This is the promise fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of our Lord. But there are several of these promises pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming. We find this promise made here in Genesis chapter 12 to Abraham. He says, I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis chapter In Genesis chapter 15, God makes similar promises to Abraham in regards to the land that he would give to him and his descendants. To his descendants that they would be as the stars of the heaven and as the sand of the along the dust along the seashore. That they you would not be able to to to number them for the vast numbers that they would be. These promises God made to Abraham.

Has he kept them? Yes. His descendants, the Jews, live in vast numbers all over this planet from one end to the other and are coming back to, in many cases, the land of Israel that God gave to Abraham. They are vast in number. Second of all, God did give them that land four hundred and thirty years later.

Almost five hundred years after Abraham, God brought them back to the land. And he gave to them the land that he had promised to Abraham and it became their land. Wasn't their land, so to speak, for a while, thanks to because of their disobedience to the Lord, he scattered them from their land, but even now they are coming back to that land once again from which Jesus Christ will rule and reign for a thousand years at his return. Most importantly, back here in Genesis 12, it says, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God told Abraham, in thee shall not just his family, but what?

All the families of the earth be blessed. How was that fulfilled? That is fulfilled in his descendant, Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter one, Matthew starts out his gospel with something a little bit odd, maybe. He starts it out with a genealogy.

The Christmas story in Matthew begins with a genealogy. Why? The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the genealogy of Christ, the son of David, the son of who? The son of Abraham. God kept his promise to Abraham.

He sent his seed, his offspring, his descendant, that all the families of the earth might be blessed in him when he died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again to give eternal life to all who come to him in faith. God kept his promises to Abraham, a people, a nation, a land, a Messiah. Brings us to Isaiah nine, six, and seven. God gave promises to David in second Samuel seven that he would raise him up, an heir that would rule from his throne forever. That heir was not Solomon.

Solomon was a sinner. Solomon was not that Messiah. But that Messiah was born and he is Jesus Christ. Says in Isaiah nine, six and seven, for unto you, us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder.

His name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The promise of God fulfilled in part when Jesus Christ came to this earth. And the child was born who would be king of kings and Lord of lords. Part of that promise has been fulfilled.

Part of it, we look forward to even today. God promised that this Messiah, this seed of the woman, this this offspring of Abraham, this heir of king David would be born of a virgin. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, meaning God with us. This too was fulfilled, the virgin Mary. When in Luke one, the angel came to her and said, you will conceive a child.

And she says, how is that possible? I know not a man. Said the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. And the one that will be born of thee will be called the son of God. Jesus is uniquely the seed of the woman for he did not have a human father.

He was born of a virgin just as Isaiah prophesied. God promised that he'd be born in Bethlehem. Micah five two, thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though there'll be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of these shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting. That verse tells us a couple things. First of all, the king shall be born where?

In Bethlehem, Judah. Where was Jesus born? Well, both Matthew and Luke tell us where he was born. He was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, as God foretold, as God promised would be the case. The one whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting.

What does Micah tell us there? Jesus Christ, the son of God, did not begin on the day of his birth. For as John tells us, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. And in verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We call that the incarnation.

What is that? That is the fulfillment of God's what? Promise. The fulfillment of God's promise. And he was born in Bethlehem just as God foretold.

God has promised to save anyone who comes to him through faith in his son, Jesus Christ who came to receive everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Romans ten thirteen says, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What is that?

That is a promise. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I write unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life. That is the promise.

That's first John five. That is the promise of the father to all of us. That if we come in faith to God and Jesus Christ, that God gives us everlasting life. The promise of the father given, fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. A promise he will not fail to keep as he has not failed to keep any.

God has promised to all those who trust in Jesus Christ that they should never perish. John ten twenty seven and twenty eight, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life and they shall what? Never perish. That means they shall never die in their sin and face the judgment and punishment of God for it. Because Christ took my punishment and yours upon himself on the cross of Calvary.

That we, through faith in him, might be delivered from the punishment that is justly ours because he took our place. And God says, promises that those who come to him in faith, he will give them eternal life and they will what? Never perish. No. This body's gonna die.

But I'm not this body. I have a soul. And that soul is gonna go where? To be with God. And one day I'm even going to get a what?

A new body. The promise of my father in heaven. And God always keeps his promises. Jeremiah 31, God made this promise to those of his people that would come to him in faith. He says to them, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.

I will put my law in their inward parts and will write it in their hearts. How has he done that? Through the Holy Spirit that he has given to those who come to him in faith. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. Look in the Old Testament.

Look time and time again how Israel departed from the Lord. But God says the day is coming when I will forgive their sins and I will remember them what? No more. That day was fulfilled when Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins, and he paid the price. And all who come to him in faith, Jew and Gentile alike, our sins are forgiven.

And one day when we stand before God, the books will be opened, but there will be nothing in the book about me except pardoned by the blood of Jesus Christ who has washed away our sins, who has taken our punishment already upon himself. God has promised that there is a place awaiting all those who are born again and kept by the power of God through faith. First Peter one four and five. I don't have it up here, but I wanna read it to you. It's one of my hate to say this favorite passage scripture.

I'm a start in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a live lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. God has promised. I have a home awaiting me in heaven. It's reserved.

Incorruptible. It's undefiled. It's like nothing I've experienced here in this life or on earth and it's awaiting me. Because I came to Christ in faith and I received his sacrifice. I put my faith in him, believed that he is a living savior who is risen again from the dead and I have become a child of God.

I'll never perish. There's a place awaiting me in heaven. Not because I am so great or so good, but because my savior is. And he always keeps his what? He always keeps his promises.

God has promised in Hebrews thirteen five, never to leave or forsake his children. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. As Christians, we should be content with whatever lot we have to deal with in life because we know God is with us. So many times throughout scripture, God said, don't be afraid.

I'm with you. Whatever else we may lack or needs or troubles we may deal with, we have something that is eternal, that is priceless without value. The promise of God to his children that he will never leave us nor forsake us. The promise of almighty God, and he always keeps his promises. God promised that nothing or no one can separate his children from his love in Romans chapter eight.

And God has promised to return again to take us to the place that he has prepared. John 14, Jesus said this to his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you under myself that where I am, there ye may be also. Before Jesus went back to heaven, he said to his disciples, don't be afraid. Don't be alarmed.

I'm going away to prepare a place for you, and one day I'm coming back to take you home to that place. He's using a metaphor of marriage in the Hebrew culture. The husband and wife to be would be betrothed. And then the husband would go away back to wherever he was from and he would work for a time and he would build a home. And then when the home was built, he would return for his bride.

And they would have their beautiful wedding. And then he would take his wife home to the home that he has prepared. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for us and one day be assured, he is coming back to take us home, to be with him forever. And God always keeps his promises. He has kept them in the past.

He will certainly keep them now. Of this we can be certain. So as we celebrate our savior, the fulfillment of a promise, we can also celebrate the promises that he has made to us that will just assuredly be fulfilled as the one we celebrate today, the coming, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior. I don't have my pianist in here. She is in children's church.

So I'm gonna try to sing this chorus acapella. It's entitled He is Coming Again. If you know it, you're welcome to sing with me. He is coming again. He is coming again the very same Jesus rejected of man he is coming again he is coming again with power and great glory he is coming again The king is coming.

The king is coming. I just heard the trumpet sounding and now his face I see. Oh, the king is coming. The king is coming. Praise God.

He's coming for me. Amen. And he is. Just assuredly as he came the first time, he is coming again. Are you ready?

Are you ready for his coming? Have you accepted his offer of salvation in Jesus Christ? Are you living for him, serving him each and every day for the king is coming? Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord that as you came before, you will come again in like manner as you departed, as you told your disciples.

Lord, we pray that as we look in faith and wait your return, we might use the time that we have been given in faith, in love, in service to our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And as we proclaim the good news of his birth, his death, and resurrection, that we might also point other people to the fact that he is coming again. Lord, we all have many of us have loved ones who need the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, may this year be the year of their salvation. May you give us opportunity to to share with them once again the love of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we pray that you would put an earnestness in their heart to receive you before it is too late. Lord, thank you for this life. Thank you, Lord, for eternal life in Christ and for all that you have done for us. If there be one here today that is yet to trust in the Lord to place their soul in his hands, to come to him humbly, the repentance to ask for his forgiveness, I pray that today they would come and receive him as the Lord and savior of their life so that they may one day get to go to the place that he has prepared for all those who believe and trust in him. In Jesus name we do pray.

Amen.