Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Christmas Special: There was no room at the Inn.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
JAM 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
JAM 1:17 Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.
Even in His giving, there is no shadow cast upon Him for our frequent turnings.
Anekdiegetos = indescribable – the only one that would fit.
Main verb based on indescribable = to recount, to set forth in detail, to describe.
Negative = unable to set forth in great detail, unable to describe.
2CO 9:15 Now thanks be to God for His Gift, [precious] beyond telling [His indescribable, inexpressible, free Gift]!
2CO 9:15 Thank God for his Son – his Gift too wonderful for words. – AMP
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! – TLB
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! – RSV
2CO 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. NKJV
Undiminished deity, true humanity, unmixed, yet forever in one body from birth throughout eternity.
God gave Himself.
TLJC is the only member of the God-head who is visible, and ever will be visible; JOH 8:18; JOH 6:46.
God the Son – thanks to the incarnation and deity becoming humanity – He is not only seen, but He is to be worshipped and adored.
When you live under Roman rule you were under the authority of Caesar.
In those days you were born not only to fear, but to worship Caesar.
The Caesar decided that in order for there to be maximum taxation, he would have to have an accurate accounting of the people in his kingdom.
Micah the prophet, seven centuries before the birth of the Savior, unknown by Augustus, had written down in the record of the Scriptures, that it will be in Bethlehem, the most insignificant of all places, the Son of God would be born.
MIC 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, {Too} little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
PSA 76:10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee;
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
COL 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
HEB 1:3 He upholds all things by the word of His power.
Back behind the scenes, a sovereign God is moving on the events of this world to bring forth His precious, inexpressible, unspeakable gift, in Bethlehem exactly as He promised 700+ years earlier.
Luke uses – engaged [mnesteuo] in the passive form = having been engaged to him, or promised to him in marriage – to remind us that he has not touched her sexually.
PRO 6:17 eyes that are arrogant,
PRO 30:13 There is a kind – oh how lofty are his eyes! And his eyelids are raised {in arrogance.}
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems,
more medicine, but less well-ness. We laugh too little, drive too fast, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little,
watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values! We talk too much, love too seldom, and judge too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever,
but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips! Disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.
LUK 2:7 there was no room for them in the inn.