Who We Trust #1 WHAT DOES THIS CHRISTIAN CHURCH BELIEVE? Basically. We believe the Bible and our constitution is the New Testament. But before we can proceed to WHAT does the church believe, we must first decide WHO WE TRUST or WHO DO WE BELIEVE. We must focus on the person of Jesus Christ or our other sermons are not going to be of much value. Who do we trust? Who is going to take us to heaven? Who is our King, our Master, our Savior, our Light, our Way to heaven, our Redeemer, our Truth, our Life, our Rest, our Lord, and who is our Messiah? Who is everything to us? There is only One who fills all these descriptions. There is only one who was in Heaven with God and the Holy Spirit when God created everything. In fact, in John chapter one, we learn that without Jesus nothing has been created that has been created. John 1:3 ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM; AND WITHOUT HIM WAS NOT ANY THING MADE THAT WAS MADE. The question must be answered. Who do we believe? Only Jesus Christ fills everything we need to obtain eternal life with God. In the Book of Acts, the Bible tells us there is only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER; FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, WHEREBY WE MUST BE SAVED. There is that old illustration of the blind man who was waiting at a corner for everyone to cross to the other side. One person noticed that he was blind and was carrying his bible. The young man said, can you really read your bible since you are blind. He was carrying his Braille bible and said, “yes, I can”. He said read me something from it. The blind man opened his bible and it fell open to Acts 4:12. He began, FOR THERE IS SALVATION IN NONE OTHER. He stopped and went back and read it again. THERE IS SALVATION IN NONE OTHER. The young man said, “can’t you read any further?” The blind man said, I can read it all, but I just can’t get over the fact that there is salvation in none other. What this passage means is that there have been about 7 or 8 billion people or more, who have lived on the planet Earth. But there is salvation only in One of them. That One is Jesus Christ. There is a great part of the earth today that is placing trust and believing in a person who helped to write the Koran. Some are willing to die for Mohammed and they are willing to blow themselves up with bombs for the Koran. Recently, in Africa, Moslems fought against Christians. Many died following the One they trust. Some died in the name of Jesus Christ. Some died in the name of Mohammed. There are others on the planet who are receiving the adoration of so many. But name whom you will, there is only one name by which we must be saved. That name is Jesus. Who are we going to trust? Is it someone who has died and has been buried and is still in his grave in Mecca like Mohammed? Or are we going to place all our love, devotion, worship, adoration, and trust in One who died in our place at Calvary? We trust the ONE who died for us, was buried for us, arose from the dead for us, ascended into heaven so that He could one day come back for us. That one is Christ, the Lord. Jesus not only was part of the Godhead who created everything, when He came to the planet earth, He was Emmanuel. He was God in the flesh. John 1:1 IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD. And verse 14 explains to us who the WORD was. It was Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus became flesh. He was the Son of God and the son of man at the same time. So, the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. So, the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. We trust in Jesus because He was and is perfect. He lived for 33 years on our planet before He died in our place. He was perfect during His life. He was and is without sin. The only time He had any sin on Him was when He died for allour sins at Calvary on His Cross. He took our sins on Himself and not His own sins for He had none. We place our trust in Jesus Christ because He was the creator of us all. He was God in the flesh. He was perfect. He is absolutely sinless. Kings have come and gone but Jesus will be King forever. This means that Christ is our eternal King. Empires have risen and conquered and are now gone. Jesus’ kingdom has no end. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This cannot be said about anyone else. He is everything to The Church. He is creator, Messiah, the Son of God, the Miracle Worker, The Sinless One, and He is God in the flesh. Everyone must settle this matter- not tomorrow- we must settle this matter today. We are going to trust WHO? Who are we going to trust? Who are you going to Trust?

By: Glenn Cunningham 

HOW IS JESUS A GIFT? For Jesus to be a gift He had to be a gift from God. Yes,Jesus was born by God and a Virgin. WHAT DOES THIS CHRISTIAN CHURCHES BELIEVE? Does the Church believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus? Everyone in the world has had a mother and a father. There is one exception. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, and He did not have an earthly father. One should expect the New Testament to teach about this immaculate(spotless, perfect) Conception because it was prophesied in the Old Testament. It was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 THEREFORE THE LORD HIMSELF WILL GIVE YOU A SIGN: THE VIRGIN WILL BE WITH CHILD AND WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND WILL CALL HIM IMMANUEL. God had a plan for the salvation of mankind even before He created the heavens and the earth. In His plan, He would send His Son from heaven to the planet Earth and His Son would be born of the Virgin Mary. God decided this. It was not initiated by any committee or team. God said this is the way it will be. God said this would be a sign to everyone. No one had ever been born of a virgin and this birth would be different. God said that this would be a sign that Jesus was really God in the flesh. ​​​​​​​ Does This Christian Church believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? The answer is a determined, unwavering, steady, affirmative, YES. Yes, without any doubt, this church believes that the birth of Jesus was different to the extent that He had no earthly father. He did have an earthly mom and her name was Mary. This is what the Church believes about Jesus’ birth. When one would ask how this could have happened, in the words of men, the answer is that it is impossible for this to happen. But in the words of heaven… Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. In the words of men—to be born of a virgin—it is impossible. But in the words of heaven—SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT. You want to know how this birth is possible. The answer is a resounding—with child of the HOLY SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is able and capable to bring about the birth of Jesus without an earthly father. One might say that this is a miracle. We would agree and state again that God said that this would be a sign for you. The Church of Scotland teaches about this miraculous birth of Jesus. And Iquote, “we have full liberty to come to our own conclusion.” The only liberty that This Christian Church has is, to believe completely that Jesus’ birth happened exactly as Isaiah said it would happen and exactly as Matthew and Luke recorded it for us. This may be one of the problems with this special birth because it goes beyond science, and it goes beyond history and it goes beyond all reasoning. God said it would be a sign. This same Holy Spirit, who taught the prophets what to say, was the same Holy Spirit who taught men what to do. It is the same Holy Spirit who brings the truth of God to the world. It is the same Holy Spirit who teaches mankind that Jesus was born of a virgin. Let us go back to the Church of Scotland for another look. This is the quotation, “the church does not insist that we believe in the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus.” We are sorry…. Matthew 7:13-14 13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. To not believe in this great doctrine is to have missed God’s Will. We pray that we want God’s Will to be done and not that we want His Will to be changed. When one walks as a Christian, he believes in the special birth of Jesus without any question, just as the church believes everything else in the Bible. ​​​​​​​ The Church of Scotland and other groups have changed God’s Will because it is difficult to believe. Perhaps the motto of This Christian Churches ought to be—WE BELIEVE IN THINGS DIFFICULT AND HARD TO BELIEVE. Why, because it is the Will of God. Some do not believe in this doctrine of the virgin birth because the Apostles did not spend time with it in the rest of the New Testament. What happened is that the church of the first century believed this doctrine and moved alongto the doctrine of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The church moved along to thinking about the return of Jesus to this planet for His church. One should not be surprised that the rest of the New Testament does not dwell on this doctrine. One should not even have to preach a sermon on this subject to prove it. We should only have to read Luke 1:26-35 and go on to other doctrines: 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. It is a happy day when the church can read this Holy Scripture and believe with all their heart that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and then move on to the gospel and to the waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ. This Christian Church believes in the virgin birth of Jesus without any questions. One might know of people who do not believe in this doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. One must continue to direct them to the Bible and ask a simple question, “What does the Bible say?” This ChristianChurch endeavors to speak where the Bible speaks and attempts to be silent where the Bible is silent. One problem with this idea of the virgin birth of Jesus is that the Bible speaks out so plainly that this special birth was to be a Sign. Jesus is Immanuel. Jesus is the Son of God with us and He was indeed born of the Virgin Mary just as the scriptures prophesied. The special birth of Jesus does not necessarily save us but His birth, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and His ascension do save us and our belief in His Word saves us. There are those who want to discard this doctrine because the one they follow after was not born like this. There are those who would attempt to bring Jesus down to the level of others, but they cannot because He is greater than all of them put together. ​​​​​​​ There are many in the world that are not permitted to believe this doctrine. The internet says there are 2.3 billion people listed as Christians. This is the largest group in the world. This is 31% of the world’s population. There are 1.9 Billion Moslems which makes up for 25% of the population. 1.16 Billion are Hindu which is 15% 535 million are Buddhists which is about 7%. There are 14 million who adhere to Judaism. And there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide. That’s about 7%. The country with the most atheists is China with about 200 million convinced atheists. Besides the 2.3 Billion Christians, allthe rest are not permitted to believe in the divinity of Jesus. The 1.9 Billion Moslems do not believe the message of this special birth of the Son of God and the son of man. Now, of the 2.3 billion listed as Christians, not all of these believe that Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary. We have already listed what the Church of Scotland believes. One can take thatstory of the Virgin Birth as the truth or leave it as a myth. Also, of this 2.3 billion so called Christians this would include the populations of countries that are 97% Catholic like the Philippines, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe. And countries like the United States that confess His name but many many many do not live it. Remember: Matthew 7:13-14 13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. One eternal life may depend on the answer. One of the first questions, we need to answer is, “DO YOU BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD?” To refine this question, “DO YOU BELIEVE THAT JESUS WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY?” Does this Christian Church believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? The answer is absolutely, yes. This is what these sermons are all about—Do we believe the Bible on any and all subjects and especially the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ? This Christian Church believes the Bible. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I believe your belief in the Divinity of Jesus will affect your eternity. YES, one should expect the New Testament to teach about this Immaculate (spotless, perfect) Conception because it was prophesied in the Old Testament. It was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 THEREFORE THE LORD HIMSELF WILL GIVE YOU A SIGN: THE VIRGIN WILL BE WITH CHILD AND WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND WILL CALL HIM IMMANUEL. Matthew’s quote: Matthew 1:22-23 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him IMMANUEL” – which means, “God with us.”

By: Glenn Cunningham