Keeping Christmas Breaks All Ten Commandments!

Tis the season, right? Tis the season! I'm not giving a Christmas sermon in a long, long time. But somebody, well, a number of people over the years have said things to me, and I just kind of clicked this last week, about this particular time of the year. Now, at this point, what I want to do is talk as if I'm from outside our walls here, and one of the people from the world, you know, why is it that we, that some people, keep Christmas? You know, here we have a time of the year where Christmas music is on the radio, and some radio stations is on 24 hours a day.

You've got media ads that are trying to sell us on the need to buy all these expensive gifts for all of our friends and relatives. We have, we want, people want to spend special time with family and friends. It's a time people think where there's a lot of goodwill toward men, and certainly love toward Jesus, right? We're celebrating his birthday people to tell us.

One individual recently was making mention to me that they had heard someone say that Christmas as a holiday is a harmless holiday. And that's what actually got the juices flowing for my sermon today. I'm going to make a statement, and then as I make the statement, you're going to say, wow, you better prove that, buddy. But bear with me, bear with me, because I believe that I'm going to prove that this statement to you. If you're taking notes, you want to write something across the top of your paper.

Here's my statement, which I will endeavor to prove to you as you give me the time. Keeping Christmas means breaking all 10 commandments. Now, you've never heard a sermon like this before. I've never given a sermon like this before. But keeping Christmas means breaking all 10 commandments. It's not something that's harmless. It's something that's very harmful. Now, how do people... what's some of the reasoning here? Perhaps people will quote Mark 12, verse 29 and 30. Let me quote it for you. I've got a lot to cover here today, so I'm not going to ask you to turn to everything.

I'll be reading a number of things for you. In Mark 12, verse 29, Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your hearts, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength.

This is the first commandment. And so the thought is, by a number of people, we are simply showing respect and love to Jesus by honoring his day. We honor our own birthday. Why shouldn't we honor Jesus' birthday? The thinking goes. Other people, our former association, would say, Well, we are new covenant Christians, and as new covenant Christians, it is proper for us to worship Jesus Christ in this way. So the sermon is being given. I'm giving this sermon, brethren, to show you that this is anything but a harmless holiday. It's an observance that if people don't repent of doing, they will find themselves in the lake of fire.

Pure and simple. You know, she wants you to write down 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4. Verse John 3-4 talks about sin as breaking God's law. You can also write down Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, where it talks about how the wages of sin is death. And so I'm going to show in just a few minutes as you bear with me, that every one of the Ten Commandments is broken by keeping Christmas.

Now, your minds are racing ahead. You're thinking, how in the world is Christmas breaking the Sabbath? How in the world is Christmas causing me to commit adultery? Well, give me the chance to explain that, and I will. But before we get to the Ten Commandments, I want to go through some basic ideas, some basic principles. What does God have to say? What does Jesus Christ have to say about how we should be worshipping Him?

The cry for many is that we need to put Christ back into Christmas. Let's put Christ back into Christmas. But let's take a look at what Jesus actually said about how He wants us to worship Him. If we're truly concerned with putting Christ back into something, shouldn't we see what it is that Christ really wants?

Are we really honoring Christ if we don't do not as He suggested, but as He commanded? Are we really honoring Christ? Now, there are some principles we want to go through before I get into the Ten Commandments. Look at John 4. We do want to turn to these. John 4 and verse 23. John 4 and verse 23.

My Bible, this is all read lettering. The words of Christ, John 4.23. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers, notice true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. This is what Jesus wants. This is what God wants. They want us to be people who only embrace truth. Only embrace truth. Is it truth, brethren, to worship Christ's birthday in a day that, in fact, is not His birthday? And the world really knows it's not His birthday. Every year, this time of the year, you've got all sorts of articles in newspapers, magazines, all over the place, internet, all over the place, talking about how December 25, in fact, is not Christ's birthday. The world understands that. So is it truth to be saying, I'm going to be honoring Christ's birthday on December 25? Is it truth to worship with lies about Santa? Is it truth to worship Christ with origins that Christ doesn't want attached to His name? We want to be people who worship God in spirit and in truth. Now, people would argue, okay, Mr. D, what's truth? What is truth to you? I don't have to come up with my own definition of truth. Let's go to John 17. The Bible gives us a definition of what truth is.

John 17, verse 17, where it says, sanctify them. Again, all read a letter in my Bible. This is Jesus talking. Sanctify who? Sanctify your people. Set those people apart by your truth. Your word is truth. So if we are to worship God in spirit and in truth, we need to worship God. We need to worship Jesus Christ according to what the Bible has to say. These are very important premises that we're taking a look at. Now, the Bible does tell us very succinctly, it gives us a system of worshiping God the Father and Jesus Christ. We see that in Leviticus 23. You might put that in your notes. I'm not going to turn there. But in Leviticus, chapter 23, we see the Sabbath being mentioned. We see Passover. We see all the annual high days being mentioned. It's a system of worship.

The Bible sets apart how we are to worship the great God. We don't have to make up things for ourselves. God doesn't want us to do that. Now, people again will say, well, you know, I understand what you're saying. I know that Christmas is pagan. It's non-Christian. It's back from antiquity and all those things. But that's not how I view it. Have you had people come to you? You're next door neighbors, relatives, people at work. That's not how I view it. Well, does it make a difference how you and I view it? Really? Let's take a look at Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. Isaiah 55, verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So we can't just rely upon our thinking. In your notes, you might want to drop down Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 12. Proverbs 14, 12 says that, you know, our thinking, man's thinking, is the way of death. So people can't just say to you, well, this is how I view it. Well, that's not what the Bible says. That's not how we should be viewing things. We should be doing things through God's eyes, through Jesus Christ's eyes. Now, Mark chapter 7 is very important. Let's look at Mark chapter 7. You probably know where I'm going here. Mark chapter 7. These are all, again, prefacing what I want to cover when I go through the Ten Commandments. These are principles, these are eternal principles we're looking at. That we want to worship God in truth, that the Bible is truth. We must look to the Bible only. We see in Leviticus 23 the days we should be keeping. We shouldn't be thinking our own thoughts. It leads to death. And now Mark chapter 7, verses 6 through 9. Mark chapter 7, verse 6. He answered and said to them, Well, that Isaiah prophesied to you, hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips. And so much about Christmas worship observance, brethren, is about the exterior of things. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. As a group, you are well aware, and I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, but as a group, you know there's no place in the Scriptures that tell us we should be keeping Christmas. As a matter of fact, when you look into the history of Christmas, you find that Christmas was not kept by the New Testament church until hundreds of years after the death of Christ. It's when the New Testament church became an apostate church, they began keeping Christmas. If it was Christmas, it's such a wonderful thing, why didn't the apostles keep it? If it was honoring Christ, why wasn't Peter there talking about the virtues of Christmas?

They may worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men, for laying aside the commandment of God. This is a very big thing as I go through each of the Ten Commandments. We're going to see where people lay aside each of those Ten Commandments so they can keep Christmas. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things that you do all too well. You reject the commandment of God that you might keep your traditions. One last verse before we get into the Ten Commandments that's found over here in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. Here is one of the chapters that contains the Ten Commandments. It's a very important chapter in the Bible. If you're studying theology, people will tell you study theology. Whenever you see something quoted, it's important that you take a look at the context. The context of what we're about to read is the context of God's holy righteous law, the Ten Commandments. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 5, the last couple of verses in the chapter, chapter 5 verses 32 and 33. Therefore, you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. Pause. We don't do as we want to do. We do as God has commanded us and given us instruction. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. We're not allowed to decide for ourselves. Now, people can... We're free moral agents. We can decide how we want to worship God, but there's only one way to worship God the right way, and God tells us what the right way is. If we want to do it the right way, we've got to do it the way the Bible says. Oh, sure, we can do any number of things. It says we're free moral agents, but if we want to do it right, we want to be righteous. We want to be right with God. In Jesus Christ, we've got to do it this way. Don't turn to the right hand or to the left. Verse 33, you shall walk in all the ways that your Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, that may be well with you, that you may prolong your days in the land which you go to possess.

So, we are to be people of truth. We are to be people who look at the truth in God's Word, not relying upon our own thinking, not relying upon tradition, and not deviating from what the Bible has to say. I can quit the sermon right now, and maybe some of you wish I did, you know, if you had potluck or something, but I can quit right there. That should be enough. But let's now go through each of the commandments, and there's 10 of them. I can spend a long time on each one, and I'm not going to be labored. We're going to move fairly quickly. I want to keep this moving. I actually finished early over an hour. Hopefully, we'll do the same over here. Commandment number one, I'll read this for you. Exodus chapter 20, in verse 3, it's where it's found. Exodus 20 verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. How does Christmas break this commandment? Let me read from the Christmas almanac on page 17. I quote, the tradition of celebrating December 25th of Christ's birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25th. Romans famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults. In the third century, 274 A.D., the unchristian emperor Aurelius established the festival of Divicti Solus, the day of the invincible sun, on December 25th. Mithra was the embodiment of the sun, so this period of its rebirth was a major day in Mithraism, which had become Rome's latest official religion with the patronage of Aurelian. It is believed that the emperor Constantine adhered to the Mithraism up to the time of his conversion to Christianity. He was probably instrumental in seeing that the major feast of his old religion was carried over to his new faith. So basically, if you want to go back and look how Christmas was being kept before Christ, literally hundreds and a couple thousand years before Christ, you see that it was on December 25th, it was in honor of a pagan god.

This breaks commandment number one. Let's take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 12.

Deuteronomy chapter 12 verses 29 through 32.

Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 29. When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nation that you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their God, saying, how did these nations observe their gods or serve their gods?

I will also do likewise. Brethren, that's exactly what takes place with Christmas. How did these nations serve their gods? Christmas is nothing more than how other peoples at other times worshiped their false gods. We've only, you know, modern times, we've only dressed that up. All this goes way back into non-Christian antiquity. Verse 31. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods. For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe. You shall not add to it or take away from it. So that's God's teaching. Of course, we understand that the God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is saying, you worship me on December 25th, you keep Christmas, you're having another God before me. That's a sin. Commandment number two. We'll keep on moving here. Found in Exodus chapter 20, verses four and five. I'll read it for you. Actually, this chapter 20, verses four and five. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, that's in the earth beneath or the water under the earth. You shall not bow down nor serve them.

Again from the same Christian element act it says this. The Romans combined the worship of this deity Mithra with the midwinter celebration of the god Saturn, known as Saturnalia, which began a few days before December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, again this is way before Christ, characterized by gift-giving, feasting and singing, as well as downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs and procession throughout the Roman Empire. And other historians place the origin of veteran such trees thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon and Egypt, as well as elsewhere. And the Bible even mentions the use of green trees as pagan symbols of ancient worship and forbids their use in the worship of God. What do we have behind me here? Right? Let's take a look at a couple of scriptures to bear this out. Deuteronomy chapter 16. Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 21. Deuteronomy 16.21. You shall not plant for yourself any tree as a wooden image near the altar which you built for yourself to the Lord your God. Don't use trees in any sort of worship of the great God. Why? Because in antiquity trees were used to worship other gods, false gods. And in that particular case, we're going to see in a moment, Eshterdae. Let's go to that case over here in Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter 17. I could go to Jeremiah chapter 10. You know that section. So I chose something else. Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 1 and 2. Notice that God says about the sins of the people of Judah. Chapter 17 verse 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pan of iron. With the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and in the horns of your altars. So in other words, these people are sinning. They're sinning big time. It goes deep into them. I like the symbolism. Written with a pan of iron with a point of a diamond. It really goes deep. Notice verse 2. While their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees on the high hills. Now if you do a little research here, you'll find that these images are speaking to the goddess Eshterdae. She was worshiped at times with a figurine or a statue. She was worshiped at times with evergreen trees and sometimes just a tree trunk. Sometimes just a tree trunk. So when God says don't use trees, there's a reason why He says what He says. And so here we have idolatry in a sense that we use people use Christmas trees in the worship of God. And God said don't use those trees. So it is idolatrous. Commandment number three. Moving along. Commandment number three is found in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 7. Where it says, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Brethren, a name means everything. People want to protect their name. Respect is to be given to a name. And certainly that's true for the name of God. The quality of our relationship with God depends upon how we view that name, venerate that name, because God's name stands for what He is. That being the case, if we use God's name in a flippant, degrading way, then we're breaking the third commandment. Now, brethren, how is associating Christ's name with a sinful pagan festival proper? Christmas. That should not be. We're breaking the third commandment by even putting Christ's name in association with that holiday.

We're breaking that commandment by associating as Christians. We name the name of Jesus, right? We are Christ ones. If a Christian keeps Christmas, they're breaking the third commandment because they're dishonoring the name of Christ. They're not adding honor to Christ's name. They're dishonoring Christ's name. 2 Timothy 2. Let's go there. 2 Timothy 2. Verse 19. 2 Timothy 2. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, the Lord knows those who are His. And, now notice, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

We name the name of Christ. We call ourselves Christians. We are to walk away from sin. Christmas is sin. As Christians, we need to walk away from Christmas.

Commandment number four. Moving along. The Sabbath commandment. How do we break the Sabbath by keeping Christmas? Does the Sabbath have to fall in December 25th? I mean, does Christmas have to fall in the weekly Sabbath for us to be breaking that? Bear with me for a moment. The commandment number four is found in Exodus 20, verses 8-11. Let me read it for you. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The sixth day shall you labor and do all of your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. And you shall do no work, you nor your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and the rest of the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord bless the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So again, I ask, where is Mr. D coming from here? How is keeping Christmas breaking the Sabbath? Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23.

You want to look at the first three verses here. Leviticus chapter 23, verse 1, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, not Israel, not the Jews, the feasts of the Lord. And again, Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament. These are Christ's feasts. Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, special meetings for God's special people. These are my feasts, Christ says. Six days shall work be done, but the Sabbath day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it as the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Brethren, God gave us, as I said earlier in the sermon, He gave us Leviticus chapter 23. What we have here is a system of worshipping God, a system of worshipping Jesus Christ. No other system is God's system. No other system will do. Any other system is an idolatrous system, putting that system before what God would have us to do. Breaks all the first commandments we've talked about, first three commandments we've talked about. And so how does keeping Christmas break the Sabbath? Because when you accept Christmas and Easter and Halloween and all those things, you're accepting a wrong system of worshipping God. You're rejecting the Sabbath. You're rejecting Passover. You're rejecting those things. And you're going for a false system of worship. Now, it's true, I'm reading here in Leviticus, but we can go to the New Testament and see where the New Testament church, after the death of Jesus Christ, kept the Holy Days. Let me quote Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition, where it says, and I quote, The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events that those festivals foreshadowed.

Again, Christmas was not kept by the New Testament church until after the New Testament church went into apostasy. Brethren, the pilgrims, I mean in the 1600s in England, Christmas was outlawed by the Christians. In this country, in colonial America, in Puritan America, Christmas was outlawed and the Puritans specifically wanted to work on December 25th. So this idea that Christmas has always been accepted by Christendom is absolutely false. And that's not a matter of my opinion, that's a matter of history that you can go and verify on your own. Satan has given mankind a number of false systems of worship, non-Christian systems of worship, which we see in the Orient. But also, the world would say a Christian system, Christmas and Eastern, all those things. Well, that's a false system that goes contrary to what God has to say that we should be doing. Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Last couple of verses there. I know I quote this quite a bit, but to me it's so profound. It's so simple. The truth of God is so simple, yet so profound. Matthew 28. And again, I've mentioned this on numerous occasions, but as your next-door neighbors, as your business associates, as family, friends, whoever comes to you and says, well, why is it that you're not keeping Christmas? Earlier today, over in Ann Arbor, somebody was telling me that they're really kind of getting hit at work. Not so much good nature. They'd be getting hit at work because, well, why don't you keep Christmas? Aren't you? You're a Christian, aren't you? Why don't you keep it? Notice what Christ here is saying. And understand the time here. Christ has been crucified. He's been in the tomb. He's been resurrected from the tomb. He's been resurrected from the dead. We are now in New Covenant times. People say in New Covenant, we can do all these wonderful things because we've got a whole new era. Well, here we are in New Covenant, New Testament. What does Jesus say here? Matthew 28, verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've never talked to you about? No. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Christ kept the holy days. Christ kept the Sabbath. It wasn't because he was a Jew. It was because they were God's days to be kept. And he's telling the members here, the ministers here, the New Testament church, you go into all the world. And what I've already instructed you on, you take that. Don't take something else. You take what I've taught you, and you take it into the world. And that included the Sabbath. So how does Christmas break the Sabbath by a system of worship that goes contrary to the will of God? Commandment number five. Moving on. Commandment number five is found in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 12. It says, Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Does Christmas honor our father? God. Does Christmas honor our brother, Jesus Christ? Does Christmas honor our mother, the church? The fifth commandment is a commandment dealing with family. Dealing with family. And in no way does the keeping of Christmas honor God, Jesus, or the church. It's breaking the fifth commandment. It runs contrary to what family is all about. Let's take a look at Malachi, chapter one. Malachi, chapter one. Malachi, chapter one here, verse six. Malachi, one verse six. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence? You see, God here is going to chide the priests of Israel because of their lack of properly following and obeying him. He brings, he talks about this in language of the family. He talks about his being a father. Say to the Lord of hosts, to you priests who were, who despised my name, yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? People will say, well how is Christmas breaking? How is Christmas such a bad thing? Good will toward men. Giving, giving. What's wrong with giving? What's wrong with celebrating Christ's birthday? People say, don't you celebrate your birthday? Well, you know, brethren, that's such a, my birthday is January the 18th. January 18th, for the last 4,000 years, is not but a time when people give gifts, go to church, celebrate, you know, people around the world singing hymns to Randy Delosander. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way. You know, that's, that's a, I don't know why people use that as some sort of a, oh, I gotcha. You don't have me. You don't want me.

In what way have we despised your name? You offered to file food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled, have we defiled you by saying the table of the Lord is contemptible? So what God is getting at now to these priests who should know better, who should be the teachers of Israel, is that they were giving substandard offerings. And worshiping God on Christmas is not only sinful, it's substandard. It's not the standard God gives us. Verse 8, and when you offer the blind, a blind animal, when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? No, you're supposed to give the very best. You don't give the worst. You don't say, well, here's a blind animal, or here's a hobbled animal. No, you give the very best. When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? When you offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. You know, you want to impress man? Oh, but give that offering to your boss. What are they going to say about that? Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? But now in treat God's favor, he may be gracious to us, while this is being done by your hands. Will he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you may would not kindle the fire and might offer in vain? Notice at the end of here in verse 10, because this is what God says to christen them who keeps Christmas. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands. Your hands are polluted. What you're doing is polluted. I do not accept it. I do not accept it. So, we dishonor our Father by keeping Christmas with substandard offerings to Him. Go on to commandment number six. Commandment number six through our main chapter, Exodus chapter 20 verse 13. Exodus 20 verse 13, you shall not murder. Now, I see people rolling their eyes. Mr. D, you probably kept Christmas once upon a time. Yeah, I did. I kept Christmas until I was about 14. And God called me when I was 15. But up until I was 14, hey, I kept Christmas. I got that big old fat tree out there and woke up early in the morning and said, what's under that thing? Hey, for a little orandy under there. Oh, yeah, let's get at that. Was I a murderer? How do I prove that by keeping Christmas, you break the sixth commandment? Brethren, as you're well aware, if the law of God is not just a physical law, where I would go out and shoot somebody and murder somebody, there's also spiritual ramifications to each of the laws. Let's take a look at Christ's own words about what constitutes murder. Let's go to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22. Matthew 5, this is, again, an all-read letter in my Bible. Verse 21, you have heard it was said of old, you shall not murder. Okay, so we're getting proper context. Christ is talking about murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But Christ says, verse 22, but I say to you, so he's now going to take this subject to murder and give the spiritual significance to it. He's going to augment or add another layer of understanding here. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And over says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel. But over says, you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. So what we see here, brethren, is the spirit of murder. We see where Christ is talking about people who having bitter animosity, people who have got contempt and hostility toward others.

And to be honest, brethren, there are plenty of people, not everybody, but there are plenty of people in the world who keep Christmas, who have animosity, contempt, and hostility toward anybody who doesn't keep Christmas. People get fired from their jobs. People have all sorts of hard way to go. If you don't toe the line and do what they feel you should be doing religiously. And so, yes, keeping Christmas, you're accepting a system of values. And if you're outside that system of values, then people can be really angry and hate what you stand for. We've got a Bible full of examples of people who are persecuted because they accepted the values of God and Jesus. Take a look at Hebrews 11. They accepted a system of belief. They were hounded for that. They were in contempt for that. The people had animosity toward them because they accepted God's values. So, yes, if you keep Christmas, you can be one who has a spirit of contempt, which is a spirit of murder. Psalm 119, verse 97.

Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how love I your law. Now, this is where God wants us to be coming from. We see the system that God has, and we should love that law. It is my meditation all the day. This is what really my mind just goes to. You know, this is what you and I, this is where our mind should be. It's my meditation all the day. We accept God's system of worship, His value system. And His value system says, well, people who don't know the truth about Christmas, hey, they're deceived. We don't have any ill will toward them. They don't know any better at this point. They will sometime in the future. Okay, going on. Commandment number seven. Exodus chapter 20, verse 14. Exodus 20, 14 says, you shall not commit adultery.

Now, I think you're on my wavelength at this point. How does keeping Christmas, how are you committing adultery? Well, again, we're looking at the spiritual aspects of things here. Let's take a look at James chapter four and verse four. James four, four. James four, four. James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, the pastor of Jerusalem, the headquarters apostle. James four, four. Adulters and adultresses.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God, where he therefore wants to be a friend of the world and makes himself an enemy of God? So here we see where if we accept the world's values, spiritually speaking, we are adulterers and adultresses. We break this seventh commandment. Very, very, very purely, very simply. Hosea chapter five. Hosea chapter five and verse four.

Hosea five and verse four. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to the Lord. No, they don't direct their deeds toward repentance. For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst. The spirit of harlotry. Notice how God is using this form of thinking. Again, accepting the wrong system of worship, the wrong spiritual values. God says that's the spirit of harlotry. Keeping Christmas is the spirit of harlotry. It is a sin. We move on. Commandment number eight. Commandment number eight is found in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 15. You shall not steal. You shall not steal. Let's ask a basic question. What is stealing? Any number of ways we can explain that stealing is taking something that doesn't belong to us and making it our own. We can steal something physically. We can steal ideas. We can, you know, what they call intellectual property. We can steal something on a computer. We can steal somebody's ideas and thoughts and or a proposed invention. There's any number of things we can steal, but it's taking something that doesn't belong to us and making it our own. Can we steal from God? Well, you're probably thinking about a verse that I'm not going to turn to. Malachi chapter three verses eight and nine. Malachi three verses eight and nine, where it says, will a man rob God? You're robbing me in tithes and in offerings.

Well, brethren, I've been associated with God's church since the mid-60s. And since the mid-60s, I don't know how many co-worker letters, member letters I've gotten this time of the year, where we have a request from whoever, what we're talking the Worldwide Church of God days, United Church of God days, whatever. But we get these requests, you know, brethren, this time of the year, we really need to have you help us out because, you know, so many of our co-workers and donors, they really don't understand everything that we understand about Christmas. And so they're taking their money and instead of sending their tithes to us now, they're buying Christmas presents. So in that sense, brethren, people are stealing from God. They're taking the money that could have gone to God in tithes and offerings. And we're talking about co-workers and donors, people who aren't baptized, they don't really know everything that they need to know, but they are stealing from God. There's yet another form of stealing, and that is stealing people. Stealing people. The Bible talks about how we can be slaves to God or slaves to Satan. False doctrine enslaves people. Satan loves to steal people by feeding them falsehood, by feeding them false doctrine. Christmas would be one of those things. Oh, it's so lovely, it's so beautiful. The pretty lights. And brethren, let's be honest, Satan's not stupid. I mean, he puts out a pretty decent product, right? All the warm feelings, the warm, fuzzy feelings. You know, I got you got your cocoa there, you got your Christmas cookies there, you've got all these wonderful... Kitty's got the presents and so forth. People really... they've got warm feelings about that sort of thing. Satan knows what he's doing. He's brilliant. He's a brilliant strategist. But he's also stealing people. He's stealing their hearts, their minds. He would love to steal their eternal life. So yes, by keeping Christmas, you're keeping a system where stealing is taking place. Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 through 9.

Galatians 1 verse 6. Paul writing, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you into the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Now, I'm not sure exactly all the different kinds of gospels that are out there in the world. I know some of the things that Paul dealt with, but today there's all sorts of different gospels. But there's only one truth that's set apart in the Bible. There's only one system of belief that the Bible sets forth. And Paul here is saying, don't accept fool's gold. Verse 7, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we... basically say, if I fall away, don't listen to me. Or if an angel from heaven... You know, if you hear something that sounds like it's the real deal, but it goes contrary to the Word of God, you always hang with the Word of God. If they preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received from us, let him be accursed. A double curse for accepting heresy. So yes, stealing... we commit breaking the eighth commandment, stealing, by keep... anyone who does this by keeping Christmas. Commandment number nine. This is found in Exodus chapter 20 verse 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Now, we've already spoken to some degree about this. God expects truth to permeate every aspect of our lives. We are to be people of truth in everything we say and do. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. Ephesians 1 verse 13.

In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

The importance of the truth is seen right here. It is through God's word of truth, you know, John 17, 17, that we have the gospel, that we have a salvation. Continue on verse 13, whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So we see the import of truth here. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 24. This puts it very succinctly. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 24.

1 Samuel 12 and verse 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth. Serve him in truth. When we keep Christmas, we're not serving him in truth. Christmas is one falsehood after another, from the day that it's kept, the various symbols that are there. I mean, I can go into much more detail about there being a Madonna and child and all that, hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was ever born. It's a total falsehood of Christmases. It says here, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all of your heart. With all of your heart.

1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15. We're nearing the end of the sermon here, so I'm keeping an eyeball on the clock. There's a person who worked with me on my first path, my first assignments, said, Randy, the worst way for anybody to die is to be preached to death. So I don't want to go overtime here. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15.

1 Timothy 3, 15. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, in the church, which is the church of the living God. Notice, the pillar and the ground of the truth. We are to be people of truth. Worship God in spirit and truth. Look to the Bible for truth. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Christmas is nothing but one lie after another. Finally, commandment number 10.

Commandment number 10, Exodus chapter 20 verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.

You know, it's interesting when you study the history of Christmas. And again, you can go to our literature and take a look at this. You've undoubtedly done this in years gone by. But again, I'm giving you ammunition, perhaps a different way of approaching a subject for those who come to you and say, well, why do you do what you do? But when you take a look at Christmas, it all but died out there for a while. People say today, well, we've got to put Christ back into Christmas. Well, Christ was never in Christmas. He never injected himself into that. He never asked us to keep Christmas. Matter of fact, he said, don't do things like that. We've seen the Scriptures who do that. But what has resurrected Christmas? It's not that people say, let's put Christ back into Christmas. No, what has resurrected Christmas is commercialism. Commercialism. Some businesses expect fully 50% of their annual profits to come in at Christmas time. Why do they call it Black Friday? Some people thought it was a racial thing. It's not a racial thing. Why do they call it Black Friday? Because they make so much money on that day and going forward to Christmas that their business will be in the black and not in the red. That's why they call it Black Friday. They know how much money they're going to make. And, of course, when you've got all this taking place, you find people who are coveting. Well, and Mary gets this all the time where she's working. You know, you would think Christmas is this great curse. I've got to go out and I've got to buy all these presents. And I'm going to spend so much money on these people, and they better spend more on me or as much on me. You know? Or last year, I spent 20 bucks on that person. They gave me something from the under five store. Well, come on. You know, I don't want to give you something that's really nice, and you will buy something for me from a dollar store. So people have, you know, this covetous streak. So yes, Christmas breaks this 10th commandment. Last scripture of the day, let's turn to Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. Colossians 3, verses 5 and 6. Therefore, put to death your members which are on this earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil, desire, and notice, and covetousness which is idolatry. Covetousness which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Brethren, is Christmas simply a harmless holiday? No. If we know better, and we don't repent of keeping Christmas, we will be in the lake of fire. That's hardly harmless. So today, we wanted to give you a little more ammunition from a different point of view. A sermon I've never heard before, I've never given this, but I was thinking about it, I thought, you know, this is something that really needs to be said. Should your family, friends, neighbors, business associates ask you why you don't observe Christmas? Now you've got additional information that you can share with them.