00:00Okay, they weren't the only ones. King Charles gave a Christmas message.
00:04Anyone hear King Charles' Christmas message?
00:06Yeah, okay.
00:08Right, well, yeah.
00:11Positively, he did describe Jesus as the Saviour of the world.
00:15He also said that we need for peace and reconciliation, which we do.
00:19Negatively, the question was, save us from what?
00:24There was no idea of how to find peace and reconciliation with God
00:27and what the birth, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is really all about.
00:33He's the Saviour, but what's he saving us from?
00:36And if you don't understand that, then the message is a bit empty.
00:40He began the talk by speaking about praying with the Pope
00:43as a historic moment of spiritual unity.
00:47Now, Charles is actually the nominal head of the Church of England.
00:50Church of England broke with the Church of Rome about 500 years ago,
00:53and since that time, there's never been a time when the head of the Church of England
00:57has prayed with the Pope of Rome.
00:59This was the first time this happened,
01:01so this was a real first in bringing together these two churches,
01:05which would be a good thing, wouldn't it?
01:06Bring them two together.
01:08Would it be a good thing?
01:10No, it wouldn't be a good thing, would it?
01:12Problem is that the Church of England, although it has its faults,
01:15and there are many of them, especially today,
01:18if you look at its foundation,
01:19you find that the 39 articles of the Church of England
01:22are mostly scriptural and biblical,
01:24founded on Protestant principles.
01:28Salvation through faith in Christ alone,
01:29by grace alone, through scripture alone,
01:32all things were denied by the Church of Rome.
01:35The Church of Rome has erected a work system
01:37which really denies the gospel
01:39and also elevates Mary to redemptive status,
01:44so you can pray to Mary to forgive your sins.
01:47Ask Mary, Hail Mary, full of grace,
01:49to forgive us and to bring us right with God.
01:52Well, Mary can't do that.
01:53Mary's in heaven because she is saved,
01:55she's believed in God as saviour,
01:57but she's not a mediator.
01:58We can't approach God as a mediator,
02:00and the Roman Catholic Church has actually put Mary
02:03in a place alongside Jesus as a mediator,
02:05which is a denial of the truth,
02:07because Jesus is the one way to God,
02:09and he's the only one who can bring us
02:11into a relationship with God.
02:14So basically, Charles praying with the Pope
02:17was not a spiritual unity in the gospel,
02:19it was a unity in the dark,
02:21and we need to have a unity in the truth,
02:24which is that you should call his name Yeshua,
02:27for he will save his people from their sins,
02:29and there was nothing about saving us from our sins.
02:32He spoke about a journey of faith
02:34through which people coming to Jesus,
02:36i.e. the wise men and the shepherds,
02:38he said, face physical and mental challenge,
02:41and they found inner strength to overcome it.
02:44Again, that's an interesting statement,
02:46but if you look at what Jesus is actually offering us,
02:48he's not offering us inner strength
02:50to overcome our challenges.
02:52He's offering us a new birth,
02:54and strength coming not from ourselves,
02:56but from outside by the Holy Spirit,
02:59coming into our lives,
03:00and giving us the strength to follow God.
03:02If you look for strength within ourselves,
03:03that's the kind of idea you have in yoga,
03:05and also in humanism,
03:06that you find that man has his own salvation,
03:10and if you look within yourselves,
03:12as Paul says,
03:13I know that in myself, in my own flesh,
03:16there dwells no good thing.
03:18So we need to be set free from ourselves
03:19to be set free to have God coming to us from outside,
03:23and that's why Jesus came to save us
03:25from ourselves, from our sins,
03:27to give us new life in Jesus.
03:30He also went on to speak about
03:31the great diversity of our communities
03:33through which we can find the strength
03:34to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.
03:36Okay, so the diversity of our communities
03:40gives us the strength
03:41so that right will triumph over wrong.
03:43Is that true?
03:45You're all shaking your heads.
03:46I don't think you're a believer in our King.
03:50Well, hopefully in our King Jesus,
03:51but not King Charles.
03:53Okay, yeah, well,
03:55in fact, there's no reason why diversity in itself
03:59should help in right triumphing over wrong.
04:03For right to triumph over wrong,
04:04we need to have faith in action
04:06which comes through faith in God
04:08who gives us the knowledge of good and evil,
04:11which is to be found in the words of the Bible.
04:14We need biblical truth and morality
04:15founded in God's commands,
04:18not the relative values of diversity and humanism.
04:21And if you look behind the message,
04:23which comes out of a lot of the church,
04:25actually, as well as what Charles was saying,
04:27there's a message that somehow through humanism,
04:29through our own strength,
04:30we're going to find the way to overcome.
04:32The Bible says we're not.
04:34We need the strength which comes from outside of us
04:35through faith in Jesus.
04:39He went on to say,
04:40it seems to me that we need to cherish
04:41the values of compassion and reconciliation,
04:43the way our Lord lived and died.
04:45As I meet with people of different faiths,
04:47I find it enormously encouraging
04:49to hear how much we have in common,
04:51a shared longing for peace
04:52and a deep respect for all life.
04:54If we can find time in our journey through life
04:57to think on these things,
04:58we can all make the future more hopeful.
05:00Okay, well, compassion and reconciliation
05:04are very important values.
05:05They're important to us.
05:06We should have compassion on all people.
05:09For God so loved the world
05:10that he gave his only begotten son
05:11that whoever believes in him
05:12should not perish but have everlasting life.
05:15That includes everybody.
05:16It includes the people inside
05:17and the people outside the world.
05:19We should have love and compassion for them.
05:22We should seek to live in harmony
05:23and reconciliation with all people,
05:25whether they believe what we believe or not.
05:27God, we should not be the ones
05:29who try to make trouble and division
05:30and strife in our society.
05:33But the purpose of the Lord coming
05:34and his life and death
05:36was to bring us reconciliation with God.
05:40First of all, you've got to put the reconciliation
05:42right on the vertical
05:44before you get it right on the horizontal.
05:46And there was no message of that at all
05:48in what Charles has said
05:50and what a lot of the church says
05:51at this time of year.
05:53You need to have repentance from sin
05:55and a new birth through faith in Jesus Christ.
05:59And diversity does not bring this about.
06:02In fact, diversity ultimately
06:04actually begins division in society.
06:07People are divided by language,
06:09by culture, by religion.
06:11And also it means that diverse religions,
06:13different religions,
06:14are considered to be equal in value
06:16to each other.
06:18And this is where the real problem comes
06:19as far as if you're a Bible believer
06:21is concerned.
06:23You can have love in your heart
06:24for unbelievers,
06:25whether they're Muslims or Hindus
06:27or nominal Christians
06:28or atheists,
06:30but you don't put their beliefs
06:31on the same level as what we believe.
06:33And that's what they're asking us to do.
06:35That's what Charles is actually asking us to do.
06:37To say that all these religions
06:38have got something in common,
06:39they're all seeking for peace,
06:40they're all seeking for reconciliation,
06:42and they've all got something to give us
06:43to offer on this subject.
06:46Jesus said,
06:46I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
06:47No one comes to the Father
06:48except through me.
06:51There's one God,
06:51one mediator between God and humanity,
06:54Jesus Christ.
06:55And if you try and move that around,
06:58you've actually lost
06:58the very heart of the Gospel.
07:00And that's what came across
07:01in what Charles was saying.
07:05And he spoke about
07:06people of different faiths
07:07longing for peace,
07:08showing respect for others.
07:09Yeah.
07:10I'm sure there are people
07:11of other faiths
07:12who are sincere.
07:13I'm not saying they're all
07:14bad people by any means.
07:18And people can be good people,
07:20according to whatever religion
07:21they're good in worldly terms.
07:24No one's good enough for God,
07:25but they can be better than others.
07:28And some people can live
07:29according to good principles,
07:30which they've picked up
07:31from their religions.
07:33But they can't have salvation,
07:34and that's the important thing.
07:36The important thing is that
07:37God didn't actually send Jesus
07:38into the world
07:38to try and make us
07:39to be slightly better people
07:41than we were before.
07:42He came into the world
07:42to give us salvation.
07:45And salvation is only available
07:46through Jesus Christ.
07:48And if you take that away,
07:49then you can have a sort of measure
07:51of human goodness,
07:52but you can't have
07:52what God requires.
07:55And you can't have the life
07:56which God requires,
07:57but it can only come
07:58through the Holy Spirit.
08:00And without Jesus,
08:01you can't find true peace with God,
08:03and you can't find salvation.
08:06Because as we read in Matthew's Gospel,
08:08you should call his name Yeshua,
08:10salvation,
08:11for he will save his people
08:12from their sins.
08:13Amen.
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