Shirley Dobson: Thanks, Jim. I hope our listeners agree with me that this is the most important time of the year. Everything we care about is embodied in Christmas, from children to families, to friends, and of course, the good food, and especially the celebration of the Christ child. Because of his birth and resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life.
Dr. Dobson: So ring the Christmas bells that you brought Shirley as we say together, Merry Christmas everyone.
Shirley Dobson: Merry Christmas everyone.
Dr. Dobson: Well, hello everyone, and Merry Christmas to you all. I'm Dr. James Dobson, and I hope you're enjoying this wonderful holiday with friends and family and celebrating the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Over 2,000 years ago, the very Son of God left the glory of heaven to become a child and ultimately pay the penalty for our sins through His perfect sacrifice. You'll hear more about Christ's purpose while He was here on earth. Today and yesterday, we took that occasion to air the first part of a program, a message actually that was given on Christmas day by Dr. Adrian Rogers. He was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, and many of his sermons have been heard ever since, even posthumously on his program, Love Worth Finding.
I listen to him still today. It's amazing how relevant his messages are. And what we heard last time was the first half of a message called "Stars and Scars of Christmas." It's a Christmas message. And if you heard it yesterday, you are excited as we are about hearing the balance of this program. You might even find out what he means by the title, "Stars and Scars of Christmas." Dr. Rogers was on my board of directors when I was at Focus on the Family a number of years ago, and we loved him. I said yesterday and I repeat it today that he was almost a brother to me and I miss him still today. His wife, Joyce, is our friend to this day and we love her and pray for her, and pray for her family to this time.
Now, we're going to hear the second half of that message today, as I indicated, and I hope you will be blessed by it. This is Dr. Adrian Rogers speaking on a Christmas day at Bellevue Baptist Church on the subject, "Stars and Scars of Christmas."
Adrian Rogers: Now here's a big question. Why, why would God almighty who could do anything, whatever He wants, whenever He wants, why would He choose to suffer? Second point. Not only do the scars of Jesus tell us that as a man, He suffered, but the scars of Jesus tell us that as a man, Jesus sympathizes. Put down now Hebrews chapter two verses 17 and 18. "Wherefore in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren." The him is Jesus. The brethren, that's us. He's made like us that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. "For and that he himself hath suffered," underscore that, "He himself hath suffered being tempted," that means being tested. "He is able to succor," S-U-C-C-O-R, which means to help, "Them that are tempted."
Jesus said, "When you suffer, I suffer. And not only do I suffer, but because I suffer, I understand." Dr. Paul Brand was a missionary, a great surgeon who spent a lot of time ministering to lepers and leper colonies. And Dr. Brand talked about the horrible sin of leprosy. And he said, "One of the debilitating sins of leprosy is that it removes the ability of the human body to feel pain." And then here's what Dr. Paul Brand said, and I copied it down for you. Listen to what this great doctor said. He said, "If I had the power to eliminate pain, I would not exercise that right. Pain's value is too great." Notice, pain's value. "Rather, I would lend all of my energies in doing all that I can to help when the pain turns to suffering.
I want to tell you something, our Lord suffered and our Lord sympathizes, and the pain that He allows us to have is really proof of His love. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God said, "Cursed is the ground..." Now listen to this, "For your sake." He didn't say for your punishment, but for your welfare. "For your sake, thorns and thistles would it bring forth to you." God put a curse on the environment in which we live, because the worst thing could happen to us would be for us to have the sickness, the infection of sin, and to feel no pain. There is the protecting purpose of pain. Thank God for pain. It tells us something is wrong. Pain has a unifying purpose. It is pain that draws us together.
Your whole body comes to the aid of a suffering member. Do you know what unifies a church? Suffering. Do you know what brings people together? Suffering. The Bible says when one member suffers, all members suffer with it. Dr. Brand said, "I can tell the health of a human body by its reaction to pain. If it doesn't react to pain, there is something wrong." You can tell the health of a church by its reaction to pain. How much does a church care for the homeless, the sick, those with broken hearts, and broken hopes, and broken homes? A church is unified by pain. Pain has a protecting purpose. Pain has a unifying purpose. And pain has a correcting purpose. God allows pain to protect us. And if it weren't for the pain, we would never know that we're being hurt.
You put your hand on a hot stove and there's a message that goes immediately to your brain and says, "It's hot down here." And the brain says, "Well, move." And it moves just like that. Now you don't realize you're doing all that thinking, but you're doing that because that pain says that you need to protect yourself. Pain comes in all kinds of forms. There's physical pain. There is emotional pain. There is spiritual pain. And Americans want to kill pain at any cost. That's the reason we have so many sedatives. That's the reason kids get on drugs, to kill the pain. And I want to tell you, when kids get on drugs, they really don't care what their parents think. They are in another world. Some turn to alcohol.
Oh, why do we do this? Why do people have an affair? Why do they commit adultery? Many times trying to kill the pain of insecurity and loneliness. The problem is that many people take a sedative when they need a savior. The pain is to tell us that something is wrong. Now Jesus gives us peace and joy, not primarily to remove the pain, that'll be done at the rapture, but to help us to endure the pain. Now, when we see scars in the hands of Bethlehem's babe, they are a testimony to His humanity. A God with scars. They tell us as God, He suffered. As man, He suffered. As God, He sympathizes. As man, He sympathizes. He knows how we feel. He understands. And Jesus will hear the cries of a blind beggar before He hears the cries of a proud Pharisee.
Now here's the third thing. Not only do the scars of Jesus tell us that as a man Jesus suffered. And not only do they tell us that as a man, Jesus sympathizes. But the scars of Jesus tell us as a man, Jesus saves. That is so important that you understand this. Why was He nailed to that hellish cross? Why did He step out of glory? Why did He allow Himself to be pierced? Why were those nails put into His quivering hands and those precious feet? Why? Well, the Bible says without shedding of blood is no remission of sin. Now I want to remind you something friend. Jesus did not have to suffer. He could have refused the cross. Jesus said, "No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself."
Jesus was the only man who ever chose to die. You say, what about a suicide? He doesn't choose to die. He only chooses the time of his death. He's going to die anyway. A new statistic out on death, one out of one people die. Jesus was the only one who had no sin in Himself. He could have refused death. He said, "No, man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself." It was not those nails that held him to the cross. It was love. He did not have to suffer, but He did suffer. May I ask you a question? Those of you who have children and those children suffer, those children are in trouble, those children are in pain, would you rather not know about it or would you rather know about it so you can move in and do something about it?
Suppose you and your wife are celebrating an anniversary. You're taking that once in a lifetime vacation and you're in a hotel in Hawaii. And you have a child here left at home and that child is in an automobile accident. Question: would you want your vacation interrupted to know your child was in an automobile accident? After all, if nobody told you, you didn't know. Wouldn't you just rather be over there in paradise not knowing that your child was suffering? Because when you know your child is suffering, then what does that do to the vacation? Immediately you pack. You leave everything and you go back home. Which of you would say, "Well, I had rather not know. I'd just rather live in my oblivious happiness?"
Of course not. Of course not. There's not a parent, there's not a mother or a father in this room who would say, "If my child is suffering, I don't want to know about it." You see, theoretically, you could say, "I'm going to Hawaii. Nobody call me about anything. I don't want to know about anything. We are just interested in our joy, our felicity, our good time." No, if you love somebody, when they hurt, you hurt. And when you can do something about it, if you can, you want to, and if you can't do anything about it, you still want to be there to hurt with them and suffer with them. The question I say is not, why does man suffer? Why did God suffer? I'll tell you why God suffered.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting life." Isaiah 53:3, "He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed." He loves us. There was a wayward boy who had so disgraced his parents and they'd given him chance after chance after chance. And he had failed, embarrassed them, and hurt them, and wounded them, and refused them, and rebelled against them. One man, this was his son who was talking to another man. And the other man gave this suffering father this advice. He said, "I'll tell you what I would do. If that were my son, here's what I would do."
And this man giving advice to the broken hearted father was telling him how he should just cast this son off and be done with him, and seethe him off. And he said, "If that's my son, that's what I would do." And this father said, "Yes. And if he were your son, that's what I would do. But he's not your son. He's my son. And I can't do that. He is my son." And friend, God loves us. There's no one here that God does not love. There's no one that God does not want to save. And you see, he's God in human flesh. And the question is, why does God suffer? We might say that He does suffer that He might be a sympathizing savior. But He suffers that He might be a savior who sympathizes, that He saves.
Phil Donahue, discussing Christianity said this. He could not understand the cross. And here's what he said. And I quote, "How could an all knowing, all loving God allow his son to be murdered on a cross in order to redeem my sins? If God the Father is so all loving, why didn't He come down and go to Calvary?" And the answer is, of course He did. That's exactly what He did. This was God in human flesh. Put this scripture down. 2 Corinthians 5:19, "To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." God was in Christ. Why did God become a man? Our dominion was lost by man, it must be legally regained by man. 1 Corinthians 15:21, "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
You say, well, I didn't vote for Adam. I don't think I ought to be held responsible for his sin. You ought to be so grateful, dear friend, that God who not only counts the human race guilty in Adam, also counts the human race by faith justified in Christ. I am so grateful that I have in Jesus a redemption that Jesus did for me what I could never do for myself. And I had rather be a safe sinner than an innocent angel. "In Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive." Listen to this, Hebrews 2:9, "But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God should taste death for every man." The scars tell me that Jesus saves. That Jesus saves.
When my first son was born, Steve, my pastor said to me, "Adrian, you will understand something different now about the love of God. Before you have a child of your own, you think of the great love the savior had when He died for us. But when you have a child of your own, you think of the love of the Father who gave His Son." That is so true. That is so true. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." God was in Christ. He was God but He was man. As God, He was sinless, but as a man He suffered because there needed to be a sinless substitute. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. Think not only of the stars, but the scars of Christmas.
Listen, Jesus came to earth that we might go to heaven. Jesus was born of a virgin that we might be born again. Jesus became the son of man that we might become the sons and the daughters of God. Jesus died that we might live. The scars tell us that as a man, Jesus suffered. The scars tell us that as a man, Jesus sympathizes. The scars tell us that as a man, Jesus saves. And hallelujah He does. Now let me come to the conclusion of this message. And I want to lay several things upon your heart. Listen carefully now, Jesus had some scars and if you follow Jesus, so will you. God had only one son without sin, but he didn't have any son without suffering. Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering."
If you think you're going to get out of this world unscarred, you're not going to do it. There's no fine print in the contract. And there is the suffering that comes with serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 6:17, the apostle Paul says, "I bear in my body the scars of the Lord Jesus." Now Paul could say that literally because the lash had been laid upon his back, but he's using the word here, "stigmata." I bear the nail prints in my body of the Lord Jesus Christ. May I tell you friend, listen carefully now, those of you who are going to a sedative rather than the savior, your scars may be your greatest ministry.
What was it that caused Thomas to believe? Thomas said, "Except I see the scars, I'll not believe." Jesus said, "All right, Thomas, put your finger here. Put your finger here. Put your hand there." Do you know what a scar is? A scar is a wound that has healed. And when Thomas saw the scars, Thomas saw Him crucified, but now Thomas sees He is raised. He is victorious. He has overcome. And Thomas believed. Did you know that there are people who are going to believe in Jesus when they see your scars? Did you know that? When you can testify that, "Jesus has healed me, here are my wounds, red and raw, and bloody, but Jesus has healed me." I've seen it happen so many times.
As you know, Joyce and I have a little boy in heaven. When our son died, to us it was like a crucifixion. And deep and red was the wound, but we carried it to Jesus and Jesus healed it. The first scripture that I saw after our son died, I'd never even noticed it in the Bible before. "Blessed be God, the God of all comfort. The father of all mercies who comorteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." I've seen Joyce put her arms around mothers who've lost little ones and give comfort. And you know how she could do it? With her scars. With her scars. With her wound that has been healed.
Are you hurting today? Is there a pain? Is there a problem? Is there a heartache? Listen to me, bring your wounds to Jesus, He understands. He cares. Bring your wounds to Jesus and use your scars for Jesus. Use your scars for Jesus. That may be your greatest testimony. Not that you've sailed through life without feeling any pain, not that God has protected you as his little darling, but that God has been with you. "And we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin." I want you now in your mind to imagine our risen savior. I want you to see Him on the throne of his glory. And I want you to see in His hands, the print of the nails. Because he bears them for all eternity.
And I want you to see those nail scarred hands reaching to you right now. And if you've never done it, would you not like to put your hand in that hand and say, "Save me, Lord Jesus." Thank you that you are the God-man. Thank you that as a man, you suffered. As a man, you sympathize. And as a man, you save. Save me Jesus. Pray it and mean it. I want to guide you in a prayer. And in this prayer, you can ask Christ to save you. And I promise you on the authority of the Word of God that He will save you and He will keep you. Pray this prayer:
Dear Jesus, thank you that as a man, you died on the cross for me. Though God [inaudible 00:23:18], you did not have to suffer. And yet you did. You chose to suffer because you love me. Thank you, Jesus. Now Lord Jesus, I open my heart and I receive you by faith as my Lord and savior. Save me Jesus. Pray it and mean it. Did you ask him? Then pray this way. Thank you for doing it. And Lord, if you just give me the strength, I'll make it public. I will not be ashamed of you because you died from me. In Your holy name, amen.
Roger Marsh: Certainly a great salvation prayer from the late pastor Adrian Rogers here on Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh, wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas. And as Dr. Dobson said earlier, Christmas is all about Jesus Christ's willing sacrifice, providing us with a path to God and salvation from our sins. I was so encouraged by pastor Adrian Rogers' message and I hope you were too. You can learn more about his ministry called Love Worth Finding when you go to our broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org. Once you're there, you can also request a polished CD of this two-part presentation to listen to again later. Again, you'll find all this information and more at drjamesdobson.org. That's drjamesdobson.org.
Well. That's all the time we have for today. Again, from all of us here at the James Dobson Family Institute, Merry Christmas. And may God continue to bless you into the new year.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Roger Marsh: Hi, this is Roger Marsh for Family Talk with some exciting news. We've selected 18 of the most popular broadcast from the past year and present them to you together on six audio CDs in the 2020 Family Talk best of broadcast collection. Join Dr. Dobson and many incredible guests like Lysa TerKeurst, John Eldredge, and rabbi Jonathan Kahn in this compelling audio collection. You can get your CD set as our way of thanking you for a gift of any amount in support of Family Talk. We are also blessed to share that your gift today will be doubled by a matching grant while it lasts. Contact us now by calling (877) 732-6825, or visit us online at drjamesdobson.org.