Pathway to Victory

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Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress.

And right now your generous gift will have twice the impact, thanks to the Now Is the Time matching challenge, active now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm.

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Glad to study Word with you every.

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Day on this Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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Too often at Christmas, we focus on the infancy of Jesus, and that leads us down a wrong path, obscuring the real meaning of Christmas.

We begin, you know, looking at the lights and singing the carols, and pretty soon we've devolved into syrupy sentimentality that really has nothing to do with what the real message of Christmas is.

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Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. If you had to explain the meaning of Christmas in a single sentence, would you be able to pull that off? Well, the Apostle Paul did just that.

And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress will dig deeply into his simple yet profound summary of the Christmas story.

But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Tomorrow is known across our country as Giving Tuesday. It's the perfect day to support the nonprofit ministry that you've grown to rely on. In 2025, Pathway to Victory experienced a groundswell of enthusiasm from men and women who depend on us to provide trustworthy Bible teaching. This program was delivered at no cost to them, but providing Pathway to Victory wasn't free for us. And so, as God prompts you to support Pathway to Victory, I urge you to follow his leading.

Especially right now when your generosity will be multiplied by two because of the matching challenge. Friends of this ministry have blessed Pathway to Victory with a matching challenge in the amount of $1.7 million. This is very significant because we can all see that our nation is showing signs of revival. The right souls are ripe for harvest. Just as Paul told the Corinthians, behold, now is a favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now's the time to send our message through Pathway to Victory. Now's the time to respond with a generous gift.

And when you do, we'll say thanks by providing our brand new leather-bound Pathway to Victory daily devotional. I've written for 2026; this custom-designed devotional will draw you and me together as we reflect on God's word side by side throughout 2026. And remember, whatever amount you choose to give to Pathway to Victory is automatically leveraged two times over because of the matching challenge.

I'll say more later in the program, but right now let's give our complete attention to Galatians 4, where Paul affirms the life-changing significance of Jesus' birth in your life and mine. I've titled today's message simply Christmas.

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One of the ways you can know it's about to be Christmas is the airing of those Christmas movies on television. Remember the story of the Grinch? He absolutely hated Christmas. He hated the trees, the lights, the carols, the feast of beasts.

Many people don't know that Dr. Seuss wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas way back in 1957. Can you imagine what Geisel would write about today if he saw what is?

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Happening in our culture?

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You know, to talk about the commercialization of Christmas seems trite. I mean, we all know we can allow greed and self-centeredness to obscure the real meaning of this holiday. And yet most people, even Christians, would be hard pressed to explain what the real meaning of Christmas is. Yeah, they know it's about a baby who was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, but what does that incident have to do with my life today?

Well, in one sentence, the Apostle Paul gives the clearest explanation for the meaning of Christmas found anywhere in literature. And today we're going to look at that one sentence that explains what Christmas is really all about. If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Galatians in the New Testament, Galatians, Chapter 4.

Now, as a context, remember Paul wrote this letter to the church at Galatia, the churches at Galatia, to combat a false teaching that had come into the Church by a group known as the Judaizers. The Judaizers said, yes, faith in Christ is necessary for salvation, but it's not sufficient. You need to trust in Christ and go back to the Old Testament law and keep that law. And if you do that, you can have eternal life.

Paul wrote Galatians to say no. The law was certainly good, but it was simply preparatory for the coming of Christ. If you're under the law, you're a slave. But Christ has come to save us from the requirements of the law we could never keep. Why would you want to go back and live as a slave to an impossible list of requirements? That's why Christ came to set us free from the requirements of the Old Testament law.

And it's that coming of Christ that Paul talks about in this one sentence found in Galatians 4:4, 5. Look at it with me. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

If you've ever taken a journalism class before, you're taught that in the opening paragraph of a story, you're supposed to answer six key questions: who, what, when, how, where, and why. Paul answers all six of those questions in this one single sentence about the coming of Christ in the world. Notice how he answers them.

First of all, the question of who? Who is the subject of this sentence? Who is the subject of Christmas when the fullness of time came? God. God is the subject of Christmas. God is the one who initiated all of the events that led to the coming of Christ. In fact, God is the one who initiates everything that happens in the world in general and in your world specifically. Isn't that what the Bible says? It begins with the words, "In the beginning, God."

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God.

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God is the first cause of everything that happens. And the reason for that is the fact that God is sovereign. That word sovereign simply means he is in control of everything that happens in his creation. The late pastor and writer Ray Stedman explained it this way: there is the sovereignty of the potter over the clay. Men make plans, but God makes other plans. Napoleon had to learn that lesson. He once said, "God is on the side of the army with the heaviest artillery." But there came a time in Napoleon's life when, exiled on the island of St. Helena, he said, "Man proposes, but God disposes." Or in the words of Mother Teresa, "We are all pencils in the hand of God." God is in control.

What does that look like in life? It means God is in control of life and death (Genesis 1:27). He's in control of governments (Romans 13:1). He's sovereign over the angels (Psalm 91:11). He's sovereign over your plans (James 4:15). He's sovereign over who you will meet (Luke 24:13). He's even sovereign over the so-called coincidences in your life (John 4:7). The idea that God is completely in control could be a menacing thought if God were some sadistic ogre in heaven looking to hurt us. But the fact is, everything God does, every action he takes, is motivated by his love for us. Isn't that what the scripture says?

John 3:16 states, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son." Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, he sent Christ to die for us." Or 1 John 4:10: "And herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and gave Himself as a propitiation for our sins." Ephesians 2 tells us, "But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he has made us alive together with Christ." God is the initiator of everything that happens. And it is God who was the first cause of the events that led to the coming of Christ in the fullness of time.

Now, secondly, what is it that God did? Well, it says, "he sent forth his son." Underline that word, "son." He doesn't say God sent forth an infant or God sent forth a baby, but God sent forth his son. Too often at Christmas, we focus on the infancy of Jesus, and that leads us down a wrong path, obscuring the real meaning of Christmas. We begin, you know, looking at the lights and singing the carols. We get this warm, fuzzy feeling inside. And then we think about the idea of a baby being born. We think about our own children being born. And pretty soon we've devolved into syrupy sentimentality that really has nothing to do with what the real message of Christmas is.

The fact is, there was nothing unique about a baby being born in Israel that night two thousand years ago. Hundreds of babies were born that night. But this baby was different. He was God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us. And because of that, he alone was capable of taking away our sin. That is what made his birth different than any other.

And when did it occur? When did it happen? It happened in the fullness of time. I like the way one paraphrase summarizes it: "At just the right time, God sent forth his son." I want you to think about that phrase, "in the fullness of time." Did you know the plan of salvation was not some afterthought God had? God didn't look down at humanity and say, "Oh, my, look at the way those human beings have screwed things up. I better do something quickly. I better have a rescue plan." It didn't happen that way. Ephesians 1 tells us that the plan of salvation was established before the foundation of the world. Did you know God is never in a hurry to do anything? He's never late in doing things.

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God is always.

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Time. Everything that happens in the world, and everything that happens in your life, is just at the right time. And that's something you can bank on. I was reading this week in Second Chronicles 32, the story about King Hezekiah. Word came to Hezekiah that the Assyrians, very cruel people, were going to invade and take Jerusalem captive. Hezekiah cried out to God, and God said, "Hezekiah, don't worry about it. I am going to slay all of the Assyrians." And so Hezekiah delivered that word of promised victory to the Israelites. The Bible says in 2nd Chronicles 32:8 that the people rested themselves upon the word of God. That word "rested" means they leaned upon, they depended upon the word of God. They believed what God said. You know, I rest on this pulpit believing that it's not going to move or collapse. We sit in this room relying on the fact that this ceiling is not going to cave in. But God's promise is more reliable than this pulpit or this ceiling. We can rest upon God's promise to do exactly what He has promised to do at just the right time.

The coming of Christ came at just the right time. In what sense was it the right time for the coming of Christ? Consider four ways that it was the right time. First of all, it was the right time politically. The Pax Romana, the Roman peace, pervaded the world. Because of that, you had this great Roman road system that went all around the world, and people were able to travel with great ease, making the proclamation of the Gospel very, very easy. It was the right time politically.

Secondly, it was the right time culturally. The world was becoming more and more unified. People were becoming more educated. More and more people spoke the same language, Koine Greek, the common language of people in which the New Testament would be written. It was the right time spiritually for the coming of Christ. The polytheism, the worship of many gods of the Romans and Greeks, was giving way to renewed interest in monotheism, the worship of one God. People were awakened once again to the teaching of the Old Testament. They had forgotten, as evidenced by their acceptance and interest in the teaching of John the Baptist.

But most of all, it was the right time prophetically for the coming of Christ. As you know, there were dozens of prophecies in the Old Testament about this coming one, the Messiah, about his birth, his life, and his ministry. All of those prophecies converged together that night in Bethlehem. Let me remind you about one of those prophecies about Christ's coming. It was written 700 years before the fact. It's found in Micah 5:2. You know it well: "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 the ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." Jesus would not be born in the center of political power, Rome, or the center of religious power, Jerusalem. He would be born in this no-account dusty village called Bethlehem.

Now I want you to think of what God did to make all of that possible. Jesus would be born in Bethlehem on that night. The attention of the world was not centered on Bethlehem; it was centered on Rome. That was the seat of real power. People believed that a year earlier, probably in 4 B.C., the Emperor of Rome, the most powerful man in the world, was a man known as Caesar Augustus. Now that wasn't really his name; that was his title. Caesar means ruler, and Augustus means venerated one, venerated ruler. His real name was Gaius Octavius, and he was known as Octavian. In 4 B.C., Octavian had issued a decree that every citizen of every vassal country that belonged to Rome would go to his hometown in order to be registered for a census for the purpose of taxation. Octavian's expenses were increasing, and he desperately needed more income. So he said, "We're going to tax the people." There were no IRS computers back then by which to keep track of people; they had to go to their own city to register for the purpose of taxation.

It's interesting that this man Octavian was known as, quote, "the savior of the world." He was so popular that people called him the savior of the world. Little did Octavian know that when he issued that command, it would cause a man he had never met, named Joseph, to travel with his new wife, Mary, to a town Octavian had never heard of, Bethlehem, so that Mary might give birth to the true savior of the world. Isn't that amazing? If somebody said Octavian was nothing more than a piece of lint on the pages of human history, in the fullness of time, at just the right time, God sent forth His Son.

How did He do it? Well, it tells us here again, He was born of a woman. What does that mean, "born of a woman"? What's the big deal? Everybody's born of a woman, aren't they? How many of you were born of a woman? Now this is why this is unique. First of all, this is a reference to Jesus' virgin birth. Let me show you what I mean. Jesus was born of a woman, but He was unique in that He was born only of a woman. His father was God Himself, and that was part of prophecy. Second, pardon me, Isaiah 7:14, written 740 years earlier, said, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive." Now you've heard me say before that the Hebrew word "alma," translated as "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14, simply means "young woman." It can be a virgin, someone who has not had sexual experience, but it doesn't have to be a virgin. There's a reason Isaiah used that more general term, because there was a near fulfillment in Isaiah's day of a woman who would give birth as a sign to Isaiah; she did it the old-fashioned way. But it was also a far reference to the ultimate fulfillment in the coming of Jesus, who would be born of a virgin.

It's interesting that in Matthew 1:23, when Matthew, writing in the Greek language, quotes Isaiah 7:14, he's not writing in Hebrew; he's writing in Greek. And when he comes to that term "virgin," he uses the Greek word "parthenos," which means one thing only: virgin. Somebody who has never had a sexual relationship with a man before. Jesus was born of a virgin. Why is that essential? I could spend a whole series talking about the necessity of the virgin birth. But here is one reason why it was absolutely necessary: it is the only way He would be qualified to be the Messiah and sit and rule on the throne of David forever and ever.

Let me show you why that's true. According to 2 Samuel 7:12, the Messiah would have to be somebody who was a descendant of King David. In fact, in 2 Samuel 7:12, God said to David, "I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom." Every Jew knew the Messiah had to be a descendant of David. And that's why when you come to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written to the Jews, Matthew goes through that long genealogy of Jesus that makes many of us give up on our read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year program. After we get to Matthew 1, we think, "Oh my gosh, what does this have to do with anything?" The point is Jesus was the Messiah because He met the qualifications of the Messiah. Matthew shows all the way from David through Joseph down to Jesus how Jesus was qualified to be the Messiah. He was a descendant of David.

But here's the problem. One of David's descendants, not long after him, was a king named Jeconiah. Jeconiah, who came after David, was so evil that God pronounced a curse on Jeconiah. It's found in Jeremiah 22:30. And God said, "Jeconiah, because of your disobedience, I'm going to curse your descendants. So nobody who comes after you can sit on the throne of David and rule with prosperity." Now that presented a real problem. You've got David here, you've got Jeconiah here, and then the Messiah underneath here. The Messiah had to be related to King David, but he could not be a descendant of Jeconiah or he would have inherited the curse. So how do you have a Messiah who inherits the right to rule from David but escapes the curse of Jeconiah? Talk about a knotty problem. How could you solve that? There's only one way: through a virgin birth.

You see, Jesus, by escaping having Joseph as his biological father, escaped the curse of Jeconiah. Joseph was not Jesus' biological father; God was. So because Joseph was not his biological father, he escaped the curse. But the right to rule always came through the Father. By being a descendant of David, Joseph, as Jesus' legal guardian—not his biological father, but as his legal guardian—was able to pass on the right to rule to his son. Jesus had the right to rule, and yet He escaped the curse, all through His virgin birth. Who could have come up with a plan like that except God Himself?

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Who would have devised such a plan except God himself? That's the point of this Bible passage. And there's much more I want to show you, so please keep listening.

Today is Monday, December 1st, and we're ramping up to one of the most significant deadlines in the history of Pathway to Victory. I'm referring to the deadline on December 31st when our matching challenge comes to fruition. Several families have come together to establish a matching challenge in a record-breaking amount of $1.7 million. Like all of us, they sense the urgency of our times. And because of this matching challenge, you have the opportunity to double the size and the impact of your generous year-end donation.

Let's be perfectly clear about the urgency. You and I have one life and one chance to share the Gospel with all my heart. I believe that now is the time to do so. And so today I come to you boldly to enlist your partnership. Your generous gift to Pathway to Victory will be used to share the Gospel before it's too late.

Then, in addition to leveraging your gift, I'll be saying thanks by providing the brand new and exclusive Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2026. I've written a devotional for you to read every weekday in the New Year. If you think you already have this book, I can assure you that you don't. The 2026 Daily Devotional has been in the works for over a year. Let me send it to your home right away so that you'll have it before January 1st.

Here's David with all the details.

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Today, when you give a generous year-end gift to support this ministry, we'll send you a copy of the brand new 2026 Pathway to Victory Daily Devotional. To request your very own copy, call 866-999-2965 or visit our website at PTV.org. Now, when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also include the teaching series "Celebrate the Savior" on DVD, video, and MP3 format audio discs.

With Giving Tuesday coming up tomorrow, we're asking you to prayerfully consider what you would give to support Pathway to Victory. Because of our Now is the Time Matching Challenge, any gift you give will be doubled in impact. So call us toll-free at 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org online. You know, a lot of folks prefer to write to us. Here's that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us for part of the message titled simply "Christmas." That's Tuesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. Right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact, thanks to the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge.

Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.