The heart of Christmas is this.

Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Christ was manifest to take away sin.

You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.

And the real beauty of Christmas is to understand the ugliness that it cures.

Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.

I'm your host Phil Johnson, and we are continuing the series titled John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon.

Not long ago, we asked the grace to you staff this question, what is your favorite sermon by John MacArthur?

And so we chose 10 of the best answers and put together this current series based on our staff's response.

So joining me in the studio now is Katie Gillard. She serves on our customer service team.

Welcome, Katie. Thank you. Well, with Christmas just two weeks away, it's the perfect time to

air the message you chose. It's called The Ugliness of Christmas.

That's a catchy title.

What else is it about this sermon that makes it stand out for you?

Why did you choose this one?

Well, there was a particular Christmas season where my father was very ill in the hospital,

had a lengthy stay.

And it turned out, he ended up going home

right before Christmas, and he passed away right before, well, between Christmas and New Year's.

And one of the nurses said, oh, you know, he gets to go home for Christmas. And it registered

with me at that moment that I hadn't really even thought

about Christmas. I knew it was December but hadn't done shopping. We haven't, hadn't decorated.

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