After looking at the genealogy
of Christ, as we saw it in the first 17 verses, the Apostle
Matthew goes back to verse 18, and here's what he says. He says,
now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. This is how
it took place. This is how it happened, and
this is how it took place. And when I read this, I always
think about one of my favorite passages of scriptures, Galatians
chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, where it says, when the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And I didn't put verse
six in there, that's part of it. He says, and because you
are sons, he sends forth his spirit to bring us in. That's the regeneration, that's
the new birth. Well, Matthew was inspired by
the Holy Spirit to record some of the details of that glorious
time that Paul spoke of, the fullness of the time God sent
forth his son. And he says, this is the way
it happened. And what we see here in these verses here is
that he makes it clear that we understand the constitution,
the makeup of the glorious person of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? We talked about that last week
when I referenced Matthew 22, where Christ, speaking to those
unbelievers who were trying to trap him with useless questions,
and he hit them with a really valid question. What think ye
of Christ? Whose son is he? And of course,
Matthew here is careful to show us that Jesus Christ is by nature
the Son of God, which means He is God in every attribute of
deity, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in His nature. And that's what we're dealing
with here as far as the constitution of His person. He is God manifest
in the flesh, and God sent forth His Son. That word birth there,
it says in verse 18, now the birth, that word birth, the Greek
word is genesis. And that means a beginning. But
in his deity, he had no beginning. Has no beginning and no end.
He's the alpha and the omega. And so he had no creation. He's
always has been, always will be. He's the great I am. But
in his humanity, As Paul wrote, God sent forth his son, that's
his deity, made of a woman, that's his humanity. His humanity did
have a beginning because as we're going to see here, he was conceived
by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So understand
that this is the issue. This shows that Jesus Christ
is capable of doing the task that he was given to do before
the foundation of the world. And here he is doing the work
of assurity. Now what does that mean? That
means that before the foundation of the world, in the everlasting
covenant of grace, God chose a people and placed all of the
responsibility of the salvation of those people, because they
were sinful people, placed all the responsibility of their salvation
upon Christ. And Isaiah put it this way, the
government was on his shoulder. Now, is he capable of doing what
a surety should do? What is that to do? He's to pay
the debt that was laid upon him, that sin imputed to him. He was
to pay that debt. And how must he pay it? Well,
the soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death. That's the only way that God
can be satisfied in justice for the sins of his people. Somebody's
got to die. Either we have to die and perish,
or somebody who's capable, it's somebody whom God appointed,
somebody who is capable of doing what he's sent to do, and it's
somebody who's willing to do it. Christ meets all three. He was appointed by the Father,
Bible speaks of the salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. He was appointed by the Father.
You remember he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. That's what happened. God appointed him and gave him
a people. And he's capable of doing it
because he is both God and man in one person. God cannot die. Man cannot create or give life. But this person who is God and
man, he did die, and he did create, and he does give life. So he's
capable. So when it talks about the beginning
here, the birth of Christ, was on this wife. That's speaking
of his humanity. He was made of a woman. And he
did that so that he could substitute himself in our place and redeem
us from our sins. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law. That's our salvation, the satisfaction
of law and justice. Righteousness was placed squarely
upon his shoulders and not upon ours. And aren't you thankful
for that? Boy, I sure am. And I'm talking
about myself now. I'm in need of a righteousness
that I can't produce. It's got to be one that's pure
and perfect. And if I have anything to do with it, it cannot be pure
and perfect. So that's why when we talk about
the birth of Jesus Christ, that's where the glory of it is. It's
not in celebrating a day or giving gifts or putting up a tree. That
has nothing to do with that. I mean, those things, if people
wanna do that, that's fine, but there's no religious significance
to that. This is the birth of our Savior,
and we do celebrate it. And we celebrate it every day,
but not just his birth. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. And that's what this is all about.
Now the virgin birth of our Savior is a fundamental truth of true
Christianity. You cannot deny the virgin birth
of Christ and be a true Christian or believe the gospel. His righteousness
that he accomplished in our behalf is the righteousness of God because
he is God. But it's also the work of a substitute
because he is man without sin. And so the Bible says that Christ
is the seed of woman. He was predicted to be that prophesied
in Genesis 3 15. He's not the offspring of Adam
as you and I are. He was not born in sin. He was
not born in sinful human nature. The Bible says Adam came from
the dust of the earth. Well, Christ didn't come from
the dust of the earth, he came down from heaven. 1 Corinthians
15, 47 says, the first man is of the earth, earthy. Now that's
what that means, that's Adam. And he's called the first man
because the humanity of Christ was created after Adam. Now again,
Christ was before Adam in his deity. You remember John the
Baptist made that point. He said, he that's coming after
me, he was before me. That's what John meant when he
talked like that. So the first man, Adam, is of the earth. The
second man, that's what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to call
Christ in 1 Corinthians 15, is the Lord from heaven. And that's
what we need. Anyone who claims to be a Christian,
who claims to believe the gospel, but who denies the deity of Christ,
is fooling themselves. And if they deny the sinless
humanity of Christ, they're fooling themselves. And I put in your
lesson here, one of the greatest pictures of that is the Passover
lamb. You remember how the lamb had
to be a year old, without blemish, without spot, all of that. And
that's how, its picture now it says in verse 18 now the birth
of Jesus Christ was on this wise when as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph that's an engagement that's an espousal and we're
going to we're going to see if you if you look at the the Jewish
laws and the traditions and all that An engagement to them was
as good as a marriage, even though they weren't actually officially
married, because it says before they came together. That means
before they came together as husband and wife in the marriage
relationship, in the marriage bed. That was the official act
that brought about marriage. So you understand that. Before
they came together, before she was already espoused to Joseph,
and that was a bond, and there had to be, before even that espousal
could be broken, let's say they decided not to get married, there
had to be a legal act of divorce, even in that, before they came
together. So it says, but before that, she was found with child
of the Holy Ghost. Not of man, not of Joseph, but
of the Holy Ghost. So his sinless human body, Christ,
is that earthly tabernacle that was fitted, made ready for him
according to that which was written over in the book of Hebrews chapter
10 when he said, a body hast thou prepared me. That's Christ
speaking, that's the Son speaking to the Father, a body hast thou
prepared me. God the Father sent the Holy
Spirit to form that body, that human body. And the Apostle John,
he described it by this. He said, the word was made flesh
and dwelt, literally tabernacled, among us. And we beheld his glory. So listen to this. Because as
the surety of God's chosen people, and because the debt of all our
sins had been imputed to Christ, he, the Son of God, had to be
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people, Hebrews 2.17. And that reconciliation
is based on what? His righteousness imputed to
us. And one day when the Holy Spirit
comes into our lives and providentially brings us under the gospel and
opens our ears and our eyes and gives us a new heart, what happens?
We see the reality of all that. And that's what God-given faith
is. So here she is. Now look at verse 21, or verse,
I'm saying, verse 19. I've got that underlined in red,
and so that's why I went down there. But look at verse 19.
It says, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, or simply being
just, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded
to put her away privily. Now a lot of people deny this,
but I, I think that any time you see in the script, there
are times when the Bible uses the word just in referring to
a person's actions as doing right or following rightness. But what
I believe it's saying here is that Joseph was a justified sinner. He was justified in the sight
of God. What does that mean? That means
his sins were forgiven by the blood of Christ. That means he
had a righteousness imputed to him that gave him a right standing
with God, and I believe God used Joseph and Mary in this way as
believers, sinners saved by grace. And so, before they came together
as man and wife, Joseph, seeing that his wife, before they had
come together in the marriage bed, his wife was pregnant, but
he was a just man, and he was righteous in God's sight through
the blood and righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and he
gave evidence of God's grace through faith, a God-given faith,
and Joseph did not want to bring shame on his wife, so what he
did, he was, and he didn't understand what had happened at this point.
He just knows that the girl he was espoused to was pregnant,
and he didn't know what to think about it. He's just a human being
like us. It hadn't been revealed to him yet, And what he did,
he was trying to figure out a way to divorce her quietly and privately
without bringing shame on her. And that's what his thoughts
were. That's what he says. He was minded to put her away
privileged. That's what that means. Well,
verse 20, it says, but while he thought on these things, Behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife, for that which is conceived, or that which is begotten in
her, is of the Holy Ghost. There's the revelation, see.
Now, Who is this angel of the Lord? Well, most commentators
think it's Gabriel, because Gabriel had appeared, you remember, to
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and then later on
to Mary. I've got references there where you can go to that.
The name Gabriel means the man who stands in the presence of
God. Gabriel's mentioned in Daniel
8, 16 and Daniel 9, 21. And there are a lot of people
who believe this Gabriel was a pre-incarnate vision of Christ,
appearance of Christ. Just like the archangel Michael. The name Michael means one who
is like God. And some think that that's a
pre-incarnate appearance of Christ too. You know, Michael's the
one who goes to battle for the bride of Christ. And he's mentioned
in several passages. I think he's mentioned in Daniel,
he's mentioned in Jude, mentioned in Revelation. But these were
messengers from God. And you know, Christ himself
is called the angel of the Lord, the angel of the covenant. So
it could very well be, but the Bible doesn't make anything of
that. We just know that God's getting
the message to Joseph. That's what we need to be concerned
with here. It would be amazing to think that Christ appeared
unto Joseph in a pre-incarnate appearance when he was existing
in the womb of the Virgin. But he's omniscient and he's
omnipresent. So I mean, all of that. So I'm
not gonna make a big deal of that, but I just know this. It's
all of the Lord's doing here. This is the power of God. This
is a miracle of God's grace. This is not of man in any way,
shape, form, or fashion. None of it was conditioned on
Joseph or Mary. This is what happened. And so
here we see that he informed Joseph. He said, don't divorce
Mary, don't put her away, because that which is conceived in her
womb, that holy thing, he said over in Luke chapter one, that
holy thing, and that's not being derogatory. You say, well, he's
saying he's not a person, he's a thing. No, what he's saying
is that what's happened to Mary here and that babe, that was
conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. That's so, he's
so unique. He's so distinct. This is the
son of God incarnate. That's what that is. And so the
angel told Joseph to marry his espoused wife and informed him
that Mary was with child by the Holy Ghost. Well, look at verse
21. Now this, I quote this verse all the time. It says, and she
shall bring forth a son You're gonna have a son, and thou shalt
call his name Jesus. Now you know that Jesus is the
New Testament form of the Old Testament name Joshua, or Yeshua
as they pronounce it. And it says, here's what it means,
that name Jesus means salvation, it means God is our salvation,
for he shall save his people from their sins. What a name,
there is a name. We love to hear. And this name
is not just a label. And notice, you know, it was
the custom back then that the fathers would choose the name
of the children. Mama, you didn't have anything
to do with it. They didn't get a name book and look it all up.
The father. Well, Christ had no earthly father.
So Joseph didn't name him. Who did? God the Father named
his child. Here's what you're gonna call
him, Joseph. Joseph didn't kick against that. Oh, I wanna name
him after my grandfather. No, his name shall be called
Jesus. What's the significance of that?
He's the savior of his people. He's the savior of the world.
God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And notice too, it says he shall save his people from their sins.
Well, who are his people? Well, that's all whom the Father
gave to him before the foundation of the world. That's God's elect.
That's the church. That's the sheep. That's the
one who Christ called his brethren. He had to be made like unto his
brethren, his people. They belong to him. That's one
of the things that we need to keep in mind constantly. We don't
belong to each other, we belong to Christ. This church is his
church. He said, I'll build my church,
and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's what
we are. We're members of his body. And
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. In
his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said that you should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. That's his sheep. When did God choose us and give
it to us? Well, Ephesians 1 tells us and other passages before
the foundation of the world. And it's Jew and Gentile, it's
not just one class of people. These are the ones whom Christ
died and arose again, having brought in a perfect righteousness,
whereby God has justified them and from which God gives them
a spiritual life. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Do you realize And we know this
is so, but it's just good to hear it, I think. Do you realize
that if you're a child of God, if you're a believer in Christ,
not only are you a miracle of God's grace, but you're one to
whom God has never imputed iniquity. It's always been imputed to Christ.
Now, you're a sinner, I'm a sinner, and we deserve nothing but death
and hell. But God set his eyes of mercy
upon us before this world was ever created, before the first
grain of sand was formed to form this earth. God had his eye on
you and me. Our names were written in the
Lamb's book of life. That's his people here. And notice
it says, he shall save them. It doesn't say he might, or he's
gonna try, or he's gonna make salvation possible. He shall
save his people from their sins. All that the Father giveth me,
he said, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. He said, my
sheep will hear my voice. He won't lose you. There are
times that we lose sight of Him, don't we? We get our minds on
other things, minor things, things that we get caught up in, but
He never loses His sight of us. He never takes His eye off of
us. Isn't that comforting? He's watching over us. So these
are the ones for whom Christ stood surety, substitute, redeemer. As our sins were imputed to him
for which he died under the just wrath of God, his righteousness
has been imputed to us for which we're justified and from which
we'll have life and be raised unto glory. Grace, grace, grace. Look at verses 22 and 23. Now
remember, last week we talked about how Matthew was very intent
on proving that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, fit all the, descriptions
and prophecies and pictures of the Messiah prophesied in the
Old Testament. Well, this is one of those points.
He says, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, and he quotes
here from Isaiah, specifically, probably Isaiah 7, 14. Behold,
a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and
they shall call his name Emmanuel. which being interpreted is God
with us. He makes it clear that the incarnation
and birth of Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecy. This is what's been said for
thousands of years, right here, and it's fulfilled in their very
eyes. Isaiah said it in Isaiah 9, unto us a son is given, that's
his deity. Unto us a child is born, that's
his humanity. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, all those, the government's on his shoulder, all of that. And so it's a fact that this
had to be because, as we said before, God cannot suffer, bleed,
and die, but this person who is God, he did suffer and bleed
and die. And we're to attribute it to
his whole person, but it was an act of his humanity. You can't
kill God. I've heard preachers say, well,
they killed God. They didn't kill God. Now they,
we, I'll put it this way, we lost humanity. We killed the
human body of Christ. That's what he said, you know,
when we take the Lord's supper, he said, this is my body which is
broken for you. That's his death, or his substitutionary
work, and then his blood, all of that. And then man cannot
give life, but this person who is God gives life. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with us. And I put here notice that all
of this is spoken in line with the terms of the everlasting
covenant of grace, because as it was all conditioned on the
Lord Jesus Christ and not on the sinners who are the objects
of his love and mercy and grace, And you have three shalls here.
Number one, she shall bring forth a son. Mary's gonna bring forth
a son. Her pregnancy and the birth of
Christ was sure and certain to take place and nothing can stop
it. The sins of all the people, the
failures, The opposition of sinful people, you remember what Herod
was gonna try to do, we'll read about that in the next lessons. You know, Herod, when he found
out about it, he sent his soldiers out to kill every male child
born two years and under, and he couldn't stop it. Satan couldn't
stop it. And even the failures of his
people, look at throughout the Old Testament, the line of the
humanity of Jesus, How Abraham, he was a great example of faith,
but he had his problems too, he had his failures. David all
the way through, you can see, but nothing was gonna stop this.
She shall bring forth a son. This was God's purpose. And his
plan and nothing was gonna stop it. And then the second one,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Now his name, as we said,
identifies and distinguishes who he is and what he came to
do. And nothing can stop that. And the third shalt, for he shall
save his people from their sins. His death was not an attempt
to save people who would cooperate with him or who would believe.
It didn't make salvation possible or even probable. His death secured
the full salvation of every sinner for whom he died and was buried
and arose again the third day. I love how, I've got this in
your lesson, I love how Isaiah puts it in Isaiah 53 11. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Some of you ladies may have experienced
this, I don't know. But I know some women who have,
who went through their pregnancy and it didn't come out with a
healthy, live child. Some of you may have had births
like that. And you know the feeling. I don't know that feeling. If
it happened like to one of my grandkids or something like that,
I would feel bad. But I don't know the feeling
that a lady, a woman who carried that child has. But you certainly wouldn't say
it's satisfied. And that's the point here that
he's making over in Isaiah 53. Christ, his suffering unto death
as the surety substitute in the name, it's likened to a woman
going through childbirth. And what he's saying there, and
when he says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be
satisfied, he's saying that that suffering is going to lead definitely
to the life of his people. There won't be any stillborn
children here. He'll be satisfied. he shall
see of the true value. So we'll look at the last two
verses. It says in verse 24, then Joseph being raised from
sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took
unto him his wife. So he took Mary to be his wife.
And they didn't come together as husband and wife until after
the birth of Jesus. But after that, they did. And
I'll be talking about that a little bit in the next lesson, because
Mary, you know, I understand Mary did, Joseph and Mary had
other children. Bible says they did. And Mary
was a sinner saved by grace. She wasn't a perfect person.
She was a sinner. In fact, she calls her child,
she says, he's my savior. Well now, why would you need
a savior if you're not a sinner? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. So he's not, if I'm not a sinner,
I don't need a savior. And Mary called him her savior.
So she was a sinner saved by grace. And so look at verse 25. And he knew her not till she
had brought forth her firstborn son. That's implying that he
didn't know her. That's coming together in the
marriage bed as husband and wife after Jesus was born. So he knew her not until she
brought forth her firstborn son. And he called his name Jesus.
Joseph did. what the angel of the Lord commanded
him to do. Okay.