Matthew chapter 1, and today
we begin a study through 28 chapters. I believe it's 28 chapters in
the book of Matthew. The Lord closes with saying,
I am with you always, even to the end of the world. I am with
you always, even to the end, the end of the world. So, Matthew
chapter 1, I'm taking the title for the message from what's said
in verse 16. Matthew 1, 16, and Jacob begat
Joseph, the husband of Mary. of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ. He is the Christ of God. He is the anointed of God. He is the Messiah of God, anointed
of God in all of his office, in all of his person, and his
work. He is the anointed mediator of
which there is just one God, one mediator, 1 Timothy 2.5. He is the anointed surety of
the everlasting covenant, Hebrews 7.22. He is the only advocate
that the anointed of God to intercede for us. We have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2.1. And He
is our intercessor. Hebrews 7.25. He ever lived to
intercede for us. He is our Savior, as it says
in verse 21. Call His name Jesus. That means
Savior. and He is our Redeemer. Now,
we could take just those things right there and spend the rest
of the day talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and His person
and His work. But notice, if you will, at verse
1, Matthew 1, verse 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham. The book of the generation
of Jesus Christ. This book, this book, Matthew,
and the whole Word of God is all about Him. We have that red
book in front of you called the hymn book, right? H-Y-M-N. The book you hold in your hand,
the Bible, it is also a hymn book. H-I-M. It's all about Him. From Genesis to Revelation, it's
a book about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament begins
with the book of the generation of the world, that is the creation
of the world. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The New Testament begins with
the book of the generation of the Lord Jesus Christ, who made
the world. He's the creator of the world.
For by Him are all things created that are in heaven, that are
in the earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions,
principalities or powers, all things were created by him and
for him. He's before all things and by
him all things consist. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16
and 17. So He is the creator of all things,
the sustainer of all things. By Him all things consist. The
whole volume of inspired scripture is all about our well-beloved
Savior. My beloved is mine and I am His. The Lord Jesus Christ, it's all
about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious person, Emmanuel. I love that word, don't you?
Immanuel. What does it mean? God with us.
God with us. In the law of God, we see God
against us. In creation, we see a God above
us, but in the gospel we see God with us, one with us, united
with us. We see his glorious person and
his redeeming work. The book of God, the Bible, is
a book about Christ. All 66 books, all 66 books. The Bible just does not contain
the word of God, it is the word of God. What you hold in your
hand is a very inspired word of God, the eternal record, testimony
of God. The whole Old Testament, we have
39 books, and the message of that is Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming. Someone is coming. Remember Simeon
in the temple in Luke chapter 2? waiting for the Messiah to
come, and when they brought the babe to Him to do after the custom
of the law, Simeon picked up that little baby and said, Lord,
let me die. I'm ready to die. I've seen Thy
salvation. In the book of Acts, we read
about, to Him give all the prophets witness, all the prophets, beginning
with Moses all the way through Malachi. They have but one message,
to Him give all the prophets witness. The four Gospels tell
us that the promised Messiah has come to accomplish our salvation,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He's here to accomplish our salvation. Who being the brightness of his
glory, the expressed image of his person, upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he by himself purged our sin,
he sat down on the right hand of God. All the New Testament
books, the book of Acts, all the epistles,
The book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, they all say He's
coming back again. The Old Testament said He's coming.
The Gospel declared He has come. And all those epistles, including
the revelation, they all say He's coming again. He's coming
back again. You remember in Revelation chapter
1, it says, Behold, He cometh. He cometh. He's on His way back.
Now someone may ask, why do we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John? Is it four different Gospels?
Four different stories? No, it's the same story. It's
the one story. It's his story. It's all about
him. And it shows us his story from
four different angles, four different viewpoints. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, they show us the full character of our Savior's person
and his work from four different angles, if you will, to show
us the same picture from four different viewpoints, four different
perspectives. I had to look that word up. Matthew
shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our King. He is
our King. Look at Matthew 2, verse 2. When
the wise men came from the east, they said, Where is he that is
born King? He was King when He got here.
We just read His kingly genealogy. He was King when He got here.
He is born King. He is the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He is the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. Judah was a kingly tribe. That's what we read in the book
of Matthew. Mark shows us, in Mark, the gospel
given by Mark, presents the Lord Jesus Christ as a servant of
God who has come to fulfill the Father's work of redemption.
Behold, my servant, my elect, God said, in whom my soul delighted.
In Mark chapter 10, we read verse 45, for the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life
a ransom for many. He's a servant of God who gave
His life to ransom us from our sin. And then the book of Luke
presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man. the Son of
Man, the Servant, and then the Son of Man, full of compassion
towards sinners, He came to seek and to save. For the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save the lost. So He is the King,
He is the Servant, He is the Son of Man. In the book of John,
the book of John presents the Lord Jesus Christ in a full display
of His deity as the Son of God. He says, I and my Father are
one. He is Emmanuel, God with us. When the Lord declared to those
old, self-righteous, self-centered, God-hating Jews that I and my
Father are one, they picked up stones to kill him. Now, I have three points to this message.
The first one is this. The genealogy and importance
of it. We have that here in Matthew
chapter 1, all these different names, and I've counted each
one of them, about 27 different kings that are mentioned here
in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why is it
so important? The book of Matthew and the book
of Luke, we have both the genealogy of Joseph and that of Mary. Both were in the kingly line
of the tribe of Judah. The book of Luke gives a genealogy
of Mary, traces it right back to the son of David, to his son
Nathan. And then in the book of Matthew,
we have the genealogy of Joseph traced right back through Solomon
and David, right on back. Both Mary and Joseph were of
the tribe of Judah, which is a kingly tribe. Both were descendants
of Abraham and David and Solomon. Now, why is that so important?
I mean, the Word of God makes a lot about it. Why is that so
important? I'll give you two reasons to
fulfill all Scriptures. Look what it says down here in
verse 22, Matthew 1. Now all this was done that it might be
fulfilled which is spoken by the Lord saying, Behold, a virgin
shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted as God with
us. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. That is said
700 years ago in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. The Lord came to
fulfill all scripture. But going back even further,
when Jacob blessed his sons, the 12 sons of Jacob, When he
came to Judah, Genesis 49 verse 9, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh,
the prince of peace, come, and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. The Lord came to gather his sheep
unto him. You remember he said, all that
the father had given to me, they will come to me, and those that
come to me, I'll never cast them out. in Isaiah chapter 11 verse
1, and there shall come forth the rod out of the stem of Jesse. Jesse was David's father. A branch
shall grow out of his roots. Look at verse 6, and Jesse beget
David the king, and David beget Solomon. So all these things
were done that the scripture might be fulfilled. You see,
the Lord had to die, had to come and had to die for our sin according
to the scripture. The second thing is this, to
show us that the incarnate Lord was a real man, He took on Himself
our humanity apart from sin. Remember we read without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
have a real body, He had to be a real man in order to suffer
and die for the sin of his covenant people. God alone cannot suffer,
man alone cannot satisfy. The God-man Mediator both suffered
and satisfied his own holy law. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but took upon himself the form of a servant.
and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, wherefore God hath highly exalted him.
That at his name and at his throne everyone will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is both the son
of Abraham and the son of David, as it says there in verse 1.
The book of a generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
son of Abraham. He's both the son of Abraham
and the son of David. He's the son of Abraham. He's
the promised seed in whom the covenant of grace was to be fulfilled. You remember our Lord said to
Abraham, when he called him out of idolatry, he said, I'll bless
them that bless thee, I'll curse them that curse thee, in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed. Paul picks that up in Galatians
chapter 3 and he said, Now to Abraham and his seed, where the
promise is made, he saith, And to seeds, not as of many, but
as of one, and thy seed which is Christ. That promised son
to Abraham was Isaac, right? God sent Isaac, not Ishmael.
Ishmael was the firstborn. Ishmael had to go. Isaac was
a promised son, and God promised that in Isaac, in Christ, shall
all nations of the earth be blessed. That is, God has a people. He's
elect out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue. He's also
not only the son of David, the son of Abraham, but the son of
David. He's a rightful heir to the throne of David. You remember
God said in Psalm 2, I've set my king upon my holy hill Zion.
Let's turn, hold your place there and look at, this will help us
I think, turn to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, verse 1,
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, Romans 1, 1, you got it? Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophet in the holy
scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, but declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead. So he's made of the seed
of David. That's so, that's true. But he's
declared he's not made the Son of God, he declared that he is
the Son of God. Now it's interesting, this is
an interesting fact. Those religious Jews who hated
the Lord Jesus Christ so much, and spoke so many evils about
him, and plotted his death, and set away with him, kill him,
we have no king but Caesar, never one time ever disputed his genealogy,
because they could not. They kept meticulous records. Go back and look at 1 Chronicles.
But I want you to turn to Matthew 22. Matthew 22. And I want to show you something
here. Those Jews who knew the genealogy, and I'll show you
here, look at Matthew 22. Matthew 22, verse 41. While the
Pharisees gathered together, Jesus asked them, now they had
asked him all kind of different questions, but he had a question
for them, saying, verse 42, Matthew 22, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? You see, they
knew the genealogy. They said unto him, the son of
David. Well, they were right. They knew his genealogy. The
Messiah would come from that he would be the son of David.
And he said unto them, how then does David in the Spirit or by
the Spirit call him Lord? You remember Psalm 110, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool, verse 41. If then David called him
his Lord, How is he his son? How can he be his son in his
Lord? Because he's God. And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither doth any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions. You see, they could not dispute
his genealogy. They could dispute his character
and demean his character as a wine-bibber and a gluttonous man. But they
couldn't deny that his genealogy was wrong. They knew he was the
son of David. They denied that he was a fulfillment
of it, but they could not say that Jesus of Nazareth, they
could not say that he was not the son of David. You see, God
is faithful to His Word, faithful to all His promises. All that
He has promised, not one word will fail. All the promises of
God in Him are yes, and in Him, amen, and to the glory of God
by Christ. The exceeding great and precious
promises we have in Christ. God said, I've spoken it, I'll
bring it to pass. I've purposed it, I will also
do it. Isaiah 46, 9 through 12. God
promised the Messiah would come from Abraham and David, and indeed,
what happened? He's here. He came. The first
17 verses demonstrate to us that God keeped his word. Our great
God and Savior is true to His Word. He's not a man that He
should lie. Matter of fact, it's impossible
for God to lie, as it is impossible for God to change. He said, I'm
the Lord, I change not. He has promised salvation to
His covenant people, to put away their sin, and to establish righteousness
for them, and He did not fail. As it says in verse 21 of Matthew
1, Call His name Jesus, He shall save His people from their sin. He said in Matthew chapter 5,
I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, I came
to honor it. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. He has promised sufficient grace,
sustaining grace, keeping grace for us, and His grace never fails. It can't fail. His mercies are
new every morning. His mercies cannot fail. He has
promised us His people all grace now and glory forever and his
promises never fail. As Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded he's able to keep all I've committed
unto him. We can be sure what he has promised,
he will perform. I'm persuaded, aren't you? I'm
the same persuasion that Abraham was. I'm persuaded that all that
God has promised, He is able to perform. I'm persuaded that
nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What persuasion are you? I'm
persuaded that He's able to save to the uttermost all that come
to God by Him. Now, here's the second thing.
we see the importance of the genealogy identifying him as
the Messiah. Secondly, we also see in this
genealogy the Lord, of the Lord, we see the corruption and sin
of man and he identifies with this people, his people. Every name that's given here is the name of a fallen sinful
son of Adam. And Adam all died, and Adam all
sinned. Abraham, where did God find him? In idolatry, and God called him
out. Moses, where did God find Moses? Down in Egypt. Egypt had over
800 different idols. Moses was an idolater, and God
called him out, and revealed himself unto him. Jesse, the
father of David. David, Solomon, Rehoboam, all
those men, famous men, were sinful men. You see, the Lord identifies
himself with sinners. He's called the friend of sinners. He came to save sinners. Now
let me show you an interesting story. You remember Matthew,
turn to Matthew chapter 9. You remember who Matthew, the
writer of this gospel, was? Matthew was a publican. He was
a tax collector. And the Lord Jesus Christ walked
by his table one day as he was sitting in the receipt of customs,
collecting taxes. He was a Jew. He was collecting
taxes of the Jews to pay the Romans. Matthew 9, 9. And Jesus passed forth from thence. He saw a man. named Matthew,
sitting at the receipt of custom. And the Lord said to him, follow
me. And he rose up and followed him. And the Lord made him an
apostle. And it came to pass that Jesus
said, meet, now Matthew said, you come home and eat with me,
and I'm going to have all my publican friends over to my house
for dinner. And many of the publicans and
sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when
the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why does
your master, why does he eat with publicans and sinners? Matthew
was a sinner. And when the Lord heard that,
He said, they that behold don't need a doctor, a physician, but
those who are sick. Go ye and learn what that means. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. I came to call sinners to repentance. Now turn one page. Look over
to Matthew chapter 11. The Lord Himself identified with
our sinful humanity apart from sin. Notice Matthew 11 verse 16. Where unto shall I liken this
generation? It's likened to children sitting
in the markets. calling unto their fellows, saying,
We have piped unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned
unto you, and you have not lamented. For John came, talking about
John the Baptist, he came neither eating nor drinking, and they
said, He is the devil. The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus,
came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a gluttonous
man, a wine-bibber, he is a friend of publicans and sinners." How
all wisdom is justified in our children. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ identified with those for whom he came to save. He's
in the house, a house full of sinners, preaching the gospel
unto them. Now, if you take a close look
at the genealogy, you'll find some very unsavory characters
in the Lord's genealogy. I know genealogy study in our
days is a pretty big thing. You can trace your DNA back to
wherever you want to trace it to, to find out where you came
from. But we see in the Lord's genealogy
some very, very sinful characters because of their sinful natures.
They're born in the family of Adam, and we're just like them. We're all sinners. Anybody here
not a sinner? Salvation for sinners. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only person who sovereignly chose his own
ancestors to be his family. He was born without sin, that's
why he had to be virgin born. He had no sin, knew no sin, and
did no sin. But here we see the Lord chose
his forefathers. Now, did you do that? You couldn't
choose. My great-great-great-great-grandfather
came from London, England in 1645 as a 16-year-old boy on
a stowaway on a merchant ship. I didn't choose him. The Lord
did all that. But our God sovereignly chose
his own family. The sovereignty of God. Abraham
was called out of idolatry and given life in Christ. Our Lord
said of him, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and
was glad. Isaac was the chosen seed, right?
Ishmael had to be put out and passed out. There's God's sovereign
choice. Jacob, born of Isaac, And he
saw his twin brother, but God said, Jacob, have I loved, he
shall have I hated. Sovereign mercy. David was a
shepherd boy chosen to be the anointed king, but remember when
Samuel went down to the house of Jesse? Jesse had eight boys. Seven of them came before Samuel,
and God said, not that one, not that one, not that one. Jesse,
do you have anything left? I have a runt. I have just a
redhead little runt. He's out in the field. God said,
go get him. Go fetch him. Bring him. He's
mine, aren't you? David was just a simple little
shepherd boy, and yet God sovereignly chose him to be the king. Something
else we see in verse 3. Judah begat twin boys, Phares
and Zerah of Tamar. And Phares begat Esram, and Esram
begat Aram. Now, Judah, if you go back and
look at this story in Genesis 38, Judah committed incest with
his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Tamar's husband died, and she
played the harlot and deceived Judah. And from that affair,
twin boys were born, and God chose Phares and passed by Zerah. Sovereign choice. Another interesting
story in verse 5, Salmon married a Gentile woman. Salmon begat
Boaz of Rahab. You remember the story of Jericho
falling, Rahab the harlot and the scarlet line. Salmon, Salmon
rather, married a Gentile woman, Rahab the harlot, and they had
a son named Boaz, the Kingsman Redeemer, a picture of Christ,
and we learned that when we studied the book of Ruth. Boaz married
that Moabite woman Ruth, another Gentile woman. You see, the Lord
had sinners in His genealogies, what I'm pointing out. And they
had a son, his son's name was Jesse, and Jesse had a son named
David. David, the king of Israel. Now,
David beget Solomon, verse 6. David, Jesse beget David, Jesse
beget David, the king, and the king beget Solomon, of her that
had been the wife of Uriah. Now, you remember that story. David begat Solomon from the
adulterous affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
David not only committed adultery, but he had Uriah the Hittite
murdered. David, the son of David, the
Lord Jesus Christ, identifies himself with sinners. Many of
these kings of Israel and Judah were very wicked men who led
the nation of Israel away from God into gross idolatry. Very
few of these kings did that which is right in the sight of the
Lord. And because of their idolatry, God carried the whole nation
into Babylonian captivity for 70 years because of their sin.
And yet the Lord sovereignly chose to be identified with these
people, to demonstrate His love for His elect, and in due time
He was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. What an amazing story! The Lord Jesus Christ had to
be born of a virgin, because he could not be begotten of Joseph,
his supposed father, because of the sinful character of man. He had to be conceived by God,
the Holy Spirit. Verse 16, And Jacob begat Joseph
and the husband of Mary, of whom was called the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they came, and when
they were engaged, And Mary was found with child of the Holy
Spirit, as it says in verse 18. Now, here's the third thing I
want us to look at for just a moment. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal,
holy Son of God, was born to be our Savior, born to be the
Christ of God, the anointed of God. Remember, He asked Peter,
Peter, whom do you say that I am, the Son of Man am? He said, Thou
art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of God. And here we see why he had to be virgin born, why he
had to be conceived by God the Holy Spirit, because his humanity
had to be sinless to be our sacrifice for sin. He is the Christ of
God. He is the anointing of God to
accomplish all his office as prophet, priest, And king, he
is the anointed of God. He's our prophet, one who represents
God to us. He is our priest who represents
us to God. And he's our king who rules and
reigns over us. He's the Lord. You remember that
verse in Revelation? I heard, as it were, a great
multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty
thundering, saying, hallelujah. For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
and reigneth. He is King of King and he is
Lord of Lords. Now, verse 17, in closing. So all the generation from Abraham
to David, or 14, from David and to the carrying away of Babylonian
captivity, 14 generations, and from the carrying away of Babylon
unto the Christ of God, again, 14 generations. Now, think about this. All history
revolves around the birth of the Savior, doesn't it? All human
history revolves around the birth of the Savior, the incarnate
God in human flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. We have in our calendar, if you
go back and study history, we have what they call B.C., right? 4,000 B.C. is about the beginning
of biblical human history. 4,000 B.C. when Adam was created. And from Adam to Abraham is another
2,000 years. Another 2,000 years from Abraham
and Moses until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. since
his death to now is what? Almost 2,000 years. Most of the
historians think that the Lord actually died for our sin when
he died in 30 AD. So BC means before Christ, AD
means Anno Domini, which means the year of our Lord, the year
of the coming of our Lord. Now, another 2,000 years since
our Lord has died for our sin, that leads me to say this. Are we living in the last days?
It seems like every 2,000 years, Adam, Abraham, Moses, Moses,
the coming of Christ, 2,000 years, another 2,000 years since A.D. which makes another 2,000
would be what? Help me. 2,030? That's coming up pretty soon, isn't
it? Are we living in the last days?
Yep. The Lord is coming back very
soon. You remember how we closed our
message in Revelation 22? He which testifies these things
saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus
Christ. We're going to see in our study
in the book of Matthew, there's a lot written about the second
coming of the Lord, especially when we get to Matthew 24. And
it says there, The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Then the end
is here. The Lord is coming back. When the gospel is preached into
all the world, then cometh the end. You remember Titus chapter
2? We're looking for that blessed
hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from
all iniquity. We're looking for Him who is
coming. We're not looking for the second coming. We're looking
for Him who is coming. You see the difference? We're
looking for Him. We're looking for Him who is
coming. You remember John 14? He said, if I go away, I'll come
again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may
be also.