Seeking for the help of the Lord
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 1 and reading from our text verse 21. And she shall bring forth a son
and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. Matthew chapter 1 verse 21 this chapter of course is the
not only the first chapter of the gospel according to Matthew
but in God's providence he has ordained it to be the first chapter
of the New Testament and It begins with a tracing the kingship line
right from the promise that God gave to Abraham and tracing it
right through to our Lord Jesus Christ. And so there are several
things that are really brought forth and I want to bring these
forth before coming specifically to the text concerning our Lord
Jesus Christ, but things that are very evident concerning our
God, concerning the God of the Bible, the God of heaven and
of earth. Firstly, He is a God who purposes
and plans right from the very beginning, the first promise
of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head.
We have the counsel and plan and purpose of God brought forth
and made so very clear that this is not just a contingency, it's
not just something that happens at the spur of the moment, but
is something that was purposed from the foundation of the world. and in fact we read that our
Lord is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But thinking of this, the Lord's
purposes, His plans, and we may think this concerning our life
as well, the Lord has purpose for us, He has plans for us,
He has thoughts for us, He says, I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you
an expected end." And so, when we come to this chapter and the
beginning of the Gospel, and reminded of these purposes, may
we be encouraged in the Lord, and may we be able to see also
those evidences along the way of His purposes being brought
out. And so, another thing that is
set forth of our God here is that He is a God of order. It is not just a list of the
generations from Abraham through to our Lord, but the Lord has
ordered it in three groups of fourteen generations. Fourteen
generations from Abraham and through to David, and then fourteen
generations, from David until the carrying away into Babylon,
and then from that time to Christ, another 14 generations. When we think of the whole creation,
it is in all order. The sun, the moon, and the stars,
all in their courses, all in their order, all beautifully
panned, and one marked right through the Scriptures is order,
especially in timing. May we mark the timing of the
Lord through Scripture and in our own lives, and to see that
it is the Lord who orders that timing. Remember that when they
tried to take the Lord, and before His time, they could not, because
His time was not yet. There was an appointed time.
There is an appointed time to favour Zion. It's good for us
to watch it. We can see, of course, in the
book of Esther, the Lord's timings. They're so critical. If one mistake
or one thing had happened or not happened, the end result
would have been so very, very different. to maybe view in this
chapter and the lead up to our text a God of Order. Also He is a God that brings
His promises to pass. You might say, well, 4,000 years
went by since the first promise given to Adam And then we have
the promises given to Abraham, another 2,000 years, and yet
the Lord does bring forth the answer. He does fulfill what
He has said He would do. a promise-giving and a promise-performing
God. But He is also a God that makes
known His work, and right here in the very beginning of the
Gospel, the beginning of the New Testament, we have in the
verse that is our text a real summary of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not only have we that, but the
significance of His Name that should ever remain with Him,
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus, that is, a Saviour, the
Saviour. And then, He is a God that makes
known His people. Our text tells us that He does
have a people, and He makes those people known, hidden as they
are as they come forth into this world, not known by man. They don't know themselves that
they are the Lord's people, but He makes it known to them, and
He makes it known to the world. And we have these things that
are set before us right in this first chapter, right at the forefront
of the Gospel being unfolded. So I want to look at the verse
itself that is before us. Firstly, concerning our Lord
Jesus Christ, all of these points, these three points concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ is being brought forth. We read in our
text, and she shall bring forth a son and then secondly his people
that are set forth here and then lastly his work he shall save
his people from their sins. Firstly his being brought forth
in the last verse of this chapter We read of Joseph knew her not
till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his
name Jesus. In one sense there's a tracing
from when he was conceived which was miraculous conceiving in
the womb of Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. and the promise
and the word given to Jacob, Joseph and also then to Mary
and in due time he was brought forth. It's easy for us to look
over where we used to today of scans and we can know whether
it is a boy, whether it is a girl And right through scripture we
have those cases like Hannah and the answer, she prayed for
a man child, she went away after Eli had said to her, the Lord
give thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. She went away,
was no more sad. And yet we can easily overlook
that not only is there a miracle of the birth, But there's a miracle
of that it was a man-child. And this is ordered by the Lord
as well. And every couple who perhaps
they'd like a boy, they might not be given them, might just
be given girls in their family. Others, they might like girls,
and then the Lord chooses to only give them boys. But that
is ordered by the Lord. And we see here the expectation
of him being brought forth, his name already named before he
is brought forth, and when he's brought forth, it is her firstborn
son. Now may we not look over miracles
and blessings and things just taken for granted, but in those
things the Lord is doing what he purposed to do. We think of
the bringing forth not just from the narrative here, but the saints
of old that had gone before. Our Lord says that Abraham saw
my day and rejoiced at it, and the promise to him was unto his
seed. And here then is that promise
being brought forth. We think of Job in his great
afflictions, and he says that, I know that my Redeemer liveth,
that he shall stand upon the earth at the latter day. And
here he is brought forth, whom Job had faith would come forth,
he is brought forth. We think of Solomon in the dedication
of the temple and him saying, but will God in very deed dwell
upon the earth? The heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee, how much less this house that I build in. And so
here is the fulfillment of what Solomon saw as the temple, the
type of Christ was made and being brought forth is who it set forth,
our Lord Jesus Christ. These things are shown in all
the types and the shadows through the Old Testament, and as the
new is opened up, then for the very first time is opened to
us what the great anti-type of all these types should be. what
was prefigured, who was pointed to. Job, he puzzled at this. He says, but how can a clean
thing come out of an unclean? He knew if one was to come as
the seed of the woman, as the natural generation from Adam,
he would be polluted with Adam's sin. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And we know from the very first
chapter and the first chapters of the New Testament that it
was through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. That mystery,
that puzzle that Job puzzled over, settled and explained in
a moment, and is a reminder to us that There are many things
even in our lives that God does not explain. He didn't explain
to Jacob that Joseph, his son, was still alive. He had to wait
22 years before he found that and realized that. And the Lord
waits until the right time to let his people know and in this
time it was the bringing forth of his son that answered so many
questions, fulfilled the questions and the mysteries were made known
from the Old Testament. We think of how it is set forth
in the prophet Micah, the bringing forth and where he should be
brought forth. In chapter 5 and verse 2, But
thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is,
to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting. And we join that to the word
of our text that she shall bring forth a son, or then the last
verse in the chapter that she brought forth her firstborn son
and called his name Jesus. The bringing forth of the Lord
also is bringing forth a lamb that was to be set apart for
the slaughter. So it had to be a spotless and
pure lamb. right from his birth, right from
his conception, no sin at all, he was the spotless Lamb of God. Also he had to be a near kinsman
to those that he was to redeem. And so his relationship to the
human race, the seed of Abraham, he also needed to be in the line
from Judah as the promise had been for that line. And so that
is why we have in that chapter the importance stressed upon
the line right through to our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course
in Luke we have it going back from our Lord right back to Adam. That is the bloodline. This is
the kingship line. This is the line pointing to
our Lord as King. as was supposed, Joseph was the
father, but he wasn't the bloodline father as Mary was the mother. And so as our Lord is brought
forth, in one sense there's an establishing, there's a that
done And we know with Mary, the things that were said by the
shepherds, the things that were said by the Lord when he was
12, she pondered those things in her heart. He had not yet
come forth to Calvary, but he'd come into the world. He'd been brought forth into
the world. Now, no one would look at this
narrative and look at what it had done now and despise it because
it's not yet brought forth to Calvary or redemption accomplished. I think of when Moses was sent
to the children of Israel in Egypt They rejoiced at first. They believed God had sent Him,
but they were still in bondage. They weren't being brought out.
In fact, it got worse before it got better. And in one sense,
it was like that with our Lord. When He was crucified, we trusted
He should have been He that should have redeemed Israel. But it
is right when we have similar things in our life that God has
wrought that God has done those things and performed them, that
we recognize that which has been done, won't be undone, and is
the forerunner of further things. God's plan and God's purpose,
the very first thing that must happen was that the Lord be brought
forth. And here we have the record that
this is so. And it's from this point then
that we have the narrative, very little in his first 30 years,
but very important that we see his bringing forth and establishing
being brought forth. His being brought forth. May
we bless God for the record and for the coming of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Just think also in a spiritual
sense and for us personally, to have the Lord Jesus Christ
brought forth. In one sense it would be like
Simeon or Anna. As he was brought into the temple,
Simeon retold he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's
Christ. and for him, just to see him
as a babe, Lord now let us thou thy servant depart in peace. Even at that point he had seen
enough, he'd seen what God said he would see, and he knew that
God was on his way, he was bringing about salvation, he would finish
the work that he came to do. On to, look secondly, at his
people this is spoken of here thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins now though it is a short verse
it does tell us a lot of things first it tells us that he already
has a people And the Scriptures bear witness to a people chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world, those who had been
loved with an everlasting love, those that were the fathers. Our Lord says, Thine they were,
and Thou gavest them Me. And He is set forth as already
having a people. a people that He came to redeem,
a people that He came to save, they are His people. I lay down
my life for the sheep, my sheep, they hear my voice and they follow
me. And it's very important for us
to realize this, that even at this point when our Lord is coming,
He already has a people He is coming to redeem them. He is
coming to save them. He is coming for a people that
He has loved eternally. The second thing about these
people is that they are sinners. Our text says they shall say,
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Heimreiter says, He saw me lost
and ruined in the fall, and loved me not, withstanding all. The Lord's people are sinners,
and we need to remember that. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Even when they are quickened
into divine life, they still are sinners. They still need
the Lord to save them from their sins. And we need to be mindful
of that. Satan can very easily turn this
about, accuse the people of God, say that the Lord, if he had
saved them, they wouldn't be sinners anymore, they wouldn't
have an evil heart, they wouldn't have wrestling with sin. But
when you think of Hebrews, you have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. What? Sin outside? Other people's sin? No, their
own sin. Paul, he says, the good that
I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. If I do that which I would not,
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." He
says, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ my Lord. And his conflict is with sin,
sin that dwelleth in him. And it is this sin that our Lord
came to save His people from. They are sinners and sin will
trouble them. Sin will be with them all their
days and they need the Lord's work as described right in this
first chapter of the New Testament. They need Him to save them from
their sins. You need Him, I need Him to save
us from our sins. Sin is the transgression of the
law of God. We have broke the law of God
and we do so, that is, we might say in our nature to do so, we
go forth from the womb speaking lies and the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked and so We need to be mindful
of this truth told here in this verse, the Lord has a people
and they are sinners. So the third point is His work,
the work that He came to do. The very name is Saviour, for
He shall save His people from their sins. Not might or not
maybe, but he shall, a certainty of the Lord doing it." So we
need to be mindful what is this work, how shall we know it is
done, it is being done. Well really there's two main
ways that the Lord has already done so and accomplished it for
his people. The first is his perfect life
of obedience. Right from this time, when he
was subject to his parents, through all of the 33 years of his life,
he was working out a righteousness to give to his people. His sinless,
perfect, spotless life is to be put on the account of believers. Otherwise, Even though sin be
forgiven, we would be naked before the throne. We would not be able
to give any account of our own righteousness without having
our sins all brought up before God. But instead, we point to
the Lord, the Lord our righteousness. In Jeremiah's prophecy, we have
the name, the same surname, the name of the church is, this is
the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness,
and the name of her bridegroom, her redeemer, this is the name
wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And so that part of his life,
as well as showing and fitting him to be able to lay down his
life, a spotless sacrifice, it was also to give a robe, a covering
for his people. Need to be very clear, it is
not the righteousness of Christ that puts away our sin, it is
the blood of Christ alone. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And so that is the second work,
which is the redemption that he accomplished at Calvary. I lay down my life for the sheep. We trusted, said those on the
way to Emmaus, that it should have been he that should have
redeemed Israel. They'd seen it. They'd seen him
doing it, but hadn't recognized that work of redemption, a blood
sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. In Christ's sacrifice all of
His people's debt is paid, the wrath of God is extinguished,
there is brought so that there can be no unjustness in every
blessing that He gives to His people. There's no barrier, there's
no reason why He cannot bless them and do with them as He will,
because He has purchased them. They are His by gift from the
Father. They are His by redemption. They're doubly His. And it's
a blessed thing. And this is what is emphasized
when we meet round the Lord's table. Those that meet round
the Lord's table They may have been called at different times,
at a different age, different experience, but all have had
their sins put away by the same Jesus, in the same place, by
the same way at Calvary. There's no difference. And it's
a beautiful thing to realize that around the Lord's table,
that the Lord's people are exactly as one. in that way. Every one of them, their sins
were put away at Calvary. Every one of them, Christ died
for them and there's none greater, none less. Though they have differences
in many other ways, in that which is crucial that brings them to
heaven, not of works lest any man should boast, they are all
one. what a union, what a reminder
as well that he's pointing to this is what is vital for salvation the Lord Jesus Christ in his
sufferings, if I be lifted up above the earth will draw all
men unto me all of his people drawn to him, drawn to that work
that he's done so in the first place The word of our text, he
shall save his people from their sins, is saving them from the
justice of God, from the wrath of God, from the punishment that
was due to their sins, the consequences of their sins, that has been
done at Calvary. And we said that his people are
still sinners, they are sinners on earth. So there's another
aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is carried
on further from what was done at Calvary. Our Lord rose from
the dead, he ascended up into heaven to appear in the presence
of God for us. In John 17 we have a beautiful
intercessory prayer. And there are a couple of things
in that prayer that are so remarkable. One, he says, I pray not that
thou wouldst take them out of the world, but that thou wouldst
keep them from the evil. Keep them from the evil in their
own hearts and from that round about them. And then his prayer
is that they should be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. the timing of the Lord, a time
to be kept, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, and then a time to be brought
to be with Him at last. And so there are seven aspects,
I'll just quickly go through them, what the Lord has done
to save His people from their sins. The first is He calls them
by His grace. He delivers them from the power
of sin. He makes them willing. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of my power. I pass by thee when
thou hast in thy blood, and when thou hast in thy blood, I bid
thee live. And so that first aspect is calling,
where the Lord has then called His people, given them life,
given them a hearing ear, giving them a willingness to be freed
from sin. The Apostle Paul, he says, I
was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. That which was ordained unto
life I found to be unto death. But it was through that way of
being condemned as a sinner that he is brought to the Lord Jesus
Christ personally. And so the second thing is that
sin's dominion is broken. It's being brought out from under
the law. And the Apostle was very clear
what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh. The Law does not give
any strength or power to a sinner, it only condemns. But the Gospel
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in fulfilling the Law,
that gives that sinner strength, and it gives him hope, because
it is not dependent upon his works, but what Christ has done. So the work for a believer, the
work for the people of God, is the fruit of Christ's work, not
the cause of their salvation. And one real mark of this of
the Lord's work is that sin loses its dominion. It annoys, it troubles,
it plagues the people of God, but it doesn't have dominion
over them to completely destroy them. The third thing is the
work of our Lord reconciles. God and sinners reconciles. The Lord bringing together those
two parties. He is the mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus. He stands in the breach. He is
our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He
is what Job desired that there might be one to stand in between. It is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus
Christ. May we remember that. Whenever
sin makes a divide, whenever it makes inroads in our souls,
when it means that we're separated, when we like Job, oh that I knew
where I might find him, it is the Lord himself that brings
again, that reconciles, that brings that sinner back and finds
him. Beautiful type, isn't it? The
good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. What
happens when the sheep goes astray? What happens when it's in the
ditch? What happens when it's helpless, when it's on its back?
Then the shepherd goes to it, he finds it, he brings it back,
he brings it back rejoicing. And the Lord is that good shepherd.
And in that sense, in his reconciling love and mercy, he saves his
people from their sins, the consequences of their foolishness of their
sins. The fourth thing is that he saves
them by giving them repentance. The Acts of the Apostles in chapter
5, verse 31, or if we read from verse 13, this
is Peter preaching and setting forth our Lord, the God of our
fathers, raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree,
him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince and
a Saviour. Now he describes in what aspect
he is to be a Saviour, or in the words of our text, to save
his people from their sins, for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sin. This is a message of the gospel. These poor sinners can't give
themselves repentance. They know they need to. They
need to turn. They need their sins forgiven.
But in the Lord Jesus Christ, He shall do it for them. And this is a precious message
of the gospel. And this is why David, when he
had sinned, he says in Psalm 51, that restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, create in me a clean heart, O God."
He is praying for these gospel blessings, these things that
the Lord was able to do for him. Then we think of the provision,
and it comes, flows through from the death and sufferings of our
Lord. that restoration is spoken of
in 1 John chapter 1. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just. And that faithfulness and justness
all flows from Calvary to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Here again is the work of the
Lord to save His people from their sins. He's already put
them away at Calvary. The debt is already paid. And
so he says that the path of forgiveness and cleansing, because we might
think, well, if we come to the Lord, we confess our sin, we
repent, but like the hymn writer says, we cannot promise future
good to bring. But the Lord is the one that
is able to cleanse us from that unrighteousness. Our besetting
sins and those things that plague us, the Lord alone is able to
deliver us from. If we could, with our own will,
subdue our sins, stop our sins, the glory would never be the
Lord's. But when we prove our inability,
then that forgiveness is from the Lord. May we be those that
are coming to the Lord, confessing our sins. Then going back to
Romans, and Romans 8, we quoted it a little before, but at the
end of that chapter, the Apostle says this, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, that is God's people, His people,
It is God that justifieth, or that counts without condemnation. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. And so, in saving His people
from their sins, He saves from condemnation, and he makes intercession
think of how our lord dealt with peter i have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not again it's a beautiful illustration
of the lord's intercession for his people and help for his people
so when we read a text like this have this set before us maybe
with an understanding our lord is not a dead christ he's a living
savior And it is not just to save His people from hell to
heaven, it's to save His people from the strength and power of
their sin, subduing it within them, delivering them from the
occasions of sin, from traps laid for their feet, all the
way through life's pathway. A people kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation. And this is the Lord's work,
may he not have narrow views of the Lord saving from sin,
but have large views of what he does right through the lives
of his people. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. The Lord at his blessing. Amen.