Alright, finally, Matthew. Let's go to Matthew. I'm going
to preach it first so that I don't change between now and the second
time. Alright, I'm not going to read
through the whole genealogy, but I do want to show you something
here. Alright, beginning in verse 1 it says, Matthew 1.1, it says,
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Now watch this. Starts listing
the father and says he begat, and it will say the son. Watch,
Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas and
his brethren. Now watch this. Judas begat Phares
and Zarah of Thamar. There's the wife. And it goes back to the father
and the son. Phares begat Eshom. Eshom begat
Aram. And you go all the way down and
then you get to verse 5. Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. There's the wife again. And Boaz
begat Obed of Ruth. Names the wife there. And it
goes back to naming the father and the son. Obed begat Jesse.
Jesse begat David. Then what's this? And David the
king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. This is the wife again. It goes
back to the father and the son. And it does that all the way
down then to the end. And we come down here to the
last of the genealogy in verse 16, Jacob begat Joseph, the husband
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all
the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations,
and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations,
and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Now it begins here in verse 1,
it says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Now there is
only two times that that phrase is used in the scripture. One
of them is right here. The other one says, Genesis 5,
verse 1 says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. The only two places that those
phrases are used. Because God made Adam and Christ
the heads of their children. Those are the two heads in this
world. Only those two. From Adam, all
the human race came. And from Christ, all God's spiritual
race came. Now this is one of those passages
that we normally would skip over because it's just a list of names.
So we are prone to think. But scripture says all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. all Scripture, and it's profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness. So even this genealogy is profitable. It's profitable. The genealogy
of Christ declares that He is the promised Messiah and He is
the salvation of His people. I want to show you three things
from this genealogy. One, the faithfulness of God. Two, the salvation being by grace. Salvation by grace. And then
thirdly, Christ's condescension and how He saves from sin. Now,
we see the faithfulness of God here. Notice how it begins with
Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Now, Abraham
is the father of the faithful. He is the father of believers. Abraham is. He was called first. Now we're talking about after
the flood. You know, there was believers
before that, but we're talking about after the flood. Scripture
calls Abraham the father of the faithful. And to Abraham it was
promised that he would be saved in Christ. And God promised Christ
was coming through his genealogy. and he promised that he would
save many more spiritual children, elect children in Christ. Go
back to Genesis 12 and let me show you when the Lord called
Abraham. Genesis 12 and verse 1, it says,
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, that was his name before it was
changed, He said, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land that I will
show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation. And I will
bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. Now that was quite a promise
that God made to Abraham. Found him in a land of idolatry.
Down there with a bunch of idolaters. Nobody in his family believed
God. And God taught him the gospel. And brought him out. Brought
him out from there. And then we're told, look at
Genesis 22 verse 18. Now we see a little more clearly
here that what God promised, what we just read that God promised
was that Christ was coming. We see this a little clearer
here in Genesis 22, 18. He says to Abraham, In thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou
hast obeyed my voice. He said in thy seed. Now go to
Galatians 3. What was he telling Abraham?
Abraham understood this too because Christ said he did. He said,
Abraham saw my day. He believed God. Here's what
God was saying to Abraham right here. Galatians 3 verse 16. He says, Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one. And to thy seed, which is Christ. That's what when God said in
Genesis 22, 18, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. He was saying in Christ. In Christ. And that seed is coming through
you, Abraham. Christ is coming through you,
Abraham. He's your salvation. He's going to be the salvation
of all your people. This great nation I'm going to make of you
is not only going to be this nation Israel in the earth, it's
going to be God's spiritual nation Israel. His children, Abraham's
children, God's elect. Now we see God's faithfulness
in that because God brought to pass every word He promised Abraham. That's what we're reading in
this genealogy is how He promised Abraham first and then we see
all these different sons born and we see how God worked exactly
what He promised Abraham He would work. That's faithfulness. That's
faithfulness. Abraham, verse 2, Abraham begat
Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob begat
Judas and his brethren. Judas begat Phares. Verse 6,
Jesse begat David the king. David the king begat Solomon. When he get to Jesse there, he
promised that Christ would come through Jesse. In Isaiah 11 verse
1, there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a branch shall grow out of his roots. There was a tree beside
our house and somebody had cut down this tree. And out of the
center of that stump, a rod came up. A branch began to grow. And it looked, now it's pretty
big and a stump started to rot around it. But that's the picture,
what he said. He cut down the children of Israel
to just a stump. And out of it came Christ. This seed came and grew out of
that family. Now that means God faithfully
fulfilled all these promises that He made. You think about
the wars that took place. You think about the divisions
of men. Everybody is all upset right
now over this coronavirus. There were sicknesses, famines,
all these different things that took place through the ages.
None of that stopped God from doing what He promised He would
do. You know, the truth is God was in control of all that. bringing
to pass the promise he made to Abraham. Scripture says, Numbers
23, 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the
son of man that he should repent. He's not going to say one thing
and then change his mind. Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, shall he not make it good? He said,
I'm God and there's none like me. declaring the end from the
beginning, from ancient times, the things that are not yet done,
saying, my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. He
said, yeah, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass.
I purposed it, I will also do it. So in this we have great
peace in knowing this, brethren, that our God never lies. Our God is faithful. Whatever
He promised, whatever He purposed, that's what He brings to pass.
And He can work everything in the world to bring it to pass. Now secondly, we see salvation
is by grace. Salvation is all by grace. Verse
2 says, Abraham begat Isaac. Well wasn't there another son
Abraham had? He had Ishmael. Why didn't he
list Ishmael? Because he wasn't a chosen child
of God. Ishmael was the work of Abraham's
hand. It was Abraham's wisdom to produce
his son Ishmael because he didn't think God was going to fulfill
his promise. But Ishmael wasn't chosen. Isaac was chosen. Isaac was chosen. God said in Isaac shall thy seed
be called. Go to Romans 9. We'll see what
he meant by that. God told Abraham, send Ishmael
away. He said, this boy is not going
to be the one that your seed is coming through. He said, Isaac. It's through Isaac that Christ
is going to come. Look here, Romans 9 verse 6. Not as though the word of God
had taken on effect. For they're not all Israel which
are of Israel. You see some of the children
of Israel that weren't named here. You see some of them that
weren't called, they weren't saved, they died in unbelief.
Does that mean God couldn't fulfill His promise? They're not all
Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they're the seed
of Abraham are they all children. Well, now wait. Isn't all the
seed of Abraham children? They're not all children of God.
They're all Abraham's children, but they're not all children
of God. That's what he's talking about. He says, but in Isaac
shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children
of the flesh. These are not the children of
God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed,
the children God promised, those children He promised. to Christ
and gave to Christ before the world was made. He's chosen.
That's who God's seed is. For this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. That's
God's promise. Now hold your place right there.
Isaac was promised by God. Well, so was Christ. So was all
God's elect. Christ came forth by a miraculous
birth. God brought Christ forth into
this world. So were all His elect born of
a miraculous birth. The new birth. And it's through
Christ that God called all His elect. And it's through His elect
that He calls out and gives faith to preach this gospel. It's through
us that He calls out other elects. And that's what he's talking
about here. Then listen to this. Matthew 1, 2 says, And Isaac
begat Jacob. Well, didn't Jacob, didn't Isaac
have another son besides Jacob? Look back in Romans 9. He had
a son named Esau, but that wasn't God's chosen. Look here, Romans
9, 10. Not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her that elders
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. There was no difference between
these boys. They both had the same father,
they had the same mother, they were in the same womb. They were
both conceived in sin. Who made the difference? God's
saving grace. He elected Jacob and he passed
by Esau. Look at verse 14. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For He said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it's not of man that
willeth. It's not of man that runneth.
but of God that shows mercy. It's of God's grace. God's grace. They're born. How are we born
again? Not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. See, this
thing is all of grace. The choosing, the calling, the
keeping, it's all of grace. God chose His people by grace. Christ redeemed His people by
grace. The Spirit of God calls and regenerates
His people by grace. Listen to this. All three, God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter
1-2, listen to this. We are elect according to the
foreknowledge of God, the foreordination of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit births us and
sanctifies us. We are brought to obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. We are redeemed by Christ.
This is all of grace. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. So we see here that salvation
is not of man. Salvation is of God. It is of
God. Doesn't the world hate that?
Why does the world hate that? Because it takes out of man's
hand. It takes it out of man's hand.
It takes it away from being man's will and man's work. And it makes
salvation to be all of God. And proud, arrogant sinners hate
to be told they can't contribute to their salvation. But you see,
that's all in the purpose of God too because if you're going
to be brought to rest in Christ, you know what's going to have
to happen to us? We have to be brought We have to be humbled. We have to be brought low to
Christ's feet so that we trust Him to do all the saving. And
that's the last thing I want to show you here. We seek Christ's
condescension to save His people from our sins. Him coming down. Now, the reason I pointed that
out to you, you've got the Father begatting the Son. In three places,
you have the mother listed. And look at each of those relationships. First of all, verse 3, Judas
begat Phares and Zerah of Thamar. That's his daughter-in-law. That's
incest. Then you got verse 5, Salmon
begat Boaz of Rahab. That's Rahab the harlot. And
you got Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Ruth is a Moabitess. She wasn't
even a child of Israel. She was one of those, God said,
don't have nothing to do with them. They're heathens. They're
without God, without Christ, without hope in this world. Oh,
and one other place, look here in verse 6. Jesse begat David
the king and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been
the wife of Uriah. Three women listed there. And
all three of them are four women. And all four of them are sinners. Notorious sinners. If you were
sovereign, would you put that in your son's genealogy? Would
you have that in your son's genealogy? A sinful incestuous union? A sinful harlot? What's that mean? It means our
Savior's great, great, great, great, great grandmother was
a harlot. Christ's great, great, great
grandmother was a harlot. Rahab the harlot. A sinful Moabitess,
Ruth. And then an adulterous and murderous
relationship. David committed adultery with
Bathsheba and to try to cover it up he killed her husband. Oh, I don't think a believer
would do that. Do what? Have an incestuous relationship? Marry somebody that's not a believer?
Have an adulterous relationship and then kill the husband? What
is it you don't think a believer would do? God included these sinners to
manifest to us that Christ came to save sinners. He came to save
sinners who couldn't save ourselves. Everyone in this genealogy are
sinners. Now get this now, everybody he
listed here, all these other men that he listed here, these
fathers and sons, they're all sinners in their heart just as
much as those outward sins you see in those others. That's what I was trying to tell
you Thursday night when God said, yea, in heart you work wickedness. We shouldn't get too proud and
too arrogant and too self-righteous when you see a brother in Christ
commit sin outwardly. because there is far worse being
committed in our own heart. But even after calling his people,
these were things that happened even after he had saved his people.
And then you have others. You think about Noah. Noah, you
think, people will say something like, well, if he just had Christ
revealed to him more, he wouldn't do that. Noah spent 120 years
building an ark that pictured Christ better than anything had.
And God shut him up in the ark before he rained a drop of rain
down and then destroyed the whole earth and saved Noah because
he's in the ark. You don't get a better picture
of Christ. And Noah wasn't out of that ark very long at all
and he grew him a vineyard and made him some wine and got drunk. Moses got angry and smote the
rock twice. You say, well, what's the big
deal about smiting a rock twice? Because that rock was Christ.
And Christ wasn't smitten but once. He got the job done one
time. Moses wasn't supposed to smite that rock again. Why did
he do it? He got angry at the children of Israel and smote
it again. What about Apostle Peter? Here's
an imminent apostle. denied the Lord three times and
left. He wasn't coming back. He was
going back to his fishing trade. These were all sinners. But here's
the thing about that. That's the only kind of person
Christ came to save, is sinners. Go to Matthew 2. I'm sorry, I think that's Matthew
12. Let me see. Well, I don't know where it's
at. Matthew 2. I don't know. I may be in the
wrong book. Let me just read. You know the Pharisees and the
scribes and they saw Christ sit down and eat with publicans and
sinners. Publicans and sinners. And they got all arrogant and
haughty about that. And they asked his disciple,
why does your master eat Republicans and Sinners? And Christ said,
they that are whole have no need of the physician. It's Mark 2,
isn't it? Mark 2, yeah. I remember Rob
just preached on it. They that are whole have no need
of a physician. But them that are sick, and he
said, make sure you understand this. I didn't come to call the
righteous. I came to call sinners. I didn't
come to call people who think they're holy enough for me to
associate with them. I didn't come to call people
who think they've done enough good works that they merit me
to sit down at the table with them. I came to call sinners
who can't do anything to please me. That's who He came to save. That's the only ones that really
need a Savior. We won't really need a Savior until God makes
us see that we're sinners and can't do one thing. That's when
you need a Savior. That's who Christ came to save.
And now you think about that. And you think about the condescension
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Son of God. This
is the Son of God. God Himself came down and took
human flesh. made in the likeness of sinful
flesh. And then, He didn't take the
position of a king or of a mighty ruler. He took the form of a
servant. Unknown. No reputation. Nothing that's going to make
people want to just naturally follow after Him. And then, How did He redeem us? He went down to a cursed cross. He came down lower in condescension
to a cursed cross. And then He went down to a borrowed
tomb and was buried. To think we have trouble forgiving
somebody that has offended us. Isn't that amazing? After what our Savior did, after
what our gospel is, after how we claim that we are saved by
Christ coming down, down, down, down and making Himself the very
least to save horrible, stinking, worthless sinners like we are.
And then I won't come down because somebody has offended me? I won't
come down and show mercy and forgiveness because somebody
has offended me and they have done it far less than I offended
him. This condescension is what is
going to... The condescension of Christ is
what is going to make you and me when we are made to see Christ. It is what makes me and you come
down. It makes you come down because you see what Christ did
for you and how low He came and made Himself the very least to
save a sinner. It became Him. This was the most
beautiful thing about Him. It became Him. Listen now. For whom are all things and by
whom are all things. You would think There would have
been another way he could have done this. But it became him. It was the most becoming thing
for him to do. For him to bring many sons to
glory by making the captain of our salvation perfect, consecrated
through suffering. That was the most becoming thing.
The most beautiful thing. And God came down and suffered
to save His people. Listen, both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. Have you been seeing
these doctors on television treating this coronavirus? They got so
many clothes on and they can't even do anything. They got gloves
on, they got masks on, they got things all over their body. And
so they're not having to come in contact with that person.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came down to do the sanctifying and made
Himself one with those stinking sinners He came to sanctify.
Made Himself one with these sick, depraved sinners that He came
to make whole. That's the great physician right
there. That's the great physician. And so therefore, He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. He's not ashamed to call us brothers
and sisters. the God of glory. Isn't that
amazing? Listen to this. In all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren. Why? That He might be merciful. He
might be merciful and faithful. and things pertaining to God,
that He might make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Isn't
it sad how you and I do this, I do this, you do this, we all
do this. Every believer here does this.
We get in our flesh, our flesh is pride, that's all it is. It's
arrogant, self-righteous pride is all our sin nature is. We
get in our sin nature and get in our flesh and become too proud
to reconcile with somebody that offended us a little bit. Our merciful and faithful high
priest, in order to be merciful to us, came down to be made of
a woman like us. He came down to be made under
the law like us. He came down to be made sin like
unto His brethren. He came down to be made a curse
for His people. He came down to that borrowed
tomb. And now by His precious blood,
all of His black sheep are washed white as snow. He reconciled
us to God. He took a hold of God who was
offended and took a hold of these sinners that could do nothing
to bring us together with God. And Christ, by coming down and
doing this work for us, reconciled us together and made us one with
God. He didn't do that for us when
we were doing some good things for Him. He didn't do that for
us when we were showing some potential for being a little
better down the road. No. He did that for us while
we were yet sinners. While we had no strength. That's
what He did for us. And then He says to us, Come
now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Well, preacher, how am I going
to get that? Ain't but one way. Go ahead and come down. Go ahead
and condescend. Go ahead and come down. What's
keeping believers from coming to Christ and confessing Christ?
Pride. That's it. Pride. Isn't it amazing? The thing that keeps us from
coming down, the thing that keeps us from being begging for mercy
and being merciful is pride. And yet, we do everything
we can to look religious and to look accepted before men and
to make ourselves justified before men. And what we are doing is trying
to cover up pride. That's all it is. trying to cover
up our pride. How do you know when pride has
been busted wide open and God has given a new heart and that
pride has been subdued? When a sinner comes down and
confesses, I am nothing. God, when you condemn me, you
are just to condemn me because against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Everything I've ever done has been sin. Everything
I've ever said has been sin. Everything I've ever thought
has been sin. All I ever do is sin. So I can't defend myself. And we have to be brought there
with one another, don't we? When you're brought there, there'll
be mercy and there'll be reconciliation. and there'll be forgiveness and
there'll be peace. That's where we have to be brought.
We have to be brought down. Is there anybody that's too proud
to identify with worthless sinners? If I'm too proud to identify
with worthless sinners, I'm too proud for Christ to save me.
Christ came to save sinners. I pray He make us come down.
He came down to save His people. Now let us come down to be saved
by Christ. Alright, let's stand together. Father, we thank You for Your
mercy. Thank You for Your condescension. Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness.
Help us, Lord. Help us. Bring us down. Work your will. Bring us down. Do away with our pride. Make us to be merciful, mercy-begging
sinners. I ask you to do this for Christ's
sake. We ask You, Lord, forgive us our sins and our pride and
our... I ask You to do this for Christ's
sake. Amen.