Good morning. Let's be turning
to Matthew chapter 1. We're told in verse 18, Now the
birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother
Mary was espoused to Joseph. In other words, they were engaged
to be married. And that was significant, especially
there among the Jews. This was a done thing. This was a marriage set in motion
that was not to be broken by man at this point. There was
no breaking it off. It was to go through. She was
espoused to be his bride. But they weren't yet, officially
didn't quite take place yet, that actual marriage ceremony.
Before they came together she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. Now we've been in the Gospel
of Luke lately and we saw not long ago what appears to be that
occasion when Mary conceived by the Holy Ghost. It was called,
the angel called it the Holy Thing. the holy thing. And that sounds strange to us,
but I believe what he's saying there is this is the God-man
mediator. This is not a man that was born
of men. He is made of God. He's formed of God. He's the God-man mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this miraculous conception,
I did not call it the immaculate conception. It's not a Catholic
thing, which says that Mary had to be sinless. No, if Mary had
to be sinless, then her parents had to be sinless, and their
parents had to be sinless, and so on and so forth. No, Mary
is a sinner just like you and I. She even calls him my God,
my Savior. She confessed, I'm a sinner in
need of salvation by this one whom you sent. And so this, but
it is miraculous what the Lord did here. It is miraculous what
he did in in creating, in forming this body, giving the eternal
Son of God a body formed in the womb of Mary. And we saw how it looks like
when she went to her cousin Elizabeth. and said, hello, Elizabeth, that
then what the angel said, the Holy Spirit is going to come
upon you. Well, the Holy Spirit was poured out immensely there
upon both those two women. And they prophesied. They glorified
the Lord one to another there. And it looks like that foretold
transaction that would come. came, and Mary said, he that
is mighty hath done to me great things." Great things. Now, it
doesn't tell us that that was precisely what it was, but it
appears like that's exactly what happened right there. And after
three months, she returned home. And at some point, it was told
to Joseph, your espoused virgin wife is pregnant. She's with
child. She's with child. And it says
now in Matthew 1, 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man
and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her
away privily. And that word privily means privately. He wanted to do this quietly
and carefully. Now under the law, he had a couple
of options. Under the law, he had a couple
of options. It says in Deuteronomy 22, verse
23 and 24, that he could publicly have her stoned. He could take
her out to the public square and tell everyone what she did,
and they would pick up stones, and they would put her to death
in order, as it says in Deuteronomy, to put away evil from among you,
among them. Or, according to Deuteronomy
24 verse 1, he could quietly write her a bill of divorcement
and give it in her hand and send her out of his house. Send her
away from him. And it seems that, though she
wasn't in his house at that time, she would have been with her
parents, but it seemed like this is the way he was leaning. He was
leaning towards just doing this thing quietly and putting her
away. But the Lord showed him another
option, something that he didn't think of, something that he couldn't
even see or imagine that this was something that he could do.
The Lord showed him something of grace, of grace, and he showed
he told him what he was to do and he gave faith to Joseph so
that Joseph believed the word of the Lord spoken to him and
Joseph obeyed the Lord and honored the Lord by faith, by faith. What he did, he followed through
on his engagement to Mary and he married her. He took her to
be his wife. And that's a beautiful picture
to us of what the Lord does in our hearts. What he does in all
his people and his chosen people whom he's redeemed graciously
by the blood of Christ. And this is what we see here
in verse 20, Matthew 1 20. 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 in her
is of the Holy Ghost. And so what we're seeing here
in looking at this passage, we're reminded again how everything
concerning the birth of our Savior, concerning his conception, his
birth, and everything that we see him accomplish here in the
flesh for his people, We're seeing pictures. We're being reminded
of the gospel, the good news of our salvation, even right
here in what we see. We see a just man like Joseph.
He's obeying the will of God by not executing that sentence
which was against them according to the law. He could do that.
He could have had her put to death according to the law, but
rather by faith he honors God. And he continues on in marriage
because he believes God. He takes Mary to be his wife.
And so what's this showing us? What's the picture for us in
our salvation? Well, we see how that the Lord
Our God is gracious to us for Christ's sake. According to the
law, we've broken the law. We've transgressed the law of
our God. We've trespassed against him.
We have sinned and done iniquity and wickedness. And according
to the law, we deserve death, eternal death, eternally being
cut off from the true and living God. That's what we've earned.
That's the wages we deserve. God has found a way, well, he
made a way. He found a ransom in our Savior,
Jesus Christ, that he may be gracious to whom he will be gracious
and merciful to whom he will be merciful, not because of our
righteousness, not because we've done what we should have done
to make ourselves righteous, because we can't. But he found
a way in sending his son. He provided a way in sending
his son, Jesus Christ, who laid down his life under the law. And he bore the wrath of God
for his people as our sin bearer to put it away, to put it away
that we might receive forgiveness for our sins with God, that we
might receive forgiveness. And we have received forgiveness.
And he's put it away and given us his spirit and life. and light
to believe and to walk by faith in the true and living God. He
did this for us, and now we are, and so we were espoused to him
before the foundation of the world, and he's now received
his espoused bride to himself. He's taken us to himself, calling
us out of darkness, and delivering us by his mercy and grace. So
I came here to Matthew's account of Christ's birth because Luke
actually doesn't talk about it. Luke does. We've been in Luke
chapter one. We're going to be going back to Luke next week,
Lord willing, but he doesn't, he just. speaks of Joseph, saying
he's going down to Bethlehem, but he doesn't tell us anything
about Joseph before then. But Matthew does. Matthew does.
And so that's why I wanted to come here, because it shows us
that no matter what vantage point you're looking at, at the coming
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, what we're seeing here is God's
grace, His power, His what His gracious will and purpose is
for His people in saving them from their sins by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we're told that while Joseph
thought on these things, what we see here is that Joseph didn't
move hastily. He didn't just react and just
do the first thing that came into his mind. He thought on
these things. He wasn't hasty about it. It
doesn't say that he prayed, but I believe he did pray. And I
believe he did seek the Lord. And this was weighing heavily
on his mind. He knew this family, no doubt,
and he knew He loved Mary and was set to marry her. And he sought the Lord on what
the Lord would have him to do in this matter. And while he
was thinking about these things, and while he was being patient
with these things, God revealed to him what he would have him
to do. And what God would have him to
do was contrary to what Joseph thought he was going to do. It
ran contrary to what he thought he was going to do according
to the law, and instead the Lord led him down paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. That's what the Lord does with
his people. He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's
sake. We look to the Lord, we call
upon the Lord because of his grace, because of his power,
because of His Spirit and His mercy working mightily in us,
contrary to nature, contrary to what we are in this flesh.
If you're His chosen child, He will be gracious to you, and
He will turn you from what you would do, and it'll glorify the
Lord our God. It'll glorify His name. And so
we're to be instructed in this here. See, the reality is, we're
troubled. When we're troubled, we're to
seek the Lord. The Lord is saying, when you're
troubled, when difficulties come, seek me. Don't be hasty in what
you think you should do. Trust me. Wait upon me. Know that the Lord hears your
prayers. Know that He knows your burdens,
your infirmities, your weaknesses, your sicknesses, your doubts,
your fears, your worries. The Lord knows these things.
These things come by His hand and He's going to make known
to you His will in His time. Verse 20, 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. Joseph clearly had
concerns about taking Mary to be his wife. He had fears and
concerns about what this would mean. Don't be afraid to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. I would imagine that this sent
shockwaves through their families. through Mary's family and her
parents thinking what now is going to become of her, our daughter. Will she be stoned? Joseph could
have her stoned. He could have her sent away.
What's gonna become of her? And Joseph was shaken about this
and concerned very much about this. There's ramifications to
what appears to be to have happened here. And those things are very
provocative to the flesh. They provoke the flesh, not just
you and the people concerned you, but anyone who hears about
it. And it stirs up the flesh in us. And we know the works
of the flesh are wrath and anger. And we can be very vindictive
and say things that we ought not to say and do things that
we ought not to do as though we're something and they're nothing.
It can stir up the flesh in that way. But there's three things
here. Before we go on, I just want
to point out three things here just in this beginning here.
First of all, what happened to Mary was of the Lord. He tells
us this was of the Lord. He said, that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. How does this translate to our
lives? What does this mean to us sitting
here? Well, we have afflictions and
we have sorrows. We have tribulation and trials
and difficulties and hardships and hard times. And what the
Lord is saying in this is it's these are of the Lord. They are
of the Lord. Your God is sovereign. He is
sovereign. Nothing comes to pass except
he brings it to pass that doesn't excuse our sin It doesn't excuse
the things that we do that cause trouble to ourselves, but know
this that your God is sovereign and And you can trust him and
that you were to believe him and trust him in this and in
this case This was a wonderful thing a very wonderful thing
because it was for the good of the Lord's people. It's for our
good that Mary conceived because she was bearing the seed of the
promised son. She was bearing the promised
son, the promised seed which the Lord spoke of in the garden. Finally, that promise was coming
to pass in which we would be delivered from our sin. But it did definitely cause an
occasion for a trial for Joseph. It absolutely created a trial
for Joseph. But the first thing our Lord
is showing us is that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. God is sovereign and nothing
comes to pass except He bring it to pass. In other words, we
may be patient and pray and seek the Lord in. Don't be hasty and
react in the flesh. when difficulties or hardships
come or something happens to one that you love, be patient. Be patient and trust the Lord
and pray about it. Seek the Lord about it. Second,
we don't often recognize this in ourselves, but trials do come
as a help to us. None of us can stand here and
say, I'm perfect and I don't have any need trials or strippings
or difficulties because I've arrived none of us can say that
none of us is without sin and so the Lord does send trials
and he knows exactly how to humble us he can put his finger right
on you without touching anyone around you and you and you alone
be affected by that trial in a way that you know Lord you
hit me right exactly where where I feel it Only you could know
that, Lord, because of all the things, you touch the one spot
that breaks me. And he does that. And he's able
to do that. And we don't see it. We weren't
looking for it or recognizing our need of it. But now we feel,
I'm weak. Now I feel my infirmity. And
I didn't know it was there, but now I know. Now I'm reminded
of my own weakness and my own mortality and my flesh now I
see it Lord I see it and in it the Lord has a way of removing
vain confidences from us and he has a way of doing that removing
that puffed up Arrogance in our flesh that we didn't feel was
there, but now we feel it and now we're reminded and we see
it and He strips that away But what does he do he ministers
and to us in the spirit and he gives us in the new man that? Strengthening which is which
the the flesh is put on its face in the dust and we're humbled
But he draws us to the Lord and when you're drawn to the Lord
driven to the Lord and crying out to him That's a good place
to be. That's actually a very good place
to be. Like Mary, the sister of Martha,
was always found at the feet of Christ. Always found at His
feet. And that's where it's good for
us to be, at the feet of Christ. Crying out to Him. That's a safe
Wonderful place to be it's painful in the flesh. I admit the flesh
doesn't like it and we don't seek it out, but When the Lord
has done it and he ministers his spirit to that new man in
us We thank the Lord for it because we know Lord you're wise and
it sure will and I see your goodness in even just that and doing doing
that and so Here's Joseph, no doubt humbled, but it proved
to be a good thing. honored the Lord, and we'll see
later, as we go back to Luke, he listened to what the Lord
said to him to do. He was made very sensitive to
the voice of the Lord. But the hymn writer Calper says
to us, judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for
his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. He does that. And then third,
you that wait upon and trust the Lord, have thy peace. Be at peace about it. Leave it
with the Lord. Cast all your care upon him,
for he careth for you, but leave it with the Lord. We saw many
weeks back in Colossians where he said, let the peace of God
rule in your hearts. And what he's saying is, you
know that the Lord is sovereign. He has all things in control. It's all happening exactly as
He purposed it. Therefore, knowing that, let
the peace of God rule in your hearts. There's nothing more
you can do about it, except when you're burdened and you cry out
to Him, He'll receive you. But trust Him. Trust Him in it
and wait upon it to do what is right in you and in others. And so, It may take a long time. It may take a long time. The
Lord does that and he teaches us patience and in that patience
he teaches us experience but it may take time but the judge
of all the earth shall do right. He will do what is right. Now
the angel tells Joseph that not only is the child in Mary's womb
of the Lord, but he declares to Joseph that this is the long
expected son, this is the promised salvation that God promised to
us right at the very beginning in the garden when we fell, right
there, that by the seed of woman he shall come and make all things
right. So it says in verse 21, And she
shall bring forth a son, the promised seed of woman. And thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. This message here by the angel
is a message of grace. It's a message of redemption. It's a message of peace that
our God declares to us in the coming of his son. And that's
what our Savior does. That's the message of Christ,
him coming. It is a message of grace and
peace and comfort. It's not just a nice story. about
some little baby born to very poor parents, swaddled in rags
and laid in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals.
Those facts are true, but that's not it. This is a word of comfort,
a word of grace. To you that are sinners, to you
that have no righteousness of your own, this is to say, Look,
look to your God and Savior. He has sent his darling son to
put away your sin and the wrath of God, which is justly against
you for your works. He's put it away by the death
of himself. His birth signals to us salvation. This is what the sinner looks
for. Lord, I need this grace and mercy. This is the one who
you promised would come and crush the head of the serpent, my enemy,
my accuser? He's come to crush His head and
to bear my sin away and to give me life and light in Him. Lord, this is the message that
he's given to us. So Christ was made of a woman
because he must be a man made like unto his brethren in order
to suffer for them, to suffer in their place, to bear our punishment
and our wrath. So he must come as a man. And he said, it's written of
the son of man, because that's who he is, he's the son of man,
that he must suffer many things and be said at naught. But, as
the Eternal Son of God, God doesn't suffer and die, but man suffers
and dies. As the Eternal Son of God, He
wasn't made of a woman, He was given by the Father. The Son
of God is given by the Father for this very purpose, for our
salvation, to satisfy the eternal justice of God, to lay down His
life as our substitute and to bear that eternal wrath in Himself
to put it away and to obtain eternal redemption for you that
He loves, for you that were given to Him of the Father before the
foundation of the world redeemed you and here it is this is why
he's come to deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage in other words when we saw our
sin and religion and and and things when the Lord showed us
what this his word means and what we are in ourselves he made
us afraid and we labor and we strove and we spent and And we
gave everything we could, and through all of that, all we found
is that, wait a minute, the more I work here, the bigger my debt
gets. And the more light I have, what I'm seeing is more and more
how awful I am. What a sinner I am. And how I
haven't gotten closer to God, climbing my way up there by my
works, I actually see I'm further and further and further away.
And so not only am I a sinner, but like Paul was brought to
see, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst. It's terrible. If my brethren saw what's in
my heart, it's awful, awful. And that's what he shows his
people so that we wouldn't have confidence in ourselves and try
to come to God in our own righteousnesses, but that we say, Lord, I don't
want to come in my righteousness. Don't receive me in any of my
works. I want to be found in him, in
his righteousness. receive me in the righteousness
of Christ because verily he took not on him the nature of angels
but he took on him the seed of Abraham this is the one whom
you sent for this very purpose for this purpose and so being
given of the father he came in this world as a man and his body
was formed by God in the womb of a virgin to fulfill the scriptures,
to fulfill these scriptures. Now, the prophet Isaiah says
it this way in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom
to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this and so this description here tells us how
wonderfully he is and and and we could drill into those things
but you know something the angel the angel of the Lord speaking
to Joseph in that dream says it very plainly and very boldly
says thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. And that's what all those descriptions
in Isaiah are pointing to. He saved his people from their
sins. That name Jesus is the Greek
version of Joshua. It's just a Greek version of
Joshua. And Joshua means Jehovah is salvation. Our God is salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord, Jonah said. The psalmist said it the same
way in Psalm 3, 8. Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Our God is
the one who saves his people so that his very name signifies
the very purpose for his coming. and what he accomplished for
his people. It says in Thessalonians, oh,
well, the other thing we're told is that he has people. He shall
save his people. That means he has a people, a
people that he knows. He knows exactly who his people
are, and that's who he's gonna save. Look over at 2 Thessalonians
2. 2 Thessalonians 2. And we'll go to verse 13 and
14 there. And Paul says, but we're bound
to give thanks all way to you. No, it doesn't. We're bound to
give thanks all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. He chose you. He passed by many
and chose you to salvation through sanctification by separating
you apart by His Spirit and belief of the truth. You believe this
day. in you that believe, because
God has separated you by His Spirit and called you by His
grace, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining."
In other words this is an effectual call in your heart that is not
heard in the hearts of those who are not chosen of God, to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, so you
that believe Him this day rejoice, because that's not of your flesh's
works. The faith of God is not the fruit
of the flesh, it's the fruit of the Spirit, and He works that
faith and salvation in the hearts of those whom He chooses to give
it. to give it because he chose them
in Christ and Christ redeemed them and so this salvation here
is deliverance from the just wrath of God. I remember when
I was young and knew of Christ, but didn't really know his gospel,
and she kept saying, saved from what? What are we saved from?
Well, we're saved, now I know, I didn't know then, to my shame,
but now I know we're saved from wrath, from the wrath of God. And not only that, but we've
been drawn out of darkness into the light of Christ and have
life and light and liberty to walk by faith in him. He's called
us, he's given us his spirit. He's delivered us from that just
wrath that we deserve and given us life in Christ Jesus. And so he saves us, he delivers
us from that wrath and gives us life. And so for this cause,
Christ was sent of the Father to obtain salvation for his people
and to give it to them. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. When He died and redeemed His
people, that secured it, just as secure as the promise made
before the foundation of the world. Nothing's going to interrupt
that or torpedo it or take you out of the Lord's gracious will
for you and purpose in Christ. Nothing. And I'm thankful for
that. Nothing's going to pluck you out of His hand. Nothing's
going to pluck you out of the Father's hand, because He's sovereign,
almighty God. We can't even take ourselves
out of it, thankfully. Because we would. We would if
it depended, if any of it depended on us, we would take ourselves
out of it. But we can't because it's entirely in his hand. It
rests entirely on his shoulders. The government shall rest on
his shoulders, not on yours and not on mine. His and so he did
it and he shall save his people from their sins in other words
the angels saying It is certain. It's certain. He's accomplished
redemption. He's accomplished it It's it's
settled. It's settled in the purposes
of God and nothing's gonna change that or alter it He in fact in
Isaiah 42 for it says he shall not fail Till he hath set judgment
in all the earth He doesn't fail. He didn't fail. He accomplished
it. It's done. And it rejoices your heart. You
that believe him, you're rejoicing. You're rejoicing. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. It's done. And so this word is
a word of encouragement to us who have no righteousness. Christ has come for the poor
and needy sinner. That one who is nothing but filthy
rag righteousness and wouldn't dare now, by the grace of God,
wouldn't show up in that. Because, yeah, I have nothing
to boast in. But we do come in that righteous
robe put on us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We come in His righteousness. that is trusting him believing
that his blood has put away our sins and that God receives us
for Christ's sake for his sake and his sake alone and so that's
how we come it says in John 3 15 and 16 that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish but have everlasting life well it
says eternal life there but Then in the next verse, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It's his promise. It's his word.
Come to Christ. You that have no money, you that
have no righteousness, you that have no works, no goodness, come
to Christ. Buy and eat. not with your money
and your works, with His. Trust Him. Rest in Him. He's
provided everything you need to come and take of the milk
and the honey of the Lord. It's given to all who come to
Him in Christ. It's given to them freely. Freely. And you wonder, well, how do
I know it's for me? Because He's formed faith in
your hearts. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ and God hath
raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, you are saved.
That is his work of grace in your heart, trusting that God
has done everything necessary, everything necessary. And so
Matthew confirms to us that this Jesus of Nazareth, just like
Luke, he's confirming this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the
very promised son of God. to save his people from their
sins. It says in Matthew, we'll just finish it up, Matthew 1,
verse 22 and 23. He's quoting here from Isaiah
7, 14. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, behold, the 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. And so we see here that the Lord
sent his word, his good word, to settle Joseph, to say, Joseph,
put your eyes on me. Look to me. I've done this. I've done this for your good
and the good of all my people, your brethren, your brothers
and sisters scattered throughout the world. I've done it for the
good of my people. You take Mary to be your wife.
I'll provide everything. needful for you. You just trust
me. And Mary, she was a virgin. She
was a virgin when she conceived. She was a virgin when she gave
birth. The Lord provided everything for her. Now, in closing, there's
one final picture of the gospel here that we see in what Joseph
does. And so verse 24 and 25, this
is the messenger has given him the good news. He's declared
to him that Christ has come and he shall save his people from
their sins. That's the good news. Then verse 24, Joseph being raised
from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and
took unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought
forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus. And that's what
the Lord works. in the hearts of His people.
We hear the good news of what Christ has done and He raises
us up out of sleep, out of our death and sin and trespasses.
He raises us up unto newness of life and we go and are joined
unto the Church, the Bride of Christ, in faith, believing our
God, trusting Him. Trusting him. There's other pictures
there too that we'll see one day, but it's all of his grace
and mercy. Rejoice in Christ. Be glad this
day in him. Salvation has come. It's accomplished. It's done. He is the successful
Savior. He cannot fail and he did not
fail. You that believe him have eternal
life and continue walking in faith in him. Trusting him. It's his blessings to you in
Christ. Amen.