Now, if you would, open your
Bibles to Matthew chapter one. And as you're turning, let me
tell you what a joy it is to be here and to see so many of
you, so many friends. And it is a, I count it a high
honor to be invited to be here. Pray that our Lord's blessing
enable us to worship him today. Now this morning, I'd like for
us to look at Matthew chapter one and see the nature of Christ's
coming in the genealogy of Christ. Verse one of Matthew one begins,
the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Now that word generations means
nature. That's why I got the title, the
lesson, the nature of Christ's coming. You know, the genealogy
of our Lord Jesus is not just a bunch of random names and you
just kind of get over those things as fast as you can so you can
get on to something more important. And this genealogy is not written
just to prove to us that Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew who really
did descend from Abraham. The genealogy of Christ shows
us the nature of his coming, why it is that he came, and what
is it that he accomplished when he came. Now here, Matthew lists
the genealogy of Christ through his foster father, Joseph. Luke,
if you would read that this afternoon, lists the genealogy of Christ
through his mother, Mary. And both Joseph and Mary were
from the tribe of Judah. They both descended directly
from David. Their genealogy branches off
after David, but they both trace their genealogy back to David.
It really doesn't matter which one you read. Both of those genealogies
teach us the same spiritual truths about why it is that Christ came.
And I want us to see three things this morning from the nature
of Christ's coming, to see salvation in Christ from his genealogy.
And we won't read all these names for time's sake. We'll just read
a few of them, because I know for sure what those names are
teaching us. So first, the nature of Christ's
coming teaches us this, that God is a covenant God. Salvation
is in God's covenant of grace, and covenant means promise. And
I promise you this, God always keeps his promise. The first
verse here mentions Abraham. God made his covenant known to
Abraham. God promised Abraham, Abraham,
you're gonna have a son. Even though Abraham was too old
to produce any children, God told him, you're gonna have a
son. And that son was not Ishmael, who was produced through the
power of the flesh. God said, Sarah's gonna have
a son. And just like I told you, God
always keeps his promise. Sure enough, when Abraham and
Sarah were too old to have any children, Isaac was born. Now, that was a miraculous birth.
But that's more than just the miraculous birth of Sarah's baby
boy. Abraham understood God's promise.
God's promise to Abraham was the Messiah is gonna come through
that son. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. God promised
Abraham that in Isaac, all the nations of the earth are gonna
be blessed because through him, the Savior's gonna come who has
a people from every nation, from every tribe, from every kindred.
He's gonna save people from even the Gentile nations. And we see
how God kept his promise in this genealogy. There are two Gentiles
listed in this genealogy, Rahab and Ruth. Now those two ladies
weren't saved because they were Jews who were under the law.
They were heathen Gentiles. They never even heard of the
law. Rahab and Ruth were saved because of God's covenant grace,
his promise of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the
same thing in the names of the kings listed here. A father was
a king, then his son would become a king after him. Some of them
were good kings. Some of them were wicked, evil
kings. And that teaches us salvation does not flow through human bloodlines. It's by God's covenant grace.
It's through the blood of Christ. But Christ came identifying himself
with even these wicked kings to show us that these wicked
kings were in his family tree to show us that salvation comes
by God's grace through the blood of Christ. Then in beginning
in verse 11, we read about people who were carried away into captivity.
And while they were in captivity, they had children born in captivity. Now, those people are gonna go
into captivity, but we know they must be set free. They've got
to come back from Babylon. You know how I know that? Because
long before they went into captivity, God promised they would. God
said they're gonna go into captivity, but he promised they're gonna
come back to Jerusalem. And sure enough, They were set
free and returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the city because God
keeps his promise. Now here's the lesson to you
and me. This is a picture of us being born in captivity to
sin. And we're born into this world,
these sweet babies. Oh my goodness. Oh, they're so
sweet. But now they're born in captivity
to sin. And if you don't believe me,
just in the next three seconds, don't sin. Don't think a sinful
thought. Didn't work, did it? All somebody's
gotta do is tell you don't think a sinful thought. You automatically
do it, you know why? Because we're in captivity to
sin. We cannot set ourselves free
from it. But here's the good news. If
God Almighty has promised grace to you, you're going to receive
it. You're going to be set free because
God always keeps his promise. And he did it by sending his
son to set us free. Christ came to open the prison
doors and to set the prisoners free. That's the nature of Christ's
coming. That's his work. That's why he
came to redeem his people, to save them by his grace, by God's
grace. And Christ came according to
God's promise. Now He came as the Son of God.
Unto us a child is born, but the Son was given. He came as
the Son of God. The Lord Jesus never ceased to
be God. He is God Almighty. That baby
born to Mary was Almighty God, the Eternal Father. There He
was in her arms. But he's also truly the son of
man. He became flesh. He truly descended
from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God's a covenant
God. And as the God-man, he came able
to carry out God's purpose, his promise, his covenant of grace
for his people. That's why he came, to bring
grace to his people. All right, number two. The nature
of Christ's coming teaches us that God's grace is sovereign
grace. Now, verse one, David is also
listed. And we all know King David. And
David also shows us how God's a covenant God. He keeps his
promise of grace. God promised David, David, you're
gonna have a son who's gonna sit on your throne forever. Now,
who could that be? It wasn't Solomon, was it? Solomon did sit on the throne
of his father, David, but just temporarily. He just sat there
till he died. No, the son who would come and sit on David's
throne forever, ruling and reigning is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the son of David. And God, sure enough, God kept
his promise. When it looked like David's family
tree was just a stump that was gonna die out forever, God sent
his son in the house of David, the house and lineage of David.
And he came as king of kings, Lord of lords, and his reign
is eternal. because he's God. He'll never
die. He'll never abdicate his throne.
God came as a man who is both David's son and David's Lord. And that's something the Pharisees
never could figure out. How is that possible? How can
he be David's son and David's Lord? Well, just one way. By the son of God taking on him
human nature and coming as the God-man. And since the Lord Jesus
Christ, he's the son of God, he's the son of David, he's in
the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe, he is king. He's king. And the king is sovereign. Now we Americans don't have a
concept of what a sovereign ruler really is. We don't like our
rulers, we think we'll just vote them out. We'll just wait, we'll
just vote you out. You don't do that with the sovereign.
There's no resisting his will. There's no resisting his reign.
There's no getting rid of him. He's sovereign. What he says
goes, and we don't have a right to question it. Now that's a
sovereign. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the sovereign. So God's grace is sovereign grace. He gives it to whom he will. Not because we deserve it, but
because he will. God never saves somebody because
they deserve it, never. You can't do something to keep
the law well enough or do something to deserve God saving you. God saves people who don't deserve
it. They've never done anything to
deserve it. God saves sinners, not because they deserve it,
but by the grace that he decides to give them. God saves whom
he will, when he will. Now that's the very definition
of sovereign grace. And I understand the natural
man hates that, but if there's somebody here who hates this
truth of God's sovereign grace, let me ask you this. Instead
of hating that, why don't we come and beg the sovereign to
save me? Lord, you save whom you will,
but you save me. God, you give grace to whom you
will. Would you give grace to me? And
we see God's sovereign grace in this genealogy of Christ.
God called Abraham out of his father's house. Abram, get out
of your father's house and go to land, I'll show you. And he
called nobody else. Now Lot and Sarah went with him,
but as far as we know, nobody else from that family went, because
God called Abraham and left everybody else in idolatry. God saved Isaac
and he cast Ishmael out. God loved Jacob and he hated
Esau. Judah, of all Jacob's sons, Judah's
the only one listed in this genealogy. Out of that wicked city, Jericho,
God saved one woman, Rahan. Out of that whole country of
Moab, God saved one woman, Ruth. Of all the sons of Jesse, God
called David, put David upon the throne. You see that? There's no denying it. God's
grace is sovereign grace. And this is the good news of
the gospel. Since God's grace is sovereign
grace, nobody is so sinful. Nobody is too far away from God
that they cannot receive God's grace. If God promised grace
to them, there is no obstacle that God's sovereign grace cannot
overcome. Like I said a minute ago, we're
all born in captivity to sin. The sin of God's people is great,
but God's grace is greater than all of our sin. God's grace will
overcome it. The blood of Christ will put
that sin away. God's people are born with a
nature that's rebellious, that will not and cannot come to Christ. But God's sovereign grace is
so powerful, he'll overcome that stiff rebellion and make us willing
in the day of his power. That's God's sovereign grace. There's no overcoming God's sovereign
grace. There's no resisting it. God
in his sovereign grace, ruling over all, will save his people
from their sin. And that's why Christ came. All
right, here's the third thing. The nature of Christ's coming
teaches us this wonderful good news. Christ came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. The
genealogy of Christ shows us how truly he was numbered with
the transgressors. You know, it's a big thing today.
Trace your family tree and send in some of your DNA and they'll
tell you all these people you're related to. And I've never done
it because I'm just quite honestly afraid to find out, you know.
There are a lot of people listed here. If they were in our family
tree, we'd hide that. We'd cover that up. But not our
Savior. He listed every one of them.
Christ was numbered with the transgressors in his birth, in
his genealogy, his family tree, numbered with the transgressors.
He didn't hide the awful sin of his people. Throughout his
earthly ministry, he was numbered with the transgressors. Who hung
around him? Publicans and harlots and a bunch
of illiterate fishermen. And Christ was numbered with
the transgressors at Calvary. Look who he died between. And
look who he saved. As he hung there, looks like
to us completely helpless, did he demonstrate his sovereign
grace? He left this one alone and revealed himself to this
one. He numbered with the transgressors for this reason. so that at Calvary,
he could take the sin of his people away from them. He could
be made sin for them and put their sin away by the sacrifice
of himself. And we see that in this genealogy.
Jacob is listed in the genealogy of Christ. Now, Jacob is a known
cheat. He's a known scoundrel. Don't
do business with this guy, because you're gonna come out on the
short end of the stick every time. But Jacob is listed here,
show us this. Who is it Christ came to save?
He came to save sinners who are cheats. They try to cheat God's
law. They try to cheat God's justice.
They try to cheat God's holy character. But Christ came to
save them anyway, by his blood and his obedience. Then in verse
10, there's Manasseh. Manasseh was a wicked king. When
he became king, you know what he did? He actively restored
idolatry to Israel. And this is the picture. Everybody
Christ saves is an idolater, for they meet Christ. That's
right. Now we're an idolater. We're
worshiping some idol, whether it's one made out of stone or
ceramic, or whether we're worshiping self, whether we worship this
Jesus that we've made up, who's not the God of the Bible. One
way or another, we're an idolater, in idolatry. But that's who Christ
came to save. And the moment they see Christ,
they turn to God from their idols and they serve the true and living
God. And then there are people listed here. We don't know anything
about them. This is the only time their name
is recorded in scripture. And the only thing that I can
draw from that is they're a bunch of nobodies. They're insignificant. That was the whole house of David
when Christ was born, wasn't it? They thought they're just,
they're a bunch of nobodies. But that's who Christ came to
save. He came to save nobodies from nowhere. And here's the
good news. This is the nature of Christ's
coming. We cannot be so small and so insignificant. God won't
save us. You can be too big, but you can't
be too small. And then there are four women
listed in this genealogy. Now that's got to be significant
because the Jews only trace genealogies by fathers and sons. They didn't
list daughters who were born or mothers, but here there are
four women listed. Now what can we learn from them?
Well, Tamar is listed in verse three. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law. You read about her in Genesis
chapter 38. And Judah married one, or Tamar married one of
Judah's sons and he died. Well, she married the next son,
and he died. Well, Judah just had three sons,
and he wasn't about to let that third one marry her. He's going
to die too, you know. But Tamar wanted a child. So
you know what she did? She dressed up like a harlot.
And she went and played the harlot on a place where she knew her
father-in-law Judah was going to be passing by. And Tamar became
pregnant with twin boys from her father-in-law Judah. Now,
sometime later, Judah finds out that Tamar's pregnant from being
a harlot. And he said, boys, you go get her, we're gonna burn
her at the stake. And she got there and Judah found
out he's the daddy. Well, that's another matter altogether,
isn't it? And you think of the shame of
that, the disgrace of that. Not only had she played the harlot,
she became pregnant through an incestuous relationship. but
that's exactly who Christ came to save. He came to save spiritual
harlots who've earned nothing but to be burned at the stake.
And Christ came to save them by taking their place and dying
under the fiery wrath of God for them, to save them from that
by suffering it for them. Then in verse five, there's Rahab
the harlot. You know her story, you read
about her in the first chapters of Joshua. And Rahab didn't just
play the harlot. Rahab was a harlot. She didn't
have business. And she lived in a city that
had been condemned by God. This is the first city Israel's
to take and to destroy when they enter the promised land. But
God saved Rahab out of that city. Rahab was saved. Joshua sent
those men in there. He said, you kill everybody.
You destroy everybody. But you bring Rahab the harlot
out alive. And everybody's in her house. who's under that scarlet
thread hanging out her window. She's safe under that. She's
safe under the promise of God, under the token of the blood
of Christ. And those men went out and they brought her and
her family out. And oh God's grace to Rahab, she married a
prince in Israel, a man named Salmon. And God gave that harlot
a son, Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. Now this is the nature of Christ's
coming. Christ came to save a people who are under the condemnation
of the law. They've got no hope of deliverance except for the
blood of Christ. Christ came to satisfy the law
for them by shedding his blood to pay for their sin. And all
of God's elect are eternally saved under the blood of Christ. Then the third woman is Ruth
of Moabitus. You can read about her in the
book of Ruth. Now, who is Ruth? Well, Ruth was a Moabitess. She
was born to a cursed race. God had cursed the whole race
that began, the whole race began with an incestuous relationship
between Lot and his daughter. And God had cursed everybody
in Moab. They're all cursed. But God arranged it to go down
there and bring Ruth out of Moab and bring her back to Israel.
And he saved her out of that cursed nation. He brought her
back to Israel and had her gleaned. She just happened, scripture
says, her hap was to lie upon a field where she was gleaning
that was owned by none other than Boaz. And Boaz, I mean,
this fellow was something. He was tall, dark, and handsome.
I bet he had thick, dark, black, curly hair. He came riding up
to look at his field, that white horse, and there he was. And
all the women just went, and all the men were kind of impressed
with him, too. I mean, he's somebody. And he set his eye on that poor
beggar Ruth. And he set his love upon her. And he determined he's going
to have her. And he redeemed her. There was
a kinsman closer than him, but that kinsman couldn't do anything
for her, but Boaz could. And he redeemed her. He bought
back everything that she'd lost, and he gave her children. and
Ruth the Moabitess became the great-grandmother of King David. The only explanation for that's
grace, isn't it? And that's the nature of Christ's
coming. Christ came to save a people who were under the curse of sin,
and he redeemed them from that curse by being made a curse for
them, and redeemed them, bought them back, and he set his love
upon those people, and caused them to fall in love with him.
just like Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. And then last there's Bathsheba.
Now her name's not mentioned here, but she's mentioned in
verse six as the wife of Uriah. And you know the story of David
and Bathsheba. They committed adultery and she
got pregnant. David tried to cover the sin
up by calling her husband Uriah back from the battle, but Uriah
was so loyal to David, he was so loyal to those men back there
at the front, he wouldn't sleep with his wife. So then David
had him killed so he could marry Bathsheba and try to cover up
their sin. And David thought he got away
with it. He thought he did. Until one day Nathan came to
him and said, David, you're the man. Now that child died, but
David didn't. You know why David didn't die?
It goes back to God's covenant grace. See, nothing David could
do, no heinous sin of David could violate, could make, what's the,
violate, not ratify, make it not ratified, God's covenant
of grace. God had promised grace to David. He promised David a son, and
in God's grace, he gave David and Bathsheba another son, Solomon,
who would reign in David's stead. Now that's the nature of Christ's
coming. He came to save those who are guilty of spiritual idolatry,
who will join ourselves to every fleshly feel-good religion and
reject the gospel of God's grace in Christ. But Christ came to
save those sinners, those rebels anyway, and do it by his grace
and cause them to be like Gomer. They're not going after their
lovers anymore. No, they'll be joined to Christ and Christ only.
And it could be that God chose Matthew to write this and give
us this genealogy to show us these spiritual truths, because
Matthew's very qualified to write about this, isn't it? God's covenant,
sovereign saving grace. Because where was Matthew when
Christ found him? Matthew was collecting taxes
as a publican. You know what a publican was.
A publican was a trader to Israel who collected taxes for Rome.
I mean, whatever, you got to pay your taxes, so okay, he's
collecting taxes for Rome. But here's what the publicans
did. They cheated their own kinsmen, their own brethren. They charged
more taxes than what Rome required, and they skimmed off the top
and became rich from it. That's Matthew. And one day,
the Savior passed by. And I bet you he hardly slowed
down and said, Matthew, follow me. And he just kept walking. He didn't look to see if Matthew
was gonna follow him. He gonna follow him, because
the Savior said, follow me. And Matthew had his books. He
spent a long time cooking them books and all that money. And
Matthew got up and he left the books. He left the money. And
you know what he did? He followed Christ. You know
why he did? because of God's covenant grace.
God promised grace to old Matthew. Matthew didn't know it, but God
promised it to him. And he found out about it when
the Savior passed by and said, follow me. Matthew had been saved
by God's sovereign grace. When the master said, follow
me, Matthew could not follow him. He's just irresistibly drawn
to the Savior, because that's God's sovereign grace. Matthew
had been saved by God's grace for undeserving sinners. Phew,
I sure am glad. That's the nature of Christ's
coming, because that's my only hope, and that's your only hope
too. And then the last name in this
genealogy is the most important name, the most glorious name,
the name of our Savior. Verse 16 says, and Jacob begat
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ. Now the name given to our Savior
at his birth was Jesus. His name means Savior. It's the
New Testament name for the Old Testament name Joshua. The Lord
Jesus is the Son of Man. He actually came as a man. Mary
gave birth to a real baby boy. He came in the flesh so he could
be the Savior of sinful men and women like us, in the flesh.
Now the man's name was Jesus, but he's called the Christ because
he is the Christ. He's the Savior, the promised
Messiah who came to save his people from their sins. And this
genealogy is no different from all of the rest of the word of
God. It's all about him. It's all about who he is and
why he came and what he accomplished when he came. All right, Lord
bless you.