Go with me if you would back
to Matthew 1. Matthew 1 and let's read verse
21 again. And she shall bring forth a son. And thou shalt call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Tonight, I want us to look at
His people. That's the title of the message,
His people. He came to save a particular
people. God, His Father, chose the people. Isn't that amazing? If you think
about God, before the world was ever created, back in eternity,
for all of eternity, knowing every human being that would
be born, and hand-selected His people. He said, these are mine. These are mine. Out of every
tribe, nation, kindred, tongue, generation, every generation,
the mercy of the Lord's to every generation. The Lord said in
John 17 that he would give eternal life to as many as the father
had given him. He said, father, you chose them and you gave them to me. And
Christ said, I have now come that they might have life and
that they might have it more abundantly. Can't imagine what
more abundant life is going to be like. Every single one of
my people, I'm going to save them. I'm going to save everyone. Everyone that the Father chose
and the Son saved, the Spirit will call. That's how you will
know His people. That's how you will be able to
identify His people. The Spirit will call them. And that's what I want us to
look at. Who in particular are his people? Not every person
is his people. Not every single person is one
of his people. Many people are not his people. And I don't want to be one of
those people. I don't want to be not one of
his people. This is important. This is important to me. Who
are his people? That's the question. Who are
his people? And am I one of them? Who are
his people? And am I one of them? I want
to show you a person in Luke 18. Now, as soon as we go there,
We've seen this person many times, and I say in sincerity, I want
us to look at what a fine man this is. And I mean that, okay?
Turn with me over to Luke 18. Let's take just a second here
and enter into what a fine man this actually is. Luke 18, verse
10, it says, two men went up into the temple to pray. The
one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee. He's a religious man. He's a
praying man. He's praying to God. He's a church
going man. He went into the temple and he is not ashamed to call
himself a Christian. All right. Verse 11, the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are extortioners. I'm not an extortioner. This
man didn't take advantage of anybody. He did not take advantage
of someone else's loss for his own gain. He just wouldn't do
that. He was not that kind of person.
And that's quite a quality. That's really quite a quality.
Verse 11 says, he said, I'm not an extortioner. And he said,
I'm not unjust. This guy honestly would not defraud
anybody. You know how you go to a fast
food restaurant and you order your meal, your combo and everybody
there's employees and everybody's kind of grabbing this and that.
And you walk out and open the bag and realize they put two
fries in there. They messed up and they put two
fries in there. All of us say, oh well, they're
lost, my gain. And the reason is because for
sanitation reasons, they can't take it back. And so that's what
we tell ourselves. They can't take it back anyway. I'll just
keep it. Well, this man right here wouldn't
defraud anybody. He was the kind of man who would
go back up to that counter and say, you can't take these back,
can you? No, sir, we can't. Let me pay you for them. No,
really, it's okay. It was our mistake. You just
keep them. No, we're going to eat these and I'll pay you for
them. That's the kind of man this was. He would not defraud
anybody. Verse 11 says, I'm not as other
men are extortioners, unjust adulterers. He was the kind of
man that no woman was, um, offended by or. felt uncomfortable by. This was a man who didn't want
to give an uncomfortable look. He didn't want to... nothing.
He was a gentleman. He was a gentleman. Verse 11,
he said, I'm not an extortioner, unjust, adulterous, or even as
this publican. Publicans were considered to
be traitors. They were Jews who collected
taxes from other Jews to give it to the Romans. And in the
process, it was very deceitful. Some Jews wanted this job because
it was very deceitful. In the process, they could skim
off the top and they would skim off the top. And John Gill said
that they used brutal harshness to force the money out of the
Jews they were taking it from. It was very mafia-like. Those
Republicans and they were hated people. They went in there and
they fought, you're going to pay that tax or else. And so this man said, I'm just
nothing like that. I'm, I'm, I'm nothing like a
publican verse 12. He said, I fast twice in the
week. Again, John Gill said that that
was a commandment given by the order of Ezra. That's a commandment
that is not even that well known. They fasted on Monday and Thursday. And this man observed it. He
said, I give tithes of all that I possess. He was a pillar in
the church that he attended. But we all know down in verse
14, our Lord said he was not one of his people. Isn't that
something? He was not one of his people.
As fine as this man was in his moral character, That fine moral
character was not an evidence of being one of his people. Now,
this is so important. All of God's true people are
jealous of this man. They are. They really are. They want to be just like this
man. They do. They want, they have a heart
that wants to be just like this. They want to obey God. They desire
to be the kind of man that he is. But seeing that in a person
is not a defining evidence. There is something that is a
defining evidence of being one of His people. That's not it.
That's a wonderful thing. God's people strive for it, desire
it, beg for it, preach it, but it's not a defining evidence
of being one of His people. All right, now let's see who
our Lord said was his people. Go with me back to Matthew 1. Verse 2 says, Abraham begat Isaac. Abraham was an idol worshiper
for the first 75 years of his life. He bowed down to idols. He was a man who lied about his
wife being his wife. He told other men on numerous
occasions. He did it many times. He said,
this is my sister, and then he sent his wife away with those
other men. Could you imagine doing that?
What kind of man is this? Stand up for your wife and be
a man, trying to save his own skin. God protected her every single
time in spite of his ignorance, in spite of his wickedness. He
was a man who left the covenant of his own marriage and he had
an illegitimate child with an employee of the family. The worst part about it is he
did it in the name of doing God's business. He in total error and unbelief,
I believe the best way to describe it is false religion, said, God
is not able to do this without me. I'm going to have to add
my works in order for his will to come to pass. That was Abraham. If you really get right down
to it, that was Abraham. Verse 2 says, Isaac begat Jacob. Now, obviously, we're not going
to go through all these people. We're going to just skim through
a couple of the ones that we know well. Jacob bribed his own
brother out of what rightfully belonged to him. He lied to his
own father. in order to get what rightfully
belonged to his brother. He put his brother's clothes
on. He put animal skins on his arms so he would smell like and
feel like his brother. When his father point blank asked
him three words, are you Esau? And as a side note, we're welcome
to enter into the gospel along the way if we want to. But he
asked Jacob, are you Esau? And he said to his father, he
said, yes, I am. And he took what rightfully belonged
to somebody else. Everything about his life lived
up to his name. Trickster, supplanter, liar,
cheater. That was Jacob. Verse 2 says,
Jacob begat Judas, which is Judah and his brethren. Judah sold
his brother, Joseph. I have three sisters. I can't
imagine selling one of them. He sold his brother. They put
Joseph in a pit. and some Ishmaelite gypsies came
by. And Judah was the one out of
all those brothers, Judah was the one who said, let's sell
him. Judah said that, let's sell him. They sold their brother for 20
pieces of silver. That was Judah. Verse three says,
and Judah begat Phares and Zarah of Tamar. Phares and Zarah were
Judah's illegitimate incestual children. This woman Tamar was Judah's
daughter-in-law. She was married to Judah's son. His name was Air. In Genesis
38 verse 7, it says, Air was wicked in the sight of the Lord
and the Lord slew him. God just killed him. Because
Tamar wanted a child, she disguised herself and she tricked her father-in-law
and those two products of incest were born. Phares and Zarah. Alright, skip down to verse 5.
It says, And Salmon, or Salma, begat Boaz, which is Boaz, of
Rahab. And that's Rahab. Rahab was a
harlot. She's a harlot. When you set aside that amazing,
amazing story of Jericho, what a wonderful story, that precious,
beautiful token of the scarlet line, you bind that scarlet line
and you cling to that scarlet line and when I see the scarlet
line, What a wonderful story. All the destruction that came,
her amazing deliverance. When you set all that aside and
you get down to the heart of who that woman was and what her
life consisted of, she was a harlot. That was Rahab. Verse five says,
Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitess woman. That means a woman from Moab.
Moab the people, the entire nation of Moab came from Moab the man. Moab was the product of a much,
much, much worse form of incest that involved Lot. He was Lot's
son. The Moabites, as a nation, were
the openly sworn enemies of God and the children of Israel. They
hated God. They hated the true and living
God. Verse 6 said, Jesse begat David
the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had
been the wife of Uriah. We know that story well, don't
we? When you get right down to it, David, he was a murderer
and he was an adulterer. We acknowledge that he did a
lot of wonderful things in his life. He did. But we'll never
be able to deny or undo the fact that he was an adulterer and
he was a murderer. Physically speaking, in life,
it can't be undone. He did it. What's done is done.
Now, is it not amazing that God said, these are my people. These right here. Of all the people in all the
world. These are the people that God
hand selected to make up his family tree. Every single one
of these people are sinners. And they're not just little centers.
They are great, great centers. Verse 11 says, Josiah's begat
Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away
to Babylon. All of Israel was carried away
captive into Babylon. All of God's people are a captive
people. All of them. They're all captive
to their own sin. Every single one of these people
lived their life on this earth bound by sin. Every one of them. Every one
of these people died because of that sin. Every person that's
mentioned right here died. Generation after generation after
generation, they died. But verse 16 says, And Jacob
begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ. Now look with me at Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says,
wherefore as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Verse
15 says, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more by the grace of God. And the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. Verse 19 says, For as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What is all that saying? It's
saying, call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. He came for His people. He lived for His people. He suffered for His people. He bled for His people. He died for His people. He endured that great separation
from God. He called it hell. Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell. He endured that for His people.
He satisfied God for His people. He arose for His people. He broke down that middle wall
of partition for His people. He ascended for his people. He
sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high for his people
and he ever liveth to make intercession for his people. Every bit of
it is for his people. It's all called mercy. It's all
called mercy. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. Mercy, that's what Jesus did
who was called Christ. God said He, by Himself, not
with me, not with you, by Himself, shall. No possibility of failure. What blasphemy it is when men
stand up and say God is trying to save you. What blasphemy that
is. Shall save to the uttermost. His people. This chosen, peculiar,
prized, blessed, all these recipients of grace from their sins. And that's what He did. That's
exactly what He did. Now to every person that He did
this for, God sends a messenger. Isn't that kind? Isn't that so
kind? To every person that he did this
for, he sends a messenger to tell that person exactly what
Christ did for him. This notification, that notification
brings new life. God called it the new birth. All of his people are born again,
regenerated. Now, in the story of our text,
the very thing that Mary was notified of, all the things that
the messenger, God sent a messenger to Mary. And that messenger preached
a message to Mary. Mary heard the gospel. And the
things that Mary was notified of concerning our Lord's birth,
those are the very things that His people are notified of concerning
their own new birth in Christ. All right, go back to Matthew
1. Verse 18 says, Now the birth
of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as His mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Now did you understand what was
said there? When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph, they were engaged before they came together. She
was found with child of the Holy ghost. What that means is she
did nothing. God did it all. That's what it
means. And that's what she was notified
of very quickly. I'm not going to, I'm not going
to drag this out too long, but very quickly go to Luke one. Luke 1, verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored. Do you have a center reference
for highly favored? Graciously accepted. That's what
she was notified of. He came in and he said, Mary,
you have been graciously accepted. He went on to say, the Lord is
with thee. That's what God's people are
notified of. Blessed art thou among women, Mary among all the
women. You're so blessed. She was just notified of these
things. In none of this did the messenger say, now Mary, if you'll
do this, God will do that. Nowhere. The entire notification
was God has done it all. He's done it all. Verse 29, And
when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her
mind what manner of salutation this should be. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This message came and fear struck
this woman. Verse 30, And the angel said
unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.
Peace be unto you. No need to fear. Peace through
this Savior. Verse 31, And behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his
name Jesus. He said, Christ liveth in you. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Verse 32, he shall be great and
shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob. He's going to reign over the
house of sinners forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? How is this possible,
seeing I haven't done anything? My flesh has contributed nothing. How is this possible? Verse 35,
The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. How
is this possible, Mary? Just behold the Lamb of God.
The Holy Ghost will do it all. Every one of His people received
that notification. The same notification that was
given to Mary is the one that every child of God receives.
Every one of His people respond to it in the same way. I love
this. Look at verse 46. And Mary said,
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things. And holy is his name. And his
mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation."
She's just taken by his mercy. His holiness and his mercy. My
dad had a friend and his son got into trouble and he had to
go to court and he was about to be put in prison. And my dad's
friend, the father of this young man, asked the judge, he said,
Judge, he said, Your Honor, is there any room for mercy? And
the judge said, Based on what your son has done, he doesn't
deserve mercy. And he said, your honor, no one
deserves mercy. That's what makes it mercy. Mary
and every child of God that is notified of this is taken by
mercy. Every one of them says, how can
it be? I don't deserve this. Verse 49, she said, He that is
mighty hath done great things for me. Holy is His name. His mercy is on them that fear
Him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with
His arm. He hath scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled
the hungry with good things, and the rich hath he sent empty
away. He hath helped Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as
he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. Everything
he promised he has fulfilled." That's how she responded. Now, I started this by asking,
who are his people? And am I one of them? I want
to close this by answering that in this way. Am I one of his
people? Based on the people that we have
just looked at and based on Mary's response to her notification,
someone needs to look me in the eye. Am I one of his people?
Here's how I can find out. Somebody needs to look me right
in the eye. And they need to ask me point blank, Gabe, are
you a sinner? One question, are you a sinner? I mean, in your natural flesh,
a vile, worthless, ruined, wicked, wretch in God's eyes. And Gabe, don't give lip service,
search your heart. Search your heart. Are you everything
the scripture condemns? Do you fall into every single
category? In your flesh, are you the epitome
of God's enemy? Are you the poster child of everything
God hates? If my answer is no, then no. I'm not one of you. But if my
answer is, yes, and I need mercy, then yes. If we know that we are that great
of a sinner, the Holy Ghost has made us so. Only the Holy Ghost
reveals that greatness of sin to a sinner. There are people,
men and women right now on death row, men and women spending life
sentences in prison who don't know that and don't believe themselves
to be that great a sinner. Not too long ago, I talked to
Brother Milton Howard. For the last 17 or 18 years,
he's been going to the prison and preaching there in Louisiana
where he is. And he said the amazing thing
to him is in that prison, everybody's innocent. He said, it's amazing. Everybody's innocent. Everybody's
there wrongfully. Everybody has been framed. Nobody
deserves to be there. And that's every man and woman
by nature. I'm not perfect, but I don't deserve this. But if
God has truly revealed that in my flesh I'm everything that
this scripture says I am, the Holy Ghost has made us so. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. If we're truly one of those,
then we're truly one of His. Truly. And we freely, boldly
call on Him. We cry out to Him, our Savior,
knowing full well that in His blood He has saved me, He saved
you, He saved all of His people from our sins. Every one of them.
And when this great notification comes, all of God's people cry
glory to God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest.
All right, let's all stand together.