Turn back to Matthew chapter
1. Matthew chapter 1. After the
service, we'll have a meal downstairs, so let's not forget that. I don't
think anybody's going to forget that, but just in case. But we will have a meal downstairs.
Next weekend, I'll be in Florida preaching. Greg Elmquist, having
a Bible conference there. And O.B. Williams will be here
again in my place. The title of the message is Christ's
Relationship to Sinners. We will see his relationship
to us sinners through this genealogy. Now, the book of Matthew mostly
majors on the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
rightful heir of the throne. We have before us a genealogy
that proves that. He is the son of David. He is
the son of Abraham. Now, I know that genealogies
are interesting. They're interesting, I'd say
that, but for the most part, they're insignificant. What would
it matter if I had nobility in my genealogy? It'd just be one
worm bragging on another. That's all it would be. That's
all it would be. But this one is of great significance. It's the fulfilling of the word
of God. It's the fulfilling of the promise
of God that He made to Abraham. Concerning His seed there in
Galatians chapter 3, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises
made. And He says, Not unto seeds as
of many, He's not talking about many seeds, but as of one unto
thy seed, which is Christ. Those promises are made to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the heir of it. He is that
promised seed. The Jews who kept meticulous
records could not deny his ancestry. They couldn't do it. They denied
him everything else, but they could not deny his ancestry. This is the son of David. This
is the son of Abraham. I know the verses before us look
like a bunch of hard names, and reading them, they are. They're
not easy to read. But there is not one name, there's
not one line, one verse in the Scriptures that's not important. Everyone's important. Every word
in the Word of God is important. And all these names connect him
to us as a real man. They connect him to us. And I
was thinking as I was doing this, he's the only person to pick
his ancestry. And to think he chose to identify
himself with sinners like us. And we will see We will see there's
some rotten people in his ancestry. And he didn't leave them out.
He didn't hide them. Not at all. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. And yet he became one with us
in our nature. What condescending grace and
love we have in Jesus Christ. Abraham, it says, beget Isaac.
Isaac beget Jacob. Jacob beget Judas and his brethren.
If you'll remember, God made a covenant with Abraham, saying,
through thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And in time, God fulfilled that
promise through this genealogy. But here's an interesting fact
as I was reading this, this jumped out at me. through divine purpose
and providence. The genealogy here flows through
Jacob and not Esau. Esau was the firstborn. The birthright
and all that was supposed to flow through him. But you remember,
he sold the birthright. He sold it. He gave it up and
it fell to Jacob. What I see here is God's sovereignty
is demonstrated. The firstborn, supposed to have
the blessing, he despised it, he sold it, he gave it to Jacob,
whom God loved. The one whom God loved. Jacob,
the deceiver, that's what his name means, deceiver. If we didn't know any more than
what, you know, if we just didn't really know anything about this
whole situation, We would not have chose Jacob, we would have
chose Esau. Esau was a man's man. He was. He was a hunter-gatherer. But God loved Jacob. Deceiver. He called Jacob in one place,
thou worm Jacob. That's what he called him, thou
worm Jacob. Salvation doesn't come by seniority,
it comes by grace. It comes by the sovereign grace
of God. And God in his sovereignty chose
Jacob. And the genealogy, the lineage
is gonna flow through him. And then in verse three and four,
and Judas beget Pharaoh, and Zara of Tamar, and Phares begat
Eshrem, and Eshrem begat Aram, and Aram begat Abinadab, and
Abinadab begat Niasem, and Niasem begat Salmon. I want us to take
a closer look now at these people as we go down through here, and
I'm not gonna deal with every name, we'd never get out of here.
I'm gonna deal with some of them. The first one is Tamar. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. That was his daughter-in-law.
Remember, her husband died, and then she was supposed to marry
the younger son when he became of age, and Judah did not give
him to her, and then she played the harlot. She dressed up like
a harlot. Judah came along like a hog gone
to the slaughter. He went right in. And he lay
with her, and she conceived. She conceived and had pharaohs. We do not have, and you're going
to see this as I go along, we do not have a list of outstanding
people here. No. What we have is a list of sinners. That's what we have, a list of
sinners. And Salmon begat Boaz, which
is Boaz, of Rachab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed
begat Jesse. Boaz, you know the story of Ruth
and Boaz. And Boaz, such an eminent type
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a kinsman-redeemer. His mother, that Rachab is Rahab,
his mother was a harlot. David, King David's great-grandmother
was a harlot. A harlot. They're Algerica. And the two women mentioned here
in this verse, a Canaanite woman, which was a harlot, and then
a Moabite woman, Ruth. The Moabites came from an incestuous
relationship between Lot and his daughter. Now if you're gonna
pick your ancestry, is that what you'd pick? If you had the opportunity
to pick your ancestry, would you pick that ancestry? Would
you pick that family tree? No, you wouldn't. I know us,
I know we wouldn't. We'd pick on somebody we could
brag about. But here's the, don't miss this. Here's what it is. You have this
Canaanite woman. You have this Moabite woman.
What we have here is Gentile blood mixed with the Hebrew blood.
God early on showed that the Gentiles, us, are going to be
a part of the family, a part of God's family. That's what
He's showing. This proves that Christ is not
ashamed to call us brethren. To call us brethren. He's not
ashamed of it. He's akin to a harlot like Rahab
and a Moabite like Ruth. And He's not ashamed of it. Christ is not ashamed of any
of His brethren, including me. I had to put that in there. When
I was making these notes, I thought, including me. He's not ashamed
of me? It's ought to encourage the chief
of sinners here this morning to run to Him. to run to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesse
begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her
that had been the wife of Uriah." Notice that the adulterous affair
between David and Bathsheba was not left out. It was not passed
over. It was not slipped under the
rug. And he had, don't put that in there. You don't need to put
that in there for generations and generations to read. He put
it in there. The Lord purposely had that put
in there. That Solomon was born of her
that had been the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. God didn't pass
it over. Although God took the life of
their first child, God gave them Solomon, and through Solomon,
this lineage continues, the genealogy continues. I thought, how merciful
God is to sinners. Only God, now listen, only God
can pass by the transgression of His people. Listen as I read
this to you out of Micah's chapter 7. Who is a God like unto thee? Who's a God like our God that
pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant
of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever
because He delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities.
And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
They're gone. Who's a God like our God that passes by iniquity and transgression? There's none. There's none like
our God. I thank God for the one who was
to come and put away our sins. Our Lord was already standing
He was already standing in the presence of God for all His children
before the earth was made. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. That's how these names can be
written in here. Because He had already put their sins away,
like David. That's what Nathan the prophet
said to David. Thou shalt not die, the Lord
has put your sins away. Other men, David, have died for
the very thing you just did, for the very sins you just committed.
But you're not going to, but I'll tell you why. Because the
Son of God's gonna die. The Son of God's gonna die. You and
I know, if we're honest, we know we're as guilty as anybody on
this earth. We're just as guilty. We just haven't got caught, that's
most of the reason. Just as guilty. Our Lord stood
as a mediator even before He became incarnate. As John Newton
wrote, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch. He got it right, didn't he? That
saved a wretch like me. Verse 10, and Hezekiah said,
Hezekiah, He beget Manassas, and Manassas beget Amon, and
Amon beget Josias. Here we have a line of kings
now. And one of them, one of them
was very wicked. I don't reckon there
was any more wicked than him, Manassas. He was Judah's most
wicked king. This man was given to idolatry. You go over in 2 Kings sometime,
21, and read it. This man was given, totally given
to idolatry. He restored everything his father
Hezekiah destroyed. Manassas erected the altars to
Baal. He erected an image to Asherah
in the temple, right in the temple. He worshiped, now this man, worshiped
the sun, the moon, and the stars. He worshiped them. He recognized
the Ammonite god, Moloch, and he sacrificed his son to him.
He sacrificed his son in the fire, burning, as a sacrifice
to Moloch. This is the king of Judah. But later it says over in 2 Chronicles,
you can go over there and read, he fell down and he begged God
for mercy. God granted this man repentance. And he went back and tried to
undo everything he did. Everything. Why would God allow
such a wicked person to be a king? Why would He let him be a king?
You know, he reigned for a lot of years. I forget how many it
was, but a lot of years. Long-suffering. Oh, the long-suffering
of God. How long God put up with me?
How long God put up with you before He brought you to faith
in Christ? Why would God allow such a wicked
person to be a king? Well, let me ask you this question.
Why would God make us kings and priests under God? He has made us kings. and priest
unto God. Why would God take someone like
me and make me a king and a priest? Why would he do that? I know
this. I know we're no less wicked by
nature. I know that. Our Lord's genealogy gives this
sinner hope. If he will let a harlot in, maybe
he'll let me in. If he will save a Manassas, maybe
he'll save me. Maybe he'll save a wretch like
me. If he will save a wretch like Manassas, maybe he'll do that for me. In Josiah verse 11, Josiah begat
Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away
to Babylon. Would you choose a bunch of prisoners
to be in your genealogy? Well, let's see, back 500 years
ago, all of mine were in prison. Would you choose that? Christ
was born of a people that was carried away into captivity.
Christ identifies Himself with prisoners. Prisoners. He identifies himself with a
suffering people. A suffering people. What hope? What hope that ought
to give to sinners? You know what Zachariah calls
them in Zachariah chapter nine? Prisoners of hope. That's what
I'm looking at right now. You who believe the gospel, we
who believe the gospel, we are prisoners of hope. That's what
we are. Prisoners of hope. Now, most of the names in verses
12 through 16, there's not much there. Not much history, that
is. There's nothing written on them. And the reason being is that
David's house had reached an all-time low. Reached an all-time
low. David's house was nothing more
than a root out of dry ground. You know what it says over in
Isaiah 53? I'm just a root out of dry ground. The house of David
was almost forgotten. I mean, it was pretty much forgotten. But here's what I see. Our Lord became poor that we
through His poverty might be made rich. You're looking at
a very rich man. Not monetary-wise, but in Christ,
spiritually. And I'm looking at some very
rich people. All things are yours in Christ. All things are yours in Christ. In his birth, he was born to
a family of loaves, a poor family, carpenter's son. Our Lord is
truly the poor man's king. He's truly the poor man's king.
No one is too low for him to eat with. Now think about that. There's not one person on this
earth that's too low for him to sit down with and eat. I'm
sure there's people, we probably wouldn't do that. You're probably not going to
go sit down beside a harlot and eat. A publican, most hated guy
in town, and eat. Fellowship. Not just sit there
and eat. Fellowship. Fellowship. You know, one of
the charges against him was this. This man receives his sinners
and he eats with them. Can you believe that? Oh, I'll tell you what, it's still true today.
This man still receives sinners and fellowships with them. The incarnate God is born of
a poor virgin, had no place to lay His head, ate with the publicans
and the harlots. They were welcome in His presence,
and they felt welcome. They felt welcome. They didn't
feel out of place sitting there beside of Him. He made them feel
welcome. And I want you to get this. Not
one time did Christ ever feel Himself to be above His company. Not one time. He never felt Himself
to be above His company. He never saw them as beneath
Him. They are His children. These
make up His children. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. Christ came to save sinners. I would to God that I could find
a sinner, for I have good news for sinners. I have good news. I don't have good news for anybody
else. I don't. I don't have good news for anyone
else. But I have good news for sinners. Christ is not ashamed
to enter your humble abode and fellowship with you there. He's
not ashamed to be seen with sinners. He's not ashamed to let you use
His name. Are you ashamed to use it? He's not ashamed to be seen with
you in public. Would you be ashamed to be seen
with Him? Jesus Christ is not ashamed to
have sinners in His genealogy, even the worst of them. Adulterers,
harlots, murderers. They're right there. They're
right there. Christ is not ashamed to have
sinners in His genealogy. Would you hide anyone in yours?
I don't remember the movie star. You know on TV they have this
ancestry thing. And they usually take these movie
stars and they'll do an ancestry, a genealogy thing, and then they'll
be, you know, something there to brag on and boast about. Well,
this one, he found out that his great-great-great-grandparents
were slave owners. And he did not want that in his genealogy. And they hid it. They hid it. As shameful as it was, they hid
it. He didn't want it out. Well, they got exposed, of course. They got exposed. And then he
made apologies and stuff. Our Lord didn't hide one thing. He did not hide one thing. He didn't hide that harlot. He didn't hide that Moabite woman. He didn't hide that adulterous
affair between King David and Bathsheba. And the reason He
didn't hide it is He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's not
ashamed. Our Lord didn't hide His family
tree, though it was shot full of sinful, wicked people from
top, the kings, to the bottom, the horrors. What's this say? What does all this say? It says this. It says that truly
Christ died for the ungodly, that truly Christ is the friend
of sinners. He's a friend of sinners. We should go home, when we go
home today, we should go home and just be awestruck that we are in the Savior's family. That we, when I say we, I'm talking
about those who believe the gospel. We are in his genealogy. We are
in that family tree. Isn't that amazing? All right,
Craig.