I'd like to begin with Psalm
61. If you'd like to turn in your Bibles to the 61st Psalm,
Psalms number 61. We'll read the first four verses.
Psalms 61, verse 1. Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto
my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a
shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. And I want to
just say, our worst enemy is ourselves. He's been a strong
tower from the enemy. Verse four, I will abide in thy
tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings. Selah. All righty, if you'd like
to take your handouts and hold them, look at them alongside
of your Bible, we'll be looking into the Lord's Word tonight,
and some in the book of Genesis, some in the book of Acts. But
I want to begin with the handout itself. So if you'd like to look
at page one, we're looking tonight, we're starting The Gospel According
to Matthew. And I'd like to bring this before
you as an introduction. Consider, consider for just a
moment, the difference between viewing a picture. Now, as I
read these words, a writer, a commentator, I thought to myself, and I closed
my eyes, and I thought of this, a picture. We have these pictures
that are so beautiful, and they're so detailed, and we think we
see everything there is to it. But if you consider the difference
between viewing a picture and viewing a statue, a picture being
flat can only be viewed in one dimension. A statue, on the other
hand, can be viewed from all sides. revealing all the details
of the figure. And this is what the four recordings
of the gospel by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are. The details
of the statue of Christ, each one giving his account of a detail
to see the God-man as the Holy Spirit led them to record. four
different men, four distinct gospel narratives, yet one complete
story, one inerrant story of the birth, the life, the death,
and the resurrection of our substitute, the sinner's substitute, the
righteous sacrifice for God's chosen people found in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. As we saw in our recent study
of the mark, Mark represents, he presents the side of Christ
as Jehovah's servant, coming to fulfill his father's will,
ready, willing to serve, and willing to be sacrificed upon
the altar. Luke presents the Lord as the
son of man, full of human sympathy and tenderness, understanding
of man and what we go through in this world. John sets forth
the deity, the lordship of our Savior before us as the Son of
God with the majesty that goes above all our thoughts and all
of our imaginations. And then here in Matthew, Matthew
shows us Christ as our triumphant king, as the lion of the tribe
of Judah, as the promised Messiah who has come to save his people
from their sins. And what a better way to start,
what a better way to start. with then to present us with
the line that he was foretold to be of. Now remember, the Lord's,
he was told, Abraham was told all the way back to Abraham.
Long before David, long before anybody else, Abraham or not
before anybody else, but before most, Abraham was called out
of the land of Chaldea. Now that's the land of idols,
idol worshipers. They had every kind of idol you
can think of that man could make with his hands. And the Lord
called him out, just as he called you and I out of the land of
Chaldea that you and I walked in before the Lord called us.
So here we're going to see the line that our Lord was foretold
to be of all the way back to Abraham. And we see that in the
first verse of Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, the book of the generation
of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, page 2. Now,
Robert Hawker wrote this. He said, the Old Testament begins
with the covenant of the creation. The New Testament begins with
the account of Him What did I say? Let me read that again, I read
that wrong. The Old Testament begins with the account, I said
the covenant, I'm sorry, the account of the creation. The
New Testament begins with the account of Him by whom all things
were created. And we know that through Hebrews
1 verses 1 through 2, God, who at sundry times and in divinist
manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world."
So we see there that this story of Christ's line, his genealogy,
is the very story of the one who made the world. going on
with Robert Hawker in the next paragraph on page two. The great
design of this pedigree concerning Christ after the flesh is to
prove Christ's lineal descent from Abraham. For unless this
be proved, the evidence that Christ is the promised seed would
be wanting. It wouldn't be there. This is
the proof that he was the promised seed from Abraham, the line of
all the folks that he went through. And we read in Galatians 3.16,
for to whom Abraham and his seed were the promises made, he saith
not to the seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed,
which is Christ." So we see in Galatians 3 here the promise
that is made to Abraham. And I want you to turn back to
Genesis chapter 12 for just a moment. Turn to Genesis chapter 12. And
we're going to see in the Lord's Word where what we just read
from Galatians there, we're supposed to compare that with this section
of Genesis chapter 12. In chapter 12, we read in verse
3, now look at how, remember what we just read there, it says,
Abraham and his seed were the promise made to Abraham and his
seed, not his seeds, for it saith not to seeds as of many, but
as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So we see this confirmation
right here in Genesis 12, 3. And I will bless them that bless
thee, And curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. Now turn over to Genesis 22. So we see what the Lord promised
to Abraham there. That was when he called him out
of the Chaldea. Now turn over to chapter 22 of Genesis, and let's
look there. Chapter 22, verse 18. And in
thy seed, you notice that? Now this was written, this was
written thousands of years before Paul wrote to Galatia, but this
is what Paul was referring to. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now look back at chapter 17,
verses 15 through 21. And we'll see a confirmation
of that again. Turn back to Genesis chapter 17. And beginning at
verse 15, we read, and God said to Abraham, as for Sarai thy
wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her
name be. and I will bless her and give
thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she
shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face
and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him
that is 100 years old? And shall Sarah that is 90 years
old bear? And Abraham said unto God, oh,
that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah, thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed. and thou shalt call his name
Isaac. And I will establish my covenant,
that's the promise, with him for an everlasting covenant and
with his seed, notice it didn't say seeds, it said his seed after
him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard
thee. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful
and will multiply him exceeding. Twelve princes shall beget, and
I will make him a great nation. So we see there that the Lord
is talking about the seed of Abraham, one seed, and that is
as we see in Galatians chapter 3, which is Christ. Now going
on, Robert Hawker writes next there in the mid section of page
2, Hence, therefore, the importance of this pedigree is evident.
It's evident that we need to see that the promise of God that
he made to Abraham at that time has come to pass. to know that
this is the true and living God, the Messiah. Not only do we believe
because of the gift of God, but he gives us his word, and in
his word, proving who he is. You know, when he told the unbelieving
Jews that we read about in, I think it was John chapter 10, when
they came to him, they said, tell us who you are plainly,
so that we have no doubt. He says, well, I have told you.
The Lord Jesus was never, never hid who he was. It was clear
as a bell. You could, you look back through
all of the lineage of Abraham all the way through to the day
of the Lord Jesus, and we're gonna see this as we go through
tonight's study, and you could see that what he said, what he
had prophesied through his prophet Abraham had come to pass through
the one, the one seed. It's the pedigree, and it's evident
of the importance of that rights hawker. And the correctness of
the one here given is striking. Perhaps it were a thing impossible
in any other instance, but in the genealogy of Christ, to find
among all the pedigrees of the Jews from the days of our Lord
to this hour a correct genealogy of any one house or tribe or
family or even for 14 generations together, whereas this is of
the Christ. We have three times 14, and we'll
see that as we go about reading Matthew 1. What can more decidedly
manifest the overroving providence and watchfulness of God? that
it came through three different generations of 14. Three different,
that's a lot of generations. And how could that be unless
God had been guiding it all the way? That's what Robert Hawker's
writing. OK, going on, the last paragraph of page two. This genealogy,
this genealogy record, is important because it's irrefutable. It's
proof that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ of God,
the son of David. Now, you and I, we believe because
God has given us a belief, but we also believe what we read
in God's word. And he shows us in his word that
this is the true son of the living God, the son of David, the promised
seed of Abraham. The Jews, from the very beginning
of their history, kept very precise records of genealogy. The scribes
and the Pharisees, they studied those records with great care.
They constantly raise questions about endless genealogies. In fact, Paul, the apostle Paul,
addresses that in 1 Timothy 1, 4. He says, neither give heed
to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions. They
were saying, well, because we're the sons of Abraham. We're the
seeds of Abraham. We're the saved of Abraham. And
Paul's writing here, he says, don't take heed to fables or
endless genealogies which minister questions, rather than godly
edifying, which is in faith. That's where our stand is. It's in faith. And I'm kind of
glad about that, because you can prove my genealogy has nothing
to do with Jewish people. If they could have disproved
the Lord's genealogy, imagine that. Now imagine if they could
have. That alone would have been sufficient grounds for their
rejection of Jesus as the Christ. And you can bet on it, they would
have been all over that. Oh, we don't need to make up
lies. We got it right here. He doesn't fall in the right
line. But they could not do that. Though the Jews argued about
many things and constantly accused the Lord of horrible evil deeds,
not once Have I seen where anyone has found anything about his
ancestry not being correct? Don Fortner wrote this. He said,
to this day, though religious heretics abound who try to undermine
our faith in Christ, he says, I know of none who have ever
attempted to discredit his genealogy. The reason should be obvious
to anyone. It's flawless. Though Luke's record of the genealogy
gives additional details of the statue that we've talked about
a moment ago, and omits others, there's not one single point
of either one of them that is in disagreement between the two.
Now, taking that into consideration, taking those thoughts that we
just talked about, the importance of this record and how the record
shows us who the Lord Jesus is, we're brought to see is that
God is faithful to his word. He promised Abraham there would
be one through the seed of Abraham, one who would follow through
the line of David. He promised that there would
be one who would sit on his throne, his eternal throne, and rule
all things and come to save his people. Our Lord brings us to
see that he is faithful to his word through giving us this list
of names. Romans 15.8, we read these words,
now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision
of the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. He promised long ago that all
nations of the earth would be blessed in the seed of Abraham.
That's what we read in Genesis 12, 3. And Jesus Christ is Abraham's
seed, whom all nations are blessed, as we read in Matthew 1, and
we also read there in Galatians 3, 13. God promised that he would
raise up one out of the family of David to be a savior of his
people. Listen to the words of Isaiah
11 1, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Lord Jesus
is David's great son, and his Lord, as we read in Matthew 1.1,
the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Turn over to Acts chapter 2,
and let's look at what it says there, the writer writing in
the book of Acts. Look over to Acts, right after
the book of John, just before Corinthians. We see in Acts chapter
2, the Lord speaks to us through Peter beginning at verse 25, where
Peter says, for David speaketh concerning him. He said, I foresaw
the Lord always before my face. This is David speaking of the
Lord who was always before his face, just as you and I see him
with the eye of faith. For he is on my right hand, that
I should not be moved. Now that's David speaking about
the Son of God, who should come from him, from his seed. Verse 26, therefore did my heart
rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall
rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me speak
freely. Let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and
his sepulcher is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, therefore, being a prophet and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne. He seeing this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
wherefore we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see
and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith to himself, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes. thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." So we see how not
only is the Lord the promised through the seed of Abraham,
he comes through the line of David, as it is given in the
recordings of David, page four of the handout. These 17 verses
are a wonderful demonstration to we, to us, To God's chosen
people, to those who've given the eye of faith to believe the
fact that God always keeps his word. He does not change his
mind. Listen to Malachi 3.6. The Lord
says, for I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Does that not bring peace to
the soul of a sinner? Does that not bring hope to the
soul of a sinner? God's not gonna change His mind
about me. I'm thankful for that because
I'll tell you, if it was me, I would change my mind about
me every minute. Every minute. But yet my Lord has loved me
from before the world was. He's loved all of His people.
If you belong to Him, if He shed His blood for you, He loves you
with an everlasting love, a never-ending love. It's always been there,
it will always be there. I change not, he says, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Let this also be a warning to
those who refuse to believe and a blessing of grace to those
who have received the gift of faith. Remember this and tremble. Though men imagine that because
God does not immediately punish sin, that he will never punish
sin, it is not so. He will. The righteous Lord,
because he loves righteousness, will destroy the wicked with
his everlasting wrath. Listen to Psalms 711. God judges
the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. Did
you know he's not angry with you and I? Do you know why? I
know you look in the mirror and you think to yourself, I'm a
sinner. And you are. But in God's eyes, that sin has
been paid for. The punishment for everything
about you. Everything. That means everything
until the day he takes you out of this world. Everything was
laid upon our Savior. He's angry with the wicked, but
our wickedness was laid upon our substitute. Psalms 11, verses
5 through 7, the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked
in him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked
he shall reign. And this is what you and I deserve.
This is grace, folks. If you belong to the Lord Jesus,
you cannot read these next words and not understand God's love
for you in sending his son to be your substitute. Upon the wicked he shall reign. Snares. This is what he did to
Christ for you and I. Snares, fire, and brimstone,
and horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of
their cup. He drank our cup dry." He drank
our cup dry. For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. Folks, for Him to love us, we've
got to be righteous. And we are in His Son. His countenance
doth behold the upright. Let every believer remember this
and be comforted. Our Heavenly Father will be true
to His promises. He is not a man that he should
lie, as we read in Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that he
should lie, neither son of man that he should repent. Hath he
said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? or in 2 Timothy 2.13, he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Titus 1.2, God who cannot lie
has made some promises to his people, folks. And all the promises
of God in Christ Jesus are yea and amen. That's in 2 Corinthians
1.20. Didn't that bless your heart?
Didn't that bless your soul? God has promised saving grace
to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that what
we read? Look here in Acts 16.31. And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ And thou shalt be saved in thy house. Isn't that what John 3.16 is
all about? For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son. And everybody in the world want
to take that phrase, the world, forgetting everything else and
neglecting everything else that God says in his word about the
world. That's all they want to focus
on. And they completely skip over this. For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth. Whosoever believeth. And they
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
in thy house. Page 5. The Lord has promised
sufficient grace to his tried saints, to you and I, to his
people, those who are under trial. Listen to 2 Corinthians 12, 9.
Our Lord says, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made
perfect in weakness. Oh, how I pray that God will
give every one of us the ability to lean on his word, these words
in the times of our trials. He has promised sustaining grace
to those who are tempted. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10, 13,
page five of our handout. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. You know, we go through
life and we think, oh, nobody's ever had a trial like this. My
foot. I'll tell you something. Here's
what I've learned more and more. I've never had a trial like most
of those who God has talked about right here in scriptures. There
are brothers and sisters right here in the scriptures who've
had way more trials than I've ever, and I pray God will ever
have me to experience. Job. But what about Jonah? What about Rahab? What about
David and Bathsheba? Folks, I'll tell you. Not, this
is what God's word says, there hath no temptation taking you,
but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. This is
the promise, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. We talked about that Friday,
Sunday, in Sunday service, didn't we? We talked about the trials
of temptation that flood every one of us, the temptations of
anger, the temptations of lust, the temptations of unbelief,
When we fall into those temptations, God has given us an out. I guarantee
you, you stop thinking about that temptation, and you just
start concentrating on the Lord Jesus, what he has done for you,
the depth of his love for you, and it won't take but more than
a couple seconds, and that temptation won't be there in your mind anymore.
You'll be thinking about what the Lord has thought for you.
Now, that's our trouble, though. That's our problem, is we can't
turn away from those temptations of time. We can't turn away from
those things that tempt us. And we fall prey to them, because
we're weak. But our Lord. says, there hath
no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. He has
also promised strengthening grace to those who are weak. Listen
to Isaiah 41 10. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. That's the Lord Jesus. That's
again, looking to the Lord Jesus. He has promised restoring grace
to those who are fallen, those who have fallen into the temptation,
those who have fallen in and allowed that sin to rule their
flesh. Psalms 37, 24, though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down. Though I have fallen into
whatever temptation sin that I have before me, I shall not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. That's Psalms 37, 24, Proverbs
24, 16. For a just man falleth seven
times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. He is promised dying grace at
the time appointed. I've shared with some of you
before. And our brother, just recently, our brother Sonny Dutra
shared this with me. He said he saw something in his
wife Karen that he had never seen in her before. A comforting
peace, not like a glow, But it might be, and I'm just trying
to think of this off the top of my head, it might be easy
to describe this for you to understand. When you see a pregnant woman
who's got a child growing in her, it's not a glow, but it's
kind of like that. You just see something manifesting
itself. Sonny Dutra explained to me about
his wife Karen as she got closer to her death. I saw this in Joyce
Deaver when Bill and I went to see her in the hospital a week
before she passed from breast cancer. Many pastors I've heard
say the same thing about those that have gone on to be with
the Lord. It's a promise of grace, of peace
at the time of dying. Listen to Exodus 15, 16. Fear
and dread shall fall upon them, but by the greatness of thine
arm, they shall be as still as a stone till thy people pass
over, O Lord, till thy people pass over which thou hast purchased. In Hebrews 2, 15, we read these
words, and delivered them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. Also, he is promised a crowning
grace, the bottom of page five there, who enter to all who enter
into Kevin's glory, 2 Timothy 1 verse 12. Nevertheless, I am
not ashamed, writes Paul to Timothy, for I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day, page six. Blessed is the man, James,
1 verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For
when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the
Lord hath promised to them that love him. And what God has promised,
as we have seen in his word, he will perform. Isaiah 14, 24,
the Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. And as I have purpose, so shall
it stand. 14 verse 27, we read these words,
for the Lord of hosts hath purpose, and who shall disannul it? And
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Before
we read our closing statement in the handout, turn to Matthew
chapter 1 and read along with me as we go through the genealogy
of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 1, we
read these words in verse 1. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Hold your spot there for just
a moment and turn over to Acts chapter 2. I want to read the
word again that we just read a moment ago. along with what
we just read there. Acts chapter 2, verse 30. Therefore,
being a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. So we see here
the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. This is the Christ. the Lord
Jesus Christ, going on in our reading of Matthew chapter 1,
verse 2. And I pray you folks won't beat
me up too badly for some of the names here. Abraham begat Isaac,
and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. That would be the 12. That would
be the 12 tribes of Israel. Remember, Jacob's name was turned
to Israel. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat
Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. Verse 3, and
Judas begat Pharaoh, and Zerah, and Thamar, and Pharaoh begat
Ezrom, and Ezrom begat Aram, and Aram begat Amminadab, and
Amminadab begat Nasan, And Nason begat Solomon. And Solomon begat
Boaz of Rachab. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. And Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse
begat David, the king. And David, the king, begat Solomon
of her that had been the wife of Arius. And Solomon begat Roboam,
and Roboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Jehoshaphat,
and Jehoshaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Osias, and Osias
begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekias,
and Ezekias begat Manassas, and Manassas begat Ammon, and Ammon
begat Josias, And Josias begat Jehonas and his brethren about
the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were
brought to Babylon, Jehonas begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat
Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor,
and Azor begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ekim, and Ekim begat Elud. And Eliud begat Eleazar, and
Eleazar begat Mathan, and Mathan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ. So all the generations. Now remember,
we were talking earlier about the three different generations
of 14. So all the generations from Abraham
to David are 14 generations. And from the carrying away to
Babylon under Christ are 14. And David unto the carrying away
of Babylon, 14 generations. And from the carrying away to
Babylon under Christ are 14 generations. Now we're going to pick up at
verse 18, Lord willing, in our next study. So I want to go back
to our handout and close with this last couple of thoughts
here in our handout. One more observation for us to
have of this list, this genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Four of the
five women, four of the five women mentioned here are women
with reputations or blemishes that you might say most would
not want to have mentioned, most would not want you to see in
their family tree. Our Savior chose to be numbered
with transgressors. Now, for that much, every one
of those men had also transgressed against the Lord Jesus. But I
found it interesting that these women were mentioned here are,
like I said, they have blemishes that most wouldn't want to have
in their family trees. Our Lord was numbered with the
transgressors. Even in his genealogy, he didn't
come from a long line of kings and so on. No, he came from a
line of transgressors, a line of sinners. I find that very
interesting and very comforting. Our Lord chose to be numbered
with transgressors even in his genealogy. Tamar was guilty of
incest. Rahab was a harlot. Ruth was
from Moab. She was a child of a cursed race. And Bathsheba, well, we know
what happened there, don't we? We know that the Lord Jesus was
made sin for us who knew no sin. That's what we read, 2 Corinthians
5.21. He who was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, as we read in Romans 8.3. He was also made a curse for
us, as we read in Galatians 3.13. But here, here we see as the
New Testament opens up The spear of God seems to say to us that
our holy savior came into this world through such channels of
sin and uncleanliness as who could ever have imagined. Instead
of coming in on a white stallion with chariots flaming, he'll
come that way, but that'll be the way he returns to collect
his loved ones and to destroy the world. But this time, he
came humbled. He came humbled, riding a colt. He came through the lineage of
sinners. Here, it's as though the New
Testament is opening up and the Spirit of God is telling us our
Savior has come through channels of sin and uncleanness. He who
is holy and harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners and
made higher than the heavens, as we read in Hebrews 7, verse
26, he came into the world through a family of sinners. What humiliation. Truly of whom this genealogy
speaks of, this one for whom it speaks of, truly he's a friend,
a friend of sinners. He came into the world to save
sinners, of whom I am chief. And we'll close with that tonight.
Lord willing, next week we'll look at how verse 8 says, now
the birth of the Jesus Christ was on this wise. Lord willing, we'll look at that
next week.