It says, and I'll read it again,
she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call, this is
God's instruction to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Joseph and
Mary had not yet been married, they were espoused, which in
the Jews' history, it was as if they were married. And so
she was found with child. Joseph was concerned that she
was with child by another man. But that was not the case. She
was a virgin, had never known a man in that way. And so the
angel appeared to Joseph as he was contemplating the situation. And he was wondering what to
do because he was a just man and he knew it was right to not
marry her because she was an adulteress, he thought, but the
angel came to instruct him. And it was this instruction here
that was the revelation of the one who was being born and why
he was coming. And that's what I wanna focus
on today is this verse. It says, thou shall call his
name Jesus. What does that word mean, Jesus?
That's the first question. He shall bring forth a son, she
shall bring forth a son, sorry, Mary, and shall call his name
Jesus for, notice, he, Jesus, shall save, that's what he's
going to do, there's no doubt about it, his people, those are
the ones he came to save, and here's what he came to save them
from, their sins. Okay, so we're gonna take this
in the reverse order, their sins. His people, the one whose name
is Jesus, came to save them from that. Now, I wish that I could
convince you what only God can convince you of, which there's
no reason why I wish that, but I wish that you were convinced
and that I was convinced of what we truly are. Sin. We are sinners. Now this is the
hardest thing to convince a person of. It's surprising that it would
take God to convince us of what we are, but this is the fact.
And the fact that it takes God to convince us of what we are
shows how hard and proud we are. It requires God to condescend
and stoop in his grace to convince us that we are sinners against
him. That shows us how great our sin is. That at least is
the first thing. We're sinners. In the beginning,
God created one man, Adam. And Adam was given one commandment
by God. Every tree in the garden was
to eat. He had everything. He was put
in charge of every part of creation. And yet, God said one thing,
one thing, don't eat of this tree. This tree, which is the
knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of that tree. And you know
what Adam did. He ate of that one tree. And
so then the Lord came in the cool of the garden, the voice
of the Lord, came in the cool of the garden and Adam heard
his voice and he hid. He hid in the garden. You know
why he hid? Well, God asked him, where are
you? And Adam said, I heard your voice and I was afraid because
I was naked. And now his nakedness was his
guilt. He was guilty. He was a sinner.
When he heard God's voice, then he knew that he was guilty, and
his guilt made him feel completely naked before God, the one he
had to give an answer to. And you know when you've been
caught in something where you're guilty. And it's most painful
when you know this, and everyone else may not be even aware of
it, but you feel it in yourself, I'm guilty. That's that feeling
that Adam had only much worse because God had come to him and
told him, where are you? And he felt in his conscience
the nakedness before God of his own sin. And so now, hold that
thought and look at the book of Matthew here. In verse 17,
where Brad just read, it says, all the generations from Abraham
to David are 14 generations, from David until the carrying
away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away to
Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Why does God give us this genealogy
here? Why did the Lord give us a list
of names of those people who were the ancestors of Mary and
through whom Jesus would come. Why did he give us those names?
Because he says, notice in verse 21, she shall bring forth a son,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people. These people mentioned here are
his people. And it begins with Abraham. And
then Isaac and Jacob and so on. These were his people. What did
they need? They needed to be saved. Why?
Because they were sinners. You see, when we read in the
Bible about people, sometimes we think they're really great
people. But they needed something, and
they knew it. And God is telling us, just like
these people mentioned here, all of God's people need to be
saved from their sins. That's the issue. I'm not terribly
worried about Reese, not bothered by that. I kind of like the fact
that he has the liberty to speak out. Someday he'll learn to control
it. His people. They were His people. These people listed here have
a two-fold purpose, but the main thing here is not only to show
that Jesus came as promised through Abraham and David and all those
in this list, but that these people were sinners Jesus came
to save. And they represent us who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, who find ourselves also as sinners,
guilty before God, and in our guilt, naked and unable to cover
ourselves, to hide from God and to put away our sin. They needed
salvation, these people. Do you know what Abraham was?
Before God came to him and called him, he was an idolater. He lived
in a, his, all of the people he lived with worshipped idols. Idols are made, God, are men
make idols. They are man-made gods that men
worship instead of the God, the true God. And that's what we're
good at. We like to make God be what we
want him to be. And we invent him. And we create
ideas about Him and we put our trust in Him. And we boast in
our ability to manipulate God. See? I made a God and He's a
great God. What's great about Him? Well,
look at all the things. He's just like me. He's smart like
I am. He's strong like I am. He does
what I tell Him to do. It's an idol God. That's what
religion is, making God in my own image. It says in Psalm 115,
they that make them are likened to them, so is everyone that
trusteth in. Abraham was an idol worshiper. We, by nature, worship
gods of our own imagination. We don't like the true God, we
don't want God to rule over us, we don't like what he says, so
we invent our own gods. And that's what we are by nature,
idolaters. And then Abraham also was a man
who, when he was in danger, he took his wife and he told her
to lie about the relationship. He said, just tell him that you're
my sister. And so he exposed his wife to all kinds of danger
at the hands of wicked men to preserve his own life. He was
afraid for his life, so he told his wife, don't tell him you're
my wife because she was beautiful He knew that they would take
her and treat her ill, and so he said, and treat him with suffering
and death. So he said, you lie, don't lie,
but she was his sister, but he said, tell him you're just my
sister. So Abraham was an idolater, and he preserved his own life,
and this was after God called him. But then Abraham had a son
named Isaac. And do you know how he had his
first son who was actually not Isaac, but Ishmael, he committed
adultery with another woman. He tried to do what only God
said he could do, which was to bring the promise to fulfillment,
and he had a son called Ishmael by another woman. Abraham was
a sinner, and his son Isaac did the same thing he did. He tried
to protect himself, and he told his wife, Rebekah, now you don't
tell him you're my wife, because she also is beautiful. You tell
him you're just my sister. So these two men preserved their
own selves at the risk of their own lives after God had revealed
himself to them. They were sinners. And then there
was Jacob. And you know Jacob's name? It
means a trick, a cheat, a liar, someone who takes things from
others. He was good at whittling people
down, whatever the word is. dealing with people and getting
them to give up their money or their things. He was a sneaky
guy. He was a sinner. Jacob, that's
what we are. Cheats, liars. And so when you
go down this, and then there was a son of Jacob named Judas
here in this list in verse three. Judah committed adultery with
his son's wife. He thought she was a prostitute.
And they had a child named Pharis, and that's in the list here too.
And so all of these people, if you read through this list, were
sinners. There's nothing to boast in them.
And then there was this one named Salman who married, guess who,
Rahab, who was a prostitute in Jericho. And she was, the Lord
saved her. She had a son named Boaz, and
Boaz married Ruth, who was a woman of Moab, and the people of Moab
were idolaters. They hated God's people. They
were the enemies of God's people, and they were actually born out
of incest. So just not a good ancestry here. But notice here,
it comes to David. It says, and Jesse begat David
the king, David the king. Now remember David? He was a
great man, wasn't he? Well, not at first. He was nobody. He was just an ordinary person.
And God called him when he was the eighth son who was brought
before Samuel, the prophet, and brought in for Samuel to look
at. And the Lord told Samuel, pass
by all these older sons. And he looked at David and he
said, that's the one. That's the one. That's God's
anointed. He's going to be the king. But
then David, when he became king and he was ruling over the entire
nation of God's people, you know what he did because he was king?
He saw a woman and he took another man's wife, took her from him,
and then he had that man killed. And this was after he had done
all these great things because he was a sinner. 14 generations
of sinful people. And yet God was bringing His
Son through these people. And why? In order that He might
save His people from their sins. You see, it's hard to be convinced
that you're a sinner. Only God can do it. And when
He does it, it's painful. But when He does, He brings us
to see that we have only one hope. His name is Jesus. The second 14 generations, it
says in verse 17, they were from David to Babylon, 14 generations,
and they were carried away to Babylon. And why? Because these
people who came from Abraham were constantly committing idolatry,
forgetting the Lord, committing sin, and God had them carried
away by their enemies. They were captives to the people
who hated God in order that God might teach them. that they would
know the Lord. And then the next 14 generations,
it says that they were from Babylon, God brought them out, until Christ,
14 generations. They were captive in Babylon,
and they were brought out, and these people didn't know the
Lord. It says in Matthew 4, let me read this to you. In Matthew
4, 15, according to God's prophet, he says, the land of Zebulun,
in chapter 4, verse 14, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, this is the time when
Christ came. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtalim, by
the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the
people, here's a description. The people which sat in darkness
saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and the
shadow of death, light is sprung up. That's when Jesus came. What
was it like then? It was the region of darkness,
a sinful blindness to anything spiritual and true, completely
absorbed with themselves and the world and their idols. And
the Lord sent his son, Jesus, at that time. He was born of
a virgin, so that he might be not a son of a man, but the son
of God. He was the son of God before
he came, but even in his human nature, he was conceived by the
Spirit of God. That he might not have sin, in
order that he might save his people from their sins, all right. So now we see something of the
context here. A sinful people and a savior
of sinners. That's what it means here. In
verse 21, thou shalt call his name Jesus. What does this name
mean? Jesus. What does it mean? Look at Acts
chapter 13. It gives us the definition in
Acts 13. And it's the same message, the
same sermon, preached there as is preached here. In Acts 13,
in verse 23, the Apostle Paul is preaching to these people
called Jews in their synagogue, and he's rehearsing their history
to them. They should have known it, but
he had to explain it to them. He said he gives the history,
begins at verse 17, that God chose our fathers. He exalted
the people when they were strangers in Egypt. He brought them out
with a high arm, 40 years, suffered their manners in the wilderness
because they were disobedient then. And he destroyed seven
nations and brought them into the land of Canaan and gave that
land to them by lot. He gave them judges for 430 years.
And then afterward, they wanted a king. He gave them Saul, and
then he removed Saul and gave them David. Now, look at verse
23. Of this man's seed, David, God
has raised up, according to his promise, God has raised unto
us, unto Israel, notice these words, a Savior Jesus. What does the name Jesus mean?
Savior. It means the one who saves. And
who is this one who saves? Look back at Matthew chapter
one, this one who saves, it says in verse 23, behold, a virgin
shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name, which means this is who he really is, Emmanuel. And what does Emmanuel mean?
It gives the explanation, which being interpreted is God with
us. What does Emmanuel mean? God
with us. Jesus is the Savior, God with
us, born to the virgin. And why? To save his people from
their sins. Notice, he says in verse 21,
she shall bring forth a son, which she did, and they shall
call his name, this is who he is, Emmanuel, I'm reading verse
23, but back up in 21, he says, she shall bring forth a son,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, For he shall save his people
from their sins." Who are his people? What are they like? They're sinners. He says so.
He has to save them from their sins. He wouldn't come to save
them from their sins if they weren't sinners, would he? If they didn't need saving, he
wouldn't have come. And if the one who came was God,
born in human nature, then the sins must be huge. And no one
else could do it except God himself. And notice, sins are sins against
God. So the one who came to save them
is the one they sinned against. It's like when your mother or
your father say, now you don't do that, and you do it anyway,
knowing it's wrong. And then there's this separation
between you because you disobeyed them. And you're the one who
should go apologize and your mom and dad come to you and bring
you back into a reconciled love and kindness with them because
of their kindness. Here God is the one we sinned
against and he took the initiative and did all that was required
by God himself in order to save sinners. and he says he shall
save his people. Notice, there's nobody else in
this verse who does the saving. No one else helped Jesus save
his people. Notice also that he shall save
them. He won't fail. We have all these
bad thoughts about God. One of the main things that people
think is that salvation is something they can make happen. I can just
do it when I need to. I'll live my life and then some
point when things are really bad, I'll get saved. As if they
can help the Lord Jesus, as if He needs their help, or that
they're good enough to help Him. All those things are wrong. The
only one who can save us is God in our nature. Jesus alone can
save us from our sins. And it says here, he shall save
them. That means that he doesn't fail.
We have this attitude that God needs our help, that we can do
something. And if we don't approve of God,
then he's mean and harsh and not to be loved or anything. But the Lord is good in everything,
and it's our problem. The reason that we think God
is bad is because we're bad. God's fine. He's holy, He's good,
and He is the only one good. But He shall, He cannot fail.
He did not fail. He actually accomplished the
work He came to do. He saved His people from their
sins. And these people are sinners,
and how do we know that they are the ones he came to save.
Well, it says that when the Lord came, that his people received
him. And you can see throughout the
life of Jesus, when he was on this earth, he came to people,
he came to them, and he actually saved them. He actually saved
them. And the fact that he saved them
showed that they were his people. Who are his people? Those he
saves. Does that make any sense? Of course, it makes perfect sense.
In Mark chapter 5, we have an example of a man. He came to
save. It says, now this man was a very, a man who was in a very
bad condition. He was in such a bad condition
that people tried to control him, but they couldn't control
him. He couldn't control himself. He needed someone stronger than
his enemy, his internal enemy. In Mark chapter five it says,
Jesus and his disciples came over to the other side of the
sea to the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship, because he got there by ship, immediately there met him
out of the tombs, out of the graves where dead people were,
a man with an unclean spirit, a devil was in this man. And
this man had his dwelling among the tombs. He lived in the graveyard. No man could bind him. No, not
with chains. They tried to wrap chains around
him to hold him down, to keep him from hurting people. They
couldn't keep him down because he had been often bound with
fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder. He
broke the chains. and the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. This is a man like every one
the Lord saves. He's utterly under the control
of his sin, which brought Satan to control him. And always, night
and day, he was in the mountains, in the tombs, crying and cutting
himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshiped him. No one could tame this man, but
as soon as Jesus gets out of the ship and he sees Jesus, he
runs to him and he worships him. And he cried with a loud voice,
he said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the
most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou
torment me not. Don't torment me. Now this man
had devils living in him, and so he spoke as if the devils
were speaking, and he and the devils were one, because there
was no way to separate them. The devils had control of him.
For he said, Jesus had said to the man, come out of the man,
thou unclean spirit. So the Lord Jesus had power to
take the devils out of this man who had no control over himself.
And what does this show to us? It doesn't matter how big and
how bad our sin is, even though we can't control ourselves, there's
one who came to save his people from their sins, and he commanded
the devils to come out of this man. And so the Lord Jesus says,
after he commanded the devils to come out, he said, what is
your name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are
many. A legion means like, I think it's like 1,000 or 2,000, a large
number of devils controlling him. And so the devils inside
of this man spoke and they besought him that Jesus would not send
them out of the country. And there was near that place,
it says in verse 11, near that mountain a great herd of swine
feeding, and all the devils begged Jesus saying, send us into the
swine that we may enter them. Swine are pigs. And forthwith,
right away, Jesus gave them leave. He said, okay, you devils, go
into the pigs. At the end, clean spirits went
out, and they entered into the pigs, and they ran. The whole
herd of pigs ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and
they were drowned. 2,000, like I said, a legion. And they were choked in the sea.
What does this show? That those devils that were in
this man drowned, they drowned these 2,000 pigs. They controlled the pigs just
like they had controlled this man. and they that fed the pigs
fled and told it in the city and in the country and those
people went out to see what was done and they came to Jesus to
see that that him that was possessed with the devil and the legion,
who had the legion sitting and he was clothed. The man who had
been uncontrollable was clothed and sitting by Jesus and in his
right mind and they were afraid. And they saw it and they told
how it came to him that he was possessed of the devil and how
concerning the swine, how they had drowned. And they began to
beg him, pray him, to depart out of their coast. These people
who lived there didn't want Jesus to stay because the pigs that
they took care of were all drowned and they were worried they were
going to lose their living. And when he was come into the ship,
he that had been possessed with the devils prayed him that he
might be with him. This man who had been out of
control begged Jesus, I just want to be with you. Jesus did
not allow him. He says, he suffered him not,
but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them how great
things the Lord has done for thee and how he had compassion
on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him
and all of the men did marvel. What is this saying? Are you
a sinner like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and his brothers? Do you need someone to come and
deliver you from the sin, the nakedness of your guilt? Only the Lord Jesus can do that.
And we need, like this man, we need him to come to us and speak
and command those things that control us to depart so we might
see and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And until he does, we
can't do it. And no one else can do it. Because
our sin is great. And that's why the Lord Jesus
came. That's why there's this thing
where people talk about it as Christmas when Jesus came into
the world. It's not about giving presents.
It's not about lights and trees and all those things. Those things
are fun. But the problem is, is that there
is this darkness, this shadow of death over God's people, and
he had to come. God, who was the one we sinned
against, had to come in order to deliver us from our sins.
And only he could do it, and he actually put away our sins. He took away our disobedience
against God, the things we didn't do and the things that we did
do that were against God. And he calls on all of his people
to look to him, to come to him. And he comes to them with his
great promise that he can cast out even 2,000 devils out of
us. There's nothing he can't do because
he's God with us. Born as a man in order that he
might save his people from their sins. When we sin, when we sin
against God, our spirits are dead in sin. And the one who
gives life in our spirits had to be born as a man that he might
give us life in order that we might know God and believe him
and love him. How much we need him. When you
hear the name Jesus, think Savior. And when you hear Savior, think,
that's what I need. I'm a man who is a sinner, a
woman who is a sinner, and I need more than anything to be saved
from my sins. And call on Him. Call on Him. Look to Him. And when the Lord
causes you to run to Him and foul on your face and to say,
Lord, I just want to be with you. Save me from my sins. That's the Lord's work. Let's
pray. Father, thank you for your goodness,
that you would send your only begotten Son into the world to
save us from our sins against you, to deliver us from enemies
way too powerful for us, that were coming upon us because of
our sin against you, and you remove the root problem when
our Savior took our sins and bore them as his own, and then
calls upon us from your own word to look to him and to consider
his greatness as God and his stoop as man. to lay aside his
reputation and to show forth his glory, that he would save
those who were worthy of death from the death they deserved
by taking their sins and burying them as his own in order to pay
for them. Help us, Lord, to trust him,
to call upon him, to see that life itself and all the cares
of this world are intended to drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In your name we ask these things, amen.