Every one of us will be there. Seeing Him is victory, isn't
it? Go with me to Isaiah 53 before
we look at Matthew 1. Isaiah 53, one verse. will serve as the title and text,
actually. One verse will explain everything
we read in Matthew 1. Isaiah 53, verse 12, says this,
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoiled with the strong. Because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
He was numbered with the transgressors. Now you know what you read, don't
you? The genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, numbered with the
transgressors. All right go back there now in
Matthew one now the apostle Paul warned a young preacher named
Titus to avoid foolish questions and genealogies. Didn't he also
warned. Timothy. Not to give heed to fables and
endless. endless genealogies. The one we read has an end. It ends with the person. Why
did he, though, tell us young preachers to avoid genealogies
and not get caught up in genealogies? Why did he do that? Well, the
Jews. The Jews thought that if they could trace their genealogy
back to Abraham that they were all right. You know that did
you that's what they thought. Paul. Said that. In Philippians he
said I was a Hebrew I was of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew
of Hebrew he said I took pride. That I could trace my genealogy
all the way back to Abraham I am a Jew. But he found out didn't
jump He's not a Jew, it's one outwardly. And before I forget it. What struck me was it says that
this is Joseph's genealogy that. Joseph, the husband of Mary. Who was supposedly the father
of Jesus, Jesus supposedly the son of Joseph. No, he wasn't. No, no. He was numbered there. He was
made in the likeness of sinful flesh. But he did not have any
seed of man in him. That's significant. Over in Luke,
the Gospel gives the genealogy of Mary. OK. But the point here is that We're
not to look for, you know, there are Baptists today. There are
Baptists as a whole denomination. Brother Dan Parks grew up in
this as a whole denomination who pride themselves that they
can trace their baptism back to John the Baptist. That's how ignorant people can
be. In the day is how ignorant people
can be. That they don't, they believe that unless you're baptized. By somebody. That can trace their
genealogy all the way back to John the Baptist. You haven't
been baptized. Man oh man. Thief on the cross
is out of it isn't it? Oh boy. This is why some men. You know, baptism, they take
it too far. Some men had a problem with it for that
reason. Well, anyway. There's one genealogy, though,
that you need to trace. There's one genealogy that everybody
in here needs to trace and find your name there. Everybody in here needs to trace
this genealogy. and find your name. In the generation. Or other regeneration. That is
Jesus Christ they found your name here did you see your name
in here. Anybody. I did. I look at verse one again
the book of the generation the book. There's the beginning of
the gospel again beginning of the gospel of Matthew but is
it now It's the gospel of Jesus Christ, gospel of God concerning
God's Son, the book, capital T-H-E, the book of. What's this book about? What's
any book about in this book? That's what Biblia means. Biblia
is the Latin word for Bible. Bible means book. What's the
book about? Jesus Christ, the generation. Generation means life, life given. This is the book, this whole
book from cover to cover is the book of life that's in Jesus
Christ. Isn't that what John wrote in
his book? Life was manifested. We beheld that eternal life,
the generation. Then it goes down and ends in
verse 17. It says, All the generations All these generations lead up
to Christ, lead up to Christ, the generation of Jesus Christ. All right, there's two remarkable
things I want you to know about this genealogy, and I hope the
Lord will bless this. There's just a lot here. It's
going to be, there's a whole lot we might want to look at,
but what little we look at, I hope, will be a blessing too. All right
two things I want us to notice. Number one I want you to notice
with me how. Christ chose his own family. He chose his heritage he chose
the genealogy he would be. You and I can't do that he did. He chose this family line. And I want you to notice with
me after that who he chose to be his family. I want you to
see how he chose his family and who he chose to be his family. He chose his own family. Hebrews
chapter 2. Go to Hebrews chapter 2 with
me. He chose to be a member of the human race, not angels. There are other creatures
besides us. You know that? Now, I'm not saying
that there is extra, well, I'm not saying there's life on another
planet. No way. Forget that. Forget that. Nevertheless, Paul wrote of things
terrestrial, extraterrestrial. There are angels that we don't
know much about. Heavenly creatures created by
God Almighty. They have a nature, a nature
that man doesn't have. They're different from us. I
believe there always will be angels. There are elect angels
and non-elect, the ones that kept not their first estate.
The reason the holy angels did, the same reason you and I are
kept, the sovereign elect in grace of God. At any rate, he
took on himself here in Hebrews 2, it says in verse 14, for as
much then as the children, that is God's children, are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. He took on flesh and blood. Verse
16 says he took not on him the nature of angels. He did not choose to be an angel. Had he done so, and had he purposed
to save some of those fallen angels, he would have somehow
had to redeem them, would he not? But he didn't. But he took on himself, it says,
the seed, verse 16, stay with me now, come on. The seed of
who? Abraham. Abraham. He chose his family. He chose Abraham. He chose his
own family. Now, go back to the text. The man called Jesus of Nazareth,
that man called Jesus, was and is none other than God Almighty,
the everlasting Father. That's what Isaiah 9, 6 says,
doesn't it? Oh, a child is born. Yes, a child
is born. He took on him flesh that he might die. The child is born, but the son, the bodily revelation or manifestation
of God who is spirit, the bodily, in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead, bodily, visible. The bodily, the son, that's what
son means. It doesn't mean unequal. It doesn't
mean inferior. It means the bodily the visible
image of God, who is Spirit. But the Son is given. A child is born, but the Son
is given. And you call His name Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Mary held a child in her arms,
did she not? A baby in her arms, did she not?
Was it Mary's baby? Oh, no, that's what men said,
that's what men thought, that's the way it appeared to be. The
fact of the matter is, the absolute fact of the matter is, Mary's
father was in her honor. The one who gave birth to her. And men are so confused, aren't
they? Human beings are so finite in
their understanding. They can't, they can't, they
can't figure out one, that three equals one, one equals
three. They can't, they never will.
And man's math, math doesn't work out that way. Man's math,
algebra, geometry, no matter what it is, trigonometry will
never come up with three being one. God said it is. So it is. All right. Where am I? But the man named
Jesus was none other than the everlasting Father. Because Jesus
is that high priest after the order of Melchizedek, which Hebrews
7 talks about and says distinctly, He is without father, without mother. He is without descent, having
no beginning, without beginning of days nor end of life, but
made like unto the Son of God. Jesus Christ, the Word, was with
God, John said. The Word was God. And he went
on to say the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. took on
himself the likeness of sinful flesh. As we noted, he seemed
to be Joseph's son. He wasn't. He wasn't. He wasn't born of Joseph. Yet
he was numbered there. He chose to be numbered there,
didn't he? He seemed to be Mary's son. No,
no, no, no. Mary's egg had no part in his
life. She did not contribute to the
life of Jesus. No, sir. If Mary's egg had, then
she's the daughter of Adam, is she not? She's got the seed of
Adam in her, doesn't she? She's got the seed of man in
her. That means Christ has sinful blood in him. No, sir. No. Mary's
egg had no part. No part. She's just a receptacle. She didn't contribute, she's
the receiver, not a contributor. He borrowed that womb just like
he borrowed that tomb. Well, God became a man. He chose
his own family. Chose his mother, chose his grandfather,
all the way back to his heritage. He chose them all,
his pedigree. He took on him the seed of Abraham,
it said. God purposed to become a man. He chose his own family that
he would be born to. We can't do that. We can't do
it physically. None of us, we know that, don't
we? It'd be pure ignorance for somebody to say they chose their
parents, wouldn't it? Even adopted children can't say
that, can they? Utter ignorance. People would call you a fool
if you said you chose your mother. That you decided to let her be
your personal mother. And your father that one day
you accepted him and decided to let him give you life. You
call that person an utter fool. Well, so is everyone who claims
that they had any parts in this new birth. Our Lord kept telling
Nicodemus that who was a Jewish teacher or master. He said, you
call yourself a master and you can't understand this. You must
be born from above. Nicodemus, how can I do that?
Can I enter my mind? Man's an ignorant fool. His wisdom
hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world, yet the
whole world thinks that they give themselves spiritual birth.
You've got to get born again, brother. You need to get born
again, brother. You ignorant fool. Not only is
your grammar bad, your theology is all wrong. You can't get born. You are born. This is the difference. You can sum up the difference
in what religion today says and what the truth says in this simple
phrase. They say, I got saved the other
day. They say, I got born again the
other day. In other words, they're saying
it exactly the way they mean it. They got it. The other day,
they went and got it. They did it. Something they did.
The believer says, the Lord saved me. Not I got saved. The Lord saved me. The Lord begat me, James said. Of his own will begat he us. Not of blood, not the will of
the flesh, not the will of man, but born of God. This is the
birth from above. This is to be born of God. And nobody will receive Him.
Nobody has that power to be a son of God unless he's born of God. Whosoever will believe it is
born of God from above, miraculously, supernaturally. What could be
plainer for you to understand that? You know it's so, don't
you? You know it's so. Just like you know you had no
part in your first birth, those who are born of God know they
have no part in their second birth. It's nothing plainer,
nothing clearer. My Father gets all the glory
in me being on this earth, and so does my Heavenly Father. All right, he's the father. Well,
it says he took on him the seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham. Where am I? I'm about three pages
past where I've turned. Why did God become a man? Why
did God become a man? Why did he become a man? Because
God cannot die. Man cannot make himself holy. Here it is in a nutshell. I never
forget when I first heard the first preacher say this. It was
Don Bell. He said, because God can't die
and man can't satisfy. Man's a sinner. God is holy. Man can do nothing to satisfy
God. God's law. God can't have anything to do
with sinners. Man, that's not his nature. God's nature can't allow him
to have anything to do with sin. The scriptures are full of this
truth. He's of two eyes. to pure eyes
to behold iniquities represent. Lions don't cohabit with lambs,
do they? They will someday. I mean, all of their natures. But God is holy. Man is sinful. God's whole person is nothing
but holy. Man's whole, the Scripture says,
from his youth, his imagination, his heart is only evil continually. Why would God want to have anything
to do with man? Because he's merciful. Because he's gracious. But God became a man. God became a man to live a holy
life as a man. And this God-man, Jesus Christ,
it's never been anything like it ever, never ever will be on
this earth. But this God-man, that's the
reason the angels said that holy thing is of God. And they worshipped the man,
the angels worshipped the man. God said, let the holy angels
worship God. Well, they worshiped a man, because
that's a God-man, hidden to the natural man. But that was God
in human flesh, made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He looked like
a man, a man who's a sinner. Oh, but in Him is no sin. This is the second Adam. When
God created the first man, he created him holy and upright.
He was without sin, was he not? But he fell. Once again, people are so ignorant
about these things, they think that man still is in the image
of God. No, God created the first man,
Adam. We come from Adam. We come from Adam. We bear his
likeness. What's that well when Adam failed he he became a sinner. He became a sinner and we bear
the image of our sinful father not our holy father. Not the
heavenly father. The only way we do that is a
new creature formed within us. The only way we'll bear the image
of the father is if A new seed is planted in us, not the seed
of Adam, not the seed of man, but the seed of Christ. And I'm
getting way out of hand here. At any rate, that God-man in the likeness of sinful flesh,
but no, he didn't have any sin. He didn't have any sin. This is the Son of Man. This
is the Son of Man. He kept calling himself the Son
of Man, didn't he? The Son of Man. He looked like
a man. No, he's not the Son of Man. He said that as the point to
his humanity. He is a man, but he's not. He
didn't come from man, didn't come from Joseph, didn't come
from Mary. He's the son of God. And that's why he's holy, harmless,
separate from sinners, son of God, holy one. And God saw this man and was
well pleased for his righteousness sake. The only way God who is
holy and righteous can be pleased with you and me is if it were
like him. Are you satisfied with less than
perfection? Let me ask some of these that
I know something about. Sherry Anderson, if you were making
a set of whatever, curtains or whatever, would you be satisfied
if it was one part was shorter than the other? Would you? I
know you. Or Nancy Parks, if you were making
a special dessert for your whatever. A special dessert for your friends
and you were adoring it. Would you be happy if it had
a little bitterness in it or didn't look too good? No, I know you. God's perfect. God is perfect in all his ways.
It shall be perfect, he said, to be accepted. Leviticus 22,
21. Because God's perfect. Well,
God, there's a man who walked this planet, and God said, I'm
well pleased for your righteousness sake. You're a righteous man.
You're a holy man. I'm well pleased with you. Well
pleased. Well pleased. You've glorified
me. You've lived the life as a man
should live. This is the way I purpose for
man to live, to my glory, to my honor, without sin wholly. Why did he do that? Well, God
had to be glorified. But why did he do that? That
it will imitate him? That it will just try our best
to be like him? Is that it? That if you'll try
real hard, you quit this and quit that? No, sir. He was being
a substitute. He was doing that for somebody,
not for himself, not to show us how, although he was an example. That wasn't why he did that.
He was doing it, and here's the mystery, and no man can explain
this. But this was God, this is what
God purposed, and glory be his name that he did this. He said
to his son, if you will go down and be a man, a holy man, I will. I have purpose to elect to choose
a whole race of people, sinners. Every one of them. This and this
is geology. What a lousy family. What a bunch
of vile sinners. We're going to get, I think we're
going to get into it. But God said, if you'll do this, and
I'm speaking as a fool, as a man, God didn't say if. It was all
purpose. But as a man, if you will go
down and live this life as a man, for them. Do all that you do
for them. I'll take your holiness. It's the best I can do with it.
I'll take your holiness, this life you lived, your perfection,
and I'll charge it completely to them. Every one of them. I'll wrap them up in it. Cover
them up in it, sinners though they be. Wrap them up tight in it. Your
righteousness. This is more than a doctrine.
This is being hidden in His wings, under His robe. If you'll do
that, I'll consider. And whatever I consider, it's
done. As holy as you. They've sinned against me. They've
broken my holy law. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The wages of sin is death. I
will by no means clear thee guilty. That's my nature. God is just. He must punish sin, and He will. Son, you're going to have to
bear their blame. They get your holiness, your
innocence. They get credit for what you've
done. You get the whole blame. You've got to shoulder the whole
blame. I've got to lay on you the iniquity
of a man. Will you take this? And I've
got to be separate. I can't have anything to do with
you. I've got to leave you alone. I've got to leave you in hell. I've got to put you through hell.
Separate from me. I can't even look upon sin. Will
you do this, son?" Adam is a good picture of Christ
in the garden, is he not? Adam. Scripture says the woman
was to see, doesn't it? Adam wasn't. Adam wasn't to see. He knew what
he was doing. I love that picture, don't you?
Adam knew what he was doing. He saw his wife sinned, deceived
in sin, and she would have been plunged by herself, man. She
would have been plunged by herself out of God's presence. Why, Adam
said, I love her. I love this one. And He became the Savior. That's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ said. I'll bear the blame, Father. I'll forgive you. This is substitution. That's why God became a man.
Do you know this thing? I really just enjoy telling you
about it. I hope you enjoy hearing it again,
because this is our salvation. Salvation can be summed up in
two words. Learn this and learn this way. All right? This is the gospel. This is what it's all about.
The whole counsel of God is summed up in these two things. Satisfaction. Substitution. Satisfaction. Man can't satisfy. God can't
die. The God-man did both. Substitute. Satisfy. That's the gospel as clear as
I can make it. He was numbered with the transgressors. He took
on him. I want you to look with me now briefly who he chose to
be his family. He was numbered with the transgressors. This man receiveth sinners. He's the friend of sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Why? Because all are sinners.
Looks like the whole world would love this, doesn't it? They don't.
Why? They're not sinners. Boy, but
sinners do. This man, this man receives sinners
and eateth with them. He's going to sit down for supper
forever with them, like old Mephibosheth. It would be like saying, You're
back telling somebody like Mephibosheth, this king takes cripples. Really? Yeah, enemies, former enemies. You're kidding me, are you? Hold
on. I want to make an anecdote. This
man received a sentence. This gospel is for sinners. We
say this over and over, don't we? What kind of sinner? Who are his family here? Who
did he choose to be in his family? All right, it says in verse 2,
Abraham. Oh, well, that's a noble man. Abraham's a noble man. He's a great man. I'll never
be like Abraham. Oh, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute.
He started his family tree. The Lord started his family tree
with a man named Abraham. Do you know anything about Abraham?
When God called him by his grace, When God Almighty chose him and
elected him by his sovereign grace, Abraham was seventy-five
years old and had been worshiping idols over in Turkey. He was
born in Turkey. He wasn't in Israel. There wasn't
an Israel then. There was no such thing as Israel
then. But he was born in Turkey, a Gentile, an uncircumcised dog. an idol worshipper. I mean, he
was bowing down before statues. But God said, I'm going to start
my family trees. I'm going to choose this man
who's an idol worshipper, an old idol worshipper, whom nobody
could convince anything of anything. Nobody can change a seventy-five-year-old
man. God says, watch me. Watch me. I choose him. God gave him a new heart, a new
mind, revealed himself to him, chose him. He turned from his
idols to serve the living and true God. Why? Why, John? Because God called him, that's
why. Abraham. He starts with Abraham. And he says everybody in his
line is called just like Everyone in my family was saved just like
Abraham. He's the father of the faithful.
Romans, the whole book of Romans is talking about Abraham. Isn't it genetic? It said Abraham,
he didn't keep a law. There was no law. There was no
law. He was 400 years later. He was
not circumcised 400 years later. Then why was Abraham Because
God justified it. God chose him. God called him.
I better go on. You think I'm going to get through
every one of these names? I never intended to. But Isaac, who's that? Son of
promise. Jacob. Now there's a noble man. Oh. Oh. John, this is why we
love that verse. Happy is he. Oh, how blessed
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. He said, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not going to be cast out, not consumed. I am your father. You're in my family. I'll never
cast you out. Why? I am the God of Jacob. If you know anything about Jacob,
Jacob was a sinner from birth, wasn't he? from his birth until
he's an old man. He stood before Pharaoh in his
dying days, a hundred and some years old, I believe, 125, and
he said to Pharaoh, he said, I've been, my life has been short
and full of sin and trouble and no good. I've been a sinner,
always have been. That's what he said. But God
said, Jacob, have I love? That's more than a doctrine,
that's our hope, that God Almighty loves Jacob, because I'm no better,
I'm worse. I'm worse, I've got more life
than Jacob has. I'm happy to see you, that's the God of Jacob.
Some of you, this is not getting a hold of yet. Judah, Judah,
well, I've got to go on. Had a daughter. There's only
four women mentioned in this. Ladies, there's only four women.
See, these men were a bunch of rotten, no good fellas. A bunch
of sinners. Man. There's only four women
mentioned in this passage. And all four of them were worse than the men. Well, as bad. The first one he
mentioned is a lady named Tamar in verse 3. Said, Judah, Bagat,
Phares, and Zerah of Tamar. Anybody know anything about Tamar? Well, let me tell you very quickly. Tamar, this is found in Genesis
38. Tamar was the daughter-in-law
of Judah. He saw that. Well, no, he didn't
see that. It says she begat children by
Judah. That's not... She was his daughter-in-law. She was married to one of his
sons. And her husband died. And she wanted to have children
in that line, in Judah's line. So she dressed up like a harlot. She dressed up like a harlot.
and deceived her father-in-law, Judah, why he went into this
harlot. But he did. And she dressed up like a harlot
to deceive her father-in-law, and she got pregnant with children from her father-in-law. Sin. You see how the sins, how
the God in his mercy and infinite grace and mercy, even though
man, even the wrath of man shall praise it. The sinfulness of
man, black as it is and how horrible it is, yet somehow in the purpose
of God, it's going to redound to the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Anyway, this Tamar woman, and to make a long story short,
you can read it for yourself in Genesis 38. She took some pledges from Judah,
and at the time, his staff and some other things, took some
pledges. And later on, when it was found out that she'd played
the harlot, when it was found out that she'd done such a horrible
thing, she sent her. How could she do something like
that? Because she's a sinner. We're capable of anything. But
anyway, later on, to keep from being killed, she pled to Judah the pledges
that he gave her. Did you hear that? She, to keep
from being killed, she said to Judah, the one who came to her, The one who came to her and gave
right in her. She pledged to him the very pledges
that he gave to her. Here, this is, I'm yours. What's
in me is of you. Here's the pledge. He said, she's
righteous. Oh man, let's go back here and
look at that. No, we don't have time. But that's
what that's all about. And you and I, sinners though
we be, we played the harlot. Someday we're going to stand
in God's presence and plead the pledges that Christ himself gave
to us. That's my favorite story in the
whole book, right now. Rahab. What was she? An upstanding
citizen in Jericho? Another harlot. This is why the
Lord said to the Pharisees, the publicans and the harlots will
be in heaven before you. It's not condoning that sin.
You know that. Everybody knows that. Not condoning
that. Not at all. What we do is glorify
and glorify the mercy of God, the purpose of God in all of
it. This is his family. This is who
he chose to be his great-great-great-great-grandmother. If you were going to line up
your family tree, who would you come from? Well, you'd say King
Edward II. I come from a long line of hoops. Wouldn't you? Sure you would.
Everybody loves Tracer genealogy today, don't they? They love
that. Everybody wants to be Irish. I don't know why. Those were
the most pagan people that ever walked this planet. Seriously. Celtics. That's how you say that. Celtics. It's the Boston Celtics. They were the most pagan people
that ever walked this planet. They went into war. The men went
to war naked. But everybody wants to be one. That's a good picture, isn't
it? That's a good picture. Everybody wants to run naked. I remember when my daughter was
very, very young, just an infant, I remember seeing a picture of
my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather, my father's
father's father. His name was Henry Edward Mayhem,
where I got my middle name, Edward. I remember seeing a picture of
him, black and white. He had his daughter, who was
a blind girl, his daughter on his lap. He was sitting in a
chair, and she was sitting on the arm of that chair, and they
took this picture of him. He looked like me. He looked
just bald-headed man at the time, had a mustache, looked just like
me. I looked like him. So I thought that's neat. That's
my great-grandfather. I'll get a picture and I got
a picture of Hannah. You remember that? Still have
it. I got a picture of Hannah, a black and white, of her sitting
on an armchair with me. And I dressed like the man. And
I put these two pictures, him 250 more years ago, and me with our
daughter sitting. And it's amazing. We're just
alike. Well, later on, I should have
asked first. Later on, I said, Dad, tell me
about my great-grandfather, who I look like. He said he was
a drunken He was like the town drunk. He
was a sheriff. You ever see Robert Mitchum in
that Rio Grande? That's what he was, a drunken,
no good bum. That's my heritage. We come from
wild, savage, Scotch-Irish, all a bunch of drunks. There ain't no nobility in any
blood, for that matter. You can all trace your blood
back to Adam. There ain't nothing noble in
it. But God, this is what Christ, this is who Christ chose to,
in his family tree. This Rahab, and you can read
it for yourself in Joshua chapter 2, Rahab, the harlot, she took
the spies sent by Joshua into her bosom. two men, hid them,
laid hold of them, hid them within. And later on, Joshua was coming
through to destroy the city, and he spared Rahab. Why? Because
she laid hold on the messengers of God, believed God, and God
spared her by Joshua. That's us. Is that you? Are you
a Rahab? Look at the next one. There was
a Boaz, a fellow named Boaz, was the child of Rahab. Rahab
had a boy named Boaz. Now, that's my favorite story. It really is. I mean, it really
is. Boaz. Rahab had this son named
Boaz, and while he was a boy, she said, Son, don't you forget
to entertain You take in anybody and be good
to them, you don't know what angels you might be entertaining. You take in any stranger. Boaz
grew up to be a great man. A vast landowner. One day he's
riding on his horse and he looked out there and there's this woman
named Ruth. Poor in rags, picking up scraps
off the ground. And Boaz said, I'll take that. Ruth, who's Ruth? Where'd Ruth
come from? A nobody from nowhere. A young widow from Moabite, another
idolater who didn't know God from Adam. But God in His sovereign
providence hooked her up with Naomi. God in His wonderful,
amazing, complex purpose and providence brought her all the
way from Moab to light in a field, just happened to light in a field
that belonged to the only man that could do anything for her,
Moab. Is this your story? How many
fields or so-called churches are there and you happen to light
in the place where Christ takes Moabite women? pull up. Ruth. And then, one more, verse
6, Jesse begat David. And you see, Ruth begat Obed.
Ruth had to have a baby. She had to marry Boaz, had to
have a baby. See, Boaz had to be Judah's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson. Had to be. Had to come from Judah.
And Ruth had to have a son named Obed, and he begat Jesse. Because Jesse was going to have
a boy named David, the king, God's king, waiting in line,
waiting in line, the king. Well, and King David had a son
named Solomon, the greatest king ever born, even greater than
David. Now isn't that a picture? Who did he have the who did Solomon
come from? That's Sheba. You know that story. Well, a greater than Solomon
is who we're talking about. And in his genealogy, he chose
sinners. He was numbered with the transgressors. His family tree is full of No
goods. There's only one good in the
whole line. It's him. And if you and I can find ourselves
in his genealogy. Any Rahabs in here? Any Tamars? Any Bathshebas? Any Ruths? Anybody? If you can, then You're
in God's hands. You've traced your genealogy.
Bless God. Okay, I hope that was a blessing. More than just names, isn't it? More than names. Okay, let's
sing a closing hymn. What's the number? 199? Christ
receiveth sinful men. Number 199. Sing a couple of
verses. Sing the first and last. Spinners ye that will receive,
Sound this word of grace to all. Through the heavenly pathway
lead, All who linger, all who go, Singing o'er and o'er again,
Christ, receive His sinful hand. Make the masses clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men Christ receiveth sinful men Even me
with all my sin Hurt from every thought and stain And with Him
I enter in Sing it o'er and o'er again Brightly see this sinful
man Make the message clear and plain Brightly see this sinful
man