Well, let's go to Matthew chapter
1 today, the book of Matthew chapter 1. This is also a very familiar
scripture, Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to focus just on one
verse, the 21st verse, and speak to you on this subject, call
His name Jesus. That's what His name was to be
called, and that's who He is. He's Jesus. Matthew 1, verse
21, And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Those of us who believe the gospel,
who love the word of God, we delight to think about God's
predestination and God's providence. And when we talk about God's
predestination, We just simply mean that our God has ordained
everything that shall ever come to pass. We don't believe in
luck. Every once in a while we'll say
something, you know, something happens. Maybe somebody makes
an unusual shot in a basketball game. We'll say he was lucky.
Or if you're on a golf course and a man makes a hole in one,
you'll say, that was a lucky shot. And that he is. But really, there is no such
thing as luck, is there? And we don't believe in fate
either. We believe God. We believe that God has ordained
everything that shall ever happen throughout what we call time. He's ordained all things. You might put it this way, He's
charted the course. Now, that's what God purposed
to do and what He did do before the world began. Now as God's
predestination unfolds, that is, as it all comes to pass,
we call that providence. God is directing all things to
the end that He has ordained in order to bring to pass His
eternal purpose of the salvation of His people, the glory of His
name. So God who ordained everything
is bringing everything to fulfillment. That's providence. Now God's
predestination and the carrying out of predestination, which
is providence, that has to do with everything that ever shall
be. Even the most wicked thing that's
ever happened in the world was ordained by God, the death of
His Son. Every detail ordered by God before
the world was ever formed or fashioned. Our Lord said in Luke
chapter 22 and verse 22, and truly the Son of Man goeth as
it was determined But woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. That word determined means decreed
or appointed. God ordained the death of his
son. That is the reason he is said
to be the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And
all things happen by divine appointment as did that act of the death
of our Lord Jesus. God ordained it because there
is no other way for God to be a just God and a Savior. There is no other way for God
to honor His law. be consistent to His own justice
and His holiness, and yet show saving mercy to you and me, put
away our sins, forgive our transgressions, remove them from us as far as
the east is from the west. No other way for God to do that
justly except by the death of His Son, and the death of His
Son like everything else was ordained, predestinated before
the world began, and divine providence brought it all to pass. Now, we know that divine providence
is a dark, often is a dark and a mysterious thing to us because
it is so intricate. The scripture says, that God
has worked out all things and is working out all things according
to the purpose of his will. And in the lives of God's elect,
God's people, those of us who are chosen in grace We've been
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We've been regenerated
and called by the Spirit of God to faith in the Savior. There
are oftentimes many things that happen in our lives that we don't
understand or that we misinterpret. Something comes to pass in our
life that is distasteful to the flesh. that is painful, that
causes us sorrow and grief, we might be tempted to think, well,
God's punishing me for something. Well, I want to assure you, God
has no punishment for his children. For the Savior has already been
punished for our sins. And there is therefore now no
punishment, no condemnation, no judgment to those who are
in Christ Jesus. All of the punishment which our
sins deserved had been fully endured by our substitute. God's wrath fell on him. There
is no wrath for us. There is no vengeance for us. And when afflictions are brought
to pass in our lives, they're not punishments from God. They're
instructions from God. They're corrective measures from
our Lord. They're instruments which He
uses to accomplish some purpose in our lives. And every affliction,
no matter what it is, every trial and every trouble, that happens
in the lives of God's people have their way of loosening our
roots from this earth and driving us to our God. And anything that
drives us to our God is good. It's beneficial for us. I'll
give you an illustration in the life of Joseph. Joseph, as you
know, was sold into slavery by his brothers. And then he went
through a series of ups and downs until he finally arrived where
God ordained for him to be all along at the right hand of Pharaoh. He was in charge of all the granaries
of Egypt. Every need of everybody who was
hungry would be supplied by Joseph. And of course, he's a beautiful
type of our Lord Jesus, and we'll get into that in another message. But in that story, when his brothers,
when Jacob and his family began to get hungry, and Jacob sent
the brothers to Egypt to buy some grain, Jacob held back his
youngest son, Benjamin. He sent his other sons to Egypt
to buy the grain. He kept Benjamin behind. And
they got before Joseph, and they didn't recognize him. But Joseph
recognized them. And Joseph said, you're a bunch
of spies. That's who you are. And they
said, no, no, we're not spies. We're just people who are hungry.
In fact, we've got a father back at home, and our youngest brother
is there. We've lost one brother. Of course,
they didn't know that they were talking to the brother that they
thought was dead now. But they said, we've lost one
brother, and our youngest brother, he's back home with dad. And
Joseph said, well, if you're not spies and you really are
who you say you are, and you go back home, I'm going to send
you some food. I'll send you back to your dad,
and you bring your youngest brother to me, and then I'll know you're
not spies, and then you can go in and out the land and get as
much food as you need. But I'm going to keep one of
you here. I'm going to choose you, Simeon. You'll stay here. I'm going to put you in a prison.
rest of you go your way." And they did. They went back to the
house, they went back to their daddy, they went back to Jacob. And they told Jacob exactly what
had happened. And Jacob, their father, said
unto them, May ye have bereaved of my children. Joseph is not
and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away, all these
things are against me." That was his conclusion. Joseph is
dead, Simeon is in prison, and now you want to take my youngest
son? Everything is working against me. But Jacob made the same mistake
that we make. He judged the working of divine
providence according to the flesh by feeble sense. Listen, nothing can ever be against
the people of God because the Lord is for us. He's for us in
His electing love. He's for us in His redeeming
mercies. He's for us in His regenerating
grace. God is always for us. He is never against us. And if
God be for us, who can be successfully against us? Nobody can and nothing
can. In reality, what Jacob saw as
working against him was really divine providence working for
him. For him. The purpose of God was
being fulfilled. It was being accomplished. For
the Lord had said to Abraham way before this, God said, Abraham,
your descendants are going to be in a foreign nation for 400
years, and then I'm going to redeem them. This is the promise
of God, the Word of God coming to pass. And this is not going
to be working against Jacob. It's going to be working for
Jacob. Because you see, through Joseph,
all of the needs of Jacob and his family will be well abundantly
supplied. My dear believer, nothing is
working against you because God is for you. And He is working
all things together for your good and for His glory. according to his eternal purpose.
So don't judge the workings of providence by feeble sense. I love the writings of William
Kalper. You ever heard of William Kalper?
He was a friend of John Newton's. And they wrote songs together.
John Newton wrote Amazing Grace and many, many more. William
Cowper, he wrote There is a Fountain Filled with Blood and many more.
But he wrote one song, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. And in that
song he had these words, Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust Him for His grace. behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. Always remember that. You say,
well, what does that have to do with this passage in front
of us? Well, let me see if I can connect the dots for you. In
this passage, Matthew chapter 1, Joseph is espoused to a wonderful,
beautiful, young virgin named Mary. Now this espousal was more than
a mere engagement. It was so serious, in order to
break it off, there had to be a divorce. He was espoused to
Mary, but before their wedding day ever arrived, Mary was found
to be in a condition which left Joseph in a position to draw
this conclusion, she's an immoral woman. Because she was pregnant. And
they had never come together. And Joseph loved her. And he
decided therefore to divorce her quietly. Oh, how distressing
this was to Joseph. He had been looking forward to
their nuptials. They had made their plans as
all couples do. And you know he was excited.
He and Mary had talked about their life together. He said,
honey, I'm a carpenter. I'll build us a little house.
And I already have this trade. And I'm a skilled craftsman with
wood. And we'll be all right. And they
talked about having children together, making all the plans
that young couples make together. This is what we're going to do.
This is where we're going to live. This is so thrilling. This
is so wonderful. This is so exciting. But now Mary is pregnant and
all of his hopes and all of his dreams are shattered. And no doubt he was overcome
with many different emotions. Sorrow, anger, disappointment. Why did this have to happen to
me? What has Mary done? You can just
imagine the thoughts that would have gone through his mind. But that which seemed to be against
him was not working against him, but working for him. Let's remember
that. You see, this is going to work
out for Joseph's good. Because the one who will be born
to Mary, she is indeed pregnant by the power of the Spirit. But
this will work out for Joseph's good because the one who will
be born is none other than Joseph's Redeemer, Joseph's Savior, Joseph's
Substitute. that one appointed by God in
old eternity to take Joseph's place and bear his debt of sin
and pay it in full. Joseph, I know he was disappointed,
his dreams are shattered, but Mr. Joseph, I assure you, this
will work out for your good. And I speak to you who are the
Lord's people. These afflictions and these troubles
and some of God's people right now are going through some deep
waters. They'll work out for you good some way because God's
directing your path. I remember what Brother Scott
Richardson said to me when he was diagnosed with cancer. And
one of the men in the church called me and said, would you
come up and preach for Scott? He's going in the hospital. And
I went up to see Scott, and Scott told me, he said, when the doctor
said, I've got some bad news for you, you got cancer, Scott
said, I hadn't heard any bad news ever since I heard the good
news. Ever since I heard the good news
of redemption, and salvation, and reconciliation, and that
all of my sins put away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I haven't heard any bad news. There is no bad news for you,
child of God. And if the doctor says, I've
got some bad news for you, you've got cancer, just say to him,
well, doc, maybe that's the means whereby God will take me unto
Himself someday. And then I'll be gloriously happy
then. Do what you can for me. But it
will work out for my good. Let's look at this. Look at verse
18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wire. Birth. The word birth is literally the
word Genesis. Genesis. Yep. Just like the first
book in the Bible. It's the word Genesis, which
literally means the beginning. Now, if you took the time to
read down from verse 2 through verse 16, you'll find Matthew
uses this word begat some 38 different times. So-and-so begat
so-and-so, and so-and-so begat so-and-so. You just go right
down the line. But when it comes to our Lord's entrance into this
world, it doesn't say that so-and-so begat Him. But rather the word
is, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. This is his beginning. He had a beginning, but he was
not begotten of man. Now as God, he never had a beginning. We know that. He is the eternal
God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But His human
nature had its genesis, its beginning, though ordained from all eternity. The Son of God, and this is recorded
in Hebrews chapter 10, when we're informed that the blood of bulls
and goats could never put away sin, the Savior said, but a body
thou hast prepared me. You've prepared for me a body.
That word prepared means fitted. You've made it ready for me to
inhabit. You have perfectly joined together
my eternal spirit with this flesh. So Matthew, the inspired writer,
is about to describe not the genesis of the heavens and the
earth, that's described in Genesis chapter one, but rather he's
going to describe, he's going to set forth the genesis of him
who made the heavens and the earth, that is the genesis of
his human nature. Well, he was on this wife. This
is the way it happened. That's what that means. That
when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together,
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. He is the seed of
the woman. He is the virgin born child. He is not infected by the sin
of Adam. He did not have the wickedness
of Adam. He never had that wickedness.
He never had that sin. In Him was no sin and is no sin. There was no guile found in His
mouth. He was always the innocent one,
all the way up to and including His death. He was the innocent
one dying in the stead of the guilty, that the guilty would
be forgiven of their sins and made the righteousness of God
in Him. He's the innocent one. The just
one. He was not defiled by man's sin. He's not the seed from the seed
of man. He's the seed of the woman. The
seed of the woman. Mary is found with child of the
Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit overshadowed
her and mysteriously and miraculously formed Jesus Christ in her womb. in a manner that is beyond our
ability to ever understand. And even so, as He was physically
and literally formed in her womb, so He is spiritually formed in
us by the power of His Spirit. And as Mary had made no contribution
to this whatsoever, so when He is formed in us, we make no contribution
to that either. It's altogether a matter of God's
power and God's grace. God working in us to will and
to do of His good pleasure when He forms Christ in us. And in verse 19, then Joseph,
her husband, being a just man, He's a just man. And that sets
forth two things. His standing before God and His
character before men. He's a just man. He's justified
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ which would be established
for Him some 33 years later when the Savior would die in His room
and in His place and in His stead. And then outwardly, This is a
consequence of the work of the grace of God in him. He's a just
man in his character, in his actions. He's a man who sought to live
in a right manner. And he didn't want to embarrass
Mary, he loved her. And he thought about the best
way to go about breaking off this espousal. But he wanted
to do it in such a way that he didn't bring shame on her any
more than the shame she was already experiencing. When you love somebody, you try
to, love covers a multitude of faults, doesn't it? You don't
want to hang your dirty laundry out on the line for everybody
to see. There's somebody you love, and they've messed up,
or in your mind you think they've messed up like Joseph thought
that Mary had messed up. You don't get on the telephone
and call people and say, did you hear what so-and-so did?
Oh no, your heart's broken, isn't it? So God forgive them. and keep my spirit right before
you in this matter. Joseph thought she had done wrong.
While he was sure she had done wrong, but he wanted to handle
this in a quiet way so as not to bring any more shame upon
her. But verse number 20, while he thought on these things, trying
to figure out what to do, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear
not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Let me ask you three or four
questions. Number one, who is He? Who is
this Jesus? You know, notice in verse 20,
the angel of the Lord, and I think that this is our Lord right here
speaking to Joseph. He is the angel of the Lord.
He is the messenger of the covenant. Every communication from God
comes to us by way of Jesus Christ the Lord. Because God will not
speak to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam except
through a mediator. And here it is, the angel of
the Lord, not an angel of the Lord, but the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and spoke to him and said to him,
fear not, fear not. When I think of the name of our
Lord Jesus, surely no name can banish fear quite like the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, His name is the beginning
of hope and the end of despair. His name is the beginning of
joy and the end of sorrow. This name is the beginning of
comfort and the end of disappointment. His name is the beginning of
salvation and the end of condemnation, for He is the Savior. Our Lord
has other names, and He has other relationships to us, His people. But this is especially and specifically
His own personal name, and it's the name the Father gave Him. Like the Savior Himself, this
name came from above. It came from the Father. Rest
assured, therefore, it's the best name he could ever have. Because God will not give him
an inferior name. And God will not give him a name
to which he will not be true. For his name means he shall save
his people from their sins. God would never have given him
a name of secondary value or a name about which there would
be any trace of dishonor. This name is the highest, the
brightest, the noblest name that could ever be given. This is the best name that could
ever be given to a son born of a woman. And we're quite certain
that the Father knew all about Him. Because the Father ordained
Him to do this work before the world began and sent Him into
the world with this specific name. And the angel said, Thou
shalt call Him Jesus. This is what the Father said
called Him. He'll have no other name. He's
not going to be Joseph Jr. He's going to be Jesus. The Father
gave Him that name. Jesus is the most appropriate
name He could ever receive. He is the Savior. The Father
who knows Him best gave Him the best name. Infinite wisdom selected
the name, so it is the name to which He must be true. Watch this. Not only who is He? He's Jesus the Savior. But number
two, what did the angel say of the Lord that Jesus would do?
He would save His people from their sins. He would save them.
He's the Savior. He's the Savior. Within this
name Jesus is the very doctrine of salvation. Because Jesus means
Jehovah who saves. and all of salvation from the
beginning to the very end, from the origin of salvation to the
consummation of salvation, all of it is encompassed in this
name. He's the Savior. Jehovah who saves, that's who
He is. No wonder His salvation that
He accomplished is said to be a great salvation in Hebrews
chapter 2. It's a great salvation. It was
purposed by a great author, God Himself. It was decreed in great
wisdom. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Oh, what great wisdom there is
in sending Jesus who would satisfy God's unbreakable, inflexible
law and do something about our sins. Put them away by the sacrifice
of Himself. And it was a salvation accomplished
at great price. What's the price? The blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what redeemed us. And
it comes to us by great power The power of the Spirit of God.
Jacob said back in Genesis 49 and 18, I have waited for thy
salvation. And God's saints in the Old Testament
waited for God's salvation. And then the Lord Jesus was born. Watch it. He came in not only
to accomplish salvation, but He is that salvation. Simeon
held Him in his arms. and looked into his face, and
he said, Oh God, now let your disservant depart in peace. I am ready to die, for mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. He didn't see a plan, he saw
a person. Salvation is totally encompassed
in this glorious person of Jesus Christ the Lord. The angel said
he'll save his people from their sin. Which brings me to this.
For whom will he accomplish this salvation? His people. He's got
a people. He's got a people. They're out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And they're his by
gift. So that the Savior said in John
chapter 6, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. And He said,
Of all that thou givest me I'll lose nothing. I'll raise them
all up at the last day. You know why He must do that?
Because He's the Savior, that's why. Because He's Jesus. He's
Jesus. He can't fail. In that passage in Genesis that
I referred to, when Simeon was kept back by Joseph, and when
Jacob said, all these things are against me, it was then that
the oldest son of Jacob spoke up. His name was Reuben. He said,
now Dad, I'll go back to Egypt, and I'll get Simeon, and I'll
take Benjamin with me, and I'll take care of him. And Jacob said,
no. And the reason Reuben couldn't be
his surety is because Reuben wasn't from the tribe of Judah.
Reuben was the name of his own tribe. But in the very next chapter,
Judah says, Dad, I'll be surety for Benjamin. And Jacob said,
all right. Because you see, our Savior must
come forth from the tribe of Judah, and He's surety for all
of His Benjamins. And before the world began, He
accepted all of His Benjamins from the Father, and He said,
Father, I'll bring them all home safely to You. You can count
on Me. He's Jesus, the Savior. Jesus, the Savior. He saves His people, elect from
every nation, yet one or all the earth. And from what did
Jesus save His people? From their sins. And that's all
sins. Past, present, future. Somebody
says, well, not all of them, just the ones in the past. Listen,
all of your sins were in the future when He died. And He saved
you from your sins when He died. You found out about it at regeneration. But you just discovered the good
news at regeneration of what God in Christ Jesus had already
done for you 2,000 years ago. The Spirit of God awoke you from
your sleep of death and said to you in your heart, here's
good news for you. Your sins, which are many, are
all washed away. It was washed away back at Calvary. by your substitute, Jesus, the
Lamb of God. All sins, secret sins, open sins,
sins of the heart, sins of the mind, sins of the lip, sins of
the life, sins of omission, sins of commission, all sin. Safe from the guilt of sin, safe
from the punishment of sin, safe from the damning power of sin,
safe from the suffering and the death due to sin, safe from the
government of sin, and someday we'll be safe from the very presence
of sin. when we see Him face to face.
Notice three shalls in verse 21. It says, the messenger of
God said, and she shall bring forth a son, and Mary did. The second shall, and thou shalt
call his name Jesus, and Joseph did. He said that's his name.
And thirdly, for he shall save his people from their sins, and
Jesus did. Because God's shalls always come
to pass. Fulfilling his word and his decree. And who is this? Look down at
verse 23. This all happened, look at verse
22. This was all done that it might be fulfilled, which was
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Who is Jesus? He is God with
us. God with us is our Savior. who
put away all of our sins. What a sweet name. There's just
something about this name in there. Just something about this
name. Let's sing that chorus. You know
that chorus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about
that name? I hope you know it, because I don't want to sing
solo. Let's sing it together. You got the music there? All
right. We'll sing it real deliberately
now. I want you to really sing from your heart. Here we go.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that man. Master, Savior, Jesus, light
the fragrance after the rain. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Let all heaven
and earth proclaim Kings and kingdoms But there's something about that
name. Now take your hymnal and look
at 63. Let's sing our final hymn of this morning. Take the name
of Jesus with you. It's a good closing hymn. 63. Let us stand as we sing, please.
Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe. It will joy and honor give you. Faith in Him wherever you go. Precious faith, oh how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious faith, oh how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven.