If you would, and you wanna follow
along, please turn to the first chapter of Matthew. First chapter of Matthew, I wanna
begin reading in verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise, When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these
things, 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. Now all
this was 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. Then Joseph,
being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had
bidden him and took unto him his wife. and knew her not till
she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. I, after a fashion, enjoy Christmas. But I'm not always real happy
about it. I enjoy Christmas mostly, is
that good, mostly? Because Christmas and I have
a strained relationship. I am full of wonder and awe at
the incarnation of my Lord Jesus Christ. God coming to this earth
to dwell with men of all people, you know? and men rejecting him. It's a
miracle of grace, and it is a miracle that is full of love. However, the Christmas season
is something else entirely, especially as it is now. People put up signs, mostly saying
ignorant things like happy birthday, Jesus. And I mean by that, ignorant. There are millions of people
right now going around buying millions of dollars of
things they can't afford for themselves and their kids who
won't appreciate them. That's Christmas season. Well, most of them, just to be
honest, aren't even pretending to celebrate the birth of Christ.
And I mean that sincerely. And I am saying this for the
television, whatever the heck it gets on, Paul, if it does. I've got nothing against a day,
if you want to pick a day every year to give presents to your
kids and to your spouse, and your parents and your loved ones.
I got nothing wrong with that at all. I think that's a wonderful
thing. And if I get a day off of it from work, it's even better. But don't blame Jesus for the
commercial excess. The only reason there is a season,
and it continues to be a season, and it keeps expanding back to
the day after Thanksgiving now, is for commercial reasons. And the word Christmas actually
means Christ mass. Okay, that's just wrong. On any
reason you wanna pick. It's a Roman Catholic thing,
And y'all know my Roman Catholic background. I was born and raised. But here's the thing. Christ
doesn't need a mass. You understand? It's not scriptural,
and even more importantly than that, it's not honoring to the
Father or to the Son. As a matter of fact, It's a dishonor
if you know what the Mass actually is. It's really not consistent with
Roman Catholic theology. Because if you really want to
get technical about it, any Mass you have has to be a Christ Mass. We gather here. every week to celebrate the birth,
the life, and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to
praise him ourselves every day. We are to extol his name, which
is above every name, every day. And there's a man sitting at
the right hand of the majesty on high right now Every day. Every day. Every knee shall bow to the glory
of God the Father. But here's our point, today and
every day, we are to celebrate and to praise him. Not just once
a year. Not just twice a year if you
consider it Easter. But here we have in the book
of Matthew, for, hopefully, our edification, our knowledge, our teaching,
the account of the incarnation of Christ, of the child Jesus
being born in this world, which did happen. And it happened,
what, on this wise, in this way. I'm gonna say it at the beginning. Do you believe in the virgin
birth of Jesus Christ? Yes, I absolutely do. You understand, I believe a God,
I believe the God, there's nothing too hard for. And this, if you
read the first part of this book, was what everything was leading
up to. It was leading up to this moment in time. And there was
more to come. But the birth of Jesus was on
this wise when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before
they came together. She was found with child, and
it says it flat out, of the Holy Ghost. Of the Holy Ghost. Now you're either gonna believe
the scripture or you're not gonna believe the scripture. And I
can't help you with either one. I can tell you to believe the
scripture, but I can't make you believe the scripture. And that's just the way it is. I can use all of my vast powers
of persuasion. Okay, I said that sarcastically
because I was being sarcastic. I don't have any vast powers
of persuasion to persuade men that way. I can persuade men
by preaching the gospel and by preaching his word. And I can
tell you that I believe his word whether you do or not. And that's
the way it's supposed to be. We are to believe the word of
God as he has given it to us and preserved it for us and translated
it into English for us. I look at, sure, I look at some
of the little Greek words because it helps me. I look at some of
the Hebrew words because it helps me and I'm nosy sometimes. But it's right here, black and
white. And it's in English. And you'll either have it or
you won't. And I can't help you either way.
But I do believe this. She was with child, and it was
of the Holy Ghost. It was a virgin birth. She had not known a man. Joseph didn't know why, but he
was about to find out. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. That's what that means, privily.
Privily. Privately. And here the thing
is, you see here that Joseph is showing, right here, he doesn't
know what's going on. Now Matthew's writing it from
the past. He's writing from the future
of this event back to what happened then. Matthew already knows.
But he's writing here that Joseph's showing he don't know what's
going on. And I'm gonna tell you something,
folks. There's a lot of times you don't know what's going on.
You might as well get used to it. I'm not saying be willingly
ignorant, but I'm saying just remember, there are lots of things
going all around you that you don't know. And sometimes, that's not a bad
way to be. Because I'll tell you this, sometimes
there's things going on in you that you don't understand. And
that's a good place to be sometimes. I remember some days being confused. Okay, I remember a lot of days
being confused, but there's some things here that as far as this
scripture was starting to make a little bit of sense to me.
And I was confused. I was perplexed. Why in the world
am I caring about this stuff now? I didn't know it at the time,
but that was a good place to be. Because God starts in you, and
I'm gonna tell you, it's gonna start with little things. It's
gonna start with little things. Do you know why? Because you
can't handle big things. I can't handle big things now.
But I can handle a bunch of little things stacked up on top of each
other. But that's taken, what, 35 years to get where I am now. But sometimes not knowing what's
going on is not a bad place to be, but knowing something is
going on while you don't know what's going on, that's a good
place to be because if you're one of his, he's gonna show you
what you need to know. That's something he's promised
also. It was promised he was coming and it was promised his
people are gonna know him. And it starts with little things.
But this ain't a little thing. This is an angel appearing to
a man. Now it says in a dream. It does say Joseph was a nice
guy and he was not willing to put his espoused wife to an open
shame. And he didn't want to stone her.
And I'm wholeheartedly in agreement with that. Ah. He was minded to put her away
privately. By the law, an adulteress was
to be stoned, along with the adulterer, if you could catch
him. It was harder for a woman to show that she's not pregnant.
But here's the thing, Joseph didn't want to do that. I think
he loved this woman. He wanted to marry her. And he
didn't want to shame her, he didn't want to shame himself
either, let's not put him totally out of the picture, but here's
the thing. He was a just man, that's what the scriptures say.
He was a just man, and minded to put her away privately. He
wasn't going to make her a public example, but he thought, as I
said, Joseph thought within himself, he thought he had to do something. Here's a scripture, I'm not gonna
turn to it or anything, but you can look it up if you want. Your
thoughts are not God's thoughts. Joseph found that out. And Joseph
being nice about it. He's not being mean, he's not
being hateful, he's not grabbing up rocks. Joseph thought he was doing the
right thing. Thought he was doing the good thing. Thought he was
doing the just thing. Joseph thought wrong. And God was fixing to show him. Because Joseph was making a decision
when he didn't have a decision to make. Now, do you understand the little
metaphor I just spoke there? There's lots of people running
around making decisions for Jesus. You ain't got no decision in
Jesus. There ain't no decision for you to make. Decisions about
salvation are totally and completely in the hand of God. You have
nothing to say about it. Until he gets done with you,
and then you can say amen. Because salvation is of the Lord. That's Old Testament, and that's
New Testament. But I like that. That's what
men do. We make decisions when we don't
need to be making decisions. And all the women said amen,
I understand that. Trust me. My wife and I have
a code that we use occasionally. I start doing something and she
leaves. You know why? Because she'll look at me and
she'll say, oh, man thing, and then she leaves. So I will tell
her sometimes ahead of time. This is why it's become our code.
And she said, what are you doing? I said, oh, don't worry, it's
a man thing. And she said, okay. Because men are stupid. Men are
sinful. And men, and I'm, women, you're
not left out of this, okay? Women, we want to make decisions
about our own fate. OK, simply by using the word
fate means you don't have a decision in any way. But that's the way we are with
the English language. I'm going to change my destiny.
Well, then it wasn't your destiny. Get a clue and get a dictionary,
please. But that's the way we are. And
Joseph thought he was gonna do something. He really did. And
he wanted to do the right thing. And he was fixing to do the wrong
thing while thinking it was the right thing. But that's okay. Here's what happens when you
start messing with God's business. God will take the decision out
of your hands. And bless God, you want him to. You may not
at the time. You might grumble about your
best laid plans of mice and men. They all get crumpled up and
thrown aside. Because man proposes, but God disposes. And the way
of a man is always right in his own eyes. In his own eyes. But your eyes don't matter either,
they're just as corrupt as the rest of you. That's the lot of men, that's
what men do, because Joseph thought it was up to him. And he was
about to find out different. Because while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not. Joseph was afraid. Joseph was
afraid. He had a fiancee who was pregnant. And he knew, okay, he didn't
know anything else, but he knew he had not been with her. Don't
fear, don't fear. Don't fear, that's what the angel
of the Lord say. Don't fear to take unto thee,
marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost. See, here's the thing. Joseph
had something to do. Nothing. Nothing. No, don't do anything. Fear not. Don't do anything. What was it Moses told the children
of Israel at the Red Sea? Stand still. And I still remember
Henry Mahan preaching this years and years ago, saying, you know
there was somebody in the back saying, you know, if there's
one thing we ought not to do, it's stand still. But no. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Joseph was to do nothing. Not
about Mary. Take her to be your wife. Marry
this woman. Because that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And I'll say it again. Yes, I
believe that. I believe it. wholeheartedly. Because here's
Joseph thinking, what do I do? How do I do it? And it doesn't
say this, but I'll wager it's in there. Why me? I'm a just man, you know? I've been good. No, you're about to find the greatest
blessing a father could have without being a father. taken to thee, marry thy wife.
She's with child. She's pregnant with the Messiah
of God. You understand, they're both
Jews. And throughout this whole Old
Testament, and I'm sure wherever they went, they heard the Messiah
is coming. The Messiah is going to come.
This angel is here to tell him today, this Messiah is here. He's here. He's in the womb of
your wife. And no, you didn't put him there.
She didn't put him there. The Holy Ghost put him there. That's a message right there.
The Holy Ghost, God, the Holy Spirit, put God, the Son, in
that woman's belly. And you know why? Because the
Father sent him. We'll get to that in a little
bit here. This child within her was conceived
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. Man, I could stop right there.
Oh, the title of this, Paul, I forgot to tell you, Angelic
Message to Joseph. The Angelic Message to Joseph. Because not only did Joseph get
a message, he got it from an angel of the Lord. You see, this
is not my words. This is not even the words of
Matthew. This is what the angel of the Lord told Joseph about
Mary, his wife, and Jesus, the Son of God. Notice very carefully. And she
shall bring forth a son. A son. You notice at the beginning he
says, Mary was with child, but she's gonna bring forth a son. There's a difference there. There's
a difference there. Because there's a reference in
Isaiah, it's also in verse 23. Behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And Isaiah 9,
six says this, for unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. There's a world of difference
between those two statements. And yet it's talking about the
same one. The same one. The child is born. Jesus was
born as a child. The Christ was not born as a
child. Jesus was born as a child, the Messiah existed in the beginning
with the Father. The Christ of God, the anointed
one. She shall bring forth a son. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. Now I know some people wanna tell you that that's
not now. is when he comes back, the government's
gonna be on his shoulder. No, it's there now, folks. You
either believe in a sovereign God, a sovereign Christ, who
is God, or you don't. You understand? The king's hand,
or king's heart, excuse me, is in the Lord's hand. And what's
it say? He can turn it whithersoever
he will. You understand? He can turn it
for you, he can turn it against you. if the Lord knows you need
to have somebody against you. You understand, there were some
times that our Lord, you can read it very clearly, our Lord
punished Israel. Why? Because they deserved it.
Because they sinned against him, because they rebelled against
him, because they worshiped other gods. And, not but, and he brought
them back. every time. Our Lord does whatsoever he will
among the inhabitants of the earth, in the armies of heaven,
among all the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And he said, I'm
sending my son. And you understand, wasn't nothing
or no one getting in the way of that birth. Joseph was minded
to put her away privately. Guess what? Joseph had his mind
changed. Oh my God, did he violate his
free will? What the heck are you talking about? He kept him
from making a mistake. He kept him from, what, sinning
a great sin. I don't think Joseph had a problem
with it later. I don't know why we would. You understand, God
works his will. And that's in you and in everyone
else. Because he's either sovereign
or he's not. But she shall bring forth a son. The child is born, but the son
is given. Given. Because only the son of
God could save his people from their sins. Yes, Mary was with child, and
she brought forth, I'll say it this way, the son, the son. And thou shalt call his name
Jesus. I preached about it last week. Save me, what? By thy name, David
said that. Save me by thy name. Thou shall
call his name, because it's a hymn, Jesus. Jesus. You understand, David said save
me by thy name. Jesus had a name before he came. A lot of people don't wanna understand
that, don't care about it, but you understand, God does nothing
outside of his purpose, outside of his plan, or outside of his
pleasure. Our Lord Jesus Christ was named
Jesus from before the foundation of the world. He is the eternal
son. No beginning, no end. You read
in John, there was nothing made without him. Without Jesus Christ. In Hawker's commentary, he quoted
something. I like the way he did this. He
says, one of the old writers said this. He doesn't tell you
which one. You know why? Because it doesn't matter. But
this is the quote. In the name of Jesus, the whole
of the gospel is hid. Here it is. I like the way this
guy wrote it. The whole of the gospel is hid,
for it's the light. the food, the medicine, yea,
the very life of the soul. You will see that in the name
of Jesus. I like that, I do. Because there
have been many prophecies that God's anointed would come into
this world for the purpose of the salvation of his people,
and here we have it declared in one sentence. to one man who
was getting ready to do the wrong thing for all the right reasons. Isn't God glorious? Isn't he
gracious? This man was getting ready to
put away this woman, privately. And God said, no. Nobody's putting away my son. He wasn't all that worried about
Mary. This son had to be born. Well, excuse me, this child had
to be born. This son was being given. Say
it right. This is that time that all the
prophecies of the Old Testament pointed to. Call his name Jesus. What's that
name mean? It means Yahweh is salvation. Jehovah is salvation. Yahweh
is savior. Jehoshua, Yeshua, Jesus, the
savior of his people is come. He is come. In the Old Testament
you'll see it's the same name, Joshua. Jesus is the Greek form
of Yeshua. Joshua. What's that? Joshua. And in the Old Testament, you'll
see Joshua as the type of Christ leading his people across the
river that Moses wasn't allowed to go. Understand, law can't
get you into Christ, but grace can. Actually, if you're gonna be
in Christ, grace is going to have to get you in. And it's
not up to you, it's up to Jesus Christ. His name, Jesus, is power. Because it takes the almighty
power, the power of God, to save a wretched sinner, and that's
what his name means. Jesus saves. Jehoshua, Jehovah
saves. The Lord saves. Because his name,
is not only the power, his name is the guarantee. Because he either saves or he
doesn't. That's the thing, you understand?
The Old Testament has been clear all the way up through. Salvation
is of the Lord. Either the Lord saves or there
is no salvation. and he sent forth his son to
save his people from their sins. His name is the guarantee and
his name is the purpose. Jehovah saves. His is the only name we need. I read it last week in Acts 4
and 12, there's none under name under heaven. I'm not gonna read
that today, because I'm gonna read Philippians 2. In verse eight, talking about
our Lord Jesus Christ. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, whereof God also hath highly exalted
him and given him a name. which is above every name. That
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ, the word is there is
interpolated, so leave it out for just this one time, that
Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
His name is above every name and there is none other name
under heaven whereby we must be saved. What? Saved. Saved. That's his name. God saves. Call his name God
saves. Why? For he shall save his people
from their sin. His name is his purpose. There are two certain things
about this name. He shall save and he has saved. As we're looking at it back from
beyond this. Or past this, I guess. From past
this time, or beyond this time. Because our Lord Jesus Christ Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. Now the question is, did the
angel tell the truth? Now, yes, he did. What's that mean? While Jesus
Christ was on this earth, he saved his people from their sins. You say, wait a minute, that's
way too simple. Yeah, it is, ain't it great? Ain't it great? See, men complicate things. Now
yes, there's a profoundness here that we cannot even tell. And
I don't think we can even understand, to be honest about it. But there's
a simplicity in Christ, why? Because there's a singleness
in Christ, that's what that word means. There's a singleness in
Jesus of Nazareth. Where are you looking for salvation?
You best be looking to Jesus. Why? He came to save his people
from their sins. And he either did or he did not. And it's just that, either the
angel told the truth or the angel lied. See, a lot of people now
want to tell you, well, he made it possible. Matter of fact, even worse nowadays,
they were saying that when we were coming up. Oh, Jesus made
salvation possible. No, they ain't gonna get on that
now. Not that he made it possible, he's made it available. It's
right there, Walmart, go get yourself. It's on the shelf.
That's what it sounds like. That's the way they talk about
it, it is. Jesus has made salvation available. You just need to receive
it, go get it. Well, that ain't what the Bible's
talking about when he's telling you to receive something. Because when
the Bible's telling you you're gonna receive something, somebody's
give it to you. And guess what? The son was given. And the son was given for his
people. This is, right here in Matthew,
this is the fullness of time. Of this time. but when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law, that's just what we read, to, ah, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Our Lord Jesus Christ This is
his birth But with his death his burial and his resurrection Neither by the blood of goats
and calves but by his own blood he Jesus Christ entered in once
into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us, for
us. Can you lose an eternal redemption? If you can, it wasn't eternal. I understand I'm talking this
way and I'm doing it on purpose because people, this is what
they say. Because they said, Jesus Christ said, the angel
told him, he's going to save his people from their sins. It
didn't say he's gonna save his people from their sins, but some
of them only temporarily. That's not the gospel. He saves eternally. His redemption is just as eternal
as he is. because he's the eternal son. And this book says his redemption
is eternal. What's that mean? Everlasting. This is the salvation that this
man came to do. Now the question is, did he do
it? Did he obtain eternal redemption for his people. Well, he has. He shall eternally,
I'm paraphrasing the angel now, call his name Jesus, for he shall
eternally redeem his people, what? From their sins. From their
sins. You understand? If you believe
Christ, you don't have any sins anymore. Not as far as God is
concerned. I'm not saying you don't sin.
I'm not saying you're not sin. I'm not saying you're not a sinner.
I'm saying you've been saved from your sins. Because this
man, in his eternal redemption, has taken away your sins. and called his name Jesus. Then
Joseph, being raised from sleep, did, as the angel of the Lord
had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not
until she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called
his name Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
again for this time. Thank you most of all for our
Lord, your Son, in whose name we pray, in whose name we ask,
in whose name we rejoice, in whose name we celebrate and praise
you for the glory that you have given us in your Son. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your gospel. And Lord, be with us always,
every day. In Christ's name we pray, amen.