Now let's turn in our Bibles
to the book of Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. My text is verses 21 through
23 and the title of the message is Salvation from Sin. Salvation from Sin. The reason that I believe the
Lord laid this message on my heart as I was thinking about
the issues of sin and of righteousness and specifically the doctrine,
what I call the glorious doctrine of imputation and writing some
things on that. And it reminded me of how so
many people are confused, even ignorant, on this matter of sin
and what sin is and how we are to think about the issue of sin
and as a consequence righteousness and the issue of imputation and
that's what got me to thinking about this. You would think if
there's any subject that man knows inside and out and doesn't
really have to study and search for knowledge on, it'd be the
issue of sin. Because we're sinners, and frankly,
we're good at it. I mean, it's sad to say. And if you don't know that, just
to be very honest with you, if you don't know that, then this
is a message for you. And I'll show you why. I mean,
it's easy for people in religion to go around quoting particular
verses of scripture that they learn in what they call salvation
formulas, which I think are totally unbiblical. And I'm not saying
that just to be critical. And it's not that these verses
are not true. They are true. I mean, whatever
God says is true. But how people use them sometimes,
just to get, you know, some kind of a formulaic repetition out
of people. Repeat this prayer after me,
or repeat this after me. And then when they finish repeating
that, and they'll say, did you believe that in your heart? Well,
then you're, you know, all of that stuff, which I will frankly
tell you is unbiblical. But like, for example, we quote
Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's true. What does that mean? And then we'll follow up
with Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then
they'll jump over to John 3 and talk about believing. But in this matter of sin, The Bible
says in John 16 verses 8 through 11 that one of the main works
of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is to convict us or convince
us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because
we believe not on Christ. That's the state of man by nature.
of righteousness because Christ went unto the Father. What does
that mean? And of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. But sin is a subject that we
have to be taught on. How to think about sin. How do
we think about it? How do we assess it? How do we judge it? We know that
all men by nature are born with a conscience. There are some
that we wonder about in life when we read about the atrocities
of crimes and perversions, and we say, well, they have no conscience.
They may not have one, but it didn't start out that way, because
the scripture says we're all born with a conscience, Romans
chapter two, and I could show you other passages. There are
people who spend their lives trying to squelch that conscience.
And they can come to a point, if God lets them go, to a point
where they have a reprobate mind. That's a mind void of conscience,
a mind void of right and wrong. And we see a lot of that today.
But you know, that's not just a modern problem. Go back and
read the book of Judges. You know, what it says in the
book of Judges about God's assessment upon the nation there, the nation
Israel, is that every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Isn't that what's happening today? There's no absolutes. There's
no absolute right and wrong, you see. What's right for you
may be right for you, but it may be wrong for you. You know
how people are. So that's not a modern problem.
It's a modern problem, but it's not just exclusively a modern
problem. It's been that way all along. But what about this matter
of sin? Let's start with that. Look at
verse 21 of Matthew chapter 1. It says, she, now that's talking
about Mary, the mother of Jesus, she shall bring forth a son.
And when it calls him the son, you know, Romans chapter 1 talks
about a child is born, or Isaiah 9 rather, talks about, Isaiah
9, 6, a son, a child is born, a son is given. And that speaks
of both the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. She shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Who's this talking
about? It's talking about Jesus of Nazareth.
And then, on that name Jesus, you might have in your concordance
there in your Bible, it says the word Savior. Because that's
what the name Jesus means. It means Savior. You can see
some derivatives of that too. It could mean Jehovah saves. That's a derivative. And it goes
all the way back to the Old Testament. It's the Old Testament name Yeshua
or Joshua. And that's what it means, Savior.
And that's proven by what follows up here in verse 21. For he shall
save his people. So who's this talking about?
Well, look back up in verse 1 of Matthew chapter 1. We're not
going to read the whole chapter because it's a genealogy, but
the genealogy here is important. He says, the book of the generation
of Jesus Christ, Jesus Messiah, the anointed one, the son of
David. Now who's he talking about? He's
talking about the Messiah. He's talking about Jesus of Nazareth
as Messiah, son of David. That's a messianic title that
was promised to David in the royal covenant back in 2 Samuel
7. And this was not to be fulfilled. What was promised David about
an eternal kingdom could only be fulfilled in the Messiah. Could not be fulfilled in an
earthly king, but the Messiah. And then he says son of Abraham.
And what it's showing here is that this Jesus who is the Savior
according to his humanity is a direct descendant of Abraham
and David. He had to come from Abraham because
in Abraham the promise was made of the earthly family that he
would come through. And he was born of the flesh
without sin. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit without the
aid of man. He was not born dead in trespasses and sins like you
and I were. So his name shall be called Jesus, a direct descendant
of the royal covenant, David, and Abraham. That's what he's
talking about. And then look over at verse 18. He says, now the birth of Jesus
was on this wise. This is how it happened. When
as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, that means she was
engaged, before they came together, before they had husband and wife
relations, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So,
in other words, the conception of this Jesus of Nazareth came
about by the Holy Spirit's miraculous power. And it says, then Joseph,
her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a
public example, was minded to put her away privileged. He wasn't
going to make her a public spectacle because they were only engaged.
They weren't married yet. And he says in verse 20, but
while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord,
this is an angelic being, I believe, that had a message from God for
Joseph, appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou
son of David. Now, Joseph was a descendant
of David, too. He was of the tribe of Judah.
You see, it was prophesied back in Genesis 49 that Messiah would
come from the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe. The scepter
will not depart from Judah until Shiloh come." Well, both David
and somebody asked, well, if Joseph had nothing to do with
his birth, how could he be from the tribe of Judah? Mary was
of the tribe of Judah too. So of the flesh, he came through
that tribe. But he says, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife. Don't be afraid to go ahead and
marry her. She's not having an illegitimate child and she wasn't
under some kind of divine rape. Believe it or not, I've heard
people say that. And it wasn't true. She was blessed
among women, scripture says. What a blessing. Christ was prophesied
to be the seed of woman. And that came through Mary. Some
say Eve thought it would be her. That's why she, when she had
Cain, she thought that Messiah had already come, but she was
wrong. It didn't come until 4,000 years
later through Mary. So he says, don't be afraid to
marry her. Don't be ashamed. For that, look
at verse 20, for that which is conceived, begotten in her is
of the Holy Ghost. God, the Holy Spirit, the third
person of the Trinity. doing his work. And then it says
in verse 21, she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call
his name Jesus. Now Joseph did not name this
child. This was the son of God. God
named him. But God had already named him
way back before the foundation of the world. And in fact, the
first time that this term Jesus, this name Jesus, it's translated
in your King James Bible in Genesis chapter 49 and verse 18, the
first appearance of this word that is translated Jesus, and
back then it's translated salvation. It's in Genesis 49, 18, and here's
Jacob laying on his deathbed blessing his sons, and in the
middle of blessing his sons, I think it's after he blesses
either Dan or Benjamin, I think it's Dan, And he just interjects
the fact, he says, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. That's
the first appearance of it in the Bible. Not the first appearance
of Messiah, that goes back to Genesis chapter 3. But the name
here, salvation. The second appearance of it is
in Exodus 14, 13, where Moses is standing on the brink of the
Red Sea and the Hebrew children at that time were complaining in unbelief
that he'd led them to slaughter. Pharaoh's army coming back on
them and you know what he says? He says, and Moses said unto
the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. That's the second appearance
of that name. Which he will show to you today for the Egyptians
whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more
forever. Stand still and see it. And so his name shall be called
Jesus. And look over verse 23. Here he quotes from the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah 7. 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. There's his deity. So here's
the Savior who is both man, perfect man, and God. And of course,
the Bible is clear on why this had to be so. Why did he have
to be both God and man? And I could show you a thousand
verses on that subject. But let me just give you one,
I'll read it to you, Hebrews 2.14. Where it says, for as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. Now that's
his elect. That's the people of God, chosen
before the foundation of the world. who, although ruined by
the fall, must be redeemed by the blood and regenerated by
the Spirit. And because the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he, Messiah, also himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil." He had to be made
flesh. He had to be both God and man
in order to save us according to God's purpose. Galatians chapter
four, when the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son
made of a woman, his humanity. God sent forth his son, that's
his deity, made of a woman, that's his humanity. Made under the
law, that's his mission, to keep the law, satisfy justice, to
redeem them that were in the law. That's the accomplishment.
So back in Matthew 121, now what's he talking about? Well, it says
in verse 21, she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus. Salvation, Jehovah saves. For he shall save his people. He's not going to try to save
his people. He's not going to make salvation
possible for them. He shall save his people. And
what is he going to save us from? Well, who are his people? Now,
we've already said that. That's His elect. That's the
ones whom the Father gave Him before the foundation. That's
the ones whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the foundation of the world. And from what will He save them?
What's He gonna save us from? Now, the Bible does not say,
listen, now listen, I hate poverty. We've got a lot of poverty in
this world and I hate it. But that's not what He's gonna
save us from. I hate illness." But that's not
what He's going to save us from. What's He going to save us from?
He shall save His people from their sins. That's what He says. Well, what does that mean? Well,
there are a lot of words in the Old Testament and the New Testament
for sin. In fact, And of course, different
translators will have different numbers and different ways of
stating them. I think there are basically five, in the New Testament,
five words to describe sin and all of everything that it is. The word here, he shall save
his people from their sins, is the most common word used in
the New Testament. And it corresponds to the most
common word in the Old Testament for sin. In fact, I was on the
TV program this morning. I was talking about Psalm 32.
Look back at Psalm 32. Let me show you something here.
Just take a second in Psalm 32. And he uses three words here
in these first two verses in the Old Testament. He says, blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven. There's the word transgression.
What does that mean? Okay, hold on to that thought.
Whose sin is covered. That word sin there corresponds
to the word sin in our text. Matthew 1. He shall save his
people from their sins. And it's the most common word.
One's a Hebrew word, one's a Greek word. And they're the most common
word that describes sin. And then verse two, he says,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. There's
another word in the Old Testament. In fact, those three words, transgression,
sin, and iniquity, cover just about the whole gamut of what
sin is in the Old Testament. And plus in the New Testament.
Then he says, and in whose spirit is no guile. So blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. Well, what does
this word sin mean in Matthew 121? The most common word for
sin found in the New Testament, and here's what it means corresponding
to the most common word found in the Old Testament. Here's
what it means. It means to miss the mark. That's what it means. It means you miss the mark. Now we talk about Romans 3.23.
For all have sinned in what? come short of the glory of God. That's what it means. It means
we come short. And so in that light, how do we think about
sin? Sometimes it's just translated sin singular. Sometimes it's
translated sins as in our text. He shall save his people from
their sins. Sometimes it refers to what we call the sin nature. And that is the principle and
power of sin within our minds, affections, will, the sinful
heart. Sometimes it refers to the acts
of sin. The works of sin. Works of the
flesh. Sometimes it's translated sinful. We're sinful people. Peter said,
depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Sometimes it's
the word offense. But here's what it means. It
means to miss the target, to miss the mark, to fall short. It's a failure to meet God's
standard of righteousness and holiness, a failure to meet God's
requirement. That's what sin is. That's how
we're to think of sin. Well, what is the standard? What
is the mark? Well, here it is. Who did He
have to send to save us from sins? Jesus, the Son of God,
salvation. He's the standard. He's the mark. He's the requirement. If not,
then He didn't have to come to save us from our sins. There'd
been some other way. You understand what I'm saying?
If Christ, if there was some other way for us to hit the mark,
You see, that's the problem. We can't hit it. We can't measure
up. We cannot, we cannot meet the requirement. And if there
was some other way to do it, Jesus would not have had to have
come. But here He says, He shall save His people from their sins. That's what it means. What is
the standard? Well, the standard is what Brother
Mark read there in Psalm 71. And that's what David was talking
about. You said it right, Mark. It's righteousness. Righteousness. That's the standard. Well, how do you measure righteousness?
Well, let's go get the finest citizen in the city of Albany
and let's put him on display up here and we'll measure righteousness
by him. You got a problem. Where in this book from Genesis
to Revelation does it say that righteousness is to be measured
by the finest citizen in Albany, Georgia? It doesn't say that. Where does this book from Genesis
to Revelation tell you that righteousness is to be measured by the finest
citizen who ever lived or ever will live in this world? Speaking of human beings, it
doesn't say that. Who is the standard? Mark this
down in your mind or in your Bible or on your notes. Acts
17, 31. I quote it all the time. It tells you the standard plan.
There's a thousand verses that tell us the standard, but that's
one. And right before he made... This is Paul the Apostle speaking
to the Greek philosophers in Athens not Athens, Georgia, but
Athens, Greece, on Mars Hill. And these are men, these Greek
philosophers, just like the religious Jews, were trying to measure
up to the standard of righteousness. Now, they thought you could do
it by knowledge, intellectual pursuits. That's what they thought. And they would add morality.
They would add that. The Jews thought they could do
it by keeping the Law of Moses. Well, pick the finest Jew. Pick
the finest Gentile. And here's Paul talking to these
Greek philosophers, and he makes this statement. He says, God,
and this is verse 30, Acts 17, 30. He says, God has commanded
all men everywhere to repent. Repent of what? Well, somebody says, well, repent
of whatever you're doing wrong. Well, sure. Whatever I'm doing
wrong, I should repent of. There's no doubt about it, no
argument there, no debate. But that's not what he's talking
about here. That's not how we're to think of this issue of sin
and righteousness. That's not to be our worldview,
let's put it that way. Everybody's talking about our
worldview now. Repent of what? Well, here it
is. What is sin? It's to miss the
mark. How are you going to measure
up and hit the mark? That's the issue. If whatever
way that you think you're hitting the mark, measuring up, is not
the right way, the way of righteousness that God set down, you need to
repent of it. I need to repent of it. That's
how we're to view it. And so when he says in Acts 17.30,
God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent, what comes next? Verse
31, for God hath appointed a way. What does he say there? God,
God, the God of this book, the God of this Bible who commanded
light to shine on our creator. The God who created all things
for Himself and by Himself and for His glory. What does He say? God has appointed a day. What
day is He talking about? A day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness. That's the day of judgment, isn't
it? There's a day of judgment. There's a day of accountability.
There's a day in which God is going to show whether I measure
up or whether I don't. Whether I've hit the mark or
whether I haven't. That's the day of judgment. And
He's appointed that day. Now what is the measure? What
is the standard? He says God is going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained. Not a man whom you hath ordained.
Not a man whom I hath ordained. You go pick the finest citizen
in Albany. You say, well, I'll choose that
fellow. That means you're ordaining him. But God didn't do that.
God didn't ordain him. God ordained another man. What
man? Whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, this is not debatable, in that he hath raised him from
the dead. Who is that? Jesus. The salvation
of His people. The finest man, but not just
man, God-man. You see the measure, the standard
is not the righteousness of man at all. Not even the best man. It's the righteousness of God. That's the standard. And who
is the righteousness of God? Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. That's what it is. I missed the
mark. You missed the mark. Now we all
know people in our families, in our communities who are what
we would call by the standard of man's measurement good people,
kind people, generous people. Humble people even. But now,
if we view sin and righteousness in light of what the Bible says,
how are we to think of them when it comes to salvation, when it
comes to a righteousness that God requires, a relationship
with God? Here's how we're to think about it. They don't measure
up. Now, it's easy to look at the
scum of society and say that. It's easy to go down to the local
jails and say, well, we know them fellas don't measure up.
They don't even measure up to society standards. And you're
right, they don't. They don't. And I'll tell you what, you know,
we open the newspaper or read on the internet or watch on the
TV news and we see horrible crimes committed. I mean, I think three
times I've seen on the news this past week about people leaving
their children locked up in a hot car, a hundred and some degrees.
And I think, what kind of people would do that? We've been talking about our
Supreme Court, you know, condoning homosexual marriage, and that's
awful. And we're appalled at that, and
we should be, and I'm glad we are. And that sin, that's what it
is. I hope we never grow numb to the sins of society. It's
a sad day when we do, isn't it? But when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to a right relationship with God, when it comes to being
saved, being blessed, being sure for heaven, Now, how are we to
think about sin and righteousness? And here it is, we don't measure
up. We've missed the mark. And I
can pick the best moment in my whole life. where I think I've
done the best that a human being can do in any way whatsoever,
and I still have to say, if I'm going to view sin and righteousness
the way God tells me to in this book, I've got to say, I do not
measure up. I missed the mark. Now there
are other words for sin. Transgression. What does transgression
mean? That means breaking the law. We could talk about trespass.
What does that mean? That means we step over the line.
You ever seen, gone on a piece of property and you see a sign
that says no trespassing? That means you don't come on
this property. What Adam did in the garden to bring the whole
human race into sin and death and ruination, he missed the
mark, he broke the law, and he stepped over the line. That's
what he did. God said you can eat of all the
trees of the garden here except one. You don't cross that line.
That's the law. That's the mark. You stay away
from that. In the day that you eat thereof,
thine you shall die. Now Adam, by sinning and bringing
the whole human race into sin and death, he didn't do any of
the things that the natural man sees as sin. In fact, the natural
man sees that as kind of unreasonable. God's being unreasonable. Well,
certainly God's not being unreasonable. God's just doing what God alone
can do, exerting his holy law and justice. He's the creator.
We're the creature. But when Adam did that, he missed
the mark. He broke the law. He stepped
over the line. And then there's the word iniquity.
What does iniquity mean? It means we don't balance out.
Comes from the word equal. All things equal, they say. Well,
in this matter of a relationship with God, God and sinners, there's
no equality. We don't measure up. You know,
when people talk about the scales, well, the scales of justice have
got to balance, they say. And people will apply that to
religion. They'll say, well, when we get
to heaven, we've got to measure our good works with our bad works,
and it's got to equal out. It's got to balance out. The
problem is it can't. Because if the left hand is sin,
it goes all the way down. We don't have any goodness according
to God's Word. Not in His sight. It doesn't
equal out. Well, how can I equal this out?
That's why when those false preachers stood before Christ and said,
haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't
we done many wonderful works? He said, depart from me, you
that work iniquity. You see, your preaching and casting
out demons and wonderful works do not measure up, equal out,
balance out to righteousness. It's iniquity. As far as thinking about debt,
about sin, there's the word debt. Sin is a debt. You know, when
people commit a crime and they're convicted and they're sent to
prison, they're sentenced, let's say, for 10 years. This crime
requires a sentence of 10 years in prison, and when the 10 years
is up, they let them out, and what do we say? They've paid
their debt to society. Well, sin runs up a debt. A debt
to God's justice. And my friend, it's a debt we
cannot pay. No amount of religion, morality,
prayers, tears, works will pay the debt. In fact, here's the
problem. We don't even have one penny
to pay that debt. So how can the debt be paid?
Well, here it is. Matthew 121. His name shall be
called Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's why he came, to save us
from our sins. He came to provide a perfect
righteousness whereby God could be just to justify the ungodly. And in Christ, who had my sins
charged to him, and that's the only way he could have been made
sin, Christ was made sin, the scripture says. That word there
in 2 Corinthians 5.21 where it says, for he was made sin, for
us Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness,
that word sin there is the same word. It means to miss the mark.
You could say it this way, he was made to miss the mark. Well now listen, do you know,
now think about this. Everything that Jesus Christ
did in his obedience unto death, even his experience on the cross
in suffering, you know what he was doing? He was satisfying
perfectly the law of God. And yet it said he was made to
miss the mark. Now how could it be said of him that he was
made to miss the mark? There's only one way the Bible
teaches, and that's by imputation. God charging him with our debt. And what was He doing on that
cross? He was paying my debt to God's justice. And on the
same token, it says, we're made the righteousness of God. How
can I, who missed the mark in everything I think, say, and
do, and do not measure up, how in the world can it ever be said
that I'm made the righteousness of God, and it says it right
there in the verse, in Him, by His righteousness imputed, charged
to me. And that's the only way. There's
no other way. Sin is never portrayed in the
Bible, except metaphorically, symbolically, as a substance,
like a solid, a liquid, or a gas, that you pick up, like I pick
up this book and put it over here. You can't just pick up
sin and put it over here. That's not what sin is. It's
not something you drink. It's not a germ in your blood.
It's not running through your veins. It's in your heart. Not
this organ, but the heart, meaning the mind, the affections, and
the will. The corruption of sin. What is the corruption of sin?
I'll tell you what it is. Evil thoughts, evil motives, evil
goals, self-righteousness, self-love. We could go on and on. Yes, it
evidences itself in evil actions. But sin's not a substance. It's
missing the mark. It's stepping over the line.
It's breaking the law. It's running up a debt. That's
what sin is. Now, how was Christ made sin?
How did He save us? He took our place as our surety
and our substitute, having our sins charged to Him, and He died,
suffered, bled, and died. And how are we made the righteousness
of God in Him? By God. Justifying the ungodly
by charging us with the merit of all that Christ accomplished
in His obedience unto death. And you know what that results
in? That results in spiritual life within. The new birth.