Men were practicing that song
this morning. And I told them, boy, there's
a lot of gospel in that song, isn't there? Wasn't that good?
Alright, if you would, open your Bibles again with me to Matthew
chapter 1, the passage Brother Gary just read for us. I've titled the message this
morning, The Birth of Jesus Christ. I feel led this morning to bring
a message on the birth of Christ because it's just what's on everybody's
mind at this time of year. Especially at this time of year,
we hear so much error about the birth of Christ, and especially
to our children, but to all of us, I want to remind us and to
establish us that what do the scriptures say about the birth
of Christ? Now, I'll tell you this, and
I feel like this is important because men have made an idol
out of the day, tomorrow is not the birthday of the Lord Jesus.
The taxing that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem almost
certainly did not take place at this time of year. Historians
have actually placed the birth of Christ in all four different
seasons of the year, summer, fall, winter, spring. And that
just shows us nobody knows the date of Christ's birth. And I
can assure you this, it's not December the 25th. Now, I know
I say that and I sound It's kind of hard, but those of you who
know me know this. I love Christmas. I love Christmas. Our family had our Christmas
yesterday and it took all day long, didn't it? We love Christmas.
I am not anti-Christmas at all. I want you all to celebrate,
just have the best time. It's the most wonderful time
of the year. To be able to spend time with your family and have
the opportunity to give gifts to each other and just enjoy
spending time with each other, I love it. If you know me, you
also know this about me. I love classic rock and roll
and classic country music. And those stations I listen to
at this time of the year play Joy to the World and Hark the
Herald Angels Sing. Now that's a good thing. That's
a good thing. They hear a lot of gospel and
they hear Herald Angels Sing, don't they? But I want us to
be aware of how this religious world has made an idol out of
the day. It would surprise a lot of people,
I bet, that the scripture never tells the church to celebrate
the Lord's birth, never. We're told to celebrate, to remember
the Lord's death, aren't we, in the Lord's table? Every time
we preach the gospel, we're to celebrate and remember his death.
We preach Christ and him crucified. We're told to celebrate the resurrection
of our Lord every Sunday. We meet together on Sunday, because
Sunday, the first day of the week, that's the day that the
Lord rose. from the dead. Mark and John don't even record
the Lord's birth. Now all four of the evangelists
record his death and his resurrection, but only two of them, his birth.
Now again, all that being said, I sure am thankful that the Lord
was born as a man in Bethlehem, aren't you? There wouldn't be
a man to obey the law for me as my representative unless Christ
was born as a man. There'd be no man to suffer and
die as my substitute, as my sacrifice, the sacrifice for my sin, if
Christ wasn't born as a man. And the birth of Christ, it should
always be a miracle that stirs our hearts. It's a miracle, the
birth of Christ, God, manifest in the flesh. I mean, try to
wrap your mind around that sometime. This is God Almighty, the eternal
Father manifest in the flesh. That miracle, as far as I can
think, is only rivaled by the death of Christ. But he couldn't
die until he was born, could he? This baby that is born, that
Mary wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, is God
in the flesh. Almighty God actually made himself
flesh, a human being. The Son of God became the Son
of Man. Mm-mm-mm. Now God wasn't born,
was he? God's eternal. God was given.
The child was born. And the son was given. The son
of God became the son of man. Now that's a miracle. But here's
a greater miracle. All that happened so that God
would accomplish something. So that he would accomplish the
salvation of his sinful people. The son of God humiliated himself
to become a babe of days, the son of man, so that he could
save his people from their sin. It's no wonder God's church loves
to sing joy to the world. Joy to the, the savior appeared
in the flesh so that he could put away my sin. Now verse 18
in our set text says that the Lord was born on this wise, and
that word means in the manner that follows. The manner of our
Lord's birth tells us the reason that he came. And that's the
very important lesson that I want us to get this morning, the reason
that the son of God became the son of man. Number one is this,
this is the manner of the Lord's birth. He is born on this wise,
he is born of a virgin. Matthew 1 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 is 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 privately. 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. Now Mary and Joseph, a young
couple, were engaged to be married. The word espoused means a souvenir. Joseph had given Mary some sort
of souvenir, token for their engagement. Maybe a ring, maybe
something else. I don't know what they did at
that time, but they were engaged to be married. And before they
were married, Mary came and told Joseph, I'm pregnant. Look over at Luke chapter one.
I'm sure that she came and she told Joseph exactly what the
angel told her. Luke chapter one. Beginning in verse 28. An angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou are highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel
said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with
God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall
reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom
there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be? seeing I know not a man. And
the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also, that holy thing, the angel didn't even know what
to call the Lord, the embryo in the womb, that holy thing,
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now,
Mary came and told Joseph, she recounted this conversation She
said, an angel appeared to me one day and told me this. Would
you believe her? I mean, Mary had a hard time
believing it, didn't she? How could this be? Would you
believe? I mean, somebody came and told you, well, the angel
came and told me God's gonna be born. Well, apparently Joseph
didn't believe her either. And really, you can't blame him.
I mean, who ever heard of such a thing? A virgin being pregnant,
the Holy Ghost conceiving a baby in the womb, who ever heard of
such a thing? But all Joseph knew for certain was this, he
wasn't the father. So according to Jewish law, Joseph
had three choices. He could privately give Mary
a bill of divorcement. He would have to have two or
three witnesses, they'd be his very close friends who would
not publicize this thing and he could just handle this quietly.
Or second, he could make Mary a public example. He could have
her stoned to death, just like those men, remember, brought
that woman to the Lord and said, we caught this woman in the act
of adultery, in the very act. While Moses said we should stone
her, what do you say? That was one of Joseph's choices.
Or third, Joseph could marry her anyway. Now, at least at
first, it seems like Joseph didn't feel like he could marry her.
And you understand that. I mean, he felt betrayed. His
feelings were probably hurt. He didn't believe her. He thought
she was lying to him, you know. So he decided he's gonna just
privately, just handle this thing as quietly as he can and privately
divorce her. See, rather than expose Mary
to humiliation and expose her to be punished or be stoned to
death, He determined, well, what I'm gonna try to do is just cover
her sin the best that I can and handle this thing quietly. You
know, I read about these characters, these men and women in scripture,
and I'm just sure of this, I think Joseph is a fellow I'd like.
Don't you think you'd like him? He wasn't a haughty, self-righteous,
religious person, you know. He was just trying to do the
right thing, kindly and quietly. Now what Joseph was thinking
on these things, this is how he first thought about them.
Joseph changed his mind. He changed his mind, didn't he?
Because while he was thinking on these things, the angel of
the Lord appeared to Joseph. And that angel told Joseph the
good news of the gospel. The gospel that we preach today.
The angel said, Mary certainly is pregnant, and just as surely
she's a virgin. See, Mary wasn't pregnant by
me. She's pregnant by the Holy Ghost. The baby that was conceived
in her womb, the womb of a woman, a real live woman, daughter of
Adam. The Holy Ghost conceived that
baby in her womb. And that makes that baby the
God made. The God made. And that is so
important for us to understand. The Savior was born without the
help of Adam's sinful seed. He wasn't conceived of a father
from Adam's sinful seed. If he was, He would have partaken
in Adam's guilt, in Adam's sin, because he would have descended
from Adam, and if that was the case, he'd be just another Jesus.
But since he was born without the seed of a human father, but
he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, now the Lord Jesus didn't
partake in Adam's sin, in Adam's guilt. That makes Jesus of Nazareth
the only sinless baby to ever be born. He had no original sin. He wasn't born from Adam's sinful
sin. So he had no original sin and it was impossible for him
to commit sin because he's God, he's holy. And that makes him
the only possible savior of sinful men and women like us. He's the
sinless sacrifice. Now I'm telling you, that's worth
celebrating. That's worth being happy about.
Salvation would not be possible unless Christ was born as a man.
there'd be no gospel for us to believe. There'd be no good news
for us to hear. You know, the angels came and
said, oh, don't fear. Don't fear, I got good news for
you. Same thing we preach today. Oh, I've got good news. But there
would be no good news if Christ wasn't born as a man. He was. See, that angel, that night he
appeared to Joseph in a dream, he revealed the gospel to Joseph.
Now, how did he do that? By revealing the person. of the
gospel, the person of the gospel. This baby who's gonna be born
is so important. If you know him, you have eternal
life. If you know him, you'll understand
all the mysteries of the gospel of God's grace. If you know him,
he's so important. He's born of a virgin. Well,
second, the Lord Jesus was born on this wise. He was born for
a specific person. or reason, excuse me, verse 21. And she should bring forth a
son and should call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sin. Now the Lord Jesus was born for
this specific purpose, to save his people from their sin. Now
who are his people? Who is it that he came to save?
What's the elect of God? It's all that the father gave
to him in the covenant of grace to come and to save. It's all
those people he talked about in John 17, about those whom
he has given me. That's God's elect. And Christ
came to save every last one of them. And even before he was
ever born in the flesh, there was no doubt he would do what
he came to do. The angel didn't say, He's gonna
try to save some people from their sin. He didn't say he's
gonna try to save as many people out of the world. He said he
shall, he shall, without any doubt, save his people from their
sin. Now, if you're a sinner who needs
saving, that ought to get your attention. That ought to make
your heart start feeling some hope. There's a savior born for
sinners. And the angel told Joseph, same
thing that the angel told Mary. You call his name Jesus. Now
Jesus is the name of our Lord's humiliation. The name of his
humanity. And you know what? It's the only
name he could be given, Jesus. And you might ask, well, I mean,
why? What's such a big deal? What's in a name? Well, the Lord's
name reveals his character, who he is, what he'll do. His name
tells us who he is. His name Jesus, you know what
that name means? Savior. Savior, He came to be the Savior.
He was born on this wise for this purpose, to be the Savior
of sinners. And His name is so vital. There's none other name under
heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. You know, if
you know that name, you must be saved. If you believe on Him,
you must be saved. That's how important his name
is. Jesus is the New Testament name for the Old Testament name,
Joshua. Who Christ is, what he would
accomplish was foretold, pictured, prophesied all throughout the
Old Testament. One of those times was a man
named Joshua. He was Moses' right-hand man. Joshua, he was with Moses
when Moses led the people. out of Egypt, he led them to
the promised land. Joshua was one of those spies
that came in to the land, and he came back and said, we can
take it, God's given it to us. Well, you know the story. Moses ended
up not being able to bring the people into the promised land.
He couldn't do it, because Moses represented the law. God gave
the law through Moses. Moses, the law, can't save anybody. Moses can't bring people into
the land of rest. The law doesn't give any rest,
does it? So Joshua, who represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain
of our salvation, he brought the people into the promised
land. The Lord killed Moses, buried the angel, buried his
body, or however that happened, buried him, you know. And once
Moses, the law, was out of the way, Joshua led the people into
the promised land. He led them into Canaan as a
picture of Christ saving his people and bringing his people
into a land of rest. The law's out of the way. Salvation's
in Christ. And that's what's pictured for
us. You and I can never have salvation by our law keeping. Our only hope of salvation, our
only hope that our sin could ever be put away, our only hope
of rest is in the Son of God. Mary's virgin-born son who came
to save sinners. That's his name. And his name
is so important. He came to save his people from
their sin. He came to deal with this matter
of sin. Our sin that has separated us
from our God. The Lord Jesus did not come to
be a reformer. He didn't come to try and change
the way people live. He didn't come to change people's
doctrine. He didn't come to change the the mode that people worship
in. He did not come to be an example,
to show us how to live. So everybody could wear these
wristbands, and what would Jesus do? Well, it doesn't really matter,
you can't do what he'd do anyway. Christ didn't come to be a healer,
to heal people from their sin. He healed people from their diseases.
He healed people from plenty of physical diseases, didn't
he? To show he had the power to do it. But he always did it
as a picture of the reason that he came. to save his people from
their sin, to save his people from the power of sin, from the
condemnation of sin, from the suffering of sin. And Christ
saved his people from their sin as a man. See, a man was born
under the law and he lived a perfect life of obedience to that law.
His obedience is the righteousness of his people. Just like Adam
sinned, Adam's disobedience, that's our unrighteousness in
it, because we were in him. When he sinned, we did too. God's
people were in Christ doing what he did. When he obeyed the law,
we did too. His obedience is our righteousness.
And after a life of perfect obedience, he did no sin. He didn't even
know any sin. He wasn't even acquainted with
any sin. He went to the cross. He wasn't just stoned to death.
He didn't have his head chopped off. He went to the cross, a
cursed death, He went to the cross to save his people in justice. He went to the cross showing
that Christ had become the substitute for his people. He took the sin
of his people and he made it his. He made it so that he was
guilty of that sin and he died under the curse of the law because
he'd been made guilty of the sin of his people. Christ died,
this perfect man, this sinless sacrifice, He was born for this
purpose, to die. That's why he was born. To die
to satisfy God's justice against the sin of his people. And by
his precious blood, by his perfect life, put all the sin of all
of his people away. His precious blood, the only
sinless blood that ever flowed on this earth, paid the debt
for all of his people. If Christ died for you, you cannot be found guilty of
any sin. If Christ died for you, you must
be saved. Joy to the world. The Lord's
come. He's come to save his people
from their sin. And I'm telling you, he got the
job done. He's the successful savior of
sinners. The angel said he shall save
his people from their sin. And he did that exactly. Now
this is good news. He didn't make his people savable.
He didn't make it so somebody's savable if they decide to accept
him or if they decide to do something else. He didn't make his people
savable. Clark, he saved them. He saved them. He did it all
by himself. He didn't try to save anybody. He didn't sacrifice himself trying
to save as many people as might ever decide to come to him. He
saved his people from their sin by putting it away forever. He
didn't come to offer salvation to anybody. Christ did not die
on the cross as an offer to you. Don't you feel sorry for him?
Won't you accept him because you feel so sorry for him? He's
offering himself to you. No, he's not. He offered himself
to the Father. And the Father accepted that
sacrifice. so that Christ saved his people from their sin. And
I'm telling you, he's gonna come in by his spirit, he's gonna
take that salvation and he's gonna put it in you so that you
believe him, so that you love him, so that you have eternal
life. And none of that was possible
unless he was born as a man and laid in Bethlehem's manger. All
right, number three. Christ Jesus was born on this
wise, in this manner, as the eternal Savior. Verse 22 says,
now all this was done, here's the purpose, 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. Now God the Holy Spirit moved
the prophets of old, to fill the Old Testament scriptures
with prophecies, pictures, and types of Christ who would come. Genesis 3.15, I'll put enmity
between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. Christ came, the seed
of woman, now he's finally come. The first time Eve gave birth
to a son, she said, I've gotten the man. She thought this was
the one. They knew, they were looking for this man to come.
Well, it wasn't him, was it? But about 4,000 years later,
he came, the seed of woman. And you know what he did? He
crushed Satan's head. He crushed Satan's power to be
able to accuse God's people. He can't, I mean, he'll accuse,
but he can't make any charge stick, can he? Because the blood
of Christ has washed it away. David wrote this in Psalm 40,
verse seven. Then said I, lo, I come, and
the volume of the book is written in me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Now you know good and well David
wasn't writing about himself. He was writing of Christ who
would come. Christ is gonna come, and he's gonna establish righteousness
for his people. As a man made under the law,
he's gonna obey the law for his people to make his people righteous.
Look at Isaiah chapter seven. Isaiah wrote this. Seven or 800 years before Christ
was born, this is what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah seven, verse
14. Therefore the Lord himself should give you a sign. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
Immanuel. And that's exactly what happened,
isn't it? A virgin gave birth to a son and called his name
Immanuel. God with us. God in the body
of a human being dwelling with us so that he can save his people
from their sin. Look over at page Isaiah chapter
nine. Verse six. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government should be upon his
shoulder, and his name should be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace, there should be no
end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order
it and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. The son of God came in the flesh.
The child was born and the son was given. And in his zeal, in
his determination to please his father, to establish a perfect
righteousness, in his zeal to suffer and die as a sacrifice
for his people, his zeal. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem and he would not turn from it. You know why? So he could go to Jerusalem and
do what he came here to do. Suffer and die to accomplish
the salvation of his people. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. There can be no doubt about it. Just by reading the scriptures,
by reading the Old Testament scriptures, you see he fulfilled
every prophecy concerning the Messiah. That tells me he's the
eternal savior. And that fills my heart with
hope. That almighty God did not determine
to save a people through the law and they messed it up so
they had to come up with plan B. No. God knew that Adam would
fall. He always, that was his purpose.
God purposed for Adam to fall so that his son would be glorified.
and saving a people out of Adam's fallen race, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the eternal Savior. He's the eternal Savior. Without
beginning, without ending, God's not gonna change His mind. He's
the eternal Savior. Now, I hate my sin. I wish that
I'd never sin again. But when I do, here's a good
hope. This is the eternal savior. God's
not gonna change his mind. When our Lord Jesus fulfilled
every Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah, he showed us
he is God's salvation. Now you look to him. You trust
him. The God man came to do exactly
what he came to do with this purpose, to save his people from
their sin. And that's the message that Joseph
heard. And you know what hearing that message did? It changed
everything that Joseph planned to do with the rest of his life.
He was obedient. He heard that message. He was
obedient. He took Mary to be his wife. He didn't know her
until she had conceived, until that baby was brought forth.
And he called the child Jesus. He didn't name him Abraham. He
didn't name him Isaac. He didn't name him Jacob. He
named him Jesus. in obedience, because that's
what God told him to do. Look back here at our text, Matthew
1. Then Joseph, verse 24, after
he heard this message from the angel, being raised from sleep,
he 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. He called his
name Jesus, Savior, because he believed. This baby is God's
salvation. And seven days later, he was
not surprised to hear Simeon say the same thing. Because he
already knew it. Because that's what God told
him. Now you see, there's such joy in the birth of Christ. I
know that the Savior was not born on December 25th. I know. But I don't mind people singing
about it. I don't. I have a problem with a lot of
things that they do, I don't have a problem with people thinking
about the birth of Christ because there'd be no salvation for any
sinner unless the Son of God was born as a man. He took on
Him flesh. He took on Him the likeness of
human flesh to be our substitute. And He came and He fully accomplished
the salvation of all of His people. That's what He did. Let me close by telling you this.
This is who He is. This is why He was born. I tell
you, come to Him. Now don't come to a baby in a
manger. No, we're not coming to a baby in a manger. All that
is is an idol. That's all that is. It's an idol. Don't come to a baby in a manger.
You come to Christ on the cross. The one who suffered and died
on the cross was buried and rose again. You come to him and you
beg him for mercy. You beg him for salvation. You
trust him to be all of your righteousness because he's the one that's accomplished
it. He's the only one who could ever accomplish salvation for
any sinner. Now, if you've been around here very long, you already
know this. Every person in this room knows this. We preach here
the truth of God's electing love. It's all through the Bible, God's
electing love. Before time began, the father
chose a people to save, and he gave those people to his son
to save. And those people, and only those people, shall be saved. No chance one of them will perish.
Not a single solitary chance. Because it's God's purpose to
save them. That's the truth of God's electing love. But don't
you ever use the truth of God's electing love as an excuse not
to come to Christ. Don't you do it. Don't you say,
well, I don't know if I'm one of the elect, so I'm not gonna
come to Christ. If I'm one of the elect, I'll be saved no matter
what I do, so I'm not gonna do nothing. Don't you ever think
that. That stinking thinking, don't do that. You come to Christ
because you're a sinner. You come to Christ because you're
a sinner and Christ came to save sinners. You come to him, you
come to him because he's the only hope you got of salvation.
You come to Him as a guilty sinner that needs forgiveness, and I'm
telling you this, based upon the word of God, He'll forgive
you. He will. You come to Christ as a filthy
sinner who needs to be washed from your sin, and He'll cleanse
you. That's what this book says, He'll cleanse you. Wash you white
as snow. You come to Him as a dead sinner that needs life, and this
book says He'll give it to you. You come to Christ because you
are a helpless sinner. You come to Him. You come to
Him begging for mercy. and you're gonna find out right
quick, oh, God chose me first. Oh, now I see, now I see I came
to Christ because he was drawing me with an everlasting love.
He chose me first and drew me, he'd been drawing me to him all
along. Now I see, now I see the best reason that I can think
of for a sinner to come to Christ is in our text this morning.
He shall save his people from their sin. I hope that's been
a blessing and been good instruction. And I hope you all have a merry,
merry Christmas. I want you to have the best Christmas
ever. Just enjoy time with your family.
And I just want the very best for you. Let's bow together. Our Father, it's with awe and wonder that
we come before your throne. We can't even find the words
to express our thanksgiving, our awe, our wonder, our joy at the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You never will understand why
the Son of God would love such sinful people as we are and come
to save us and sacrifice himself for us. Father, how we thank
you. Our thanks is not sufficient. Our praise is not sufficient.
But Father, we thank you and we praise your matchless name.
Father, I pray you'd use this word as it's been preached this
morning for your glory, that you would show each of us here
this morning your glory and cause us to flee to Christ. to his
precious name. For his sake we pray.