All right, Matthew chapter one,
I've titled the lesson this morning, A Glorious Gender Reveal. Now
the gospel that we preach is not merely a set of doctrines. It's not merely the five points
of Calvinism, total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, the irresistible call of the spirit and perseverance
of the saints. Although I strongly hold to those things. I don't
think any, let me rephrase that, it's not I don't think, I know.
Nobody can preach the gospel without preaching those things.
But salvation is more than those doctrines. You know, you can
know those doctrines and believe those doctrines, hold to them
and not be saved. The gospel is a person. The Lord
Jesus Christ, he is salvation. It is an impossibility to know
Christ and be lost. And that's who I want to preach
this morning, the person. I want to preach the person of
Christ as clearly and as simply as I can so that we will leave
here this morning trusting him. Verse 18 of Matthew chapter one,
where we left off last time. 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. And Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing
to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
Now Mary and Joseph, you know the story here, were engaged
to be married. And while they were engaged to
be married, Mary comes to Joseph and tells him she's pregnant.
Now look at Luke chapter one. Now that conversation is not
recorded for us, but I'm sure that she told Joseph what the
angel told her here in Luke chapter one. Verse 28, the angel came in unto
her and said, Hail, thou that 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 favor with
God and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth
a son and shall call his name Jesus. He should be great and
shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God should
give unto him the throne of his father, David, and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there should
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 which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. Now the angel came and told Mary
that, and I'm just confident that she went and told Joseph
this story. Would you believe her? Somebody
comes and some young girl comes and tells you this story. Would
you believe her? Joseph didn't either. And we can't blame him.
We wouldn't believe this story. Now here's what Joseph knew for
certain. Joseph knew for a fact he was not the father. So according
to Jewish law, he had three options. Number one, he could put her
away privately, privately, just with two or three witnesses,
keep this very, very quiet. And you know, those two or three
witnesses wouldn't go blabbing this all over creation, you know,
he'd give her a bill of divorcement, you know, privately, just handle
this quietly, not embarrass her. Or number two, he could make
her a public example. He could have her stoned to death
and he would be the one helping do it. Or three, he could just
keep his mouth shut and marry her anyway. That seems pretty
obvious that Joseph felt like he couldn't marry her. This situation,
he didn't feel like that he could marry her, but he didn't want
to, he didn't want to have her killed. He didn't want to humiliate
her publicly. So he was going to privately,
as quietly as he could, divorce her because he just didn't feel
like he could live with this. But here's a good lesson for us.
Notice this. Joseph didn't act rashly. He's thinking on these
things. He's praying on these things.
And there's a real good lesson for us here. In situations that
we've come upon, just don't act too rashly. But wait on the Lord. Seek the Lord's will in these
matters. Because Joseph suspected a pretty
evil thing, didn't he? And no doubt he felt very betrayed.
This is personal. He felt betrayed. But he's a
just man. He's what we would call a good
man, a fair man, an honest man, rather than expose Mary, expose
her, what he thought was her sin and see her publicly humiliated
and punished. What he determined to do was
just cover her sin the best he could and be done with this matter.
And while he was thinking on these things and praying on these
things, the Lord rewarded his patience. And this is why I titled
the lesson where he rewarded his patient with a glorious gender
reveal. You know how people have parties.
You know, when Jan and I were having kids, the gender reveals
when the kid was born. Now they have these big parties,
you know. Well, this is a gender reveal here. Look at this verse
20. 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, the angel
didn't come to Joseph and just reveal the gender of the baby,
did he? He came to Joseph and revealed
who this baby is. That's who I want to preach.
Now, here's my first point. The angel revealed that the gospel
is a person. He revealed to Joseph that salvation
is a person. The angel talked about he, that
he, the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the person of the gospel.
This is the person of salvation. And I love to talk about him. I love to talk about him. People
can get you twisted up and turned every which way but loose. Talking
about doctrine, can't they? Just twist you all around. They
can't do that when we're talking about Him. Now, if you know Him,
they can. I love to talk about Him. When
I go hear somebody preach, you know what I want? I want to hear
Him. I want to hear Him. When I read,
I want to read about Him. I want to think about Him. Well,
who is this He exactly? He's God in the flesh. The Lord
Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of
a virgin. What a wonder that is. No wonder
somebody wouldn't believe a woman come and tell them this story.
It seems impossible. But this is the way our Lord
Jesus was conceived. By the Spirit of God in the womb
of a virgin. And that makes him the God-man. The God-man. The child was born,
wasn't it? But the son was born. Almighty
Son was given. And that's very important. The
Lord Jesus was born of a virgin. That means that Christ wasn't
born from Adam's sinful seed. He didn't take part in Adam's
sin in the garden because he wasn't in Adam when he sinned.
He was not going to be born from Adam's seed. And that's what
makes him able to make his people righteous and take their sin
away from them because he had none of his own. Charles Spurgeon
said that he was born of a woman that he might be human, but not
of a man that he might not be sinful. If you look at verse
25 or verse 24, 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 called his name Jesus. Joseph knew her not so that there
was never any doubt, never any doubt. The seed of man didn't
enter into this at all. The seed of Adam did not enter
into the birth of Christ at all. He's separate from Adam's sin.
He was born holy because he was conceived of the Holy Ghost.
He's God. And the name of this person to be born, the name of
his birth given to him is Jesus. The name means Savior. It's the
Old Testament name for Joshua. Now Jesus, that name is greatly
abused and misused in our world. But Jesus is not this spaced
out hippie that the world makes him out to be. Just like going
around in such a haze. You know, he doesn't know what's
going on. He can't hurt anybody or do anything
to anybody. He's just in this, in a fog all
the time. That's not Jesus. That's not
the Jesus who was born Mary. And just believing in any old
Jesus will not save your soul. Because there are many false
Jesuses out there. The person that we must know
and the person we must believe is the Lord Jesus Christ. We
must believe this one who is God in the flesh. And our Lord
told us that. If you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. Well, who is I am? The eternal
God. If you believe not that I am
God in the flesh, you shall die in your sins. This is why I said
salvation is not believing in any old false Jesus. You know,
this Jesus who wants to save everybody if they'll just let
him. And then later on, you find out who he really is. No, sir,
that's not salvation. A sinner is only saved when they
come to the Savior, to I Am. And this Jesus that tries to
save as many people as he could is not the Savior. There's no
salvation in that Jesus. If you believe in that Jesus,
you shall die in your sin. Because that Jesus is not I am.
He's not God in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's the
person that the angel revealed. And he is the sum and substance
of the gospel. Salvation is all in him. Christ was born without the aid
of a man. And he's going to save his people
without aid of men either. He's the one who kept the law.
He's the one who paid for the sin of his people, not us. He's
the one who makes his people righteous, not us. He's the one
who sanctifies his people, makes them holy, not us. And he did
it by his sacrifice. When did he sit down? He came
to do this work. When did he sit down? He sat
down when he had by himself purged our sin. He sat down because
the work was finished. Salvation was accomplished. without
any input from a sinner, without any input from a man. He is the
one that paid the redemption price. Actually, he is the redemption
price. Because when he paid the redemption
price, what did he do? Sacrificed himself. Himself. He sacrificed everything that
he is, body and soul, to put away the sin of his people. Let
me ask You think about him sacrificing himself. How can we not love him? How
can we not adore him? How can we not worship him? It's
all him. This afternoon, sit down and
read the first chapter of Ephesians. I'll tell you what you'll find
when you read that chapter. You'll find that salvation is
all in this person that the angel revealed. You'll find we're elected
in him. We're predestinated in Him. We're
accepted in Him. We're redeemed in Him. We're
called in Him. It's all in Him. Now, I know
the gospel is a great mystery to our natural minds. I understand
that. Our natural minds, smart as you
may be, you cannot figure out the gospel. Smart as you may
be, you can't make yourself believe the gospel. The gospel is the
greatest story that's ever been told. And it's so great. The only way we can see it, the
only way we can believe it is if God reveals it to us. What
you desire to know the gospel. If anybody here desires to be
saved, I tell you what I'd do if I was you. I was in your shoes once. This is what I did. I highly
recommend you do it. Make it your business to know
Christ. I mean, make it your business
to know him. And I'll tell you the best way
to do it. You be where he's preached. You be where he's preached. I
do know this. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
Well, if I want to know Christ, I think I want to be where I
might meet him. Well, I know he'll be there. I know he'll
be where he's preached. And if we're going to know him,
it's going to come through the preaching of the gospel. It's pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. I'd
make it my business if I wanted to be saved, I'd make it my business
to know Christ and I'd call out to him and I would beg him, Lord,
reveal yourself to me through the preaching of the gospel.
And here's a wonder about this man. You know, he was born, he's
quiet for 30 years, and then suddenly he appears. John the
Baptist says, here he is, the Lamb of God who has taken away
the sin of the world. And he began that public ministry. And do you know sinners? This
is the God man. He's the only holy, righteous
man to ever live, yet sinners were always comfortable in his
presence, weren't they? Publicans and sinners and harlots
just flocked to him during his earthly ministry. And this one
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, is so
gracious that no one ever left his presence without mercy if
they asked for it. Not one person. Now you come
to him. You come to him. I know parents,
we want to teach our children that they're special. They're
special. I'll tell you what, you're not so special. If you
come to Christ, begging for mercy, you'll be the first to leave
without it. He is salvation. It's all in
him. All right, number two, this is
what the angel revealed. He revealed that Christ will
be the successful savior. He shall save his people. Now, I love the certainty of
salvation in Christ. There's a, that just gives me
such confidence to preach it. He shall save his people. He
can't fail. His word will not return unto
him void. And there's rest for my soul. There's peace in my
heart, knowing of the certainty of salvation in Christ. He cannot
fail to save anybody he came to save. He's almighty God. Now God cannot fail to do his
will. Not if he's God. And this is
God's will to redeem his people from their sin. That's God's
will. And God sent somebody to do it. Well, he didn't send a failure.
No, he sent his own son. And all throughout this book,
there's never a hint of a doubt anywhere that he'll fail to save
his elect. Never. And there are so many
verses that I could read to you. Let me give you one that will
nail this thing shut. Isaiah 42, verse four, he shall
not fail. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged. That puts an end to it by John.
He shall not fail. He can't be discouraged. You
see, God in his wisdom and God in his grace did not leave the
salvation of dead sinners up to them. He didn't leave it up
to their decision. He didn't leave it up to them
to take the first step. God put the salvation of sinners in the
hand of one who's mighty, in His own right arm, one who cannot
fail. Christ cannot fail to save because
there's power in His blood to atone for sin. He cannot fail
to save because His righteousness that He gives His people is perfect.
He cannot fail to save because the power of His Spirit to give
life and faith to His people He cannot fail because of the
power of His Spirit to call His people to Christ and His power
to make them willing to come in the day of His power. Now
He shall save His people. There's no doubt about it. Now
that lets us rest in Him, doesn't it? I mean, what blessed encouragement
there is for sinners to just trust Christ. He shall save His
people from their sins. He shall redeem them. He shall justify them. He shall
glorify them. He shall call them to Christ.
He shall. If God be for us, who can be
against us? No one. No one can be against
us because he shall save his people from their sin. We can
trust, sinners like you and me can trust the salvation of our
souls to this person that the angel will give. because he's
the successful savior. He shall save his people. Thirdly, the angel revealed this.
He revealed what this baby is going to accomplish. He shall
save his people. He shall accomplish salvation. Now, when God's word talks about
salvation, this is another word that's abused and misused in
our day. When God's word talks about salvation,
It's not talking about the same thing that the world talks about
when it talks about salvation. Salvation is not being saved
from having no friends in this life. It's not so you can have
a whole bunch of friends and a big social network. No, it's
being saved from sin. Salvation is not being saved
from poverty. You know, many believers, you read Hebrews chapter
11, many believers have been poor, poverty stricken. They
had nothing. Now they had spiritual riches,
but they didn't have anything in this world. If salvation is
being saved from the poverty of this world, those brethren
in Hebrews 11 died without faith, didn't they? Salvation is not
being saved from drugs and alcohol and the diseases of this body.
As devastating as those things are, and I do want to be delivered
from those things. That's not salvation. Salvation is not even
being saved from hell and taken to heaven. Although that is part
of it. That's a result of it. And I
sure am glad, aren't you? I don't want to go to hell. My
love this soul winners, you know, go to people and say, well, do
you want to go to hell? You don't want to go to hell, do you? Well,
I mean, unless they're insane. Of course, of course, nobody
wants to go to hell, but that's not salvation. It's part of it,
but salvation is much more glorious, much deeper, much better than
that. Salvation is being saved from sin. He shall save his people
from their sin. And he did it. Christ has completely
and utterly saved his people from their sin. He saved them
from the sin that they've committed by being made sin for them. Take just a minute to think about
that. How glorious this is, that the Holy Son of God would be
willing to be made sin for his people, the people that he loves. He loves them so much. He was
willing to endure something that is more horrible than we can
imagine. You know, you and I don't have any point of reference about
sin because sin is all we are, but he's holy. He knew the awful,
the horribleness of this. Yet he was willing to be made
what he hates so he could redeem his people from their sin. And
he did it. He took their sin away from them
and put it away by his sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself. Now,
this sin, it was their sin. The angel said that he'll save
his people from their sin. It's their sin. They committed
it, didn't they? But he made it his. And he saved
his people from the penalty of sin. by dying under the guilt
of it. And his people are so completely
saved from the penalty of sin, justice is not looking for them
anymore. No. Now God tries his people,
but he never punishes his people. He tries them, but he doesn't
punish them for their sin. Their sin's already been punished
in the person of their substitute. Justice has been satisfied in
the death of the substitute. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Because Christ saved them from
the penalty of sin. Then Christ saved his people
from the sin that they are. And by that I mean he saved them
from the power of their sin nature. Christ saved his people from
the controlling power of sin. Now you think, well how does
he do that? If being saved from the controlling
power of sin means I sin less than I used to, then I'm not
saved. You're not either, if you're
honest with yourself. If being saved from the controlling power
of sin means I don't sin as much as I used to, and if it means
that I don't want to sin as much as I used to, that's not salvation. God saves his people from the
controlling power of sin when he causes them to be born again
with a new nature that believes you. This is the power of sin,
the power of our sin nature. It used to make us where we couldn't
believe the gospel, where we couldn't believe Christ, where
we couldn't rest in Him. Try as we might, we could not
do it. When God causes His people to
be born again of the Spirit, we still sin as much as we used
to, but now we receive a nature that believes Christ. We can't
quit believing. That's being delivered from the
controlling power of sin. And one day, God's elect are
going to be saved even from the very presence of sin. And when
that happens, it's going to be all related to this person, the
angel reveals. We're delivered from the presence
of sin. We're going to be made just like
him. Just like him. And be with him face to face,
worshiping him forever. I tell you, eternity is going
to be all about Christ, all about him. I hope by God's grace, we'll
start being taken up with him. Eternity is going to be all about
him. Fourthly, this angel revealed who this baby will save. He will
save his people. Now the apostle Paul said that
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. Everybody here believes that statement. Every believer
everywhere will quote that verse about themselves. Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners of whom I am chief. But
if when we're preaching the gospel, we leave it there and that's
all we say, Christ came to save sinners. Do you know we haven't
preached the whole gospel? Matter of fact, we haven't preached
the gospel because the unbelieving world will agree with that statement.
That's right. They'll agree. They'll say, yeah,
absolutely. Christ came to save sinners. And this is what they
say. Christ died for everybody. Since
everybody is a sinner, they say that means Christ died for everybody
and Christ's death gave all men a chance to be saved. That's
not true. That's not the gospel. Any honest
reading of the word of God makes it as plain as the noonday sun. Christ came to save his people. God elected a people to save
and Christ came to save them. And I am so thankful for that.
That is not a hateful, mean doctrine. Oh, it's a glorious, wonderful
doctrine. It's my only hope. The only way
a dead sinner can be saved is if God chose to save him. Because
our dead, sinful nature cannot choose God. It will not choose
God. It will not choose to be saved
by Christ alone. And God knows that a whole lot
better than we do. So in his mercy, in his grace, He chose
a sinful people to save through this person that the angel has
revealed. Look at John chapter 10. There are so many scriptures
we could look at, but I want to spend just a minute looking
at a few here in John chapter 10. The father sent his son into
the world to save a people that he elected unto salvation. And
our savior called those people his sheep. John 10 verse two. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice. He calleth his own sheep by name
and leadeth them out. Now he doesn't call out all the
sheep. He doesn't lead out all the sheep. It's the sheep that
belong to him, the ones that were given to him in divine election.
And Christ died to save those sheep, those elect. Verse 14,
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep. and am known of mine,
as the father knoweth me, even so know I the father, and I lay
down my life for who? The sheep. He didn't lay down
his life for every son of Adam, he laid down his life for his
sheep, his elect. And he will see to it that those
sheep are saved. They'll all be given faith, they
will all come to Christ, and they'll all follow him. Verse
four. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him. for
they know his voice. In verse 16, other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall
hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And I can tell you the evidence
that God elected a person unto salvation. I can tell you the
evidence. It's faith in Christ. God gives everyone he elected,
he gives them faith in Christ and they follow him. And the
evidence that God did not elect a person It's not the sin and
the way that they live and the immoral things that they do.
The evidence that God did not elect a person of salvation is
they don't have faith in Christ. Verse 26, but you believe not
because you're not of my sheep. Now he didn't say you're not
my sheep because you believe not, did he? You believe not because
you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. They follow me. because God has
given them faith in Christ and they can't not follow Him. Now
listen to me. I'm going to deal with this in
the message in a few moments in a little more detail. You
don't have to believe in election in order to be saved. You don't. You have to believe Christ. I'll
tell you this. You won't be saved believing
some false Jesus. You won't be saved until you
believe in the sovereign Savior who saved his people from their
sins. He's the one who saved them. And the best reason that
I can think of for a sinner to come to Christ and trust him
are these words. He shall save his people from
their sins. Back in our text, one more thing
I want to show you quickly. The angel revealed this baby
is the savior that God has promised and he will fulfill all the scripture.
Verse 22, Matthew 1. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet
saying, behold, a virgin should be with child and should bring
forth a son and they should call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. Now the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
every Old Testament type and picture of the Messiah. He fulfilled
every Old Testament type and picture of salvation through
a blood sacrifice. He fulfilled every picture, every
shadow of salvation through a substitute. And you think what a glorious
moment this gender reveal is, this angel talking to Joseph.
For 4,000 years, God had promised him a son. God promised him to
Adam when he put him out of the garden. He's coming. Brother
Fortner told a story recently, and you know, the Jews understand
this. They understand this exactly. They were looking for him in
this day, and they're still looking for him. Don was talking to this
woman about salvation, about the Lord, about the Messiah.
And she said, I agree with everything you're saying, everything. She
said, the difference between you and me is you believe he's
already come, and I'm still looking for him. They knew somebody's
coming. You know how they knew somebody's
coming? God promised it. And after 4,000 years, this angel
came and appeared to Joseph, a nobody. He's about to come. The day star
is getting ready to rise in this dark world. And Joseph, there's
going to be light. The glory of God is going to
be seen in him. Job's daysman is getting ready
to appear. The one who can lay his hand
both on God and men and be the mediator between them. and bring
them together. Joseph, he's coming. He's about
to come. The fulfillment of every sacrifice is about to appear
and he's going to do what those sacrifices never could do. He
is going to save his people. That's the person of the gospel.
That's the person this angel revealed. That's the person I
desire to preach. God help us to believe. We believe
him, it's an impossibility to be lost. All right, Lord bless
you.