All right, Matthew chapter one.
This morning, we begin a study in the gospel of Matthew. You
know that the word gospel means good news. Good news for sinners
can only be found in our Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, why
he came and what he accomplished. And I've titled the lesson this
morning, the nature of Christ's coming. It's the nature of who
he is, the nature of why he came, the nature of what he accomplished
for his people. Now, you know that there are
four gospels, but they're not these gospels don't tell us four
different stories. The four gospels show us the
same person from four different angles. It's like it gives us
a 3D picture of Christ instead of just a two dimensional one.
We look at all of them together. We get a more accurate view.
of who Christ is, the nature of his coming. Mark shows us
Christ as the servant of the father, the one that came to
do the father's will. Luke shows us the son of man
who's full of sympathy and compassion for men because he became one
of us. The apostle John shows us Christ, the son of God, in
all his glory as he appeared as a man on earth. And Matthew
shows us Christ, the king. He shows us the lion of the tribe
of Judah, who has all power to say, who cannot fail to accomplish
his mission. And these four gospels, they
work together in four part harmony to give us a beautiful view of
Christ to the savior of sinners. So here in verse one of Matthew,
we begin this study of Christ the King, where Matthew writes
the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. This word generations Matthew
uses here means nature. That's where I got my title,
the nature of Christ coming. The genealogy of our Lord Jesus
is not just a bunch of names, you know, names we can't pronounce
and we just pass over them quickly. So we get on to something more
important. Every word of God, every word in the word of God
is divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. So that's all important.
This genealogy isn't just given to us to prove that Jesus of
Nazareth is descended from Abraham. Now, you know, you heard in the
Apostle Paul talk about endless genealogies. That was important
to the Pharisees, to know Jesus of Nazareth, to know his genealogy,
to know he really was a son of Abraham. But the genealogy of
Christ shows us a whole lot more than that. This genealogy shows
us the nature of Christ's coming. Why did he come and what did
he come to accomplish? Now, Matthew lists the genealogy
of Christ through his foster father, Joseph. If you care this
afternoon to read the genealogy that Luke gives us, Luke gives
the genealogy of his mother, Mary. But both Joseph and Mary
were from the tribe of Judah. They both traced their family
tree directly back to David and their genealogy branches off
from David down to each one of them. I mean, that's not really
material. It's both genealogies teach us
the same spiritual lessons. So I want to give you three things
we can learn about the nature of salvation, the nature of Christ
coming from this genealogy. And I'm not going to read all
of it, read all the names for time's sake. But we'll just look
at a few of the names because I feel confident I know what
those names are teaching us. So the first thing is this, the
nature of Christ coming. teaches us that God is a covenant
God. Salvation is in God's covenant,
His covenant of mercy, His covenant of grace, and God always keeps
His promise. That's what the word covenant
means. It means promise. And right off the bat in this
first verse, Matthew lists, mentions the name of Abraham. God made
His covenant known to Abraham. God promised Abraham, Abraham,
you're gonna have a son. Even though you're too old to
have a son, Sarah's too old to have a son, you're gonna have
a son. Ishmael's not that son. Sarah is gonna have a son. And
God always keeps his promise. And sure enough, when Abraham
and Sarah were too old to have any children, Sarah gave birth
to Isaac. Now, that was a miraculous birth. But God's promise goes a whole
lot further than the miraculous birth of Sarah's baby boy. God's
promise to Abraham was that the Messiah is going to come through
that son. And Abraham understood that's
what the promise meant. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And God promised Abraham, this
was his covenant, that all the nations of the earth are going
to be blessed through Isaac. Because the Savior's going to
come through Isaac, and he's going to save a people from every
nation, even the Gentile nations. And the genealogy of Christ shows
us how God kept that promise. You read through this genealogy,
you're going to find two Gentiles, Rahab and Ruth. God saved the
people from every nation, just exactly like he promised he would.
And he saved them by his grace. Not because they're Jews who
kept the law, because Rahab and Ruth are heathen Gentiles, aren't
they? Why did God save Rahab and Ruth? because of his covenant
of grace, because he gave that promise of grace in Christ Jesus
to Abraham, and God kept his promise. We see the same thing. You read down through here, you
read the names of various kings that are listed. Some of them
were good kings. Some of them were bad kings.
Sometimes the father was a good king, but his son was a bad king.
Sometimes the father was a bad king, but the son turned out
to be a good thing. Well, what does that teach us? Why does
it matter to see that? It matters because we learn that
salvation does not come through human bloodlines. God's not going
to save our children because there are children. Salvation,
mercy, grace does not come through human bloodlines. Salvation comes
because of God's covenant of grace because God is a covenant
God who keeps his promise and he will save every one of his
people. through the blood, through the
sacrifice of his son. But it's going to be by grace.
It's going to be by promise always, never by our merit. And then
beginning in verse 11, we read about people who were carried
away into captivity. They were carried away while
they were in captivity. They're there 70 years. Well,
they had children and they had children born in captivity. And
that's a picture of you and me being born in captivity to sin.
Now there are those people who were in captivity, but you know
what? They have to be set free. They
have to come back to Jerusalem. You know why they have to? God
promised they would. This is God's covenant, his promise.
God promised that they would, and they were set free at the
exact time God promised them they'd be set free. And they
returned to Israel because God always keeps his promise. And
here's the lesson to you and me. If God's promised grace to
you, You will be born in captivity to sin. You're going to be born
with Adam's nature, with Adam's heart, a nature that loves sin
and captivity to sin. And if you don't believe you're
in captivity to sin, just try to quit sinning. Just try in
the next three seconds. Don't have a simple thought.
Couldn't do it, could you? Because we're captives to sin.
I tell you this, you're going to be set free. Almighty God
promised grace to you. That's the nature of Christ's
coming. He came to open the prison doors and to set the prisoners
free. See, that's the nature of his
work for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ came according
to God's promise through the seed of Isaac. Now he came as
a son of God. He never ceased being God. He
was always king. He never ceased to be God, but
he truly did become a man through Abraham, through the seed of
Isaac, he became a real man. He descended from Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And as the God-man, he came able
to carry out God's covenant of grace for his people. God's covenant
of grace, his promise of salvation through his grace, through the
sacrifice of Christ, is such a great promise. that only the
God man could carry it out. And that's why he came. That's
why Christ came, to carry out God's purpose, his promise of
grace for his people. All right, here's the second
thing. The nature of Christ's coming is to teach us that God's
grace is sovereign grace. Now, verse one, Matthew lists
Abraham, he also lists David. In David, he also shows us how
God is a covenant God, who always keeps his promise. God made promises
to David too, didn't he? God promised David, David, you're
gonna have a son to sit on your throne forever. And you know,
David was thrilled with his son Solomon, but Solomon wasn't that
son. Solomon wasn't that son that
God promised, because Solomon just temporarily sat on the throne
of his father until he died. But the son who would come and
sit on David's throne forever, forever ruling over spiritual
Israel is God's son. He's David's son, but he's God's
son too, the Lord Jesus Christ. And God kept his promise to David
when God sent his son. King of kings and Lord of lords. And his reign will be eternal
because he's God. He'll never die. And that son,
the son of God, actually, truly became a man. Just like he was
the son of Abraham, son of Isaac, he is the son of David. And that's such a great mystery.
Only the Spirit of God can teach you that and teach you to love
it and see it. That the Lord Jesus Christ is both David's
son and he's David's Lord. Pharisees never could figure
that one out. How can he be David's son? Yet he's David's Lord. How is it that he can be David's
son yet rule over David? How can he be David's son? How
can he descend from David's line? Yet he'd be the one to give David
life. That's the nature of his, it's mysterious and powerful,
the nature of his coming. And he had to come that way because
only the son of God come in human nature could save sinners like
us. Only the God-man can satisfy
both God and also satisfy our need for grace. It's got to come
through this God-man. And since the Lord Jesus came
in the line of David, he came in the tribe of Judah, the kingly
tribe. The lesson for us there is he
is the king. Now the king is sovereign. God's
grace is sovereign. If you paid any attention at
all this week to the politics going on in our nation's capital, We see from that, we don't know
anything about sovereignty. I mean, we think these people
have power, but you know, well, we just don't care what they
do. We're going to vote them out. You know, they're not sovereign.
Buddy the King's sovereign. I mean, he's sovereign. You dare
not ask him what he's doing. You dare not question him. He'll lop your head off. The
Lord Jesus Christ is king. And since he's king, his grace,
now he's going to show grace to sinners, but he's going to
show it to whom he will. That is sovereign grace. God's
showing grace to whom he will. God never saved somebody because
they did something to deserve it. Salvation and righteousness
can't come from us keeping the law. God saves the people who
do not deserve it. In spite of what they've done,
he saves those people by His grace. God saves sinners by grace
that He decides to save. They didn't decide to accept
Him. No, He decided to show them grace. God saves whom He will,
when He will. Now that is the very definition
of sovereign grace. God's grace is always sovereign
grace. God gives it to whom he will.
Now I know that goes against human nature, but I tell you
what, rather than get mad about that and argue about it and fuss
and fight about it, rather than get mad that God's grace is sovereign
grace, why don't we just come and beg him for sovereign grace?
God, you show mercy to whom you will. You have grace on whom?
Then would you show grace to me? You could, you're sovereign,
wouldn't you? Why don't we come begging the
sovereign to have mercy on us rather than be mad about it?
And you look through this genealogy of Christ and all through it,
you see God calling and saving whom he will. His grace is sovereign
grace. God called Abram out of his father's
house, didn't he? He was the only one. Lot and
Sarah left with him. God called Abram. Everybody else
stayed there. God called Isaac, cast Ishmael
out. Is that sovereign grace or not? That's what it is, isn't it? God loved Jacob and he hated
Esau. Jacob had 12 sons. The only son
mentioned in this genealogy is Judah. Just one of them. God
sent Israel to destroy Jericho. I mean, you wipe that place out
and God saved one woman out of that city. This one? God cursed Moab. And in His infinite
ability to do what He will and arrange all the events the way
He will, God sent a family down there and killed every one of
them, but the mother to bring one. God did all that for one
purpose. Would God kill people and destroy
nations to save one person? Ruth would tell you he did. He
saved one woman out of that cursed country in Moab. Just one. Jesse
had a bunch of sons. God called one of them David. You see that God's grace is sovereign
grace. He gives it to whom he will.
Now here's the good news of the gospel. God's grace is sovereign. Nobody is so sinful they cannot
receive God's That's good news. If God promised grace to a person,
God's sovereign grace is going to overcome any obstacle that's
put up in front of them to save them because his grace is sovereign
grace. It'll overpower everything. All
their sin is great. We just can't even imagine how
great our sin is. But God's grace is greater than
our sin. And it'll overcome our sin through
the blood of the sacrifice that God sent. We're born rebels against
God, we will not come to Him. It's not just that we cannot,
we will not. Well, you just don't have to
worry about that. God's grace is sovereign, powerful grace
that will overcome our stubborn, stiff rebellion and make us willing
to bow in the day of His power. God's grace is sovereign grace
and that gives hope to the worst, most vile, most far off sinners. God's grace is sovereign grace.
That's the nature of Christ's coming. That's why he came to
execute God's sovereign grace for his people. And the third
lesson is this. The nature of Christ's coming
teaches us that Christ came to save sinners. Christ didn't come
to save good people. And he tells us that. Physician,
the well don't need a physician. He didn't come to call the righteous.
He came to call sinners to repentance. The nature of Christ's coming
teaches us that Christ came to save sinners, and that will thrill
your soul if you're the chief of sinners. The genealogy of
Christ shows us how truly he was numbered with the transgressors. You know, a lot of people, they
like to have a hobby, you know, of tracing their family history. I'm just quite confident. A lot
of times they find people in that family tree they wish they
hadn't found. You know, they kind of try to cover that up.
I mean, what would you do? You traced your family tree,
you found Hitler in your family tree. I mean, you'd be wanting
to cover that up. You wouldn't be putting that up somewhere. Not
our Lord. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was numbered with the transgressors
in his birth, in his genealogy. Look at some of the men. Look
at the people in his family tree. You can't deny he was numbered
with the transgressors. He was numbered with the transgressors
in his earthly ministry. Look who hung around him. A bunch
of uneducated fishermen. And every time he stopped and
people get around him, harlots and publicans and sinners came
to him. He was numbered with the transgressors in his earthly
ministry. And at Calvary, he was numbered with the transgressors.
when all the transgression of his people was made to meet on
him in one place at one time, so he could take their sin away
from them and put it away by his sacrifice. See, that's the
nature of his coming. He came to save sinners. And
we see that in his genealogy. Jacob is listed here. Jacob. I think if Jacob was in our family
tree, we'd just pass that one over. He is a known scoundrel. He's a cheat. But that's who
Christ came to save. He came to save sinners who try
to cheat God. They try to cheat God's law.
They try to cheat God's justice. They try to cheat God's holy
character. They just try to sneak in on the back. They're cheats.
But Christ came to save those people. And not by cheating. No, He brings them in the front
door. Brings them in the front door. He saves them by His grace. By His blood. You know, when
Christ comes to set the prisoner free, he opens the prison door. They go free in justice. Christ
came to save them. Then in verse 10, there's Manasseh.
Now, Manasseh was a wicked king. When he became king in Israel,
you know what he did? He restored idolatry to Israel. What a wicked king. But you know,
that's a picture of everybody that God saves. Everybody, God
says, was an idolater before Christ met them. Without exception,
they were. Now, they might have been sitting
right here. They might have been sitting and listening to the
gospel. But I can tell you, they were worshipping an idol. They
were worshipping self. They were worshipping something
they made up. They were worshipping something
other than Almighty God. But the moment They seek Christ. The moment Christ reveals himself
to them, they turn to God from their idols and they serve the
true and living God. And then you read through here
and you think, you read these names, you think, who are they?
And we don't know. We don't know anything about
them. There are people here, the only time their name is in
scripture is right here in this genealogy. We don't know an earthly
thing about them. Well, that tells me Christ came
to save a bunch of nobodies. We don't know anything about
them. They're so insignificant, their names aren't even mentioned.
That's what the whole house of David was when Christ was born.
It was just a dead stump. Nobody thought, everybody thought,
this tree's dead. It's just a bunch of nobodies
from nowhere. But that's exactly who Christ
came to save. A bunch of nobodies from nowhere. And here's the
good news. We can't be too small. We can't
be so insignificant that Christ won't find us and save us. Lift
us up and make us princes. Set at his table. And then I
love this. There are four women named in
this genealogy. Now that is very significant.
Has to be. Because the Jews always trace
genealogies by men. by fathers and sons. Well, what
can we learn from these four notable women listed in the genealogy
of our Savior? Well, the first one is Tamar
in verse three. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law. If you care this afternoon to
read in Genesis 38, you can read the story of Tamar. Tamar, she
married two of Judah's sons and they both died before she had
any children. And Judah was afraid to marry the third one to her,
afraid he'd die too, you know. But Tamar wanted a child. So
tell you what she did. Tamar dressed up like a harlot.
She went down to play. She knew Judah was going to be
passing by. And she played the harlot with her father-in-law,
Judah. And Tamar became pregnant from
that, with twins, two boys, from her father-in-law, Judah. And
of course, you know, that was kept secret for a while. But
eventually, old Judah found out Tamar's pregnant from playing
the harlot. And he said, boys, bring her here. We're going to
burn her at the stake. Then he found out he's the father. Hmm. That's a white horse of another
color, isn't it? I mean, you think of the shame of that, the
disgrace of that. Not only does she play the harlot,
but she bore children from an incestuous relationship. That
woman is listed in the genealogy of the perfect, holy son of God. Now what's that teach us? Tabor. That's who Christ came to save.
He came to save spiritual harlots who have earned being burned
at the stake. And he came to save common, ordinary
street whores by taking their place at the stake and being
burned under the fiery wrath of God for them, satisfying justice
for them that they might go free. Christ came to save the worst.
Then the second woman is Rahab. And all throughout scripture,
she's called Rahab the harlot. You read about her there in verse
five. And you know the story of Rahab. You can go to the first
chapters of Joshua and read about Rahab the harlot. Now Rahab,
she didn't just play the harlot. Rahab was a harlot. And Rahab
lived in a city that was condemned by God. God told Joshua, when
you go into the lands I've given you, first thing you do is you
destroy Jericho. Well, that's where Rahab lived.
She lived in a place that was condemned. God, in His mercy,
in His grace, He saved Rahab out of that city. And you know
the story. How was Rahab saved? She was
under the token of the blood. That scarlet line hanging out
her window. She was saved. She was under the token of the
blood of Christ. God saved her from that. Joshua
sent those men in there. He said, you killed everybody.
Don't you touch Rahab. You go bring her out, bring her
out. And oh, God's grace to Rahab, that former harlot, she married
a prince in Israel. God gave that sinful woman a
son, Boaz. Oh, Boaz, the great picture of
the kinsman redeemer. Now that's the nature of Christ's
coming. Christ came to save a people who were under the condemnation
of the law. And Christ's going to save them
in justice by shedding His blood to pay their sin debt, by satisfying
the law for them and making them righteous. And all of God's elect
are safe because they're hiding under the blood of Christ. When
God's justice comes in to destroy everybody, God's going to say,
don't touch them. Don't touch those under the blood. They're safe. under my protection,
under my promise of grace, they've been washed in the blood of Christ.
Don't you touch them. That's the nature of Christ's coming.
Then third is Ruth of Moabitus. You know the story of Ruth. You
can read about her in the whole book of Ruth. Ruth, like I said
earlier, was born from a cursed race. She was born from another
incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter. And God
cursed everyone in Moab. They're all cursed. But God in
His grace saved one woman out of that cursed nation, Ruth. And God brought her to Israel.
And He made her fall in love with Boaz. Caused her to marry
another prince in Israel. And Boaz fell in love with her.
And Boaz came and redeemed her. Redeemed everything she lost.
Redeemed her whole family. And He married her. Made her
one with Him and gave her children. And Ruth, the Moabitess, became
the great-grandmother of King David. Oh, God's grace. Here's the nature of Christ's
coming. Christ came to save a people who were born under the curse
of the law. He's going to redeem them from the curse of the law,
be made a curse for them. And just like Boaz came to Ruth,
he sent his... Ruth didn't know who he was,
but he came. Oh my goodness. She's out there
reaping in those fields, you know, gleaning in those fields.
Oh, here comes Boaz. The heart of every woman in the
place. Just, oh my goodness. And this big, tall, dark, handsome
man on a white stallion set his affection on that nobody. Gleaning
his field, he set his affection on her. He redeemed her. He said, you just wait. I'm going
to take care of this. He married her and gave her a
son. Poor old Naomi, in the end, in
joy, bounced that babel in her knee. That's God's grace. And that's why Christ came. He
set his affection on a bunch of beggars, reaping, just gleaning
in his field. He brought her to himself and
he married her, gave her life, made her part of his family.
And then last is Bathsheba. And you know the whole story
of Bathsheba and David. I won't go into it for time sake.
But that child born to Bathsheba, that adulterous relationship
between her and David, that child did die. But then in God's grace,
he gave David and Bathsheba a son, Solomon, who reigned in David's
stead. And here's the nature of Christ's
coming. Christ came to save people who are guilty of adultery. guilty
of spiritual adultery, people who will join ourselves to any
fleshly feel-good religion and will reject with both hands the
gospel of Christ. But Christ came to save those
rebels anyway. And the only way they can be
saved is by His grace. And God in His grace is going
to give them a heart, a new heart. It caused them to be like Gomer.
She's not going to go after her lovers anymore. She's for one,
for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the last name in this
genealogy is the name, the most glorious, the most important
name, the name of Christ the Savior. And not only is this
genealogy about him, not only is the gospel of Matthew all
about him, this whole book is about him. It's all about the
nature of his coming, the nature of his work, the nature of his
redemption that he accomplished for his people. And it could
be. that God chose Matthew to give
us these truths and this genealogy because Matthew is very qualified
to write this story. Where was Matthew when Christ
found him? Matthew was collecting taxes
as a publican. You know what a publican is?
A publican was a trader to Israel. He collected taxes for Rome And
you know, whatever, taxes gotta be paid, taxes gotta be collected,
you know, okay. But tell you what publicans did,
what made them so vile. I mean, somebody's gonna collect
taxes, you know, whatever. But publicans, they cheated their
brethren. They charged them a higher tax
rate than Rome required, and they skimmed off the top and
became rich from it. Oh, they just became so rich.
That's Matthew. And there he sits, collecting
his taxes, keeping his books and skimming off the top. And
the Savior passed by, stopped, and said, Matthew, follow me.
And the Savior didn't stand there and look and wonder, is he going
to follow me? The Savior, I bet, hardly stopped and said, Matthew,
follow me. And he kept walking. Because
you know what he knew? Matthew's going to follow him.
Matthew's going to follow him. Matthew's going to leave all
that money. He's going to leave all those books. He's going to
leave all those. He left them all sitting there. and got up
from that table and followed Christ. Now, what would possess
a man to do that? Because God saved him by his
grace. See, this is the nature of Christ's coming. Matthew had
been saved by God's covenant grace. God promised it to him. He just didn't know it until
Christ came and said, follow me. Matthew had been saved by
God's sovereign grace. Christ came to Matthew and said,
Matthew, follow me. And Matthew could not follow
him. He got up and followed Christ because he was powerfully drawn
because of God's sovereign grace. Even being a publican couldn't
stop God from saving Matthew. He was saved by sovereign grace.
Matthew had been saved by God's grace for undeserving sinners. That's the nature of Christ's
coming. I sure am glad, aren't you? That's our only hope. All
right. Lord bless you.