Matthew chapter one. Now, we've
just gone through a I guess you call it a survey of all the books
in the Old Testament. This morning we come to the New
Testament. Now, the message of all the books
beginning at Genesis through Malachi that we looked at the
message of all those books, I hope that you've seen in our study
that the message is Christ. Those books all tell us that
Christ is coming. They tell us someone's coming.
Now, the New Testament begins with the four Gospels, which
tell us that Christ is here. Each of the four Gospels gives
us a different view of the same Savior. Matthew, that we'll look
at this morning, presents Christ to us as king. Mark presents
Christ as the servant. Luke presents Christ as the son
of man, and John presents Christ as the Son of God. So this morning,
since the theme of Matthew's writing is Christ is King, I've
entitled our lesson The Savior King. And my first point is this. This one Matthew says he's here.
This one who's come is King. And the King that Matthew declares
is the God-man. He is both God and man. He's
God, manifest to us in the flesh. Now look in 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 was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing
to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately.
Now Mary and Joseph were young people engaged to be married.
But before the ceremony, Mary turns up pregnant. Now you know
what Joseph Joseph thought Mary's been unfaithful to him. And you
can understand exactly why he thought that. How else is she
going to get pregnant? Well, look at Luke chapter one. Luke gives us in some detail
how that happened. In Luke chapter one, beginning
in verse 26. And in the sixth month, this
is six months of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto
a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, a spouse to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's
name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with
thee. Blessed art thou among women.
Now you notice he didn't say above women, he said 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 bring forth
a son, and thou 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 forever. 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, I don't
see how this is even possible. An 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. The
angel told Mary, You're going to give birth to a child, a baby
boy, and that baby boy is going to be the son of God. He's a
son of man, but he'll be the son of God. Now, I'm just certain
of this. This is not recorded, but I'm
certain Mary told her fiance Joseph about this visit from
the angel about this conversation. And it also seems pretty clear
Joseph didn't believe her. And can you blame him? I mean,
really, can you blame him? Would you believe her? Just like
we wouldn't believe it. If a man, a man, I mean a man,
just like a man comes in here and told us, I'm the son of God. I'd get some of these men to
escort him from the building. That's what I do. We wouldn't
believe him. And when he's gone, we talk about
him and we think about him the very same way that the Jews felt
about the Lord Jesus. It's not possible that a man
be God. And we wouldn't believe a man
is God any more than we believe a virgin is pregnant. We can
understand why Joseph didn't believe her. And Joseph was thinking
what he's going to do with Mary in this situation. Now Matthew
says that Joseph was a just man and that word just means kind.
Joseph was a kind man. He was an honorable man and he
did not want to make a public spectacle out of Mary. He could
have turned her over to the authorities, to the Pharisees, whoever, you
know, and they would have publicly punished her, but he didn't want
that. So he was thinking, how can I
break this engagement as quietly as possible and not cause Mary
any trouble? Joseph was a kind man. He wanted
to be kind to Mary, even though he thought she had been unfaithful
to him. Now verse 20, And 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 here this angel appeared
to Joseph in a dream, and he told him the same story Gabriel
had told Mary. Now this is the importance of
the message that the angel brought to both Mary and Joseph. Mary's
going to give birth to a real baby boy. He's going to be a
human baby. But when Mary gives birth, she'll
still be a virgin. And what that means is this.
No human man is going to be the father of Mary's child. Mary's child will not be conceived
by the seed of a man. Mary's child will be conceived
by the Holy Ghost. Mary's baby boy conceived in
her womb of the Holy Ghost is going to be the Son of God. Now that's a great mystery. The
Apostle Paul, I mean, the Apostle Paul, you all agree, is a highly
intelligent man. He said, this is a great mystery.
Without controversy, there's no arguing about this, this is
a great mystery. God was manifest in the flesh. God Almighty was
born a baby boy. But Christ the Savior, if he's
going to save his people, he's got to be born this way. There's
no other way for him to be born. He's got to be born of a virgin.
He cannot be conceived from the seed of a human father. If the
Lord Jesus had been conceived from human seed, he would have
received Adam's sinful nature from the moment of his conception.
If the Lord Jesus had been conceived of human seed, he would have
partook in Adam's guilt and Adam's sin. If the Lord Jesus had been
conceived from human seed, he would not have been able to save
anyone. Paul told the church at Corinth,
in Adam, all died. Anyone conceived from human seeds
got Adam's nature and they all died. They're born dead. Look
at Romans chapter five. This very important gospel truth
of representation is taught to us here in Romans chapter five. Verse 12, wherefore as by one
man, that's Adam, the first Adam, sin entered into the world and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have
sinned. And that literally translated
is all sinned. In Adam, in our first representative,
our first federal head Adam, in Adam, all sinned. In Adam, we all did what Adam
did, we sinned. And guilt came upon us in that
way. Look at verse 13. Here's the proof of it. For until
the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where
there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come. Who is this talking about here?
Those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.
Well, they're babies. That's who it means. And Paul
uses this as the proof that we're all guilty in Adam. We all sinned
in Adam. Babies die. Why? You can't die unless you sinned,
right? Well, that baby hasn't done anything
sinful yet. How can that baby die? Oh yes,
they have done something sinful. They sinned in Adam. That baby
was conceived of human seed and that baby sinned in Adam. That
baby became guilty in Adam. Now, we won't go into this, but
there's several scriptures that we read that teach us, this is
what we believe, that God saved those babies. Babies who die
in infancy don't go to hell. And you say, well, how can that
be? That baby didn't do anything. That baby didn't join a church.
That baby didn't walk an aisle. That baby wasn't baptized. That
baby didn't come to believe the doctrines of grace. How can that
baby be saved? In Christ. through representation
in Christ. They were in Christ. They've
been made righteous in Christ, and when Christ died, he died
for them. That's how they're saved. But now Mary's first baby
boy, the point of all that is this. He didn't have a human
father, so he did not partake in Adam's guilt, and that's why
the virgin birth is so important. You know, the virgin birth is
just not some cute little scene, you know, we picture December.
The virgin birth is a vital necessity to the salvation of a sinner.
Now, we can't understand, you just give up trying to understand
how a virgin can conceive and bring forth a child. But by God's
grace, not only do we believe that, Mike, I cling to that. I mean, I cling to that. The
virgin birth is our only hope of having a second Adam. who
can undo in us what the first Adam did to us. He's got to be
born of a virgin. He cannot be of Adam's seed. And this one who's king is the
God-man. He's God manifest in human flesh. Look back in our text in Matthew
1 verse 22. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being
interpreted, God with us." This child born is God with us. God in human flesh. This is the
one that all of the Old Testament promised. Here He is. He's come. And when He's born, He's born
King, the Savior is born King. That brings me to my second point.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the King, is the Savior of his
people. This King came as the Savior. Look at verse 21. And she shall
bring forth a son, there's no doubt about it, she's gonna bring
forth a son. And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Savior, the Savior that was promised throughout the whole
Old Testament. When Matthew begins to write
here, he's not writing a new Bible. He's not writing a different
Bible. This is not something that's
different. What Matthew is writing is the
same word of God that all the prophets wrote of. He's writing
of the same one that all the prophets wrote of. And in his
very first words out of his mouth, that's what he tells us. Look
at verse one of chapter one. the book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The Lord
Jesus is the seed that was promised to Abraham. Remember when God
promised Abraham a seed? He was speaking to Christ. And
the apostle Paul told us that in Galatians chapter three, verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not to seeds as of many,
but as of one to thy seed, which is Christ. That seed of Abraham
is the Lord Jesus Christ. God told Abraham in your seed,
all nations of the earth be blessed. That's Christ. All the nations
of the earth are going to be blessed in him. And that blessing
that's coming in him is the blessing of salvation from sin. Because
this, this baby born is the savior of his people. Now the name Jesus,
it means Savior. That's who he is, he's the Savior.
But the name Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name
Joshua. Remember, Moses led the children
of Israel out of Egypt, didn't he? Led them through the wilderness.
But Moses could not bring the people into the land God promised
him. Moses couldn't bring the people
into the promised land because Moses represents the law. The
law came by Moses, he represents the law. Moses couldn't bring
the people into the promised land because, as a picture, no
man can be saved by keeping the law. We can't please God by our
own law keeping. Moses couldn't lead the people
in, so God raised up Joshua. And Joshua brought the people
into the land that God promised them. And Joshua is a picture
of our Lord Jesus. He came to save his people. He came to bring his people into
all the promises, all the blessings that God gave them. Now there's
several things this verse, this verse 21 makes plain that all
of scripture makes plain. First is this, Christ came to save. He came
to save. He didn't come to be an example.
He didn't come to reform. Christ came to save. He didn't come to make salvation
possible. Genie came to save. I love that he came to save. He didn't come to try to save
somebody who someday might decide to accept him. He came to save,
to completely and fully save from sin. He came to do the work
of salvation all by himself. He came to do it all. He came
to save. Second, Christ came to save his
elect. The angel says, he shall save
his people. Who are his people? All those
that the father gave him. Christ came to save his elect. Brethren, he saved him. He did what he came to do. There's
no chance that any of God's elect can be lost. No one for whom
Christ died will ever be in hell. It's an utter impossibility. Christ made them righteous in
Him through representation in Him. Christ put their sins away
when He died. He shed His blood to put their
sins away. There's no reason for God to send them to hell.
Christ put their sins away. He made them righteous. They're
saved. He got the job done that He came to do. And that job was
to save His elect from their sins. Third, now this is just
very obvious. Christ is the Savior of sinners. He shall save His people from
their sins. Now, the only people who have
sins are sinners. Pretty obvious, isn't it? And
that's who Christ came to save. You know, the gospel is not complicated. Christ came to save sinners.
And that is plainly stated in the genealogy that Matthew gives
us. Now we're not going to look at
all these names and read this whole genealogy, but if you read
through this genealogy, you'll see several names that are very
familiar to you. You know who they are. You know
the story of these people. And those names show us the kind
of people that Christ came to save. The people that Christ
identifies with are the kind of people he came to save. And
they're sinners. We have Abraham. The idolater. Where'd God find Abraham? In
idolatry. We have the scoundrel, Jacob.
We have Tamar, who played the harlot with Judah. And we have
Rahab, who was a harlot. We have another idolater, Ruth.
We have Bathsheba. Bathsheba had an affair with
David. And then David killed her husband, Uriah, to try to
cover up their sin. There's four women mentioned
in the genealogy of our Savior. Tamar who played the harlot,
Rahab who was a harlot, we have Ruth the idolater, and Bathsheba. That's who Christ came to save.
Then there's a list of kings. We'll get to those kings here
in just a minute, but there's a list of kings. Some of them were wicked
kings. Christ came to save wicked people.
There's a list of nobodies. just the poor and despised of
the earth. Christ came to save people from
all walks of life. All walks. The poor and despised
and the downtrodden, the people who are nobody. That's who Christ
came to save. There's a list of people who
spent their entire lives in captivity. Christ came to set the captive
free. There are men like Solomon. Solomon who did so many good
and wise things. The most wise man to ever live,
other than our Lord Jesus, the most wise man, born from Adam's
seed, did so many stupid things. You think, Solomon, where's your
head, son? He built houses of idolatry so
his wives could worship idols. Solomon, what are you doing? He made so many mistakes. God
came to save sinners who cannot save themselves and can't keep
themselves saved. That's who Christ came to save.
The Lord Jesus came to save sinners with vile sin like we just read. My question to all of us this
morning is this. Are you a vile sinner? Are you? If you are, Christ came to save
you. If you're not a vile sinner, Christ didn't come to save you.
It's as simple as that, because Christ came to save sinners. Well, how will this God man,
how will the king, how's he gonna save his people from their sins?
Well, he's gonna do it by representation. We're made sinners through representation,
and God's people are gonna be made righteous through representation.
The son of God became a man. so he could be the representative
of his people. An animal can't be our representative. We don't have the same nature
as us. God can't be our representative. We don't have the same nature
as us. So God became a man. He took on him the nature of
his people so he could be their representative. And as a man,
he lived under the law, obeyed it perfectly. And that's how
he saves his people from their sins. He takes their sins away
from them. puts them on his own holy self and gives them his
obedience, making them righteous through representation. What
the Lord Jesus did as he walked this earth as a man is what all
of his people did. What he did, we did in him. Made
righteous, made through his obedience. Adam made his people, all of
his race, he made them sinners by his disobedience to the law.
Christ made his people righteous by his obedience to the law.
Those two federal heads, that's how we're made sinners. That's
how we're made righteous, through representation. So Christ will
save his people by representation. Second, he'll save his people
by substitution. Now sin's gotta be paid for.
God's holy, he must punish sin. So when Christ takes the sin
of his people away from them, when he's made sin, That sin
became his and he paid for it by the sacrifice of himself.
So Christ, the king came to this earth to die. If he's going to
be the sacrifice, if he's going to put away the sin of his people
through substitution, he's got to die. And that's why he came
to this earth. And that's what the Jews and
all men by still today, all men by natural understanding cannot
understand this. Christ did not come to set up
an earthly kingdom. He didn't. And Christ is not
king enthroned in glory to give you wealth and joys and, you
know, to help you live this happy life on earth like you hear all
these false prophets talking about. That's not why he came.
He came to die. He came to die as a sacrifice
for sin. What did our Lord say? What shall
I say? Shall I say, Father, save me
from this hour? No. He says, but for this cause
came I unto this hour. The reason I came in the first
place was to die as a sacrifice for sin. To die as a substitute
for my people. And nothing would deter him from
going to the cross to do it. To die as a sacrifice for the
sin of his people. He did it through substitution.
Christ took the place of his people. And he suffered the penalty
of the law that they deserved. Now when Christ took our place,
we took His place. I would imagine Ben, if we're
playing basketball, you'd want him instead of me. He's taller,
he's younger. If we're going to be a substitute,
if I'm, for some weird reason, Ben's on the bench and I'm playing,
and we're going to be a substitute, when he comes in, I've got to
go out. When he comes in, I got to go
sit where he sat on the bench. That's substitution. When in unspeakable grace and
love, the Lord Jesus Christ took the place of his people. He took
the place of his people under their sins. He took the place
of his people under the curse of the law. Brethren, we took
his place. We're made righteous in him.
Substitution, that's how he's gonna save his people. Well,
thirdly, let me give you this. The Savior who's born to save
sinners, now he's king. He's king. And I love the kingship
of Christ. And one of the main reasons I
love the sovereign rule, the sovereign kingship of the Savior
is, if He's King, He cannot fail. If He's King, He shall accomplish
His will. And every believer knows and
bows to this fact, Christ is King. And we bow to Him. He's
King of kings and Lord of lords and we willingly bow to Him. We willingly bow to his will
in salvation. It's just obvious he's king.
So he chooses to save whom he will. He saves whom he will,
when he will. He calls whom he will, when he
will. And whom he will, he passes by.
We bow to that because it's only right. He's king. And he's king
over me. So I bow to his will. Whatever
he does with me is right. He orders my life, He orders
my steps, and I bow. I bow. We are in His hand to do with
as He pleases. Now everybody ought to have the
good sense to bow to King Jesus. He's King. We just ought to have
the good sense to bow to Him. And His genealogy tells us that.
In the genealogy that Matthew gives us, there are at least
18 kings and two princes. Salmon and Boaz were called princes
in Israel. He came from a royal family. Jesus of Nazareth is the son
of David. David's the preeminent king in
Israel. He's the son of David. Jesus
of Nazareth is the son that God promised to David. God told David,
David, I'm gonna give you a son. and he's gonna sit on your throne
forever. Of his reign, there'll be no
end. Well, now that's not talking about Solomon. Solomon's reign
ended. His son took his place. What
our Lord was talking about giving David is a son. Yes, he will
descend from David through Mary, but what he's talking about is
a spiritual son, the savior, the eternal king. Look at Matthew
chapter 22. Our Lord makes this obvious. Obvious, if I guess, if you've
got faith and eyes to see. In Matthew 22, verse 41. David's son is also David's king,
David's Lord. Matthew 22, verse 41. While the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, He's the son of David. He saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? Well, you can't figure that out
by natural wisdom. No man was able to answer him
a word. Neither durst any man from that day ask him any more
questions. David's son is David's Lord. This one born is king. But now listen, much more important
than inheriting a throne from his earthly father, Christ is
the son of God. So he's king. He's king of kings. He's Lord of lords. And the wise
men at our Lord's birth knew that. Look back at Matthew chapter
two, verse one. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came
wise men from the east of Jerusalem saying, where is he that's born
king? He's born king of the Jews, for
we've seen his far in the east, star in the east, and we're come
to worship him. Now Christ is born king. He's made what he
was not. He's made to be a man, a human
man, but he's born what he is. he born king, because that's
who he is. He's the king. And I want to
tell you what a king he is. What a king. Look in Matthew
chapter nine. This king came to die for and
to save helpless sinners. Matthew chapter nine, verse two,
and behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying
on a bed. He cannot get out of bed. He's helpless. And Jesus, seeing
their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good
cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now, who can be more helpless
than a man lying on a bed? He can't get up. Somebody's got
to carry him everywhere he goes. And the king had compassion on
him. And how did he show his compassion?
Told him his sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. In Matthew
14, we read that the Lord was moved with compassion and He
healed all the sick that were brought to Him. In Matthew 15,
we read that the Lord was moved with compassion at that hungry
multitude and He wouldn't send them away hungry. He took a boy's
lunch and fed every one of them. In Matthew 18, the Lord gave
the parable that told us how He has compassion on sinners
who have a sin debt they cannot pay. And in Matthew 20, on the
way to the cross, on his way to the hour of ours, on his way
to the hour that he came here for, he stopped and had compassion
on two blind men and gave them sight. Oh, what a king. What a king. His compassion to
his people. Now I want to give you two things
in closing that are very important. I want to apply this to all of
our lives. Since Christ is King, there are
two things that are of the utmost importance. First is this. Since Christ is King, he's to
be obeyed. Joseph obeyed him. Look here
at verse 24, back in Matthew 1. Then Joseph, being raised
from sleep, did, as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and
took unto him his wife, and knew her not until she had brought
forth her firstborn son. And they called his name Jesus.
No wonder why they did that. Joseph's father's name was Jacob.
Why didn't they name the baby after Joseph's father? I wonder
why. I wonder why they didn't give
this baby a good family name. A good name like Abraham or David
or Jehoshaphat. I wonder why they didn't do that.
Because God said, call his name Jesus. And in obedience, that's
exactly what they did. He obeyed. And you and I are
to do the exact same thing. We're to obey King Jesus. This thing of salvation, it's
not left up to us to decide. No, we're commanded, bow, bow
to the King, obey King Jesus. He says, this is not a suggestion,
this is his commandment, repent of your sins and come unto me.
I tell you what, we'll die in our sins if we don't obey. He
says to seek him. He says, follow him. He says,
beg him for mercy. I tell you what, we'll die in
our sins if we don't obey. He says, again, this is not a
suggestion. This is a commandment from the
king. He said, don't seek righteousness in your own deeds of the law.
Seek righteousness in him. I tell you what, we'll die in
our sins if we don't obey. King Jesus is to be obeyed. And
the second truth is this, Christ is King. So he's to be worshiped,
worshiped and adored. Look again in Matthew 2 verse
11. The wise men knew this and all wise men know this. When
they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with
Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped. And when
they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts,
gold and frankincense and myrrh. When they came in and saw the
king, they fell down and worshiped. It is my earnest plea that God
would be pleased to cause us to do this very same thing, to
by faith see the Lord Jesus Christ, the king, the savior, and fall
down and worship him. He's worthy. I pray God will
give us the grace to worship him. All right, I hope the Lord
will bless that too.