Verse 21 is her text. Matthew 1 verse 21. And she, that is Mary, shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Notice they're
all capital letters. For he shall save his people
from their sins. The title of my message is Jesus
He Shall say. How about that? Jesus he shall
say. Notice it doesn't say concerning
Mary that she shall bear thee a son. Now that's what the angel
said to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist concerning
Elizabeth his wife and John's mother that she shall bear thee
a son. No Rather, the angel says to
Joseph, she shall bring forth the Son. He was already the Son. Joseph was not his father. God
was his father. He was the everlasting, the eternal
Son of God. As the prophet said, Isaiah chapter
9 verse 6, unto us a child is born, that's so, but unto us
a son is not born, a son is given. God so loved the world, the world
Jew, Gentile, the world of his elect, that he gave his only
begotten son. Not a son born, but a son given. Jesus, I'm sure you all know,
is the Greek word which is the equivalent of the Hebrew Joshua. Joshua in Hebrew, Jesus in Greek,
both mean the same thing. They both mean Savior. They both mean Jehovah Savior. And what was said of Abraham,
what our Lord Himself said of Solomon, what He said to the
Jews concerning their temple, what He said of Jonah can also
be said of Joshua in the Old Testament. Behold, a greater
than Joshua is here. greater than Joshua is here.
It was never said of Joshua or any other man or all men combined
that they should save their people from their sins. The salvation
of Joshua was temporal. It was just a picture, a type.
The salvation of Jesus Christ is eternal. The salvation of
Joshua was just for a few. The salvation of Christ was for
a great multitude which no man can number. No man can number. Many brethren, many brethren,
as Paul says in Romans 11 26 when he said that they are not
all Israel, prior to this, that are called Israel, he concluded
All Israel shall be saved. All God's people shall be saved. God's true Israel, made up of
Jew and Gentile, black and white. John saw them before the throne
and he said, man, they were all nationalities, all kindreds,
all tribes, of all people, God has his chosen. So all Israel,
God's true Israel, shall be saved because it is written. There
shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, Jesus, and He shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob." It was at the River Jordan that God
publicly magnified Joshua in the Old Testament, remember?
Before all Israel, He magnified His servant Joshua at the same
river. Hundreds of years later, God
the Father publicly magnified Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter
3, verse 13, then cometh Jesus from Galilee. He'd been living
in obscurity. He's 30 years old now. He'd been
living in obscurity. From the time of his birth till
this time, we hardly hear anything of him. Now he comes to John
at the Jordan. to be baptized. Verse 16, identifying
with his people. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. Straightway, he was covered
up, he was immersed. That's what the word means. And
lo, the heavens were opened unto him. My, my, my. And he saw that his John, the
Spirit of God, descending like a dove and lighting on him. The Lord Jesus again, verse 17,
and lo, a voice from heaven sang. Now God had spoken from heaven
before. Concerning individuals, we're
told in the word of God, Abraham was a friend of God. Enoch walked
with God. David was a man after God's own
heart. But no one ever heard these words
spoken about them except our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came up out of the water,
The heavens parted, the dove lighted upon him, and God Almighty
spoke and said, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Those words had never been spoken
of anybody before that. They've never been spoken of
anyone since that. This is my beloved son, Joshua. was Israel's commander and leader
that lead them into the land of Canaan, again a type and a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our commander and leader,
the leader of his sheep, their shepherd, their bridegroom, his
church being the bride, the leader and commander of his redeemed
people, the captain of our salvation, and what a glorious captain he
is. He's never lost the battle. He's
never lost the battle. He comes forth conquering and
to conquer. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 3. Incline your ear and come unto
me here, here, and your soul shall live. And I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people. a leader and commander to the
people. The river Jordan is a picture,
an emblem, a type of death. And just as Joshua successfully
conducted Israel through that river to the promised land, so
our Joshua, Jesus, will conduct his flock, his army, every one
of them, through the river of death which separates us from
this world to our home in glory. David said, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Man, that's
a mouthful. That's a mouthful. You're going
the way of all the earth, David. You're not going to come back.
And you say you're not afraid? You're facing death that calmly? Why? How can that be? The same
way it is for any sinner. You know how? You know why? Because thou art with me, my
Joshua, my captain, my beloved, Jesus Christ himself is with
me. Behold in this the deepest mystery
and the richest mercy that ever was. manifest in the flesh. By the light of nature we see
God as a God above us. By the light of the law we see
Him as a God against us. But by the light of the gospel
we see Emmanuel, God with us. God for us. Isn't that a sweet
thought? God for us. Everything Jesus
Christ did He did on our behalf. He did for us. If God thus be
for us, Paul asked the question, then who can be against us? I
mean successfully, who can be against us? If we're in the hands
of our great captain and commander in chief, the Lord Jesus Christ,
what harm can come to us? One old writer put it this way,
In the name of Jesus, the whole of the gospel is here. For he
is the light, and the food, and the medicine, the very life of
the soul. Oh, may God be pleased, would
you pray, that God would be pleased to make this blessed, blessed
text of scripture, this glorious truth, fresh to our hearts this
morning. I need that, don't you? I need
a fresh application of this glorious, blessed, wondrous truth. He shall save, that is Jesus,
shall save his people. You can't hear that enough, can
you? You can't be reminded of that enough, can you? When your
heart's crying out for comfort, to hear that Jesus shall save?
When you're crying out with Paul, wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me to hear that Jesus Christ shall save? He'll keep
you? He'll present you without fault
before the throne of God? You can't hear that too often. When Pat called me Monday evening
and told me about the good report that Missy got about the results
of the biopsy, that everything looked good, A clean bill. We were talking a little while
and I was at my desk and then I told Pat, I said, Pat, I'm
gonna let you go. I want to go tell Robin this.
Robin's gonna want to hear this. Oh, this is good news. This is
good news. Got to share it. Got to share
it. Let's look at these few words
and consider each one. Jesus he shall save. Now let's put the emphasis on
the first word there. shall, shall. He shall save. Could it be possible, could it
be possible at the time of anyone's birth to be able to know what
they would make of their life? Can you imagine what might be
said? Not of me. But with hindsight, for example,
call his name Alexander the Great. Well, how do you do? What did
he do? We're told that by the age of
21 he had conquered all the then known world and then sat down
and wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. Or call
his name George Washington. George Washington, called the
father of our country. He'll lead America to independence
and become her first president. And think of anybody else that
you've esteemed, that you've admired anybody, dead or alive,
compared whatever they did to these words. Call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Wow! Wow! How about that? And why wouldn't he? Why not? Because after all, he's Immanuel. He's God with us. He's God in
flesh. Yes, he was made like his brethren,
but he never stopped being God. He was as much God as ever. He never stopped being God. The God-man, that man who was
himself God, I know in our religious day most people's concept of
God, me and Billy were talking about this earlier before service
started, most folks, religious folks, concept of God allows
that he can't do all that he intends to do. I mean, you've
heard them talk about their God. Well, he would like to, if, if,
if. That's not the God of Scripture.
And I declare how anybody can find any comfort in trusting
such a God as that is beyond me. That's not the true God. Where's the true God? What's
he doing? David says, wherefore should
the heathen say where is now their God? Our God is in the
heavens ruling over all. What's he doing? He's doing whatever
He wants to do. He's God. He's doing whatsoever
He hath pleased. Man, that's good news to end
the year with, isn't it? And that's good news to begin
a new year with. Our God is in the heavens. Now,
we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. We don't know
what's going to happen this afternoon. We don't know what the next year,
the Lord willing, we enter it, will bring forth. We don't know
what tomorrow holds. Oh, but glory to God, we the
believer know something better than that. We know who holds
tomorrow. And that one who holds tomorrow
is our great God and Savior. Psalm 135, 5 and 6. For I know,
I know that the Lord is great. He's great. That our Lord is
above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He in heaven and in earth, and in the seas and all deep
places. The purpose of our savior's coming
into this world, his incarnation, being born. The mission upon
which he was sent into this world by God his father. The work he
came here to perform as God's righteous servant was the saving
of his people. He didn't come to make their
salvation a possibility, but a reality. He shall save. He didn't come to put his people
in a savable position, but to save them. He didn't come to
offer salvation. God doesn't offer salvation. Jesus Christ doesn't offer salvation. He saves. He saves his people. John chapter 6, could words be
plainer than this? Jesus Christ speaking. For I
came down from heaven. Why did you come down from heaven?
Not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
what was that? And this is the Father's will
which is sent me, that of all which He had given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. I should lose nothing. And He
never has. He never has. People said, oh,
what about Judas? He was one of the 12. He was
saved, and he was lost. Judas was never saved. John chapter
17, Father, of those whom thou hast given me, I lost none except
the son of perdition. He was never a believer that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. Oh, glory to his name. He shall. He shall save his people. The next word there, he. Put
the emphasis there. He. Jesus. Because nobody else can. Nobody else can. Did you read,
or I hope that you will if you haven't, the article in the Bulletin
about the brother that pastors there in Hurricane West Virginia? His name even escapes me. But
looking under Jesus, trusting him, no one else can save his
people except Christ. The very reason God gave him
this name was because of what only he could do. Jesus means
Savior. Who but Jesus Christ could satisfy
all the precepts of God's law? Who but Jesus Christ could say,
I do always those things that please the Father. We broke God's
law. Jesus Christ fulfilled God's
law in his life. That's why he didn't go to the
cross a year or two or whatever after he was born. No, no, no.
He lived under the precept of God's holy law, and he fulfilled
it every jot, every tittle, in word, in thought, in deed, and
he did it for his people as their representative. Now God puts
us, the psalmist said, in his steps. In his steps. Steps of
perfect obedience. Steps of perfect righteousness. And then he went to the cross.
Who but Jesus Christ could put away the sins of his people? Who could do it? That high priest
on the day of atonement once a year? He alone would go into
the holy place? But he never came out, never
said, it's finished, it's finished. Oh no, he had to go back in the
next year. Because animal sacrifices could
never take away sins. They were just a picture of him
that you could. That's why when Jesus Christ
offered himself one time without spot to God, he cried as the
mighty victor that he was, it is finished, glory to his name. Our sins are gone. They're gone. Oh, have you heard? Wish I could
sing. If I would attempt to do it,
you would wish I could sing. But one old hen says, oh, have
you heard what Jesus has done for me? Have you heard? My sins
are all taken away. All taken away. They're gone. Who but Jesus Christ could be
the only mediator between God and man. Who could bridge that
great, great gulf between a holy God and my sinful soul? Who could, being God, as Christ
is and was, take Him by the hand? being man and take me by the
hand and reconcile us together. Who could do that? Jesus Christ
himself. He said, I'm the way. I'm the
way. I'm the bridge. No man comes
to God but by me. And in whom but Jesus Christ
would God Almighty accept the sinner. Think about that. Paul said in Ephesians 5, I think
it is, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Chapter one of the same book.
Accepted in the beloved. Wow. Accepted in the beloved. This is my beloved son. In whom?
In whom? I'm well pleased. And if I'm
in him, God's well pleased with me. In him, I'm accepted. I'm as accepted, now listen,
I'm as accepted by God Almighty as much as Jesus Christ is accepted
by God Almighty. Before God Almighty rejects this
believing sinner, He would first have to reject His Son. My soul,
what a Savior. And who but Jesus Christ is mighty
to save? Who but He can keep me from falling? I'm prone to wonder. That's just
a fact. That's the truth. I'm prone to
leave the God I love. Who can keep me from falling?
Who can present me faultless before the throne of God Almighty? Jesus, our Joshua, our Savior. Jesus Christ, He's nothing if
He's not a Savior. He was anointed for this very
purpose. And His very name is a sham. It's a pretense. He's an imposter. If he doesn't save his people
from their sins, oh, aren't you glad that he lived
up to his name? He lived up to his name. He did
not fail. We sometimes sing, Jesus paid
it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain and he washed it white as snow. Is that true
or not? Is that true or not? Did he or
did he not? I know many years ago, hadn't
been preaching long, still lived in West Virginia. I don't know
how they heard of me, but some little church up the hall asked
if I would come preach to them one Sunday a month while they
looked for a pastor. Well, it was obvious after I
started preaching they hadn't heard of me. They didn't know
what I preached, but There were men in the church,
when I would preach about God's salvation being eternal, about
Christ giving His sheep eternal life, and they would never perish. They would afterwards whisper,
man, that's dangerous doctrine that fella's preaching. He said,
he's giving people a license to sin. And then they would stand
and sing, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining
as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when
he first begun. And they didn't believe they
could be kept for an hour, much less for 10,000 years. Oh no, this Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is the one and only
Savior. He and none but He shall save
His people. Listen, Isaiah chapter 63, this
is our Lord speaking. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. I have trodden the winepress
alone. All alone. I often try to think I can't
enter into it. I can't wrap my little brain
around it. When he that was God and with God,
and everlasting in the garden, when the cross began to eclipse
his soul, being forsaken by God began to eclipse his soul, and
that darkness, and he sweat great drops of blood, my soul, what
kind of loneliness was that? And then on the cross when he
cried, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Martin Luther said,
Who can understand that? God? Forsaken by God? What kind of loneliness is that?
He said, I've trodden the wild press alone, and of the people
there was none with me. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeem has come. He says, I looked,
and there was none to help. I wondered that there was none
to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." Oh, the New Testament,
equivalent of that verse, Hebrews 1 and 3. Who? That is Christ, Jesus Christ
being the brightness of God's glory and the express image of
his person and upholding all things by the word of his power
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. That being the case, it's no
wonder that our just God and Savior says, look unto me, Frank
Tate, he wrote that article, look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth I am God, and there is none else. That's the verse that God used
to open the eyes of a young man by the name of Charles Spurgeon.
He was on his way to church. He'd been under conviction. He
said, I'm going to go to every church around here until I hear
somebody tells me what I must do to be saved. And he had intended
to go to another church that morning, but a pretty severe
snowstorm forced him to go down this alley to a little primitive
Methodist church. Went in and sat down. The pastor,
the preacher, didn't even get there that morning. Snowed in,
I guess Spurgeon said. So this fella got up and he turned
to Isaiah chapter 45. Look unto me and be ye saved. And the guy pointed at Spurgeon
and said, young man, you look miserable. And he said, you're
going to keep looking miserable until you look, until you look.
Look don't work. Look unto me. And he said, Spurgeon
said, the scales fell off my eyes. And he said, I looked,
I looked. He held the Lamb of God and he
said, oh my soul, I could have looked my eyes out. Look unto
me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and
there is none else. Peter said, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. Here's the third word,
saved. He shall save. I love to read in God's Word
that my salvation is in the hands of Jesus Christ. God committed
the saving of my soul in the hands of Jesus Christ. Because I read concerning Him,
that is Christ, that He shall not fail. So when I read that
His purpose in coming into this world was for the salvation of
His people, I know, I know that He accomplished His mission.
Whatever was required by God to satisfy His holy law and to
bring in a perfect righteousness, I know Jesus Christ got the job
done. I can't imagine God sending His
Son or His Son agreeing to come if there was any possibility
that He wouldn't do all that He came to do. No, glory to His
name, Jesus Christ did everything God sent Him to do. He did it
perfectly. So that once is enough. Oh, what
a comfort to a needy sinner. What sweet assurance to know
that my everlasting salvation is His responsibility. His people
are in His hands. We're in His hands. And those
hands are hands of absolute dominion. Jesus Christ sits upon the throne
of universal reign. He holds a scepter of absolute
power and rule. He rules over everything, everybody,
all the time, always. Isaiah chapter 53, yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him, that is his son. He hath put him to
grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper, shall
prosper, shall be realized, shall be brought to pass, shall be
accomplished in his hand. Yes, in his hand all the purposes
of God shall be done. That's why we go on to read as
the result of his sufferings in Isaiah chapter 53 again. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, God says of his Son, I will divide him a portion with
the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong,
because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered
with the transgressors. And he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. In his hands is
the security of the church. He says, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Yeah, he's responsible. John
17, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. Thy son may also glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Last of all, he, Jesus, shall
save his people. His people. Highlight that from
their sins. Robin asked me what I was preaching
from last night, my text, and I told her, and she said, how
would you finish that? I said, I won't. I won't. It's not possible. Oh, but Jesus
Christ finished the Word with me. He'll save His people, all
of His people. Those the Father put into His
hands to save, And He will save all of His people from all of
their sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Salvation is His work. It's not
yours. It's not mine or anybody else's.
It's His. It doesn't say the preacher will
save or the priest will save or the church will save, but
Jesus Christ Himself shall save. Aren't you glad of that? You're
looking at an uttermost sinner. And I'm looking at uttermost
sinners. And thank God we have an uttermost Savior. I'm a great
sinner. There's no question about that.
The glory to His name. There's no question about this
either. Jesus Christ is a great Savior. I'm proof of that. Every day, I'm proof that He's
mighty to save. He and none but He can save His
people. from all their sins. He'll do
all the work and leave none of it undone. He'll begin it, He'll
carry it on, and He'll complete it. That's why He's named Jesus,
Savior, Jehovah. Jesus Christ came to seek and
to save those who were lost. And if He does not do that, He
was born for nothing. For nothing. He came into this
world for nothing. He lived for nothing. He died
for nothing if he doesn't save all of his people. While he was
in, I mean, while he was in this world, working out a perfect
righteousness and taking away our sin. Bless God. What a beautiful, wonderful Savior
is Jesus our Lord. In the world today, or in the
last rather the last few weeks, next coming weeks, Christmas
season, especially the religious world. Man, you'll hear all kinds
of talk about Jesus, talk about Jesus, sing about Jesus, profess
to worship Jesus, but only those who have experienced His grace
know that He is Jesus, Jehovah, that saves. John said, these
things have I written unto you that believe, that you may know
that you have eternal life and that you just keep on believing
that Jesus is the Christ. The first link between my soul
and Christ is not my goodness, but my badness. Not my merit, but my misery. Not my standing, but my falling. Not my riches, but my poverty. Let me close by quoting from
one of my favorite old hymns that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. One of Spurgeon's favorites too.
There is a fountain by William Kalper. You may not be aware
of it, but Mr. Kalper suffered at a period in
his life from deep depression. Tried to commit suicide. He was
committed to a mental institution. And that's when he wrote this
down. A relative of his, visited him while he was in that place
and tried to help him by telling him about Jesus' power to save. Calper burst into tears and he
said, this is the first time that I've seen a ray of hope.
And when the friend was gone, he opened his Bible, he says
at random, but in God's providence, to this verse of scripture, Romans
3 and verse 25, whom God, Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth
to be of propitiation through faith in his blood. And that
scriptural account of Christ's redeeming work touched his heart.
God opened his eyes and he afterwards testified, there shone upon me
the full beams of the sufficiency of the atonement that Christ
has made. My pardon in his blood the fullness
and completeness of my justification in the moment, I believed, I
believed." He was so thrilled by his newfound hope that he
described it in this hymn. And he based it upon this verse,
in Zechariah chapter 13, verse 1. In that day there shall be
a fountain open, there shall be a fountain opened up for sin
and uncleanness. There is a fountain. Thank God there is a fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. E'er
since, by faith, I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming
love has been my thing and shall be till I die. And I especially
like this one. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. Jesus, he shall save his people
from their sins. Glory to his name. God bless
you.