Matthew 1 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ
Was on this wise It was in this manner When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together She was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. I wish we could read and understand
the Word of God with due reverence, don't you? Do you have any idea,
do I have any idea what I just read? She was found to be with child
of the Holy Ghost. The birth of Jesus, the Christ,
was in this manner. Have you ever heard an introduction
that captured your attention quite like that one? This is
how the Son of God was born into this world. This is how it happened. If that doesn't get your attention,
then I don't know what in the world you're doing here unless
the Lord is pleased to bless you in spite of you. He's going
to do that anyway, isn't He? If He's going to bless any of
us, He's going to do it in spite of us. Because even if you have
some understanding of that, it just doesn't mean what it ought
to to us, does it? This is how God was born. having established at the outset
that what happened before his birth was according to the Word
of God, that the genealogy of Christ was indisputably as prophesied. Now Matthew begins to tell the
circumstances of his actual birth, his actual coming into this world,
the birth of Jesus the Christ. And he gets right to the point,
doesn't he? Mary and Joseph were espoused. That is, they were
promised to one another. They didn't live together, nor
had they come together in the sense of a man and a woman in
the intimate relationship of man and wife. And this is why
the phrase is specifically mentioned in connection with her being
with child, because that's usually In fact, in every other case
in history, that's how a woman comes to be with child. Man and
wife come together. And before they had come together, she was found to be with child. But they were espoused. They
weren't come together, but they were espoused. And this espousal,
this was a sacred promise. between a man and a woman in
which a pledge was given. And it was just as binding and
exclusive as the marriage itself. And it's a beautiful picture
of what happened when Christ was born into this world. There
wasn't a spousal of Christ to us. There was a token given by
the man to the woman as a pledge of his love and full expectation
of their union, their ultimate union with one another. When
our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, the promise of God
to his people is confirmed. This is the promise. The ultimate
consummation of that promise is the marriage of Christ and
his bride. will be together forever in perfect
love and union with one another. And that's something that's gonna
happen soon. Revelation 19, turn there with
me. Revelation chapter 19 and verse five. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come. And his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. The wedding
gown's already been picked out. It's been provided for us by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this righteousness, the
fine linen there, the last part of verse eight, it's the righteousness
of saints. It's Christ, that's what it is.
It's him. And then in verse nine, he saith
unto me, right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the lamb. And he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God. Can you imagine that day? The
marriage of the lamb is come. We're already espoused to. There's
a promise that we hang upon and that we remember that we cherish,
that gives us an expectation, doesn't it? A longing. When you
were engaged to your wife or your husband. I don't remember
how long we were engaged, but it was too long. You know what
I'm talking about, it was too long. There's an expectation
in there. There's a time of cherishing this future union,
thinking upon it. And we say even so, Lord Jesus,
quickly, like John did. We're espoused, that union is
not complete until we're come together, until the marriage
of the Lamb has come. But we are espoused. And when
our Lord was born into this world, He committed to us. And we have
a pledge of His love, a token of His commitment to us, don't
we? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
20. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him, amen. unto the glory of God by us. We're promised, aren't we? We're
promised. That's what a spousal is. It
means to make a promise, a solemn promise of future union and love
and marriage. And all of God's promises to
us are yes and so be it in Christ to the glory of God by us. Now
he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed
us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest, the
token, the pledge of what? All of those promises that he
just mentioned. His promise to us. The earnest of the spirit in
our hearts. And so, We have a promise from
Him, and His coming into this world is the confirmation of
that promise. It's the reality, the fulfillment
of that promise. And we have a token. We have
commitment from Him. And the token given is a reminder
of the promise. The word is spouse. was used
to signify this promised commitment. I espouse myself to you. But
the root word, if you look at the root word that was translated
into or used to identify this commitment to one another, the
root word means to be recalled or to return to one's mind, to
remind oneself of, to remember. When our Lord Jesus Christ sat
down with his disciples before he bodily departed from this
world, he broke bread and poured wine and said to them, this is
my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. This do in remembrance of me. We have a promise. We have a
token and he says to us, we're promised to one another. We're
espoused. Don't forget that. Remember me. Think about me while we're apart.
Soon we'll be together. Soon we'll be in the arms of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll be united forever in perfect
union and they twain shall be one soon. The voice as of many waters and
as of the voice of mighty thunderings will sound through the halls
of heaven itself saying and announcing, let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come. And our
Lord says to us now, his espoused bride, remember, remember we're
promised to one another. He says to us in the language
of Hosea 3.3, Thou shalt abide for me many days." How many? I don't know. John's prayer was,
Lord come quickly. I don't know how many days. No
man knoweth. No man knoweth. But he said, surely I come quickly.
So I know it's going to be soon. He said, you'll abide for me
many days and thou shalt not play the harlot. Thou shalt not
be for another man. We're promised to one another.
And so will I also be for thee. Mrs. Spousal, what a picture
of our relationship with the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Joseph, her husband,
verse 19, back in our text, being a just man and not willing to
make her a public example. was minded to put her away privately
since Joseph knew now she's clearly with child. She was found to
be with child before they had come together and he knew he
wasn't the father of the child. And he had not yet been told
the circumstances of how Mary came to be with child. And so
he graciously tries to protect Mary's honor here She would have
been made a public disgrace and he wasn't willing to do that.
He wasn't willing to do that. There's pictures of our Lord's
love for us all through this isn't there? The law says stoner. Doesn't
it? That's exactly. And Joseph could
have done that. He could have called her forth
publicly and had her stoned. He wasn't willing to do that. The scripture says that love
covereth a multitude of sins. If you love someone, you don't
expose their faults, you hide them. He determined to divorce her,
to put her away, but in a way that wouldn't bring scandal upon
her. I've tried to imagine what Joseph
must have felt during this time. I don't know how long it was
between the time that she was found to be with child and the
time that the Lord spoke to him and said, peace, be still. Just as sure as he calmed those
winds and those waves. The word of God causes the the
restless anxious, fearful, broken heart to be calmed and healed. Joseph, his heart must have been
broken, and he felt he had no choice but to put her away. The
one that he loved, the one that he had espoused himself to, promised
and committed himself to, out of all other women in the world,
she's mine. And he felt he had to put her
away, but he would do it in such a way that he would show kindness to
her. But learn this from that, often
when our hearts are broken, when it appears that things to us
appear to be hopeless and we can see no way out, we can see
no other possibility but the worst. We're one revelation from
God away from all of our troubles melting away. One word from God. One word. And this is a picture
of God dealing with us in our sinfulness. It was Joseph who
loved Mary and him being a just man. It says that by God's grace,
he was a just man. He was the instrument here and
he had compassion on Mary and he wouldn't have her publicly
stoned like the law said. You remember that woman that
was taken in adultery? And it was considered adultery. If you're
a spouse to somebody, that tells you something in this text of
what that meant. It was a commitment, a legal
commitment, a binding commitment before the law. And of course,
more importantly, it was the honest pledge of one heart to
another before God. Him being convinced that she
had broken that, he could have called her, just like that woman
taken in adultery. They said to Christ, Moses says stone her.
And he did, and that was the law that they abided by. And so Mary was in that same
place in the eyes of Joseph. But Joseph here was just the
instrument. It was God who arranged things here to protect Mary's
honor. And in the eyes of the world,
she would have been condemned and legally an adulteress But
not only do we see a picture here of forgiveness of sins in
Joseph's actions. He didn't call her on her sin. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who shall stand? Who shall stand? And we see that
here. But also in Joseph's action here,
the compassion and pity towards sinners but also that of justification
we see here because it turned out in this matter that Mary
was completely innocent of this evil and Joseph eventually found
that out and I'll tell you this God reveals to us in Christ and
it will be found out in the end there is therefore now no condemnation
there's no guilt there's no sin in us in Christ in ourselves
of course We're all adulterers and adulteresses. And Moses said
we should be stoned. And the equivalent, the spiritual
equivalent of that, the punishment of God, we must suffer hell forever. That's what the law says, but
Christ says, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. Sin no more. Not only does God have compassion
on us in our wretchedness and take measures to cover our sin,
with the precious blood of his son. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have no sin. It's going to be found out in
the end that we were innocent all along because we were in
him from the beginning, in him. And then verse 20, look at our
text in verse 20. But while he thought on these
things, while his heart no doubt was breaking, behold, the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, Thou
son of David, fear not. What a wonderful word from the
Lord. Fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which
is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Now you think about
this, this is a twofold blessing. Not only were Joseph's fears
based on ignorance, as ours usually are, if not always. Are you afraid,
are you worried? Do you doubt? Are you like me? All of that is based on ignorance,
isn't it? As soon as God tells us the reality, speaks to our
hearts the reality of the way things are, there's no fear. How can my heart be disquieted
within me when God is for me, when he's washed all my sins
away? when I'm holy and righteous in his sight, when I'm blessed
forever in him, when I have all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, how can I doubt? How can I be afraid? How can
I worry? How can I be anxious? All of those things are based
on ignorance. And as soon as Joseph wasn't
ignorant, not only was that done away with, the fear, And the shame, he said, don't
be ashamed to take unto thee Mary, thy wife. But also, he's told this, the
Son of God is about to be born into the world. Right before Joseph's eyes. Believer, not only are your doubts
and fears unfounded, if you're a believer in Christ, they're
unfounded. There's no excuse for them. but there's cause for
celebration and unspeakable joy. We have God with us. The angel
said to Joseph, God with us is going to be born of Mary. That
child that she was found to be with is of the Holy Ghost. He's
the son of God. He's the promised Messiah. Listen
to first Peter 1.8, whom having not seen you love, in whom, though
now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory." Not only are all of our fears removed
in a negative sense, but in a positive sense. We have everything to
rejoice about. We have Christ and all of the
blessings of God in him. The earthly lineage is important.
We saw that last week, didn't we? The fulfillment of the prophecies
are necessary. And it's important that that's
spelled out in scripture. But the divine lineage is most
important. And he's told here, this conception
is not of you or any other man. And I'm glad, aren't you? Because
who can get a clean thing out of an unclean? If Joseph is the
biological father, then the child is a sinner. He can't be my savior. If any other man is the biological
father, then the Lord Jesus could not have been born because you
can't get a clean thing out of an unclean. And this cannot be because you
see your lamb must be without blemish and without spot. If
he's going to be the lamb of God to take away your sin, If
he's gonna be the sacrifice, the sin offering that God will
accept for your sin, he must be without blemish and without
spawn. And if he has an earthly father, then he's not without
blemish. Sinner begets a sinner, just
as surely as a dog begets a dog, and a cat a cat. Only holy blood
can pay for my sins. A sinner cannot redeem sinners.
And so our Lord Jesus Christ was not born of Joseph or any
other man, but this child. Don't be afraid, Joseph, to take
her unto you for your wife. There's been no unfaithfulness,
there's been no infidelity. When Mary was told of this in
Luke 135, listen to this, the angel said to her, that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. That holy thing. Neither before or since, nor
ever shall there be anything born into this world holy. That
holy thing is the Son of God. And He was born, not of man,
but of the Holy Spirit. And that's what Joseph was told.
And you talk about, you talk about relief. Were you relieved when you heard
the gospel and the Lord spoke to your heart and said, your
sins are forgiven you? Was that a relief to you? Verse 21, and she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. What do you name God's Son? What name could you give to the
promised Messiah, the Savior of God's people? When one of
us has a baby, we think about what will we name him? Something
that we like the sound of, something that's maybe the name of someone
that we knew before that we loved, or a parent or a grandparent
or something like that. What do you name the son of God? Well, as we'll see in the context
of this, one name is not enough to describe him completely. He
has many names, doesn't he? But to answer that question,
first of all, you name him what God says name him. You don't
just come up with one. You name him what God says name
him. And he was named by his true father, wasn't he? His earthly
name, that's what this name is now. It's his name just like
my name is Chris and your name is whatever it is. It's the name
that he would be referred to as every day. Whenever somebody
identified him in this world, they used this name, Jesus. Jesus. When Joseph, his earthly parent,
spoke to him as they worked in the carpenter shop, I'm sure
he told him at times things to do as his son, and he'd say,
Jesus, bring that lumber into the storage room, or Jesus, he
would refer to him by this earthly name. Or even when one of the
Pharisees said something like, this Jesus, he's at it again,
we've got to stop him. How can we stop him? How can
we shut him up? In their opposition and hatred
of him, they used this name. And do you know why they did?
Why they called him that? Though it wasn't their desire
to do it for this reason, yet by God's design, They called
him that because he shall save his people from their sins. That's
why. That's a good name. What a name. Every time someone referred to
him or addressed him, they were saying, by God's authority, you're
going to save Chris Cunningham and all of your other people.
from their sins. What a name. May God give us grace to never
say that name except with reverence. It has to do with that which
is above all things most praiseworthy and most reverential. It refers
to Him who is God among us, God with us. And it has to do, the
name itself means and has to do with Him shedding His precious
blood for sinners. He shall save His people. It
has reference to Him in His redemptive character as the Savior of sinners,
the Redeemer of His elect people. His name given Him at His birth
makes reference to His sin-atoning death. And with what solemnity
and awe we ought to speak it when we do. He shall save. Thou shalt call
Him Jesus, for He shall save. Even those who hate him will
call him Jesus, for he shall save. His people, his elect, chosen,
precious, peculiar, sovereignly picked out and loved from eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. That's what his name means. He shall save his people, spiritual
Israel, sinners from their sins. That's why he died on the cross.
He died the just for the unjust. He died to take our sins away.
Paul said he died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He shall save his people from
their sins. How will he save us? First of
all, by assuming our nature, by the very context of what we're
reading here, by coming into this world, by condescending
to be born of a woman, to be made of a woman, to be made under
the law. He did that that he might redeem
them that are under the law. That's how he'll save us, by
becoming one of us, by being God with us. By that great mystery
of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. Have you figured
that mystery out yet? No, but I, like the angels, I
adore him and worship him as he gives me ability to do so
for the great mystery of godliness, for this great mystery of his
love and grace and mercy toward me that he would come where I
was, where I am to save me. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient. We have no idea what
it is to come to sin. And the only way we're ever gonna
have any idea is to see that God Almighty came to dwell among
worms like us. May He give us grace to see that.
How's He gonna save us? The birth of Jesus Christ was
in this manner. He'll save us by representing
us as the righteous man. Really and truly in the true
sense of what a man is as God created us in uprightness and
holiness for his glory, he is the man, the only true man that
ever lived. We're a poor excuse for men and
women. God created man to honor him and just one of them did
it. And he wasn't created, he was born of the Holy Ghost. God was manifest in the flesh. And he's the only man in the
true sense of the word. If you refer to any of us, the
rest of us, as man, you'll have to qualify. You'll have to say
sinful man. But not him. He'll save us by representing
us. The last Adam, Paul called him.
Adam was our representative in the garden. But the last Adam
is him in whom is no sin. Neither was any guile found in
his mouth. He will live for us. That's how
he'll save us. He'll live in our place, and then how will
he save us? He'll die for us. He'll die in
our stead. He'll give his life a ransom
for many, Mark 10, 45. 1 Peter 3, 18, for Christ also
has suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God. What a message is contained in
that brief sentence. Christ also hath once suffered
for sins. The just for the unjust, that
holy thing for you unholy things, in this one. Why did he do it? That he might bring us to God,
that he might reconcile us to our God. Being put to death in the flesh,
that's how he did it. So we have what he did, we have
why he did it, and we have how he did it. In that one brief
statement. John put it this way in Revelation
1 5 and you know this is my one of my favorite verses because
of how often I quote it. When John thought about this
one whose name means he shall save us He put it this way, he
said, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. To him be glory. The birth of Jesus Christ was
on this wise, in this manner. It was in such a manner that
sinners can rejoice in a sure hope. Sinners can rejoice in
a sure hope of a certain salvation, not contingent upon their own
merits or wisdom or will, but accomplished by the Son of God
for them. It was in this manner. It was
in such a manner that anyone who sees what truly took place
there must say with Jonah, salvation is come and salvation is of the
Lord. Like the good Samaritan in the
parable that this Lord Jesus told, he came where we were and he poured in the oil of his grace
and love and mercy and he poured in the wine of his precious blood.
And in doing so, he paid our way. He healed us. He had compassion upon us, whereas
the law could not. There's no compassion in the
law. There's only demand. Do, don't do. There's only requirement. There's no compassion. But the
good Samaritan came where we were. And when that little baby was
born in the manger, That was the Good Samaritan coming where
we were in order to do everything necessary to save us. Simeon looked into the eyes of
that little baby not long after his birth. What a good thing to be able
to say, Lord, just take me now. Every believer can say that.
Lord, if it pleases you, take me now. Paul said, I have a desire
to depart and to be with him. How can you say that, Paul? Because
mine eyes have seen the salvation of God. And he saw this little
baby that was born and said, I've seen God's salvation and
I can depart in peace. His birth was in such a manner
that sinners believing upon Him can trust and rest in a Savior
that saves. He came in order to save His
people. And because of who He is, there
can be no doubt that He accomplished it. If this is God with us, then
whatever He came to do is done. Is that right? God with us. That's who this is. And so calling
Jesus because he will save. You see that he will save. He shall save his people. His birth was in such a manner
that I can see it. And if I truly see it for what
it is and him for who he is, I can rest. God has come. God is sure enough for me. Because
I see it in this Redeemer that's born. I see it in this Redeemer that
actually redeems sinners by His precious blood. And I thought
about this as I studied for this this week and prepared for this
morning. I wondered this. Might the preaching
of His birth be the occasion this morning of the spiritual
birth of one of His children? It's by the preaching of this
one who was born. Born to die. Born to save. Born to redeem his people. Born
the Lamb of God which takes away sin. It's by the preaching of
him that spiritual birth takes place. And may he by his almighty
grace make it so. Let's bow in prayer.