Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 1. Last year, I preached from the
text in Galatians, Chapter 4. I think if I remember right,
there were just a handful of us here because it was way, way
cold this time last year. But that's the text that I preached
on in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. And on top of that, the real
Christmas story. Mr. Baker sent me a message by
a man, don't know his name, never seen him before, never heard
of him before, but it was a wonderful message. And he preached from
Galatians chapter four on the theology of Christmas. And he made some very interesting
statements, and I'd recommend the message to you. You'd have
to see Mr. Baker to find out how to get
it. But he was talking about what Christmas has degenerated
into, whether you believe that Christ was born at this time
of year or not. It's the time that the world has set aside
to recognize the birth of Jesus Christ. And be that as it may,
it is degenerated into nothing more than just emotion, gifts,
secularism. And this man was telling, I looked
up to see what he was talking about, but he was talking about
the world's most expensive Christmas tree this year. And I looked
it up and showed it to Cindy and it's 42 feet high. And it's estimated value is $11
million. It's loaded with gold rings and
jewelry of all kinds. And you know where it is? It's in Abu Dhabi, right in the
heart of Islam. And I looked looked it up and
was observing some people there and they were all with their
hoods over their faces and everything like that. And I thought to myself, they would kill you if you took your text from where
I'm taking my text today and preach from it. They would kill
you And this is the difference between what the world thinks
today about Jesus Christ and His birth as opposed to what
the Bible says about Jesus Christ and His birth. And there is that
theology of Scripture, isn't there? And that's what I want
to look at today, the birth of Jesus Christ, the mystery of
the person of Jesus Christ. I want to begin reading here
in the first chapter of Matthew in verse 18, and I want to read
down through the remainder of that chapter, and I want you
to read along with me. Verse 18, Now the birth of Jesus
Christ was on this wise. Here's how it happened. When
as his mother Mary was a spouse 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. But while he
thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear
not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Now 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 Immanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from
sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took
unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had brought forth
her firstborn sons, and he called his name Jesus." The mystery
of Christ Jesus. That's what I want you to think
about with me for just a few minutes this morning. Three times
In Paul's writing, he makes mention of the mystery of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3, verse 4, listen
to this. When you read my epistles, he
says, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. And he makes another statement
similar to that in Colossians 4, verse 3. Pray for me that
God would open to me a door of utterance to speak The mystery
of Christ. In another place, he mentions
it like this. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. There is a great mystery about
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about Him
is a mystery. But Paul is speaking especially
of the mystery of His person. He is of two natures. Jesus Christ is a divine person. He has a divine nature. And Jesus
Christ has a human nature. But when we say He has a divine
nature, we don't mean that He's merely heavenly, or that He's
angelic, or even that He came down from heaven. What we mean
is this, that He is God. He is no less than God, the eternal
living God. We could say, as Jesus said of
himself, before Abraham was, I am. But that doesn't go far
enough, does it? A created angel could say that
and be truthful in saying it. And when we say, as Christ prayed
to His Father, Father, glorify Thou me with Thy own self, with
the glory that I had with Thee before the world was, that's
not going far enough either. Jehovah Witness and Mormons believe
that Jesus Christ was with the Father before anything was created. And at that time, God the Father
created the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So to say that He was
with the Father does not necessarily prove His divine nature. Yes, He was with the Father,
but you know something, brothers and sisters, we have to say more
even than that. When we say that Jesus Christ
is divine in His nature, We mean no less than that He is the all-knowing,
all-wise, eternal God. That's who He is. He's the only
true and living God, and apart from Jesus Christ, there is no
God. Now that's what we mean this
morning when we say that Jesus Christ is divine. He is. God. Great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And here in verse 23, the scriptures
identifies the Lord Jesus Christ this way. His name shall be called
Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Notice how the Holy Spirit says
that. He doesn't say that a representative
of God is with us. A man could be a representative
of God. He doesn't say that he came to
speak on God's behalf. A prophet could do that and did
do that. But what he's saying here is
Jesus Christ is Immanuel, which being interpreted is God is with
us. In Jesus Christ, when you see
Him, you saw God. I and my Father are one. It was this truth of Christ's
divine nature that offended The Jewish rabbis. When he told them
there in John chapter 10, I and my Father are one, they understood
what he meant. He wasn't saying I and my Father
are one in purpose. I and my Father have the same
will. He was saying I and my Father
are one in eternal essence. I love what R.C. Sproul said
one day, when you think of that word essence, just think of it
this way, and he didn't mean this with any reverence, think
of it as the same stuff. We're made out of the same eternal
stuff, one essence, one God, and the Jews picked up stones
to stone Him. And he said, why would you stone
me? What good work? And they said, not for any of
your good work, but you being a man, you make yourself God. When he said, I and my father
are one, they knew what that meant. And they were so offended,
they picked up stones to stone at him. He did not make himself
God. He has always been God. From
eternity, Jesus Christ is God. Can you and I understand why
these Jews would deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why,
of course we can understand that. If I had been there and in their
shoes and thought like they thought, I would probably have denied
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those Jews professed to know
God. The rabbis had such a high view
and estimation of God that He was holy, that He was high above
all human comprehension, that He was high above all heavens,
that He filled the heavens and the earth. and that no man could
look upon the face of God and live. God is a consuming fire,
and he will consume any man that approaches to him and looks upon
him. And here this man is, Jesus of
Nazareth, and he said, I am God. And they were saying, you're
just a man. Nobody can be God. And therefore
they sought to stone him. Here was a man that was born
in a stable. He is raised up in that undesirable
and unsavory community of Nazareth. He was a poor man that had no
place to lay his head. His disciples and apostles were
a group of unschooled men. The people that gathered to hear
him were publicans and sinners. And now here he claims to be
God? Would you have believed Him? They didn't. And it's very understandable
why, isn't it? He is God in our humanity, in
human flesh. And what happened to these Jewish
leaders was this. They took those passages of Scriptures
that proved that Jesus Christ was divine, and they just avoided
them. It wasn't so much that they looked
at the Scriptures where the divinity of Christ was revealed. They
just avoided reading them. They wouldn't teach on them.
They were indifferent to them. I want to show you a couple of
places. Look here in Matthew chapter 1 and look in, well,
look in verse 1. Matthew chapter 2, rather. Look
at Matthew chapter 2. And look in verse 1. I remember
years ago when I went to this particular little Baptist church
and there was a controversy there among us. It got so heated we
finally just had to leave about the purpose of God in predestination. And one of the elders got up
to read the book of Romans chapter 8 and he read down to verse 29. And then he stopped and made
a comment about verse 28. And then he skipped over verse
29 and 30. Those he foreknew he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son and so
on. He skipped over that. He just avoided that. Because
it was contrary to what he believed. So he just avoided it. He stopped
short. These Pharisees and scribes did
the very same thing. I want to show this to you. Look
in Matthew chapter 1 and look in chapter 2 and verse 1. Now
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod
the king, Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have
seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When
the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem
with him. And when he had gathered the
chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded
of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him
in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophets,
Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among
the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor
which shall rule my people Israel." Now that was all true. That's
scripture. But that's not all that verse
said. They stopped short of something
that was very viable concerning the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You want to see where this was
quoted from? You want to see where the high priest and scribes
got this from? Look in the book of Micah, chapter
5 and verse 2. In the book of Micah, it's page
1007 in my Bible, and I've got it marked so I can find it. It's
a very short book, but I want to give you time to find it because
I want to show you why these Pharisees erred concerning the
divinity of Jesus Christ and why they missed that salvation
that's in Him. Look what he says in the book
of Micah in chapter 5 in verse 2. But thou Bethlehem, Ephrateh,
Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel."
Look at this. They left this out. "...whose
going forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And they
applied this to that babe that was born. of Mary in the city
of Bethlehem, and they said, His goings has been from everlasting. Now, brothers and sisters, who
could that be but God? From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God, and it is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is dangerous, is it not dangerous,
when we talk about these things, to leave the Bible and lean to
our own understanding. That's the most dangerous thing.
If you and I want to know the mystery of Christ's person, there's
only one place to find it. That's in the Bible. And I would
encourage you, and I know you do, stay close to Scripture. And whatever it says, believe
it. I can't figure it out. I can't either. I can't understand
this. I can't either. I can't even
understand my digestive system. If I could, I wouldn't have the
trouble I have sometimes. And if I can't understand that,
how much more? The eternal God. He's too big
for us, isn't He? He's too vast for us. Jesus Christ
is God. He's not black God. He's not
some mere image of God. He is God. All that makes up God in His
eternal attributes, That's what Jesus Christ is. Here's the second thing that
makes the mystery of Christ's person so mysterious. He was
and He is a real human being. He is as much human as His mother
was. Sin accepted. When Christ was
conceived and when He was born, He had a real human body. Just as real as your bodies.
And He had a real human soul just like yours. Sin accepted. You notice these passages I've
read to you? Look how the Holy Spirit says
it in verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this one. He was born. And the same verse, when as his
mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph before they came together, she
was found with child. It was Mary's son. Mary was his
mother. And in verse 20, that which is
conceived in her, Mary was pregnant with this child. In verse 21,
she shall bring forth a son. And verse 23, behold, a virgin
shall be with child and bring forth a son. And then again in
verse 25, and Joseph knew her not until she had brought forth
her firstborn Son. Jesus Christ is both divine for
He's God and He's human because He was born of a woman. God in our humanity. That's the most wonderful thing
that I think I've ever studied in my life. And it comes down
to what Paul was telling us, the mystery of Jesus Christ. If God had stayed in heaven,
He could have denied us, because He is eternally different than
we are. He is the eternal Holy Spirit, and you and I are suffering,
dying, frail human beings. But God, after appearing in our
humanity, and born of a woman, and His nativity being in Bethlehem,
He is now one with us, and He is one of us, and He cannot deny
us. When He looks upon His Son, the
Father says, I am ever united to humanity. I have joined myself
to humanity, never to be separated again. He is human. The Bible says about Jesus in
his human nature, for as much as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same. And he took everything except
our sin. He was born of a fallen woman.
But He wasn't fallen. He was guarded in the womb by
the Holy Spirit. He had our natures, but not our
fallen nature. You don't have to have a fallen
nature to be a human being. He was a human being, and yet
He was without sin. He was divine, and yet in His
humanity, He was holy. He had a holy body. He had a
holy soul. He could not sin. And he never
sinned. And even when he was put in the
grave for three days, his body could not decay. And it's because
it was holy. A holy humanity. Isn't that wonderful? Grave is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And we must hold to this, brothers
and sisters. Nobody must beat us out. of who
Jesus Christ is in His divine nature and His human nature.
God is forever joined to us in such a vital way that He can
never escape our likeness again. Now, Matthew is going to tell
us something that we need to know. He is going to tell us
how this could possibly be. How could it be that God was
implanted in the womb of a virgin? Well, he tells us here in verse
18 in our text, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. And in verse 20, that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. How was this accomplished? How
in the world could God be placed in the womb of a virgin? Mary asked that question, didn't
she? She wanted to know herself. The angel Gabriel came down from
the presence of God and announced to her, you're going to have
a child. And he's going to be great. And
he's going to sit upon the throne of his father David. Mary asked
him this question. How can this be? I don't even
know a man. And what did he tell her? The
Holy Ghost shall come upon you. The power of the Highest shall
overshadow you. And that holy thing which shall
be born of you shall be called the Son of God. She knew no man. No earthly man was His Father.
God was his Father. What a mystery this is. Here
is God being implanted, a little embryo in the womb of a virgin,
and God is his Father. What a mystery this is. And it could only be accomplished
by the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary and implanting in her womb
the eternal Son of God. Wesley said it very well in his
hymn, Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting
Lord, late in time, behold, he came, offspring of a virgin's
womb. And we could ask Mr. Wesley,
is he the everlasting Lord? Or is he the offspring of a virgin's
womb? He's both, isn't he? He is both. veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
hell the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus
our Emmanuel. And this could only take place
because the Holy Spirit moved upon this virgin, and she became
with the child. And who was born of her? Her
son. But who was her son? Emmanuel,
God with us. Can you imagine the light that
flooded into doubting Thomas when he saw the risen Christ
stand in front of him with a prince in his hands, prince in his feet
and a hole in his side? And he shouted out, My Lord and
my God. The same Holy Spirit that implanted
the Son of God, who is God in Mary's womb, is the same Holy
Spirit that has to reveal this Christ to us. Here's the fourth thing about
this, and here's the question I think that needs to be asked
and answered. Why in the world would the eternal
God purpose and do such a thing. Why would He join Himself to
our humanity never to be separated from us again? Well, verse 21
tells us, doesn't it? In order to save His people from
their sins. That's why He did it. God in
the womb of a virgin, born to save us from our sins. How bad sin must be! How deep must the stain go! What awful corruption must be
attached to our iniquities that it took the eternal God, humbling
Himself in the womb of a virgin and living and dying on a bloody
cross to save us from our sins. How black, how dreadful, how
sinful sin must be. Paul said it like this, Jesus
Christ, who being in the form of thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a slave, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself." Now
if you look at a mere man, or you look at a prophet, Do you
look at someone like us and say we humbled ourselves? That's
one thing. We should be humbled. But to
say the everlasting God humbled Himself, that's saying what we
would never say if the Scriptures didn't tell us. God humbled Himself. Here's this little embryo in
the dark womb of a virgin. What humility that is. Here He
goes about walking everywhere that He went, with no place to
lay His head, being tempted by men, blasphemed by devils, and
suffering and bleeding upon the cross of Calvary to save us from
our sin. What humility that is! What humiliation that is! We
talk about the humiliation of Jesus Christ, and it began there
in His mother's womb. And He comes out and He has this
blood on Him and He has to be cleaned up. He walks through
this world a poor man. And He dies forsaken upon the
cross. And every step of the way, it
is humility. Humility. God humbled Himself
in the person of His Son. And why did He do it? To save
us. from our sins, from sin's penalty,
from sin's guilt, from the love of sin. Do you hate sin? Is it a great burden to you?
You know what he's doing? He's saving you from your sins.
He's saving us from the dominion of sin. It doesn't lead you around
and rule you like it used to. It works in your heart and it
grieves you. But it doesn't have dominion
over you anymore. And soon He will save us from
the very presence of sin. And brothers and sisters, anything
less than this is not the salvation that is revealed in the Word
of God. It is a complete salvation from
sin. Who did He do this for? Some
say for nobody in particular, and others say for everybody
without exception. But who does the Bible say He
did this for? His people. His people. If I come here this morning and
I told you that Jesus Christ had died to redeem all people
without exception, And now He has left it all up to the free
will of man, whether he will accept or reject. And that there
are many in hell for whom Christ died to save, and yet they will
not be saved. If I come here and preach that
to you this morning, I would not be dealing honestly with
this text. Who did He come to save? His
people. Jesus Christ has a people They're
made up of Jews, they're made up of Gentiles, they're made
up of all nationalities and tongues and people in this world. They're
sometimes called His sheep, His chosen, His elect, His own, His
vessels of mercy, but they're His. And He come down from heaven,
from His eternal throne. and joined Himself to our humanity
and bled and died to save His people from their sin. He saves them by sacrifice. He
saves them by calling them out of this world to Himself. He
saves them through faith. He saves them through giving
them life eternal. He saves them through their endurance. He saves their souls now, and
on the resurrection day, He will save their bodies. Their entire
salvation is of the Lord. He shall save His people. One of the last times I was at
Paul Mahan's, before Brother Henry died, He was old and he
couldn't hardly hear. And the man that preached before
me took his text from Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21 and said,
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people. And I was looking over at Henry
and his face just lit up. Just lit up. And when the man quit preaching,
Brother David Edmondson, he closed his Bible and Henry jumped up
out of his chair and ran and grabbed him and hugged him and
said, He shall save! Heard him all over the building.
He shall save his people. And brothers and sisters, since
he's God, and since he's joined himself to our humanity, can
he fail in his purpose? Doesn't He have merit enough?
He's God. Can He not suffer in our stead?
He's man. He's God and man, the God-man. And therefore, He can and shall
save His people. And if you're here this morning
and you're one of His, that's good news for you. That's good
news. I'm not here to tell you about
an uncertain salvation. I'm here to tell you about this
glorious person who came down from heaven, God Almighty. in
our humanity for this purpose. And this is what He is doing
today. And someday it will be realized when the mystery of
God is finished that He has indeed saved His elect people. And in conclusion, consider what
He said here in verse 22 with me. It tells us something about the
veracity of the Scripture. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. All of this was done that it
might be fulfilled. The scriptures had to be fulfilled. Our text here in verse 22 was
quoted out of Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14. Isaiah wrote that verse in the
days of Ahaz the king 740 years before Matthew wrote it. Isn't that amazing? Did you ever
have the devil suggest to you that the Bible is just a made-up
book? I'll tell you one of the greatest temptations I've ever
faced in my life. That he's come to me and said
this is just a giant conspiracy. made up of man to deceive man
and to give them a false hope. And I tell you, that's an awful,
awful, grievous temptation when he does that. If the Bible is
a conspiracy, I tell you, it's the greatest conspiracy that's
ever been perpetrated upon humanity. And look at the people that's
involved in it. And you talk about a mystery.
If the Bible is conspired by man, that means Moses was in
on it. He wrote of the coming of Jesus
Christ and redemption. But hundreds and hundreds of
years after Moses died and David was born, David was in on the
conspiracy. He picked up where Moses left
off. And then hundreds and hundreds
of years after David was dead and gone, Isaiah came on the
scene, and he wrote this passage of Scripture. And hundreds and
hundreds of years after he died, Matthew came on the scene, and
all of these men in the Old and New Testament conspired to deceive
us. Isn't that amazing? All of these people conspired
to lie to us, and not a one of them finally said, we just did
this to fool you. And you know why they didn't
say that? It's not a conspiracy. It's the truth, brothers and
sisters. You come to the New Testament,
and these poor, unschooled apostles had no understanding of what
Jesus Christ came to do. They understood very little about
Him. When He spoke to the raging sea,
they said, what manner of man is this? Well, He's God. And when He said something about
going to the cross and being buried and raised again the third
day, Peter said, it ain't going to happen. Is this a conspiracy? Peter must not have been in on
it because he had no idea what was happening. He was going to
fight for his master until death. Brothers and sisters, this is
not a conspiracy. This is the truth of God. This
tells us that this book has one all-wise, all-knowing, sovereign
author. And it's God. All this was done. that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. Don't the Bible just suit you?
It just suits you, don't it? You know some of the ways that
we know this is God's Word and not the words of men? Because
of all of these prophecies, it's fulfilled. My, how could this
be? And then when you read the Bible,
it answers all your questions. It tells you who God is. And
you get into this book and see who God is, that He's eternal,
that He's high above us, that He's immense, He fills heaven
and earth, that He's holy and He's just and He's good and He's
mercy and He's grace and He's love. And when you hear God described
from the Word, what do you say? Now, that's God. That's God. You're in agreement
with what God says about Himself. And when the Bible describes
you as being crooked in your ways, as your heart being deceitful,
that you've gone astray, that you're far from God, that you're
a sinner and that you're going to die in your sins if you're
not delivered, what do you say? That's me. That's me. That's what I am. That's who
I am. The Bible just suits me. When the Bible tells you that
a Redeemer has come, that He has been punished for our sins,
that He has made reconciliation to God, and He did it all by
Himself, what do you say? Oh, that's the Savior I've got
to have! He just suits me! And when you
read the Scripture that you must be born again, God must begin
a work of grace in your heart, That God must draw you, God must
call you, the Holy Spirit must give us grace to believe, implant
His graces in our hearts. What do you say? It has to be
that way. It has to be that way. That's
the way it is. The Bible just suits us, doesn't
it? It just suits us. We don't have to lean to our
own understanding. We can trust the Word of God.
Oh, it's not a conspiracy. It's not cunningly devised fables
that men have cooked up to deceive us. It's the truth of God. And listen, every soul who believes
it is saved. Every soul that believes God
is saved. This Bible tells us the origin
of all things. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. It tells us of the fall and recovery
of man. And in the end, it gives us good
hope. Because John, in the close of
this Bible, said this, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. I love the Bible, don't you?
It just suits us just fine. Just suits us. And it all comes back to this.
His name shall be called Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. And He saves His people from
their sins. God bless His Word. Our Father,
we thank You. We thank You for the Lord Jesus
Christ. How mysterious Lord You are to
us. But we're glad that you've revealed
yourself in your word, glad that you've given us grace to believe
it, and you've given us light in our understanding. We thank
you, our Father in heaven, for this wonderful day, another day
that you've given us the opportunity to assemble ourselves, to worship
you publicly. We bless your name for this opportunity. And we do pray, Lord, for those
who are sick today, who are really sick, need a touch
of your hand, need your mercy revealed. Have mercy upon them. Have mercy
upon our children, if you will, and the lost among us. God be
gracious. God begin a work, we pray. Everything
is done. that needs to be done. Oh, Lord,
work in the hearts now and bring glory and honor to your name.
For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. God be with you till we
meet again. What number is that? 82?