The Necessity of the Virgin Birth

[0:00] Well, initially it was my intention this morning to conclude with the final sermon in our Galatians series.! But in the end, I thought it would be better to take the next four weeks to prepare us to celebrate the Savior's birth.

[0:22] And I think one of the reasons that I was drawn to do this is I'm just so aware. Of how we are serving the Lord and believing the things that we believe in a world that is increasingly skeptical, in a world that is increasingly hostile to these beliefs that we hold as precious.

[0:46] So, the last Sunday of the year, we will finish the book of Galatians. But this morning, we begin the first of four messages focused on the birth of the Savior.

[1:00] And I trust that you're able to be here for all of them. You may not be aware of the name Rob Bell.

[1:13] But Rob Bell is the controversial founder and former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Granville, Michigan. And he's written several controversial books.

[1:25] Books that question biblical doctrines that the church has long held. And one of these books is a book by the title Velvet Elvis.

[1:38] Here's an excerpt from Velvet Elvis in which Rob Bell questions the virgin birth and actually undermines the Christian faith. He writes, What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real earthly biological father named Larry?

[2:00] An archaeologist finds Larry's tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the gospel writers used to appeal to the followers of Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods also had virgin births?

[2:31] But what if, as you study the origin of the word virgin, you discover that the word virgin in the Gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah?

[2:44] And then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century, being born of a virgin also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?

[3:05] What if that spring was seriously questioned? And by spring, what Rob Bell means is he's likening the Christian faith to a springboard that has multiple springs and he's thinking of the virgin birth as just one spring under the springboard.

[3:23] And so he's asking this question. What if that spring was seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping?

[3:35] Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live?

[3:47] Or does the whole thing fall apart? And then Bell concludes his speculations with this question. If the whole thing falls apart when we re-examine or rethink one spring, that it wasn't that strong in the first place, was it?

[4:09] The point that Rob Bell seeks to make in this drawn-out speculation is that it does not matter whether or not Jesus was born of a virgin.

[4:28] He's saying, really, it doesn't matter whether or not Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. And the truth is, Rob Bell is not alone.

[4:43] That is the sad truth this morning. Rob Bell is not alone. There are many who, like Rob Bell, believe that we can question or even disbelieve the virgin birth and continue to love God, continue to be Christians, and continue to believe that Jesus is still the best way possible to live.

[5:06] And so as we consider this important doctrine of the virgin birth this morning, my question to you is this. What do you believe?

[5:16] Do you believe the teaching of Scripture and the confession of the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary?

[5:34] Do you believe that? And if you believe that, do you believe that the virgin birth of Jesus was necessary and is essential to the Christian faith?

[5:48] Or do you believe, like Rob Bell, that it is really an optional spring, the removal of which changes nothing? This morning, my prayer and hope is that I will be able to show from God's Word that the virgin birth is not optional, that the virgin birth is a necessary belief.

[6:13] Without it, there is no salvation. And so this matter of the virgin birth is of enormous importance.

[6:26] So let us this morning consider the necessity of the virgin birth as seen in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1. And we'll be reading verses 26 through 38.

[6:40] The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. Luke writes, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

[7:16] And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern which sort of greeting this might be.

[7:33] And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

[7:49] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.

[8:02] And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?

[8:16] And the angels answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

[8:28] Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

[8:49] For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.

[9:02] And the angel departed from her. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you this morning for your word. thank you, Lord, that we have the privilege of being able to sit under its reading.

[9:21] And now, we ask, oh Lord, that you would superintend this moment of us sitting under its preaching. Lord, at stake in these verses is the very foundation of the Christian faith.

[9:38] the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. And so I ask, Lord, that you would grant me grace to proclaim this truth. And Lord, for those of us who believe it, may our belief deepen and strengthen.

[9:53] And Lord, those who may question and not be sure or even outrightly reject it, God, would you grant grace to open your word and open their hearts to the truth of your word, that we would believe this most essential truth of the Christian faith.

[10:12] We thank you and we trust you to do these things. In Jesus' name, amen. As we consider these verses this morning, here's the overall point that I hope to communicate from this passage.

[10:29] Here's the overall point. The virgin birth of Christ enabled him to be who he needed to be in order to do what he came to do to save his people from their sins.

[10:49] So I hope to communicate this morning from God's word that the virgin birth enabled Christ to be who he needed to be so that he could do what he came to do.

[11:01] And he came to do one specific thing to save his people from their sins. And let's not forget that this morning. People make Jesus out to be all kinds of other things, but that's why he came, to save his people from their sins.

[11:19] If I had to put it another way, what I want you to see from this passage is that unless the account of the virgin birth that we just read about is true, then the life that Jesus lived and the death that Jesus died are meaningless.

[11:40] If this account is not true, if Jesus was not born in the particular way that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary, then his birth and life and death mean nothing.

[11:55] it would mean that Jesus is no different from me or you who came into this world and he had a human father just like the rest of us, it would mean that when Jesus came, he met this world in a miserable condition without hope and loss and he left it in the same way.

[12:16] And if this is true, we're wasting our time this morning. If this is not true, sorry, we're wasting our time this morning and we could be doing other things.

[12:28] But brothers and sisters, it is true. And that's the good news this morning. What we've read about is good news because it is true. We who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven of our sins, we've been reconciled to God, and we are the most hopeful people on the planet because this account that we read about is true.

[12:51] And let me say from the outset that though I will be referring to the virgin birth, it's not really the virgin birth that I'm addressing this morning.

[13:04] I'm addressing the virgin conception because Jesus was physically born, Jesus came into the world the same way every other baby is born.

[13:15] So if you have had the privilege of witnessing childbirth, natural childbirth, or you have what's the family on childbirth, that's just the way Jesus came into the world, just like any other baby.

[13:28] The birth pains that Mary had and all that she went through, Jesus came into the world in that particular way. So in that way, we are all similar to Jesus. What is different though is how he was conceived.

[13:42] So really, the better title for this sermon this morning would be the virgin conception, conception, but I won't use that because generally, we talk about the virgin birth.

[13:53] So I just want to say, when I talk about the virgin birth, that's what I'm referring to, the virgin conception, not the physical way that Jesus actually came into the world.

[14:04] So let's get to the heart of the sermon this morning. And to help you follow along, I've organized my thoughts under three simple headings, and they are, number one, the virgin birth announced.

[14:17] We see that in verses 26 through 32. And second, the virgin birth questioned. We see that in verse 34.

[14:29] And then finally, the virgin birth explained. We see that in verses 35 through 38. So let's first consider the virgin birth announced.

[14:40] Luke is setting the stage as he opens this gospel. We are at the beginning of Luke's gospel, and Luke is setting the stage from the very outset of his gospel. And I think it's important for us to see what Luke is doing.

[14:56] As a matter of fact, it's important to see what all the gospel writers are doing. But notice what Luke says at the opening of his gospel in verse 1, starting in verse 1 through verse 4.

[15:08] And as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us.

[15:24] It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely, for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, things that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

[15:43] So notice the purpose for which Luke is writing his gospel in verse 4. He wanted Theophilus to have certainty about the things that he had been taught.

[15:56] And so Luke recognizes right away that Theophilus had possible uncertainty about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

[16:08] And so Luke sets out to write this orderly account in order to give Theophilus certainty about what he had been taught. And in serving Theophilus, Luke, by extension, is serving us.

[16:21] By giving this orderly account to Theophilus, Luke is giving us an orderly account as well, so that any person who humbly and honestly wants to consider the person and the work of Jesus Christ can use this account that Luke has given to Theophilus.

[16:43] Luke starts his gospel knowing where he's going to end up. Luke is going to end up talking about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's where he's going to end up.

[16:56] And Luke knows that it is essential for Theophilus and other readers to know and have certainty about this one who's going to be crucified and who's going to be resurrected.

[17:07] Because if Jesus was any ordinary person, if Jesus was no different from the rest of us and he is crucified and resurrected, well then what difference does that really make?

[17:19] But what Luke is doing is from the outset he's helping Theophilus to see that this is a unique person. He's helping Theophilus to see the uniqueness of Christ in the opening of his gospel and he is setting the stage for the announcement of Christ's birth.

[17:37] But in the end he wants to show that the one who died was a unique person. The one who resurrected was a unique person.

[17:53] In verse 26 our text begins with the change of location. We've moved from the pomp and pageantry of the temple in Jerusalem which is the place where John's birth was announced to Zechariah.

[18:08] And on the face of it it's easy to miss this very drastic change of scenery. The city of Jerusalem where the temple was, was the pride and joy of the Jewish people.

[18:24] Jerusalem was the place where God had placed his name and chosen for his people to come to worship him. But the city of Nazareth in the region of Galilee was a town of no significance and a poor reputation.

[18:41] Nazareth was of such poor reputation that we read in the third chapter of the gospel of John that when Philip told Nathanael that he had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

[18:58] It's the kind of reputation that Nazareth had. But yet, it is to this city of no significance and poor reputation that God sends Gabriel to a virgin named Mary who would have been between 12 and 13 years old at the time.

[19:18] it was in this city of no name that he chose a woman, a young lady, to be the mother of the Messiah.

[19:32] If you notice in verse 27, Luke wants to emphasize the point that Mary was a virgin. Notice that in verse 27 he tells us two times, even before he tells us Mary's name that she was a virgin.

[19:54] And he's establishing a point. He is saying that Mary is a virgin, so it is no question about it. She and Joseph were legally engaged to be married, but they were not married.

[20:06] His point is Mary was a virgin. Now Luke, remember, is a doctor. He's a medical doctor. So in addition to being a careful historian, Luke wants to make it very clear before he makes this announcement of the virgin birth.

[20:25] Mary is a virgin. Notice in verse 28 that when Gabriel greets Mary, he does not initially address it by her name.

[20:36] He calls her, favored one. He refers to her as the favored one and tells her that God is with her. And then in verse 30 we see Mary, sorry, he tells Mary that she had found favor with God.

[20:51] And he tells us in verse 29 that Mary was greatly troubled at this saying. She wasn't troubled, it seemed, at the appearance of the angel, but she was troubled that she would be called favored one and that God was with her.

[21:09] And here we see Mary's humility. Mary could have boasted in all kinds of different ways that she's having this appearance by this angel, but she doesn't do that.

[21:24] And we see Mary's humility recorded a little later in this chapter when she sings her song of praise to God, which we call the Magnificat. And in the Magnificat, Mary recognized that God had taken note of her and her humble estate.

[21:40] you notice in verse 31 that Gabriel goes on to tell Mary something that is more shocking than telling her that she is favored and that God is with her.

[21:53] He says to her in verse 31, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. And then in verses 32 and 33, Gabriel goes on to help Mary to understand that the son that she would conceive in her womb was not going to be an ordinary child.

[22:15] In verse 32 he says he will be great. And theologians who are much smarter than I am say that in the Old Testament whenever the word great is used without qualification, it almost always refers to God himself.

[22:32] And so here in verse 32 Gabriel is pointing to the deity of Jesus Christ. also in verse 32 Gabriel tells Mary that the child to be conceived in her womb would be God's son, the long awaited Messiah.

[22:48] And that God was going to give him the throne of his father David. And in verse 33 he says that his reign would be over the house of Jacob and it would be forever and his kingdom would never end.

[23:03] Now I want to slow down for a little bit because sometimes we can read over this very significant part of the announcement of the birth of Jesus and not realize that prophecy is being fulfilled that was spoken in the Old Testament.

[23:22] These words that the angel is speaking to Mary are an echo from 2 Samuel chapter 7. In 2 Samuel chapter 7 David wanted to build the temple a temple to God and the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to him and told him no you're not going to build it.

[23:46] Well initially Nathan told him do whatever was in your heart to do and then that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and told him to tell David he is not the one who is going to build it but instead God was going to build him a house.

[24:03] And starting in verse 12 of 2 Samuel 7 the Lord gives David a promise about this house that he was going to build for him.

[24:14] Here's what Nathan told David. This is what the Lord told Nathan to tell David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16.

[24:26] When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your offspring after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away from before you and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me your throne shall be established forever now when we read these words that the

[25:30] Lord gave to Nathan for David it's clear that there are two sons and two kingdoms that are being referred to as a two sons and two kingdoms you can think of it this way there's a natural kingdom with a human son as its king and there's a supernatural kingdom with a divine son as its king we're told that the human son will sin and when he does the Lord will discipline him and we know that no human kingdom lasts forever yet in this passage in 2 Samuel 7 the Lord promises David that his house and his kingdom will be made sure forever and his throne will be established forever and so to our human heir hearing on a human level we would have to ask how would that be possible how can a human kingdom last forever and the answer is it can't and clearly the Lord was pointing to the divine kingdom of David and the divine son of David two different kingdoms

[26:51] Solomon and his kingdom and Jesus Christ and his eternal kingdom so this prophecy that Gabriel gives to Mary this announcement that he gives to Mary fills out the interpretation of 2 Samuel chapter 7 for us I notice in Luke 1 32 that the son to be conceived in Mary's womb will be both the son of God divine and the son of David human son of God son of David so he will be called the most high and he will be given the throne of his father David so since David is his father he is David's son now Mary would have she would have known this she would have known 2nd Samuel chapter 7 she would not have been ignorant about that because the children would have been taught and in particular girls in

[27:54] Jewish culture would have been told about the coming Messiah and the Messiah would be born of a virgin but Mary was still puzzled sometimes we can know certain things but when we are confronted with them they hit us in a different way so she is still puzzled at this announcement and her response to Gabriel in verse 34 brings me to my second point the virgin birth question notice what Mary asked Gabriel in verse 34 how can this be since I am a virgin now clearly Mary understood what Gabriel announced to her she understood it she knew that Gabriel was not telling her that she and Joseph were going to have a child she knew that they would be married pretty soon they were engaged and they were going to be married she knew that he didn't say you and Joseph were going to have a child because if

[28:56] Gabriel had said that Mary would not question it because she would understand biologically that's possible but she understood that Gabriel said to her you are going to Mary and so she says how can this be Mary understood that a conception without human means was announced to her and she needed an explanation notice that this is now the third time that Luke tells us that Mary was a virgin three times he has emphasized this particular point and again let's remember his purpose his purpose is he wants the office to have certainty about the person and the work of Jesus Christ he wants us to have certainty as well Mary was a virgin let's not doubt that she was a virgin he's told us three times in these few verses that this is indeed the case now it is at this point that we come face to face with the necessity of the!

[30:11] virgin birth! if Mary was going to give birth to a son described with the divine adjective great who would be the son of the most high and the promised messiah who would be the savior of his people then he could not be the product of a normal human conception conceived of a man if these things announced to Mary would be true then Jesus could not be the product of a normal human conception if Jesus was conceived of a man then he would be like every other man fallen and sinful in nature so Mary's question how will I bear the son of God since I am a virgin is a legitimate question and starting in verse 35 Gabriel explains to Mary how she a virgin will give birth to God's son and this brings me to my third and final point those of you who may be happy about that announcement this point is kind of long!

[31:17] I should mention that look at what Luke writes in verse 35 and the angel said to her here's the answer to her question how shall this be the angel says in verse 35 the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God that's the explanation of the virgin birth in one word it is God how is the virgin birth possible God notice how this verse refers to our triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit and how it helps us to see the activity of the triune God in saving us the Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the Most High will overshadow you and therefore the child to be born

[32:21] Jesus will be called the Holy Son of God the Father Father Son and Holy Spirit in those verses and I might just pause a moment to point you to something when we talk about our belief in a triune God you will not find a verse in scripture that says God is a trinity God is triune but what you do find examples like this or occurrences like this where you see God referred to in a triune way Holy Spirit Father Son in this verse and that's how we derive our doctrine of God being one yet three so that's the answer that Gabriel gives to Mary in response to her question so what we have in this moment what we have being announced is we have a unique moment in human history that a human being is going to be born into the world and he is not a direct descendant of

[33:30] Adam we have this announcement that there is going to come a child who is going to break between the descendancy of Adam and he will have no connection to Adam he will be different from all other human beings who have ever lived he was fully human but he did not inherit legal guilt and moral corruption through Adam the father of all earthly fathers Jesus had no human father so with him the line of Adam is interrupted and actually you know scripture says in first corinthians 15 verse 45 that Jesus is the last Adam he's the last Adam and he breaks from the first Adam he's not in his line he's in a separate line he actually ushers in a new race this last

[34:32] Adam overcame where the first Adam failed and he is the father of this new race of people who are born again by the Holy Spirit who place their faith in him and so all of us this morning who have put our trust in Jesus Christ we are part of this new race Christ is our last Adam who has come to redeem us so we are related to the first!

[34:59] Adam racially we are related to the second Adam redemptively that's if we trusted in Christ but if you're here this morning and you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then you are related only to the first Adam you're related to him racially because you've descended from him you're related to him spiritually because you are plunged into sin by his sin it is only through Jesus Christ that we are able to become a part of a new race so how is it that Jesus was born without moral corruption how is it that he was born without original sin some will say well he didn't have a human father well that's true but he had a human mother and sin would have been transmitted to him through

[36:01] Mary that's the human connection that you'd use as the reason that he didn't have original sin and here the Roman Catholic Church gets around this point about Mary's sinfulness by a very novel doctrine that they came up with called the Immaculate Conception and it's interesting I was looking at something from a particular I just was looking up something yesterday actually to be precise I'll tell you what it was I thought about this sermon I was thinking wow we're going to have a lot of children present and probably this sermon is going to spark a lot of questions and I was thinking about a resource that I could put in the hands of parents who may have a lot of questions to ask to answer from these children so all the children who are paying attention parents you're going to be faced with some questions this afternoon so

[37:02] I came across this document on this church's website and in sharing how you can talk with children about the virgin birth in a way that's age appropriate the document started to talk about the immaculate conception but was referring to Jesus as being immaculately conceived and that's not what the Roman Catholics teach they teach that Mary was immaculately conceived they teach that Mary was born without sin that God did whatever he needed to do to ensure that she was not born with sin so that Jesus would not be tainted with sin well they only came up with that on the 8th of December 1854 Pope Pius the ninth declared that for the first time and that's totally contrary to anything that we see in scripture Mary was a sinner like the rest of us Mary needed the savior that she was carrying in her womb like the rest of us so then the question is how was

[38:07] Jesus preserved from sin how was Jesus able to be a savior for the rest of lost humanity well the answer is in verse 35 the angel answered her the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of God that's the reason that Jesus was able to be born without sin because the holy spirit brought about the conception of Jesus in the womb the child was to be called holy and let me just say this in passing real quickly it will be contradictory to conjure up in our mind vain and vulgar imaginations and come with a result that is holy so let's not go there but this is what the angel says the holy spirit will come upon you the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child will be called holy the son of

[39:31] God it is also important for us to note this morning as we consider the virgin birth that Jesus did not become God's son in Mary's womb very important for us to understand this Jesus is the eternal son he is the eternal son of God who came down from heaven and became incarnate in human flesh flesh this is what we mean by the incarnation God the son coming down from heaven to earth and taking on human flesh he was conceived of the Holy Spirit thus fully God and he was born of the Virgin Mary thus fully man and so what we see in the virgin birth is we see this uniting of full deity the activity of the Holy Spirit and full humanity the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb pointing to this mediating role that

[40:33] Jesus had to fulfill between God and man because he was the divine son of God he could represent God and because he was conceived born of the Virgin Mary he could represent human beings he was the perfect mediator between God and man fully able to represent both and he did on the cross as he was suspended between heaven and earth he mediated between God and fallen men and women like us now I'd be the first to admit this morning that we are in the deep end of the theological pool I'd be the first to admit this morning that there are aspects of the virgin birth and the incarnation that are difficult for us finite creatures to understand but brothers and sisters this passage really is not about understanding instead it is about believing the issue is do you understand the virgin birth it is do you believe the virgin birth notice that in verse 34 when

[41:55] Mary asked Gabriel how the virgin birth how this birth announced or it possibly happened Gabriel goes on to tell her two things in verses 35 and 37 first he tells her exactly how she a virgin was going to conceive a child the Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of God he tells her one other thing in verse 36 he tells her that her cousin Elizabeth who was barren and who had conceived a son in her old age was now six months pregnant so he told her those two things what God will do and he says oh by the way your cousin Elizabeth who couldn't have children when she was young and who is now advanced in age she is not just pregnant she is six months pregnant and notice

[43:01] Mary's response well he concludes sorry the angel concludes in verse 37 and notice what he says for nothing will be impossible with God and then in verse 38 Mary says behold I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word let me ask you a question what do you think moved Mary from questioning to believing the virgin birth what moved her what moved her from questioning to all of a sudden believing was it because she understood what the angel said in verse 35 how she was going to be overshadowed with the Holy Spirit how the power of the most high was going to come upon her was it because she understood that she believed that no things so here's why she believed it she believed it because she believed nothing is impossible with

[44:13] God and the experience in this regard is the same for us believing the virgin birth is the same for us this morning it's not understanding the virgin birth it's not being able to explain the virgin birth it is to believe the virgin birth because nothing is impossible with God Mary believed this because she believed that nothing is impossible with God and truthfully if there's anything that God can't do then God is not God if God is God and nothing is impossible with him then bringing about a virgin conception is certainly within the realm of what he is able to do so I say this to us this morning don't be troubled if you can't explain and you don't understand how this is possible how it is possible for

[45:20] Mary to conceive in a different way than we will all conceive what you need to fight for this morning is to believe God what you need to fight for this morning is to believe in God and truth be told that's not something we need to fight for that is a gift from God God grants the gift of faith God enables us to believe he enables us to believe things that we don't fully understand see this is why we are able!

[45:53] to believe! the accounts that we that three Hebrew boys were thrown into a fire their hair was not burnt their clothing was not burnt not even the smell of smoke was on them we can believe that why because nothing is impossible with God God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even think and I'm aware this morning that even as we are gathered there are some of us who may be facing what we may consider very impossible situations in our lives hard places difficult things and it is the same for us this morning do you believe God do you believe that God is able to do that which seems so difficult to do in your life and in your circumstances so how are we going to respond to the teaching of the virgin birth in scripture in a world that is becoming increasingly filled with raw bells how are we going to do that here is what

[47:14] I would say to all of us let's first of all settle the issue that the virgin birth is not optional the virgin birth is not an optional spring under the springboard of Christianity it is a foundational truth it is a necessary truth and let us not believe the lie of Rob Bell that it can possibly be otherwise you could remove that spring and go on jumping you can believe that spring and go on believing that Jesus is still the best way to live if that's what you believe then you're just a substitute for Buddhism or whatever other ism that is out there when we lose this truth this morning about the virgin birth we lose the entire Christian faith again if the virgin birth is impossible for God God is not truly God the name Jesus means God saves

[48:14] God saves and it points us to where salvation comes from the virgin birth reminds us that the salvation we need cannot come from human means it cannot come from ourselves it comes from without ourselves it comes from beside ourselves Mary was told through a divine act you will conceive a divine son and you will call his name Jesus because it means God saves I said earlier that the reason that the virgin birth was necessary is that it enabled Jesus to be who he needed to be in order to do what he came to do to save his people from their sins it's not good enough to believe that Jesus was a good teacher it is not good enough to believe that he was a good moral man though those things are true if that's all

[49:16] Jesus needed to be then John the Baptist could be our savior but John the Baptist is not our savior Jesus is unique in who he was in his person in his life and it is the virgin birth that enabled him to be the sinless substitutionary sacrifice on the cross that we all needed and remember this people in the world don't object to the morality of Jesus they don't reject the teachings of Jesus like on the sermon on the mountain many people own those and they espouse those who would otherwise reject Jesus what they reject is his deity what they reject is what we are espousing this morning that he was conceived!

[50:04] of the Holy Spirit that he was born of the! Mary and I pray for us that as we go through this Christmas season that we would be provided with many opportunities to meditate on what God has done for us in sending his son into the world let's pray