WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.839 First of all, let me, for all of your pastors, thank you for your kindness to us and for the 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:20.320 ! Undeserved blessing of privilege of ministry to a people that love the Lord Jesus. Pray for us 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:29.920 ! And make ministry and shepherding a blessing. And we, 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:33.120 each of us, Pastor Saul, Pastor Andrew, and our wives, 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:39.439 boy, we want you to know we don't take the blessing of God's kindness here for granted, 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:42.400 and we are thankful to Him for it. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:50.240 Turn in your Bibles. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:01:06.240 Last week was a very interesting week in that in the frame of Christmas, 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:12.640 several years ago, the Lord began to affect my thinking regarding the 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:18.960 foundational theology that underlies what we celebrate this day. 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:25.519 And so we have, for the last several years, whether you are aware of it or not, 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:33.920 looked in most cases to some aspect of the incarnation because it is foundational to our faith. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:41.359 And last week's sermon was about a broad overview of the theology of the incarnation. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:50.719 This week, we are going to look to Matthew chapter 1, and we are going to pick up on one of the two 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:59.120 particular Christmas stories. And I would imagine that many of you in your homes on the 25th 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:05.920 days may have a routine in which you read the scriptures and kind of draw attention to what 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:13.200 the day really means before you go into the remainder of the day and the party and the gifts 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:19.120 and those other things. And actually, when we think about the Christmas story, we find that the Bible 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:28.400 doesn't tell us all that much about it. The passage in Matthew, in which we find the details surrounding 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:34.560 the Christmas story, are rather brief. And let me have you look there, if you will, to verse 19 of 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:42.159 chapter 1. It says, and her husband, actually verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:49.439 way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:57.280 with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:04.400 resolve to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:11.039 to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:20.240 conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:29.879 for he will save his people from their sins. Father God, this morning we take your word in hand. 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:40.360 And we who are people who have been redeemed from the fall, the curse, the absolute burden of sin, 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:47.980 we who were once dead are now alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are thankful for the position 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:54.319 that you have granted us through your grace. We're thankful also for the enabling of the Spirit of 00:03:54.319 --> 00:04:02.379 God, by which I trust this morning to preach your word with power and authority, and by which also I 00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:08.079 trust, Father, that your people would receive it, that it would produce the peaceable fruit of 00:04:08.079 --> 00:04:15.719 righteousness and blessing. That we, as we study the scriptures together, would grow to know more 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:21.060 about the Lord Jesus Christ than to have our affection for him warmed and stirred and our 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:27.800 character shaped, that you might be glorified here on earth, even as you are in heaven. 00:04:28.819 --> 00:04:35.120 And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we take up the passage this morning, I want you to look 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:43.019 there, if you will, at the very interesting blend of information that Matthew brings to us. Now, prior to 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:49.879 this, we're not going to take the time this morning to look at the genealogy, which in essence explains 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:55.740 to us the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ, very important because of Old Testament promise. 00:04:56.359 --> 00:05:00.959 But I want you to pick up, if you would, there in verse 18 and just mark what we're dealing with 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:07.120 here. First of all, we come face to face with a divine dilemma. And what I mean by that is, as we read 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:14.340 the text, we find out that this reality of Christ's birth, Jesus coming into the world, actually posed a 00:05:14.340 --> 00:05:19.759 very significant challenge to the father and mother, the stepfather of Jesus and his mother. 00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:28.180 And so as we look at these opening lines in verse 18, I want you to stop just for a moment and kind 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:34.379 of ponder with me, why would the Holy Spirit take the time to give us this detail? I mean, let's stop 00:05:34.379 --> 00:05:42.459 just for a moment and frame the unbelievable miracle of the incarnation and kind of carry it over into 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:48.699 maybe some mythology or carry it over into a fairy tale. I mean, we remember fairy tales, remember, 00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:54.180 you know, in the good old days and in the land far away, blah, blah, blah, everything is kind of 00:05:54.180 --> 00:06:00.120 unbelievably spectacular and everything is perfect until someone, you know, does the wrong thing and 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:06.180 everything kind of descends into the abyss. But we're looking here at the Holy Spirit wanting us, 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:12.420 we who sit this morning under the hearing of the Word of God, to pick up on some very practical details 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:19.199 for our edification and instruction. And so as we look at this, we recognize in verse 18, 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:26.980 the startling reality of what actually took place in the incarnation. Now, the birth of Jesus took place 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:35.080 this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:43.620 to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And so as you think about why the Word of God takes this time 00:06:43.620 --> 00:06:48.960 to remind us of this reality, I want you to understand that the truth of the matter is, is that 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:55.340 scripture frames the incarnation in the midst of the drama of human life. It's very practical, very real, 00:06:55.339 --> 00:07:02.119 and very challenging. And so when you look there at verse 18 and you understand what was going on, 00:07:02.359 --> 00:07:08.919 you can probably understand also how Joseph felt when he discovered. I would assume that Mary was 00:07:08.919 --> 00:07:14.459 the one who told him, and I'm not sure of that, because in ancient cultures, the communication between 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:20.299 man and woman was rather guarded. And it may have been that the communication was not directly from 00:07:20.300 --> 00:07:26.319 Mary. I'm not positive. I don't know. But regardless, I want you to think just for a moment 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:35.340 of the blow and the unbelievable effect that it had upon Joseph when he heard that the young lady that 00:07:35.340 --> 00:07:43.960 he was betrothed to was now pregnant. And what we know from verse 18 is that in verse 19, we understand 00:07:43.960 --> 00:07:49.300 that the two put together that he had not been with her. And we know that that had to be an 00:07:49.300 --> 00:07:55.699 absolutely stunning challenge to him. We read there in verse 20, it says, and he considered these things, 00:07:55.840 --> 00:08:00.720 behold, you know, he pondered and thought about it very carefully. And you can kind of imagine just the 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:07.160 emotional turmoil that Joseph was going through as he thought through the process of his drawing 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:13.000 affection to one particular young woman in the town or wherever he lived, and then thinking about 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.980 very carefully about, is this the right one? I remember the process of making the decision to 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:29.180 marry my bride. And hi, Judith, you're over there. It took me five weeks. Do you want to know that? 00:08:31.019 --> 00:08:38.559 I actually delayed about two weeks. I had by that time pretty much figured out, having squandered my 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:43.939 youth in the butterfly approach to dating. How many of you understand what the butterfly approach is? 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:50.079 Here and there and all over the place, shameful. And I had come to the point of realizing that I 00:08:50.079 --> 00:08:56.339 desperately needed the counsel of God. And I would imagine that's where Joseph was when he was 00:08:56.339 --> 00:09:02.039 thinking carefully about, well, who am I going to marry? Well, I'm obvious that the Holy Spirit led him 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:06.879 in decision. And so here he is pondering the matter. And now he finds out that the girl that he was 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:13.100 betrothed to, and that was kind of, that was an engagement period, very formal. It wasn't just like, 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:19.139 well, maybe we ought to be doing this together. It was a formal agreement between two families that 00:09:19.139 --> 00:09:26.740 this marriage would take place on a future time. And so here is Joseph kind of wrestling with the 00:09:26.740 --> 00:09:33.080 reality that all those favorable things that had drawn him to marry, her character, her heart, 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:39.620 his affection for her spirit. I mean, he suddenly comes to grips with the fact she's pregnant. It's 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:47.120 not my child. I want you to recognize the thing that's absolutely stunning is here was Joseph in 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.220 the midst of this, not overwhelmed emotionally, but thinking about this very carefully and very 00:09:52.220 --> 00:10:00.840 deliberately. It says there in verse 20, it says, as he considered these things. That word considered 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:06.399 that is used here is talking about actually kind of weighing something objectively rather than just 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:13.120 getting wrapped up in the emotion of it. And I want you to ponder just for a moment just how normal 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:18.379 it would have been to let the emotions absolutely run wild and rampant. That's not what happened in 00:10:18.379 --> 00:10:26.180 Joseph's life. He thought about it carefully. He pondered it carefully. I would imagine he asked the 00:10:26.179 --> 00:10:33.099 normal questions about when and how and who and what's this all about. But underlying that, we recognize 00:10:33.099 --> 00:10:40.539 that here is a man who in the midst of an unbelievable challenge didn't go off on the subject. In addition 00:10:40.539 --> 00:10:48.000 to being a very thoughtful and not an angry man, we see that Joseph was rather humble and merciful. While 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:55.839 Joseph could have called for an opportunity to absolutely take this publicly embarrassing issue and make 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:01.519 something of it in a public venue against Mary, we find here that what it says is that he didn't want to 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:08.860 heap shame on her. And so what he decided would be that he would put her away privately. A period of betrothal 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:17.720 was something that could not be broken without a divorce. And so it involved this formal responsibility on 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:24.720 Joseph's part of saying, hey, I'm not going to carry forward with the marriage and I am finished with this 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:31.440 relationship. I want you to put yourself in Joseph's shoes just for a moment. And I want you to 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:38.120 understand that the Holy Spirit wants us to think carefully about Joseph at this point. We're going to 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:45.480 look at Jesus in a minute, but Joseph first. I want you to think of how easy it would have been to be 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:52.519 sarcastic or absolutely critical of Mary. How easy it would have been to be highly indignant and offended. 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:58.939 I mean, put yourself there. This is the woman you had chosen to marry and you were looking forward to 00:11:58.939 --> 00:12:05.919 the day that your marriage would be formed and consummated. And suddenly you find out that this 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:11.740 person who you have committed to has for some reason or another become pregnant by somebody else. 00:12:11.740 --> 00:12:18.460 There's several things I want you to recognize about Joseph that are noteworthy. For one, this 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:23.899 godly man is not an emotional bottle rocket. How many of you know what a bottle rocket is? 00:12:24.580 --> 00:12:30.200 You light that thing and can you guarantee where it goes? You know, up in the air and off and 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:39.139 and sometimes we act like emotional bottle rockets, don't we? The fuse gets lit and where we go after 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:45.059 that is pretty uncertain and all in a huff and all irritated and all over the place. And it's just a 00:12:45.059 --> 00:12:51.879 matter of pride and anger. It has nothing to do with a godly heart. I want you to recognize, secondly, 00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:58.740 here's a godly man, even when he is in the right, that has a merciful spirit in dealing with troubles in 00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:07.279 the lives of other people. Instead of calling for justice and revenge, we find that here is Joseph 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:13.759 with a tempered spirit and one who is interested in not causing a lot of harm. And so I want you to 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:19.279 think with me just for a moment. Here in the midst of the drama of the incarnation, the Lord Jesus 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:26.500 coming to be our Savior, we are given a little picture of the kind of man that God chose to have 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:33.159 as his son's stepfather. There are two little things I want you to take away with you and mark. 00:13:34.179 --> 00:13:40.659 For one, he showed the father's heart. How do we know that? He was merciful. He had the right to revenge. 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:47.360 He had the right of public embarrassment. And by the way, when you find yourself in that kind of 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:52.259 predicament, here's a girl that you were willing to marry and you find out she's pregnant with someone 00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:58.000 else's child, the absolute embarrassment. He says, listen, I'm not about making a big scene out of 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.700 this. I want to handle this with a quiet dignity and a careful mercy that is reflective of a person 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:14.620 who understood God's heart. Second thing I want you to recognize is that as you look there in Matthew 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:23.120 chapter 1 verse 24 and 25, we see that Joseph listened to God. Verse 24, when Joseph woke from 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.360 sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:39.060 had given birth to a son and he called his name, what? Jesus. I am struck by the fact that Joseph, 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:44.779 in every instance that we have recorded, whenever God spoke to him, he heard it and he acted on it 00:14:44.779 --> 00:14:50.859 immediately. It wasn't like, well, yeah, I'm not real sure I want to do that. Another instance of when 00:14:50.859 --> 00:14:56.639 God spoke to Joseph, remember? God came to Joseph and said, hey, it's time for you to pack and head for 00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:02.519 Egypt. Joseph said, yo, you're kidding me. My family's around here. I live with people I know. 00:15:02.839 --> 00:15:08.879 You think I want to have that long? No, off he went. And the outcome was survival of his 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:14.980 family. And so as you think about Joseph, give credit to this man because he showed his father's 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:21.799 heart and he also heard his father's word. So let me carry that over in some practical terms for what 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:28.159 we as God's people want to take away from this in our own lives. For one, you who are sitting here, 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:34.940 who are dads and moms, I want to encourage you to raise children that show the father's heart and hear 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:41.560 the father's word and get it. Secondly, you who are fathers in particular are thinking about your 00:15:41.560 --> 00:15:46.000 daughters marrying somebody eventually. Guess what kind of young man you want to look for? 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:54.600 You want to look for a man who has a heart for God's word and also shows the character of God. 00:15:55.320 --> 00:16:02.240 And here in the midst of this wonderful story of the incarnation, the spirit of God chooses to give 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:09.000 us a little picture, a little picture of the character of the one that God would use to be 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:16.519 the stepfather of Jesus. That brings us to a second piece that I want us to recognize here in the text. 00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:23.100 There in verse 20, it says, as he considered these things, behold, the angel, an angel of the Lord 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:29.639 appeared to him in dreams saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:35.740 For what that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:45.580 Well, that's a rather spectacular announcement. Angel to Joseph. And you can imagine the turmoil. 00:16:45.699 --> 00:16:49.659 Do you think he laid awake at night wondering what had happened? I don't know for a fact, 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:54.659 but you can imagine what happened. What, what, what? You know, I mean, in the midst of this, 00:16:54.659 --> 00:17:00.759 the, an angel of the Lord comes to him and says, Hey, Joseph, don't be afraid. Go ahead and take Mary 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:09.899 as your wife because the child that is in her is conceived by the Holy Spirit. I want you to step 00:17:09.899 --> 00:17:15.379 forward if you will, and understand that the truth of the matter is the scripture makes it very clear 00:17:15.379 --> 00:17:22.619 that the child in Mary's womb was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The moment of conception, divinely 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:29.059 ordained plan before the foundation of the world and part of God's plan of redemption and salvation. 00:17:29.059 --> 00:17:38.059 And here's the truth. God chose to take his son and make him all flesh, all man for our sake. And he did 00:17:38.059 --> 00:17:48.059 it through a woman and through the conception of the Holy Spirit with that woman. Amazing. Amazing. 00:17:48.059 --> 00:17:55.740 And so we understand that the child in Mary's womb, child of the Holy Spirit. And here is God choosing to bring 00:17:55.740 --> 00:18:04.940 the savior of our lives into the world through the simple process of birth. Nine months. And then Jesus 00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:11.519 making the same journey from the warmth of his mother's womb out into the cold and broken world. And I appreciate 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:16.599 John, the song we were singing this morning as I was listening and thinking along, away in a manger. 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:24.659 I mean, hey, you know, we kind of fantasize what mangers are really like. But the truth of the 00:18:24.659 --> 00:18:33.139 matter is, is mangers are incredibly stinky places. Isn't that true? And the only reason Jesus was there 00:18:33.139 --> 00:18:39.179 is because there was no other place that was open to him. And here comes the Lord of glory, the savior of 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:47.900 this world. And he ends up being born into that squalor. And I want to tell you something, that 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:55.140 squalor makes no comparison. When we think about the squalor of a manger, we cannot imagine heaven's 00:18:55.140 --> 00:19:02.920 glory. Do you follow that? Stepping from heaven's glory into squalor is quite a bit different than you 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:09.660 and I living in the squalor we live in and going down to a hog farm somewhere in Indiana. Okay? It's 00:19:09.660 --> 00:19:18.240 just a small step. For him, it was infinite. I can only imagine the wonder that Joseph and Mary had 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:23.700 when Jesus came into the world. Can you understand that? Just think with me for a moment. Here, God had 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:30.080 said to Mary, you're going to have the savior of the world. God had said to Joseph, the son that your 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:37.519 wife is going to bear is the savior of the world. And out comes this little, well, who knows, six and a 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:42.579 half to eight and a half pounds. I have no idea what Jesus weighed. But there he was, probably had to have 00:19:42.579 --> 00:19:48.399 a slap on the rump like every one of us. And the first thing he did was announce to the world, I'm here. 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:56.359 I remember when our first child was born, it was the first time I've ever been in a, well, it's not the 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:01.479 first time I've ever been an observer in delivery. But first time that it was so important to me. 00:20:01.659 --> 00:20:09.419 You understand that, right? Out comes this little baby and Heather was blue. And for just a couple 00:20:09.419 --> 00:20:13.439 seconds, she wasn't drawing breath. How many of you have ever tried to breathe for somebody else? 00:20:14.479 --> 00:20:23.139 It's really, get with it. And I remember the doctor inviting her to the process by stimulating a 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:33.160 little bit. Pow! And off she went. She was fine. I just imagined that. Joseph and Mary. This is our 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:44.720 savior. It must have been incredibly hard. And yet by faith to accept that this infant was going to be 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:52.740 their redeemer. There's something else in our text that just affects me as I think about it. 00:20:54.100 --> 00:21:03.200 You look there in verse 21, it says, she will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, 00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:11.700 for he will save his people from their sins. Here's what I want you to think about this morning. 00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:16.120 And the truth of the matter is, sin is something we need to be saved from. Isn't that right? 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:21.680 I mean, the truth of the matter is, we're profoundly comfortable with our own sin. 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:26.440 Now, we're pretty irritated periodically with other people's sins, right? But ours is like, 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:32.380 oh well, you know, you do those things you do and other people just ought to buck up and accept it. 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:38.319 I mean, after all, it's you. The fact of the matter is, sin is incredibly horrible, 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:42.839 both to the sinner and to the glory of God. And I want you to think with me just for a moment 00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:49.759 about how the Bible presents sin. Because to read here what we do in verse 21, where it says, 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:56.220 he's going to save his people from their sins. If we have no abiding understanding of the horror of 00:21:56.220 --> 00:22:02.259 sin, there's no real need for the savior. When you take sin out of the equation, you also reduce the 00:22:02.259 --> 00:22:08.160 significance of needing to be saved from it. Do you understand that? And so when you hear people 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:15.740 today diminish the reality of what sin is, you recognize that whether they're doing it thoughtfully 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:21.180 or not, regardless, they're diminishing the necessity of the savior. So let's think carefully 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:28.879 about what the Bible tells us about sin. And I want to give credit where credit is due in that some of 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.140 what I'm going to share this morning really comes from Martin Lloyd-Jones in one of the sermons that 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:38.640 he preached on Romans chapter 1. So I want you to go with me just for a moment to one of the best 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:46.000 little pictures of what sin is really like over in Romans chapter 1. And we're going to do a little 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:54.900 mini lesson on Romans chapter 1, verse 18 through 32. You may remember that when we preached our way 00:22:54.900 --> 00:23:00.259 through Romans, it probably took us three weeks to get through here. And I'm making a moderate promise 00:23:00.259 --> 00:23:04.240 that we'll do it in just a couple minutes. You're going to say, well, why don't we do that all the 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:15.060 time? It won't happen. Romans chapter 1, verse 18 through 32. For the wrath of God is revealed from 00:23:15.060 --> 00:23:22.540 heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 00:23:22.539 --> 00:23:29.359 I want you to put your finger on the word suppress. I want you to maybe underline it in your Bible so 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:38.159 that one of the things you understand is that sin is not an accident. It is deliberate. When we sin, 00:23:38.299 --> 00:23:45.740 we sin deliberately. We choose to sin. It's not something that, oops, didn't mean to do that. 00:23:45.740 --> 00:23:53.620 You didn't mean to get caught. You did intend to sin. And we go back to the book of Genesis just for a 00:23:53.620 --> 00:23:59.660 moment in our thinking at least, and we recognize that when sin first entered the world, it came with 00:23:59.660 --> 00:24:05.880 a conscious and deliberate appeal, temptation, and Eve consciously and deliberately thought through the 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:15.640 matter. And her choice was deliberate as was Adam's. I want you to look at what it says there in verse 18. 00:24:15.760 --> 00:24:26.120 It says they suppress the truth. Then in verse 21, it says they did not honor him. Hey, I'm not doing that. 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:33.239 I don't want to. I remember reading earlier this, well, I guess it was this morning as I was kind of 00:24:33.239 --> 00:24:38.399 scoping something. That was yesterday. How many of you understand that there were two police officers 00:24:38.399 --> 00:24:45.500 that were executed in New York City? And de Blasso, the mayor, has made some pretty inappropriate 00:24:45.500 --> 00:24:51.779 comments about the turmoil and tension. And the police officers have kind of turned their backs on the 00:24:51.779 --> 00:24:56.039 on the mayor and said, listen, you're not very supportive of the responsibilities we have of 00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:02.839 enforcing the law. I understand there's a mess. But it was a conscious and deliberate choice those 00:25:02.839 --> 00:25:09.119 officers made to turn their back on the mayor. When we sin, we choose to turn our back on God. 00:25:10.399 --> 00:25:13.819 I want you to recognize also as you look at that passage, it says here, 00:25:13.819 --> 00:25:18.220 they exchanged the glory. Look at verse 23. They exchanged the glory 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:22.480 of the immortal God 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:32.579 for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 00:25:33.819 --> 00:25:40.319 Isn't that disgusting? Stop and think about that. You go back to the book of Isaiah in particular, 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:45.480 and Isaiah really whacks at this, as Jeremiah does as well. Talks about the fact you walk out into the 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:51.559 woods, you chop down a hunk of timber, and part of it you carve to make yourself a god, 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:55.319 and you have to use nails to hold it in place. It's going to tip over and fall. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:04.099 The rest of it you use to warm yourself and heat your food with. And I, you know, the prophet says, 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:10.220 what's the deal? Don't you get it? The truth of the matter is, is there is a deliberate choice, 00:26:10.220 --> 00:26:16.579 men choose to sin. Second thing that I want you to see as you read further in Romans, 00:26:16.700 --> 00:26:22.380 picking up there in verse 24 through 28, sin is destructive and debasing. 00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:26.220 Sin is destructive and debasing. 00:26:28.220 --> 00:26:37.220 Sin always leads people further and further away from their own good to their own harm and loss. 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:41.860 Sexual sin, I want you to understand as you look at this passage, and we're not taking the time to 00:26:41.860 --> 00:26:47.240 break it down, but I do want you to recognize that sexual sin is not the only area in which sin 00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:55.120 creates harm. It harms you every place that you engage in it. The man who chooses to lie 00:26:55.120 --> 00:27:03.059 harms his integrity. The man who chooses to lie progressively develops a habit of being a liar, 00:27:03.059 --> 00:27:09.240 liar. And what is the benefit of being a liar? How many of you, when the used car salesman comes 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:15.279 trucking out from his smoky office and says, hi, I'm really glad to meet you. What's your first thought? 00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:23.539 Yeah, right. Okay. The guy has, has already picked up that kind of aura of you. Yeah. I don't believe a 00:27:23.539 --> 00:27:29.539 word you say. This is the best car on the lot. Uh-huh. You know, a liar is someone who is characterized 00:27:29.539 --> 00:27:35.819 and disrespected. Let's talk about another one, anger. What happens when a man allows his anger to 00:27:35.819 --> 00:27:42.000 become a progressively dominant part of his life? Do you know what happens? How many of you get close 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:52.480 to a skunk? I remember several years ago, walking outside, let my dog out. My dog had never visited a 00:27:52.480 --> 00:28:01.140 skunk before. And my dog thought the skunk was someone who was violating the integrity of our yard. 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:07.220 And our little eight pound dog or 12 pound dog decided that it was appropriate to take on the 00:28:07.220 --> 00:28:14.299 responsibility of protecting our property. And there was only a momentary little skirmish and my dog came 00:28:14.299 --> 00:28:22.859 yipping in the house and, uh, it was all ugly from there on out. Now I want you to understand something. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:35.359 All sin harms people incredibly. It's destructive. All sin is destructive. And as you look at this 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:42.839 passage in Romans chapter one, and it gives us a picture of what happens in sexual misbehavior. I want 00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:48.919 you to understand that happens in every area. Sin harms the sinner. The third thing that I want you 00:28:48.919 --> 00:28:54.259 to see as you look at this passage is that sin is ultimately disgusting. Sin is disgusting. 00:28:56.019 --> 00:29:01.879 You know, give you an illustration. There are people, I even see people that are professing 00:29:01.879 --> 00:29:08.259 evangelicals today, uh, seem to have no hesitation in talking about the acceptability of just a letting 00:29:08.259 --> 00:29:12.539 people love who they want to love. Do you understand that? I mean, that's kind of the 00:29:12.539 --> 00:29:19.079 mantra with, uh, the current movement towards homosexual acceptance. Do you understand that 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:26.659 right behind that is pedophilia that is coming on center? And lest you are not aware of it, 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:33.799 the state of Ohio, I think is number four in America in human trafficking. And by the way, 00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:41.200 do you know what human trafficking is talking about? It is talking about taking advantage of children 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:51.539 and women sexually. Sin is disgusting. And as you look at the last little part of Romans chapter one, 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:57.319 you find there that as Paul rattles through the argument, uh, let me just give you a case of picking 00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:02.860 up there in verse 29, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetous malice. 00:30:02.859 --> 00:30:09.319 They were, they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, maliciousness. They're gossips, 00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:15.299 slanderers, haters of God, insulin. And as Paul rattles this list off, do you know what his intention 00:30:15.299 --> 00:30:25.119 is? His intention is to give you that kind of staccato punch of this is what sin is like. And the intent 00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:31.099 is to bring us to the point of saying, man, the world is a mess and sin causes problems. 00:30:32.779 --> 00:30:38.439 And why do I bring that to your attention? Going back to the passage in Matthew, I want you to 00:30:38.439 --> 00:30:46.299 understand when the Holy Spirit, when God spoke to, uh, to Joseph and said, listen, the little child who 00:30:46.299 --> 00:30:52.279 is going to be born to your wife is going to be the savior of the world. He is coming into the world 00:30:52.279 --> 00:31:01.839 to save you and all mankind, to take care of the sin problem, to deal with it. You shall call his name 00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:10.619 Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. That had to be the most liberating and most wonderful 00:31:10.619 --> 00:31:20.119 piece of news to Joseph and Mary if they were afflicted deeply by the reality of their sins. 00:31:20.119 --> 00:31:25.879 As I think about the blessing of, uh, of being a pastor over the years, some of the most enjoyable 00:31:25.879 --> 00:31:31.239 moments in my life without question have been those times when in the preaching of the word or in sharing 00:31:31.239 --> 00:31:36.539 the gospel with individuals, I have seen the spirit of God draw an individual to that point where they 00:31:36.539 --> 00:31:43.500 say, man, I desperately need Jesus to do something about my sin problem. And I have no hope and no remedy 00:31:43.500 --> 00:31:52.980 in myself. I can still remember the incidences where people have come down to the front here and said, 00:31:53.259 --> 00:31:58.880 I need Jesus as my savior. Do you know what? They didn't get there without first of all, 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:05.579 absolutely coming to see the bankruptcy of their own soul and understanding that salvation is not of 00:32:05.579 --> 00:32:12.799 mankind's making, but is the work of Christ alone. That brings us to this point that I want you to 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:20.139 recognize there. You shall call his name Jesus. And so I want you to understand as you think about 00:32:20.139 --> 00:32:27.059 this this morning, only Jesus can save men from their sins. That's the truth. You have a problem. 00:32:27.779 --> 00:32:34.599 I have a problem. And apart from Jesus, I can't solve it, nor can you. That's why people have to come 00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:40.659 to that point where they are broken with the reality of the darkness of their soul and the misery of their 00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:49.140 sin. And they come to the point of saying, I can't do anything about this. I desperately need Christ to be my savior. 00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:54.800 The unbelieving world is full of ideas of how to save people. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:05.560 Climate change, communism, income redistribution, improve the education. Let's go with common core. 00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:11.759 I rattle off one thing after another. And the truth of the matter is, is that nothing that man ever will 00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:17.240 produce is going to make a little difference ultimately in the soul of man. 00:33:21.399 --> 00:33:30.079 Mankind labors under an incredible weight of a soul that is darkened by the depravity of sin. 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:38.399 And man cannot save himself. And so think with me in very simple terms just for a moment. 00:33:39.980 --> 00:33:46.019 A single sin against the infinite glory of a holy God is infinitely offensive. 00:33:47.779 --> 00:33:55.319 God sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay the infinite penalty for sin by dying on the cross 00:33:55.319 --> 00:33:57.319 in my place in my place and in your place. 00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:03.019 And when in Matthew chapter 1 we hear the sweetness 00:34:03.019 --> 00:34:06.779 of the Christmas story, do you know what it is? 00:34:08.539 --> 00:34:09.159 God 00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:12.900 willingly sent his son Jesus 00:34:12.900 --> 00:34:15.360 to take upon himself 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:18.079 the form of man. 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:19.579 Why? 00:34:20.319 --> 00:34:22.480 What it tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:27.460 He did this so that he could be our sacrifice for sin. 00:34:27.699 --> 00:34:28.900 He died in my place. 00:34:29.780 --> 00:34:32.539 One of the things that I enjoy saying in a funeral, 00:34:32.940 --> 00:34:35.099 and I can tell you at my father's memorial, 00:34:35.260 --> 00:34:37.039 I probably won't say it, I don't know for sure, 00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:39.159 but I enjoy saying in a funeral, 00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:41.079 Jesus died your death. 00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:43.760 That's true for a believer. 00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:44.820 Do you follow that? 00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:46.880 Jesus died your death. 00:34:47.820 --> 00:34:50.639 He took my place and he died in my place. 00:34:50.639 --> 00:34:50.759 Yes. 00:34:52.319 --> 00:34:56.139 That I might have his righteousness attached to my account. 00:34:57.440 --> 00:34:59.440 And so this morning as you listen to the Christmas story, 00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:00.799 here's where it really comes down to. 00:35:02.299 --> 00:35:07.359 You're in hearing this morning under one of two conditions. 00:35:07.579 --> 00:35:11.980 You are here this morning and you either know Jesus Christ as your Savior, 00:35:12.359 --> 00:35:15.960 and as you think about the fact that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus, 00:35:16.059 --> 00:35:17.219 to be the Savior of the world, 00:35:17.219 --> 00:35:19.799 you're thinking, wow, man, am I blessed. 00:35:22.139 --> 00:35:26.000 Or you're sitting here this morning under the burden and the guilt 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:29.379 and the shame of a cloud of darkness 00:35:29.379 --> 00:35:34.480 that represents the weight of judgment of God on your sin. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:40.219 You know what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is in ministry at this moment? 00:35:40.300 --> 00:35:44.539 It is to call you to the cross and saying, listen, you cannot save yourself. 00:35:45.780 --> 00:35:48.000 That's why God sent his son into this world. 00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:52.539 And the question for you to come to grips with is this. 00:35:52.539 --> 00:36:00.759 Will I say yes or no to the free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ 00:36:00.759 --> 00:36:08.860 who came, was born, who died and rose again? 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:10.340 Let's pray. 00:36:10.340 --> 00:36:17.360 A gracious Father, this morning as we think about the sweetness of the Christmas story, 00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:21.800 we understand that it presents to us an undeniable truth 00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:27.420 that all men are sinners and stand justly condemned before a holy God. 00:36:28.460 --> 00:36:30.440 That we cannot save ourselves. 00:36:30.620 --> 00:36:33.100 There is nothing, there's nothing we can do 00:36:33.100 --> 00:36:38.920 that can remedy the broken, despicable heart that we have. 00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:43.019 And yet Jesus Christ came into the world to be the Savior of the world. 00:36:44.700 --> 00:36:47.880 And we recognize this morning that the work of the Spirit of God 00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:50.960 is to draw people to the cross and we would ask that that would happen now. 00:36:52.240 --> 00:36:56.940 That believers would rejoice and sinners would be convicted. 00:36:58.300 --> 00:37:02.000 That Christ, who is the Savior, would be glorified among us. 00:37:02.039 --> 00:37:03.559 And we ask this in Jesus' name. 00:37:04.139 --> 00:37:04.380 Amen. 00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:07.240 Let's stand together as we close.