Angel to Joseph – Virgin conception & Birth

Well, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter one. For our time of, of studying the word this morning, what we do every week here at Cornerstone is we We gather together to worship God and we worship Him through the songs that we sing and we've done a lot of singing this morning celebrating God and what He has done for us, but we also worship God. by listening to Him, God is honored as we listen to Him, and we take a sizable part of our service times to open up the Bible and allow God through His word to to speak to us, and we're going to let God this morning speak to us from Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 to 25.

Do I have PowerPoint?

OK, thank you. This being the Sunday before Christmas, what we normally do in this particular service is we, we pick one of the sections of the Christmas narrative, and there's basically 4 passages that we tend to rotate through every 4 years, and this morning we arrive at Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 25, and this particular passage focuses on the virgin birth, conception and birth of Christ through the eyes of Joseph, all right. Mary's perspective is found in the Gospel of Luke, but, this account in Matthew 1, beginning in verse 18 is more of the birth of Christ from the perspective of Joseph, who was Jesus' earthly father.

And one of the things that you find really pounded home in this section of Matthew 1 is the subject of the virgin birth, the virgin conception.

And birth of Christ, which obviously would be a matter of great importance to Joseph, right? when you find out that your wife during your engagement period is pregnant, it's pretty important to know what happened there and, Joseph, gives us his perspective here and it's amazing how often this theme comes up just in these verses. Look at this in verse 18. It says now the birth of Christ was as follows when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together.

In other words, they had not been sexually intimate with each other. The events that are happening here are before that happened. It says she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, so it was a miraculous conception that occurred in her womb through the Holy Spirit, not through a human father. In verse 20, an angel is speaking to Joseph and says the child who has been conceived in her is of The Holy Spirit.

So there it is again, and that's actually consistent with Mary's account in Luke chapter one. Remember the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and says, You're going to conceive in your womb and give birth to the Messiah, and she's like, How can that happen? I've never sexually known a man. And the angel says, No problem.

The Holy Spirit's going to come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you, and you're going to conceive miraculously in your womb the Messiah. And we have the same thing being affirmed here. And then in verse 23, there's a quote from the prophet Isaiah which says, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall have a son.

And then Verse 25, Joseph takes Mary to be his wife. She's now living with him, but it says he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. So essentially 5 times we have a very clear indication that this was a virgin conception and birth, and it was miraculous. Now I hope you all appreciate.

The magnitude of this, what we call a doctrine, the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ. It means absolutely everything, and it's not a doctrine we ever want to give away. just as an example of this and the import of this doctrine, you guys know who this is on the screen? Larry King.

he was asked back in 1998, of all the people that have lived in the history of the world, who would you most like to interview? what his answer was? Jesus Christ. And they then asked him, Well, why would you want to interview Jesus?

Listen to Larry King's answer. He says, I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin born. The answer to that question would define history for me. Man, if I could just talk to Jesus, the number one question I would ask is, were you really virgin born?

Because if Jesus truthfully answers yes, Larry King is saying that if indeed the virgin birth took place, then it would radically change everything. It would radically change the way he looks at everything, all of human history. The virgin conception and birth of Jesus does mean everything. It means that Jesus is God.

He is the God man. It means that as God He is the Lord over all, including you and me. It means that He is the Savior. It also means that as God who cannot lie, everything Jesus says about whatever topic He speaks on is absolutely reliable and true.

And so because the virgin birth is such a fundamental doctrine, it's actually not surprising to observe that the devil is attacking right at this particular point. It's really amazing the amount of denial that there is of the doctrine of the virgin birth, even amongst professing Christians. Listen to these disturbing statistics. In 1998, there was a poll conducted of over 7000 Protestant pastors or clergy, and here's how many did not believe in the virgin birth.

Amongst American Lutherans, 19% did not believe. In the virgin birth amongst American Baptists, 34% of their pastors that were surveyed said they did not believe in the virgin birth. Amongst Episcopalians, 44%. Amongst Presbyterians, 49% said they did not believe in the virgin birth.

And amongst Methodists, 60% of the pastors standing in pulpits preaching and leading congregations said that they did not believe in the virgin birth. In fact, one pastor. said this in response to one such survey where he and others were being asked, Do you believe in the virgin birth? He expressed this opinion.

He says there was nothing special about Christ's birth or his childhood. It was his adult life that was extraordinary. I have a very traditional bishop over me, and this is one of those topics I do not go public on. I need to keep the job I've got.

He's like, what, I don't believe in the virgin birth, but I don't dare say that because of the people that are over me are very traditional. another, pretty well known pastor was on a radio program a number of years ago and he was asked about his belief in the virgin birth and listen to what he says. He says, I cannot print or in public deny the virgin birth of Christ, but neither could I preach it or teach it. When I have something I can't comprehend, I just don't deal with it.

Isn't that amazing? What a pathetic, puny God you end up with if, as you read the Bible and you come across anything miraculous, extraordinary, or that's beyond the ability of your pea-sized brain to comprehend that you just say, Well, I'll just ignore that. What does a guy like this have to say to people when he preaches to them? Others try to get around the virgin conception and birth of Christ by patronizing the early writers of scripture, saying, well, they didn't really, Jesus was special and this was just their way of saying he was special, and they didn't know any other way to say it other than that he was virgin born.

In fact, listen to what one such pastor says. He says those first disciples adored Jesus as we do. When they thought about His coming, they were sure that He came specially from God, as we are. This adoration and conviction they associated with God's special influence and intention in His birth, as we do, but they phrased it in terms of a biological miracle that our modern minds cannot use.

So the doctrine of the virgin conception and birth of Jesus is something that may have suited them 2000 years ago, but come on, we've grown up since then and it's just not useful to us anymore. It didn't happen. There are people in our culture that deny the virgin birth. You may be surprised to know that 77% of Americans across the board say that they do believe in the virgin birth.

That's an amazing statistic and it would even include Muslims, many of whom would say that they believe in the virgin birth of, of Christ. But that survey revealed that the more educated a person becomes, the less likely are they to believe in the virgin birth. Those that have had high school or less, 84% believed in the virgin birth. 78% of those who've attended college believed in the virgin birth.

Those who graduated from college, only 65% believed in the virgin birth of Christ. And of those who graduated from postgraduate studies, only 60%. So you see, the more intelligent, supposedly, the more educated a person becomes, the less likely are they to believe in. This.

Well, enough for this mess. If you're here today and you say, I don't believe in the virgin birth of Christ, I've got serious doubts about this, then I'm really glad you're here. And I want you to know you're actually in very good company because in the passage that we're going to look at today we have recorded for us the very first doubter. In the virgin conception of Jesus.

And who the very first person was to doubt the miraculous virgin conception of Jesus? Joseph, his earthly father, doubted. And so what we're gonna do today, if you want to give a title to the message, it would be from suspicion to faith, we're gonna look at the virgin conception. And birth of Jesus through Joseph's eyes and essentially as the passage unfolds we will observe four stages that Joseph went through in his journey from unbelief or from disbelief to a position.

Of faith and I would commend these stages to you and may all of us travel with Joseph on not only this doctrine, but also many other amazing doctrines that are found in the Bible. May we journey with Joseph in the same way. All right, 4 stages, and let's start with the first stage and then we'll get into the text, and that is that Joseph encountered the fact, the historical fact of the Virgin conception of Jesus. Joseph wasn't looking for this.

It was the last thing he expected, but boom, there it is right in front of him, the stubborn historical reality that his wife is pregnant and he's not the father. And we know that she was pregnant miraculously of the Holy Spirit. Look how the narrative begins in verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph.

Now the betrothal. A thing that happened back in the first century. Basically the way it worked was this that the man and the woman were husband and wife. They had come together with their parents, uttered vows to each other.

A contract was signed. They were fully legally husband and wife in the eyes of the law, but when the ceremony was done, they all went home. The bride and groom went home with their mom and dad. It's a bummer way to end a beautiful wedding ceremony.

and then they spent the next year getting ready for the day in which the groom would go over to the bride's house and get her and take her to come live with him, and it would be at that point that they would physically consummate the marriage union. And so they're technically in the eyes of the law, husband and wife in every way except for the fact that Mary is not right now living with Joseph and they have not sexually consummated the marriage. So look what it says. The birth of Christ was as follows when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, Joseph wants us to know this, and Matthew wants us to know this, that Joseph and Mary were sexually pure.

They weren't messing around. They valued the biblical teaching of sexual purity, and they had not come together physically because they were not yet fully married. It says before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. Now we don't know exactly when.

Joseph made this discovery. If you read Luke chapter 1, you read about how Gabriel came to Mary and said, You're going to conceive in your womb, and here's how it's going to happen. And then the angel says, and by the way, your cousin Elizabeth is pregnant. She's in her 6th month of pregnancy.

Why don't you go to Judea and hang out with her for a while? And so it says Mary, she right away went to Judea to be with her cousin Elizabeth until after John the Baptist was born. So, it would have been at least 3, 3.5 to 4 months before Mary made her way back to her hometown, and it was probably at that point that people observed this girl is pregnant and word begins to spread. It may have been at this point that Joseph now knows conclusively with his own eyes that Mary is indeed.

Pregnant. So here is Joseph. We know as we're observing this, here's Joseph encountering the historical fact of the miraculous virgin conception of Jesus. How does he respond?

That's stage 2, and that is that his reasoning. In this journey Joseph was on, he encounters the fact of her miraculous conception, but stage 2, his reasoning was telling him that a virgin conception had not occurred. Guys, we've got to appreciate the fact that the Christmas story, it's so beautiful, and we read it like, Man, that's just so neat. and, and beautiful and fun to read and rehearse, we've got to realize these things were very hard on the principal players in this drama.

When Joseph finds out Mary's pregnant, his response was not. Oh, I know this is the virgin conception of the Messiah, and this is a part of the Christmas narrative, and it's going to be in Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 to 25 1 day, and I get to be in the Christmas narrative. That's not how he responded. He's actually devastated by this.

He doesn't know what to think of it, and his reasoning kicks in. And we know that Joseph was thinking, my wife has been unfaithful to me. In fact, listen to what John MacArthur says about what Joseph was thinking. Joseph knew that he was not the father and assumed quite naturally that Mary had had relations with another man.

So this is like the worst day. If you ask Joseph what was the worst day of your life, he would probably point to this day when this discovery was made. In fact, we know that he was thinking this way because look at how he responds. It says in verse 19, and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to send her away, or literally in the Greek text wanted to divorce her.

And he wanted to divorce her, being a righteous man. You need to understand that there was a provision made in the Old Testament law in the Book of Deuteronomy that if during the betrothal period a woman proved herself to be sexually unfaithful, provision was made for the husband to divorce his wife in that situation. In fact, that was the righteous thing to do. Obviously, this is the testing period.

She's not even faithful to me during this testing period. And so she's not who I thought she was, and she has broken the vows that she has made to me. And so there was provision made for divorce during this betrothal period. So Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, wanting to do what's right in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the law, was wanting to divorce her, but I love this touch.

Joseph was not just a righteous man, he was a merciful man. In his mind, Mary has been unfaithful to him. And yet it says he doesn't want to disgrace her publicly. He loves her.

He cares about her, though she has wounded him deeply, he thinks. And he has it within his power to divorce her publicly and state the reason to everybody. He's like, I don't want to do that. So he decided, I'll divorce her quietly.

And we'll end the marriage, and I just won't state publicly what the reasons are. I will bite my lip, I will hold my tongue, and I will cover over this grievous wrong in silence. So understand Joseph has thousands of years of human history to inform and back up his reasoning. I'm engaged to this woman.

I have never had physical intimacy with her, and she's pregnant. She's been with another man. That's the way it had always worked up to that point in human history. So she's been unfaithful.

Therefore, I need to divorce her and end the relationship. And, but I want to do so in a private way. I don't want to disgrace her. Now, as the narrative continues, we know Joseph thought long and hard about this.

Look at verse 20. When he had considered this, so Joseph is considering this. He's thinking about. This, and by the way, the Greek word that is translated considered is an interesting word.

It doesn't just speak of intellectually dispassionately considering something. This word that is translated considered inside of this word is the Greek word for anger or passion. What this word means is to think through something about which one has very passionate feelings, and I'm sure Joseph went back and forth from anger to grief and to sadness, and none of the alternatives that he contemplated felt right to him. And so he's agitating over this and casting back and forth.

forth trying to figure out what to do, but the sense that you get from the text is that he had pretty much said, Here's what I want to do. Here's the thing to do. I need to divorce her and end the relationship, and I need to do so privately so as not to disgrace her. That's my decision.

But before he acted on that decision, he continued to consider it. He was paralyzed and not able to act. We also know that fear was in his heart because when the angel speaks to him, In verse 20, the angel literally says, Stop being afraid to take Mary. As your wife, so, and probably the fear that Joseph had was he was afraid of displeasing God by taking Mary to be his wife when she had proven to be unfaithful during the testing time of their betrothal period.

Maybe he was afraid of what other people might think, but I think Joseph, being a righteous man is more in the grip of fear over doing the wrong thing in the eyes of God. So there's fear, there's deep passion. He's Considering and thinking through these things, deciding I've got to end the relationship and divorce her, but I care about her. I don't want her disgraced, so I'll do so privately.

And as the narrative picks up right after this statement when he had considered this, we have a paralyzed Joseph who just doesn't know the next thing to do. He thinks he knows. His reasoning has led him to some decisions, but he is still paralyzed and unable to act. So Joseph stage 1 encounters the fact of the virgin conception of Jesus.

Stage 2. His reasoning in response to that was telling him that a miracle had not occurred. A virgin conception had not actually occurred, and now we come to stage 3, and that is that Joseph received revelation from God that contradicted his reasoning, right? Joseph received revelation from God that contradicted his reasoning.

Look at verse 20. But when Joseph had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. In a dream. Now notice the language very carefully here.

It doesn't say Joseph dreamed that an angel appeared to him. But an angel of the Lord did appear to him. In the context of a dream. Joseph didn't dream this.

It actually happened. we all have crazy dreams, don't we? And we wake up in the morning and we're like, oh, thank goodness that didn't actually happen. Has that ever happened to you?

Three of you. In fact, I shared this in the first service, so I'll share it in the 2nd. But, last weekend was a busy weekend. I had an elders meeting Thursday night and then Friday and Saturday elders retreat, preach Sunday morning and the program Sunday night.

I went to bed exhausted last Sunday night and during my sleep, I had a dream. That my wife and I were at a restaurant, seated at a table, and we got into an argument. And in my dream she started the argument. And The thing that made it extra painful is that there was a family from our church seated at the table with us, and I'll tell you it was Bill Payne, Eileen Payne, and Carly Payne that were at the table with us.

And, my wife and I were doing great, so I don't know where the dream came from, but anyway, we're at the table and she says something and I'm like, Whoa, and so I got defensive like I do sometimes when I'm dreaming. And So, and I say something back and then she responds and it started getting, one thing to the next. We never yelled at each other but we were clearly in a tiff and I was getting angry and Eileen at one point actually tried to intrude and help us out and she asked a question and tried to steer the conversation and that went nowhere.

So Don and I were off to the races in this little tiff that we were having.

but anyway, I, it was a very vivid dream. I woke up Monday morning and I looked around and it's like, oh, thank God that was a dream. but when my wife got up, I said, honey, I've got a bone to pick with you. And she's like, What?

And I said, You started an argument with me last night in my dream. And she was like, Get over it. It was just a dream. And I said, totally serious, but I was joking, but I said, Honey, it was so vivid, it would help me if you apologized to me.

And what, this is how amazing my wife is. She apologized to me. And as soon as she did, I wasn't content. I said, When are you going to call the Paynes and apologize to them?

She never called them, but she told me today, she told me yesterday that today she would approach the Paynes and Clear that matter up, but anyway, that's just one of those crazy dreams that when I woke up in the morning, it was like, oh man, thank God that didn't really happen. Well, what happens with Joseph here is something that actually happens. He didn't just dream it. It says an angel of the Lord actually appeared to him in a context of a dream, saying, and look what he says to Joseph.

Joseph, son of David. Now, and calling Joseph son of David, Joseph was not accustomed to being called by that title. He was probably accustomed to just being called Joseph and, or maybe son of whatever his father's name was, which I think was Jacob. so, that's what he would have been accustomed to.

The fact that the angel calls him son of David, there's messianic implications here, and it's a, it's a title given to Joseph that is designed to arouse in him a sense that he is about to be called to something great and of Messianic import. And the angel is letting him know this. if I went to one of my children and said, oh, thou great dishwasher. What would they think?

They would know what I'm about to ask them to do, or at least have a general idea. And so the angel says, Joseph, son of David, look at this. Do not be afraid. Stop being afraid to take Mary as your wife.

Joseph, I know you're planning on divorcing her. You shouldn't do that. I'm telling you actually to marry her. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph, I know that according to your own rationality, you think she's been unfaithful and that no miracle has occurred. I'm contradicting that, and I'm telling you that a miracle has occurred. You and your own reasoning are deciding that you need to divorce her, and I'm telling you to do the opposite of that. And then he continues in verse 21.

It says, she will bear a son. The child that is in her, is a boy, and that boy is gonna come to full term inside her womb. She's gonna give birth to a son, and Joseph, you will call him Jesus. I love that.

When you named someone in Bible times, you were assuming ownership and responsibility for them, and it's a nice touch that God through the angel doesn't say I'm calling him Jesus. But no, hey Joseph, I want you to call him Jesus. In other words, I'm asking you to assume responsibility. for bringing up this child.

And I want you to name him Jesus, which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Joshua or Yehoshua. The Yah is Yahweh or Jehovah, and Shua is salvation. It means Joshua or Yehoshua is Jehovah saves. You shall call his name Jehovah Saves, for He will save His people from Their sins.

Imagine how riveted Joseph must have been. An angel appears to him and says, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who's been conceived in her is of the. How he must have been riveted. Where did this child come from?

Who's the father? The angel says it's God. It's no human being that Mary has been unfaithful with. She has a boy inside her womb.

And that boy is going to come to full term. She's going to give birth to a son. And you need to assume responsibility of caring for and providing for, and bringing up His Son. God is giving you this glorious responsibility.

You're going to name him Yehoshua, for he is going to do something tremendous when he reaches maturity. He's going to save His people from their sins. Joseph now, just from what the revelation he has received, now knows a few things. Number one, Mary has not been unfaithful.

What a relief that must have been. He knows that the child in her is miraculously of the Holy Spirit. He also knows that he, Jesus, is going to save the Jewish people, which is His people, from their sins, and we know from the rest of Bible Revelation that He saves all people, Jew and Gentile, from their sins if they believe in Him. But the focus here in this narrative is on the Jewish people.

And then notice the expression. Look at the verse. He will save His people. From their sins.

And he could have said he will save God's people from their sins or the Jewish people or the people of Israel from their sins, but he doesn't say that he will save his people from their sins. And so Joseph would know that just from that alone that the Jewish people are his. He's the Lord of the Jewish people, and throughout the Old Testament, the Lord of the Jewish people is Jehovah God. And so Joseph's like, wait a minute.

I was devastated when I went to bed, and now this angel's talking to me, telling me Mary has not been unfaithful, and the child that's inside of her is miraculously of the Holy Spirit, and he's going to be a deliverer of the Jewish people, and he's not going to save them from the Romans. He's going to save them from their own sins. And not only that, but according to what the angel says, the Jewish people belong to him. That boy that's inside my wife's womb.

is God. Jehovah God. We can be glad he's not like that pastor who says, whenever I see anything that I can't comprehend, I just don't deal with it. This is, this is staggering.

Now there are some commentators who think that at the end of verse 21, the angel stops talking. And disappears. There are other commentators, and I would agree with them who believe that verses 22 and 23 is still the angel talking to Joseph, OK? And I believe this because the angel's going to be pointing to an Old Testament passage, God knows, and the angel knows Joseph's going to need something when he wakes up, right?

Something solid to hang his hat or his turban on., think about it. He's going to wake up and go, I think an angel appeared to me and whoa, it was an incredibly good news, but maybe I just had something bad for supper and I fabricated this because I wanted it to be true. God knows and the angel knows that Joseph's going to need something solid in the written word of God that he can go to to get confirmation of this. And so let's understand it this way.

In verse 22, the angel is still talking to Joseph and says now. Joseph, all of this has happened that I'm telling you about to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, and then he quotes from Isaiah 7:14, a prophecy of Isaiah that was uttered over 700 years earlier. And here's the prophecy. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and the virgin shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel or give him the title Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Just from this prophecy alone, we would know that a virgin, a woman who's never been with a man, will conceive in her womb. She will give birth to a son, and that son will be God dwelling amongst his people. And the angel says, Hey, Joseph, what I'm telling you here. And when you wake up, you can go check this out.

The prophet Isaiah, over 700 years ago, said in the written word of God. That this exactly would happen. I'm sure Joseph woke up and was amazed at his dream. And they may have gone down to the synagogue and said, I would like a copy.

I would like the scroll of Isaiah. And he would have opened it up and he would have looked for it and found that verse and it's like, oh my goodness, God said this would happen over 700 years ago. So now Joseph has an angel of the Lord who's given him revelation, and he now has the written revelation of God that confirms what the angel has said and even the angel himself pointed Joseph. To what God's written revelation has communicated.

So here's the three stages so far. He encounters the historical reality of the miraculous virgin conception of Jesus. Stage 2, his own reasoning is telling him this is not a miracle that has taken place. But then stage 3, Joseph receives a revelation from God that contradicted his human reasoning in this situation.

And that sets us up for the 4th and the final stage in Joseph's journey from unbelief to faith, and that is that Joseph followed God's revelation over his own reasoning. Amen. He followed God's revelation over his own reasoning. Look what it says in verse 24.

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. There's a feeling of immediacy, and almost hurriedness, about this. The idea is that Joseph woke up and he went over to Mary's house and said, you're coming home to live with me. And he took her home to be his wife.

He did immediately as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife. Look at verse 25, an interesting detail, but he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. It's an interesting detail that Matthew wants us to know and obviously Joseph, as he would have communicated to people his version of the narrative, he would have said that Mary's conception. It was a virgin conception, but also he would tell people, and I kept her a virgin until she gave birth.

Why is that a significant detail? I actually think that that fact is an argument for the fact that it was the angel who pointed Joseph's attention to the prophecy of Isaiah. Go back, let's go back to that prophecy of Isaiah. Look at what verse 23 says.

This is from Isaiah 7:14. Behold the virgin. That's the subject of the sentence. The virgin shall conceive or be with child and shall bear a son.

Literally, according to the grammar, it's saying this, the virgin will conceive and the virgin will give birth. This verse is not only a prophecy of the virgin conception of the Messiah, but also the virgin birth. Of the Messiah. And so Joseph, having heard this from the angel, maybe confirming it as he reads the scroll of Isaiah at the local synagogue, he's like, According to this passage, according to the written word of God, Not only is the virgin conception of the Messiah foretold, but that Mary would be a virgin on the day of her birth, so I will take her to live with me, but we will abstain.

From physical intimacy until after the birth. It says he kept her a virgin until Until she gave birth to a son. There are some denominations that believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, that she never had relations with Joseph, but the grammar of this statement seems to indicate otherwise, right? He kept her a virgin until she gave birth, and that implies what?

That after she gave birth, Joseph and Mary were fully as husband and wife coming together in physical intimacy, and so we're not surprised later in the gospel accounts to find out that Jesus had brothers and sisters. He kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he, Joseph, called his name Yehoshua. Jehovah saves. Joseph, looking at this miracle, says, I don't think, according to my thinking and reasoning that a miracle has happened and I need to divorce this woman.

God gives to Joseph a revelation that contradicts both his interpretation of Mary's pregnancy and also contradicts what Joseph was intending to do, and Joseph To his credit, chose God's revelation over his own reasoning, and keep in mind God's revelation is staggering. That's not an easy thing to believe that this is a miraculous virgin conception that is happening right now for the first time after thousands of years of human history. But nonetheless, though it blew his mind, no doubt, he followed God's revelation over his own reasoning.

Let me just make three observations as we turn the corner and end this sermon.

All right, here's the first observation, guys. Write this down. When God says something that contradicts you, he's right and you're wrong. Is that fair?

And by the way, God, if He is God, is going to say a lot that contradicts you and what you think and how you interpret things, and God's going to tell you to do a lot of things that contradict what you think you ought to do, and He's going to prohibit you from doing things that you think you actually ought to do. And so as you read God's revelation that we have in our Bible, there's going to be many times where God's going to say things that contradict you. And whenever that happens, he's always right.

You are always wrong in such circumstances, and you are the one who needs to change, not God.

There are many people that see things in the Bible and they don't like what it says because it contradicts something they believe or something that they're doing. And so, They, they just ignore it, pretend God never said it. In fact, some people like Thomas Jefferson take scissors and start cutting passages out of the Bible because it contradicts what they believe. Some will actually take what the scripture does say and twist it to make it mean the opposite of what it's actually saying in order to make it conform to what they believe.

But when God speaks in His word and contradicts us, we are the ones who need to change, not God. And what God says, I'll tell you the person I look upon with favor, someone who's humble and contrite of heart and someone who trembles at my word. Anyone like that, I've got their back, and I lavish my grace upon them. Be the person that, man, that when you go to God's word, number one, you do go to God's word to hear what God says, but you're expecting, I know that God, if He's God, is going to say a lot of things that I may not like that contradict my lifestyle, that contradict what I'm thinking, my interpretation of things.

But whenever God does that, I'm the one that needs to change, not God, and that's exactly what Joseph does. He lets himself be the one who changes. He changes his plans. He changes his beliefs in order to conform to the revelation that God has spoken to him.

Also, a second observation is that God says in this passage that Jesus was miraculously virgin, conceived, and born, and that does truly change everything. It means that Jesus is the God man. It means that Jesus is Lord over all as God, and that includes you, you're going to have to answer to Jesus one day. All of us will stand.

Before Jesus at the judgment, and we will confess that he is Lord. We will give an account to Him, we will be judged by him. You're going to live somewhere forever, somewhere forever, and the person who will make that decision is Jesus, when you stand before Him. If he is virgin born, that means he's God and therefore everything Jesus says about whatever he chooses to speak on is absolutely true and reliable.

Anything he says about you, about life, about God, about the world, about sin, about salvation is absolutely true. And another thing that we can observe is that if Jesus was virgin born, Then that must indicate that we as human beings were utterly bankrupt and unable to save ourselves. This, I believe, is why one of the key reasons why the doctrine of the virgin birth is so offensive to people. Because what it means is for mankind to have salvation, God had to come down and do it Himself.

If you took all of the righteousness of every person that has ever lived in the history of the world and you put it all together, that's not enough righteousness to save one soul from his sins for one second. We were utterly bankrupt. And so God had to come down Himself in the person of Jesus, and only those that are humble enough to recognize that bankruptcy. Can truly be saved by Jesus.

Then the final observation. We can make from this story is that according to this passage, God says your greatest need is to be delivered from your own sins. And that Jesus is the only one who can do this for you. I'm intrigued by the fact that the angel says he will save his people from their sins.

If you went up to the average Jew during this day and said, Tell me your greatest need, he would say, I need salvation. We as a people need salvation. And you would say, Well, from whom? They would say they would point the finger outside of themselves to other people and say, we need salvation from those evil Romans.

That's our problem outside of ourselves. It's, it's them. And we need to be delivered and rescued from them, and we're hoping the Messiah will come and deliver us from them. But the angel is saying, no, no, no, when God looks at the Jewish people and when God looks at you and me, our greatest problem is not outside of ourselves.

Our greatest problem is us. And Jesus comes to deliver us from our own sins. You are your own worst marital problem. You are your own worst relational problem.

Your sin problem is your greatest problem. Yes, you have problems and issues as a result of the sins of other people, but in the eyes of God, your greatest problem is your own sin problem. And God sent Christ into the world. God came into this world in the person of Jesus to deliver you from your sin problem.

Christ died on the cross. He lived a perfectly righteous life, died on the cross, shed his blood. was raised from the dead on the 3rd day is now at the right hand of God so that anyone who puts their trust in Him. can have their sins forgiven and be delivered from the guilt of all of their sins, can be delivered from the power, the slavery of sin, and it is only through Christ.

I want to ask you to bow your heads. We're going to take up our normal offering in just a second. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. And again, if you're visiting with us today, you're our guest.

This is just something. that our people do. But if you're here today and you have never put your trust In Christ to be your Lord and Savior. I, I, I pray.

That God would even use what His word has said this morning to open your eyes to the glory and the attractiveness of Jesus. What is not to love about a savior like this? And that you would take your eyes off of anyone else that maybe you've been comparing yourself to and thinking, well, I'm relatively righteous compared to these other people, or yeah, I've got problems and my problems are these other people. No, no, just take your eyes off of all of that.

And look at God and you'll see that God's looking at no one but you. He says, your sins are your greatest problem, and I love you so much. I have gone to these lengths to come into this world. To suffer and die on the cross in your place.

So that if you would just acknowledge your bankruptcy and look to me. I will deliver you from your sin problem. From the guilt Of all of your sins, those sins you don't even want to think about, you try to run away from during the night when you wake up in a cold sweat with your heart racing, thinking about maybe past things you've done, you You just try to forget about it or you drink it away or try to numb your sensibilities or turn on the TV to distract yourself away from it.

Those things that haunt you.

Jesus says, I came to save you from those. from all of your sins. I came to save you from slavery to sin. And give you freedom.

If you would but turn and look to me. As your Lord and Savior. Let's pray together Lord, I pray that for any in here that have never had this transaction occur in their heart, that they would just even where they're seated come to you by faith. And call upon you as their Lord and Savior.

I was blessed just this week to hear about a man who a few weeks ago got saved while just sitting during a sermon in one of our services, and may that happen even now as sinners look to you. And call upon you as their one and only savior from their own sin. For all those who do know You, Lord, man, just open our eyes to the glories of these things during this week as we celebrate the events of the Christmas narrative, Lord, just enrich us and cause our hearts to swell with praise and thanksgiving to you for how great your love is that has been shown to us in Jesus.

We express this love, Lord, through our giving of our offerings to you right now.

Receive these funds and multiply their usefulness for the glory. Of Jesus Christ, we give ourselves to you at the same time, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,