Tonight, we turn in our Bibles to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1. Matthew, chapter 1. And we'll consider together. The reading will be through verse 25. So let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. This is Matthew, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez, and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. And Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nishan, and Nishan the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah and Solomon the father of Rehoboam and Rehoboam the father of Abijah and Abijah the father of Asaph and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram and Joram the father of Uzziah and Uzziah the father of Jotham and Jotham the father of Ahaz and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh Manasseh the father of Amos and Amos the father of Josiah and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. And Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud. And Abiud, the father of Eliakim. And Eliakim, the father of Azor. And Azor, the father of Zadok. And Zadok, the father of Akim. And Akim, the father of Eliud. And Eliud, the father of Eleazar. And Eleazar, the father of Metan. Amiton the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before she came together. She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called His name Jesus. May the Lord bless the hearing. Well, what benefit do those genealogies really have? It's kind of the passage as a preacher you never really want to select or maybe you purposely avoid. Why all these names? I mean, why do we need to know this tonight? Why are these names here? I mean, I'll be honest, I was tempted just to move right on in to verse 18 And of course I was tempted not to read those names because I'm sure I butchered many of them. But then I thought to myself, all of Scripture is given by inspiration from God and is profitable. And it's profitable for instruction and training in righteousness, as the Scriptures say. And as I looked at this, it dawned on me, this list of genealogies is really unique because it tells us in the most powerful way who the Gospel is for. Right at the beginning of the Gospels. Who the Gospel is for. And it should produce in us a longing for others to know this and to receive what we have received in the Christian Gospel. But it has to be something first comprehended by you. I say that in light of this morning's message and the importance on our witness and what we believe and how we communicate that. Can you imagine if we went out today and we went out and we shared our faith and we told an unbeliever about what we believe and the unbeliever begins to challenge us a little bit about that and he says well tell me what do you believe you say well I believe in the Lord and the unbeliever says well what is that profit why should I believe in the Lord what does that benefit me and you say well he gave his son to die on the cross to save and the unbeliever says, well, safe from what? And now the person is pressing you a little bit to be a little more personal about your faith and to be personal because it has to be something that you not just understand, but something that is known and believed in the heart, doesn't it? How could you explain how you identify with Jesus Christ? Why you identify with Jesus Christ? Why that is so important that you identify with Jesus Christ? Why you need Jesus Christ? I mean, this is essential to telling others about Him. To do that, you really have to be kind of clean about your life, don't you? You can't just say, I believe in something with no real purpose and need. You have to explain what you need, and that requires some kind of explanation as to what your problem is. And you see, there is the real rub tonight. We don't really like to tell people what our problem is. We don't really like to have life uncovered very much. That's the big problem. We don't like to take down the mask at all. But you see, the only way the cross is communicated with real power and the cross has any meaning to people is when it's communicated by people who understand and believe and know what it has done and what it has accomplished in them. for them. I had somebody say to me last week when they first began to come to church out of unbelief, they had no idea what was in the Bible. And they started reading it and saying, that's in there? And they kept going and reading. They couldn't believe some of the shameful things that Scripture records. Everyone's perception today of Christianity is that it's for the good people, for the upright people. for the people who lead the really model lives. But you see, it's interesting as we open up Matthew chapter 1 tonight that it answers for us the kind of people that Jesus came to save. And so tonight I want to look at the genealogy with that in mind, thinking too about this time of year our witness and what we're communicating to people. Notice here in verse 21, it opens up with what it means in verse 21 when the angel says you shall call him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. There's a lot that's being said there. There's a lot that's being unpacked there that's leading to this very moment where Joseph names Jesus. Gives him the name. Let's back up and look at verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham and then Matthew goes on and he gives three sets of 14 generations to prove if you will that Jesus Christ is of the seed of David but but what I'm interested in tonight and what I want to consider with you tonight is the certain problems that this genealogy presents to us they're very interesting problems and real problems this is a mess this genealogy. First problem, how in the world can pure, perfect Jesus Christ come from this line of sinners? This is no model family tree. Second, how can Jesus come from a line of cursed kings? Those are the two problems. The passage explains this tonight. The first thing to think about is what would the Jews have thought about reading this? You know, I think the first thing they would have been startled a little bit about is that there are women in the genealogy. You didn't do that in the old genealogies. This was a rare thing to put a woman in the genealogy. Women were not mentioned in this kind of way. Add to this, I want you to look a little bit tonight at what kind of women these were. In fact, when we look into this, we find that this is the continuance of a line that came through some of the nastiest messes that no one would want in their families. No one would want in their families. There are certain things all of you have in your families you just want to keep. Keep that skeleton in the closet, right? As a matter of fact, when we talk about genealogies, I want to tell you about all the really important people in my line. There are actually some pretty important Gordon people. Did you know that? It's not very impressive, but the most important being the man that carved out the nose of Abraham Lincoln on the monument. Yeah, Gordon did that. General Chinese Gordon fought the famous battle. That's a direct relative. Go on an encyclopedia. I want to tell you about that tonight. I want to tell you about my line that's not very impressive, I understand. But I want to tell you about something that is neat and exciting about my line. I'm not going to tell you about family members who have made a real mess. You see, to the Jews who read this, I wonder if they paused and said, this is really startling. I didn't even realize this. Verse 3. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. This is the line of Christ. And if you want to understand total depravity, let me show it to you. That's the story no one wants to talk about. That's the nastiest story in the Bible, by the way. Judah had a son whose name was Ur. And he gave Tamar to be the wife of Ur. Ur was wicked. God killed him. So he sends Onan, the next son to go. Onan has his own form of birth control. Won't do it. God takes him out. Judah starts thinking, this line, this woman's cursed. I'm not giving my last son to her. There's no way I'm giving my last son to her. So he makes the promise, but he doesn't fulfill it. She goes, dresses like a prostitute out by the road. Judah passes by and sees it and buys her. And he gives for a night his signet and cord and staff. And it's through that mess that you've got two names here mentioned in this genealogy. Perez and Zerah. The line moves on. We keep finding things I just wouldn't really want to reveal about my family tree. Verse 5, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. There's a skeleton. Remember mighty Boaz, his mom? His mom was a prostitute. His mom was a prostitute. Sold herself for sex. Not something I would want about mom in the family genealogy. Boaz has it plastered in Scripture. Remember the story. Jericho's being destroyed. Spies come. They come to the house of a harlot named Rahab who's lodged there. She hides them. Rahab marries Salmon, a direct descendant of Abraham, and God chooses her to be the one to continue the line. A harlot. He then sends the family outside of Israel and brings back, you'll notice here, she bears Boaz. And notice what happens. They go outside of Israel and they bring back a little Moabitess woman. A little Moabitess stranger who according to Deuteronomy was accursed from the cursed nation of the Moabites. And so from accursed people to Boaz, she begets Obed, who is the grandfather of David. Now this is shocking because every Israelite would have read this and said, hmm, that's not pure Israelite blood for sure. And so far in the genealogy, you've got two women mentioned who were prostitutes, the next a cursed foreigner, a stranger from wicked people, and who's next? Verse 6, Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Wow. There's another nasty mess. Are we getting the message right out of Matthew chapter 1? The thing that strikes us here is who God chooses. and what the Lord is doing. And God is shocking us by grace tonight. Right in the genealogies. And that's why I always said, you know, somebody once said, well, what do we do with our little ones? Do we really want them hearing all of this stuff in the Bible? And I say, well, where do you want them to hear it? From Johnny at school or from God Himself? And why does God want our little ones to understand these things? Why does God want us to understand these things? Because He is teaching us right out of the gates that those whom the Lord chooses, look whom the Lord has chosen. Look at the problems of these people. Remember the principle of 1 Corinthians. You see your own calling, brethren, that not many wise are called according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence. So, Tamar, God looked down upon what everyone viewed as a cursed nobody, an abused woman who had no life really whatsoever, who ended up being a prostitute, And God chose her. Shocking. God chose her to be the one. And then Rahab sits in that little city of Jericho. I would imagine there were some ritzy women in Jericho those days. And here was a little prostitute. God chooses her. And then comes this little Moabitess woman, Ruth, who no one knows on the face of the earth, working in the fields and from a nation that is cursed in wonderful grace, God reaches down and grabs her and she's the one through whom the line will continue and the Christ will come. And God chooses a woman who faces the agony of having a husband killed, being taken in by a man and his lustful moment loses her husband, gets caught up in an adulterous act And this woman, Bathsheba, is the one to continue the line. And I say tonight, meet the family of Jesus. Meet the family of Jesus. Now what an amazing message as we briefly consider this tonight, really for the struggling little person in this life who feels completely non-existent and who feels worthless, that the Lord would give us this kind of opening to the Gospel of Matthew. It's the greatest news for the struggling housewife who feels worthless and overwhelmed. It's the greatest news for those who understand their misery and understand that they are, according to this world's standards, nobodies. And yet these are the people God has chosen. Look from whom Jesus came. But I still haven't answered the problem, haven't I? The problem that was posed. How can a Savior come from this kind of mess? How do you get a Savior in that kind of line? How can a complete Savior come who could actually free sinners from that mess? We're still left with that problem. And if this didn't jolt the Jewish mind, there would have been one other big problem here that would have. There's one name that poses a real problem in the middle of this genealogy that should stand out if you know anything about Jewish history. There's one big name here in verses 10 and 11 that shines, not in a good way. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Ammon, and Ammon begot Josiah. Everything's fine up to this point. But in verse 11, you have another problem. Josiah begot Jeconiah or Coniah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. A little bit of study on this figure, Jeconiah. You need to remember that the Lord had made a promise. And what was the promise all throughout history? The promise throughout history made to King David in 2 Samuel 7 was what? When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed 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. That's what the Scriptures promised. That's what they foretold. From the seed of David, one would come, and He would sit on that throne forever and ever. He would be the one, the Messiah, the true King. Everyone looked for that. Everyone believed that promise. Matthew, I believe, is outlining the royal line of Christ with an abbreviated genealogy of the kings here that sat on the throne of David. But the problem in verse 11 is this. When we read that Jeconiah or Coniah, also called Jehoiachin, there's a major problem because there's a curse on that line. If you looked over at Jeremiah 22, this is what you find. That in Jeremiah 22, verse 24, as I live, says the Lord, Though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet on my right hand, yet I would pluck you off, and in verse 28, is this man Coniah a despised broken idol, a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper all his days. Now here it is. For none of his descendants shall prosper sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah. Now that's a big problem. That's a big problem tonight. God just declared none of this man's descendants would sit on David's throne. Why then and how then can he be in the genealogy of Jesus Christ? The Jewish writers have tried to figure that out and they said, well, what happened here? What was cursed in Jeconiah really didn't come to pass. Well, that's not the answer. How is this man here? And what kind of problem? How is this problem solved? Really, after the curse, Israel's abandoned to tell Christ. Do you see the problem? How can Christ sit on the throne of His father David if the line has a curse on it? If God has said, no descendant shall sit on that throne. The royal line's curse. Now, you have the other problem of the sin problem. How can Christ take the throne? So two problems. You have Jesus coming from a filthy line. How in the world will He not be infected with sin? And then you've got the second problem. There's a curse on that line. And now we get to the answer in verse 18. Look at verse 18. After all these genealogies, you have something really powerfully emphasized. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. It just offset the whole thing. In fact, I would prefer to translate it, On the contrary, the birth of Jesus Christ was in this manner. It sets the whole thing, it offsets the whole thing, that Jesus' birth was entirely different than anyone else's birth. And that's what verse 18 says. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. before they came together. And in verse 20, Joseph considers these things. An angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Keep saying it over and over. Everything is made clear here at the conception that this Jesus is divine. Joseph is not the father. And you see, that removes his right of being the natural father of Christ. But you see, if Jesus was not, was the natural son of Joseph, if He had been the natural son of Joseph, you would still have these problems, wouldn't you? A cursed line and sin. And you see, Matthew is screaming to us tonight the importance of the virgin birth. Matthew is telling us why this doctrine is so fundamental to the Christian faith and why we have to believe in the virgin birth. He quotes Isaiah 7 to tell us, stringing together these prophecies, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us. The virgin would conceive. It would be supernatural. And what that did was it removed Joseph from any involvement in the birth of this child so that this Christ who always was the Son of God was supernaturally conceived and it means that His human nature was not infected and that sin of Adam not imputed in the sense of not by Him, by nature. He was pure. Kept free by the Holy Spirit from all corruption and sin. And so in verse 21 it says, And she will bring forth the Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Matthew wants to make really clear tonight who this Jesus is. The angel says to Joseph, here's what you are to do, Joseph. You are to take the son and you are to name him. And you are to give him the name Jesus. And so after he does this in verse 24, Joseph is aroused from sleep. He did as the angel of the Lord commanded. He took to him his wife and he did not know her, notice the emphasis again, until she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus. And you see everything was solved right there. by the virgin birth and Joseph naming. By doing this, Christ comes from the line of sinners even though He is no sinner. He was not conceived as we were by sinners. In this way, the message is clear. He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit removing the possibility of Joseph being the natural father. But you see, in that culture, when a father in the Jewish culture took the Son in and named Him that became His Son by adoption and by naming Jesus, Jesus became the legal heir to the throne of David. And before us, as one pastor said, you have the legal Messiah, the royal Messiah, the uncursed Messiah, the only true Messiah. The very One who at the beginning of the Gospels announced as God with us, who at the very end of the Gospel would say, Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age. It's a beautiful message tonight that He has come to save us. That the Lord Jesus Christ has come to save us from what we willfully chose ourselves. Death. And I know I've said it a lot today, but if you don't believe it, look at what happened this week. We chose that. We chose that misery. That's what the fall of Adam has brought. And the Lord Jesus Christ has come. And the Lord Jesus Christ is heralded today as the only and complete Savior by which people and men can be saved. And women. And you see it here in this genealogy. What a message of joy, isn't it? This is what we celebrate. That we have a Savior who can indeed save. What do you think happened to people like Tamar and Rahab and Ruth the Moabitess and Bathsheba the adulteress when they heard and they understood that through them the seed would come, who is the Christ? That good news meant everything to them. And you know, when that good news comes to you and you've taken down the mask and you're able to see that you are that family. You are them. We belong to that family. And then you see that Jesus gave Himself for you. You have a real motivation to go out this coming week and tell a lost world that has no perspective and no joy and no hope the wonderful things the Lord has done for you. This is Jesus. This is our Savior. The Lord is salvation. is His name. And He is Yours tonight to all who believed in Him and trusted in Him by faith. Let's pray. O Lord our God, we thank You that You have given us so rich a salvation and announced so glorious a Gospel. And that You have remedied the problem of our sin. That evil has been dealt with decisively by the blood and the righteousness of our Savior. And that's what we celebrate tonight. On the mouth of babes and infants you will perfect your praise. And so I pray that, Lord, as we go through these seasons, we would not lose sight of what this is indeed all about. Jesus came to save. To save His people from their sins. People like Rahab and Tamar and Bathsheba and Chris Gordon and all the brothers and sisters who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ in true faith. Receive our thanksgiving tonight. for Your loving kindness and Your faithfulness in delivering us from all of our sins. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.