Thank you for coming today. Well it is good to be back at Berean and I appreciate Brother Abel's invitation and he's a dear friend and been a help and I even say a mentor because he's old. And I'm just a young guy, but anyway, I appreciate the opportunity to be here again. And I do have my wife, Catherine, here with us. And I often introduce her this way. She's my first wife. And so, and that's true, she is. And my only wife, so that's good. But anyway, it's good to be here. We do have four kids. Our oldest daughter, her and her husband live in Oklahoma City. And they came and surprised us two weekends ago and said, we're gonna be grandparents. And so that's exciting. And I'm not old enough for that. She is. But we are thrilled at that prospect and had her first doctor's visit yesterday and got my first picture of that grandbaby. It looks like, you know, a black eyed pea. And so it's exciting, though. We already went shopping. We don't even know what it is yet, but we already bought some stuff because we are excited about that time in our lives. Our second daughter, she just finished her freshman year. at Heartland Baptist Bible College. And then our third daughter, she's going into her senior year of high school. And then our baby boy, he just finished his freshman year of high school. So we're on the tail end of that phase of life and very excited about the next phase, having that grandbaby. And so that's wonderful. Well, I'm gonna invite your attention this morning, if you would, to the Gospel of Matthew. I appreciate the song service this morning and the emphasis upon Jesus. And mentioned Brother Wes Stewart, we just finished a week of camp together. They're at Sagmont and the when we came the church had the motto, you know church like it used to be and I like that I've used that before in a couple other churches I pastored but several years ago the Lord put this on my heart Making much of Jesus and we've adopted that as our motto at Bible Baptist Church making much of Jesus because that's really our job and is to make much of Jesus. And our theme this year is magnify him out of Psalms chapter 34 and verse number three. And boy, that is a job to do, to magnify him. And did a lot of study about that. And if you think about the word there that David uses in the Psalm, it's not the message, this is just a warmup message. But to magnify him, you know, often we think about maybe like a microscope. And I didn't know this, but I learned a lot in preparation for preaching about our theme. And you know, a microscope, it does magnify. It increases it, but it distorts it. It has to make it bigger than it really is so that we can see it. Well, that's not what we're to do, and that's not what David was doing. He was not making God somebody or Jesus somebody he's not. The word that's actually used there would be like a telescope. Well, the telescope, this, it does not exaggerate. What it does is it reveals really how big something is. and how great it is, and we have to have the telescope to bring it into view because it's so maybe far away or so vast or so magnificent that you and I, apart from the help of that telescope, could not properly see it and appreciate it. Well, that's really our job as Christians, and really our job even as a church is to magnify Him, to let people know really how great He is. And we are not exaggerating one bit when we say he is a great God and a great savior. And so as a blessing, I appreciate the Sunday school lesson this morning and the music. I'm gonna invite you to stand if you would in honor of reading the precious word of God. But the Tim and I did cross paths. I was working on my master's degree while pastoring. So we drive from Cassville once a week to Oklahoma City. and set in on that, and so as he was there in his masters, I was there getting mine. He finished his, I have not finished mine. And so he's far ahead of what I am, but I appreciate him being here. Matthew chapter one, and we're gonna read the first 17 verses. And I don't know about you, sometimes when you come across genealogies, we can have a tendency to just kinda read over them. Bob, George, Fred, and move along. But understand this, these are here by inspiration. These names that the Holy Spirit of God had penned are here for a purpose. And that's what I wanna try to look at this morning. I wanna preach on this thought, the right king at the right time. The right king at the right time. The Bible says in verse one, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat Phares, and Zerah of Tamar, and Phares begat Ezram, and Ezram begat Aram, and Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Naasan, and Naasan begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Well, we know those names, don't we? and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Of course, that would be Bathsheba. Verse seven, and Solomon begat Rehoboam, and Rehoboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and Ozias begat Joathim, and Joathim begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekias, and Ezekias begat Manassas, and Manassas begat Ammon, and Ammon begat Josias, and Josias begat Jeconias, and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abiab, and Abiab begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azar, and Azar begat Sadok, and Sadok begat Acham, and Acham begat Eliad, and Eliab begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Mathan, and Mathan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary. Notice what your Bible says, though. Of whom was born Jesus? Doesn't say Joseph beget Jesus. That's significant, friend. If Joseph beget Jesus, Jesus was a sinner. In fact, here's what you'll find in verse number 16, that word of whom, of whom, that's actually feminine. It identifies for us exactly who he's speaking about. So he's speaking here about, it was Mary, it was her lineage that Jesus was born of, not Joseph. That's so important for us to understand. Because what this is about, as you would know as well as I do, all the gospel writers identify something about Jesus. And what Matthew does for us is he identifies Jesus this way, he's king. He's king. He's the right king at the right time. Look at verse 16 again. and Jacob beget Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Father, I pray for your help this morning to preach. Lord, I pray for this church. Lord, their dear pastor and pastor's wife. And Lord, I pray that you give Brother Abel's a time with his grandsons. Lord, family's so important. And Lord, that you would just encourage them and Lord, as he invests in them. But Lord, we're assembled here this morning intentionally, not by accident. There's nobody here by accident this morning. And so Lord, we're asking that you would speak to hearts. And Lord, my prayer has been that if there's one here that's not saved, I can't think any better day to get saved than today. So Lord, I pray that you would convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and accomplish your purposes this morning. We'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. As I mentioned, all the gospel writers identified Jesus or something about Jesus that would be emphasized. And as I mentioned, Matthew does emphasize the fact that Jesus is king. I like it this way. It's not that he had been king or would be king, but he is king. He is king. Mark, he identifies Jesus as a servant, but a suffering servant. Luke, he would identify Jesus this way. He's a son of man. And we understand that. And at least as far as the doctrinal position of that, that we know Jesus was the God man. 100% man, yet 100% God. John then identifies him as the son of God. And so all the gospels, they intertwine and they go together, but they all identify in specifically something about Jesus. And so Matthew, here he is showing us he's king. Now this makes sense. If he's a king, he has a kingdom. And you'll find 32 different references in the Gospel of Matthew about his kingdom. And so he's very specifically, intentionally trying to help the Jewish people understand, being the first readers of the Gospel of Matthew, but no doubt also preserved for you and I today to help us understand Jesus is king. And he's the right king at the right time. And so we see this this morning. So I wanna look at some thoughts here in this genealogy. And again, it's so easy to just overlook this sometimes. I mean, you start reading in Genesis and you read the genealogy and you're like, why are all these names here? And if they are here, why not make them something that we can understand? But these are here for a reason. And it's a wonderful thing to see names written down. I'm glad my name's wrote down somewhere. Amen? So it's important, it's valuable, it's vital. This past Thursday was 28 years since I got saved. My name was wrote down that day. It was a good day when I got saved. And I'm thankful for that. So their names are wrote down here for a reason. And so here Matthew is, as he begins this letter, and he shows us this morning that he is, Jesus is the right king. And so this, what we would read here in these verses would be what we would call the royal line. It was mentioned in Sunday school this morning about the importance of ancestry to the Jews. And I had to lean over to my wife and say, boy, he's right because this is right where we're going this morning, the importance of ancestry. And it's important this morning because it shows us why he's the right king. He's the right king. And so look at verse number one, your Bible says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And notice where he starts. The son of David, the son of Abraham. Now really, that was all that was necessary. But we do find the other names recorded here as well for our benefit. But he shows us right away why Jesus is the right king. And he says, because he has the right ancestry. He's the right king. And he sets out then in the next 15 verses to prove that. But he begins here because as Bible readers, you know this. We could even look at the Pharisees and how many times did they make mention of the fact that they were of the seed of David or that they were of the seed of Abraham or that they were of the seed of of another, and so ancestry is very, very important to the Jews. Even the Apostle Paul, when he gives his testimony, he talks about being of the tribe of Benjamin. Ancestry is important to them. The Pharisees boasting, we're of Moses, we're of Abraham, we're of David. So the Jews were in love with their lineage. We have a Bible Baptist church, a born-again Jew. I don't mean she's tight in her spending habits. I mean, she's a real Jew. And God saved her, praise the Lord. And we do find though that much of that lineage was lost, not only in the time of being carried away into Babylon, a lot of records were lost, but even under King Herod, a lot of records were lost because he didn't want anybody to know that he was half Jew. And so a lot of that was burned. And so it's hard today for Jews to trace their heritage and their history, but it's very important to them to know that they are of the Jewish culture to know that they were of a Jewish lineage. And so it's very important this morning that if you're going to have the king of the Jews, that he has to have the right lineage. Does that make sense? You got to have the right lineage. I promise we're getting somewhere this morning. And so in Genesis 22, the Bible told us this, that Abraham, that from the seed of Abraham, all the world would be blessed. So there had to be this, of course, that's prophecy about the Messiah, prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul even stated to the Galatians, he said in chapter three and verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. He saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ. And so Paul clarifies the statement of God to Abraham by revealing what God meant and that was this that Jesus the Messiah would be born and specifically of the tribe of not only of Abraham but of David. We obviously could turn to 2 Samuel chapter seven and we could read the promise that God made to David and that on from his seed that there would never depart from the throne from his lineage. And God took it from Saul because of his sin and God gave it to David. And so it was very important then that to prove the lineage of Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. Now, we also understand this in the Old Testament. It was not uncommon to see a kingdom change family lines, okay? I'm not huge into British culture, but we could even look at the queen there and understand this, that it's not always been the Windsors that were there. Okay, there's been others that set up on the throne before she did. And so it would not be uncommon to see a king's lineage change as this king took over by war or some other aspect. But this is more than that. This is more than just saying this morning, because you didn't really have to just be the seed of David to be a king. Okay, an army could go in and occupy and set somebody else on the throne and say, no, here's the new king. But it is important prophetically. And that's why this is given to us here in Matthew chapter number one. Jesus could have seized the throne because he's God, but that's not what he chose. That's not the way he chose. But if he did not descend from David, then he could not be God's Messiah. And so this is so important to see this, that God's promise this would come from and through the seed of David. Every Jew knew this. We heard this morning in the Sunday school class about their understanding of the Old Testament. And that would be so true. And so every Jew knew that when the Messiah came, he would have to be of the seed of Abraham. He would have to be of the seed of David. Are you with me so far? Amen. You remember, even in this gospel, Matthew 22, Jesus said this, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? He's asking the Pharisees. You tell me who you think. What tribe or from what lineage would he come? And here's what they say to him. They say unto him, the son of David. So they knew that it was necessary in order to be God's Messiah, you had to come through the lineage of Abraham and through the lineage of David. So can I challenge you this morning? These names here are not a waste of time. This is not, you know, trying to occupy a certain amount of words to fulfill a report requirement. Well, you got to write 2,500 words. Well, let's go in the dictionary and find some names. Okay, that's not what this is. This is the ancestry of the Messiah. This is the, listen church, this is his right to the throne. This is why this is here. This is why the Holy Spirit of God put it here. It is important, not just for the Jews, but for you and I to know that he is the right king. He's the right king. But see, it's not just about his ancestry. It's also about this this morning, his perfection. Now obviously, if we look at the character of Jesus, we know sinless. Amen? Sinless. As we mentioned, listen, if he's the son of Joseph, he's a sinner. But if he's the son of the Holy Spirit of God, he's not a sinner. What a difference. But even in the, not necessarily even speaking of his character here, what I mean is this, he's the perfect candidate. Now, candidates are in our minds. Every time I pump gas, I'm reminded of candidates. We're not far from election season, and candidates, I mean, you see the signs everywhere. There in Cassville, we had two weeks ago what we call Trout Day, Trout Fest. And so there were candidates there who were trying to get out and meet the people. And they were saying, hey, if you vote for me, here's what I'll do. Okay, can I explain this and help us see what's also here? Besides just an ancestry, he's showing us this this morning, that he is the perfect candidate to be Messiah. Every Jew was looking for the Messiah. I'm told and as you read that there was a great anticipation, expectation of this time that the Messiah would soon come. Obviously he didn't come the way they were expecting. They were expecting a king in this sense to remove Rome and their occupation and return Israel back to the state as it was under David or under Solomon to its greatness and to its glory. That's not why he came that time. Praise God, he came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to die for which I'm thankful because I'm a sinner and you're a sinner. And apart from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, you and I would still be on our way to hell this morning, but I'm thankful I'm on my way to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did. So every Jew was looking for the Messiah and they were looking from David's line. Now, if you're a Bible reader, you know there's a problem. Jeremiah chapter 22. We're not gonna take the time to read there, but please mark it down and go home and read it. But you'll find this, that God said, because of the sin of Jehoiakim, that God was going to make his line extinct. Now, wait a second, church. If the Messiah is going to come through the seat of David, and Jehoiachin is in the seat of David, in the line of David, and yet from him it's gonna cease, he's not gonna have offspring that sits upon the throne, then how is it that Jesus can be in the line of David? Some would call, look at this, and begin to say, see the Bible's not accurate, there's mistakes in the Bible. Can I tell you, there's not a mistake in your Bible. This shows us why he's the perfect candidate. Look at verse 16, I love this. And Jacob beget Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus. That is called the Christ. Now I mentioned as we read this, and it's so important, because you read beget, beget, beget, beget, beget, beget, beget, that's a whole lot of begetting. But all of a sudden you get to verse 16, and Joseph did not beget Jesus. He did not. Mary beget Jesus of the Holy Spirit of God. And that's why, and we're not gonna turn here either, but in Luke chapter number two, we have another lineage that is wrote down for us. And in that lineage, what we find here in Matthew is the lineage of Joseph. What we find in Luke chapter two is the lineage of Mary. And you know what? We find that Mary's lineage also, we find some of these same names and we find others that are not the same. But here's what we know, that while politically he has the right to the throne because of Matthew chapter number one, but prophetically he has the right to the throne because of Luke chapter two. I'm just telling you that God knew what he was doing. God knew exactly what he was doing. Luke goes all the way back to Adam. When studying this, you learn that Matthew is Joseph, Luke chapter two is Mary, and in Mary's lineage, my friend, is the bloodline of Jesus, who includes Abraham and David. God's a great God. He's a God of order. And so listen, while some get all bent out of shape about something, just read your Bible and it solves the problem. God's so good. He's the perfect candidate, you know why? Malachi said he had to be born in Bethlehem, he was. Isaiah said he had to be born of a virgin, he was. We find Daniel said he had to be born 483 years after the command to rebuild the temple, he was. And so I'm just trying to show you this morning, he's the perfect candidate. Jesus is the right king in his ancestry. He's the right king in his line because of Mary. And we also find this morning, he's the right king because of his compassion. Israel had had tyrants on the throne. They didn't need another. They had had plenty of those in the past. They had self-centered, self-serving kings. They didn't need another one of those. But see, while we focus in so much on verse number one to establish the fact that yes, he is of the seed of David, yes, he is of the seed of Abraham, but if I can, for the sake of time, just show you four more people that are in this lineage, it shows us this. There are four ladies who are mentioned in this passage of scripture besides his mother. Now we could talk about the men and we could be here till tonight. So I'm not gonna do that to you this morning and we're just gonna look at these four ladies and show you that he's the perfect king because not only of his ancestry, not only because he perfectly fulfilled scripture, but because he is a savior of compassion. Look at what your Bible says. He mentions the first one in verse three, a lady by the name of Tamar. Now again, as Bible readers, you recognize the name Tamar. We could read about Tamar in the book of Genesis and we could see how that she had been given to a man by the name of Ur. God killed him. God killed him. Well, their culture was this then, that Onan, his brother, would go in unto her and be his wife and raise up seed that way. God killed him. So Tamar does something because Judah has another son but he's young and time goes by and all of a sudden that young man is grown now and she sees him and realizes that Judah did not do what he was supposed to do. And so Tamar plays the harlot. and she veils herself and Judah's there grieving for his wife that had died and he goes in under her and she conceives and bears a son. And my friend, what you read here in this passage of scripture is that Tamar is in the lineage. Now, I just know about my family. I have in my family some characters. We see a lot of advertisements, Ancestry.com. Okay, take a blood test and you can find, you know, whatever you are, VZ, our last name is actually Black Dutch. You say, well, you're not very dark. Well, not that Black Dutch, okay? From Holland, it's like olive complexion. So my family's from Holland and we've been here a long time, but the truth is now, you know what we are? We're a mixture of a whole lot of things. Heinz 57, it's great on stake and it's what I am. And so that's the way it is. But can I tell you, sometimes you come across those ancestries and there's a blemish. I have one that was hung for being a horse thief. Amen, his brother was a circuit riding preacher. Now go explain that. Raised in the same home, but one was hung by his neck for being a horse thief, the other one preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what I'm saying is this, we have a tendency, we can have a desire, hey, let's not talk about them, because they got a past. Hey, they have something there that's not pleasant to talk about. And yet, can I just help us this morning? This is put here by the Holy Spirit of God. That in the lineage of, humanly speaking, in the lineage of Jesus Christ, is a lady by the name of Tamar, who had played a harlot, committed, I believe, what we'd call incest. And it gets quiet, because we don't like to talk about that kind of stuff. But there she is. The next one we're told about, you look there in your Bible, Rahab, verse five. She's got a tag that stuck to her name. Rahab the harlot. Can I tell you, God saw that her name was wrote down. And you begin to look at the lineage of Jesus Christ, and we find incest, and we find adultery, fornication. I know it's Sunday morning church, but she was a harlot. And where we would tend to take the white out and cover stuff like that up, the Holy Spirit of God said, write it down. And so we see this incest, we see this adultery. And then he talks about this, he talks about Ruth. Now you and I love the story of Ruth. Right now I'm preaching through the book of Ruth and I love it. It's wonderful, but can I tell you in their culture, she's an outsider. She's off limits. She's a Moabitess woman. Listen, she was unclean to the Israelites. She should not be here. She should not be here. This is the lineage of the Messiah, the Savior. She should not be there, but she is. The last one who's not mentioned by name, but her act is mentioned is Bathsheba. Of course, we're familiar with that because of David. And so you just begin to think about this for a moment. In the lineage of Jesus Christ, incest, adultery, a foreigner who had been unclean, and then again, adultery. That's in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Things that we would look at as embarrassing. Things that we would look at and desire to remove them. But can I tell you how wonderful this is? It shows us he's the right king. Because here's what Jesus does. He takes those who are broken and makes them belong. Isn't that good? Jesus takes a woman who committed sin. And listen, I'm not just picking on them because all these men's names too that we could read about, they're sinners too. I appreciate what was said this morning. There's only two groups of people here this morning. There's safe centers and there's lost centers. We're all sinners. And here they are, and I'm not trying to emphasize just the ladies this morning. Some ladies, please don't take it that way. But I'm just trying to point out to us something that even in our culture, those things are still somewhat looked down upon. and we would tend to ignore them. So I don't wanna talk about that in our lineage, but the Holy Spirit of God emphasizes this, not only to the Jews, but to you and I who get to read this now so many years later, and helps us understand, even though we might have sin in our past, and even though we might have blemishes, and although we might have things we don't wanna talk about, we don't wanna acknowledge, but in Jesus Christ, he's the perfect candidate to be king because he is a God of compassion. and he takes those who are broken and he makes them belong in the lineage of Jesus Christ. He wrote their names down. Could I just talk to us for a minute this morning? I mentioned 28 years ago, Thursday, I got saved. St. Mount Baptist Youth Camp, Brother Sam Davidson was preaching. That Thursday night, I was 15 years old. My dad's a preacher. I was drugged to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. But I'm gonna tell you, the Holy Spirit of God moved in my heart that night. I had a hold of that folding chair and I didn't wanna let go. And I remember it as though it were yesterday, but Davidson saying, one more verse of invitation. One more verse of invitation. And I let go of that chair and I walked from the very back up there to the front on the right-hand side, if you're looking at the platform, and I knelt down there and my dad took the Bible and he showed me the scriptures. I could quote the verses. But he took the word of God and he showed me the scriptures and listen, yeah, I was a preacher's kid, but I was a sinner. I was in rebellion, not openly, but inwardly. I didn't wanna go to church. I didn't want anything to do with God. I wanted to live life my way. I wanted to do things my way. And in my heart, there was rebellion. I didn't want anything to do with God. But I'm so thankful that God took a preacher's kid who was broken on the inside, and I don't know how to explain it all. But all I know is this, I knelt down there at that altar that night, broken, but I got up belonging. I don't know how to explain it. I knelt down on that altar and I was blind, but I got up and I could see 20-20. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but I knelt down on that altar that night and I was lost, but when I stood up, I'd been found. And I'm just trying to help us understand this morning, Jesus is the right king. not just because of his ancestry, not just because he's a good candidate, the only candidate, because of the lineage, but I'm trying to show you this morning, he's a God of compassion, and that's what they needed, and that's what you and I need, a place to belong. How many times do we read in Jesus' ministry, he was moved with compassion? He was moved with compassion. Oh, listen, obviously our world has a lot of problems. I mean, a lot of problems. Sin abounds. And you and I, we could get really discouraged. I mean, I'm just about the point, and yes, I don't watch a lot of news. It's depressing. It's discouraging. I heard about a preacher not long ago, and here's what he said. I'm taking a 30-day fast from the news. I thought that's pretty good stuff. That might be a good plan. And he talked about how he was several weeks into it and he said, you know what, I'm happier. My conversation has changed. I'm talking about the Lord more. And I started thinking, well, there might be something to that. I'm just trying to help us understand this one. He's the right king, because what this world needs, they don't always need us poking our fingers in their face and identifying all of their problems, because we can be really good at that. But what they need to know is this, there's a God in heaven that loves them, and there's a Savior that died for them. And if they would realize they're a sinner and call upon the Lord to be their Savior, he'll save them just like they are. Now he'll love them too much to leave them like that, but he'll change them and make them into what he wants them to be. But he is a God of compassion. He's the right king. What we need is compassion. Your Bible says some having compassion making a difference. You've heard the old adage, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And sometimes we're so hard on people, so harsh in what we need to be. I'm not talking about excuse and sin at all. But what I'm talking about this morning is showing them the love of Jesus. And he is the right king. And then, lastly, this morning at the right time. Look at verse 17. We're doing okay? So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. See, church, it's not just that he's the right king. He's the right king at the right time. at the right time. The book of Romans says this, for when we were yet without sin in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Galatians chapter four, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And what Paul revealed is that Jesus came precisely at the right time. It was not an accident that he had been 14 and 14 and 14. He's the right king at the right time. He talks about here the patriarchs. This was the time of Abraham unto David. And you think about this, this was the time in which God was revealing himself to man. How do we know who God is? Because God revealed himself to them. And they wrote it down, praise his name. And so we find that God introduces himself to them. Then we find the time of the monarchs. And this is David to Jeconiah. And it was a time which here what they were doing. God was seeing if they were doing what he said for them to do. And you read over and over again, they were not. And there was consequences for that. And can I say this morning, it's not just that there were, there still are. And because here we have the benefit of having the word of God and God has revealed himself to us and we spend our life and God is observing, are we doing what God has said to do? Because if you look at that last timeframe that is mentioned here in verse number 17, from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ. Now my friend, basically what that timeframe covers is what we call the dark ages. 450 years of silence. You know what man had known? Man had known God talking to him. Man had known, listen, the privilege that God would humble himself and that would come upon the level of a man and talk to them and communicate with them and desire to have relationship with them. But now all of a sudden they've come in their history through 450 years where there's been nothing from heaven. Silence. You're talking about dark. My friend, that's dark. When God is silent, it's dark. It was the dark ages for Israel. And what Matthew reveals is that Israel had no place else to go. What are they gonna do? This is God's chosen people. These are the people who are called by God's own name. And what would happen to them? Well, I'm telling you, my friend, he was the right king at the right time. Because Jesus came. As I mentioned a moment ago, not the way they thought. Not the way they wanted. But at the right time. For the right reason. And my friend, that's not just good news for them. That's good news for us. Because Jesus did not come just to save the Jew. He came to save whosoever will. Whosoever will. He's the right king at the right time, because Jesus in his ministry would say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He's the right king at the right time, the time that God had appointed to fulfill his plan. And so here he is revealed unto them. They needed a savior, and he came on the scene to seek and to save. And Matthew begins his gospel with the most precious truth. He's the right king at the right time. And if they would receive him, he would receive them. My friend, if you'll receive him, he'll receive you. I really enjoyed the Sunday school lesson this morning because it just so fits this. It's not about turning over a new leaf, you can't. No, I know you can work on some things, but listen, apart from the help of the Holy Spirit of God, more than likely, you're gonna go right back to it. Well, preacher, how do you know that? Because I'm flesh too. Turning over a new leaf? It's not gonna work. Well, yeah, but preacher, I got baptized 14 times, and last time it was upside down. You know, I'll tell you what happened, you got wet. You knew that at home. Amen? That baptism doesn't save. Listen, this church can't save. I'm for church. I'm for this church. I'm thankful for your history. I'm thankful for your present. I'm thankful for what God's gonna do in the future. But this church can't save anybody. But there is one who can. And his name is Jesus. And he's the right king. And it's the right time today. Today's the day of salvation. Can I tell you, we just got back from camp on Friday. We had three saved, five surrendered to full-time ministry. I'm so thankful for that. We had churches from several states, and it's a wonderful blessing, and we had an old country preacher down in South Arkansas, J.D. Weedo, and I'm gonna tell you, he just let her fly. Sometimes we needed an interpreter along the way. We didn't always understand what he was saying. But what a blessing, and you know what we were reminded of? Jesus is the right one. He's the only one. He saves sinners. And as I look around this morning, I'm pretty sure, yeah, that's all of us. We're sinners. That means he's the right king for you. But see, as we close this morning, I don't know this, I don't know the church that well. Probably the vast majority of the people in this room at least give testimony of the fact of being saved. That's not so blessed that you can know that. I remember what it was like to pull on my head at night not knowing. It's miserable. And if you're that way this morning, can I tell you, man, settle that today. Eternity is not, it's not a game. Don't gamble with hell. It's not worth it. You'll lose. It's not worth it. Settle that in your heart. But if you are saved this morning, then listen, a king has a kingdom. And that means he ought to rule. And if you are saved this morning, can I just challenge us this way? Are you letting him? How many of you seen that bumper sticker, Jesus is my co-pilot? That's dumb. I know I shouldn't say that on church, but that's dumb. You know what? You see, here's the thing about co-pilot. My son wants to be a pilot. You can fly from either seat. Okay, is that true? If it's possible to have a co-pilot, my understanding is this, then the plane is able to be flown from either seat. I don't need to be flying it. Well, hey, Jesus, as things are getting hard now, let me take it. Dumb. Dumb. Why don't we just get in the back? And men, let's be some stewards. And ladies, be some stewardesses. And let's just serve. And let's let him fly the airplane. Let's let him be king. Because he is the right king at the right time. Is he king in your life? He needs to be. He deserves to be. His lineage proves he's the right king. He's the right candidate. Nobody could fulfill what he fulfilled. He's got compassion like nobody else has. And he came for such a time as this, to seek and to save that which was lost. Every head bowed, every eye closed this morning.