If you'd find in your Bibles, Matthew chapter 1, the very beginning of the New Testament, the very first verses that we read are often skipped over. It's the genealogy of Joseph, who is the male man figure in Jesus' life. Not his father, but a father figure. And an amazing emphasis here in this first few verses that I want you to see, because Jesus came to save His people from their sins. And I'm thankful that as dirty, rotten, low-down, good-for-nothing as I am, a hell-deserving sinner, Jesus came to save me. I'm one of His people. And the sweet message of Christmas and Jesus is that Jesus came to give us access to God. It's so sweet to know the Lord. Let's look together. Matthew chapter 1, we'll begin reading verse number 1. Can we figure out what that is? Huh? You hear the chirp? Which direction is that? Oh, we're good. We're good. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I thought it was something that we could fix. We want that right there. I'll put a microphone on it. We love it. That's the sweetest sound I've heard all day. I'm sorry about that. Please, please forgive me. Matthew chapter one. Let's be in reading. How many of you have ever been asked to read in church? And, uh, uh, y'all are laughing at me and it's okay. They're like, boy, I'm sure glad he said that, not me. Y'all life real good and if you can recover, I can recover too. Matthew chapter 1. How many of you have someone said, or you remember being in Sunday school class and someone said, asked you to volunteer to read the Bible verse out loud that caused you terror and it scared you to death? There's folks like that, I know. And I'm going to tell you, if there was ever reason to be terrorized, it'd be if someone asked you to read the first few verses of Matthew chapter 1. Because it is rich with some names. But it's important we see it, and I'm going to read it to you, actually. First few verses here of Matthew chapter 1. As a matter of fact, let's just read the first 21 verses. Because I want you to see how God wanted to begin the greatest message ever told. Let's read it together. Matthew 1, verse 1, 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 Zarah of Tamar, and Phares begat Ezram, and Ezram begat Aram, and Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Nason, and Nason begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, and Rahab 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. And Solomon begat Roboam, and Roboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and Ozias begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Ahaz, and Ahaz begat Ezekias. And Ezechias 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 Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor. And Azor begat Sadok, and Sadok begat Acham, and Acham begat Eliud, and Eliud begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Mathan, and Mathan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary. of whom is 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 until Christ are 14 generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together she was found with the child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." And I want to preach tonight He shall save his people from their sins. Now this is why Jesus came. He came to save his people from their sins. Let's consider three simple things tonight. Number one, his person. It'll tell us who he is, his person. Who is Jesus? His person. Now the Bible makes it plain that Jesus is not just a baby born in Bethlehem. I know this is something that we talk about seemingly every year about this time, but it's so important to note that Jesus is not a baby born in Bethlehem only. He is the Christ child. He is God in the flesh, and Jesus came with a purpose. His purpose was to be the Christ, fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies of the Christ, and die on the cross so that we could have forgiveness of sin and redemption and peace with God. You see, if we separate the death, burial, resurrection, and the work of Jesus on the cross from his birth. And we use just his birth and the sweetness of the baby in a manger, and we leave off the cross and the blood. We leave off the purpose of him coming. The Bible makes this plain in many places in the scripture. Verse number one, look at it. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ. the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now why does the Bible make this emphasis? This is the book of the generation of Jesus. That's wonderful. Jesus is his name. His office and the role that he played and who he really came to be and what he accomplished is he is the Christ. Jesus is Christ. And when we say the word Christ, we know that Jesus is the only one that could ever possibly pay the price for our sins. Jesus is the only one that completely fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecy regarding the Christ and the Messiah. Jesus is the Christ. Who is he? He's the Christ. Look at what the Bible says in verse 16. And Jacob begat Joseph. the husband of Mary. There's a great emphasis in the text and in the Bible about the fact that Joseph was not Jesus' dad. It's important that we know that Joseph was not Jesus' dad. Now I want you to know, I think Joseph was like Mary, highly favored, and a fine young man that God chose to be a father figure for his own dear son. I love to look at the life of Joseph and see things about Joseph, but Joseph was not Jesus' father. Joseph was the husband of Mary. It's not his dad. The Bible makes it plain and gives us some more insight into who Jesus was. Joseph was the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Verse 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David into the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon into Christ are 14 generations. In my Bible, I've circled that little word, Christ. It's important we know that he is the Christ. Jesus' proper title is Jesus Christ our Lord. All three of those things are true and should be true in our lives. He's the Christ. It continues, who is Jesus? What's his person? Verse 18, the Bible says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Well, he's making it clear, isn't he? Who is Jesus' father? The Holy Ghost, not Joseph. Who is Jesus? Who is this person? What did he come for? He's the Christ. He came to pay the price for our sins. Look at verse 21. The Bible says, And she shall bring forth a son, the angel speaking to Joseph, and says this, And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. You see the name Jesus? Capital J, capital E, capital S, capital U, capital S. Jesus is Savior. The name Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. And here we see that Jesus, His person, not just a babe born in a manger, not just a powerful man who shook society, but truly the one sent from God. Truly God Himself incarnate who came to die on the cross for our sins, his person. The Bible says in verse 23 of the same chapter, the scripture says, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which being interpreted is, God with us. What does God's word call Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem's manger? Emmanuel. What's that mean? God calls Jesus, God with us. Hey look, take great courage. When you've prayed and asked Jesus to forgive your sins, He is the Christ. He is God with us. When you've prayed and trusted in Christ Jesus to give you eternal life, He is God with us. He is the Christ. He is the Savior, the Messiah. He's King of kings and Lord of lords. That's His person. His person is Jesus Christ Emmanuel. Number two, His people. Some people have the idea that if I'm going to begin a relationship with Jesus and start going to church or start being a Christian, then I'm going to have to clean up in order to be a good Christian. But I want you to know who Jesus came to save. He came to save His people from their sins. Ask yourself this question, am I too dirty for Jesus to save? The answer is no. Have I done too many bad things for Jesus to redeem? No. Have I sinned so much that God couldn't possibly love me? The answer is no. I can prove it to you. Jesus came to save his people from their sins. I love this genealogy of the Lord Jesus. There's so many things we could talk about and we could spend days here, literally. But I want to just roll through a few of them and I'll show you some things beginning in verse number one of Matthew chapter one. The Bible says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now the first two names that we mentioned here in this passage of scripture, I want you to know they were people that God loved and God chosen. They were of the lineage of Joseph, who Jesus came to redeem. But I'll have you know something, that David and Abraham were not perfect people. You think about David for a minute. David did some dirty, rotten, low-down, good-for-nothing, sinful, wicked things, did he not? And Jesus loved him anyway. And God used him anyway. How about Abraham? We sing the song, Father Abraham had many sons. And we preach and teach about the faith of Abraham. And God even exalts Abraham to a place of great faith. But I'll remind you of something. Abraham's faith wasn't always great. As a matter of fact, he was notorious for lying and cheating. Faithlessness. Getting ahead of God and trying to do things His own way and get things His own way. Sinfully. But God loved Abraham anyway. You know why? Jesus came to save His people from their sins. It continues, verse 2, Abraham begat Isaac. We've already slandered Abraham a little bit. Let's slander Isaac for a minute. You want to? Isaac was a man of the flesh. Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Jacob, Isaac begat Jacob. One of Jacob's big problems was mom and dad were biased. And they had a mess in their home. And Jacob, he was no better. Jacob did some horrible things. Jacob cheated his brother out of his birthright. Jacob jumped ahead of God. His very name means con-artist. And Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Jacob. The Bible says Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas, also known as Judah and his brethren. Verse 3, and Judas begat Phares and Zarah of Tamar. Now this is where it really gets a bit scandalous. Let me tell you a little about the story. Judas, Judah, beget Phares and Zarah. It's a fact that Phares and Zarah were Judah's children. But I've got to tell you, Phares and Zarah came about in a really, really not nice way. You know what happened? Phares and Zarah's mama, Tamar, She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, and she tricked Judah into having relations with her, and the by-product was a set of twins. It's kind of rough, isn't it? How many of you can think about situations, and maybe your family is like this, and lots of ours in this room are. The history, the mistakes, the sin, The shame of the past. I'm going to tell you what the devil wants to do. The devil wants to think that you've messed up so many ways that there's no possible way that Jesus could ever save you or redeem you or love you or change your life. But I want you to know something. Jesus, in the very first verses of the New Testament and His story, says, I've come to save my people from their sins. And in that mix is a lady named Tamar, who was vile and wicked, but Jesus came to save her too. Tamar, the list keeps going. The Bible says in verse number four, Aram beget Amenadab, Amenadab beget Nason, Nason beget Salmon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Verse 5, I want to let you know something here. Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Now, there is a possibility. Many times I've looked at this name Rahab here and immediately jumped in my mind to Rahab the harlot from the story of Joshua. Now I will say that that is possible, but the timelines don't match just exactly right. So I'm not going to stomp and snort and growl and fuss and tell you this has to be Rahab the harlot from the story of Joshua. But I will tell you this, God wanted to put in his genealogy a lady's name who was Rahab. Now, I want you to understand something about this genealogy and women's names being in genealogy. At this moment in history, when you told who your people were, who your family was, who you came from, you left the women out. But that's not what Jesus wanted to do. Jesus did not leave anyone out. He didn't leave the women out. He didn't leave the men out. He didn't leave the sinners out. because Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Tamar, Rahab, the scripture continues, verse 5, and Boaz beget Obed of Ruth. What about Ruth? Isn't it interesting that Ruth is mentioned in this genealogy? I've got to tell you a little about Ruth. Ruth was not from the Jewish people. She was a Moabitess. The Moabitess was a group of pagan people that rejected God and worshipped other gods. Ruth came to know Jehovah God through a set of circumstances that are kind of sad. Alemalech, Jewish man who knew better, led his family away from God and God's blessings and God's people and went to Moab. In Moab, he died. His two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Before they died, one of them married a little girl named Orpah and the other married a little Moabite girl named Ruth. And Ruth made a decision. She decided that she would make Jehovah God her God. And Ruth makes her way from Moab to Canaan to God's people. The Bible says that Ruth begat Obed. Why? What's the importance? I want you to know what the importance is. Jesus came to save His people from their sins. It's not a race. It's not a creed. It's not a history. It's not anything other than Jesus Christ came to save all people from their sins because all men are sinners. Who are His people? It continues. One last example. The Bible says in verse 6, Jesse begat David. the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah." The Lord says, I'm going to put one more scandal in this genealogy of Jesus' people. Do you know what he brings up? He brings up David and Solomon and reminds us of how Solomon came to be. You know Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. Solomon was a man that God chose and used in a mighty way. Solomon. He wrote large portions of our Bible. But how did Solomon come to be? A lot of you in the crowd know. Some of us don't remember. I'm glad you asked. Solomon. How did we get Solomon? I'll tell you how we got Solomon. King David. King David had let being King David kind of go to his head a little bit and David had gathered himself a number of wives which was not what God intended. David had gathered himself a number of wives and a life and when his people, God's people, the nation of Israel were out fighting, David stayed back and David did something and saw something that he should have turned from. Bathsheba. was on a balcony bathing. And David looked and lusted, and his king called for a meeting with Bathsheba. He looked for a meeting, called for a meeting with Bathsheba. And they met, and the next thing you know, Bathsheba is expecting a child. The problem was, Bathsheba was married to a man named Uriah, the Hittite. David had a big problem. What are we going to do? Bathsheba is expecting a child. Uriah has been off to war. He's not been home. David has a plan. Do you know what David's plan is? David says, I'll bring Uriah home off the battlefield. I'll let him stay with his wife for a time. He can take the credit. We'll just sweep this under the rug. The problem was Uriah the Hittite had more character than David. He wouldn't go and stay in his soft, comfortable home with his wife when all of his men were fighting for the glory of God. Night after night, even after being made drunk, Uriah wouldn't go and be with his wife. And David did a horrible thing. You know what David did? David sent a note, sealed, in Uriah's hand to the captain, his army. In that note was a note that said, make your eyes go to the very front lines and have all the men withdraw. What did David do? I'll tell you what David did. In order to cover up his sin, David signed off on the murder of Bathsheba's husband. It's tough, isn't it? This is bad stuff, isn't it? Would you think that a murderer would be somebody that Jesus couldn't save and use? If you think yes, you're wrong. Because Jesus came to save His people from their sins. And Jesus says, I want you to know, in the lineage of Joseph, in the lineage of the Christ, David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. The story goes like this, the first child that they conceived died later by Sheba. She was expecting again and her son was born and they named him Solomon. Now why have you told us all this preacher? I've told you all this because I want you to know that Jesus came to save His people from their sins. You're here tonight and you say, there's no way that Jesus could love me. Oh yes, He does. There's no way that Jesus could clean me up. Oh yes, He can. There's no way that I could be part of a church like this. Oh yes, you can. Because we are all God's people. But sometimes we say, we're God's people, we're Jesus' people, and the first thing folks say, well that means you wear church clothes. That's not what it means. When I tell you I'm one of the followers, I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm a Christian, I'm a churchgoer, you know what that means? I'm one of Jesus' people. That's not saying that I'm good. That's saying that Jesus was able and willing and merciful and gracious. Jesus, when I asked Him to, He forgave my sins. He became my Savior. He changed my life. Oh, what a Savior. You see, Jesus came to save His people from their sins. His person, He's the Christ. His people, they're sinners. His purpose, finally, number three. I've said it numerous times, but just to bring to a conclusion, verse 21. She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. Why did Jesus come? He came to save his people, all those sinners, all us sinners. He came to save us from our sins. That's his purpose. That's why he came. Are you here tonight? And you think there's no way, or you thought there's no way that Jesus could love me. It's just not true. You thought there's no way that Jesus could forgive me. That's just not true. There's no way that I could be a Christian. It's just not true. You and I are exactly who Jesus came to save. You're here tonight. You're a sinner. Your sin condemns you. Something's got to be done. You can pay it yourself or you can allow Jesus to pay your sin debt. Christ died for us. The Bible says it like this, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.