At this time, the children are released for Children's Church. This morning as we continue our Christmas celebration, our text will be coming from Matthew chapter 1. verses 18 to 25, Matthew 1, 18 to 29, titled, Emmanuel, God With Us. We've been singing about it for the last couple of weeks now, and I'd like to introduce it by reading that passage. Matthew 1, verses 18 to 25. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the one who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with of. And Joseph got up from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took Mary as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus." So in prayer, Father God, as we As we come to You, Lord, this morning and... As we look through this passage, we once again consider that marvelous day when God became man. And Lord God, we just again, we just pray that today would be a good time of learning and edification for your people. And as always, Lord, we ask that what we do here today in song and message would be accepted to you as worship from us. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We have the setting in verse 18 and 19. Now the birth of Jesus was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. Now, first of all, chronologically, This event takes place, matter of fact, the best way to say it, let's turn to Luke chapter one. Matter of fact, Luke chapter one, verse 26. Luke chapter one, verse 26. Here we see, I'm not going to read it all, we've been reading it all week, great passages. Luke chapter 1 verse 26, it begins there where the angel Gabriel came and explained to Mary what was just about ready to happen to her. And then you move down through the text, you get to verse 39, you see that where Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. And then you move through the chapter one, you've got what's called Mary's Magnificat, where she praises God for what's going on. Then you have the birth of John the Baptist. And then you have Zacharias, who is John the Baptist's father. You have Zacharias' prophecy. In verse 79, it says, "...to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace," describing what John the Baptist will do. And then it goes on to describe further, you know, the child's going to grow and become strong and so forth and so on, and then he's going to eventually come back into public duty. Now right here, between the birth of John the Baptist and Zacharias' prophecy, Matthew 1 would fit right in there. If you're going to do a chronological reading, you would read Matthew 1, 18 to 25, right here. And then following that is what was read this morning. And I have to admit, at Quirinius, you can see why that name went out of style. So you read through all of that, and then you see where Jesus is presented. Then following that, in chapter 2 of Luke, Jesus presented the temple. And then you get to verse 38. Right in there, and then verse between 30 and 39, I should say, you have where they, remember they were sent away because they were sent to, and they finished everything according to the law and the Lord. They returned to Galilee, their home city of Nazareth. No, wait, no, excuse me. Before you get to verse 39, something else happens. That's where the wise men show up. Okay? They actually, I don't want to mess up the Christmas cards or manger scenes, but the wise men aren't there. that doesn't make them bad people, they're just not there yet. They don't show up till later. As a matter of fact, some think maybe even as long as two years later, because of Herod, when he ordered the killing of all the male babies, he said from two years and below, but that's an issue for another day. But just to get things in order, now back to Matthew chapter 1, But that's where it would sit in the historical flow of these events. Now we get back to Matthew 1.18, it says that Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Now this betrothal in verse 8, in a Hebrew marriage contract, and that's what it was, it was a contract, the marriage itself is in two stages. You had the betrothal and then you had the marriage ceremony after which consummation would occur. So here they were in that first stage at this point in time. Okay? Now the betrothal period could last a year, sometimes even more, sometimes a little less, but it was a long drawn out thing. And during that time, the bride and groom didn't see a lot of each other socially. Okay? The betrothal period was, in fact, though, part of the marriage contract, and it was legally binding. It was legally binding, and to break that, it would take a divorce. Okay? So, it was legally binding. And again, what would happen, it's in verse 19, you notice that even in the Petrothel period, verse 19, it says, and Joseph, her husband, so he was referred to in that first phase as her husband. So they were married. It just hasn't gone through the whole process yet, okay? Now, we get into the second part of 18, you get what I call Joseph's shocking discovery. Think about it, that would be a shocking discovery. Often, whoa, this lady I'm betrothed to is carrying a child. So, but it says too now, and this is an important point, Matthew, actually by introducing us in verse 18 says, he right off the bat, and again, Matthew's rendering of the birth of Christ majors on the virgin birth, for obvious reasons. Joseph needed to know this information. And so do we. And so, it's in there and it says, by the Holy Spirit, and this is extremely important information to him and to us as the readers of this. Now, verse 19, you get Joseph's response. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, plan to send her away secretly. Okay, righteous man. Again, the word righteous applies to humans and that speaks of one's character as being upright and just. He's an individual of high moral character. Matter of fact, in Luke 1.6, I'm not going to go back there, Zacharias and Elizabeth were said to be righteous in the sight of God. And Joseph was a man of this caliber. Joseph was indeed righteous in the sight of God. And again, not wanting to disgrace her, he planned to put her away secretly. All right? Well, a common practice of that day was to publicly divorce a woman who found committing adultery, and some would even push for her death, which was provided in the law. I mean, Deuteronomy 22, 23 to 24. We're not going to turn there, but it's in the law. It could have been done. He wanted to send her away privately. In other words, quietly divorce her and let that be that. Again, because he was a righteous man, he didn't want to put her through that humiliation, nor his family, and you know, you can just think about it. But the important part of this message is right here. Joseph's dream, verse 20 to 23. This is the meat of this passage. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for this one who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. Now, an angel of the Lord. Angel's name not given. As contrasted in Luke, Luke 119 and Luke 126, the angel there was identified as Gabriel. You know, it's kind of interesting. That same Gabriel who was the Gabriel, by the way, that appeared to Daniel some 400 years earlier. But this angel's message, the message is what's important, who he is, isn't. It says, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Afraid here is the word phobeo from phobos, and it's from that word we get our word phobia, okay? Often it means to be scared, frightened, you know. But in this context, it can be used in a variety of contexts. In this context, it's actually referring to means being hesitant, having misgivings, or being reluctant. Okay, not so much frightened about it, but, you know, hey, wouldn't you? I mean, you know, in light of everything, and so that's where he was. And then the angel begins his revelation to Joseph by clearly stating This, the one who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Does it get any plainer than that? That's the Word of the Lord coming through an angel of the Lord. Okay? The one who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. The One, again, makes it clear of a couple things. And in most translations, in mine, the One is capital. One, O-N-E, because it's referring to Christ. Again, it says, number one, it makes it clear that this is an actual, real baby that's being conceived here. This is not a figure of speech. It's not a fairy tale. It's not representing anything. It's a real baby, a real conception, and it's going to be a real birth. That's what we're celebrating. We're not celebrating a fairy tale or a fantasy land or an allegory or anything like that. This is the real deal. Now, it also, this baby was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. Again, this conception is a divine act of God apart from human intervention. Let's look at Luke chapter 1. We're going to be popping Luke a little bit. Luke chapter 1 verse 34 and 35. And Scripture makes this point so very clear. You don't be it, so many don't get it. Luke 1, 34 says, but Mary said to the angel, this is again Gabriel speaking to her, you know, marrying Gabriel, having that conversation. Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for this reason, The Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Not the Son of Joseph, but the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Humanity does not produce deity. Okay? That is Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, coming to earth, and he chose this way to do it. Now, this also gives assurance to Joseph that Mary is still a virgin. At this point in time, Mary is still a virgin and will be a virgin when she delivers that baby, okay? Now, verse 21, back to Matthew 21, it says, And she will bear a son, and you should call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. Now, again, the word Jesus, okay, from the Hebrew, Yeshua, means Yahweh will save. Jehovah will save. That's what the word means. For He will save His people from their sin. It will be His own work. He. This child you are carrying will save the people, His people, from their sin. He will do it. He will get it done. And it says, from their sins, not from the Romans, but from their sins by which they and all of mankind stand condemned. That's why He came to earth. That's the number one reason He came to earth, to save men, mankind, ladies too, from their sin. That's it. There's a lot of other things that are accomplished also, but that is the number one reason. Number one reason. And then verses 22 and 23, we have a lot more emphasis on the virgin birth. And again, like I say, that's Matthew's main point here. 22 and 23. Now, all this took place in order that which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled. Behold, the virgin will be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. Now, Now it says, now this took place. Now all this took place. Why? The all this refers to the facts surrounding this divine birth. All this took place. All this took place. The angel went on to say, in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled. All of this is going to fulfill what the prophet, we're going to find Isaiah said in 7-14, which we'll be turning to in a moment. All of this is to show that another prophecy of God is fulfilled just like all of them have been or will be. It's all going to be fulfilled. Again, and this statement is given by the angel of the Lord is, again, more confirmation of the inspiration, if nothing else, the book of Isaiah. Which, let's turn there, Isaiah 7.14. We're going to spend a little bit of time in Isaiah, because it's important, I think, to get a handle on this, and it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Isaiah 7.14, it says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. Now, at that time, Philip Ahaz was the king of Judah, and he was terribly evil. He was really an evil, evil man. And it's a sad commentary, but so many of the kings back then were terribly evil people. Just a little excerpt from 2 Kings 16, verse 2 and 3. A little hint as to the character of Isaac. He definitely was no Joseph, okay? Ahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, as David his father had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. And even made his sons, his son I should say, pass through the fire according to the abominations of the nations from whom Yahweh had disposed from before the sons of Israel. In other words, he burned his own son as a sacrifice. That's evil, folks. That's evil. That's evil. And again, this prophecy, 714, is directed right at him. Right at him. But there's a twist to it. Let's go back to verse 1 of Isaiah 7.1. Let's get a little background. Now Ahaz, I'll just read 7-1. Now it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, who was a good king by the way, king of Judah, that Rezan, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. So here's the scene. Ahaz, the king of Judah. Now remember, this is at a time when the kings were split. You had the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom, made up of the northern ten tribes. The southern kingdom was made up of Benjamin and Judah and went by the name Judah. The northern kingdom went by the name Israel at the time of the division. And then you had this other character, Rezan, the king of Aram. Now Aram was an area of Syria today, that general area located northeasterly of Israel, the northern kingdom. So you had the northern kingdom and Aram linking together to attack the southern kingdom by just attack Jerusalem, okay? That's the scene. So here they are in verse 2, it says, when it had been told to the house of David saying, the Arameans have encamped in Ephraim, his heart and the hearts of the people shook as the trees of the forest Shake before the wind. So they were scared. They were shaken. You know the old saying, shaken like a leaf? They were shaken. They were shaken. They were scared. Again, Ephraim is that designation of the one tribal area located just north of Jerusalem and Benjamin. Right there. Right there. So when they're saying they're in Ephraim, man, they're right outside. They're right on the border. They're right there. Okay? Now, even though their first attempt failed, they were still camped there. And it was just a matter of time when they were going to regain some power and do it again. Okay? Now, good verse three and four. I'm reading from the legacy standard. Then Yahweh, or you might have the Lord, Yahweh said to Israel, excuse me, said to Isaiah, go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son and Jerob at the end of the conduit of the upper room to the highway of the fuller's field and say to him, take care, stay quiet, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands on account of the burning anger of resident Aram and the son of Ramoah. Okay, now, what is that all saying? In other words, long story short, The Lord sent Isaiah to Ahaz, the king of Judah, to comfort him that he might turn to the Lord for help. But what did he do? He didn't do that. He did not turn to Elijah. I'm not going to go into it, because that would be a long, drawn-out affair. But to make a long story short, eventually Ahaz turned down the offer of God brought to him by Isaiah, and he sought help from the Assyrian Empire. Okay? Bad move. Bad move. Now, we'll drop down to verse 10 and 13. Then the Lord, Yahweh, spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign for yourself from Yahweh your God. Make it deep, as sheho, or as high as heaven. In other words, you call for a sign. Make a sign that you want me to do, and I will perform that sign just to show you that I mean what I say, and I'm going to come down, and I'm going to protect you. But verse 12, Ahaz says, I will not ask and I will not test you. All of a sudden you get sanctimonious. He just didn't want to do it. He's at a hard heart. He wasn't interested in listening to anything the Lord had to say. Then verse 13, then he said, listen now, house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you should try the patience of God as well? Well, he did. And so then this is the Lord's final response to him, Ahaz. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son. She was to call his name Immanuel. So you, interesting, that word you, the Lord will give you a sign. That you is in the plural. So he was actually talking through Ahaz, as opposed to talking to Ahaz. Talking through Ahaz, beyond him, really to the entire nation. And if you've seen through, you read through the history chapters, and you notice in the various, whether it's Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, Divided Kingdom, You notice the people, we see that in judges, how the leadership goes is very often how the whole nation goes. You get a rotten king, the people seem to, a rotten, immoral king, the people tend to go that way. I mean, that's very typical, very typical all through there, rotten leadership. I'm really holding my tongue now. Again, these prophecies concerning Immanuel is not limited to Ahaz. Matter of fact, it's not even limited to chapter 7, verse 14. You know, this Immanuel, God with us. What is so interesting to me, we're going to, actually, I'm going to follow that a little bit. Look in chapter 8. And in chapter 8, Isaiah is going to tell us of the future invasion of Judah by Assyria, the very one that Ahaz went for help, right? Yeah. You know, it's funny, when you're being attacked by a predator and you're viewed as game, don't go to another predator for help, because that's what predators do. They see a lame rabbit or a lame deer, the predators are going after it. So you don't want to ever do that. Bad advice. Bad move. Really bad move. But look at verse 8 of chapter 8. It's talking about the invasion, and then read verse 8, the Lord speaking, Then I will sweep into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, this is about the Assyrians, it will reach even to the neck And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel." That's not a coincidence. O Emmanuel. This child that's going to be born in verse 14 of chapter 7, that's going to be named Emmanuel. Your land, O Emmanuel. Your land, O Emmanuel. Israel is his land. Move forward to verse 10, and where it comes in, God's going to... God's still going to... See, they were going to make several invasions, but none of them were successful. None of them were successful. Verse 10, devised counsel. but it will be thwarted, speaking to Assyria. Speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us." Wait a minute, for God is with us. God is with us is a translation of what? Emmanuel. Emmanuel meaning God's with us. God's with us. The story continues. Chapter nine. The story of Emmanuel, the story of God with us, the story of Messiah continues. 9, 1, and 2. And again, this is all about the history. It flows so well if you just pick up these little nuggets and it just carries it through, carries it through. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish in earlier times. He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea and on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. One day it's all gonna be a glorious thing. Verse two, the people who walked in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them. I mean, what a, that's a, isn't that magnificent? Look at, keep your finger here and let's pop into, back to Matthew, but this time Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Pick it up at verse 12. Now the scene here, Matthew chapter 3 ends with the baptism of Jesus, it begins with the temptation of Jesus, and then Jesus begins his ministry. And we pick it up there in verse 12. Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Nephtali, in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land in the shadow of death, upon them light has dawned." Again, Speaking of Messiah, speaking of Christ, okay? And we get back to Isaiah, and there it is. Now, you drop down in Isaiah 9. We're not going to read it all, but Isaiah 9, 3 to 5. Oh, let's read it. Why not? You shall multiply the nation. You shall make great their gladness. they will be glad in your presence and the gladness of the harvest as men rejoice when they divide the spoil for you shall shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff of their shoulders the rod of their task massacre as at the battle of Midian for every boot of the booted warrior in the rumbling of the battle of the and cloak rolled in blood will be for burning fuel of the fire in other words one day Messiah who we know as Emmanuel, one day that very Emmanuel will come and will defeat the enemies of Israel and establish that long-promised kingdom, which is still out there in the future. But you take the context of that as it's going to happen one day, and then verse 6 adds to that thought. Why does he say that? A child will be born unto us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this." That's Emmanuel. This whole story. This whole story. It's one big story. It's one big story. Emmanuel, God with us, you know? And that's a sign Ahaz never saw and never will see. But it's just gone. I mean, just right on through. Emmanuel moves through. Again, he comes up again. And here again, another promise of future restoration. And how's it going to happen? Well, by the hands of that child that will be born. the one in Isaiah 7-14 that's, you call his name Emmanuel because that's God with us. This is God doing it, that baby was God, that baby's got quite a future of events coming up still. I mean, I tell ya. And it talks about, again, in that verse, the ones that will take place and that will all happen in what we call the millennium when he actually comes back. at the Second Coming, establishes His kingdom. Now, again, and it is this Jesus, it is this Emmanuel that will, back to Luke 1 again, back to Luke 1, and we're going to be leaving Isaiah now, so we're going to go back to Luke 1, verse 32. Luke 1, 32 to 35, again, Gabriel speaking to Mary. I mean, if you want the direct skinny on what's going on, if you could dial up an angel, that's what you need. But I tell you, when the Lord sends an angel, there's something really important coming. And here's, I mean, Gabriel talking to Mary now. We'll pick it up, verse 32. Speaking of that child she was carrying, he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Son of the Most High, Son of God. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob. Remember Jacob, another word for Israel. Jacob's name was one change to Israel. He will reign over the house of Israel and there will be no end to his kingdom. No end. No end. And behold, and no, that's it. And behold, your wife, your relative Elizabeth has conceived her son of Elijah. Anyway, it's hard to stop when you get into these passages, man. They're so rich with this great information. But again, verse 35, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for this reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And we know from from studies, past studies, that the word Son of God is a term of deity when applied to Christ. Son of God. Remember in John, was it 518, where they rose up and wanted to stone Him to death because they said, well, by calling God your Father, you make yourself equal to God. Yeah. Yeah, Son of God, equal with God, that's right. That's exactly what it means. That's why it's a term and a title of deity for Jesus. Now, what's the doctrinal importance? I want to look at some of it, not all of it. We could go a long ways on this, but the doctrinal importance of the virgin birth. One, we consider everything here. You see God's hand over all of it. It shows that salvation ultimately must come from God and can never come through human effort. Salvation, like the virgin birth, is a divine act of God. Plain and simple. The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity with full humanity in one person with two natures. It's called the hypostatic union for you theology buffs. Very important doctrine. Very important doctrine. The virgin birth, again, well it says like, for unto us a child is born. born of Mary, to us the Son is given, that'd be the Son of God. God through Mary, again, you have deity in human form. So when we talk about God in human form, Jesus, He was, and still is today, He is 100% God and He is 100% man because of the incarnation, because of the virgin birth. And He, when He ascended back to heaven, He ascended back to heaven that way. And He is in heaven that way. And when He comes back, He'll be that way. And when He reigns for eternity, He'll be that way. When that change came, that actually changed Him too. He is God in human form from that point on. The eternal Son of God took on a body at that point in time. Now, John 1 says this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He who was in the beginning with God, and that in the beginning, that's John 1, 2, in the beginning with God, could literally be rendered face to face, as in co-equal. I mean, the scriptures are clear. Those false religious systems that deny the deity of Christ, It's wrong. Just wrong. As a matter of fact, to deny who Jesus is, is to deny salvation. They're not there. Can't be. Can't be. Can't be. Also, the virgin birth was the way that God became man, but by doing it that way, it guaranteed Jesus' sinlessness. Remember, all the descendants of Adam are sinners due to Adam's sin. You know, sometimes he's called like the federal head of humanity because being the first one when he sinned. Remember, it said, you eat of this fruit, you will surely die. Well, spiritually speaking, he died at that instant. And physically speaking, 900 and something years later, he died physically. Okay. But yeah, death. That's it. Death. Psalm 51.5. You remember this one? This is David when he had that affair with Bathsheba. Psalm 51. I mean, you read the heading on there, this is to be sung by the choir. This is David's public confession of faith. And verse 5 of Psalm 51 says, Behold, I was bought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. He's speaking of himself in sin, not the mother in sin during conception, because husband and wife, perfectly fine, nothing wrong there. But in sin, He was conceived. Sin nature, right there, right from the start. Man is a sinner. That's original sin now. And then spends, for most of them, spend the rest of their lives proving it. Born a sinner and spends the rest of your life proving it. I mean, just read the newspapers. It's all over the place. Take an honest look within. We see it. Even though we've been saved, we know we're not perfected yet. But at least we've got a future, right? Now, Jesus being God, born of a virgin, from that very moment of conception, is correctly described by the angel Gabriel, we just read that, as the holy child. Holy. Sinless. Sinless. Totally sinless. He was not tainted by Adam. He came through His own way. He didn't come through Adam. Mankind, humanity, was not part of this. Mary was the vehicle, okay? But He did not come through the normal human procreation, which all of us did, and as a result, all of us inherited that sin nature. Because he was holy in his conception lived the holy life that made him Jesus the only propitiatory sacrifice for sin. He was the only one that could be that sacrifice. He was the only perfect Lamb of God there could ever be. I mean, Peter put it this way, 1 Peter 1, 18 to 21, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, But with the precious blood as a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God." So again, you know, this virgin birth brought perfect, sinless Son of God, second person of the Trinity, into human form, remained that way, sinless, perfect, and went to the cross that way as the perfect Lamb of God without spot, without blemish. You notice that During the Old Testament law when they starting with when they selected the lamb for the Passover What did it have to be it had to be the best? It had to be the best the purest the cleanest the I mean we're talking you know if you look at the fair These are blue ribbon type animals all right. This is this isn't some well. Let's get rid of that one No, no, this is the top-of-the-line stuff Okay, why because every lamb that was ever slaughtered represented the Lamb of God that would one day come That's why it had to be that way, because Jesus as the Lamb of God, born in the manger, God with us, was that perfect sacrifice, that perfect Lamb of God. Nothing less than the best would do as a type. You know, also contained in Matthew 118, through Well, again, let me back up one more. You know, again, I'm going to reiterate one more thought that I started with. It's that Matthew's account, again, majors, majors on the virgin birth of Christ because it's important. It wasn't only important to Joseph to give him peace of mind. It's important to us in the future. You know, and then you couple that with Luke and just the rest of the New Testament, quite frankly. Let me just go back. In Matthew 1.18, in verse 18, Matthew starts out, and then Matthew opens, and this is Matthew talking here. She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, verse 18. And then as he relates the story, and then we get down to the angel, and the angel says, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And it keeps going. And then he quotes the script, quotes Isaiah. Well, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. And Joseph, and it says at the end, and Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth. We can stop right there. Add a little point. There's some that say that Mary was a perpetual virgin, virgin for her entire life. That's not true. That's not true. As a matter of fact, we're in Matthew. Let's go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Verse 55, Matthew 13, 55, that says, you probably remember this statement, you know, they were amazed by what he could do and all of a sudden it says, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters? Yeah, don't forget them. And they are not... Are they not with us? Where then did Jesus, this man, get all these things? I mean, he's just a normal man. How could he do all this? I mean, you know, they were flabbergasted by it. But the point today is that, yes, there's Mary and there's four sons listed. I mean, no, sisters, at least two sisters, all right? So right there you've got, on top of Christ, you've got at least six kids. And we know a couple of these folks, his brothers. James, that first one, that fellow right there, James, that's the guy that you'll see and you'll read about in Acts 15. That was one of the leaders of that Jerusalem church. He's also the writer of the epistle that bears his name, James. You run through Joseph and Simon and then Judas. He changed his name to Jude, and he is the author of that little epistle right there that precedes Revelation. There's two of the brothers right there. So yeah, they had kids later on, but the important is, you know, verse 25 says, but he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. That way, no human intervention whatsoever. It's all divine intervention. The baby is born, then they go through the normal process. You can read about that in Luke, where, you know, at the eighth day, they take the baby, and there's the cleansing process and all that. And I guarantee you, through that whole process, according to the law, Joseph still left her alone and on and on they go and when the time was right they Became a normal husband and wife with a normal husband-wife relationship and Which produces for most most of the time kids and there you have it and that was their life now We've already read about it, but then Luke also clearly saw that, you know, declares the virgin birth, Luke 1, 26-35. We've read that already. You don't need to go back. But it's such a clear teaching in Scripture. And one more little thing. Also contained in Matthew 1, 18-25, Jesus is also proclaimed to be Messiah, Savior, and, of course, God. Look at verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. We can stop right there. Christ. In the Greek. Christos. We've talked about this before. A transliteration. A transliteration is you take a Greek word, in this case Christos, And instead of translating it, what it does mean is the chosen or the chosen one. That's what it means. But they transliterate. So they put Christ. Okay? Now, the Hebrew equivalent is Messiah. That comes from the Hebrew Mashiach. Same thing. A transliteration. Right? And guess what Mashiach translates out to be? The chosen one, yeah, the chosen. So again, so rather than translating it, they transliterate it, and that's where it comes out, fine. They did the same thing for another example, it's baptism, from baptizo. They didn't translate it, they transliterate it, so there you go. We've got those throughout the scriptures. Now, then call his name Jesus, For he who will save his people from their sins, verse 21. He is Savior. And I go back again to our friend Isaiah. What a tremendous book. And just a little piece of it, but Isaiah 53, 5 and 6, I mean, it really starts in Isaiah 52, 13 and then the whole chapter 53. You really got to read them all together. But verses 5 and 6 say, but he was, speaking of the promised one, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastising of our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Why? Well, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord, but Yahweh, has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He took our sins. He took the fall for us. And like I say, He was the propitiation for our sins. He was the one sacrifice and the only sacrifice that could have satisfied the demands of a just God. That's it. Nobody else could have done it. All of us together couldn't have done it. Couldn't have done it. And, last but certainly not least, kind of like back where we started, verse 23, they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. I mean, it's super clear, crystal clear. So we don't just celebrate the birth of a baby who by the world's estimation brings peace to all. Sorry, because he didn't. But he came to save his people from their sin. And for that, his people will be eternally grateful. Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father, our God, we thank you, Lord, for this. this Emmanuel, God with us, this one that came and did pay that price and did in fact save us, your people, from our sins. And Lord, again, we will truly be eternally grateful as we live with you because of that sacrifice in eternity. Again, Lord, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.