Matthew chapter 1, 18 through 25. Matthew chapter 1, 18 through 25. I'm going to read it, you're going to follow along. Matthew chapter 1, 18 to 25. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. Matthew chapter 1, 18-25, and it reads, Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Christmas is a season of ironies. Christmas is a season of ironies. Everywhere you turn, we recognize Christmas. I mean, you got lights and you have the songs and you have the Christmas carols, the trees, the festivities, the shopping. You have office Christmas parties. You have individual Christmas parties. We have all that and we enjoy it. But apart from the hectic pace, and unless you're a very staunch atheist or you're contrary to a Christian religion, everyone enjoys Christmas. However, Ironically, the same people that enjoy Christmas don't love the Christ of Christmas. The irony, the irony of it all. Oh, we tolerate them. That's part of the Christmas story. I mean, there has to be a baby Jesus in the nativity. We need baby Jesus. They tolerate the reality of a baby being born unstable and whatever the tradition, or they may even call it the myth of the birth of Jesus. They do that, but they dance around the central message that God became human so that He might be the Savior of sinners. They dance around that. They'll bring forth everything. Angels flying through the air, that's fine. An angelic announcement of the Savior who is Lord, not acceptable. The virgin birth, no, not quite. Again, the narrative of just a joyful season, a season's greetings, it's Christmas, that's welcome. But the reality, the theological, the Christian message behind Christmas, not so much. But yet this is to be expected. I mean, are you really, as a child of God, are you really surprised you're not winning the culture war? Are you still busy trying to correct everyone who says, happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas? I mean, you can involve yourself in that. It normally ends nowhere. It's like trying to do that on Facebook. Who cares? You don't change minds on Facebook. You don't change minds on Twitter. You change minds when you talk to people. Unless you can go, you know, one-on-one on Facebook. But this thing about whatever these Facebook wars and the culture... Again, do I want to hear Merry Christmas? Absolutely. But you understand that I'm not expecting someone who's blind to the reality of Christmas to use my jargon. To talk like I talk, to believe like I believe, to behave like I behave. This is to be expected if you and I are living in a society that is blind, willfully blind, and doesn't want to hear about the Christ of Christmas. So I've sort of given up on that. Now, do I say Merry Christmas to people as I meet them? Especially as it gets closer. There are no competing holidays. But if I'm talking to a Jewish person, really, do you expect me to say Merry Christmas? Right? I don't need anybody telling me Happy Ramadan. No, we would get ticked if somebody came up to me and said Happy Ramadan. But if we say to someone else and we don't say Merry Christmas to me, all of a sudden they're the worst of the worst and I am righteously, self-righteously up here. So all this to say that it's a season of irony. I expect people, listen, the beauty of it, the beauty of it is this, you and me who have been affected by the Christmas story, we should be the ones celebrating. We should be leading the way. We should be saying, this is what it's really all about, because we're living in the power of the saving story of Jesus the Christ. That makes the difference. The culture war is always going to be there. Child of God, it's only going to get worse as this society, as this nation continues to turn her back and goes more secular by the moment. Stop playing the game and stop expecting the win of the culture. In fact, if you play that game, you're going to spend all your energies in winning a culture war, where instead you should be planting seeds, living in such a way that you're pointing people to the Christ of Christmas. Let's be clear about Christmas. It'll be on the screen. The Christmas story is about God's love and provision for sinners. So the question you and I have to answer, has it made a difference in my life? Has it made a difference in my life? Genealogies, the Jews loved them. They needed them, unlike you and me. I mean, I haven't done that 23andMe or whatever. I think my wife wanted me to take that one of those tests. I think she was looking to see if I was still human, but I'm not going to go farther back than Cuba. I really don't care how far back, past Cuba, I'm not going to remember you anyway. I barely remember you from Cuba. All right, so I know we got Cuba, we may have some Spaniard and who knows what. So I only go back, but for the Jews it was very clear, it was very needed. And if you read Matthew chapter 1, the opening verses of chapter 1, you have the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Traces the genealogy of Jesus Christ 42 generations. Try that. Try that. He goes back. The book of the genealogy, Matthew 1, 1. The son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham, the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah, the father. And this is the father. And this one's the father. And this is the father. You try to get yours to go back 42 generations. It's intentional. It's intentional. We read through the genealogy, we're like, really? There's names here. Now, if you're pregnant, great names here for boys. I'm not going to say anyone. I'm not going to say anyone. Okay. Ozzie, you're off the hook because it's a girl, right? At least we think so. He didn't give me the thumbs up, so maybe I'm saying stuff I shouldn't. But, okay, but to the Graham section, we got, we got, we got a boy, right? We got a boy. A girl? Oh, that's right. So now we have a tie. That's right. I was saying that. That's a tie. There's a tie. So now we got a... No, we got a tie in genders. Now we got to go for a tie for numbers with the hazes. Okay. Jen is already conceding. She's like, they can beat me. They can beat me. Alex, on the other hand, I saw him around here. He's like, we're not done yet. But great names for boys. But here in verse 16, there takes a turn. says, "...and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ." Did you catch it? It's not, "...and Jacob the father of Joseph, the father of Jesus, who is called Christ." If your Bible has that, throw away your Bible. It doesn't say that. It says, Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ. This tells us that the virgin birth, the birth of Christ is unique. Unique. We refer to it as the virgin birth and the virgin birth is essential. That's what we're talking about. The virgin birth matters. It is one of the central tenets of Christianity. There are many scholars, liberal mostly, that will deny the virgin birth or the resurrection. And I said, hey, hey, because my smartphone started talking to me. All right? So I'm not going crazy just the smartphone every so often. I put it on silent and it still talks. So the reality, though, is that this matters. And we sometimes don't understand the true meaning of that virgin birth. So to that end, we're going to take a look at it today. Matthew 1, 18 through 25 addresses this reality. So let's take a look at it in various parts. Part number one, I want you to look at the scandal. The scandal, verses 18 and 19. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. There's a scandal regarding or surrounding the conception of Jesus the Christ. See, you and I, we read this and it's not scandalous. And quite honestly, in 2022, a baby before a wedding, that's not scandalous. That's sadly, sometimes it's part and parcel for whatever reason. A baby preceding a wedding, that's in 2022, no big deal. But what's scandalous here is, first of all, it's not Joseph's baby. Let's take the phrase that de-scandalizes these verses out of the verses and let's reread them. So the phrase that de-scandalizes the verses is from, with child, from the Holy Spirit, right? From the Holy Spirit, that de-scandalizes it. So I'm going to cross that out, lean over to somebody and just cross it out in their Bible. Let me read it. And now men, imagine if you're Joseph, You've pledged your love to the love of your life. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child, and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quickly. That's where we're at. What's going on here? Clear two things, Mary's with child, okay, Mary's with child, and Joseph doesn't want to be with her. Once you take out this phrase from the spirit, it creates the scandal. Again, in 2022, that doesn't create so much of a scandal. That wouldn't make it to the Jerry Springer show of the day, back in the day. All right? Dr. Phil's not going to have, here's Joseph and Mary breaking you, okay? But put yourself back in the context of a Jewish community in this first century, and now you got a problem. That's what's going on there. What's not clear is how Joseph is, is the husband, but she's not the wife, but then he takes her as a wife. What in the world is going on here? Are they married? Are they not? Because if they're not, then why does he have to divorce her or leave her? What is going on? Now, if you've done some study, you know exactly what's going on. But just in case, let me tell you two things. Number one, Mary's pregnancy. Mary's pregnancy, she's betrothed. Okay, she had been betrothed to Joseph. Betrothal was different than engagement. You might be engaged here this morning. That's not betrothed. Not in the New Testament sense, not in the sense of the Jewish community. Betrothal in the Jewish community pretty much was binding, as binding as marriage. If your Bible, they may have a little asterisk, mine does, and it says, look down here, it says, legally pledged to be married. They lived as a married couple, even though they lived separately. And the wife lived in eager expectation of the return of her bridegroom, the groom. So that's what's going on here. Betrothal was so binding that you could only terminate it with a divorce, legal divorce. That's the scandal here. During this betrothal, Mary is found with child and the language of the New Testament here, what it leads to suggest, what it seems to suggest is that Mary didn't tell him. You know how Joseph finds out? Baby bump. Eventually you just can't, you know what I mean? Eventually, I don't care how much you try. That seems to be the indication because there's no record in the divine revelation here of Mary saying anything. Joseph finds out what he doesn't know is the means. Mary does, Luke chapter one, the angel Gabriel says, hey, you're gonna be with Charles. She goes, how is this since I'm a virgin? Gabriel tells them in Luke 135, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. The only begotten Son of God becomes a human being because of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Now, you and I may sit here today in 2022 and go, I'm too smart for this. No, no, I'm not going to take this myth to heart. There's no way a woman having no sexual relations with another human being, all of a sudden is found to be with child. I'm not going to accept it. Well, you're the same one in 2022, I'm the same one in 2022, that can believe that science can impregnate a woman, not outside of the womb. We have found ways. So if you can accept that by faith, you really can't accept by faith a supernatural work of the God who said, let there be light? Well, that's a reflection more on your blindness and your willful hardened heart than the realities. Because if science can take us to this, can you imagine over here in Joseph and Mary saying, IVF is a viable option for you, Joseph and Mary, that's in vitro fertilization. They would say, what? What? But yet you and I take this, we and I live in this 21st century and we're seeing all these advances in science, yet we want to reject the supernatural work, the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Mary. If man can take us to here, God who's way beyond humanity, the human race can do what he needs to do. So you have Mary's pregnancy. How's Joseph's reaction? Joseph's reaction. He says, and her husband, being a just man, unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quickly. The key word there, resolved. Hey guys, when faced with a really difficult situation, take time to think through it. Take time. Take time. Two seasons of life reveal what a person's made of. Prosperity and adversity. You can tell a lot about a person through prosperity. What they do with all the blessings that God sends their way. Or, adversity. When it seems like God doesn't pay attention to you. When it feels like God is ignoring you. Two seasons of life will show you what you're made of, child of God. A season of prosperity, where the tendency is to forget God. And a season of adversity, where the tendency of we're not careful is to blame God. And you have here a season of adversity. But see how Joseph rises to the occasion. He's a man of character. Verse 19 says, he's a just man. Doesn't mean he was perfect. It means he understood the law of God. He understood what the Torah said to him. And when faced with this, he understood the authority of God's Word and how he was bound to that authority of God's Word. It was, what do I do now? He was a just man. Joseph would not commit sexual immorality with Mary, so he wouldn't give in to the common notion of today's world where it's just option and I can just enjoy the blessings of marriage outside the covenant of marriage. He was too just, he understood the Torah, what the Word of God said about that, nor could he then condone the fact that she apparently didn't. Because a baby bump says something went south. Someone's self, he's a man of character. What do I do? He's a man of compassion. Mary's in a tough spot. Would you agree? Yes or yes? Yes, yeah, yeah. What we don't tend to remember is that Matthew reminds us that Joseph's spot was not any softer. See, Joseph tends to be the forgotten hero of the Christmas story. Joseph's spot wasn't any... Hey, guy? Hey, your loved one? Your lovey-dovey? Your bae? What happens if that's... You're Joseph, and she's Mary. You're living life, and all of a sudden, you're seeing that belly bump, baby bump show up? Bae-bae. Boo. Boo. Sweetheart. Yo, what's up? Right? See? It's a man of compassion. Mary was the woman he agreed to love. The woman who would have his children. The one he would leave a legacy with. The one who would nurture and teach them. She was the one who was gonna, you know, manage that household. She was to be found with a child and listen, at the very least, it's the stain of sexual sin. At the very worst, this baby doesn't belong to me. I haven't touched her. I know that. She knows that. That means only somebody else could have done that. I didn't do it. I know it. She knows it. Yet there's baby bump. Stop and think. Walk in his shoes. Breathe the air. How would you feel? Humiliated? You got to raise someone else's child? Many do. For that, we applaud when men step up. But what would you do? In 2022, you know what's the easy answer to this, right? What's the easy answer? You talk to me. Yeah, you kill it. You kill it. Aren't you glad they weren't living in the United States of America in 2022? You kill it. That's a done deal. Get rid of the unwanted, the inconvenient. But they don't. They don't. They set a pattern for you and me. They don't. But what does he do? He's, listen, on one end, listen, if I choose to take her as my wife, I'm admitting guilt. I would have to say, yes, this is my child. Shame on us. We don't live in that kind of society anymore. You go back 100 years, 200 years in the United States of America, you may have found somewhat of that kind of society, the taboo that really weighed upon the shoulders of Americans. But today we don't do that. But this is true right here. In a community of faith, known as the Jewish community, in the city where they were in, they would have been seen and who knows what they would have been talking about. And did you hear? One Bible commentator captures the moment on the screen. I envision the weight of this decision in this way. On one shoulder, Joseph has the righteous requirements of God's law whispering in his ear. You have to expose her error. The sin cannot go unpunished. On the other shoulder is the compassion and mercy of God's law. And note, Here, that's not a devil and an angel on his shoulders. These are two angels, if you will. Two angels wrestling with his heart. Compassion counsels him. Joseph, a private divorce is the way to proceed. Dismiss her quietly. In this way, you both show the justice and the love of God. Wow. Yeah. That's the moment. That's the moment. Verse 18 and 19. Thankfully, for Joseph, for Mary, for Jesus, for you and me. God steps in, removes any imaginary. angel and sends a real one. And we have an angelic clarification in verses 20 and 21. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Thankfully, God provides context. God provides a divine view of things. Child of God, when the season of adversity takes you to the brink of unbelief, takes you to the brink of, I can't take it anymore. I don't see God at work. What is going on in my life? Stay the course. God has promised that He will provide context. He will provide insight. Stay the course. Joseph was, you know, you can tell he was not Jose de Hialeah. Let me translate that for non-Hialeans. Bro, what's up with this chick, man? What's up? You're not gonna get this off of me. He pondered steady, steady in an argument, in a crisis of belief. Someone has to keep the level head. So child of God, keep a level head, even as you're bobbing for air. Listen, when it gets hard to breathe, you don't stop breathing. You fight for every breath. Sometimes it feels that way in our walk with the Lord. And He's doing a wonderful thing. He's creating perseverance. He's creating fortitude. He's strengthening us so we can rise above the situation. And that's where you find him and he sends an angel, he sends an angel to let Joseph know what Mary already knew. She had been told, it's from God, the baby is from God. It's a divine thing, it's crazy. She can't understand it, but now the angel is there and he tells him two things, two truths. The truth about Mary, the truth about Mary, He says, listen, your wife, that which she has is conceived in her from the Holy Spirit. He says, Joseph, son of David, don't just run right by that. Son of David, Joseph, you are in the Davidic line of kings. This is important, Joseph. You don't push her away. You don't reject her. I don't want you to because I have a promise to keep. the Lord would say through the angel, you're a son of David. See, Matthew is arguing that Jesus is the promised Messiah King, the promised King of the Old Testament. And to do that, he has to be the legal heir to the throne of David. And that's what he does. That's why he reminds them, hey, listen, Joseph, the truth about Mary is that the child she carries, Joseph's son of David, is of the Lord. That happening, that baby bump, believe it or not. Again, imagine we are in first century. We're not in the 21st century where we can see things, where we understand science is on our side and stuff. This is before they have this understanding. And here you're telling a guy who's betrothed to his gal that the baby in her belly is the result of divine intervention. That's the truth. And the angel commands Joseph not only not to divorce Mary, but to go ahead and marry her. And by doing so, she legally becomes his wife and Joseph's son. Her baby becomes legally Joseph's son. The truth about Jesus in verse 21, she will bear a son, he shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The angel told Joseph three things about the baby. Did you catch it? In one verse, three things. What are the things? Talk to me, talk to me. Huh? He will save his people from their sins. Okay, what else? Do we need a gender reveal party? What's the gender? Yeah, that in verse 19, which is in her, now becomes a who. So boys, we don't need a gender reveal party. Save your money. Go to the Amazon registry. All right? So we have the gender, we have the mission, and we got the name, Jesus. He announces his name. He doesn't say, Hey, Joseph, when the baby's born, you know, flip a coin, whatever you like, sorry, whatever will come across your mind. What do you, you know, what do you want to have? What are you going to call him? Joseph the third, JJ, Joseph jr. You know, no, he tells them, Hey, it's a boy. You're going to name him this because this is what he's going to do. Boy, clarification, marching orders. The gender is taken care of, the name is taken care of, and the mission, He will save. While the name of Jesus was common, I mean, He wasn't the first Joshua named in the Jewish community. Probably wouldn't be the last. But the mission, again, the name which is Jesus, Joshua, Jehovah saves Joshua of the Old Testament, okay? That means He will save, salvation is of the Lord. But here's the catch, you could have named everybody else, Yeshua, it didn't matter. But nobody was born like He was born, and nobody was given the mission He was given. He will save His people from their sins. All that the Father has chosen, every single one of them, He will die to secure their salvation. And as a gift to the Son, they will come to faith. He will die to save His people from their sin. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. That's the truth about Jesus. That's the truth about Christmas. Israel rightly expected the Lord to send the Messiah King. But they wanted just something political. No different than you and me sometimes. We'll find people that just, they want the Jesus that'll get them out of the trouble. They want the Jesus that'll get them out of a hard time. They want the God who will alleviate the pain. But they don't want a Lord that tells them, this is how you live. Like Israel of old, we have a, we want a deliverer, a savior, someone to get me free from Egypt. But please don't give me a Lord that tells me how to live in the promised land. But yet you can't divide the offices that way. He is Savior and Lord. You don't make Him anything anymore or any less. He is who He is. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus came to save sinners. Isaiah 64 tells us, you and I cannot save ourselves. We have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away. But yet John 3, 16 and 17 say, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So you have this scandal. And at the height of, I'm so confused, what is going on here? I need a word, O Lord. I need clarity. God says, here's the clarity. Sends an angel. You and me, in today's world, we have His Word. Don't expect an angel. You have much more than an angel. The fully revealed will of God. You don't have to wait. You just have to crack open the book. So you have the scandal. You have the angelic clarification. Now in verses 22 and 23, prophecy becomes reality. Prophecy becomes reality. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. Stop there. Joseph's betrothed wife became mysteriously pregnant, and yet when the angel, I guess, provides that clarification, he tells them two things. Remember, this is what I'm telling you. This is divine revelation, and this is divine incarnation. The virgin birth of Jesus number one fulfills divine revelation you see it in verse 22 This took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet again Matthew's aim to his audience, which is primarily a Jewish audience that he has in mind That's why he tries to tie in time and time again. This fulfills what was said in the Old Testament This was fulfilled by the prophets. This was fulfilled here. This was fulfilled and from when they spoke years ago and from time ago. Why? Because He's connecting the dots from the old covenant to the new one. He's connecting the dots. All that was painted by the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus as Christ. That's what He's saying. He ties it all in. Devalidate the identity of Jesus, the promised Messiah. He cites a passage, and this is to fulfill what the Lord spoke by the prophet. Then he quotes Isaiah 7, 14. It's a promise that was given to the house of David in Isaiah 7, 13. A child will be born. The context there is different. And it does have a partial fulfillment in Isaiah 8, because a child is born. It is, and there's an immediate fulfillment to what's going on, but there's not an ultimate one because chapters 9 and 11 of Isaiah come after that and they promise a child whose name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. See, that doesn't apply to the child of Isaiah 8, that applies to Messiah. And even here at the beginning of the New Testament, we're reminded that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training. We see it, this fulfills. This is not just somebody's, you know, dream come true. This is God's promises being fulfilled. The virgin birth, the virgin birth fulfills divine revelation. Number two, the virgin birth assures us that the Lord has drawn near. Verse 23, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and she shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. And we have hints throughout the Old Testament, right, of God being with his people. God comes to Abraham and speaks to him. When the Israelites are traveling for 40 years, by the way, through the wanderings, we know that as the book of Numbers. They're wandering in the desert for 40 years. How were they led? How did the Lord lead them? Talk to me. In the day there was a cloud and at night, pillar of fire. That was God saying, I'm with you. We have hints. I'm with you. But this here is different. This God with us means literally, physically, personally. God has invaded the reality of humanity. God has taken form. Human. God has become human. Doesn't look human. He is human. Crazy kind of stuff. The second person of the Trinity, the Son. The beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And He then took on flesh, lived amongst us. That's what we're talking about, the incarnation, the incarnation. God's promise almost 800, 700 years earlier comes to fruition here in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. God is with us. And in verses 24 and 25, what would you do when you woke up from this kind of nap? Most of us will nap today, right? Maybe, maybe. You eat enough, you go into a food coma, you know, calories overload, system shutting down, you know, type of stuff. I'll try, but I don't think I'm gonna make it, all right? So what happens when you wake up from such like this? Well, what you see in verses 24 and 25, you see faith acting in obedience results in a blessing. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. A large cast of characters converge upon the birth of Jesus. We rightly honor, you know, the mother of Jesus, Mary, and she takes prominence most of the time. And we talk about the angels, and we talk about the shepherds, and the wise men, and the innkeeper. They all get more respect than Joseph. He's the forgotten man of Christmas. But yet, Joseph is a profound example of what it means to trust and obey God. By waking up and obeying, two things happen immediately. Mary becomes his legal wife, verse 24. Jesus becomes his legal son, verse 25. By marrying the woman he's betrothed to with child, Joseph ensures the family lineage. of the Davidic Kings. And if you think that's something, ah, so what's the big deal? I'll give you the big deal. 2 Samuel 7, 16, it's called the Davidic Covenant, God's promise to David. He says, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. And if you don't have Jesus from the lineage of David, then he can't be Messiah. So God then makes a promise he can't keep. He's not you and me. He does keep his promises. He does. And the promise made in 2 Samuel is seen, is realized here with the birth of Jesus Christ. Now notice that Joseph, we don't know how quickly, you know, remember it was a betrothal period, usually lasted about a year. We don't know where we're at in that year. Maybe, I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell you. It's not meant to fill in all those blanks. We don't even know how quickly he just says he woke up and he took her as his wife. Now that might be summary or he might have been literal. I mean, I got to do what God says. Let me get busy. We really don't know how, but the thing is that they lived together as husband and wife with one exception. What's the exception? I'm going to make you say it, not me. No consummation. That's too big of a word. I don't understand that consummation. Huh? Yeah, yeah. I said I have a consummation. Talk to me later. That's too much. I'm not playing Scrabble. I don't need double points on the Ms. OK? Huh? No, no, no, no coming together. I need some more. I don't know. I'm dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. I want. That's what I'm talking about right there, Rachel, right there. No sex for you. No sex for you. Now, I don't know about you guys. My wife is here. When we were engaged, I was looking forward to consummation. OK? I don't know about you guys. Maybe you guys are better than me. Maybe you are. Not me, probably. So can you imagine my man Joe, not only by taking on a prego, The command doesn't say that I can't do it. Easy. OK? Doesn't say. But he still doesn't do it. So my man Joe has to take on a prego, wait until the prego pops, then give it a few weeks, because you know you got to do that. And then, watch out. Let the heavens rumble. Can you hear the thunder? All right? We don't get into this. We would just go, okay, yeah, get into it. Joseph is the man. But why did he choose not to? He didn't have to. He could have figured a way, he could have done something. But here's Joseph at his best in verse 25. It says it and the Bible and the human author inspired by the Spirit of God records it. So there can never be a doubt that who's the biological father. Joseph is not the biological father. And that makes a big difference. Because Jesus did not come as a result of flesh and blood. Because if he comes as a result of flesh and blood, he's as sinful as you and me. There has to be a difference. There has to be a difference. There's a big one. Oh, by the way, again, verse 25, trust and obey. He did not know her, that's Bible talk for no sex. He did not know her until she had given birth to her son. What's the implication? They resumed natural marital relations. And if you think that Mary remained just one child, and we'll talk about that probably a little more next week, you got to read the gospel according to Matthew around chapter 12, I think. Because they're looking at Jesus and they say, isn't this Jesus, the son of, whose brothers and sisters are, and they named them. So that means to tell me, I, listen, I was born in Havana, raised in Little Havana, went to Miami High. But that still tells me that they resumed marital duties and babies were born. So the Virgin Mary didn't remain virgin. What can we take with us this morning? Pastor H.B. Charles states something as well. We should take it. It's going to be on the screen in just a moment. The birth of Jesus is arguably the greatest miracle except for His resurrection from the dead. God became a fetus. The Creator of life created Himself in the womb of a woman He created. He who is larger than the universe became an embryo. Omnipotence became breakable. He whose spirit became pierceable. The ancient of days became the infant of days. That was the best. He who sustains the world chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a virgin girl. This guy knocked it out of the park. The ancient of days became the infant of days. Why is the virgin birth important? Let me leave you with three thoughts. Number one, the virgin birth highlights the supernatural character of Jesus and of the gospel. The virgin birth is posted on guard at the door, at the front door of the mystery of Christmas. And you can't rush right by it. From the very beginning, from the very beginning, this Christmas story is telling the reader, you must have faith. Faith is indispensable. This is not a myth. This is not optional. It's posted at the front door, guarding the rest of the Christmas story and saying, will you take this at face value? Will you take the fact that God intervened humanity, God intervened in this supernatural, miraculous way, and Jesus is of supernatural origins? Or will you not? Because if you falter here, then who cares the rest of the New Testament? Who cares if He stilled the waters? Who cares if He changed the water to wine? Who cares if He calms the seas? Who cares if He dies on a cross? Who cares if He resurrected? It's all a myth anyway, because I rushed past the front door of the virgin birth. From the beginning, faith is required. From the very beginning. The virgin birth is God's gracious declaration. Faith is required from the very start. Number two, the virgin birth is a sign of God's judgment on human nature. Humanity needs a Redeemer. Humanity cannot provide what humanity needs. The virgin birth, that's why Christmas needs to lead you to Calvary. Tis the season, tis the reason. The virgin birth is a sign of God's judgment. Human race cannot produce its own Redeemer, not by decision, desire, processes of education, of civilization, the next evolution, the next rung of evolution is the Savior. No, no, no, no, you can't. Jesus the Christ is the solution. God doesn't stand out here in the heavens and screams, I love you! I love you! No, no, He says, God so loved the world that He took a posture. And the posture is, I send you my best, I send you myself, that which I require and demand, I provide. Okay? That's the beauty of it. That's the beauty of it. Only God could satisfy His own standards of perfection. He is saying, He's looking at people saying, be perfect. And the first thing you're going to have to say is, I'm not. You're right. And I'm going to punish you for that. For you're a rebel to my throne. You're a rebel to my creation. You have gone all your way and done your thing. Everyone has chosen to do it their own way. Like Frank Sinatra, I'll do it my way. And I'm going to punish you for that because you deserved it. You've earned it. Because I've given you life. And you've stepped all over it. I demand perfection. And then God says, here it is. That which I demand, I provide. God the judge passes the sentence of death. God the Savior becomes a human. lives the perfect life, dies the perfect death, absorbing the very wrath that He ordained for those who believe in Him. That's the virgin birth. That's the virgin birth. God doing for humanity what humanity could not do and quite honestly was unwilling to do. Because we like pigs love the slop. The virgin birth, number three, is a sign that Jesus Christ is a new beginning. He's the divine intrusion, the last great culminating eruption of power, the power of God and the plight of humanity. It's God doing the ultimate thing. One Bible scholar put it this way, it will be on the screen. Man is involved only in the form of non-willing, non-achieving, non-creative, non-sovereign man. Only in the form of a man who can merely receive, merely be ready, merely let something be done to and with himself. This is our role in Christmas. The sinners that required a Savior. That's our role in Christmas. Don't think you're all that in a bag of chips. You know, you've heard it. You're not even the aftertaste of Diet Coke. You're much worse. You're the reason for this season as a sinner, unrepentant, not wanting to trust, hell bound. And God says, I will punish you. And then he turns around and says, and here's the savior to rescue you. And it's through the virgin birth that he fulfills it. Earlier this morning we sang, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Did you appreciate the incarnation? Did you appreciate it? Look, look, look on the screen there. Here's one of the things we sang. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. That's theology. That's theology. The God-man. That's the Anthropos, the Theos, God, the Anthropos man. The God man. Now 50-50, because 50-50 leaves him shy of what? 50% of God and 50% of man. Fully God, fully human. 100% God, 100% human. The Savior of sinners, no less than God with us. Have you put your trust in Him? Have you banked your eternity on Jesus the Christ? Salvation depends upon personally receiving the gift. I can't do it for you. You can't do it for me. God offers it to you through his eternal son. If God is truly with us in Christ, then we must come to God only through Christ. I'm going to repeat that. If God is truly with us in Christ, then we must come to God only through Christ. Have you done that? Have you done that this morning? Is this just going to be just another Christmas? It's going to come and go. January will come and my visa bill is due. Or my credit card is due. Maybe you use Discover. Is this going to be just another Christmas season? Or will this be the season, the Christmas, where you trust in the Christ of Christmas? Child of God, how are you in your walk? How are you living the reality that I've trusted in the Christ of Christmas? Let's close our eyes and bow our head for just a moment. Pray with me. It'll prepare us to sing a song in just a few moments. Come thou fount, come thou king. That's our plea. That's our prayer before the God that send Jesus. Send. Send Him. We sing. Have you trusted in Christ? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? If you haven't, we invite you to trust in Him today. The Lord God who's holy has made provision for escape. Lord God, we pray, we plead with you that those that need to turn to you would even do it this morning. Those that are so familiar with the Christmas story that they've lost sight of the Christ of the story. Father, perhaps your own children, we have lost sight of the beauty of Christ. We have begun to take you for granted. We're not living like those who belong to you. We're flirting with sin. Forgive us. Renew our vision, renew our focus. We confess that we have fallen short. Restore us. And for those, oh Lord, that have not trusted in you, do not shorten your hand of salvation upon their lives. Continue to extend them opportunity to come to Jesus. We love you, we need you. In Jesus' name, and God's people said,