I would like to continue in the Gospel of Luke. We were there once a few Sundays ago, and we will be in the second chapter of Luke, and we're going to read the first verse through verse 20 of chapter 2. Maybe we won't read that, but we'll read through the first seven verses right now. before we read this. Our Father and our God in heaven we thank you for the bringing us the occasion of our being brought together here this evening in this thy church and pray that you will bless this church. Bless each one who is here in this assembly this evening. Bless them for receiving the word and may the word find root in them each one of us and might it become part of us. Your word, I pray, Father, will be the instrument of our lives to direct us and to teach us and to guide us to Christ Jesus and a closer walk with Him or to guide us to Him that we might gain the salvation of our souls. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This is the Christmas account. This is the part of the Bible that gets read a lot at the Christmas season of the year and It's too bad because there's a considerable amount of very important doctrine to be found in this particular passage of scripture. And it's a shame that it has become so commercialized. Came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. That means registered, like a census. And this taxing was first made when Quirinius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, everyone, into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son. and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." I think I'd like for us, at least primarily this evening, to fix our attention upon the, find the verse here, the fifth verse. Joseph and Mary went to be registered. Joseph took Mary, his espoused wife. She was very pregnant, very great with child. And I don't know when you read this, or even when you read it in the Matthew account, that Joseph was espoused to Mary, how that registers with you, but think about this. This is an unusual statement. Espoused wife. Because she was pregnant a spouse is translated from the Greek word, which really properly better translated is betrothed And we all know what betrothed means We reduce it to a more common English expression today, which is engaged Engaged to be married. Well, this word means betrothed to be married now Do you understand the importance of what is said here? Joseph and Mary She was pregnant He went with her as though they were family. They were not married. They were not yet married. They were engaged to be married when he went to Bethlehem for the census, for the registration. This means something very important, and this is why I think it's critical that we sometimes should read scripture and pay particular attention to words which you normally would just skip over. This means that the scriptures which foretold or prophesied that a virgin would bring forth a child, a son, was absolutely accurately true. Because, see, it doesn't say that this woman would be a virgin when she conceived only. It says this woman would be a virgin when she would bring forth the son. So the marriage had not yet been completed or consummated. Joseph, however, kept his loyalty and his fidelity to his engaged wife in order that he might fulfill as he was instructed by the angel Gabriel. You may remember in the Gospel of Matthew a parallel revelation was given to Joseph as was given to Mary here in the Gospel of Luke when the same angel told her that she was going to be pregnant by the Holy Ghost. Joseph was told the same thing by Gabriel. And so both Mary and Joseph had the same revelation. It was not a secret from either one of them. They both knew that the child that she was carrying was the child of God, the child of the Holy Ghost, the Son of God. They both knew that. They knew it while she was pregnant, and they knew it after she delivered. They did not forget it. And so Mary and Joseph had this common, I guess you would have to call it secret, except Elizabeth also, Mary's cousin, understood it as well, the mother of John the Baptist. So this becomes critically important because, people, You don't remember anything else. You remember this, that the conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost and his delivery through the birth canal of his mother was the conception and delivery of a child to a virgin. This is critical. Over in in the epistle of John. There's a verse that says, let me just look at it very quickly here. It says this in the fourth chapter of John, first John, third verse, every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God and this is the spirit of antichrist of which you have heard that it should come and even now already it is in the world. Now the reason I refer you to that verse is Because this is not a statement that says if you say If all you say it's oh, yeah, I believe Jesus Christ lived. I believe the man named Jesus If you all you're going to do is give Recognition to the existence of a historical person Named Jesus Christ if that's all you're going to do then you are denying that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and because the whole supposition of that verse that I just read to you is that Jesus Christ existed before he came in the flesh and then came in the flesh. Do you understand how the construction of the phraseology is there? He existed, he came in the flesh, he was there, he was here. So one cannot deny that and still be a Christian. He will be less than a Christian. He may be a nominal Christian, but he will not be a Christian. One cannot be saved believing that Jesus Christ simply was a historical person, because if that's all he was, he had no power to save. So, it's critical that we understand, and the Bible, everywhere we turn, supports the idea that Jesus Christ was no mere mortal man. He was born of a woman, conceived of God. And it becomes critical to us because Jesus Christ needed to be a lamb Perfect lamb a perfect sacrifice to bear the sins of his people I I probably should refer you just to Isaiah 7 where the in the 14th verse is simply reads Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel now the accuracy of that that prophetic verse is breathtaking we Because we are so ingrained with the idea that Christ, our Lord, was born of a virgin Mary, that when we read things like this, we become more casual about it. But it's not a casual statement. It's a prophetically accurate statement. Listen to it again. Now, if you look in the Matthew account, of Gabriel's revelation to Joseph, you will find even the name is accurately given. Why don't you go there to Matthew chapter 1? The 18th verse of chapter 1, Matthew reads like this, and we'll read down a few verses. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. And 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, Joseph, 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. She shall bring forth a son and I shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet that would be the prophet Isaiah who just read about saying a Virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son and now shall call his name Emmanuel and then the angel interprets the name Emmanuel to Joseph which means being interpreted is God with us so Jesus Christ This is a paramount and premier point of our belief system. Jesus Christ is God. He was, when he was here in the flesh, with us. It was the physiognomy of the eternal God, reduced to human flesh, was God with us. It's important because if Jesus Christ was not the manifestation of the pre-existing person, the sonship of the Godhead. If he was not that, if he didn't pre-exist his birth, then he would be a poor sacrifice for sins, and we would yet be lost in our sins, because he would not have been a perfect offering. He is a perfect offering for two reasons. One is that he came through a virgin, and his father was the Heavenly Father, the Holy Ghost. Therefore, he is a perfect offering because you can't get more perfect than God. God is perfect. And he became a perfect sacrifice. And any less than that would give credence to all the religious systems that have arisen subsequent to his ascension into heaven. And those systems which require sacrifices and offerings and masses and good works and prayers and sacraments in order to get one better prepared for heaven, Would all be one would have to make an argument say well, it's better than what we're doing because at least they're making an effort to overcome an inferior sacrifice But he is not an inferior sacrifice He's not inferior because he is God You can't there's no Conceivable Rationale that can devise a better more perfect sacrifice than the one that God gave on behalf of sinners such as we are in the person of Jesus Christ his eternal Son made flesh and dwelt among us there cannot be a you can't improve upon that and all the efforts to improve Upon that sacrifice in my opinion at least are really statements Confessions that Jesus Christ didn't quite do it well enough And more needs to be done, but more doesn't need to be done. More shouldn't need to be done. The scriptures say that he had a body prepared for him in heaven in order that he might offer himself one time, once, for all the sins of all the people for all time, once. That he went into the veil, into the holiest of holy places with his blood, once. The scriptures say this very plainly. Not often, but once. And he went himself, the risen, triumphant Lord, to offer that before God. I don't know how it strikes you, but I think we need to hone our perspective of the Scripture, because the keener we are toward the Word of God, the more worshipful we will become. So Mary delivered Jesus the Christ, the child, while she was still in a state of virginity. Now, I need to add something else here because I also want to put away another serious misconception that has been developed by certain strains of Christianity. Mary was married to Joseph, They lived as husband and wife. The marriage was consummated. Mary did not assume into heaven a virgin. Mary died as a normal person would die, and she died as a mother of many children, not just Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary produced other children. That's also factual in the scriptures. So we need to put to rest a lot of the theories and developments and inventions that intend, attempt to improve upon the whole scheme of redemption by elevating the mother of Jesus beyond what she should be, and demeaning the person of Jesus Christ from what he is. And you might as well know that there are religious systems, to the extent they're very big ones, popular ones, that believe those two things. Mary is elevated, and Jesus Christ is sacrificed over and over and over again in the Altar of the Mass, and other sacraments which are designed to elevate people's souls. It just is not biblical. Jesus Christ being born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Ghost, and dying on Calvary's cross as the Son of God is all sufficient for all time, for all the sins of all his elect, and there will be none lost because he failed. He has not failed, nor has God failed. in his design of redemption. We'll go on here. The 7th verse says, She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Now the name Christ becomes critically important as well. Christ means anointed one, the anointed, the sent anointed one, literally is what it means. And so Jesus Christ was sent, anointed from heaven, who is the Lord. And incidentally, the scriptures do say, and attribute to Jesus Christ, that at the time of the resurrection, the judgment of all flesh, At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and he is called Lord here. Jesus Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. They came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said to one another now let us now go even to Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger and when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child and all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as was told unto them." Now why Gabriel, same angel by the way, it would be Gabriel, the one who had spoken to Joseph and had also spoken to Mary, came to these shepherds and revealed to them that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of this woman Mary, this virgin. It was only, it was for the purpose of disseminating the news, getting the news out. There was no television there. I doubt very much that there was public media that any of them would have carried this story. They tend to shy away from holy stories, true godly stories, so they probably wouldn't have carried it, but it didn't matter. God revealed this event to shepherds who, when they went and investigated it, it says simply that they made it known abroad. And it's saying they told what was told them concerning this child. Now Jesus, his birth, just his birth, had an impact locally in the environs of Jerusalem. The fact that he was born became generally well known within a relatively short period of time. It was so that Herod, who was the king at that time, who did not want anyone to be in a position to usurp his throne of authority as a king of Jews, sent out an edict to have all male children under the age of two, because he wasn't sure exactly of the time or exactly where he was, to have them all killed. And it happened. That's historical truth. A true historical event. is that around the time that Jesus was born, within the confines of that time period, Herod had this edict sent out and all male Jewish babies two years of age and younger were killed, except those which were hit, of course. And Jesus escaped this because, you may remember, that Joseph and Mary, because of this edict, fled to Egypt and stayed there for some time until after the danger had been passed. So the birth of Christ was well known. The birth of Jesus Christ is well documented in the scripture. How he came to be conceived and born is well documented in the scripture. How we should view that event is well documented in scripture. And anyone who does not believe that Jesus Christ came and took upon himself human flesh is not is not a nominal Christian, but is an anti-Christ, according to the Scripture, is opposed to Christ. One cannot believe, other than what the Scripture says of Jesus Christ, without being opposed to him. You know, opposition to Christ comes in so many different forms. It comes in the form of religious deception, it comes in the form of philosophical deception, it comes in the form of human goodness, it comes in all those forms. Because people, generally speaking, don't think themselves overt opposers to Jesus Christ. But if they deny the eternalness of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, the virgin conception and birth of Christ, then they deny Christ. They deny that Jesus Christ is coming to bless. You remember that. Because that is a paramount, critical doctrine to our faith. And any less than that would give us no hope at all for salvation. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, such as we are. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. And I pray that you will attach it to our minds and hearts in such a way as it will bolster us and strengthen our faith. In Jesus' name, amen.