Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. I am going to read this familiar passage beginning in verse 18 and going down to verse 25, the end of that chapter. Very familiar passage. I'm sure it won't be any mystery to you why we're looking at this particular passage at this time of the year. I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible. So Matthew writes, 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 child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. Once again, let's do ask the Lord for his blessing upon this familiar portion of his word. Our father, we have sung your praises for your provision of that wonderful son of God who became man, who took on him human nature. And we thank you that in that nature, he obeyed your law perfectly. And in that nature, he suffered upon the cross at the hands of cruel, wicked men. But we, Lord, have put our hope in him. And now we ask that because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and your love for your people, that you would come and bless the word of God. No one, Lord, can make the word live in our hearts but your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would give him to us now and excite and strengthen our faith and our resolve to serve you. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Well, when it became clear that I would be preaching here this morning, I had this opportunity. My mind turned to this passage because, of course, we have entered into the Christmas season. And so the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is a good thing for us to contemplate. And this particular passage has a lot of value for us. As familiar as it may be, there's a lot of benefit to this passage for us. The other passage, which also came to mind, but I decided on this one, was the other passage on the announcement of the birth of Jesus, which is in Luke chapter one. You're familiar with that as well, most of you, I'm sure, the announcement to Mary. But we're going to consider the announcement to Joseph, Mary's husband. Actually, the events we have read about probably happened about six months before the birth of our Lord Jesus. I can't give a more definite time because the scriptures only give us broad hints about it, but I can tell you that it was about six months because This is a account of history. This is not a myth, this is not a nice religious story, but this is actually an historic account of the announcement of the angel to Joseph. The people we read about here in Matthew chapter one were real people, just as real as you and I. The events described by Matthew happened just as they are reported in our Bibles. In fact, they are more accurate than the events reported on CNN or Fox News. Everybody has their favorite media outlet where the news comes. There's nothing like this. Why? Because this is the inspired word of God. And it is absolutely accurate and trustworthy. We're not engaging in some general religious activity seeking to understand this. These are the words of truth. These are words of truth about the savior of the world. And so we are looking to God to help us to understand what Matthew wrote. And Matthew wrote by the Holy Spirit He wrote, the truth, and only the truth, nothing in this account is made up or fanciful or just the excitement of some religious mind. These are words of God. It's not my purpose to defend my approach to Matthew chapter one. We, the Christian men and women who worship in this place, we believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, the whole Bible, from cover to cover. And these have been directed by the God of truth for our benefit. So if any of you here, I don't know, All of you, as well as I know some of you, but if any of you have a question about the divine inspiration of the Bible, I would be very glad to talk to you about it. It's very important that we have total confidence in the Word of God. So in keeping with this faith, it's my happy task to explain to you from this passage, Good News for Joseph. That's my title of the passage and of my sermon. It's Good News for Joseph. We're going to take this up under three heads. It breaks up very naturally, very easily. We're going to look at a serious dilemma. and then a supernatural declaration, and then an extraordinary obedience. These are the way we're going to look at the passage. First of all, a serious dilemma. As Matthew recounts these events, he begins by quickly dropping us into a strange and difficult situation. We are informed here that Mary had become betrothed to Joseph and you're likely to think, well, they, they were engaged. Hmm. Yeah, they were. I guess you could call it that. But the betrothal of those days was quite different from the engagement that occurs in our day. Uh, over 50 years ago, I proposed to my wife and we were engaged, but that was not really a betrothal in the biblical sense. The betrothal of those days was quite different. Let me read to you a description by a very good commentator, Richard Lenski, and this is what he writes about explaining what betrothal meant. He says the Jewish betrothal was a solemn promise before witnesses embodying the essentials of the marriage vow. No further promises followed. In later times, it was ratified in writing By virtue of the betrothal, the bridegroom and the bride became husband and wife, as is shown in the next verse, where Joseph is called Mary's husband. And in verse 20, where she is called his wife. It is a mistake to regard husband and wife as terms denoting husband and wife to be. This is reading into the Jewish procedure our modern conception of an engagement. The Jewish betrothal was the marriage itself. That's the important point to remember. They were really married when they became betrothed. But the Jewish custom placed an interval, longer or shorter, between the betrothal and the bringing home of the bride to her husband's house. No religious ceremony and no vows of any kind accompanied this home bringing, although it was made a festive occasion with a procession and a feast following. So that's the difference. Engagement is one thing. In our culture, betrothal is quite different, much more formal. than simply getting engaged. In an engagement, you go and you buy a nice ring and you put it on the girl's finger and that tells everybody that she's spoken for. But you're not yet married. No. In betrothal, you're actually married. That's the marriage bond. As a betrothed woman now, Mary became pregnant through the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit. That's plainly what the passage tells us. And again, it is an awkward and difficult situation. It is, as I have called it, a serious dilemma. We read the account in Luke 1. I'm not going to do that now for time's sake. We read the account where this was announced to Mary herself in Luke chapter 1, verses 26 and following. I'm sure you've heard them read before around Christmas time. In that account, we see an honest, believing woman who is prepared to obey God despite the hardships that she sees are coming toward her. She couldn't imagine, remember, this happened in Mary's village. Joseph was not there, and she's told by God that she's going to conceive a son. And that's, the text doesn't quite say it, but that happens immediately, right away. At that point, when it's announced, she becomes pregnant by the activity of the Holy Spirit. And she's very submissive to this. It's gonna be trouble, and I'll explain that as we go along. But Mary's response to the announcement of the angel is in these words, behold the bond slave of the Lord, May it be done to me according to your word. That's Luke 1 38. So here in Matthew's gospel account, we are told that the angel had told what the angel had told her had come to pass. Now Mary was pregnant. Matthew tells us this in a very interesting way. It says she was found to be with child. She was found, in other words, it was discovered. She had known that it happened, and it had now been found out. Somebody else, some other person, at least one other person, had found out that Mary was pregnant. And in all likelihood, it was her mother. You know, that bond that women have together, mothers and daughters. Mary's mother would have realized that Mary was getting sick. after her meals. And she had begun to have that intuition that something has happened here that isn't just a cold or a flu. Mary was getting sick too often. And so probably she knew it, her parents knew it. And I think from this description, when Matthew says she was found to be with child, that she did not tell Joseph. Mary didn't tell Joseph that she was pregnant. Think about it. It would have been difficult to know how Mary would break the news to Joseph. Put yourself in Mary's place. If she told him, Joseph, I have some news for you. I'm pregnant. And Joseph would say, how did this happen? A young, honest woman would see how this would sound in the ears of an intelligent, godly man. I'm pregnant by the supernatural agency of God. You know, lies do not seem so bad to those who tell them regularly. Often liars begin to think that their tall tales are reasonable. And if you've ever been in the presence of a habitual liar, as I have sometimes been, you realize that they say ridiculous things. They make ridiculous claims and they're not believable. And a godly young woman would understand how this would sound in the ears of an intelligent, godly man. And as a matter of fact, This is exactly what we see in Joseph's case. Godly women, understand when something sounds ridiculous, too strange to be true. And Mary would have had this sense, and that's perhaps why Mary didn't say anything to Joseph. Well, the fact is that Joseph found out about it. Um, she was found to be with child. Matthew also makes it clear that there was no other explanation for Mary's pregnancy. Um, because Matthew says, before she and Joseph had come together. So Joseph had not yet brought Mary into his home. And he was still wrestling with this difficult news, this terrible, serious situation. This is again, Joseph knew it's not my baby. It's not my child. And this is what caused such a problem for Joseph. We're told that Joseph's thinking and his decision at this point was based upon a couple of things. First of all, Joseph was righteous and just. That's the way he's described in the text. That's one factor. Joseph was a righteous man. And the second factor was he did not want to make his wife a public example. Those are the two things that form Joseph's thinking. So we give him a little window, as it were, into Joseph's mind. As a righteous man, you know that's the opposite of a sinner. Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So the opposite of a righteous man is a sinner. Joseph was a righteous man. A righteous man avoids sin. A righteous man lives according to God's law. And because of this, he is just and upright in his dealings with others. That's what makes a righteous man. You can expect a righteous man to behave in this way. He looks to God's law. He lives according to God's law. He's honest and fair. He doesn't cheat. He pays what he owes in the sight of God. This is the first element in Joseph's decision. He's a righteous man. As a righteous man, Joseph had sought an honorable wife, right? He was betrothed to Mary on the basis that he wanted to share his life with a woman who would be complete and honest. She would receive an honest love from her husband and she would give an honest love to her husband. The problem is, that Joseph could no longer regard Mary as a righteous, honest woman. But on the other hand, he could not in good conscience proceed with the consummation of the marriage. Now, the law of God in the Bible had a clear statement about the kinds of things that should be done in a situation like this. If a virgin woman were raped, only the man would be punished. That's what the Bible teaches in Deuteronomy chapter 22. Mary had not claimed this. Mary didn't say, well, it wasn't my fault. She actually didn't say anything. She was found to be with child. If an engaged woman committed fornication while engaged, the law permitted her to be stoned to death as a wicked woman. And the whole purpose was to make her an example and prevent others from doing the same thing. But here's Joseph's problem. And it's helpful we have the text because it helps us to see what Joseph's wrestling with. He didn't really believe that Mary was a wicked, ungodly woman. He believed in her character, but the facts of the case caused him this problem. What do I do now? I don't think it's right to stone Mary, to end Mary's life, but neither can I marry her. So the Bible tells us what Joseph decided to do. Joseph decided to make use of laws, then enforce, to divorce her as quietly as possible. You see that in the text, the way Joseph is thinking here. He planned to send her away secretly. That was his resolution to the problem. And he had actually come to this conclusion, this decision, when God intervened. Now before we move on with the narrative and see What this tells us, you might wonder, why did God do it this way? You know, God always is wise in his decisions. We can't always say, why God does things the way he does, but there are good reasons why God did this. You might say, well, why didn't God send the angel to announce the coming of Messiah to Mary and Joseph when they were both together? That would have solved everything. It'd been the easy answer, right? Mary and Joseph are on a date, and the angel comes and says, okay, Mary and Joseph, we have this situation here we're going to, give Mary the embryo of the Messiah in her womb, and so Joseph, she's gonna be pregnant, but don't worry about it, this is what we're doing. He could have done that and circumvented all of this problem, but there were reasons why he didn't do it. God accomplished two things. by this secret pregnancy of Mary. For one thing, God caused Joseph to wrestle with the issues of godly thought and practice that he would never have considered. He never would have thought about what do you need to do in a situation like this? And God made him a better, wiser man, and provided us with a fine example, as we'll see. When we wonder why God brings us through particular difficulties, often God makes us think about things in a way we've never thought before, and he makes us wiser and more useful. So sometimes you go through these kinds of difficult situations, you say, what am I going to do? As it were, God is forcing us to think outside the box of our normal experience and to make us wiser. all troubles and all problems are unwelcome to people like us, but sometimes God has hidden benefits to give us by difficulties we don't know what to do. At least it will drive us to prayer. But there's another reason that God did it just this way. He made the fact of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ all the more certain, all the more clear. You see, this pregnancy of Mary was not the fantasy of two people who in religious zeal imagined that they were told by God that they were going to be the parents of the Messiah. You can see how that would happen. is a writer called Alfred Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. And he makes the point, he says, every mother who bore a son whispered in his ear that he might be the Messiah. The Jews were looking for the Messiah. This was not that kind of a thing. These were two people who would look back to a time when they were in great turmoil of heart, contemplating the awful shame of a divorce at the very beginning of their marriage. Until God intervened, nothing could cement in their minds so effectively what God had done as this course of action. So we have, in the first place, a serious dilemma. In the second place, we have a supernatural declaration. A serious dilemma, verses 18 and 19, and now in verses 20 to 23, a supernatural declaration. Back to Joseph for a moment. Joseph begins to reflect in his mind how to carry out this purpose. These types of things often consume our thoughts, when we lie down to go to sleep. Very few things keep me from sleep because usually when I hit my pillow, I'm out. If I have a problem, it's more likely to wake me up early and keep me awake in the early hours of the morning. But Joseph, like us, he's going to bed and you can imagine him turning side to side. What in the world is going to happen now? But God intervened. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. It was no ordinary dream, of course. Joseph knows the difference, just like you know the difference. I did have a woman one time, had a dream in the night and she She really thought that it meant that everybody in the church should move to a different place. And it was a strange dream, but it was no divine guidance. You know the difference between a strange dream and divine guidance? Joseph knew the difference. He would not direct his life on the strange workings of a mind in sleep. But Joseph understands that this is God speaking to him through a heavenly messenger. He sees an angel in a dream, and the angel tells him the cause of Mary's condition. It's simple. to the point, verse 20, 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 child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So this is the announcement, very straightforward. The scriptures had examples of women whom God had blessed with a child they had been unable to conceive with and yet God gave them children, right? There was Sarah. The wife of Abraham, unable to conceive for a long time, and then at the ripe old age of 89, she conceived her son. And then you have Rebecca, Manoah's wife, Hannah. These are examples of women who were unable to bear, and then God gave them children. This virgin conception, though, was different from anything else that had happened in the history of the human race. The angel also revealed to Joseph the identity of the child. He identified him as a son. And of course, if Mary's pregnant, they didn't have ultrasounds. You couldn't take her to her doctor and do an ultrasound of the baby and discover the gender of the baby. No. So the angel tells him she's going to have a son, right? And his, to have a name, God oftentimes gave names to children, right? God, with John the Baptist, for example, his father Zacharias was told that his name would be called John. And you remember, if you remember the birth of John, how this became a bit of a discussion in the family. Nobody else is called by that name. But God had given the child that name, and God gave Jesus his name. She will bear a son. He has a name. He has a mission. Those are the things that the angel tells Joseph about. Now, names in the Bible are usually much more significant than names in our day. You know, you have, like in the case of John the Baptist, they say nobody's called by that name. We named our first daughter Claire and my grandmother wondered where the name came from because she was hoping that our grand, our daughter, her granddaughter would be named after her Josefa, which of course we didn't do for reasons. But, um, that's the way people think. Names are just names. You name a relative, you name a friend. I named my, our last child after a close friend in our home church. But Jesus name really means something. My name, Frank, doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a straight talker, though it does mean that because that's who I am. Um, but the name Jesus, Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. It's very interesting in the book of Hebrews, there's a place where the name of Joshua appears, and it really means Jesus. I'm sorry, Joshua. Jesus is in Hebrews, and the text refers to Joshua. So there's an example of that kind of a thing, but the name, Joshua, Jesus, means Jehovah is salvation. And you see how wonderfully that dovetails with the name given to him at his birth. The prophecy says you will call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us, and that fits very well with Jehovah is salvation. Jesus is the Lord who brings salvation. That's the real meaning. It signifies. Jesus' unique role in the purposes of God. Jesus was born to Mary because he was going to be a deliverer. He was going to be a savior. Now in the Old Testament, you had these deliverers that God would raise up. Sometimes they would call Israel back from their idolatry. Many times they would stir up faith in the people of Israel and they would fight the Lord's battle. They would be delivered from their enemies. Jesus, however, was accomplishing more than any former servant of God could ever do. The old prophets, the old deliverers of Israel, they could tell them to repent, They could tell them to be faithful to the Lord. They didn't have that kind of absolute power where they could kind of snap their fingers and Israel would wake up and Israel would get away from idolatry and fight the Lord's battles and they would be delivered from their enemies. Jesus did something far more spectacular and essential than any other deliverer could do. You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's the deliverance that Jesus works. That's the deliverance which is being announced to Joseph. It was the fulfillment of that old prophecy all the way back in Genesis chapter three about the seed of the woman. That's who Jesus is, the seed of the woman. When Satan had gotten Eve, deceived Eve and got her to eat the forbidden fruit, God said to Satan, Genesis 3, 14 and 15, because you've done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field, on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head. you shall bruise him on the heel. That was the promise of a divine delivery that would undo everything that Satan had done there in the garden. And this was the expectation of the faithful in Israel. This was their expectation in the hearts of many like Joseph, that God would indeed raise up a savior. And that's what the angel said to Joseph. He tells him, well, here it is. The thing that has been promised, the hope of the people of God, generation after generation, is now being realized in that child in Mary's womb. He it is, you see, that's pointing to the prophecies of a Messiah to come, a Savior to come. He's the one who will save his people from their sins. Now you may not really think as we ought to think about this kind of a deliverance. We have a lot of wars going on now in the world. war in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, other wars in the world. And what happens is that some powerful nation invades another nation, takes over their resources. They may take some of the people and turn them against their own kind. And for deliverance, the whole situation has to be reversed so that the country is freed from its enemies and the people are restored to their normal national life. That's what Jesus does. Jesus dies on behalf of his believing people from a life of obedience, and he frees them from the influence of the evil one. That's what God does. He delivers his people from their sins. John, the apostle, puts it this way. He came to destroy the works of the devil. The devil is the one who has deceived our first parents. He has, in many of our lives, we're born with Adam's sin. We're born with the depravity of sin. And in our own hearts are things which grieve us, and yet we are dominated by our own sins. And Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil, to forgive us our sins, and to restore in us godliness, to put in us a godliness that we don't possess. Think about my own life in my teenage years and how many sins I would commit, how many times I would tell myself in my disgust, particularly when I got punished. I said to myself, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. Tomorrow I'm going to be a different person. And by the time the morning came around, I was the same sinful boy. I could not liberate myself. Only Jesus can save His people by having them forgiven for their sins by His death upon the cross and by changing us. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, you may remember Nicodemus didn't understand why there was so much animosity between Jesus and the Pharisees, the Pharisaic leaders. And Jesus said, well, the problem is you have to be born again. You need a spiritual birth by the Spirit of God, which again is what Jesus accomplishes for his people. It's not just forgiveness. Forgiveness is a wonderful blessing, and it's one of the things Jesus does, but Jesus also changes the nature of those who he came to save. He takes out the heart of stone that is unresponsive to the law of God, and he puts in us a heart of flesh that really does love to serve God. Jesus reverses all that Satan has accomplished in the lives of his believing people. It's a deliverance from guilt, and it's a deliverance from that native depravity which we have. You see, where sin's dominion remains unchanged, just like it was in me as a teenage boy, and I would lie in bed, my mother had disciplined me, and I was grieving over my punishment more than I was over my sins, and I was telling myself, I'm gonna change, I'm gonna change. We don't have that power. We are bound in trespasses and sins until Jesus changes our very hearts. And that's what has to be done. So if your heart has not changed, If you have never, as one man used to say, stacked arms, you're in rebellion against God. And if you have never put down the weapons of your warfare against God, your disobedience to God, you have no reason to think that Jesus has actually saved you. But you can and you should go to God and plead with Him to save you. I'll say it a little bit more accurately. You can't, actually. You can't, you're a slave to your sin. But you must go to Jesus for salvation. And you may. You can't. By your own power, you can't. But you must. And you may. That's why Jesus says in that wonderful passage later in Matthew, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come, learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. You go to Jesus with your sins. You confess your sins to Jesus. And like I quoted him in the Sunday school, I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless lamb of God. He bears them all and frees us from the accursed load. I bring my guilt to Jesus to wash my crimson stains, white in his blood, most precious till not a spot remains. That's what you need to do. That's what you need to do. Look to Jesus as the savior who has been given to us for the salvation from our sins. Well, we have looked at this serious dilemma of an unexpected pregnancy. We have looked at the supernatural declaration of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the third place, I'd like you to consider with me very briefly, Joseph's extraordinary disobedience, I'm sorry, his extraordinary obedience. An extraordinary obedience. Imagine that you're in Joseph's shoes, as it were, or sandals, as the case may be, right? Think about what it meant for Joseph to hear what this angel told him. His mind would have been flooded with amazed relief. What a bundle of feelings he must have been that morning when he woke up from the dream. He loved Mary. He respected Mary. And now he hears she's innocent. Not only was it his duty to protect her as her husband, rather than divorce her, They were together, to live together, husband and wife, and had the privilege of raising God's one Redeemer. So Joseph is told, don't be afraid, take her as your wife, she will bear the Redeemer, the Son, and they will, together, raise God's Redeemer, Mary's Son. So Joseph did three things, three things, and I call this again an extraordinary obedience. It was extraordinary. First, number one, he took Mary as his wife. He brought her to his home. and they set up family life. That's not very extraordinary, that's what you expect, but that's the first thing he did. Second thing he did is they named the child Jesus. The angel had given the name, and Joseph and Mary didn't talk about, okay, whose family are we gonna name him after? No, the angel gave the name, and they named the child Jesus. That's obedience. It's not terribly extraordinary, But the next thing he did was extraordinary. He kept her a virgin for a period of time. You see that in the text in verse 25, we'll read 24 and 25. Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin. until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. He kept her a virgin for a time. I think about this. It is quite extraordinary. He was in, he had been engaged to her. He loved Mary. He looked forward to the time when he would be able to consummate their marriage, enjoy all of the privileges of marriage. But he kept her. a virgin, though he loved her. He refrained from marital intimacy with her. And why? Because there must be no question that this was not his child. So he kept her a virgin. He refrained from normal marital intimacy, well, for six months. Because you have that word until, and you know what until means. Until does not mean permanent, it means temporary. He kept her a virgin until. You know, some of you, I don't know if any of you are just about 17 or 18, you know, we just went through the presidential election and maybe you would ask your parents, well, when can I vote for the president? Well, until you're 18. And that word until doesn't mean permanent, it means temporary. Once you're 18, you can vote, right? Joseph kept her a virgin until she brought forth her son. Okay, so you wouldn't imagine, if I say you can't drive until you're 18, you wouldn't imagine, well, I'll never be able to drive. Maybe sometimes it seems that way. But it's only temporary, you see. And Joseph's abstinence from marital love was only temporary. Of course, there are certain religions that teach that Mary's virginity was perpetual. And actually, that is, Number one, monstrous and impossible. Turn over for a moment to Mark chapter three. And this is one of those passages that helps us understand the situation between Joseph and Mary. Mark chapter three, starting in verse 31. Jesus is teaching his disciples here and Mary comes to talk to him. Verse 31, then his mother and his brothers arrived, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called to him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. Answering them, he said, who are my mother and my brothers? looking about at those who were sitting around him, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. Now the point of this. is that Jesus had brothers. In other places in the Gospels, it talks about those brothers and his sisters. And if he has brothers and sisters of a physical, not a spiritual nature, because he tells us those who are brothers and mothers of him spiritually are those who did the will of God, not these brothers, not this mother. Jesus had Real siblings. And think about what that meant. Jesus was a perfect baby. Mary and Joseph had no problems with him. then came along these natural brothers and they were very different from Jesus. I'm sure the teacher at school said to Joseph's next brother, you're nothing like your brother, Jesus. You're nothing like him. You see? So there goes the perpetual virginity of Mary. No, Joseph and Mary enjoyed all the blessings of marital intimacy. So, but still, Joseph's conduct is an extraordinary obedience. He kept a virgin. He lived in the same place with her for six months. That's self-control. Okay, so we've looked at a serious dilemma. We have looked at a supernatural declaration. We have looked at an extraordinary obedience. Now, what does this say to you and I here in 2024 in Lumberton? Well, first thing I want to say, see in Joseph, one of the finest examples of self-control presented in the Bible. It's not the best. Actually, Jesus' self-control is the ultimate self-control. But still, Joseph's obedience, Joseph's self-control was extraordinary. He lived under the same roof with the woman he loved for months. He refrained from his normal marital rights because of the unusual circumstances. I'll put it very bluntly, sex was not Joseph's God. It was not. He wasn't an animal, he was a true man, and yet, he was a man marked by unusual self-control. By God's grace, he was a wonderful example of self-control. It was not that Joseph was dysfunctional. Somebody might say, well, maybe Joseph was dysfunctional. No, he was not lacking in appetite and ability, because according to the Bible, when it was appropriate, Joseph gladly enjoyed the gift God gives to a husband and a wife. God blessed them with at least six other children according to the scriptures. So that's number one. See in Joseph's example, a wonderful example of self-control. And if you're going to live as a godly man or woman, you need the grace of God, to exercise all kinds of self-control. Secondly, by way of application, this text is a call to see the birth of Jesus Christ something more than a holiday. The birth of Jesus Christ is not just a holiday. It is an occasion, get a day off from work, maybe in your school you have Christmas break and you have a period of time where you can pursue other enjoyments. But the birth of Jesus Christ is not simply an excuse for winter break or Christmas break, and it's not an occasion to exchange nice gifts with those whom we love. It is that, but it is a call to face the human condition. That's what it's for, the main point of Christmas. is to face the human condition. We are sinners who need a Savior. Our human race was overtaken by Satan. Our human race was contaminated by sin. And by nature, every single one of us comes out of the womb a sinner estranged from God. Every one of us. And so, We ought to be concerned to look to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for the change that needs to happen in our souls. We need to be born again. We need to become Christ-believing disciples. I ask you, can you see this? Can you see your sinful condition? Do God's commandments seem to you burdensome, unreasonable, an imposition? Is the response of your soul to God's thou shalts and God shalt nots rebellion? You say, I don't want to, have to worry about obeying God. That is a clear indication that you need a savior Maybe you pick and choose, as many people do. Pick and choose. Well, you shall not murder. Yeah, I guess that's a good commandment. I don't wanna murder. I don't want someone to murder me. How about the commandment? Honor your father and mother. Obey your father and mother. One of the most reasonable commands in all the world. How many, how many people dishonor their parents by completely ignoring that commandment. Every disobedience to parents is a call to look to Jesus Christ to convert you and to save you. But idolatry, coveting, When you go down the road, there's a really nice brand new Hummer. I love to have that car. It's covetousness. It's a sin against God. And only the Lord Jesus Christ can change you from being a rebel against God to being one who can say with a psalmist, oh how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Don't think that sin's no big deal. It is a big deal to God. And you need to be right with God. Honestly, just like me, when I used to tell myself, I'm going to change, you can't help yourself. But Jesus can. And Jesus will. If you go to Him, and you tell Him of your sins, and you tell Him that you need to be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ will save you. He is the one who has said about himself, he who believes has eternal life. Have you been delivered from your sins? Are you saved by Jesus? We pray that you would be indeed. Well, let me touch on two other things, two other applications real quickly. Covenant Baptist Church, What kind of a ministry do you want from this pulpit? You have to be very careful in how you think about that. Because there are a lot of places that won't mention sin at all. But the doctrine of sin and our need of salvation is a core element of the gospel. You can't just have a nice church where everybody likes everybody and sin is never mentioned. Sin is at the heart of the gospel because Jesus and His life and death are at the core of the gospel. Don't let this place be run by sensitivity to people that will silence the reality of the sinful human condition and the need of Jesus Christ. And finally, remember that the greatest works God does are never entirely free of trouble. There's going to be trouble if you're faithful to God. We live in a world now that is opposed to the gospel. And if you're faithful to God, there's going to be trouble. Settle it in your mind that you're going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, come what may. Let's pray. Our Father, once again, we are so thankful for the Lord Jesus. Thank you for sending Him to us. Thank you for the things that we have read in our Bibles today. and we ask that you would write them on our hearts so that we would be a faithful people who serve the Lord Jesus Christ, come what may. Thank you again for the forgiveness of sins and for the work of your spirit in making your people a holy people. So bless the things we have considered in Jesus' name, amen. so so