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Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 1. Now, I've decided to do a bit of a change in the way I do sermons here at this church. So pretty much leading up to today, I've been really focused on topical sermons. As you guys know, the very first sermons were primarily ones that were based on our snake and our faith. Plus, I've also preached on other doctrines such as the importance of Bible reading, going to church and confessing your sins to the Lord, all these kinds of things. Topical sermons are really great. Topical sermons are some of my favorite sermons. But when I started to consider this church, what I'm doing a lot of is repeating sermons that I've already prepared in Queensland. Just to help me save time, things that I've already preached there, I've gone through it, rehashed it, maybe changed it a little bit. I'm not going to go forward exactly the same, but took the meat I've learned, changed it around a bit and re-preached to you guys. What I've decided to do moving forward is give you guys just brand new sermons. Sermons that I've not preached in Queensland. And to move away from the topical sermons, and we're going to start doing sermons that are chapter by chapter. Chapter by chapter through the Bible. Now you might say, why is that? Why is that? I was just thinking about this church. The fact that we do currently meet once a week. Meeting once a week is awesome. And in the church in Queensland we meet twice a week. And on the first week of every month we meet three times a week. So essentially what I do there, I do one sermon which is via free chapter through a chapter, through a Bible chapter. And then one topical sermon, essentially is what I do. And then if I have another person preaching there, you should do another topical sermon. And I'm preaching through chapter by chapter. Now I never preach chapter by chapter in my previous churches. Because obviously when you're preaching in other churches, you're not preaching week in week out. So usually you just cover a topic, you preach a topic and you preach on that. What I found very useful by going chapter by chapter, especially because we only have one service per week. Is that we get to, by doing a chapter by chapter we basically preach on things as often as God mentions them. Now what you'll find is some preachers love their topical sermons. And that's fine, nothing wrong with that. But sometimes you'll know that some preachers are always preaching the same topic. Always, you know. They'll always be preaching on the family. They'll always be preaching on the end time. They'll always be preaching on whatever pet topic they have. Okay. And that's fine. You know the Bible's great. The Bible's got a lot of depth. But what tends to happen is you don't get the full meat of the word of God. You don't get the whole counsel of God. Because you have people that are really focused on their favorite topics. Okay. And by going chapter by chapter, verse by verse, we really, you know, the preacher is forced to preach on things that they may otherwise avoid. You know. They're forced to look at certain passages that they might not really understand. Be forced to study it out so they can go in and preach it. And so I thought it would be very useful for us to do that moving forward. We'll at least, we'll do the book of Matthew. Today we're going to be going through Matthew chapter 1. But the other thing is, instead of it being focused on one topic, many of these chapters have multiple topics. So the fact that we only have one service per week, we can now hit on many topics per week. Rather than one topic and then wait another week for another topic, etcetera, etcetera. Okay. So for the current setup that we have in this church, I believe the best practice, the best way we're going to get most doctrine. Into this church, a variety of doctrine is by going the chapter by chapter approach. Okay. So we'll try the Matthew approach. We'll start with the book of Matthew. We'll see how that goes. And the other advantage is it helps me have a lot more structure. Okay. Because now I know what I'm preaching next week. What am I preaching next week? Matthew chapter 2. Alright. And the advantage to that is you guys can read Matthew chapter 2 before you get to church. And have a good understanding of what it's about. Alright. And it would also help me give you a memory verse. Because the memory verse will be found in that chapter as well. Okay. But it will help you guys to read it. You might be wondering, hey, what's this about? If you come and hear me preach, then we can have a discussion. Hey, these are things you didn't preach about, mate. These are some things that I found in that chapter. And so maybe that will foster as well to have discussions about the Bible and things that we've seen ourselves. Okay. So I see a lot of advantages to preaching chapter by chapter starting from today. And because we are very close to Christmas, starting Matthew chapter 1 is awesome. Because we start with the birth of Christ. Okay. So let's look at this now. Matthew chapter 1 verse 23. Matthew chapter 1 verse 23. We'll start here. It says, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son. And they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. The title of the sermon tonight is God with us. Hey, you know 2,000 years ago when that babe was born in the manger, did you know that's God himself? That is God with us. God became flesh and dwelt among us. Okay. And it's just an amazing thing. It's something that is difficult to grasp our minds around it. This is why the Bible calls it the mystery of Godliness. You know, God manifests in the flesh. Okay. Let's start off with verse number 1. Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. The Bible starts here. It says the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. These are the first two names that the author wants us to be aware of. Jesus Christ being the son of David. And this is relevant. Why? Because David was the king of Israel, wasn't he? And God promised David that his kingdom would be everlasting. That his kingdom would have no end. Hey, but was there an end to the physical kingdom of David? There was. I mean, there's no king of Israel right now, is there? But we know that that promise that God gave would be ultimately fulfilling the king of kings and the Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is forever. It's eternal. It's important that he came to that lineage of King David for the promises that God gave him. I'll just quickly read to you from Revelation 22 16. It says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. Hey, what does Jesus say about himself? He says that I am the root and the offspring of David. It's an amazing, amazing words. He says, I am the offspring of David. I'm a I'm a descendant of David. I'm a child of King David. But he also says I'm the root of David. But the reason David even exists is because I'm the root of all things. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ is the creator of heaven and earth and all the things that are therein. OK, so very important that we understand Jesus Christ, the roots, the creator of all things. Yes, you know, the Lord God. But also when he came to flesh, he came as it as a descendant of David, an offspring of David. Also notice, and by the way, guys, we're in Matthew chapter one, if you want to turn there. We're in Matthew chapter one. Also notice that the other name given there in verse number one is the son of Abraham. Very important. Now, obviously, David was an Israelite. OK, but Abraham was not an Israelite. OK, Abraham was the grandfather of who would become Israel ultimately. But this is very important because keep your finger there in Matthew one, turn to Galatians chapter three. Turn to Galatians chapter three quickly. Galatians chapter three. Speaking of Abraham here, a son of Abraham in Galatians chapter three verse thirteen. Galatians chapter three verse thirteen. It says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. This is the promise of Abraham. The promise of Abraham was to come to the Gentiles also, and it came through Jesus Christ. Look at verse fifteen. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet it be confirmed, no man this annuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Now remember what we see in Matthew one, he called Jesus a son of Abraham. OK, so to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. When God made the promise to Abraham that he would have descendants as the sand of the sea, and that those that bless him will be blessed, and those that curse him will be cursed, those promises were given to Abraham and to his seed. And the book of Galatians tells us that seed, or that descendant, or that son, is Jesus Christ. This is why as Gentiles, we too can be brought and made righteous before God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 28, Galatians 3. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither born nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. It's an amazing thing, there's a lot of Christians that deny the promises of Abraham on themselves. They say, no, no, no, that's for Israel, that's for the Jews. No, no, if you're a child of God, if you're in Christ, if you're saved, if you put your faith in him, then you are counted as that seed. You are counted, it says in verse 29, and if ye be Christ's, then are ye, you, Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. So the fact that we can participate in the promises of Abraham is relevant, that Jesus Christ would be the son of Abraham. And that we would be made children of Abraham through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see, we go back to Matthew chapter 1, so we see how important it is to point David and Abraham as the ancestors of Jesus Christ. And the promises made to these men of the kingdom, of the promises of salvation by grace through faith, and the blessings that God would give are all relevant to these two ancestors of Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 2, Matthew chapter 1 verse 2. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas, well that's Judah, and his brethren. So you know the twelve, the twelve tribes of Israel is basically here, okay? But I just wanted to notice, and a lot of people get this confused, just for your information, Abraham and Isaac, they were not Israelites, okay? Because Jacob, which is the son of Isaac, is Jacob that had his name changed to Israel, remember that? Okay, and then Israel, or Jacob's children, they were called the children of Israel. And eventually they became known as the Israelites. So really, Abraham, Isaac, and even Jacob, really, is not, they're not Israelites. Now Jacob, yeah, his name was changed to Israel, but it's the children of Israel that are the Israelites, okay? Just for your information I love, because quite often you'll find people who want to love Abraham and Isaac as Jews, but they weren't, they were actually called away from that land, and then it's Jacob that was called Israel, and his children became the Israelites, okay? Anyway, this is important, why is Judas mentioned here? Why is Judah mentioned? Because you know why? Because the Bible prophesies that Jesus Christ would come from the tribe of Judah, okay? Jesus Christ would come from the tribe of Judah. Keep your finger there, and I'm going to show you something really interesting. Turn to Genesis 49, keep your finger there, turn to Genesis 49. Genesis 49, there's a passage of scripture here that a lot of people struggle with, okay? It's very cryptic, it's hard to understand, but if you take your time and think about it, it'll all start to come together there. But Genesis 49, if you know the story, we have Jacob here, or Israel, he's going to pass away, and he starts to bestow blessings upon his children. He goes through all his twelve sons and gives them a special blessing or a special prophecy, but when he gets to Judah, he says these very cryptic words, look at Genesis 49 verse 8. Genesis 49 verse 8, it says, Now if you're reading that, if you've read the Bible, you start reading the Bible, you start reading Genesis, you get excited, you get to this point of passage, you get to this scripture, you're like, what is that talking about? I mean, I've read that, I'm like, what in the world is that talking about, right? But if we understand that this is actually a prophecy of Jesus Christ, the cryptic writing, you can see that this is an amazing prophecy of Jesus, okay? Look at verse number 10 again, it says, The scepter, what's a scepter? That's like a rod of authority that a king might have, okay? So, the authority shall not depart from Judah. Why is that? Because Jesus would come from Judah and he'd be the king that would reign over all this earth, okay? His kingdom without end. And then it says, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. Hey, who's this Shiloh? Jesus. Who's this Shiloh? Jesus. What does Shiloh mean? It means the peace bringer or the peace giver. And what is Jesus Christ called in Isaiah 9-6? The prince of peace. Okay? So we see this Shiloh coming. A lot of people confuse us with who this is. It's actually a prophecy of Jesus. And it says, And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Okay? People will be gathered to Jesus Christ to hear him, to worship him, gathered amongst him. Look at verse number 8 again. It starts to make sense a little bit now. It says, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Now, do we have passages where the brethren of Judah praise him? Whoa, this is actually a prophecy of Christ. This is where the people of God would praise Christ. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Hey, who do we bow down to? Who do we worship? The Lord God, we are not to worship men, but God. This is a prophecy of Christ. And notice that it says, Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. It's like when you've got enemies, you're going to take a stranglehold of your enemies. Why? Because when Christ comes and he rules in that millennial kingdom, the Bible says he rules with a rod of iron. That scepter will not depart from Judah. Look at verse number nine. It says Judah is a lion's whelp. Do you guys know what that word means, whelp? I didn't know. I had to look it up. But whelp basically means a little cub. A baby lion, a cub. So think about this. Judah is a lion's whelp, a baby cub. So we start as a baby, and then it says, From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. Thou art gone up. So we see this little baby grow up. Now this baby lion is able to prey, okay? Able to go, let's think about it like against the enemies, alright? So the idea there. And then it says, Sorry, what about verse number nine? It says he stooped down, he couched as a lion. So what does a couch mean? This lion basically lays down, okay? And then it says, As an old lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? Do you notice in verse nine, we start with a little baby cub, a little lion cub, and then it goes to an old lion. And it says, Who will rouse him up when he falls asleep? The idea there is, if you guys saw a big lion, a big old lion just laying down, and sleeping, who would be courageous enough, who would be bold enough, or maybe who would be foolish enough to go to that lion and wake it up? Of course you wouldn't do that, right? Because the lion might attack you, okay? It's basically showing that that little baby lion became this great lion that nobody can fight against. Nobody has power over. And then it says in verse number 10, The scepter shall not depart from Judah. This is why Jesus Christ is normally referred to as the Lion of Judah, okay? He would rule and reign with that water vine in that millennial to come. Let's look at verse 11 there. It says, Binding his fowl unto the vine, and the ashes coat unto the choice vine. What's that about? Remember when Jesus Christ came, and as he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified, how did he come to Jerusalem? He came riding on the ass. He came riding on the donkey, okay? So we see that there in verse number 11. And then look at this. He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. So, you know, quite often we see that the grapes, the blood of grapes, the juice of grapes, is used as an analogy of blood. And of course as Jesus Christ went into Jerusalem, he came to be that lamb that was slain. You know, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now, just keep that in mind. Turn to the book of Revelation now. Turn to the book of Revelation. One thing that's amazing about Genesis is just how similar it is to Revelation. There's a lot of things that are parallel, a lot of things that are similar. Turn to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19. So Revelation 19 is the passage where Jesus Christ comes back to defeat the armies of the Antichrist and to rule in his millennial kingdom, okay? But look what it says here in Revelation 19 verse 12. Look at this. Verse 11. Let's start with verse 11. It says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he thought, Judge and make war. Look at verse 12. His eyes were a flame of fire. Okay, what did Genesis say? That his eyes would be red. Remember that? Now here we have that it's a flame of fire. And on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And look at this. Verse 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Hey, who's this talking about? The Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how that was prophesied all the way back in Genesis verse, Genesis verse, what was it, 49? Okay? All the way from the start of the book that Jesus Christ would have his vesture with that sacrificial blood of his that he come with his red eyes and we talk about his authority, but we're just talking about how he came as a man on the donkey riding to Jerusalem. How he also started as that lion's whelp, that little baby child. And that's what we're reading about now in Matthew number one. As Jesus Christ would come into the world and be born of Mary. Okay? So I hope that was kind of interesting. Next time you read through the book of Genesis, don't like let that go up your head. And I'll be like, okay, this is about Jesus. What does that have to do with Jesus again? Okay? So go back to Matthew chapter one, please. Go back to Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one. Let's keep reading verse number three. Verse number three. Now when you go through these genealogies, pay attention to some of the names. You're probably familiar with a lot of names, okay? But Tamer there in verse number three. Tamer, do you know who Tamer is? Tamer is a lady that's found also in the book of Genesis. And she was Judah's daughter-in-law. Okay? Judah's daughter-in-law. And there's a very uncomfortable story about them in Genesis 38, okay? I won't go into all that right now. But essentially she played the harlots. Okay? She committed, you know, a significant wicked act. Okay? With her father-in-law. And yeah, I mean it's a great embarrassment to Judah and to the family, okay? But it's interesting that she's mentioned here in the lineage of Jesus. Let's continue reading. Verse four. Now, Boaz, it says here. But, you know, that's Boaz. Boaz in the Old Testament. Okay? So Boaz of Rahab. Now, Boaz was born of Rahab. Who was Rahab in the Bible? Do you guys remember her in the Old Testament? The one who kept the spice. Exactly. She was a harlot herself. She was a prostitute herself. She was not even... She was a Gentile as well. Okay? So you know the story where Joshua sends two spies into Jericho? Two spies into Jericho and, you know, the king is trying to find these spies. They're probably gonna kill them or whatever. And this prostitute, because she's heard about the great things of the God of Israel, she's heard about how you delivered them out of Egypt and she wants that God of Israel to be her God. She wants to put her faith on the God of Israel. Okay? Even as a prostitute. And of course, hey, you know, we're all sinners. Hey, you know, Christ came to save sinners. Okay? To save us from our sins. And she hides these two spies and saves them, delivers them. Okay? And she ends up joining up with Israel. And so she becomes the wife of this man, Salman, and she has her son, Boaz. Now, if you know Boaz, we won't go into all the story there, but Boaz was a great man of God. A very righteous man. Okay? But his mother was a harlot. His mother was a Gentile. Okay? His mother was a heathen woman in the past until she was made right with God. And look at verse number five again. And then it says, And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Now, who's Ruth? I'm just pointing out these ladies to you. Okay? Ruth, if you know the story, she was also, she wasn't a wicked woman or anything like that, but she was also a Gentile. She was also someone that had other gods, foreign gods. And she too wanted to come with her mother-in-law back to Israel to worship the God of Israel. Okay? She wanted to put her faith on the one true God of Israel. Okay? And then it says, And Obed begat Jesse. And you guys probably know Jesse. That's the father of King David. But I just want to point out a few things here. And actually, no, let's keep reading. Verse number six. Look at this. And Jesse begat David the king. You guys know King David. And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Here's another woman. The former wife of Uriah saw Uriah. You guys know the story of King David's great adultery when he took the wife of another man and then caused that man to be put to death. Okay? So this is a woman of adultery that he was involved with. Okay? So we see that these people in the Bible, you know, when you go for the genealogy of Jesus Christ, you're probably expecting to come across all these fantastic, godly people. You know, look at them. Great people of faith. Okay? But when we see the lineage of Christ, there's also some messed up people. There's also Gentiles. Okay? There are prostitutes. Okay? And you might say, well, you know, if you have had a bad life, if you've got a bad history, maybe before you were saved, or even after you were saved, you made some, you know, mistakes in your life. Okay? Is that the end of it? You know, are you just to say, hey, you know what? I've made mistakes in my life. I'm just going to continue destroying my life. No. These people, these women, they had a bad past. They were prostitutes. They had other gods. But they made themselves right with the God of Israel. And they had godly children. They had great, they raised a godly generation. They raised their godly seed. And the reason I believe God gives us these people in the Bible is that we can see them and say, hey, you know what? We've made mistakes in the past. We've made failures. But that doesn't mean we can't raise godly children. That doesn't mean that I can't be a good father or a good mother and, you know, give the next generation a good place to start where, you know, unfortunately I grew up in a heathen environment or whatever. You know? So, you know, I think it's really significant that Jesus Christ gives us these stories. And remember, he came to save the Jew and the Gentile. And, you know, I think that's relevant, that in his lineage, he wasn't this, you know, pure-bred Jew. But he had Gentiles in his lineage as well. Okay? Verse number seven. Verse number seven. And Solomon begat Raboham, and Raboham begat Abir, Abir begat Asa, and Asa begat Josephat, and Josephat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and Ozias begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekiel, and Ezekiel begat Manasseh, and Manasseh begat Ammon, and Ammon begat Josias, Josias begat Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. So we get a little snapshot of history right here. Okay? Look at verse number seven. So verse seven, Raboham, in the Old Testament, that's Rehoboam, that's the son of Solomon. If you know the story, he started to reign in Israel, but then Israel had that division, right? They had the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, have a great divide. The southern kingdom had the two tribes, Benjamin and Judah. And then the ten tribes, rebellious tribes, they followed after another king, King Jeroboam, Jeroboam. All right? So we see just my history here that leads all the way to Judah that would eventually be taken into captivity into Babylon there in verse 11, okay? So again, this genealogy just gives us a good idea of the history, the history of the Israelites. And then verse number 12. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Salaphio, and Salaphio begat Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abir, and Abir begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor, and Azor begat Sadok, and Sadok begat Achim, and Achim begat Eliud, and Eliud begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Mathan, and Mathan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. And here we go all the way now to Jesus Christ. But notice as we're going through the names, you know, our name after name says begat, begat, begat, begat, okay? Because these were generations that were begotten of those names that were before. But notice when we get to Jesus Christ, it says, verse 16, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. You know, the Bible's very, you know, it's awesome. The Bible's never contradictive. Notice that the Bible never says that Jesus was begotten of Joseph. Did I say that right? Or that Joseph begat Jesus. It doesn't say that, right? Because we know that Jesus was not the son of Joseph. We know that Jesus is deity. We know that he's the son of God. And the Bible calls him here, who is Christ, Christ the Messiah, Christ the anointed one. He was the promised one to come into Israel through this lineage, amazing prophecies that we see in the Bible as well of his coming onto the earth. And look at verse 17. Verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David until the Karen away to Babylon are 14 generations, and from the Karen away to Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Now, for your information, verse 17 is a verse that some people try to use to disprove the Bible, to find contradictions in the Bible. And I'll tell you why. Because, well, let's have a look at this. Look at the second phrase in verse 17. It says, and from David until the Karen away to Babylon are 14 generations. But if you worked it out in the Old Testament, it's not 14 generations. I think, don't quote me on this, but I think it's around 17 generations. Something like that. Okay? And also, and it says, and from the Karen away to Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations, I think there was also a few generations missing there, and it's more generations than that. So if someone comes to you with this verse, look, I found that the Bible has contradictions. I might show you this verse. So I'm going to give you the answer. What's the answer to this? Okay. Look at verse 17 again. Look at verse 17. It says, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. You notice that first bit? Okay? So from Abraham to King David are 14 generations. It says, so all the generations, all the generations, that is correct. If you work it out from Abraham to King David, all the generations, there were 14 generations. Okay? But when you look at the next phrase, does it say from all the generations? And it says, and from David unto the Karen away to Babylon are 14 generations. You notice the difference that the Bible uses there? The other one was all the generations, which is correct, 14, but then the others don't say all the generations anymore. Okay? So the reason, and I don't really know the full answer to this, but I think the reason why God has given this this breakdown, 14, 14, 14, is simply so we can probably memorize. Just remember, okay, it's 14 from Abraham to David, from there to Babylon, 14, from there to Christ, another 14, just so it's easy for the reader to work out. I don't know, again, I don't know all the reasons, so you can work out the names, you get a brief history of Israel, but the Bible's not being contradictive. Okay? When it's correct, it's correct. It says all the generations, it is all the generations, but then the others does not claim to be naming all the generations. Okay? So if I didn't explain that right, you can ask me after the service. Let's go to verse 18. Let's go to verse 18. Verse 18. And for those of you that came in late, I explained to the rest of the church that moving forward, I'm going to be preaching chapter by chapter through the Bible. Okay? And we're starting with the book of Matthew. If you're wondering why we're still in Matthew, it's because that's what we're doing. We're focusing on the book of Matthew, and we're going from chapter by chapter. We're on chapter one, verse 18, Matthew chapter one, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, I want you to pay attention to these words because there's a misunderstanding of the relationship between Mary and Joseph by a lot of Christians. Okay? It says when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put away privately, or privately. But while he thought of these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So why don't you notice verse 18? What does verse 18 say about the relationship? It says Mary was espoused to Joseph. Okay? That's where we get the word spouse from. Who's my spouse? Who's my spouse? My wife, Christina. And I'm her spouse. Okay? Look at verse 19. Then Joseph, her husband. You see that? They're married. Okay? Joseph is her husband. Look at verse 20. It said at the end of it, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. Just in case, you know, you get confused. Were these people married or not? They were married. Okay? Joseph and Mary were married. Okay? But they had not yet come together. They had not yet consummated that marriage. Okay? And, you know, as Australians, we find it hard to understand this. And the reason we find it hard to understand is because Australian marriages, basically, let's say a Christian marriage, you know, you go to church, you have your marriage ceremony, and within that marriage ceremony, you normally have someone at a celebrant that signs the legal paperwork. So your marriage is recognised, you know, legally by the government. And then you have your reception, you have your honeymoon, and usually you consummate the marriage pretty quickly. Right? So that's the way they do it in Australia. But in some South American countries, I know Chile does this, and I know some European countries do this, is that before you have your marriage ceremony, first you're legally married. Okay? First you go to a civil, you know, office, and you register your marriage. I don't know if there's vows. I think there's probably vows that take place. And it gets recorded by the government. As far as the government is concerned, you're legally married at this point. You're legally married. But a Christian couple would usually wait a few months or whatever, however long it takes to prepare a wedding. And then when they go and get married, usually the pastor of the church will first ask, hey, you know, have you got your paperwork? Has your marriage been legally acknowledged or whatever? And they show the paperwork, and then they carry on with the ceremony. But that ceremony can happen a long time later after that first civil marriage. Okay? And then they have the marriage ceremony, the reception, and you know, they're married in the eyes of the church, I suppose. Married in the eyes of God, if you want to put it that way. But they were first legally married already. Okay? And what I see, and that's still in some places in the world, it's still like that. Okay? And so what we see here in the book of Matthew is a very similar system. They had not yet consummated marriage. They hadn't yet come together and lived together. But they were recognized legally as husband and wife. And I'll prove that later on soon. And even God calls them husband and wife here. Okay? They're espoused. They're husband and wife. Take your wife. So that's just a bit of information. But notice that it said in verse number 19 that Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. All right? So the Bible said, and look, if I was Joseph and I found out my wife that I've just legally married is now pregnant, you can imagine how bad that situation would be. All right? And how angry, how angry you might be. But the Bible says that Joseph was a just man. He was a good man. He was someone that was obedient to the law of God. We see not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. What does it mean to put away? What's another way? What's that? Divorce. Okay? To put away is to divorce. And in Malachi 2 16, I'll just read it. It says, God hates putting away. God hates putting away. God hates divorce. Okay? When God has joined a man and woman, it's for life. Till death do us part. You know, and for the young people, you know, you've got to make sure, you know, you don't look at this world and you see that, you know, two thirds of marriage is ending divorce, whatever it is. You know, it shouldn't be like, well, if it doesn't work, you know, I can just get divorced and try again. No. You know, it's important when you make a decision, when you find that husband or wife that you want to spend the rest of your life with, that you set in your mind, this is for the rest of my life. Okay? This is the one person that I'm going to be with forever. Hey, if you have that mindset, don't you think you're going to be a little wiser in your decisions? Don't you think you're going to be a bit more patient, you know, to make the right decision that you're going to try to find a godless spouse, someone that you can go, especially for the girls, because you're going to be in submission to the husband. You know, say, hey, this is a man that I can be under his authority. This is a man that loves me. This is a man that would give himself like Jesus Christ gave himself to the church. Yeah. You know, if we had that mindset that marriage is for life, no matter what, we're going to make better decisions. Okay? And even when you make the best decision, does that mean your marriage is going to be perfect all the time? Of course not. There's going to be conflict. There's going to be trouble. Okay? It's going to happen. But hey, if you really set your mind this is for life, you're going to be able to work through those troubles, right? You're going to say, well, I need this marriage to work, instead of going, well, you know what? I can just give up now and get divorced and try again. No, it's wrong. It's unbiblical. But what we see here is that he was going to divorce his wife and the Bible says that he was just. Now let's understand it. Can you please keep your finger there? Turn to the book of Deuteronomy. Turn to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24, when God first mentions the bill of divorce. Because God does allow divorce in a certain scenario. Okay? God does allow divorce in a certain scenario. Now, if I'm going to preach on divorce, you know, at some point I probably should, but that's going to require a wholesome. Okay? Because it's, you know, marriage is simple. As soon as you do something that's not Godly, you make it very complicated. All right? But marriage is meant to be simple and straightforward. So if I just want to give you a snapshot, why is Joseph then a just man according to God? Because in Deuteronomy chapter 24, Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1, it says this, When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass, that she find no favour in his eyes, Why? You just don't like it? No, no. Why? Because he hath found some uncleanness in her. This is, basically what this means. You take a wife, you marry her legally, you know, like a civil ceremony or whatever, and then you find this uncleanness in her. The meaning that she's not been faithful. Okay? She's not, you know, a virgin that you probably thought you were marrying. Okay? And in this case for Joseph, Mary, wow, she's pregnant. You know? She's not been faithful. Is the thoughts going through Joseph's mind? Okay? And then it says, sorry I lost my part there. Oh yeah, sorry. And then it says, Because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. So we see why God allows divorce, is when you come together in the civil ceremony, but before you consummate that marriage, before you're, you know, physically husband and wife, if you find an uncleanness in her, at that point, God gives the allowance to get divorced. Okay? But that's before they consummate that marriage. Okay? So we see, because God has given us that law in the Bible, we can now understand why Joseph was a just man. He knew what the word of God says and says, well, you know what? I guess I can put it away privately. And he loved her. He didn't want to make her a public example. He just says, you know what? I'll just deal with this quietly. I'll just divorce her and move on with my life. Okay? So let's go back to Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one. Those 20, Matthew chapter one, verse 20. And 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, marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Wow. Now the angel comes and pronounces to Joseph what's going on. And we can see that, you know, he is a godly man. Look at verse 21. Let's keep reading. It says, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And you know that the name Jesus means saviour. The name Jesus means deliverer. Okay? And why are they calling that? For he shall save his people from their sins. Hey, how does he save his people from their sins? I'll just read to you Acts 10, 43. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. As for the name of Jesus Christ, by putting your belief, your faith and trust on him, on his finished work, in his blood, that you can be forgiven of your sins, that you can have your sins remitted off. Praise God that it's not by works or any other way. Otherwise we fail at it immediately. Okay? But that's how he came to. So we see even from the beginning of the babe, we know that this baby's gonna die on the cross. We know this baby's going to be the one that's sacrificed himself for all of mankind. Verse 22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. I told the sermon tonight. God with us. God walks this earth in flesh in Jesus Christ. Okay? And of course, I really covered this. I only preached on abortion a few weeks ago, but just very quickly, that saying comes from Isaiah 7 14, which says, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. And when I taught on abortion last time, I mentioned how the Old Testament says, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and the New Testament says, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, meaning that as soon as this conception, as soon as the man seed fertilizes that egg, that is a child. That is a life, and if you destroy that life, that's murder. That's abortion. That's destruction of a little child's life. All right? Now something that's interesting, I didn't really pick up on this until this study, but I'll just read the next verse in Isaiah 7 14. So after that prophecy is given, it says in verse 15, it says, and this is something you'll never read about in the New Testament, but it gives us a little bit insight of Jesus Christ. It says, Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. So it's interesting, we get a bit of a snapshot of Jesus' life, that he grew up on butter and honey. Okay? So, you know, eat your butter and honey. But then it says that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. You know, Jesus Christ, even as a little child, refused the evil. Okay? It's not like when he got 30 years old and he started his ministry, that's when he started living a righteous life. Now even from a little child, even from taking the butter or the milk and growing up on honey or whatever, he was refusing the evil and he was a good child, a faithful child, one that obeyed the laws of God. It's interesting there in Isaiah 7 15 that it mentions that. Okay, back to Matthew chapter 1, please. Matthew chapter 1. We're almost done here. Verse 24. Matthew chapter 1, verse 24. It says, Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife. That's Joseph, great man of God, right? I mean, I don't know, man, you think about that. You know, if you found out your wife, the woman you just married was pregnant, would you still take her up even though an angel would talk to you? It'd still be hard. It'd still be a hard decision knowing that that woman would bear a child that wasn't your own, you know? But you know, he was a faithful man. He obeyed God and carried about and continued on with the job that he was given. Look at verse 25. It says in verse 25, And knew her not. And those words in the Bible, knew knowing someone, knowing her, that's that physical intimacy between husband and wife. It says that he did not do that. He was not physically intimate with her. Knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus. And even though Jesus was not the son of Joseph, God gave him the authority. Hey, you called his name Jesus. And it says he called his name Jesus. Even though he wasn't the biological father, he was still the head of that home. And I've preached about this to men before, right? Men, you are the head of your house. You know, don't let your wives rule your home. Okay? I mean, give them all the authority, give them all the freedom they need to do their business. But at the end of the day, if the family fails, it's on you, men. You can't blame your wife. Okay? And even though Jesus was not the son of Joseph, it was God's expectation. Hey, you're the one that's gonna call him Jesus. And he did that, you know? He took ownership of his family. All right? But one thing I do want to cover very quickly in verse 25, and this is just for anyone that might still be, you know, influenced by Roman Catholicism and the doctrines of Roman Catholicism. Obviously, there's adoption that they teach called the perpetual virginity of Mary. Okay? So they believe not only did Mary give birth to Jesus as a virgin, but that she remained a virgin for the rest of her life. Okay? Now, what dismantles that very quickly is verse 25. Just look at it again. Verse 25, the last verse. And so talking about Joseph, and knew her not till, okay, she had brought forth her firstborn son. In other words, Joseph, you know, he's married to his wife. In other words, he was physically intimate with her after, you know, she gave birth to Jesus. That's what it means there. Okay? Did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son. Number one, there's that, you know, they had not known her till, but the other part of that is her firstborn son. Hey, if Jesus was her only son, you wouldn't call him the firstborn son. If you're calling someone the firstborn son, what do you automatically say? That there's at least a secondborn son. At least, right? Otherwise, you don't really call that person the firstborn son, you're calling the only son. All right? Now, very quickly, turn to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 13. We're almost done here. Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 54. Matthew 13, verse 54. It says, and when he was coming to his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, this is Jesus teaching the synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, Weds have this man, this wisdom, and these mighty works. Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren, James and Joseph, and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Weds then have this man all these things. So here we have names of his own half-brothers. You know, his siblings. Between that relationship of Joseph and Mary. So notice we get some names there in verse 55. It says, and his brethren, James, let's count them. James and Joseph and Simon and Judas. And then in verse 56 it says, and his sisters. So at minimum, sisters would be two, right? At least two sisters. So let's add two to that. You know, that's seven. And then Jesus, that's eight. So Mary had a minimum of eight kids. A minimum of eight kids. And so I just want to end on that. You know, I know for some of us, some people maybe it's too late to have any more kids, you know. But hey, you know, we live in a society that tells you don't have lots of kids. You know, hey, it's too expensive, it's too much trouble. You know, the Bible tells us, and we haven't covered this today, but Joseph and Mary, they weren't rich, they weren't a rich family. And yet they were able to have a minimum of eight kids, okay. And one thing that I found in my family with ten, you know, you say, how did you afford it? I have no idea. I have no idea, all right. Somehow the Lord always provided for us, okay. We only had enough for, my wife and I, we never had enough for a child. But then when we had a child, we had enough for a child. We didn't have enough for another child. But then when we had the other child, we had enough for that child. Okay, and after that, we didn't have enough for another one, but God gave us two, two at once. But somehow we had enough for two more, okay. But somehow, look, you know, you just do what the Lord asks you. You have a faithful, godly, a marriage, you know, a marriage bed that's fruitful, you know, that's intimate. It's very important for husband and wife to have that intimacy, have children. That's a natural, you know, result of marriage. And I promise you, you just put your faith in that. You just work hard, man, you know, earn an income. You know, mothers take time to raise up your children and nurture an admission of the Lord. And I promise you, God's gonna step in and give you that pay rise. God's gonna step in, and it may not even be a pay rise. It might just, you know, cut your costs in one area or something like that, okay. It might never be that, but he'll find a way for you to be able to have that minimum of eight kids, like how Mary had it, okay. And I know for some of you it's like, well, it's too late for me. Yeah, but we can raise our kids. We can raise our kids to know the importance of getting married young, having children, raising that godly seed, all right. And yeah, I mean, look, the Muslims are having kids in the multitudes, okay. And the Christians, we're on, you know, birth control pills, and we think kids are a burden. What's happened to us? What's happened to the Christians that we have in the Bible? And that's the example here of Mary and Joseph. Like I said, they weren't even rich, but they were still able to provide for the eight kids. So let's end on that. You know, thank God so much that, you know, he sent the Lord Jesus Christ, his son, to be that babe, to be that lion's will. You know, yeah, you know, his garment was stained with blood, but we know, we know what's gonna happen. We know the future. We know he's gonna grow up to be that old lion, okay, with power and authority, and he's gonna rule and reign in that millennial kingdom. Hey, we're gonna be there. We're gonna be there with Christ, and it's gonna be fantastic. It's gonna be fantastic. We are children of Abraham in Christ and partakers of those same promises that God gave to Abraham and to King David. All right, let's pray.