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Amen. OK, so just again, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas again and thank you for being here on Christmas Day. I know for some it's a bit of a travel and there are obviously lots of engagements and other invites and things like that. And it's great. It's great though to be in God's house on Christmas morning. I'd like to look down just again at that last part of Matthew 2. I'm not going to read the whole thing again. John did a great job there didn't he, with that genealogy there. But we're going to just look again for verse 16. So Matthew 2, after that genealogy, just at the end of it from verse 16 says this, And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. 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. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, 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, now son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. As she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt 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 of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, shall bring forth the Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name. Jesus, verse 21, said this, that she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And the title of my sermon this morning is from that verse, and it is this, Thou shalt call his name Jesus. The title is this morning, Thou shalt call his name Jesus. I'd like to pray and then we're going to get going with the message. Father, thank you, Lord, for the blessing of that first Christmas, Lord, over 2,000 years ago now. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for what that means, what that birth of Christ meant, what he was to go on to do. We thank you for everything that means for us, Lord. We thank you for salvation. We thank you for this church. Thank you for the many blessings that you give us, you continue to give us. We thank you for everything that you do for us, Lord. Please just bless this service, bless this day, Lord. Bless everyone's Christmas, Lord. Bless everyone that's able to at least listen online, Lord. Please just help me to preach this message that I've thought about coming up to this Christmas just in a clear and an accurate and a bold way, Lord, and full of your Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray all of this. Amen. Okay, so it is going to be a little bit of a page turner today, a little bit of study, but that's why you're in a church like this, guys. Yeah, we want to hear the word of God. We're going to continue in Matthew 2, surely, so I would like you to keep something, obviously a finger or something. This is going to be our main text, but we are going to be going around the Bible a little bit today. This first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, it really focuses on names, doesn't it? Yeah, it really focuses on names. That's the first chapter of the New Testament just really focuses on names. So it started with this genealogy that went from Abraham through King David and all of the kingly line all the way to Joseph, the husband of Mary, who was the perceived father of Christ, thus satisfying those looking for the royal claim. However, the names don't stop there. They didn't stop at the genealogy. Verse 16 said, And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So the first chapter, first book, New Testament, we come across these two new names that can then continue to be emphasized as well in this chapter and obviously onwards. What does it mean to be Christ? What does it mean to be Christ? So keep a finger here and turn to John chapter one. John chapter one, a lot of people know the name. We know the name Jesus Christ. What does it actually mean to be the Christ? Who is the Christ? Turn to John chapter one. The word literally means anointed, anointed, and it's synonymous with the Hebrew word Messiah. So in John chapter one, where you're turning two of John the Baptist's disciples start following Jesus. One of them is Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And verse 40 says this in John one, John one 40 says, one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiahs, which is being interpreted the Christ. So clearly it's defined for us right at the beginning of John's gospel that the title is used twice in the book of Daniel. But aside from that, the word is just translated as anointed with kings, priests and prophets all being anointed and the Messiah, okay, the king, the priest, the prophet, all at the same time being the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all three. He is the anointed. He's the Messiah. He's the Christ. Okay. Keep something in John chapter one. He is the king, priest and prophet. Keep something in John one. But back in verse 16, Christ was only one of those names. We're not really going to focus on that. So I'll focus on that last year. But Christ was one of those names. Verse 16 said, Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. And we're going to look at that other name shortly but we're going to continue first. Verse 17 said, so all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, for the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. So the genealogy is a whole other sermon. There's four generations of Ahab, sorry, cut off as promised. Josiah, son Jehoiakim, not there as he was ordained by the king of Egypt. There's some really interesting stuff in the genealogy. But that's not what we're going to look at today. We're going to keep going today. We're looking at this name Jesus. Verse 18 said, 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. Now just to make this clear, okay, espoused isn't engaged. Okay. It means betrothed or married. Okay. They were married. However, they hadn't come together as a physical couple yet. And there could be various reasons for this, living situations etc. She was probably still living with her parents at the point they got married, they hadn't come together yet physically. The virgin Mary though, before they came together physically she conceived of the Holy Ghost. It was a miraculous conception. Verse 19 says, then Joseph her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. So Joseph was a good guy. Okay. He didn't choose to shame her for being already pregnant. And a lot of men probably wouldn't be able to say the same thing. And a lot of men would probably be very bitter, very angry and want to shame her for that, publicly shame her. But he was a just man. He wasn't going to do that. He was going to put her away though, which is to divorce her for the cause of fornication, which was something that the law of Moses allowed. This was the only reason, this was the only thing that was allowed, the only time divorce was allowed by the law of Moses. You don't have to turn there but Deuteronomy 24 one says, when a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes because he had 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. So he was going to do that. He was choosing to basically do what was what was provided in the law for this situation. But verse 20 said this, or at least this is what he thought was going on. Verse 20 said, but while he thought on these things, and again, this is just a great credit to Joseph, isn't it? He wasn't rash. He wasn't impulsive. He didn't just fly off the handle and make like long term, big, massive decisions. No, he thought on these things. 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. And she shall bring forth the son, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So there's that name Jesus again in capitals. No missing it. It's clearly important, isn't it? The name is very important, right? Jesus is the Greek, the New Testament being written in Greek, OK, for the Hebrew name that we pronounce as Joshua. We pronounce that as Joshua. How it's meant to be pronounced? Well, there might be a bit of debate there. Back back in the Old Testament, we have a whole book named after Joshua, the son of Nun, don't we? OK, whose name was changed from from Oshia to Jehoshua by Moses in number 13, 16. Yeah, I've turned there, but it says these are the names of the men which Moses sent out to spy at the land, and Moses called Oshia the son of Nun, Jehoshua. OK, so Moses then changed it to Jehoshua. Its contracted form is Joshua, or some might say Jeshua, which is why those New Testament rejecting Hebrew obsessive types like trying to sound extra holy, calling him Yeshua or Yehoshua, because they're trying to sound like they know Hebrew and they've got this extra special name and everything else. I wonder if they call the book of Joshua I don't know. Anyone ever heard? Do they talk about the book of Joshua or maybe the book of Yehoshua or something? I don't know. But but unsurprisingly, the special going back to the Hebrew types never seemed to be right on salvation either, do they? I don't know. I've spoken to these guys many times over the years. They never seem to be right on salvation. But let's continue. We know where it comes from. But what does the name Jesus mean? It literally means saviour. That's its literal meaning, saviour. Now, keep a finger here and turn over to Luke 2, Luke chapter 2, where the shepherds that we looked at on Sunday are spoken to by the angel of the Lord. So Luke chapter 2, Luke 2, verse 10 says, And the angel said unto them, Luke 2 and verse 10, this is a shepherd's here, they're spoken to by the angel of the Lord, the angel said unto them, Fear not, 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 saviour, which is Christ the Lord, which is what his name literally means. Okay. And if you go back to Matthew one, then with that in mind, okay, we're told it means saviour. We see he's called a saviour. And then back in Matthew one, verse 21 confirms it nicely where it says in verse 21, And she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for, this is the reason, he shall save his people from their sins. So the angel of the Lord commanded Joseph to call his name Jesus in capitals clear. This is important. You're going to call his name Jesus, or we could say that he was commanded call his name Saviour, call his name Saviour for or because he shall save his people from their sins. So he's called Saviour. Why? Because he saves. And there's a lot in that name, isn't there? I mean, how much is there in that name alone? When we're talking about baby Jesus, we're talking about baby Saviour. The Saviour as a baby, the baby Saviour. When we're celebrating the birth of Jesus, we're celebrating the birth of the Saviour. When Joseph was commanded to name the baby Jesus, he was being commanded to name him Saviour, Saviour. The title this morning is Thou Shalt Call His Name Jesus. And I've got two points that we're going to look at some application at the end. Point number one, thou shalt call his name Jesus number one for he shall save his people from their sins, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's what it said in verse 21 there. And she shall bring forth the son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Who are his people? Now this verse applies in two ways. Okay, first off, the Lord Jesus Christ came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, those remaining of God's physical nation before it was to cease to exist. Okay, which eventually happened at 70 AD. Go back to John chapter one in Matthew 15 24. He said to the Canaanitish woman, you're going back to John one, Matthew 15 24, he said to the Canaanitish woman, but he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So his three year ministry was spent in and around the region. It was formerly the land of Israel, wasn't it? Okay, there's no, there's no debating there. However, although many believed and by the way, no, he didn't go off into India and all these other weird stories you hear, okay. However, although many believed, many rejected too, but he still came to them first. John chapter one says this in verse 10, John one verse 10 says, he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Yet many of his own received him not. Okay, keep a finger here and look again at Matthew 1 21. Matthew 1 21, keep a finger though in John one, said, she shall bring forth the son and now shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Did he save some of those remaining of that previous physical nation? Yes. Yes, there's no denying that. We see it throughout the scriptures. Many believed on him, many believed on him, many believed on him. We see throughout the Gospel of John, for example. However, he does save all his people from their sins though. John 1 12, back in John one said in verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. As many as receive him are his sons. Them that believe on his name are his people and that's all it takes to be saved from their sins, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. It said in verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So it's not the bloodline that makes you a son of God. That's not the bloodline. We're told to avoid endless genealogies. Okay, we're told to avoid these fables. Okay, who can prove what their I mean, what percentage? How does that even work anymore? Yet people still cling to this stuff. It's so carnal. Okay, that stuff is long gone. There is no physical nation. We're not born, we're not part of, we're not one of God's people due to our blood. They're born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not your, it's not the will of the flesh. It's not your goodness. It's not your repenting of your sins. You're giving up certain sins. You're avoiding certain sins. The will of your flesh that makes you a son of God. No, that's not how you're saved. It said, nor of the will of man. It's not because of some man-made religious construct. It's not because of some religiosity or something else. It's none of that. It's of God. It's of God and it's dependent on one thing, believing on the Saviour. It's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved. And if you do that, you are His people. You don't have to turn it, but 1 John 4.14 says, and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, of the world. Now have a look at chapter 4 in John, in the Gospel of John. Have a look at chapter 4, where the Samaritans come to see the Lord, having heard of Him from the woman at the well. So John chapter 4, we're going to look from verse 39. Excuse me. John chapter 4 and verse 39 says this, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I did. What did they do? They believed on Him. They put their faith in Him. They put their trust in Him. We see these different terms used. They all mean the same thing. They believed on Him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans will come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them, and He abode their two days. And many more believed because of His own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He's the Saviour of the world. He saves His people from their sins, and those people are all over the world, and they become His people how? By believing on His name. By believing on the Saviour. So back in Matthew 1 21, where the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew writes, And she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Yes, He came to His own first. Romans 1 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Not that repents of all their sins. Not that tries to be really good. Not that it's more holy than everyone else. Not to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. But His people are those that believe on Him. Galatians 3 28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are one in Christ Jesus. So yeah, He came to the Jew first. Yeah, He came to what was His physical own first, but we're all one by faith in Christ. That's how you become a child of God. For you're the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3 26. He saves all His people. And guess how many sins He saves them from? How many sins do you think? Do you think He's got a limit? He saves you from a hundred sins. You go in with a hundred mark, you're out of there. No? No, He saves you from maybe some of those commands. He saves you only from the lesser sins. When it said, For He shall save His people from their sins, did that mean He'll only save you from only the sins that we think are kind of not so bad? All their sins. All their sins, for He shall save His people from their sins. No, no, actually only the repented ones. Only the repented sins. Oh, really? Have you repented of all you? Oh, okay. So someone here has repented of every single sin, have they? You know what, you'd have to keep, you know what, not just study the Bible once, you'd have to keep, you'd have to note down every single thing and have this master list and even recognize those sins in yourself. And then you've already failed the next time you don't love your neighbors yourself. You've already failed the next time you haven't loved God as yourself. It's such a nonsense. It's religiosity. It's all these people all over the world trying to somehow take credit for salvation. No, He saved us from all our sins. Oh no, only the past sins. He only saved you from the past sins, did He? Oh, that's funny because that means everyone's going to hell. Because if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourselves and the truth is not in you. No, He saved us from all our sins. We're here today celebrating the birth of the Saviour whose saving power is not limited by our so-called standards. The saving power of Christ is not limited by what man wants to think He will and won't save us from. No, He saved His people from their sins. It's a simple verse but it's so much in there, isn't it? Turn to Romans 5. He should save His people from their sins and that's the promise that you can count on, amen? You can count on that promise. But it's a promise that you have to count on to be able to count on the promise. You ain't trusting that promise? Well, that promise isn't for you. And that is the ultimate gift of Christmas. You can take the best gifts that the world has to offer, can't you? The flashiest homes, the fastest cars, the biggest yachts, shove them in one giant stocking and they're nothing compared to this gift. They're nothing compared to the gift of eternal life, everlasting life, given as a gift. I mean, how amazing is that, right? Romans 5.15 says, but not as the offence, so also as the free gift. Yeah, it's a free gift. For if through the offence of one, many be dead, talking about the first man Adam, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, yeah, grace is free, undeserved, unmerited, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. How do you receive that free gift? Well, verse one of Romans 5 tells us, therefore being justified by faith. It's by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's faith alone in Christ alone. They say, oh, but you can give the gift back. That always tickles me. Oh, well, what if you give the gift back? What? How does that work again? No one's ever explained that to me, how that works, how you give the gift back. But you know what? I thought about this when I was writing these notes. I thought, it seems you would have to travel pretty far to do that exchange. You don't know if you want to take a gift back. Most people just don't, do they? And a lot of online stuff works in that because most people can't be bothered with all that, right? Oh, man, I've got to go to the post office, print off this, do that, especially the cheaper stuff. People just can't really be bothered. Well, it's a lot further than going to the post office. You want to take the gift back. OK, this is an impossibility anyway. Well, Psalm 103 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far they removed our transgression from us. You want to swap it all back. Yeah, you've got to go as far as the east is from the west. It ain't happening. It's impossible. You can't take this giving the gift back. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit. You have everlasting life. You're held by the Lord. Salvation is a one time deal. You've passed from death unto life. No, he shall save his people from their sins. Go back to Matthew chapter one. Matthew one twenty one says, and she shall bring forth the son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. That's the promise. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son. They shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. The title this morning is thou shalt call his name Jesus. And point number one, for he shall save his people from their sins. And point number two is that the prophecy might be fulfilled, that the prophecy might be fulfilled. Verse twenty two said, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son that shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Now, keep a finger here and go back to Isaiah seven, Isaiah seven, where the prophet Isaiah, who we've been studying through on Wednesday evenings, it seems it doesn't seem that long ago for me, but we were in Isaiah seven several months ago now. But in Isaiah seven, he's preaching in the days of King Ahaz, who was Hezekiah's father. But he prophesies this of the coming Saviour. So Isaiah seven verse fourteen says this, Isaiah seven fourteen. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. So the virgin birth was a sign along with his being called Immanuel, which, according to Matthew one twenty three, means God with us, as we've already seen. And considering Mary's Holy Spirit filled song in Luke one, let alone her involvement in that first miracle at the wedding in Cana, if you remember, she's like, whatever he says, do it, right? Yeah, she was, she was basically trying to instigate it and he's going, well, my hour's not yet come. Well, I'm sure that she did call him Immanuel or God with us. But what did the virgin birth that is being called that have to do with Joseph calling his name Jesus? Well, keep something there in Isaiah seven and go back to Matthew one, go back to Matthew one, but keep something in Isaiah seven. Verse eighteen said, Now the birth of Jesus Christ is honest wise, when as 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 her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, now 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 the Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, so all of this, that it might be fulfilled which is spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the Son and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So one of the things that was done was Joseph being commanded to call his name Jesus, or we've just seen earlier that that means saviour. Let me tell you why this went hand in hand with the prophecy of Isaiah, because it had to be a virgin birth. It had to be God with us for him to be that saviour. It all goes together. They're inseparable. The only way that he could be the saviour was because he was God in the flesh. And the way that it was God in the flesh was the virgin birth. So it's not just a cool miracle. It was the way that God was to come to dwell among us as both 100% God and 100% man at the same time. That was the way at least God ordained it for it to happen. The only way that Joseph was then able to name him as the saviour of the world was because he was God with us. Only the Son of God was able to make the once and full sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Only the Son of God could do that, because only God himself was able to live a sinless life, to then take on the sins of the world. You have to turn up at 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He swapped with us. He became sin so that we could become righteous in God's eyes. Go to Hebrews 4. However, he didn't. Hebrews 4. He didn't just come to the world as a fully grown man and die for us. He came to truly humble beginnings. He lived a normal life. He even went through the same temptations that you and I do, but there was a difference. He didn't sin. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't sin. He knew no sin. Hebrews 4 says in verse 14, Hebrews 4.14 says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, yet without sin, which means that we could confidently ask him for help when we are tempted, can't we, knowing that he sympathizes with how we feel, knowing that he understands how we feel. We don't have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Verse 16 then says this, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, which this point about him being tempted like as we are, yet without sin is what Isaiah prophesied about back in Isaiah 7. So if you go back there, hopefully you get something there. Isaiah chapter 7, it said this in verse 14, Isaiah 7.14 said, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. And we looked at this several months ago in our Isaiah series that butter and honey are meant to be contrasting. You've got like the sour butter is contrasted with the sweet honey, the sour curdled milk is more what butter really was as opposed to sweet pure honey, picturing the evil and the good. He's experiencing life, he's being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. That was prophesied about back then and that was essential for it to be the atoning sacrifice. That's why he's able to save because he was yet without sin. Go back to Matthew 1. You're going back to Matthew 1. Peter said in 1 Peter 1.19 that we're not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He did the hard work, not us. It was him that was without blemish, it was him that was without spot, it's not us. And all of this was only possible because he was Immanuel, God with us. That's why it was possible. When the virgin conceived to bear a son and called his name Immanuel, it was because he was the saviour. Verse 21 said that she shall bring forth the son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done and it might be fulfilled which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son and they shall call his name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us. So the title this morning is thou shalt call his name Jesus and point number one for he shall save his people from their sins and point number two that the prophecy might be fulfilled. And bearing in mind that wasn't the only prophecy fulfilled, he fulfilled tons of prophecies, right? But that prophecy was being fulfilled, the virgin conceiving that it was God with us and that ultimately goes hand in hand with him being the saviour. So what was the response of Joseph? Let's continue going then. Verse 24, excuse me, says then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord have bidden him and took unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus. No, she wasn't a perpetual virgin by the way, he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and no, he wasn't her only son, okay? It was her firstborn son, okay? Mary went on to have other children, that's just Catholic nonsense. But Joseph did exactly what he was told to do, okay? The main point, the climax almost of this Christmas passage being the name, isn't it? We've gone through all these names, this whole genealogy, we get to this point where he's like thou shalt call his name Jesus in capitals and then we have this passage about it, about why he's being called it and then we get to the end and it says that he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name capitals Jesus. That's what it's about. So that's what we're celebrating, isn't it? This Christmas passage in Matthew 1 is about really the fact that he is a saviour. It's not that there's just this, you know, and don't get me wrong, yeah, it had to be God with us, yeah? It was God in the flesh, it was the Son of God, that was amazing itself. For him to walk amongst us must, I mean, amazing, imagine living in that time period. But that wasn't really the whole point of it ultimately was that he was the saviour, the saviour of the world. And there's a Christmas challenge for everyone here today, okay? Turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1. God is saying to you if you're unsaved, if you haven't called him your saviour, if you haven't called the Lord Jesus Christ your saviour. Now, there's many people that give lip service. Look, there are people across this nation today and across this world singing songs about the saviour, singing songs about him saving, about being the saviour, even sending Christmas cards sometimes with verses about the saviour. But they don't believe, they don't really believe that he saves them. They believe that they save themselves. And sadly these people are all over this nation and all over this world and they might be in this room today because, you know, it's one thing to claim that you believe but are you really calling him your saviour? Are you calling him your saviour? Are you saying, yeah, he's kind of half saves and I do the rest of it. Well, I did a bit of the saving because I'm a little bit holier than other people and then he added to my saving. Or he did some saving and then I continue the saving as I go through life. Then he ain't your saviour and he's not your saviour because he doesn't share the saving with anyone else. He is the saviour. And I'm saying to you that if you haven't called him your saviour, thou shalt call his name Jesus. How about you call his name Saviour? How about you put your faith in him? He's commanding you to call his name Jesus. I think that this applies to everyone. Yeah, he said it to Joseph but I think you can apply this to everyone because there's a point when it is too late. There's a point where, you know, whether it's death that could come at any moment, whether it's your heart becoming hardened or maybe it's a point when the Lord returns. 1 Thessalonians 1 says this in verse 6, 1 Thessalonians 1 says, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said he'll take vengeance, inflaming fire on those that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something, as soon as you're changing who the Jesus of the Bible is, as soon as you're adding works to salvation, as soon as you're taking something away from his work in our salvation, you don't know the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible gave himself for us. He didn't tell you to give yourself for him for salvation. Now, after salvation, he wants you to give your life to him. He wants you to, but that's not how you get to heaven. You got to heaven because Jesus Christ gave his life for you. After that, he calls you. He calls you to get baptised. He calls you to come to church. He calls you to serve him. Sadly, most saved people don't do most of that, let alone go on to give their whole life to him. And you know what? Every single saved person fails at that on many days of their life. But he said, it says inflaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the unsaved who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. We celebrate the joy, the peace, okay? And you're going, this is a bit tough for Christmas. Destruction, flaming fire, vengeance. We celebrate the joy and the peace made possible because of that first Christmas. But the reason we celebrate is because of the alternative. We celebrate it because we know what the alternative is. And we know that we deserve the alternative. And because no one here surely thinks that they don't deserve hell. Because all sin takes to hell the wages of sin is death. And that's why we celebrate what happened that 2000 years ago in that first Christmas was because it was the saviour. Because Jesus Christ is the saviour because he came to save us from our sins. And because the alternative is everlasting destruction in hell. How do you obey the gospel? Well verse 10 says when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. It's so clear in the Bible. All them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. It's faith alone. Faith alone in Christ alone. But without that standpoint, without that foundation you just cannot understand it. You put your trust in him as your saviour. He said thou shalt call his name Jesus. He's commanding you to get saved. If you're unsaved you need to get saved. Put your faith in him. Call his name Jesus. Call his name saviour and mean it. But for those of us here that have done that. The challenge is to call his name Jesus to the unsaved this Christmas. To show how he is that saviour. Yeah. Thou shalt call his name saviour. Show people that he is that saviour. Show the unsaved at this Christmas time especially. Turn to Philippians 2 to show what that name is all about. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. We want to give people the opportunity at Christmas now. Just while you turn now. Just to remind you as well. It can be hard with family and friends. Often they'll have some sort of belief or something else and they find it hard sometimes coming from you, don't they? Because even though you're showing them black and white in the Bible, they're just looking at you going, you're my whatever. Cousin, old friend, brother, sister, son, mother, father, whatever it is, right? Maybe mother, father, if you're a bit older here and it's maybe adult, whoever it is, often the relationship makes it hard, doesn't it? They don't want to hear, they don't want to believe you, they don't want to trust you, even though you're showing them it's clear as day from the Bible. Clear verses. Not ambiguous verses. Not verses that are kind of, you know, about something else. Verses that say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. For my grace is saved through faith and a knot of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not one of works, lest any man should boast. You've shown him clear salvation verses and they find that hard. And I think when we approach this at Christmas and when you approach this in general with people that you know, you've got to give them the option, yeah? Like, you start forcing it, you start pushing it and you might lose that opportunity in the future. And I don't say that, I'm not saying that lightly because I know we want to get them saved and often, like, you're just desperate, aren't you? Especially when you've got, like, aging relatives, things like that, you're just like, pleasing, you're thinking, how many charts do I get? But you force someone to hear the Gospel, you ain't going to get them saved. You might get a full, full salvation. You might get someone claiming to believe because it's now got really awkward because they've just forced me to listen for 20 minutes. I better disagree with what they say or they're going to be a bit offended. But don't force them. Just give them the option. And it doesn't have to be weird, does it? You know, like, easy conversations, you know, just like, for example, do you know what the name Jesus means? We just talked about that in our church service on Wednesday morning. It means saviour. Do you want me to show you how that works? Do you want me to show you how the Bible says that he saves us from our sins? And if someone says, no, not really, well, OK, well, yeah, let me know if you want to next time. No pressure. And then at least they're not going to think I don't want to be around that family member anymore. And you don't get that chance maybe in the future when they are when they're humble, when the pride is lower, when maybe things aren't going so well in their life and they're more likely to accept maybe I don't have it right. Maybe I'm not correct. Maybe my religion was wrong. Maybe my belief system was wrong. Maybe something else. Maybe I do want to hear what this person is telling me because they have a real short, they know what that Bible says and they're quoting Bible. They're ready to show me from the Bible, not to just give me some summary of their religious beliefs. We'll show you from the word of God, clear as day, how to get saved and give them the option. But don't force it, right? Be careful not to force it. Sure, you can leave with a verse. You can go, OK, I'll just give you a summary or something. Give them some seed. Just be careful with it. But Philip, just because, like I say, you get people and I've been around, I've been there as well. I used to coach and I used to force people to listen to the gospel. OK, and I've told you this before, but I just like just to give you an example of how you can get this wrong. Yeah, I used to train them and I'd wait till they're out of breath. Yeah, really exhausted. Yeah, I'd be stern, but I'd be like 20 kicks each side, 21, 2, 3, 4. Right, so where you go when you die? Right, you want to hear the gospel? Oh, OK. And then it's like, what, you know, what was, what did I tell you what I achieved out of that? Hardly a salvation. In fact, we've got one guy here. I preached to him while we were jogging up Box Hill. And if anyone knows that, that was a steep hill, wasn't it? And he used to get preached at going up the hill. And he'd be like out of breath so he couldn't really talk back. But he actually wanted to hear, he was asking me questions. And then as we got higher up the hill, he wasn't talking so much. I was carrying a bit less muscle than John. But, you know, for most people, I just, I was, I was forcing them to hear. I used to preach to almost every one of my clients and I'd hardly ever got them saved. And then what happened is I started to grow and learn and understand more and think. And it was unfairly because it was their time as well. And they were paying me for, and I was thinking, well, you know, I mean, what's wrong? I'm giving them like a spiritual lesson. I'm showing them the gospel here. I'm giving them a chance of salvation. What's the problem if I'm kind of eating into their training? They're paying me to learn Thai boxing and I'm teaching them the, you know, the things of God. I mean, what's the problem? But then when I realised and I thought, actually, I'm going to wait, I'm going to book off some time after the session with this person because I think they seem like they're probably quite receptive. And then I'd sit down with them after the session and then I started to get results of getting people saved. And I was giving them the option. I said, would you like me to show you? And the people that said, yeah, we'd much more like to get saved. Right. And but same with family, because then some of those people that are forced, maybe I didn't have the best, you know, retaining client. I didn't retain all my clients, you know, because they'd be like, man, that guy's just going to force the gospel on you when you're trying to Thai book. So look, we can all get it wrong. OK, but with family, we want to be careful with that, don't we, as well, because you don't want to get to the point where they don't want to be around you. Well, Philippians two says this in verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So look, that's what we want. That's what eventually will happen in the future. Sadly, though there's going to be a time when many of those people, though it's going to be too late for them, isn't it? But we want to give people the option. We want to show people that they should call his name Jesus. They should call him their saviour. And that they should, they should therefore with that, therefore be put in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for that salvation. Back in Matthew, it said this in Matthew 1.21, she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So the title this morning was thou shalt call his name Jesus, point number one, for he shall save his people from their sins. Point number two, that the prophecy might be fulfilled. The response is if you haven't called his name Jesus, and that's calling him your saviour, then I, you know, I implore you, I plead with you, we beseech you to please just put your faith in Christ and Christ alone. And if you have done that, then I encourage you to just offer to show other people how easy that is. It's actually a lot easier than you think when you just start offering people and do it in a nice and a normal way. That was thou shalt call his name Jesus. And on that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you, Lord, for the word of God. Thank you that the word of God, you know, makes it so clear what the Lord Jesus Christ came here for, what the what the point of, you know, Christmas is and what we're celebrating. We're celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and, you know, him coming to live amongst us to then die for us to be that atoning sacrifice for the whole world. Lord, we thank you that we can be strong, stand firm in our faith, Lord, knowing that, you know, he shall save his people from their sins. But also, Lord, we pray that we'll just be, you know, strong without faith with others, that we'll find that balance, you know, get that level right this Christmas time when we're around the unsaved, maybe more than usual, around people we care about, that we love, Lord, and that we want to get saved, Lord, to just approach it in the right way, to know that we can't force it, Lord, we can't force people to get saved. We can't demand people to get saved, but we can offer people to show them how to get saved. Help us to do that this Christmas in the right way, Lord. I pray for just everyone here. I pray for all our church family, Lord, who probably, you know, have, you know, heartache with this, have, you know, a lot of pain with this, with family and friends who have rejected the Gospel, who don't want to hear the Gospel, who maybe have their own version of the Gospel and just don't want to hear what your word says, Lord. I just pray for everyone right now. I just pray that you just help us all, Lord, to find that way, to find that key for those that are able to be saved, that, Lord, you know, to get that time in right, to be able to, and for those that we can't maybe, for those that maybe this year is not the year for that, Lord, to find a peace with that, Lord, to comfort us with that and to help us to just know that while they're alive, there's still a chance for us to just keep pressing on, Lord, help us to get to have a great day, a great, great day and to keep you at the centre of it, help us to keep thinking about you, helping the kids here not to get too present mad and to still remember what it is that we're exchanging gifts for, Lord, and it's then ultimately to remember what that, what that one true gift was really about, Lord, and help us to get home safe and sound, to have a great Christmas time and to return on Sunday for the Sunday services that you've just thrown with us. Amen.