believing that you're destined for
heaven when you're not would be the most
tragic self-deception David servants
book the great gospel deception will
help you be sure that heaven will be
your eternal home order your copy and
heavenward on TV okay previously we were
starting to look at the genealogy of
Jesus Christ through his stepfather
Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 through
about verse number 17 it is not my
intention to try to read through this
entire genealogy other than to point out
the fact is I already have that Jesus
had the credentials have the pedigree
for lack of a better way of saying it of
the Messiah because he was a direct
descendent through both his mother and
his stepfather Joseph of Abraham Isaac
Jacob Judah Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah
and David all right and so that's very
clear here and as you read through this
a lot of really interesting names pop
out if you've read through the Old
Testament this encompasses a lot of the
Old Testament we're starting with
Abraham here and you know that's going
all the way back to Genesis chapter 11
we're going you know up through the time
of David and the kings of Judah and so
and so forth and right to verse number
17 where well let's read verse 16 we
mazel read something here Jacob was the
father of Joseph the husband of Mary by
whom Jesus was born who is called the
Messiah The Anointed One okay so clearly
established where Jesus came from and
that was very important to Jews because
he had to fulfill prophecy but Jesus has
a lot more credentials doesn't he than
just the fact that he was a descendant
of all the right people because there
were others who could have fit somewhere
in this chronology right Jesus had
brothers and sisters didn t the
scripture makes that very clear who
the same mother of course different
father so they all had almost the
identical lineages he did and if you
work your way back further course many
more people could have fit this but
Jesus had you know much more credentials
of course his miracles testified of him
that he was the son of God if he wasn't
a son of God he played the part better
than anybody ever has and so as
Matthew's finishing this he says in
verse 17 so all the generations from
Abraham to David are fourteen
generations from David to the
deportation to Babylon fourteen
generations and from the deportation to
Babylon to the Messiah fourteen
generations I think he wrote that really
just to help people to memorize that
because there are a few folks missing
actually from Jesus genealogy here and
it's not exactly 14 in every case that's
not important that doesn't help us to
make disciples so we're not going to
belabor that point now we come to the
next few verses as we close out in
Matthew chapter one that tell about the
birth of Christ these verses have lost
their punch because we've heard them so
often you know I'm just going to ask you
for a moment just to pretend like you've
never heard this story before because it
is a magnificent story this is the
entrance of the Messiah into our world
God became a man think about that I mean
it boggles the mind there's tons of
mystery involved but it's a true story
and so we read it every Christmas but
we're going to read it right now again
so we see in verse number 18 now the
birth of Jesus was as follows when his
mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph
that is she's engaged to be married and
back in those days you know you know
engagement was a very very serious thing
if you're engaged you know you curse not
lawful to consummate your marriage until
actual marriage but to get out of that
engagement required you know a formal
process almost like a divorce i
patrolled the Joseph before they came
together she was found to be with child
by the Holy Spirit of course Joseph
didn't know that but he notices his
fiancee
is pregnant and so that's why in verse
19 it says and Joseph her husband isn't
that interesting that even at that point
in time he is called her husband being a
righteous man and not wanting to
disgrace her planned to send her away
secretly again you've heard the story
many times before I want to focus on
something that maybe you haven't heard
anyone talk about before the fact that
Joseph was called in Scripture inspired
by the Holy Spirit a righteous man we
think of a righteous man as someone who
keeps the law down to the last jot and
tittle we know that the law of Moses in
the Book of Leviticus it required
adulteresses and adulterers to be stoned
and that's what Joseph assumed having no
better knowledge that she was guilty of
and so he had every legal right to
expose her and to demand the penalty of
what the law prescribed we don't really
know if the Jews were even keeping those
kind of prescriptions and stoning
adulterers and adulteresses but
nevertheless he didn't want to see her
disgraced because he was a righteous man
and so we get a little insight into
righteousness here that I think is
really interesting righteousness doesn't
necessarily want sin to be exposed
righteousness still is motivated by love
we know that God is righteous right
there's nobody more righteous than God
well is he instantaneously exposing
every adulterer and every adulteress is
he immediately killing every adulterer
and every daughters no he's not no he's
not he's being merciful to them he
doesn't in any way compromise his
holiness but he gives them time to
repent he convicts them dee pimpin their
conscience to try to call them to
repentance he may send someone across
their path who would you know share with
them the Word of God that would make
them even feel guilty again and call
them to repentance so he's merciful
remember that time when that woman was
caught in the act of adultery and
brought before Jesus Jesus played the
part perfectly the law called for
stoning it was a law given by Jesus but
had Jesus stone
her yet had Jesus killed her yet he you
know God already knew that she had
committed adultery no he did exactly
what God had been doing showing her
mercy but calling her to repentance and
so Joseph was a righteous man he showed
her mercy he didn't want to see her
disgraced but I might also point out
that a lot of people think that love and
mercy shows infinite toleration for
anything and that was not the case
Joseph still took action he was going to
put her away that his divorce her as or
break off their engagement secretly I
secretly because love covers a multitude
of sins and so we ought to follow that
example follow the example of God whose
righteous follow the example of Joseph
who was a righteous man showing mercy to
others not demanding the exactitude of
the requirement of the law being met in
them because we don't require in
ourselves we all want mercy ok alright
thanks so much see you next time