The Line Of Jesus

[00:00:00] Good morning. I'd like to greet each one of you in Jesus' name this morning. I have been preaching through the book of Jonah, and last week Luke was talking to me a little bit about a sermon he had heard a guy preach about the lineage of Christ in Matthew 1.1. And he said, when you think of all the begets, you just kind of get a groan. [00:00:31] How do you preach on the lineage of Christ? And he started explaining to me a little bit, just sharing to me about this message. And I thought it sounded really interesting. And it's kind of like monkey see, monkey do. So I'm going to share from Matthew 1, 1 this morning. And we're going to look a little bit at the lineage of Christ. And I think we'll go ahead and read Matthew 1, 1-17 I've entitled the message this morning, God Uses Imperfect People [00:01:02] I'll try to make sure the children, I'm kind of stuck in the dark ages I know I do have PowerPoint now and I maybe will have that for the next time, we'll see But I'll try to make sure that the children understand or catch the answers Do the children all have their sermon notes? Are there some that still need them? Okay, Matthew 1, 1-17 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. [00:01:36] And I'm not going to pretend that I know how to pronounce all these names, but I'll do my best. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar, and Phares begat Esram, and Esram begat Aram, and Aram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nason, and Nason begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rechab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. [00:02:14] And Solomon begat Rehoboam, and Rehoboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Osias, and Osias begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekias, and Ezekias begat Manassas, and Manassas begat Ammon, and Ammon begat Josias And Josias beget Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. [00:02:48] And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias beget Salathiel, and Salathiel beget Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel beget Abiad, and Abiad beget Eliakim, and Eliakim beget Azor. And Azor beget Sadoc, and Sadoc beget Achim, and Achim beget Eliud. And Elias beget Eliezer, and Eliezer beget Mathan, and Mathan beget Jacob And Jacob beget Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ [00:03:20] So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations Then the rest of the chapter he goes into the actual birth of Christ and the events that happened there. But Matthew is writing to the Jews. The book of Matthew was written to the Jews. The Jews were concerned with lineage, with the Messiah that was coming. [00:03:58] He needed to have a certain lineage. He needed to have certain people in his background to be the authentic Messiah. He had to be a direct descendant of both Abraham and David. Both of them having received the promise that he would come through them. He starts the book of Matthew by saying in the very first verse, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Those were two key pieces that Jesus had to have in his lineage to be the Messiah. [00:04:32] The first thing that he does is mention them, and then he goes on and proves that Jesus is indeed a direct descendant of both of them. I'd like to look a little bit at just the background there of the promises God gave to them. God's promise to Abraham, Genesis 12, 1-3. 3. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [00:05:13] Okay, this is when God had first called Abraham, and another thing we'll notice, we're reading from the New Testament and from the Old Testament, so the names are getting changed, Abraham, well, Abraham's name was Abram, it was changed to Abraham, and we're going to look at, there's a lot of different names that are, you know, the pronunciation is different, so when I say one, I mean, they're interchangeable. And then after Abraham offered Isaac on the altar and the angel spoke to Abraham at the last instant, [00:05:55] don't kill your son, and he provided a ram. And the angel of the Lord, oh I'm sorry, Genesis 22, 15 through 18, the promise is reiterated to him. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. [00:06:35] And then we go into David, the promise of David, God's promise to David that the Messiah would come through him also. 2 Samuel 7, 8-16, God is speaking to David. 2 Samuel 7, 8-16, Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, he's actually speaking unto Nathan the prophet. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel. [00:07:07] And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, likened to the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time. And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee in house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. [00:07:46] He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I want you to really, really notice that. What we're looking at today is we want to see the culmination of events down through history how God was bringing things together that when Jesus was born it was a culmination of all these different pieces of the puzzle coming together. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. [00:08:35] And then if we look in Isaiah 9, 6-7 We have the very familiar Christmas verse For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given And the government shall be upon his shoulder And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom. [00:09:08] So there again, it's talking about David. To order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. David's line, the Jewish lines were kept track of. Whenever someone is mentioned in the Old Testament, Often he's mentioned as being the son of so-and-so who was the son of so-and-so. You know, to go back three or four generations, it was important to know which family you belonged to. [00:09:44] However, the interesting thing is David's line has no record beyond Jesus. When Jesus came, Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise to David of him having a man on the throne. Your throne will be established forever. We have to choose. We either need to accept that Jesus is the Christ, He is the fulfillment of the prophecy, or that the promise to David of His seed being on the throne forever has failed to come true. [00:10:18] If Jesus is not the Messiah, then the promise given to David of His seed being established forever, someone being on David's throne forever, did not come true. So that prophecy has failed if Jesus is not the Messiah. Obviously, Jesus is the Messiah. Isaiah 7, 14, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. That prophecy, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. [00:10:54] Well, I'm going to borrow a little bit from Adam Clark here, the commentator. This prophecy was given to Ahaz. This was, I think they said, 200 years before Christ came. This was at a time when two kings were coming up against Ahaz, and God said, Ahaz was a wicked man. He was not a godly man, and that's why God was protecting him. It just wasn't his time yet. And God told him, these two kings will not prevail against you. And Ahaz, God said, and ask of me and I'll give you a sign. What sign do you want? I'll show you that this is going to happen. And Ahaz said, no, I'm not going to ask of a sign from the Lord. [00:11:37] And then that is when God said, it's bad enough that you weary men. Are you going to weary me too? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Okay, I'll give you a sign whether you want to ask me for one or not. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and very sonnish shall call his name Immanuel. The most bizarre statement, a virgin shall conceive, and this will be your sign. Why was this given to Ahaz at this time? And this is where I'm going to borrow from Adam Clark. How was this signed for him? [00:12:08] Because at this time, those fighting against the throne of David would be unsuccessful, as would all the enemies to come, until the prophecy be fulfilled. And here again, we're going to see another link in this needs to happen before the prophecy can be fulfilled. This is a most remarkable circumstance. The house of David could never fail till a virgin should conceive and bear a son. Nor did it. It didn't fail until a virgin brought forth a son. [00:12:40] But when that incredible and miraculous fact did take place, the kingdom and house of David became extinct. This is a computation of every argument a Jew can offer in vindication of his opposition to the gospel of Christ. Either the prophecy in Isaiah has been fulfilled, or the kingdom and house of David are yet standing. But the kingdom of David, we know, is destroyed. And where is the man, Jew or Gentile, that can show us a single descendant of David on the face of the earth? [00:13:14] The prophecy could not fail, children. The prophecy could not fail. The kingdom and house of David have failed. The virgin, therefore, must have brought forth her son, and this son is Jesus the Christ. Thus Moses, Isaiah, and Matthew concur, and facts have confirmed. Behold the wisdom and providence of God. It's just another amazing thing to think about what had to happen, did happen, and often we see where God says, and this came to pass, that the prophecy might be fulfilled, which was, and then it says, this happened because of this prophecy. [00:13:55] Usually you would think God looked forward and saw this was going to happen. So he gave them the prophecy that was going to happen. God can prophesy and then make it happen to fulfill the prophecy. That's something we can't do. But this was happening to fulfill prophecy. Behold the wisdom. I don't know if the children got that or not. Behold the wisdom and providence of God. Okay, now we're going to get into God using imperfect people Number one is God uses Matthew [00:14:27] Matthew himself was a tax collector Matthew 9, 9 says And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew Sitting at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him, Follow me And he arose and followed him Matthew was also called Levi Levi, if you read in the other gospels about the same account, here it says Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of customs, if you read in the other gospels it says he saw Levi, Levi was his name and he changed it to Matthew probably at the time of his conversion, he always calls himself Matthew, the others call him Levi [00:15:10] He was sitting in his booth, doing his usual job, when Jesus walked up and said, Come, follow me. That's all he asked. He just simply said, Come and follow me. And it says, And he left all and followed him. Here it just says, And he arose and followed him. One of the Gospels says, And he left all and followed him. Matthew immediately followed him, just as Peter and the others had done. These men, when Jesus called them, were not perfect men. [00:15:44] Matthew was a tax collector, one of the most hated. I was trying to ask my wife last night, what is, and I didn't really come up with a good example, what is a certain people group or something that you know when you see one of them, they're obviously a sinner? I just thought of maybe the gangs, I guess, or something. Jesus, at this time, everyone knew that publicans, tax collectors, they were sinners. They were not holy people, they were not good people, they were crooks, and they were not someone to associate with. [00:16:20] And yet that is who Jesus called. And then Peter and James, the fishermen, when they were called, they dropped their nets and followed him. They just left all and followed him immediately. These men were not perfect. They were rough and tough with a lot of rough edges, but Jesus could see their heart. God doesn't need perfect people, He needs available people. So when you feel like God might be asking you to do something and you say, well, but I've done this and this, I come from this background, etc. God doesn't need you to be perfect at the time, He needs you to be available to Him. [00:17:03] Jesus was not only willing to be seen with Matthew, he attended a feast attended by all his sinner friends, Mark 2, 14-15. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples, for they were many, and they followed him. Levi immediately, or Matthew, immediately made a feast for Jesus and invited a lot of his friends, and most of them were publicans and sinners. [00:17:45] And Jesus sat there and ate with them. He was not afraid to be associated with low life in order to reach them. Okay, number two, God uses Judas and Tamar adulterers. We would say Judah and Tamar is the New Testament way of saying it. Or, I mean, the Old Testament, the names we're familiar with If you read through verse 1 and 2, there are no women mentioned It talks about David and Abraham, and then it says, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren [00:18:21] However, in verse 3 it says, and Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar Who, why, why is Tamar mentioned in the, in the lineage of Christ? Why did she need to be mentioned? Who is Tamar? We're going to go and read Genesis 38. I'd like to just read that whole chapter. Genesis 38 gives the whole sordid story of Judah and Tamar. [00:18:58] And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamite, whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua, and he took her and went in unto her. And she conceived in Barry's son, and he called his name Ur. And she conceived again in Barry's son, and she called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived in Barry's son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at Chezib when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. So this is where we first hear of Tamar. Judah's oldest son was given, she was given to his oldest son for a wife. [00:19:44] An Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. Now the Jewish custom was, or the law, if a man was married to a woman and he died and didn't have any children yet, then his brother was to take her to be his wife and raise up seed to his name. The child would be called in his brother's name to keep his brother's name going. And Judah told his next son, Go in and raise up seed to thy brother. [00:20:21] And Onan knew that the seed should not be his, and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar's daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. Shelah was too young, but at the same time he had no intention of giving him to her to have her be his wife, too. [00:20:55] He was afraid he would die also. And in the process of time, the daughter of Shelah, Judah's wife, died. And Judah was comforted and went up into his sheep shears to Timnath. He and his friend hired the Adulamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath, for she saw that Shelah was grown and she was not given unto him to wife. Here again, Judah was not planning on letting her have Shelah as a husband. [00:21:27] And when Judah saw her, he thought her to be in a harlot because she had covered her face. And he turned unto her by the way and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee, for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff, that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not. [00:22:09] Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place. And Judas said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass, about three months after that, it was told Judas, saying, Tamar, thy daughter-in-law, hath played the harlot. And also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judas said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. [00:22:42] When they were found to be guilty of adultery, they were supposed to be killed and burned. And right away he pronounced judgment on her. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are, I am with child. And she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet and the bracelets and staff? And Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he knew her again no more. And it came to pass in the time of her travail that, behold, twins were in her womb. [00:23:15] And it came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread saying this came out first and it came to pass as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out and she said how is there a broken forth this breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Phares and afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand and his name was called Zerub. So that gives us the story of Judah and Tamar, the background there. Why did God take the time to mention, why didn't he just say, and Judah beget Terah's and Terah's beget, but he mentioned Tamar. [00:23:56] I think it was, I think God wanted us to realize what kind of people he used and yet this is not about their sin. It's about his grace. God can use anyone that's willing to give themselves over to him. It's not about their sin. It's about his grace. 6. Judah, after refusing to do justice to Tamar by giving her to Shelah, makes it worse by getting her pregnant himself. Then, upon finding out she is pregnant, pronounces judgment on her, only to find out it is his baby that she is carrying. [00:24:33] God loves you and I love you And all of a sudden, well, let's just fudge over the law a little bit here And we'll just go on from there So, but God, all he mentions is that Tamar. [00:25:05] There's no real fuss made over the fact, you know, of what all went on. God is not worried about where you've been. He wants to help you with where you're going. I think that God, at the same time, he wants us to remember where we've been, to show his grace, to help us remember what he's done for us, but he's not there to beat that into us and to make us feel bad for where we've been. God wants us to move on to where he wants us to go. [00:25:39] If you read verse 4, it's only men. Begat, begat. And then number 3, verse 5, God uses Rahab, a prostitute. Verse 5, And Salmon begat Boaz of Rechab, we would say Boaz of Rahab. Now the mother is mentioned again. God could have just said, And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, but God chose to mention Rahab. Why? Who was Rahab? [00:26:11] Let's go look and see who Rahab was. Joshua 2, 1-16 16. Rahab was, we all are relatively familiar with that, but let's just go back and look. Joshua 2, 1 through 16. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into an harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. [00:26:44] And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass, about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Whether the men went, I wot not. Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords. And as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. [00:27:33] For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my Father's house, and give me a true token. And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. [00:28:10] And the men answered, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get ye to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned. And afterward, may ye go your way. Rahab was the instrument God used to preserve the spies alive, to save their lives. [00:28:45] And later, Rahab was a harlot, a prostitute, not a woman of character that you would want to make sure got mentioned in your lineage. I have this lady in my lineage That's not the kind of person she was And yet God mentioned her Here again, God does not hold our previous life against us But reminds us of what his grace can do [00:29:16] God brought Rahab out of a life of prostitution To be a wife to Boaz Boaz and I'm sorry a wife to Solomon who begat Boaz. Then if you look in Joshua 16 or Joshua verse Joshua 6 verse 17 and then 20 through 25 it talks about when they when they invaded Jericho they went in they saved her alive and all that she had with her and brought her out and it says that she was she is in [00:29:54] until this day. So her family was preserved through her being willing to serve God. Number four, God uses Ruth, a Moabitess, verse 5, 5b, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. What is special about Ruth? Why is she mentioned? We're kind of getting, running out of time here. I was going to read that, but the story, most of us know the story of Ruth. Naomi and I'm not even sure of her husband's name now but Naomi went into they there was a famine in the land they went into Moab and their sons took wives Ruth and Orpah and the all three men died the two sons and the father and when Naomi she had heard that the famine was over she came back home she told her children or she told her two daughters in law just stay here go get yourself other men I have nothing left for you [00:30:53] Even if I could bear sons yet, you wouldn't want to wait that long to get married again. I have nothing to offer you. But Ruth, we all know how she said, Your people will be my people, your God will be my God. Where you live, I will live, and where you die, I will die. That's the last we ever read of Orpah. I don't know what happened to her, but Orpah went back to her people. Ruth came with Naomi. Ruth had no real good reason to follow. Follow Naomi to a foreign land. Think about it. We feel like they're coming back home. Ruth was still in her home country. She was leaving her home country, her parents, everything she had, to go with her mother-in-law to a foreign land. [00:31:38] Naomi had nothing left to offer her. The only thing that drew her to go was her love for Naomi. Later we see she was providing for Naomi. It talks about when she was gleaning. She'd take things home to Naomi and share with her. And then when Naomi told her that Boaz was actually their next of kin And to go down and uncover his feet and lay beside him Lay at his feet and do whatever he says to do then She does that because of Naomi's advice She was willing to follow the custom of her mother-in-law's people And be married to a man who appears to have been much older than her [00:32:11] Boaz, the first thing he said was Blessed be thou the Lord because you did not go seeking younger men And you did what the Lord would have asked you to do So God honored that Ruth, although she was a Moabitess, did not let that stop her from becoming the person that God desired her to be She could have said, I am a Moabitess, there's nothing I can do about that I'll never be a Jew, so I can't be used of God I'll just give up Are you letting your uncontrollable circumstances keep you from being the person God desires? [00:32:47] Guys, what's in your life that you, like we talked about before, your background or whatever you can't help that is keeping you from serving God, is it really a reason not to serve God or is it a reason not to be available when God asks you to do something from being the person God desires? God uses David and Bathsheba, adulterers In verse 6, here again, the mother is mentioned And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah [00:33:20] This time he doesn't even mention her name But he mentions again the woman that was a sinner And yet was a critical part in Christ's lineage And there again we have that whole story of 2 Samuel 11 How David was on the rooftop while his men had went to war He was on the rooftop and he saw a woman bathing So he sent his servants, called her, and committed adultery with her And she went back home and then later she sent to him and said, I am with child [00:33:54] So David called Uriah home, hoping that he would go home with her And then the child could be called his Anabaptists trying to cover things up. Uriah did not go to his wife. He stayed in the courtyard with David's servants. He said he wasn't worthy to be with his wife while the other men were fighting. That didn't work so David had him killed. He told Joab put him on the front lines, let him be killed and be done with it. The lengths people will go to, that we will go to, to cover our faults and our sins, sometimes it's amazing. [00:34:26] And yet, God used them. God sent Nathan to David, told him about the sheep, where the man that was rich and had a lot of sheep came and stole another one from the poor guy next door instead of using one of his own. And David said, this man shall surely die. And then Nathan said, thou art the man. So David repented and David was forgiven Immediately And he said, the Lord has heard you You shall not die [00:34:56] But The son which you will have through Bathsheba Will die By this time, Uriah had died Bathsheba had come to be David's wife Looking at Bathsheba We don't know much about her character But She probably wasn't innocent in the whole thing either Why was she bathing where she could be seen by someone else? Was she hoping to catch the king's attention? I'm sure if he could see her, she could see him. Was she maybe hoping to catch his attention? [00:35:32] We read nothing of her resisting the idea of coming to David when he called for her. Nor does it sound like she minded coming to be his wife after Uriah was killed. And I know in the days of the kings, when the king said it, you did it. But at the same time we read nothing of her having anything against this So she might not have been a real woman of character either But it all came down to sin always has its consequences Although David was forgiven for his sin, the son that was to be born to them died [00:36:02] And the reason that God gave them for that was Because you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme Are we concerned with God's reputation? Do we look at sin in the light of what it will cost us, i.e. eternity? You know, if I sin, then I might not go to heaven. Or do we care what it will do to our testimony? How often when we're tempted to yell at someone do we think, no, wait a minute, I need to be a witness to this person. [00:36:34] It's not just my reputation, it's God's reputation. It's not just wrong, it's a poor witness. What if someone takes advantage of me? Do I make sure I get what belongs to me? Or do I think of God's reputation? If the person I dealt with last week were to visit church and see me here, would he come back again or turn around and leave? Sin always has its consequences. We can think, boy, I told that guy. I hung up on that salesman. I told him. [00:37:07] If that person were to know who we were and come to our church, would they come again or would they say, if that's how that church is, if all the people are like you, then I don't want to go to that church. Now I'm going to go back to a little bit of Adam Clark. This is in closing, I promise. Four women are mentioned in this genealogy. Two of these were adulteresses, Tamar and Bathsheba, And two were Gentiles, Rahab and Ruth, and strangers to the covenant of promise, to teach us that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and that those strangers to his people, we are not on that account excluded from his salvation, which God has designed for all men. [00:37:50] He is not the God of the Jews only, he is also the God of the Gentiles. Praise God, we are part of the family of God. I have a paragraph here I would like to read, just talking again about the culmination of events, and it's a little bit hard to follow, but I'll try to read it in a way that we can just really think about what God has done for us and all the events that came together. The state of the royal family of David, meaning David's line has ceased, the circumstances of the Virgin Mary and her spouse Joseph, the very remarkable prophecy of Isaiah, the literal and circumstantial fulfillment of it, the names given to our blessed Lord, the genealogical scroll of the family, etc., etc. [00:38:48] are all so many proofs of the wisdom, goodness, and providence of God. Every occurrence seems at first view to be abandoned to fortuitous influence. It seems to have just happened. And yet the result of each shows that God managed the whole. These circumstances are of the greatest importance. Nor can the Christian reader reflect on them without an increase of his faith and wonder and adoration at the amazing gift of God to the world, that of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. [00:39:24] Us as Gentiles can say, our Lord. And I would just like to challenge us this year, let's celebrate Christmas. Not just the holidays, but Christmas. The actual amazing events of what Christ did and what God did to arrange for us to be saved. Let's stand for prayer. Lord, I thank you that we can be together like this this morning. I thank you, Lord, for your son. Thank you for Christmas, for the time when we celebrate what you have done for us. [00:40:00] I pray, Lord, that you would help us to remember, to appreciate you this time of year, and not just to be caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, but to really be focused on you to be thankful for what you have done for us. We thank you Lord that you show us that you use all kinds of people regardless of background, regardless of circumstance but that you are willing to work with any of us if we are willing to work with you. [00:40:32] We just ask Lord that you would speak to us this week and help us to remember the reason for Christmas. Thank you for each one here. I pray that you would work in each heart. Help us, Lord, to honor you this week, to be a blessing to you and to those around us. I thank you also for the food that's been prepared, Lord. I just pray that you would bless the meal, that you would bless our fellowship. I pray also that you would bless the singing this afternoon, that we could be an encouragement to those that are there. [00:41:03] I just pray that you would be with them this time of year. I suppose it can get real lonely for some of them. I just pray your blessing on them. Thank you Lord for hearing us. We pray that you would just bless us and help us to bless others. Thank you Lord. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.