The Genealogy

good morning would y'all stand and come on down anybody out there now back there in that hallway we want you to join us I know you're busy but please would you join me in prayer Father we just thank you Lord for this opportunity to gather this morning to worship to study your word to fellowship Lord with you with one another Father would you do a work in our hearts this morning Lord as we've come with whatever's on our hearts whatever we're facing whatever we're rejoicing about or weeping about may we by faith sing as unto you for this is an opportunity to worship in song we have other opportunities to worship as we give as we serve in other ministries this is an opportunity Lord I know for us to worship you to pour out our hearts by faith

would you bless this time Lord and then I pray you would encourage those who are watching online you're blessed may they just be encouraged may we all be encouraged in our walk in witness with you Lord we give you thanks to his home to sing your song again past and past and what you've done for us and what you've done for us and what you've done for us sorry Lord that's what we're here to do is worship feel inhibited Lord let you the saints adore amen this passing time under your spirit he sent has me love him this morning don't be afraid praise you Lord Jesus yes you are here praise you Lord working in this in the darkness my God that is who you are promise keeper light in the dark that is who you are you are here touching every heart our word

turning lives around you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop working even when I don't see it you're working even when I don't see it you never stop working you never stop waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting you are the only you are the only who's giving me my presence you're the only who's giving me my presence you would give us listening ears to hear harsh to perceive willingness to yield to you because you love us we love you it was your reaching to us that we responded there's none of us that seek you we know that Lord it's by your Holy Spirit you drew us and we responded blessed time when we came to know you Father I just want to lift up anyone that's here and your love and your love and your love

standing there amongst us and going, wow, what is going on? Well, you're seeing people worshiping the Lord. We want to let you know that he rose from the grave, and he's at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us even now. And so, Lord, we ask for your blessing on this service as we continue in all that's going on in our sanctuary.

Good morning. If you would find your seat, snag your bulletin. We'll go over a few announcements. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin are the things that are going on throughout the week. And so what I want to start doing is for the next few weeks, we're going to do what I call ministry spotlights, just so you all know about some of the things that are going on

throughout the week to get plugged into. So today I'm going to have, as you can see in the middle section of the bulletin here, a spotlight on both the men's and the women's study. So, Dad, do you want to come up and share something real quick about men's study?

The men's study. We're actually going through the book of Matthew. We're in about chapter 18. And what we do is, as we gather, we all read our chapter the week before. We encourage the reading ahead. And do any looking at notes or studying you want to do, and I, as leading it, study through. And we, together, as Ryan said earlier, it's kind of roundtable. Well, I don't just do the...

I do total teaching and say, okay, open your Bibles, and I just teach through, I bring out things, and then we, together, we'll look together. I'll have folks share the notes they've got. You don't have to worry about having to say anything. You know, just come, and that'll all take care of itself. But those of us that are typically somebody will have read a commentary

or something they want to share, something they've learned as they've studied, and so we really, there's some real learning that takes place because as we, together, as I lead us through that, we give people an opportunity to share things they've learned, and we have prayer time before, any prayer requests, and it's just a nice roundtable discussion as we go through the Word of God. And we'll have somebody, you know, we come across the Word, one of the guys, I'll say, okay, go over your Biblical, look at that in strong. So we're kind of studying together also. So there's a good learning.

There's a good learning time in that. So we just want to welcome all you men. I know it's a busy life, but there's a blessing in being together as men, as men and women, too, like we're doing now, but also as men. God bless.

Good morning. I'm Teresa Moore, and I lead the Women's Bible Studies. We meet twice a week. You have an opportunity on Thursday afternoon from 1 to 3, and on many evenings from 7 to 8. We try to get out at 8.30, but it's usually a quarter to 9. We meet the same time the guys do, but then my husband has to wait for me, but that's okay. Right now we're just beginning the study in Hebrews.

Now we do it a little bit different. We give you a study guide that has six days of homework, and then we discuss those, and then we have a time of prayer. Prayer requests, whatever is shared in our meetings, stays right there just between our group and the Lord. There's another way if you cannot meet with us, that if you want to do it on your own, then we provide for that study every week on the media table.

All you have to do is let me know. There used to be a sign-up sheet, but I took it away. So if you are interested in doing the Hebrew study, these studies were written years ago by Kay Smith, who just recently passed into heaven, and we found out about it when Dixie Lee came from California, and she brought them with her. And so we've been doing these studies since the late 90s, and it's just been a real blessing.

So come and join us if you can. It is a good study guide if you want to do it on your own. Let me know. Thank you.

So those are a couple of the ways that you can get plugged in throughout the week. Again, as was mentioned, it's so important to be involved in fellowship beyond just Sunday morning. This is wonderful. I'm glad you're here, but it's also good to have some other places to get plugged in. So the other thing is remember today is our baptism at a Camp Horizon from 5 to 8.

Bring a dish to share and plan on eating with us, seeing some folks get baptized, and then we'll swim together and have fun. It's going to be great. So that is today. If you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 75. Psalm 75. As always, we're looking at the New American Standard

just so we all sound the same. And as you're turning to Psalm 75, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

Psalm 75. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen in the even verses. For the choir director, set to Al, to Sheth, a psalm of Asaph, a song. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks for your name is near. Men declare your wondrous works. When I select an appointed time, it is I who judge with equity. The earth and all who dwell in it melt.

It is I who have firmly set its pillars, say law. I said to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with insolent pride. For nor from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert, comes exaltation. But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For a cup is in the hand of the Lord,

and the wine foams. It is well mixed, and he pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. But as for me, I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. And all the horns of the wicked he will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up. And Lord, we do thank you for being near to us.

And so, Lord, I pray that as we spend time in your word this morning, that your Holy Spirit would be at work in our hearts. Lord, as you have begun your work in us this morning, as we've taken time to sing praises to you and pray, Lord, I just ask that now, as we take time to study your word together and worship you through that study of the word, that we would be drawn near to you and that we would see you more clearly this morning. Amen. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 1.

Matthew, chapter 1.

Our title for the entire study that we'll do in the book of Matthew is gonna be called Jesus the King. So all of the studies that we do for the next few months of going through the book of Matthew will be focused on Jesus the King. Matthew was written by, wait for it, Matthew. I always enjoy some real mind-blowing truth, kind of like that. But Matthew's really unique in its approach.

Each of the Gospels presents Jesus in a different way. Matthew, as I said, presents Jesus as the King. Mark presents Jesus as the servant. Luke presents Jesus the man. And then John, of course, presents Jesus in his deity. But for our study in Matthew, we're looking at Jesus the King. Matthew has a unique approach because Matthew, Matthew takes a very Jewish approach to the Gospel.

As a matter of fact, one of the commentaries, actually, I think three of the commentaries I read, I don't know if they all shared this sentence or God gave it to all of them. It says, it is a book written by a Jewish man to Jewish people about a Jewish rabbi. And so it's very Jewish in nature. And you'll find that. Matter of fact, Matthew references the Old Testament

more than any of the other Gospel writers. And he makes it his emphasis. To point out the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled as the Messiah. Because his goal is to present that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the King of the Jews. I actually found it kind of interesting yesterday. I was just kind of looking through some of the major parts of Matthew. And I came to the very end

when Pilate is standing there with Jesus. And remember the thing that Pilate put over the cross. It was his crime that he had committed. It said, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. And I thought, what a fascinating line for Matthew to include. Because as he's presenting Jesus as the King of the Jews, there Jesus as the King was the suffering servant still for the people.

And so he really does a lot to bring out the Old Testament and present how Jesus fulfilled all of those things. Matthew, though steeped in Judaism, is actually very inclusive as a Gospel writer. He actually includes a great deal of the Gentiles that were converted and work that Jesus did. Jesus did within the Gentile community. Not only that, but in the commission that Matthew teaches us,

he says to go into all the nations, baptizing, making disciples and baptizing them. So Matthew's also very inclusive in nature. But what really stuck out to me and what I want to point out to you before we get into this genealogy is that Matthew was a tax collector. That made Matthew a very hated individual amongst the Jewish community because Matthew had sided with the Romans, the Roman occupiers, and collected their taxes and in so doing became what we would call sort of a dirty businessman in the way that he handled things.

And so he would have been very hated in the Jewish community. And isn't it just like God to take somebody that would have been very hated and very far from the Lord and completely change that individual and in the most unlikely way possible turn him into not only one of his apostles, but also the one who would write the first and earliest of the Gospel accounts, if not one of the earliest New Testamentals, the New Testament books that we have, period, besides maybe Galatians. Because that's what God's grace does and that's what we're going to spend time talking about this morning is God's grace and the genealogy. But as I was thinking about Matthew and thinking about what he went through before he came to know Jesus, it made me think of two things

that I think are important for us to point out about Matthew. Things that I think we as the church could stand to learn. Number one is this. We should not hold people's past against them. We should not hold people's past against them. It's really easy to do this in the world that we live in, especially when you can look up what someone has done on any social media platform

or really any platform, period, is to hold someone's past against them. You know as well as I do that sometimes the hardest thing about walking into a church for the first time or maybe the first time after you've done something you really shouldn't have done, the hardest thing about walking into a church is knowing that everybody knows what you did and not knowing how they're going to accept you in spite of your sinfulness. And sometimes we as believers in Jesus Christ, though forgiven ourselves, can be really good at holding people's past against them. And I'm reminded that God took this man who was so hated by his Jewish brethren and God by his grace completely changed him and that his fellow disciples accepted him as someone

who was not a tax collector but as one who had been saved by grace. But the second thing that I'll point out to you is this. We as believers should expect that if somebody makes a true claim of faith, that that should also be accompanied by true repentance. Because I want you to take note of the fact that Matthew didn't continue being a tax collector. He didn't come to Jesus and say,

Lord, forgive me, I want to follow you and then go back to his tax collecting booth the next day. He made a complete change because I think the other issue that we can face as the church is that we can say, you keep doing what you do and just follow Jesus. And that's the exact opposite of what the gospel has to say. You see, I can't pursue Jesus and the things of sin at the same time because they're in two completely different directions.

And so while we as the church should not hold people's past against them, we should expect true repentance. But when we see true repentance, we must offer true forgiveness. And so as we approach this book of Matthew, the first thing that we're going to look at is the genealogy. Yay. Nobody ever gets excited about the genealogy, right? Like that was the part of the book of Numbers

that you were like, oh my gosh, why on earth, would God have included this in the Bible, right? More people have questioned the writings of the Bible simply by falling asleep reading Numbers, right? It's the reason why I didn't enjoy reading through 1 Chronicles when it first started this year. I was just like, oh my gosh, the genealogy again. And it's why usually

if you start into the book of Matthew, you hurry up and get through this so that you can get to the meat of the book. However, I would venture to say that there's a lot we can learn from the genealogy. And that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about today. Please don't leave. So we pick up in verse 1 and it says this, the record of the genealogy of Jesus,

the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. As Matthew begins, he reminds us of why he's writing this because he wants to present Jesus as the Messiah, the promised one. And in so doing, he builds a case for the fact that Jesus is in the line of the Messiah, therefore worthy to be called the Messiah. And so as he does so, he brings up two things. Number one, he calls him the son of David.

Why does that matter? Because if you know anything about David, you know that God had taken David from the shepherd's field, from living amongst the sheep, and he turned him into a king. And when God made David a king, David, after he had received rest from all of his enemies, sat in his palace one day and he looked out where the tabernacle was, which was basically a glorified tent. And he saw that the Ark of the Covenant, the visible representation of God among the people, was living in a tent while he was living in a beautiful palace.

And so he called on one of the prophets and he said, I'm going to build God a house. And the prophet said, go for it, build God a house. That's a great idea. Do all that's within your heart. Only that night, that prophet had a dream. And in that dream, God said, it's a great idea, but David can't be the guy that does it. His hands are covered with the blood of war,

wars that he needed to fight, but he's not the one that will build me a temple. But here's what I want you to tell David. Rather than, him building me a temple, I'm going to build him a dynasty. And there will always be somebody from the line of David sitting on the throne. God, if you will, promised that the king of the Jews, the one that they would all be waiting for,

the Messiah, would sit on the throne of David. And David was so overwhelmed with the fact that God would do that. And so as Matthew presents Jesus, the Messiah, he reminds him that he is in the line of David. In other words, he fills the protocol to be the Messiah. But the second thing that he points out, is he points out that he is the son of Abraham. And that's important

because remember when God called Abraham, God made Abraham a promise. He first of all promised to make of him a great nation. He promised to give him the land and he promised to be his God. God made another promise to Abraham. He said, through your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And so as this Messiah is being presented, we're reminded that there was an even deeper promise

than just that Jesus would sit on the throne of David, but that he would be a blessing to all generations. How is he a blessing to all generations? Because we know that when Jesus was crucified, he was crucified not just for the sins of the Jewish people, he was crucified for the sins of humanity for all time. And so he presents Jesus, first of all, as the son of David and then the son of Abraham.

And now we get into the genealogy. Verse two, it says, Abraham was the father, Isaac was the father of Jacob and Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We would refer to them as the patriarchs. Every good Jewish individual would trace themselves back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But here's the thing about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Those three were known for two things. They were known for failures of the flesh, but also triumphant faith. Remember Abraham? Abraham was a man of such great faith. As a matter of fact, we call him the father of Jacob. We call him the father of Jacob. We call him the father of faith. God had called Abraham while he was in Ur of the Chaldeans and said, I need you to leave here, leave your family,

and I want you to go and live in a land that I will show you. And so that's exactly what Abraham did. Can you imagine the faith that that would have taken for him to be able to do that? And yet he believed God, and so he followed him. And then God made Abraham a promise. He said, I will give you a son, and I will make a great nation out of you. Only there was a problem with Abraham and Sarah.

They couldn't have kids. It's really hard to build a great nation out of two people that can't have kids. And so everything's looking great so far because Abraham is believing God, except Abraham started to doubt God. And when Abraham doubted God, there was a famine in the land, and so he went down to Egypt. And when he went to Egypt, which was his first big mistake,

he looked at his wife and said, wow, you look amazing. You're super hot. Guys are gonna wanna kill me for you. Not to mention Pharaoh wanting to do that. So do me this favor. Every time we go somewhere else, you lie about who you are. You tell everybody you're my sister and everything else. Everything's gonna go really well. Except they got found out and they got rebuked by somebody of the world.

And so not only did Abraham lie and get found out about, but when he went back to the promised land, he took somebody with him. Do you remember who he took with him? He took a lady by the name of Hagar that was Sarah's handmaid. Well, so it's been a long time now and Abraham and Sarah still haven't had any kids yet. And so Sarah says, I have an idea. Let's help God.

Why don't you take? Hagar, my handmaid, and she can produce a son for you. She'll be my surrogate in that way. And Abraham says, I don't see why not. And so they produce a child named Ishmael, which has caused all kinds of issues for the entire world ever since. And yet, because God is so full of grace and because Abraham still had faith, God came to him and said,

now I'm gonna make you a promise. I'm gonna give you a son and Sarah is gonna be the one that is the mother. And it says, Abraham believed God and God accounted it for righteousness. You see, Abraham knew the failures of the flesh, but he also knew the triumph of faith. And then came Isaac. You know what Isaac did? The exact same thing Abraham did. He was like, girl, you're looking good.

Everybody's gonna wanna kill me for you. Tell everybody you're my sister. Lie for me. And then one day they were making out. I think that's what it means basically in the scripture. And the person that he lied to was just like, that's not your sister. If it is, we have bigger problems. And he got found out. He got found out. And they rebuked him for it. He said, oh no.

And yet in the process of Isaac knowing the failure of the flesh, he also knew the triumph of faith because God appeared to him and passed the covenant onto him. And then there was Jacob who was like, I'll see your failures of flesh and I'll raise you all of mine. Because Jacob had trouble with the truth, right? Gail Irwin says that Jacob means dirty, rotten, sneaky thief.

It means supplanter, but nobody knows what that means. And so he sort of translated it for us because that's what he struggled with. And yet remember what happened when Jacob was on his way back to the promised land, though he had known so much of the failures of the flesh. Remember what happened? He was on his way back and God had been at work in his heart.

And while he was on his way back, right before he crossed the river Jabbok, there he was, it was the middle of the night and he was scared of what his brother Esau was gonna do to him. And it says an angel of God showed up. And struggled with him, wrestled with him all that night. And as they wrestled with each other, it was the perfect picture of his failures of flesh wrestling with his triumph of faith.

And what happened at the end? He said, bless me. And God changed his name from Jacob, dirty, rotten, sneaky thief to Israel, one who struggles with God, but one who God fights for. And remember what he did? He touched his hip and he put his hip out of socket so that every time Jacob walked, he remembered that though he failed in flesh, faith had triumphed. Isn't that great?

So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It says that Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Now, I wanna tell you a little story about Tamar. First of all, it's kind of interesting for this particular time period for them to have included women in the genealogy. This would have been a man's, a man's thing because the man was the one

who continued on his line. But God saw fit, revealed to everybody just how important women were in the economy of God that they were not only people, but they were highly honored, which is completely different than most of the world looked at them at that point in time. And so God included Tamar in this. So Judah was one of Jacob's 12 sons. Now, most of Jacob's 12 sons,

except for Joseph, were all just a bunch of lug nuts, right? Like they were not very nice human beings. And so Judah was one of them at one point in time. Now, Judah married a woman and they had three sons. He gave his older son in marriage to this girl named Tamar. Now, Tamar is married to one of his sons, but one of his oldest son, it says, is a very wicked man.

And so God killed him. We're not told what he did. All I know is if God's not even willing to go into details, I can't imagine what kind of a guy he was. But God killed him. So according to the custom of that point in time, if the older son, if the oldest son has not produced an offspring yet, then his wife is given to the next in line, the next kinsman, the next youngest son.

And he produces a child that will then carry on the line of that oldest son. And so that's what happened. Tamar is now given to Judah's second oldest son, who we also, I won't go into detail about, but we also know was a very wicked man. You can read that story, you can read that story on your own and be as shocked as I was. And God kills him. So now Tamar is O for two or two for two,

all depending on how you look at it, with husbands, right? And so with the third one, Judah goes, I don't want to give him to her. I want him to survive. And so he says, you hang out until, you hang out until my youngest son is old enough to marry you. And then I'll give you, give him to you in marriage. Well, the oldest son gets to where he's the right age

to be married. And Tamar notices this thing ain't happening. Judah is not going to give me that son. And so she decides to come up with a plan. Now in the process of time, Judah's wife had passed away. And Judah, after he had mourned for his wife, it was time for the shearing of the sheep. And so he was on his way up to wherever they would have gone to shear the sheep.

And somebody tells Tamar, hey, your father-in-law Judah, he's on his way to shear the sheep. So time to enact her plan to produce an offspring. To take care of her in the future. She takes off her garments of mourning, her widow's garments, if you will. And she dons the garments of a prostitute. Man, it gets a little funky in here, doesn't it? She dons the garments of a prostitute.

And so Judah's on his way up to where the sheep are going to be sheared. And he sees this prostitute. And so he propositions her. And of course, she says, yes. And she says, what do you pay me? And he says, like a goat and a chicken or something like that. And she says, what do you pay me? And he says, well, how will you prove to me that you'll bring it back?

And he says, I'll give you my staff and my signet ring as a down payment. And so he, of course, has relations with her. She gets pregnant. And as she gets pregnant, he is told, hey, your daughter-in-law Tamar, she's pregnant. He's like, this is perfect. She's committed adultery. Isn't this what we do? We look at other people's sin as worse than our own. She's committed adultery.

We'll just stone her, move on with life. I won't have to worry about Tamar anymore. And so he goes to the public trial of Tamar. And she says, here's the thing. Whoever owns this signet ring and whoever owns this staff, that's the father. And Judah goes, oh, she was more righteous than me. Is this not an amazing story that in the line of the Messiah, you have incest and prostitution?

Why would God allow that? Because God identifies with sinful man. You see, when Jesus came, he identified with us. He knew what it was. He knew what it was to come from a family background that was mildly questionable, if not pretty debatable. He understands what it's like to not be from the right side of the tracks. Well, we go on from there. It says, Perez was the father of Hezron.

Hezron was the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Rahab. Oh, here's another interesting one. So perhaps you know the story of Rahab. The children of Israel had been in bondage in Egypt. God set them free from bondage through Moses. That's the story of Exodus.

The children of Israel come all the way to the edge of the promised land in the book of Numbers. But at the edge of the promised land, it's time for Moses to go home to be with the Lord. And so Joshua is going to be the one who takes them into the promised land. So Joshua, before they get ready to go into the promised land, God had told him, Jericho is your first city.

So Joshua sends two spies to Jericho to see what things are going to be like. What is it? What is the land like? What are their defenses like? All those kinds of things. And so he sends these two spies to Jericho. And as these two spies show up to the land or to the city, they need a place to hide out because rumor had spread that the children of Israel were there.

And of course, they find somebody by the name of Rahab. And you may or may not know that Rahab's occupation was prostitution. Have you noticed? There's two of them now in the line. And so Rahab, this prostitute, finds out that these guys are spies from the children of Israel. And she does something really amazing. She looks at him and she says, I know that your God is the real God.

I know that God has given you this land. What can I do to be saved? And they said, I'll tell you what, this scarlet rope that you're about to let us down with, this scarlet cloth that you're about to lower us down the wall with, tie it to the window of your home when we come. And anybody that is in your home with the scarlet rope hanging from it, they will be saved.

Anybody outside of your home will not be saved. And that's exactly what happened. The children of Israel had their battle plan. They marched around the city once a day for six days. And then on the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times. And they all shout with a loud shout. And God brings all the walls of the city down except for one little section,

the section that has the scarlet rope hanging from it. In Rahab, this prostitute was so moved by the mercy and power of God that she becomes a part of the nation of Israel. Isn't that amazing? Here, this Gentile woman who should have been killed with everybody else, who should have been wiped out with the rest of the Canaanites because of the great idolatry and evil that took place there, God preserved her.

And now not only is there a prostitute in the line, but there is a Gentile in the line, somebody who is not a part of the Jewish family. So we go on from there. It says, Now this is another interesting story as well. Perhaps you have read the book of Ruth. I feel like that's always the book that women want to read because it's Ruth, right? Well, there's an incredible amount of truth that's given to us in the book of Ruth.

You see, the book of Ruth took place during the time of the judges. During the time of the judges, there was a family who was experiencing the famine, along with everybody else. And so they decided that they would go to the land of Moab. Now, Moab was kind of an interesting place because Moab had been cursed by God. Moab had been cursed by God for two reasons.

The first of which is found in the book of Genesis with Lot. That's a pretty twisted story. I'm not going to go there because there's some younger folks in here. But just know, some awful things happened with Lot that produced Moab. But also, Moab gave the children of Israel a very hard time on their way to the promised land. So God cursed them. God said, Interestingly enough, that's right around the time that Ruth shows up.

And so these guys go over to Moab to live there during this time of the judges, during this time of famine. And the two sons take for themselves wives. Well, the two sons die while they're there. And so Ruth comes back with her mother-in-law after the famine. And as Ruth comes back with her mother-in-law after the famine, she has to find some way to provide for herself.

Because women couldn't just go to the temple and say, just go get a job at this point in time. And so what they would do is they would go and glean in the field. In other words, the parts that the harvesters didn't get the first go-round would be left for the poor of the land. And so she went to this field and she gleaned. And as she gleaned there, there was a guy by the name of Boaz,

a little bit older than her. But he looked and said, Who's that? And they said, Well, that's Ruth. She came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. Turns out they're near Kinsmen. Remember that whole Kinsmen-Redeemer thing we talked about with Judah? Well, that thing extends on to, even if it's farther down the line, if they're the nearest Kinsmen, they can marry them.

And that's exactly what happened with this Boaz. He marries Ruth, a Moabitess, one who had been cursed by God. And now you also have another Gentile woman who is a part of a cursed nation. Why? Because God's grace extends even to that. Because God's grace is greater than our background. So, middle of verse 6 here. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.

Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. You know I'm going to have to stop here, because this is another perfect picture of God's grace.

David had been a man after God's own heart. He had done so many amazing things, and God had taken such good care of him. But David in his older years found himself a little distracted by the flesh. And there's that fateful verse in Samuel that says, it was the time of the year when kings go out to war. But David stayed in Jerusalem. And while he stayed in Jerusalem,

he overlooked at the house next to him, the rooftop of the house next to him. And there was a woman bathing. Now I don't know about y'all, I don't know about y'all that grew up in the church, who here thought that Bathsheba's name was Bathsheba because she was bathing on the rooftop? Totally believed that for a really long time. Since I've studied enough to know that that's not the case,

but that's what I thought for a while. Anyway, he sees her over there bathing, and he says, who's that? And they're like, that's Bathsheba, that's the wife of Uriah. Now I don't know if you know anything about Uriah, but Uriah was one of David's mighty men. And if you want to read about David's mighty men, just do a quick concordance search for David's mighty men,

and read the exploits of David, David's mighty men. These are not dudes you jack with, right? Like this would be like cheating with the wife of Jason Bourne, right? Like it's equivalent to that. Or Jack Bauer, or somebody, like it's a bad idea. Like this is one of the most elite warriors, or any Navy SEAL. So like one of the most elite warriors in the world

at this point in time. And David's like, yeah, I'd like to have an affair with her. So he calls Bathsheba over, and we know what happens next. And then a few days later, perhaps some time passes. Bathsheba sends a message to David and says, I'm pregnant.

So David comes up with a plan. David says, no worries, I'll get it taken care of. So he brings Uriah back, and he does everything he can to get Uriah to go spend the night with his wife. But because Uriah is such an honorable man, he will not do it. And so he continues to be honorable. So David finally says, well, plan A didn't work. I'm going to have to come up with plan B.

So David takes a piece of paper, and he writes out a plan. The plan is this. They were supposed to attack a city, and when the battle was the hottest, everybody else was to pull back. And you were to leave Uriah out there to face the enemy by himself so that he would be killed. And then David took that piece of paper, and he folded it up, probably put his SEAL on it,

and sent it by the hand of Uriah to the front. Can you imagine carrying your own death sentence with you? So Uriah goes to the front, and he's like, I'm going to kill you. And he's like, I'm going to kill you. And he's like, I'm going to kill you. And he's like, I'm going to kill you. And he's like, I'm going to kill you. And because he's such an honorable man,

he did not open up the message, delivers it to who he needs to. The plan is fulfilled. Uriah is dead. And now David can take Bathsheba to be his wife. Only God saw it all, and so God confronted David with Nathan. And David, of course, confessed his sin to the Lord, and God forgave him of his sin. And of course, there were consequences that went along with it,

but God did forgive him of his sin. And that first child that had been conceived by David and Bathsheba in sin, God took home to be with him. And yet, because God is so gracious, God allowed another son to be born. And that son's name was Solomon. And Solomon was born to Bathsheba. God could have chosen anybody else, but he chose Bathsheba. Why? Because God doesn't hold our past against us.

Because God is a God of grace. It's interesting because you can tell this is so scandalous because it's about David. Because if you're reading this, if you're reading the New King James or the Old King James, which is actually the most accurate translation at this particular point in time, it says that David was the father of Solomon by her who had been with the wife of Uriah. We won't even name her because it was so scandalous at this point in time.

So we go on from there and it says, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. And Abijah was the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Japheth, Jehoshaphat. You know, I pointed this out in first service too. We've got a lot of babies being born right now. I'm just saying if you're looking for a name for a boy, let's just not keep Jehoshaphat out of the mix.

Let's keep that as an option, shall we?

Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was the father... By the way, I would never be able to not laugh anytime I talk to your kid. It would bring great joy to my heart. Anyway, sorry, I was just thinking about... This is Jehoshaphat. That is amazing. Do you jump? Anyway. And Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. And Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh, the father of Ammon. And Ammon, the father of Josiah. We went through a lot of kings right there. But I want to point out three of them because I think those three are really amazing to think about. Because in all of those kings that were mentioned, you have some sinners and you have some saints. And then you have some very saintly ones

and some really sinful ones. Hezekiah came along at a time when the nation was steeped in idolatry. A time of, if you will, a national falling away. And Hezekiah came along and made amazing reforms. It says, Hezekiah followed God in the way that his father David had. In other words, he followed God wholeheartedly. And so he destroyed idols. He brought back the true worship of God

and did amazing reforms within the nation. But after Hezekiah, who brought about all kinds of amazing reforms, came a guy by the name of Manasseh. And Manasseh was the most evil leader that the kingdom of Judah had ever seen. As a matter of fact, so evil that God said, the evil that has been done here cannot be forgotten. It has to be judged. It has to be dealt with.

Manasseh even caused his son to pass through. the fires of Molech. If you don't know what that means, Molech was a God that held his hands out like this and they would heat his hands up very white hot and they would sacrifice babies on his hands. And he caused his son to pass through the fires of Molech. Now that sounds awful and hideous and it causes our stomachs to turn.

But may I say the God of Molech is very much worshipped today. We've just sanitized it and called it choice. We've made it seem a lot easier. And so Manasseh was a very evil, evil king. And one generation after Manasseh came Ammon, but after Ammon came a king by the name of Josiah. Now Josiah was a king unlike any other. First of all, he became king when he was eight years old.

Now I don't know about you, but I can't imagine an eight-year-old being king. I have a nine-year-old right now and she can't find her shoes. And so I can't imagine her being in charge of a kingdom at any point in time. And so to think that he became king at eight, no doubt ruled by other influencers in his life, other advisors in his life. But Josiah was king.

I believe it was for 18 years. And Josiah began his own set of reforms within the kingdom. And he wanted to remodel the temple. He wanted to bring it back to the glory that his great-grandfather Hezekiah had had it at. And so as they began the remodel of the temple, the priests were in there working and the guys that were doing the construction brought them these scrolls.

And they said, hey, we found these in here. And they went, they opened them up. And you know what it was? It was the law of God. And they were like, oh my gosh, I can't believe what has been going on in our nation that so violates the law of God. And so they come to Josiah. And as they come to Josiah, they're like, hey, everything's going great at the temple.

Things are working well. Everything's looking really good. We picked out the paint colors. We can't get a lot of things because supplies are short right now. But don't worry about it. We'll get it taken care of. Oh, by the way, we also found the book of the law. And we thought you might want to read it. So Josiah opened up the book of the law. And he said, and as he read it,

it destroyed his heart. He was so heartbroken because he knew what God's righteous standard said. And he knew how far they were from God's righteous standard. And it says that Josiah began to weep and he tore his clothes and he sought the Lord. And as he sought the Lord, God sent a message by a prophet to Josiah. And he said, I'm so blessed the way you've responded to this.

And because you with a broken heart have wept before God, before the Lord, torn your clothes and repented, I will not bring my judgment yet. But I need you to understand something. Judgment is coming. It just will not come in your lifetime because of the repentance that you have shown in your own heart. But I'm going to give you an opportunity to bring about revival in your nation.

And that's exactly what Josiah did is he brought a short-term revival within the nation. And may I say, I believe our nation's in the exact same spot right now. I believe that as we look into God's holy law and we see what's happening in our nation right now, God has to judge us because he's righteous and because he's holy. And the things that we see taking part in our world right now, God has to judge them.

And I believe that we've already missed our Josiah. And now it's just time for God to do what he's going to do, which is why I believe that we as the church have to be ready. Not because we need to try to figure out who the Antichrist is, not because we need to try to figure out exactly when the rapture's going to happen, but because we need to be ready. And when we are told in scripture to be ready, that means being as close to our Savior as we possibly can and being about as much of God's business as we possibly can.

Because we have a treasure hidden in an earthen vessel. And God wants to use you to take that treasure to somebody next to you that needs that hope in their life. I got a message from a good friend of mine the other day and he said, can I call you? And so we talked. And as we talked, he shared the things that were going on in his life and we got to talk about the fact

that God was not only trying to get a hold of him, but a hold of his family. And he said, I want that. I want God to get a hold of me. And they said, we want to follow Jesus with all of our hearts. We just don't know what to do. And so we started talking about what that looks like. And I think that that call that I said, you're not the first person that I've gotten a call like this from.

Because everybody's looking right now and they're going, something ain't right. And I see judgment coming. Sometimes they'll even use that verbiage and they'll say, and I need my heart to be right with Jesus. And we as the church need to be ready for that. And we need to be ready for that no matter how far in sin they fall in. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself

for my last four points that I want to make, but we need to be ready for that no matter what their sin looks like. That if they're reaching out for hope, we're ready to give hope even if we find what they've done in the past somewhat reprehensible. And so we see that this is what took place after that. So Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon, verse 11.

And then verse 12, after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. Hate to point this out again, but I'm just saying there's an idea. Zerubbabel was the father of Abahad, Abahad was the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akeem,

Akeem the father of Eliad, Eliad the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Gets kind of interesting in verse 16, does it not? He changes a little bit of the way that he delivers that in verse 16. Notice what he says.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, who he does not say was the father of Jesus, but was the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. See, in the Greek, that phrase, by whom, there's two truths that we need to know about that. Number one, it's feminine. Number two, it's singular. Why do we care? Well, because it means that when Jesus was born,

he was born by a woman only. Doesn't it usually take two to tango? Not this time. Because Jesus was born of a virgin. Why does it matter that Jesus was born of a virgin? Because you see, when Adam sinned, Adam passed sin on to the rest of us, but it always flows through the line of the man. Therefore, in order for Jesus to be born sinless, he had to be born of a virgin

who had not been tainted by the sinful line yet. That's why that's important. But you know what's really cool here? What's really cool here is that we see the absolute total fulfillment of what it says in Isaiah when it says, unto us a son is born, and unto us a child is given. Now, that may sound exactly the same, but those are two very different words. You see, the word born means physical birth.

That's what happened with Mary. Jesus was born of Mary. But unto us a child is given, carries with it the idea of adoption. And so while Jesus was the child of Mary, he was born to Mary, he was adopted by Joseph. And so when Isaiah said, unto us a child will be physically born, unto us this child will be adopted, that was the idea of what would happen with Joseph and Mary.

That though Mary would be the mother, Joseph would adopt him. Isn't God amazing like that? Isn't it cool how God can do that? Only God can do that. I'm not smart enough to come up with that. That's what God, God's able to do. And so it says in verse 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14, David to the deportation of Babylon, 14, and from the deportation of Babylon to Messiah,

14 generations. Now, as we wrap up this genealogy, which I have found to be pretty fascinating, I hope you did too. I think that there's four gospel lessons that we learn from the genealogy. Four lessons that really enhance the truth of the gospel. Number one, the gospel is inclusive.

The gospel is inclusive. That's a dangerous word today, is it not? We need more inclusivity. But what do I mean when I say that? Did you take note of the different people that were mentioned in this genealogy? There were men and there were women. There were Jews and there were Gentiles. There were rich, there were poor. There were kingly and there were common.

All of these people were mentioned in this genealogy of the Messiah. Why does that matter? Because it doesn't matter whether you're rich or you're poor. It doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman. It doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a Gentile or, as Michael Jackson would say, if you're black or you're white. It doesn't matter because the gospel includes everyone,

because the gospel is for everyone. It includes, you name it, you're involved. Now, you say, I was thinking, I was thinking about this early and I thought about David and how David started off as a poor guy and then became a king. You ever thought about how David became the king? I love the story of it because Samuel was sent to anoint a new king and when Samuel showed up to Jesse's house,

he said, I'm here to anoint a king and Jesse said, perfect, I got my boys here. And so he sends all of the sons through and God rejected all of them. And Samuel looks at him and says, don't you have another son? God sent me here to anoint a king and he said no to all these. Don't you have another one? And Jesse goes, oh, that's right. I do have one more son.

He's out in the field right now. Now, listen, if I had any more than two kids, I can guarantee, I'd leave one somewhere all the time. I would be like, what was I doing? Shoot, I left a kid there. We're going to have to go back. Like, I get that. I understand. But I wouldn't forget that I actually had a kid, right? And that's what happened to David. He completely got forgotten.

Maybe you feel forgotten. Maybe that's how you feel in your life. Like, nobody even knows you exist. The gospel knows you exist. Jesus knows you exist. For him, no one's forgotten. So number one, the gospel is inclusive. Number two, the gospel is a work of grace. What the gospel is, because as you look back at the people that God used, none of them deserved it.

Maybe Hezekiah and Josiah, but even they weren't perfect. None of them deserved to be used by God. None of them deserved it. None of them deserved it. None of them deserved it. None of them deserved it. None of them deserved it. None of them deserved it. them deserved a second chance. None of them deserved the love that God had for them. And yet God poured out his love on them, not only by forgiving them of their sin, but allowing them

to be within this kingly line because that's what God's grace does. God's grace is greater than all of our sin. What's it tell us in the book of Romans? Where grace, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more because our sin is not beyond the reach of God. Our sin is not beyond the grace of God because God's grace is greater. And I don't know what you've done in your life. I don't know

what your past holds for you. I don't know what your current situation with your failures that you experience holds for you. But I'm here to tell you right now, the grace of God is greater because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The grace of God is greater than all of those past habits that you had. The grace of God is greater than those past sins that you've committed. It's greater

than all that past shame that you have because the grace of God is so powerful. It is able to take Matthew, tax collector, and turn him into an apostle who was willing to live a poor life so that he could give his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that he could give his life for his brethren, who he at one point in time cheated. Do you feel like you're beyond the grace of God? Do you feel like your sin is too great that God can't ever deal with it?

Do you just need to rest in God's grace and it's time for a good dose of the gospel? So the gospel is inclusive. The gospel is a work of grace. Number three, the gospel, is a work of God. I know that feels like the exact same point as the fact that the gospel is a work of grace, but I'm just always awestruck by the power, the wisdom, and the sovereignty of God and the way that he uses his gospel in our lives.

I mentioned to somebody, or I mentioned during first service, one of the guys that I left out was right after Josiah. It says, Why do I care about that? Well, because if you were to read the book of Jeremiah, you would know that Jeconiah was rejected by God. His sin was so great that God said, none of your kids will ever sit on the throne again. Uh-oh, that's a problem.

You know why that's a problem? That's a problem because what line was Jesus in? He was in the line of Jeconiah. What do we do now? How can Jesus have any rightful claim to the throne? Any of his descendants were cursed. Well, you see, if you were to look at the book of Luke, you would see that Luke follows a completely different genealogical pattern. It follows the genealogy of Mary.

Mary doesn't trace her genealogy back to Solomon. Mary traces her genealogy back to Nathan, another son of David. And so when you look at it, you go, God is so powerful that he looked at a problem and said, don't worry, I have the solution. And so not only is Jesus the descendant of Mary by birth, therefore making him of the line of David, but he's the descendant of the line of David.

He's the descendant of Joseph because of adoption, still making him of the line of Solomon. And if God can solve a problem like that, imagine what he can do with your life. Because the gospel is a work of God. And God is at work in so many people's lives. And then number four, the gospel redeems the broken. The gospel redeems the broken. The broken. And I wonder how Judah felt that night,

the night that he was confronted with the signet ring in the staff. When he went home that night and realized exactly what had happened, the gravity of what he had done and the position he'd put himself and his family in. I wonder how he felt that night. I bet he felt pretty broken. I bet he found himself saying, here I am supposed to be in some kind of promised line.

Here I am supposed to be blessed by God. Here I am supposed to be blessed by God because of my father, Jacob. And I've screwed this up royally. I've screwed this up worse than anybody could ever screw anything up before. What do I do now? And yet God redeemed him and brought him to the point where not only did he move past his sin, but God turned him into an individual

that was willing to sacrifice his life for another. Why? Because the gospel redeems the broken. I wonder how David, David felt that night. The night that Nathan told him that parable and as David was ready to strike the most innocent of sinners, Nathan looked at him and said, you're the man. You're the one that's so deserving of death. I wonder how he felt that night.

He probably felt like, I can't believe this. Here I am supposed to be a man after God's own heart. Here I am supposed to be the king of Israel, the one who not only leads them in battle, but points them to Jesus because that's my job. Points them to the Messiah because that's my job. And now I've screwed up like this. Not only did I ruin my life, not only did I ruin Bathsheba's life,

I killed Uriah and I'm always going to have to face the consequences of this. God, how can you ever redeem this? And God did. Because that's what God does. God redeems the broken. And that's what the gospel is able to do in our lives. I remember sitting in a Bible study one time and we were going over Paul's trip, to the road to Emmaus. And when he, or excuse me, the road to Damascus,

when he was struck with blindness and God really got a hold of his heart. And I remember the pastor asking, what do you think Paul thought about that night? When God had struck him with blindness, when Jesus said, it's me you're persecuting. And that question kind of haunted me because all I could think was, he had to have thought, is there any way this can ever be redeemed?

After Bible college, when I went through some very difficult times, when I not only questioned if God could ever use me, but even questioned my own salvation at points in time, I remember having a conversation with a good friend and she asked me a question. She said, so what are you going to do now? And I said, I don't know. I know what I used to want to do.

I used to want to be in ministry. But at the point I'm at in my life right now, I don't know if God can ever use me. I don't know if I could ever be used by God. I don't even know if God can still love me. Can God redeem who I am right now? And I just want you to know, he can't. Because the gospel redeems the broken. And so wherever you're feeling broken, wherever you feel like you're,

beyond the reach of the grace of God, wherever you feel like you're maybe excluded, where God wants to show that you are included, wherever you feel like the power of God is good, but not enough for you, I want you to know that God redeems the broken. And he's able to take you, and he's able to fashion in you, like we talked about last week, the heart of the man or woman of God that he wants you to be. And he is able to use you in the way that he sees fit. Amen?

Let's all stand.

I hope for you all is that as you leave this place, that these won't just be words we've read or stories that you've heard, but that the word of God will truly soak deep into your hearts and your minds, and that he will change the very fabric of who you are. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word. Lord, I thank you for how powerful you are. And Lord, I just praise you for your redemption and your grace.

Lord, I thank you for these words. These wonderful examples, these wonderful exhibits of what you're able to do because of the blood of Jesus. And so, Lord, do your work in our hearts and continue to draw us close to you, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

Jesus, the only one who could ever save.

We could ever run beside you. Open up my eyes.