The Genealogy

Good morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I want to welcome all of those who would be joining us, who are joining us. There may be some would-be's, but they wouldn't know I'm saying that. But those of you who are joining us on Facebook, live, and all that stuff, welcome. Would you all stand and join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to look to you this morning,

the author and the finisher of our faith. Father, we know without you, we really are nothing. Father, we need your strength. We need your upholding us. We know that you hold the very universe together. If you simply, on that day that you let go, there will be quite a calamity. I won't keep on talking, but, Lord, I just ask, if you, Father God, who, raised Christ from the dead with that same resurrection,

the power you've made us alive in you. And may we not forget that, Lord, as we look at all that goes on around us, Lord. We just thank you in Jesus' name.

Worship you. It's a new day. It's time to sing your song again.

To do this morning, we come as we are. We bring different feelings, different concerns. We want to worship you out of obedience, because of your great love for us, Lord. Because you loved us first. We love you. Just in a marriage relationship, Lord. The example is from you with the church. You drew us. Reach out to us. We respond, Lord, because of your great love for us.

And we thank you for that. We pray our hearts to study your communication.

You give us from your living. And, Lord, as we are gathered here this morning, we can kind of feel lost sometimes. Amen. And, Lord, so help us by faith, just to worship. We don't have to feel a certain way. We just need to actively just look to you this morning, because you love us. Oh, Lord, let us not be inhibited, but just let go. You love us. We can trust you in every area.

Don't understand everything that goes on. The saints and all these sufferings, this passing time, are here working in worship. You worship me.

I promise, keep the light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. I promise, keep the light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. You are here, touching every...

I worship you. You are here, healing and worshiping you. I worship you. I worship you. I worship you. Turn your lies around. I worship you. I hear that you're working. 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... You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop...

with self-restraint. Hosanna. Say it. Say it. Praise you, Lord. Have your grace, your mercy, your solidity, Lord. Bless now our time, as we study your Word together. Anoint, rain on by the power of your Holy Spirit, that it would come forth with your power, give us listening ears, and then those hearts that would perceive and be willing to, because you love us, we love you, obey.

We thank you. Looking to you, the Author, and finish for our faith. In Jesus' name. Good morning. If you would grab your bulletin. We'll go over a few announcements. announcements. As always, on the left-hand side, all the things are happening this week. And I'll talk about a couple of those in just a moment. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, just a reminder that the baptism is tonight. So bring a cover dish to share. We'll see you there

at five o'clock. It ought to be a great time. We've got a good number of folks getting baptized. And then, so with everybody starting to come back together, I wanted to do a little ministry spotlight. So for the next few weeks, I'm going to take ministries that are going on throughout the week and just talk about those so you guys know what's going on. So Monday nights are men's

and women's Bible studies. So the men's Bible study meets in the back room back there, the Agape room. It's led by Robbie Nichols. It meets at seven o'clock. And I believe that they're going through the book of Matthew right now as well. Is that a true story? Yes. And it's more of a round table discussion sort of a thing for the men. And I know they have a great time discussing

the word together. So that is a spot. to get plugged into. And the women's study meets actually two times a week. It's the exact same study. They meet Monday nights and Thursday afternoons at one o'clock, but it's the same study. So you just have two opportunities to get plugged into. And so those are great things to get involved in. They actually go through a little bit more structured of a Bible study with some

discussion questions that they, homework that they do during the week and then come together for that. So those are a couple of the ministries that go on that you can get into and involved in. So take note of those things. Those are the things happening. So 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. We'll be looking at the new American standard

Bible, just so we all sound the same. If you don't have a new American standard, there should be one in one of the rows. And as you are turning to Psalm 75, if you would stand in the honor of the Lord, of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 75. For the choir director said to Al Tasheth, 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. The earth and all who dwell in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. The

earth and all who dwell in it. The earth and all who dwell in it. 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 into the wicked. Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with insolent pride. For not 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. The 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 give thanks to you. We give thanks to you for being the sovereign, God, Lord, for being the king. And so, Lord, as we get ready to spend time in your word right now, I just want to pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would begin to do the work in our hearts that you have set out to do with your word this morning. Lord, I pray that you would overflow me with your gift of teaching to bring forth your word. But more than anything,

you would overflow all of us with that gift of hearing, Lord, that this would not be a time just to hear a Bible study, Lord, but that it would be a time to meet with you, that we could see you, more clearly in your grace and in your gospel. And we just thank you, Father, for who you are in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew

chapter one, Matthew chapter one. As we come to the gospel of Matthew this morning, I want to remind you of what our goal is as we come to the gospel of Matthew. Each of the gospel accounts, each of the four accounts presents Jesus in a different way. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew presents Jesus as the king. Mark presents Jesus as the servant. Luke presents Jesus as the

man. And John presents Jesus in his deity. And so what we want to look at and what our theme for the entire book of Matthew is going to be is Jesus the king. I was looking towards the end of the book of Matthew yesterday. And, uh, paying attention to Pilate and when Pilate made the sign to put over top of the cross, remember it said, uh, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. And I thought, what a, what a perfect summation of

exactly what Matthew was trying to portray in, in this gospel. And so we're going to be looking at Jesus, the king, but today we get to look at what I call the early say, because it fulfills what was spoken of by the prophets. And so he emphasized, he emphasizes Jesus's fulfillment of the prophetic gospel. And so we're going to be looking at Jesus, the king, but today we get to look at the prophetic words of what the Messiah was going to do. And so he spends a great deal of time

talking about that. Um, while steeped in Judaism, however, Matthew is also very inclusive. He includes many stories about Gentiles that came to faith. And matter of fact, though, there is a great deal of Jewish flair throughout the entire gospel. He closes the gospel with the great commission to go to all the nations and make disciples of all the nations. And so while it's

written to the Jewish people, we can see the inclusivity of all of the Gentiles. And so he includes many stories about Gentile nations as well. Um, Matthew, of course, was a tax collector, which was hated by all of the folks that lived in Jerusalem at that point in time, all of the people that lived in Israel at that point in time, because he had sided with the Roman government and collected taxes. And so Matthew is somewhat of an odd character and somebody that would have been an unlikely choice for an apostle and an even more unlikely choice to be the one who would write the first of the gospel accounts, not to mention the first of the gospel accounts, but to be the one

who would write the first of the gospel accounts, not to mention the first of the gospel accounts, not to mention the first of the gospel accounts, not to mention the fact that this is probably the earliest of all of the new Testament books. Maybe Galatians was written before it, but he was a pretty unlikely character because he would have been so hated by the Jewish people. But isn't that kind of what God's grace does? Jesus changed this tax collector into an apostle. And as I was

thinking about this, I thought, isn't it great that the person of Matthew actually brings out the gospel truth more than anyone, uh, of these other, uh, gospel writers, because if you think about it, Matthew is the one who could testify the most of the grace of God. He was the one who could testify the most of the grace of Jesus Christ in his life, because remember what Jesus said, he who has been forgiven much loves much. And so as I was thinking about Matthew and who he was and how much God changed his life, it reminded me of two points that I want to make before we actually get into the genealogy itself. Uh, the first is this, when we think about Matthew and being the tax collector, we're reminded that we should not

hold people's power. We should not hold people's power. We should not hold people's power. We should not hold people's past against them. I think that's an important thing for us to pay attention to as a church, because whether it's someone's past of who they were before they came to know Jesus, or whether it's someone's past because of past mistakes they've made, uh, in their life, even

as a Christian, uh, sometimes it's easy for us as believers to hold their past against them. And though they have shown up and God has completely redeemed them and they're a completely changed person, we can still look at them and we can still see them identified by who they were in their past life instead of recognizing them as who they are now, saved by the grace of God. And so I'm reminded by Matthew that it's important as believers in Jesus Christ that we stop holding people's past against them. Now, that is coupled with the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ, true faith is always accompanied by true repentance.

It would be one thing if Matthew came to Jesus and hadn't stopped being a tax collector. He's like, I want to follow Jesus, but I'm also going to keep being a tax collector. I'm also going to keep robbing and swindling people. I'm actually going to keep doing the work that I was doing before. I'm just going to add being a follower of Jesus to that, because that's a pretty common thing to

happen these days, is it not? I'm going to follow Jesus, but I'm still going to live according to my old life. At that point in time, we can then say, now I can hold your past against you because it's not actually your past, it's your present, because you've refused to repent. And so as believers in Jesus Christ, we can expect repentance, to accompany true faith. However, once repentance has accompanied true faith,

we, just like God, need to leave their sins in the past and trust God for who they are in Christ now. And that really is going to be what we talk a lot about in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And so we pick up in verse one. It says, The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, now again, not too many people get excited about genealogies, right? This is probably the part of

Chronicles that you skipped, right? This is the part of Numbers that you didn't read. This is the part of Matthew that you go, I want to get past this so that I can get to the story of the birth of Jesus. But the genealogy is actually incredibly fascinating. Because remember, Matthew has a point in making this genealogy because he wants to prove that Jesus is the king, the appointed Messiah

for the Jews. Well, in order to do that, he has to prove that by birth, Jesus is actually worthy of this title. And so he begins off saying, this is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah. And he points out the two most important things that would need to be true of Jesus, the Messiah. First of all, that he is the son of David. Why is that important? Well, because you may remember that when David became king,

David had a great desire. And David's great desire when he became king is he wanted to build a temple. Here he was living in this beautiful palace and he looks out and he sees the Ark of the Covenant living in the tabernacle, which was basically an ornate tent. And he said, I want to build a temple for God because I want a place for God's name to dwell. And God said, that's a wonderful idea, but here's the problem. You're a man of great bloodshed.

You will not build me a temple, but here's what I'm going to do for you. I am going to build for you. A dynasty. You're going to have a son. He will build me a temple because he will be a man of peace. But because it was within your heart to honor me in that way, there will never fail to be on the throne, a descendant of David. In other words, there will always be one of your sons on

the throne. It will be an everlasting covenant. And so God made this promise that the Messiah would, the king of the Jews would be, would come through the line. And so in order for Matthew to point out that Jesus is the Messiah, he had to follow the Davidic line. But then he points out a second thing. Notice what he says in verse one, that he is also the son of Abraham. Why is that important? Well, of course, first of all, because Abraham was the

father of the Jewish faith. Remember, Abraham was who God called and said, go to a land that I will show you. And from there, I will make you a great nation. But remember what else God told Abraham? He said, All the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Why is that important? Well, because we're a part of all of the nations of the earth. How are we all blessed? Because Jesus descended from Abraham.

He is the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, not just the promise of the land and the great nation, but that through Abraham's seed would come a descendant that would be a blessing to all nations. And that's why he said, That's exactly who Jesus is to us. So he begins with the foundation that Jesus, the Messiah, was the son of David and in the Davidic line, but also the son of Abraham, the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. And now we get into what I call a great deal of colorful characters.

Verse two, Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. And Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. All of the Israelites traced themselves back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They referred to them as the patriarchs. Now, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were incredibly fascinating people because they were men who knew what it was to experience the failure of the flesh, but they also knew what

it was to experience the triumph of faith. Remember Abraham, God called him and Abraham left everything behind in Ur of the Chaldees. He left a successful job, a successful career, a family promise. He left all of that behind. And he left all of that behind. And he left all of that behind. So that he could go to a land that he had no idea where he was going, didn't know how he was going to

provide himself. He was simply pursuing a promise. In this great step of faith that Abraham took to go and live in this other land where God promised him that though he and Sarah were unable to have kids, God would make of him a great nation. Only in the process, what did Abraham do? Well, he had a couple of really big failures. The first really big failure he did is he went down to Egypt and he

lied about his wife. He said, she's actually my sister because I'm well aware of how she's how hot she is. And the Pharaoh's going to want to take her as his wife. And then he's going to kill me. So do me this favor. Anywhere we go, you lie and say that you're my sister. And while he was down there lying about who his wife really was, he not only got found out, but he brought back a

little present with him. That little present he brought back with him was a lady by the name of Hagar. Because though God redeemed him from that issue that he had down in Egypt, we always know that issues of the flesh have long lasting consequences. And that's exactly what happened. Because when God had not fulfilled the promise in the amount of time that Abraham and Sarah thought

that God should have fulfilled the promise, what happened? Sarah came up with a plan and Abraham went along with it. And this handmaid that came along with him, she became a surrogate mother and birthed a son named Ishmael. And he had to once again confess this move of the flesh. And then God made a promise to Abraham. God made a promise and said, you will have a son,

Sarah will be the mother. And remember what happened? It said that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So then along comes Isaac. And Isaac was once again a child of promise and amazing things happened in his life. And he knew what it was to experience God for himself and experience great faith for himself. But he fell into the exact same issue

that his dad fell into. He was like, my wife is incredibly attractive. And I know that if anybody finds out that she's my wife, they'll kill me. And so he lied about who his wife was. Until somebody discovered it. And he said, oh no. Again, a man who knew what it was to fail in the flesh and yet have great triumph in faith. And then of course comes Jacob, perhaps the most colorful character of the three,

whose name literally means, according to Gail Irwin, dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. And what he did is he lied constantly. And yet what happened with Jacob? Remember that, a great moment in Jacob's life that though he was a man who knew what the failure of the flesh was because he lied about who he was, he put on animal skins to trick his father and connived and schemed his way through everything. On his way back to the promised land, what happened? An angel of the

Lord showed up and they struggled all night long. And before the angel of the Lord left, Jacob said, bless me. And so what did God do? It says he touched his hip and he put it out of socket so that every time he touched his hip, he put it out of socket. So that every time he touched his hip, every time he took a step, he remembered the triumph of faith and he remembered being

beautifully broken. Yep. Three pretty colorful characters. And so we go on from there and it says that Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Verse three, it says, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Now that's a whole other colorful story in and of itself. First of all, God does an amazing thing here by prompting Matthew to include women in the

genealogy. Now that's important because at this point in time, women were not regarded all that highly. And so for Matthew to have included women in the genealogy shows first of all, the place that God holds women, that they are important in God's plan, that they are not secondary citizens, but they are highly favored and honored by God. And so he includes women within this genealogy. We'll

talk about why that's important. But first of all, God does an amazing thing here by prompting Matthew to include women within this genealogy. We'll talk about why that's important here in just a little bit. But this story is a pretty fascinating one. Jacob has 12 sons, right? 12 dirty, rotten, sneaky thieves, except for Joseph, who just couldn't quit telling people about his dreams. But we're not

focused on the other ones. We're only focused on Judah. Judah was quite the character because Judah would be who the Messiah is going to come through. But Judah had three sons. He gave this girl named Tamar to his oldest son and his oldest son was really wicked. I'll leave the details out. You can discover that on your own. His oldest son was really wicked. So God struck him dead.

Now the custom at that point in time, that is if the older son dies before he is able to continue the line, then the younger son, the next one in line, takes the older son's wife and propagates the line for him. That leaves son number three. And Judah says, things are not going well here. This seems like a bad situation. You seem like a poison ivy sort of a thing. And so

wait till my next son is old. And so the next son gets old enough and then you can marry him. But Judah had no intentions of Tamar ever marrying the next son. And so the next son gets old enough for Tamar to marry and she realizes this isn't going to happen. And so Tamar needed to provide for herself, makes a plan. You see, in the course of time, Judah's wife had passed away and Judah was on his way up after he had

mourned the loss of his wife. He was on his way up with the sheep shearers to have a time of celebration for the bringing in of the wool from all of the sheep. And while he was on his way up, somebody told Tamar, hey, your father-in-law is on his way up to see the sheep shearers. So Tamar takes off her widow's gown, which is what she would have worn at that point in time, and puts on the clothing of a prostitute. And on Judah's way, he sees Tamar not realizing that it's

her because her face would have been veiled. He just thinks that she's a prostitute. And so he propositions her and she says, what will you give me to prove that you'll come back and pay me? He said, I will give you my staff and my signet ring, something that would have only, belonged to him. And so in the course of time, they find out that Tamar is pregnant.

And somebody comes to Judah and says, hey, your daughter-in-law Tamar, she's pregnant. And he says, perfect. I've been wanting to get rid of her. Let's stone her. And so he shows up to the hearing. And so Tamar says, the father is the one that owns this signet ring and this staff. And Judah says, she's more righteous than I am because I wouldn't give her my son.

Now, understand the depth of what just took place here. Incest and prostitution is very much in the line of Jesus. How can that even be? How can it be that that evil would take place? Because God identifies with sinful man. You see, Jesus knows what it is to come from a questionable family background, to have a questionable family history, to have part of the family tree, not have enough branches. He knows what that's like

because that's who he came from. And so Judah and Tamar produced Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amenadab. Amenadab was the father of Nashon. And Nashon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Oh, all of a sudden, names started sounding familiar again, right? Rahab, another woman who, by the way, is not

Jewish. She is a Gentile, is the next one that we want to spend a few minutes talking about because Rahab is a fascinating character, right? So if you follow the line of Genesis, you know that Jacob's 12 sons end up in Egypt because, of being protected from a famine. As they are in Egypt over the course of time, they end up becoming enslaved over the next 400 years because they had become so numerous. And so they were enslaved. And

so God set them free from slavery through Moses. Moses brought the children of Israel to the edge of the promised land. Joshua brought them into the promised land. But as Joshua brought them into the promised land, he said, the first place we need to go, because this is what God told me, is a city called Jericho. Now let's send a couple of spies to find out what they're going to do.

What the weak points of Jericho are. And so they send these two spies into Jericho, this place that's supposed to be destroyed, this land that's supposed to be utterly wiped out by the children of Israel because of the idolatry that took place there. And as they go into the city, these two spies find a spot to hide. And they hide at the house of a lady by the name of Rahab. Now all that seems normal up

to the point in time that we find out what Rahab's occupation was. Rahab was a prostitute. And so these two men come to Rahab and she has a prostitute. And so they go into the house of a lady by the name of Rahab. And she hides them. But there's a fascinating thing that takes place. Rahab, this prostitute, finds herself saying, I know that your God is the true God. I know that he has given this land

to you. What must I do to be saved? And so these two men tell her, I'll tell you what. You, this house that you live in right along the wall, you stay in this house. And this scarlet rope, you ever wondered why it was a scarlet rope? Because she was a prostitute. This scarlet rope that you're about to let us down with, make sure that that's hanging out of your window.

And we'll know that anybody in that house is to be saved. And so the children of Israel show up. And God, of course, has them march around the city every day for six days until day number seven, when they march around the city seven times. And all of the walls of Jerusalem come crumbling down except for what? The house that Rahab is in. That house stays standing. And everybody says, you see the house

with the scarlet rope hanging from it? That house is to be protected because we made them a promise. They will be saved. And so Rahab, this Gentile woman who had a very questionable background, ends up being enveloped into the nation of Israel. And she marries this guy by the name of Salmon. And Salmon, in Rahab, produced Boaz. I love it because of God's grace that's continually shown through this entire thing.

Well, now we come to a guy by the name of Boaz. And so Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth. Now, this is another interesting story. First of all, because this is another woman that is seen within the line. But not only that, this is a woman who comes from a nation that had been cursed by God, a Gentile nation. When the children of Israel were on their way to the promised land after leaving Egypt,

they came to the land of the Moabites. And the Moabites caused them all kinds of issues. And so God said, none of the Moabite people will even be able to enter the temple until the 10th generation, which, by the way, was that generation. But they are cursed by me. And so, if you go into the book of Judges, you know that there were points in time where God was judging the land of Israel.

And so during that time, God was judging the land of Israel. And so, if you go into the book of Judges, and you know that there were points in time where God was judging the land of Israel. And so, during that time of the judges, there was a family who decided that because of what God was doing in the nation of Israel, judging the nation, they would go to the land of Moab to seek safety from a famine. While in the land of Moab, one of the sons marries a girl by the name of Ruth. And though the son

that marries Ruth dies, Ruth comes back with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and lives among the people. And of course, they need some way to provide for themselves. And so she says, you should go find a field to glean in. Remember what we talked about last week that God provided, or maybe it was two weeks ago, that God provided a way for the poor of the land to live and they would leave the corners of the field. And so the poor could go in and harvest in their corners. Well, she goes and she

harvests. She gleans in the field of a guy by the name of Boaz, who just happens to be in the Davidic line. And as Ruth, a Moabitess, a Gentile from a nation who'd been cursed by God, gleans in this field of a much older man who is single.

He absolutely shows her love and grace and takes care of her and says, I would like to marry you because he was the kinsman redeemer. And so he marries Ruth and she, this Moabitess, who is a part of a nation that had been cursed by God in a Gentile, is now a part of the Davidic line. So then we come to, so verse five, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed was the father of Ruth. And so Ruth was the father of Obed by Ruth. And so Ruth was the father of Obed by Ruth.

Jesse, verse six, Jesse was the father of David, the king. Isn't it interesting that that's how David is referred to here. What we're going to find is that there's a lot of other kings mentioned after we follow the line of David, but he's the only one referred to as the king because he was God's chosen king. And so it says he was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon

by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. Yeah, you guessed it. We're going to stop and talk here for a minute too. If you're reading the New King James or the Old King James, you'll notice that the name Bathsheba is actually not even mentioned. It just says that David was the father of Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. The New American Standard adds the Bathsheba

for translational understanding. So why is that important? So there David was, he was the king. God had blessed him in every way possible. God had given him victory over all of his enemies. God had referred to him as a man after my own heart. He had anointed him king after Saul had failed and had already made the promise that David would never cease to have one of his sons be on the throne. But it was the time when the kings

were supposed to go out to war. But this particular time, David didn't go out to war with the rest of them. He stayed behind. And while he was on his rooftop, he looked over to another rooftop and he saw a woman bathing. For a long time as a small child, I thought her name was Bathsheba because she was bathing on the rooftop, right? How many of you thought that growing up? That was my entire idea.

And so he sees this woman bathing. And so he sits and says, who is that? And he said, well, that's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. Bear in mind, Uriah was one of David's mighty men, which at some point was a little too late. And so he took up David's mighty men and see the things that they were able to do. Let me put it this way. It would be like cheating on Jason Bourne, right? It would be like,

oh, that's Jason Bourne's wife. That seems like a bad idea, right? That's just, you just don't, or Jack Bauer, right? You name it. One of those kinds of guys that like, just can't die. That's who he is. He said, well, that's Bathsheba, that's Uriah's wife. And David says, bring her to me. And of course, we all know what he's going to do. He's going to take her to the grave. And he's going to

And in the course of time, Bathsheba shows back up and says, hey, I'm pregnant. And David says, hey, that's bad. And so David develops a plan. You know the plan. He brings Uriah, one of his most trusted soldiers, back from the field, back from the battle. And he does everything he can to get Uriah to go home to be with his wife so that David can cover up his sin by saying, that child

is Uriah's, not mine. Only Uriah the Hittite was so honorable that he said, how can I go spend the night with my wife when all of my men are out there fighting? Essentially, Uriah acted like David should have. And so finally, because he can't convince Uriah to follow his plan, he sends Uriah with a message. You can just imagine how this goes, right? He writes this little message,

in the heat of the battle, put Uriah to the front, and then everybody else pull back, so that Uriah is killed. He folds it up into a nice little letter, puts his seal on it, hands it to Uriah. And Uriah is such an honorable man that he never once opened the note that sealed his fate. And so Uriah delivers the note, and sure enough, they do exactly that. And not only did

David commit adultery with Bathsheba, but he covered it up by murdering Uriah. Now, eventually, David is confronted with his sin. Nathan the prophet comes and confronts him, and David confesses his sin. And God forgives him of his sin, but there's still consequences. You see, that first child that he fathered through Bathsheba, the Lord took that child. That child went home to be with

the Lord. And so after that, David was comforted, and it says that they bore another child whose name was Solomon. And Solomon is the one that we see. Isn't that amazing? Another woman, another questionable incident, another picture of God's grace. And so we go on from there to say Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, which is an amazing

name, by the way. If any of you are looking for names for children, that seems like a great one to me. Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Ahaz. Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh, the father of Ammon. And Ammon, the father of Josiah. I want to point out these

next three names that I think are really important. Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah. As you follow that line down to Hezekiah, there's some good kings, some bad kings, mainly bad kings. And as the bad kings would come along, idolatry would become a part of the nation of Israel again. And as idolatry would become a part of the nation of Israel, God would once again

have to deal with the nation of Israel in some way, shape, or form. But as idolatry continued to increase within the nation of Israel, along comes a guy by the name of Hezekiah. Hezekiah, who was a king unlike any other before him, except for, I believe it says, David. He followed God in the same way that David did. And he tore down all of the high places. He tore down all of the idols. And there was great revival during the time of Hezekiah. Isn't that

beautiful? I love that in all of these things where you just go, oh my gosh, the things in the line of Jesus are horrific. You also see that God provided wonderful kings like Hezekiah who brought great reforms. And so righteousness reigned during the time of Hezekiah, at least as far as the king concerned, as far as the government was concerned, the people still had their issues. And apparently

Hezekiah's son still had some issues. Because the next name that we read about is a guy by the name of Manasseh. Now up to this point in time, in the nation of Israel, the two worst that we'd heard about was Ahab and Jezebel, but they were in the northern kingdom. Manasseh, it says, sinned worse than anyone who had ever come before him. He even offered his son to Molech.

And so Manasseh was one who was so known for evil that the nation would never be the same after Manasseh. As a matter of fact, God pronounced a judgment that would not be reversed because of what Manasseh had done in his great evil. And as Manasseh sinned in a way worse than any king before him ever had before, the nation of Israel looked like it was completely and totally done. The nation of Israel looked like it was over. Like that was it. The only thing we could do now was

wait on judgment. But then along came a very young king by the name of Josiah. You see, Josiah became king when he was eight years old. Now I don't know about you, I have a nine-year-old at home. I can't imagine putting her in charge of anything, let alone a kingdom. It's neither here nor there. She can't always find where the chocolate milk is, but whatever. But here Josiah becomes king when

he's eight years old. Josiah turned, I believe it was, I think it was 26. He sent people to begin repairing the temple. And as the people repaired the temple, they found this book hidden in the temple. And they went, that's the book of the law. And they started reading the book of the law and they said, oh, that's bad. So they brought the book of the law to Josiah and they said, hey,

repairs are going really good in the temple. Everybody's doing what they're supposed to. Feel like the timeline is exactly how it should be. By the way, we found the book of the law and they read it to him. And it says that Josiah wept and he tore his clothes because he was so well aware of how far the kingdom had fallen from where God had intended for it to be.

And he cried out to God for forgiveness for the sins of his nation. And this was the message that came to Josiah. He said, God loves your repentance. And so judgment will not come in your time. But may I say, judgment will come. But you have this opportunity to bring about revival within your nation. It will not come in your lifetime. And so at that point in time,

Josiah began a process of revival within the nation, unlike anything that had been seen before, maybe besides Hezekiah. In Josiah, wholesale changed everything about the way that the kingdom was run and brought about great revival within the nation. I didn't intend to say this, but I do feel somewhat led by the Lord. I think that we're in a similar place in the United States of America right now.

I think that it has been declared judgment will come. I don't know when. And I feel like maybe we already had our Josiah. Yeah. And I do think judgment is coming. And so all we can do as a church, the thing we must do as a church is bring as much revival as we possibly can by getting God's word into as many hearts and minds of the people that we possibly can.

Because we should understand that just like Josiah heard about what God's law was and saw how far the nation was from it, and his heart was broken over it, and he tore his clothes, and he wept. And not because of his own sin, but because of the sin of the people, I believe that we as the church should be in a place where every time we read the law of God, where every time we read of God's righteousness, and then we see the things that are going on around us, it should, instead of causing us to be angry with the people that are around us, it should cause us to weep. And it should cause us to proverbially, if not maybe literally, tear our clothes because of the judgment that we are well aware is coming upon our nation,

and not just our nation, but our world. Because as we continue to see God redefined, sexuality redefined, gender redefined, marriage redefined, and even God's word and God's standards redefined, what can God do but judge our nation? What can God do but judge our world? And so in the meantime, we must get out God's word because our,

our world is in need of hope. Our world is in need of Jesus right now. And so Josiah brings about this great revival. But of course that revival is short-lived. And it says, Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. I'll never cease to be amazed at that progression of kings because you have Hezekiah, who was a great king,

followed by Manasseh. Manasseh, who was an awful king. And then comes Josiah, who was a great king. Now, the generations that separate these guys aren't that far. As a matter of fact, Manasseh was Hezekiah's son. So what happened? There's just no explanation for sin. Sometimes we try as hard as we can to raise our kids to do the right thing. And what do they do? They do the wrong thing.

So does that mean I've failed? No. It means there's no explanation for sin because the enemy wants whoever he can take. And after Josiah comes Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation. After the time of the deportation, verse 12 to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. May I say again, there's a name for you.

Zerubbabel was the father. My wife told me no to that one, by the way. When we were dating, I was like, hey, if we ever have a son, let's call him Zerubbabel. And she goes, no. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud. Abihud. Abihud. Abihud. Abihud 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 Eliud.

Eliud, 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. Now, here's another interesting thing to pay attention to. You may have noticed in all of the accounts, it was this father fathered this son. Now, the name of the woman is sometimes included, but this particular time, it shows us that

Joseph had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. Notice what it says in verse 16. Jacob was the father of Joseph, not the father of Jesus, but he was the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Now, here's a little Greek lesson for you. That phrase, by whom, is both in the feminine and in the singular. Ryan, why do I care about that?

Well, it means that Jesus came by one person, and that person was a woman, because Jesus was born of a virgin. Why does that matter? Well, because when Adam sinned way back in the beginning of Genesis, it said that through the man, sin would come. We're told in the book of Romans, that through Adam, when Adam sinned, through him, all sinned. So, how could Jesus be born sinless?

He had to be born of a virgin. So, how was Jesus born of a virgin? Because the Holy Spirit made it happen. How did that happen? I have no idea. But isn't God amazing that he can do that? It's important for us to pay attention to. You know why? Because it fulfills a prophecy. It fulfills a prophecy from Isaiah. It says in the book of Isaiah, You say, Ryan, that's what it just said.

Understand, those are two different words. The idea of unto us a child is born speaks of physical birth. Unto us a child is given speaks of adoption. Therefore, Jesus was in the Davidic line because of birth, which if you were to go to the book of Luke, you would see Mary's Davidic line that she's from. So, he was of the Davidic line. He was of the Davidic line because of birth, because he was born of Mary, a virgin.

But he was also of the Davidic line by adoption by his stepdad, Joseph. And so, it perfectly fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus was of the Davidic line not only by birth, but also by adoption. Isn't God amazing? God thinks of details that I would never think of. God thinks of things I would have never been able to fathom. But he does them because that's who he is.

And so, as we think about this genealogy that's pretty amazing, I want to point out four gospel lessons that I think are important for us to pay attention to. Four gospel lessons that I feel like we learn from the genealogy of Matthew. Number one, the gospel is inclusive. The gospel is inclusive. That's a dangerous statement these days, is it not? Inclusivity.

So, what do I mean by the gospel is inclusive? It means the gospel is for everyone. Did you take note of all the different types of people that were mentioned in this? In this, you have those who were Jewish and those who were Gentile. Those are two different ethnic groups, if you will. So, the gospel is inclusive of every ethnic group. In this genealogical account, you see both men and women.

In other words, it's inclusive of both genders. Notice I said, It's inclusive of both genders. Also, within this, you have kings and you have really poor people. And so, it's inclusive no matter what your socioeconomic status is. You say, Ryan, I didn't hear any poor people. They were all kings. What did David start off as? Do you remember? He was a shepherd, right?

Matter of fact, David was so low on the totem pole that when Samuel showed up to anoint a new king, Jesse brought all of his sons out except for one. Who was the one? The one son that got left out, David. After all of these sons passed through that all looked like kings, Samuel said, God said no to them all. Don't you have anyone else? And he goes, ah, son of a gun, I do have another son.

Now, listen, I understand big families. I would leave a child behind almost every week at church if I had more than two. Even with two, sketchy at best, right? And so, I can understand forgetting things. But how do you forget the child even exists? Hey, I'm here to anoint a king. Are these all your sons? I mean, yeah. What? Oh, gosh, I have one more. Because David was so poor, so low on the totem pole, he completely got left out.

Have you ever felt left out? The gospel includes you. Do you feel like you're too poor for the gospel? The gospel includes you. Are you so high up in society that you think, I've got everything? The gospel still includes you. The gospel is inclusive of all. That's why the great equalizer. For all of us is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the only way true unity comes.

Because remember what Paul said, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. And may I include black nor white. Because we're all one in Christ. You are either in Christ or not in Christ. And if you're not in Christ, then it's time to get saved. So that you can be in Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Number two, the gospel is a work of grace. Oh man, I love the word grace. Unmerited favor. Did you notice that there was not one single person in there that you were like, yep, pretty good dude. Okay. I mentioned two, Hezekiah and Josiah, but they still weren't perfect, right?

All the rest of them had incredibly sordid backgrounds. All the rest of them did incredibly bad things. All of the rest of them had awful pasts. All of these things that God includes within the genealogy. Why? Because the gospel is a work of grace. It's not something I can earn. It's not something I can be good enough for. As a matter of fact, the only thing that qualifies me for grace

is the fact that I'm so desperately in need of it. And the gospel is a work of the grace of God. And so as you look at your own life and perhaps at points in time think, I am not good enough. May I point out to you all of the exhibits that show it doesn't matter because God's grace is. God's grace is enough to cover all of the sins of your past. God's grace is enough to take even the worst of sinners

and completely turn them around, completely make them a different person. No matter how far you have fallen from grace, no matter what you have done in your past, and may I say no matter what you have done, period, God's grace is greater. And I love the genealogy because it points all of this out because God uses sinners and saints. And you know what you find out about saints?

We're all just a bunch of sinners saved by grace. The gospel is a work of grace. But not only is the gospel inclusive, not only is it a work of grace, the gospel is a work of God. You say, Ryan, isn't that the same thing as a work of grace? I mean, probably. But think about what God did here with the weaving together of this scarlet thread that runs all the way through the history,

not only of the world, but especially of the nation of Israel. Think about how God put the right people in the right places. You know, one of the things I left out is that this guy, Jeconiah, in verse 11, he was cursed by God. If you were to look in the book of Jeremiah, you would see that Jeconiah was cursed by God and said, none of your sons will sit on the throne.

Oh no. That's a problem. If Jeconiah was cursed, then how can Jesus come from the Davidic line? Well, if we were to jump over to the book of Luke, you would notice that the book of Luke follows a little bit of a different genealogy because it's the genealogy of Mary. And after David, instead of it coming through Solomon, you know who it comes through? It comes through another one of David's sons named Nathan

that completely bypasses Jeconiah. And so by birth, Jesus, is still in that Davidic line because in that Davidic line, it goes back through Nathan. And yet by adoption, he's still in the Davidic line of Solomon because of Joseph. Who can come up with that kind of thing? Right? If it were you and me, we'd be like, oh great, we have to start over again. But God,

because of the work that he does, can even work out details like that. Why is that important? Because God's work is powerful and there's no problem. It's too great. It's too great for him to fix. There's no sin. That's too deep for him to heal. You see, where sin abounds, grace abounds much more because God is greater. And the gospel is a work of God. And then number four,

and I think it's one of the amazing things is the gospel redeems the broken. The gospel redeems the broken. Can you imagine how Judah felt that night when he realized what he had done? When he realized that Tamar was his daughter-in-law and not only did he commit a sin that was egregious, but he got found out in public. Can you imagine how he felt that night?

Felt completely unusable by God. Felt completely alienated from his brethren and like his life was probably over. And yet the work of God and his life was so great that he was willing to sacrifice his life for another one of his brothers. And God still used him in that line of the Messiah. Can you imagine how David felt that night that Nathan confronted him with his sin?

David, the man after God's own heart. David, the man who was the chosen king. The guy who God had made the great promise to him. And now here he is completely destroyed because of sin. What am I gonna do now? I've lost all of my moral footing. I've completely wiped out my relationship with the Lord. And my life is broken in more pieces than I can ever imagine.

And yet, God in his grace and in the great work that he does in our lives, not only healed his brokenness, but even redeemed the relationship with Bathsheba. By providing Solomon. Isn't that amazing? Because that's what God does. Because that's what God is in the business of. And that's what the gospel does in our lives. Is it heals our brokenness. It redeems all of the broken things.

Which is why Paul in the book of Romans was able to say, I know that all things will work together for good. For those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. Why does he say that? Because he too was well aware that God heals the brokenness. That the gospel redeems broken pieces. Because can you imagine how Paul felt that night after he had been struck with blindness

on the road to Emmaus? I'll never forget a pastor asking a question one time when we were studying that passage of scripture. And he said, what do you think went through Paul's mind that night? He can't see anything. He had to be led by the hand to a brand new place that he'd never been before. He was surrounded by people he really didn't know. And he had no idea how it was all going to turn out.

You know what I think Paul thought at that point in time? The same thing that David thought. And the same thing that Judah thought. Is there any way God can redeem this? Is there any way God can heal this? Is there any way that God could ever do anything with me? And so now I have a question for you. Where are your broken pieces? Where are you with feeling like,

is God ever going to be able to use this? Is God ever going to be able to use me?

After Bible college, when I went through a very difficult time of not only questioning my salvation, but questioning if God could ever use me again, I remember having a conversation with someone. And they said, so what are you going to do now? And I said, I don't know. I had a plan. And I'm not sure. I don't know if God could ever use me again.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

And may I tell you, the gospel redeems brokenness. Because that's why I can be up here today. It's because that's what the gospel does. And I don't know what the brokenness is in anybody's life. I don't know where you feel like you've fallen past God's grace. I don't know where you feel like you've gotten out of God's work or you can't be included in the gospel.

But those are lies from the enemy. Because you are included. And God's grace is greater than all of your sin. And God's work is more powerful than the deepest of your hurts. And God is able to redeem all of the brokenness that has gone on in your life. And not only heal you from it, but in that place cause you to thrive. Where there were thorns, he's able to bring the rose.

Amen? Let's all stand.

My prayer for you is that as we go out from this place, that you will have a renewed sense of understanding of that great gospel and of that amazing grace that God has for you. Father, we come before you and I just thank you for today. And I thank you for your word. And I thank you for what your word is able to do in our lives. And Lord, I thank you that you,

you take brokenness aside and you make it something beautiful. And so Lord, I just ask that you would do that work in our lives. Father, I thank you that you have woven such a beautiful picture throughout the pages of history. Lord, that what seemed like problems to us are opportunities for you. And I thank you that your word is trustworthy and that we can rest in you.

And so Lord, draw us near to you. Be with us as we go out from this place and help us to understand to an even greater degree your grace and our grace. Amen. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Every song we can ever sing Worthy of all the praise we can ever bring Worthy of every breath we can ever breathe To live for you Jesus, the name above Jesus, the only one

Who could ever save Worthy of every breath we can ever breathe To live for you To no one Lie on beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me Who could ever save Have a blessed week.