00;00;00;00 – 00;00;04;10
Amen. Thank you, Bailey. Family, get your Bibles again today with us.

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Please have turn with us, if you would, please, to the gospel of Matthew. Matthew, Chapter number one once again. Matthew, Chapter one and stand in reverence to God’s Word as we read this time, beginning at verse 18 last Sunday, we took our text from Matthew chapter one verses one through 17, and we talked about the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

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And today we’re going to be moving forward in our Christmas series of messages. And today we’re going to talk about overcomer through his birth. That’s a theme I want us to look at, at least this morning, possibly this morning and tonight and in, if need be bleeding over even into next week. But let’s look at our text. Matthew, chapter one beginning at verse 18, and I’ll read down to the end of the chapter, Matthew, Chapter one and verse number 18.

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If you have your place, our church, we say, Man, the Bible says, Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise when as his mother, Mary, was a spouse to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately.

00;01;23;18 – 00;01;52;04
But while he thought on these things, behold the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take under the Mary thy wife, or that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Now, in my Bible, that is Capital J, Capital E Capital S capital U.

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Capital S. It’s all capital letters Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Verse 22. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the sun and shall call his name Emmanuel. Another name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

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Now, if you’re curious about the interpretation of Jesus, it is the Old Testament named Yehoshua, or we might know it today as Joshua, and it refers to He who Cometh or potentially the Messiah. So we have two names here one Jesus, one Emmanuel. And now verse 24 than Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife and knew her not to, or she had brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus.

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Now stop their lie to be seated. I hope you keep your Bibles handy and open this morning as we look at this passage of Scripture together. And I want to talk to you about the subject of overcomer is through his birth, over commerce. Through his birth. And the reason I’m picking that title is because in the Christmas story that we have at hand today, we are alerted to the realities of how several things had to be overcome for Jesus to be born.

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Several accomplishments, very profound accomplishments, very great and high magnitude accomplishments had to be done before Jesus could be born. And as we make our way down through this list, we are trying our best to make sure that the Christmas story is told with accuracy, that it’s not distracted by reindeer and snowmen and and fat guys that are supposed to be able to fit down your chimney shoot and all that kind of stuff.

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We’re trying to tell the Christmas story without those distractions based on the Scripture, based solely and completely and entirely upon the Scripture. And so as we make our way down through these points today, I want you to keep that in mind. And I’m excited about the truths that we have before us today. But I will also add, before we get too far into today’s message, much of what we are going to say in this message is going to be something controversial, not controversial in our church.

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All of us in here believe in the virgin birth. All of us in here believe in the the perfect life of Jesus. All of us in here believe that he is the savior of the world. But we are among a dying group of people who still believe that. In fact, if you poll the church, yet it is sadly almost identical to the number of people in the world who have now chosen not to believe in the virgin birth.

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If you go to the university doctor, bottle stopper and Mr. Smell fungus are going to tell you that the virgin birth is an impossibility. And sadly, that has now made its way into almost all of the television series that will be done during this season of the year by the Discovery Channel or the History Channel or the National Geographic Channel or any of those other secular channels.

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They will attempt to explain away the virgin birth and the sinless life of Jesus. They will, in some cases, say profane things about this season of the year. And so it is needful for the church to contend for these truths. It is needful for the church to defend these truths. And when we are looking at this passage, we are looking at the factual eyewitness accounts that took place.

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You were not there and I was not there. Doctor bottle stopper and Mr. Smith fungus were not there. And so we have to rely on people who were there locally in that area and who saw it with their own eyes, took pen in hand and gave us the account. Now, here’s our first point. When we talk about overcomer through his birth or overcomer through his incarnation, if you want to choose that term, I want to point out, number one, that the natural was overcome by the supernatural.

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Mark that down the natural was overcome by the supernatural. And just to project ahead a little further, we’re also going to see that justice was overcome by love. We’re going to see that feelings were overcome by the message. We really need to bear down on that point. Feelings were overcome by the message forth like we’re going to add.

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Odds were overcome by truth. Number five, the finite was overcome by the infinite. And number six, the carnal was overcome by the spiritual. Let’s take them slow. The first one, the natural was overcome by the supernatural. Now, I literally did it like this. That speaks of the conception. Then we’re going to talk about the controversy, the commitment, the calculation, the companionship and the control.

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But first, let’s talk about the conception. Jesus is who he is because of the way that he was born. No man has ever been born this way. Now, this virgin birth truth is exactly what the Bible claims that it is. It is a non-negotiable. It is not something like a Buffy the Golden Corral, where you kind of walk down through and you say, Well, I’ll take a little bit of this and I’ll take a little bit of that.

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But I don’t like this on him and I don’t like that item, so I’ll leave them off. That’s not the way this operates. You must believe in the virgin birth. You cannot claim to be a believer if you don’t believe in the virgin birth. Now, there are some things that are not that weighty, but the Virgin birth is not one of those things.

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If you don’t believe in the virgin birth, you don’t believe anything. Because if Jesus was not Virgin born, then he had two sinful parents and the Bible is a lie. And if that’s the case, if the Bible is a lie, our time has been wasted, the church’s resources have been a charade. And we’re all going to perish in our sin and go to hell.

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The virgin birth is a fact of history. Now there are an abundance of theories, and they ranged from humorous to downright profane. There are theories about Joseph and Mary. Theories about Mary, Theories about Mary and a soldier. Theories about a host of different applications. And they abound in cyberspace and on the History Channel and the discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel.

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Thank God we’re not tuned in to any of those today. Thank God we’re tuned in to Heaven’s channel. And it needs to be said. It needs to be understood that it has been attacked so that the gospel can be proven untrue. They have attacked the virgin birth by saying that Joseph and Mary actually committed fornication. They have attacked it that way and insinuated that Joseph and Mary, like two juveniles, wound up expecting a child together.

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And in order to cover it up, in order to dismiss the consequences of it, they rushed in to Joseph’s parents and Mary’s parents and said, We don’t know what happened. All of a sudden, she’s just turned up in the family way and they were trying to cover up a lie. I want to submit to you that that is not what the scripture teaches.

00;10;48;26 – 00;11;24;07
We’re going to see today that Joseph DeLay greatly and intentionally did not touch Mary romantically until after Jesus was born. They actually got married and Joseph did not touch her until Jesus was born at a later date after the marriage. So we’re going to make that point. There is also the theory of parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis. It is the theory of cloning.

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Now, some egg had had to insert that into the story that in fact, it was an egg from Mary that was artificially inseminated with the seed of some unknown individual or potentially the seed of Joseph, which would have maintained her virginity having not been sexual she conceived. And so there are those who are trying to advance the idea of that tooth.

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2000 years ago, somebody was cloning babies. I find that a little hard to believe, don’t you? And then there are the more numerous US accounts of those who believe that Mary are those who insinuate that Mary actually committed fornication with a soldier stationed in Nazareth, Nazareth being in the situation that it was under Roman occupation was a little hamlet where a of a garrison of soldiers had been stationed, and those soldiers under deployment away from their spouses, were basically out gallivanting around.

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And every girl in the neighborhood was servicing them sexually. And Mary happened to be one of those girls, and she wound up expecting a child. And that child was actually the son of a of an unnamed soldier. These accusations abound. And I could go on and on and on and on and tell you things that I can’t even repeat in mixed company insinuations that have been made blasphemous insinuations that have been made about Jesus.

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It’s not the responsibility of the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel and the Discovery Channel to interpret scripture. They need to leave that to us. They have bungled it more than they’ve gotten it right. The story is counterfeited. Roman mysticism and all kinds of false teachings have claimed numerous Virgin birth, when in fact there has only been one.

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Did you know that the Romans actually claim that Zuse impregnated Samuel without contact and produced and produced Dionysus, which is known as the Lord of the Earth? In Greek mythology, Zuse was a sex maniac and he actually impregnated more to pole human women and they bore sons through Zuse. And one of them supposedly was S.M. who bore Dionysus turning into the Lord of the Earth.

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Babylonians had their own version. They taught that a Sunbeam and the Priestess Semiramis was conceived Tams, the Sumerian fertility god. By the way, this actually turned into a holiday. They actually called this holiday Easter, the birth of Thomas, and during the pagan Easter holiday. That’s why we don’t call it Easter at Brandon Baptist Tabernacle. We call it Resurrection Sunday because Easter is a very pagan holiday.

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And so they as a celebration of the fertility goddess, they would actually paint eggs and they would distribute those eggs and allow their children. That’s why we don’t have egg hunts at Brandon Baptist Tabernacle, because it’s a very pagan way of celebrating Resurrection Sunday. Buddha. You remember that if you don’t know who that is, go to the Chinese restaurant, the little fat golden guy that sits there on the counter.

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That’s Buddha. His mother allegedly saw a large white elephant enter her belly when she conceived Buddha, creating again a virgin birth in Hinduism. They teach that the Divine Vishnu, after living as a fish and then reincarnating as a tortoise. And then Rehan Khan eating as a boar and then reincarnating as a lion, entered into divorcees womb and became her son Krishna.

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So almost, almost every major world religion has some kind of a counterfeit of the virgin birth. It has been counterfeited. I want to add also that the virgin birth was consensual. Now, I don’t want to get too technical, but because of the perversion that has been assigned to this Bible doctrine, we need to talk about this as adults.

00;16;15;00 – 00;17;02;13
There was no romantic relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary right. I don’t need to specify any further. I’m going to use words here carefully. There was no copulation. You adults understand there was no intercourse. What happened in the Luke account was that the angel came to Mary early and forewarned her that she was going to conceive. But this was not, as some blasphemers have insinuated, a heavenly rate case.

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Mary was forewarned. And then, after having been forewarned, she was able to ponder these things. The Scripture actually teaches that she pondered these things, and as she pondered it, as she considered it, she at that point was in full compliance. She was willing for this to take place because of the high honor that came along with it. It was a consensual conception.

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I feel as though we need to make that point. It wasn’t just a counterfeited situation and a consensual situation. But I want to add as well, this was a creative miracle. Once again, I need to tell you, this is not some kind of a romance that existed between God and Mary. And some people have embellished that. Some people have imagined things and tried to and they have tried to insert details into the story that just do not fit with the biblical account.

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How did the seed of God enter into the womb of Mary without copulation or without intercourse? We have to believe it, just like we believe the creation account, right? If God can create the planets out of nothing, if God can create the universe by simply speaking it into existence, and God said, Let there be light. And it was so.

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And God said, Let there be water. And it was so and God said, Let the dry land be separated from the water. And it was so and God separated. And God said and it was so. And it was so. And it was so. So this creative miracle of the virgin birth consists solely in the reality that God willed it to happen.

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And if you are a believer of the Bible, you have absolutely no problem understanding that there was no need for traditional human methods. You understand God implanted the seed of the Holy Spirit into the womb of Mary in a very innocent way. Then it needs to be understood that the virgin birth, not just counterfeited, not just consensual, not just a creative miracle, but it was controversy.

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You you might recall that in John Chapter eight, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees in one of his many different dialogs. And after He is speaking with the Pharisees in John eight, verse 41, Jesus made the the scathing statement. You talk about a blistering remark. Jesus opened the 41st verse of John eight by saying, Ye do the deeds of your father questioning their paternity.

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He said, You do the deeds of your father. Of course he’s referring to their father the devil. Then after Jesus made those remarks, then said they to him, listen to this. This was an underhanded, a backhanded slap to his patronage. We be not born of fornication. They were insinuating that he was. So even in the beginning, this was a scandal, even in the beginning, at the at the very dates when it took place, this was not salt soaked.

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It was not only counterfeited and consensual and creative and controversial, but I want to add this and I want to add it forcefully and as deliberately as I can. It was crucial. The virgin birth, as I said earlier, is a non-negotiable. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, imagine the state that we are in. It leads to the question of he’s not virgin born.

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Who is his father? Well, if you think it’s Joseph, we’re in trouble. If you think it’s a Roman centurion, we’re in trouble. There is no answer that you can give to that question that will leave the gospel intact. The gospel is derailed and the church is bupkis if Jesus is not virgin morn. It’s the lynchpin of everything that we believe.

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The Virgin birth explains how Christ could be both God and man. It explains how He was without sin, and it explains that the entire work of salvation is God’s gracious act. Salvation is on the Lord. Can I get a witness on that church? Salvation is on the Lord. And so that means the birth of Christ had to be of the Lord.

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That means the life of Christ had to be of the Lord. The death of Christ had to be of the Lord, the resurrection of Christ had to be of the Lord. The Ascension of Christ had to be of the Lord. None of it included human effort. Even Mary did not contribute. She was conceived of the Holy Ghost. If he’s not born of a virgin, he had a human father.

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And if Jesus was not born of a virgin, the Bible teaches a lie. And if there is one lie in the Bible, then you, my friend, are at liberty to discard all of it. You get that. If you find one lie in God’s Word, then none of it is trustworthy, right?

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You might recall that on one occasion the question arose. Matthew 22 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What? Think of Christ, Whose son is he? And their response was, He’s going to be the son of David. Their response was accurate. Their response was right. He is supposed to be the son of David. He’s the son of David, but he’s the son of God.

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But he is never in Scripture listed as the son of Joseph, the son of David in resemblance, son of David in royalty, but not physically the son of David and son of David, earthly son of God, Heavenly. Isn’t that right? Church. I want to tell you something. I’m done preaching this point, so let me just fuss a minute.

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I get real upset when people start mocking Jesus. I get real upset when Saturday Night Live. I start watching that. Years ago you say, Well, I watch Saturday Night Live and still be a Christian. You might be able to, but you’re not much a one of those people mock our Savior weekly. Can I get a witness on that?

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And these other filthy parodies, these other comedic attempts to try to listen to this, to reduce and to destroy the validity of the virgin birth, it is to be discarded by the church. It is to be avoided by the church. I get equally offended when people try to replace Jesus with something else or it bothers me. It gets under my skin.

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It it just disturbs me when I see people rejoicing over Santa Claus and Rudolph and Frosty. And I see people rejoicing even over the stupid Scrooge and the the little green booger monster or whatever his name was. I get angry when thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars are spent to decorate our lawns and to decorate our homes with those kinds of items.

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But the Christ is not celebrated.

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This is a miracle. The Virgin birth is non-negotiable. The virgin birth is not something that we could just take it or leave it. The virgin birth is the essential. It’s the little card that turns all the big cogs of the gospel. So when we talk about being an overcomer at Christmas, the natural was overcome by the supernatural. Well, that’s a reference to the conception in hurrying.

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Number two, these are shorter. All my angry stuff is out now so I can just move through these a little quicker. Are you ready? Number two, The justice was overcome by love. This is the controversy. And don’t be ignorant. It was real to everyone, including Joseph. If you can imagine the natural reaction that you would have if your fiancee or the woman who the Bible says you are betrothed to turns up with child and you know that the two of you have not been together, you can imagine what kind of controversy that would have created.

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I look at verse 18 now, the birth of Jesus was on this wise one as his mother, Mary was. What is the word here espoused to Joseph? It makes a distinct statement next, before they came together. Do you understand that? That is a that is a euphemism. That’s a way of saying before they were sexual, she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost.

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Now, verse 19, then Joseph, notice it calls her him. Hear her. What’s the word, husband? This needs some explanation. The espousal process was similar to what we today would call an engagement, but it was much more binding than an engagement. The espousal back in those days began when two families came together and after having certified that they were religiously compatible.

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Can I say that one more time where my wife and I, we have a an English bulldog, my sister breeds those. If my sister didn’t breed those, we would have never had one of those. Those dogs are somewhere between 30 $507,000 each. Can you imagine that? Paying that for a dog, very tedious. Their upkeep. They have problems with their eyes.

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They have problems with their sinuses. They have problems with their hips. They have problems with their skin. They’re just a big fat problem. But they’re the most lovable things you ever laid eyes on. Now, my wife and I would never, never breed that dog with some hind 57 mutt. Will you pardon me? Will you excuse me? No, that’s a that’s our our prize dog on.

00;28;50;15 – 00;29;22;11
We would never pair him up. And here’s what I want to point out to you. Parents ought to be more diligent about who they allow their children to be paired up with than they do their dogs. We’re more watchful of our AKC registered dogs than we are our kids. We’ll let our our kids yoke up with nearly anything.

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How dangerous is that, by the way? It has created the highest divorce rate ever because we do not certify religious compatibility. We do not make sure that there is no unequal yoke. In fact, I don’t know if there’s a church in Hillsborough County that’s probably even used that term this year. The unequal yoke a slave person is not supposed marry loss person.

00;29;50;14 – 00;30;15;02
Can I get a witness on that? Can I say a spiritual person is not supposed Mary Carnal person. Hello, Tokyo. Y’all don’t down me now. Joseph’s parents believe them, and Mary’s parents believe that. So Joseph and Mary’s parents came together and said, We have been observing your daughter and we have been observing your son. We think they would make a good pair.

00;30;15;02 – 00;31;05;02
And of course, God was stacking the deck behind the scenes to a and they encouraged Joseph Young, Joseph and young Mary to enter into a contractual relationship. This relationship was, as we called in scripture espousal. We would classify it as engagement. Today, Espousal meaning what? They actually drew up papers and all those papers, each party had to agree that the marriage would take place and that the marriage would take place under certain circumstances and with certain conditions maintained.

00;31;05;04 – 00;31;36;29
This espousal was interesting. It came along with a price. The price was called a dowry d0wry. I’m in favor of that. A dowry meant that the the suitor or the groom had to pay the father of the bride a certain amount of money in order to for several reasons. Number one, it was to pay for the wedding and the wedding back in those days was seven days long.

00;31;37;01 – 00;31;56;28
You imagine get ready for a one day wedding today, a couple of hours and how frustrating and and how. Absolutely. It just buzzes you out and gets you all frazzled. Can you imagine having the know the whole neighborhood over for seven days? That’s why in the book, the Book of John the Bible talks about the wedding at the Cain of Galilee.

00;31;56;28 – 00;32;23;09
They ran out of wine. You know why? Because it was getting towards the seventh day and that’s why they ran out of wine. So weddings, back in those days, your home was open to the neighborhood. Everybody came in and they drank wine and they enjoyed fellowship. And they they sat around and they they observed the couple. And then on the last day of the wedding, the couple would go into a tent and they would consummate their marriage sexually.

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And from that point, they were after the vows and the consummation, they were considered husband and wife consummately. But this espousal was somewhat bonding as well. It’s a great setup. Let me tell you how it went. He would come to the father of the bride. The groom would come to the father, the bride, and he would say, I want your daughter.

00;32;47;25 – 00;33;16;20
And the father would name his price. In some cases it would be a dozen sheep. He if she was particularly unfortunate in her looks, he would discount it. The range actually went all the way from a crippled chicken to a dozen sheep. And in some cases, if she was especially ugly, he would actually give the groom a dozen sheep to take her off his hands.

00;33;16;20 – 00;33;46;19
Right. So this betrothal included this dowry. Now that dowries imported, it was insurance. It was insurance because if the father accepted the conditions, if the father of the bride accepted the conditions, then he would receive the dowry. He would not spend the dowry, but would in fact deposit it or keep it somewhere. And as he kept that dowry, he kept it for a couple of reasons.

00;33;46;22 – 00;34;15;09
The mortality of men was at a much higher rate than women back in those days, many widows in the Bible. And so if the husband, if his son in law at a later date died, then he would use the dowry to purchase a home for his now widowed daughter. So the father kept the dowry for that. If his son in law was a dufus, don’t raise your hand if you know some of those.

00;34;15;12 – 00;34;55;04
If his son in law was a an imbecile and flaked out on the marriage, then the son in law forfeited his dowry and the dad of the bride would use the dowry to purchase a home for his now divorced daughter. So there were several conditions that existed if they stayed married for 12 years. Normally, the father of the bride would return the dowry as a way of congratulating them on successful marriage.

00;34;55;06 – 00;35;18;00
So the dowry was a important thing. And Joseph, a poor man, a carpenter, the Bible teaches. He came in agreement. He made this contract with the family of Mary, and he said to them, I will marry her if you will permit me to do so. And he said, Here is my dowry. We don’t know how much it was, but he paid the price and signed a paper.

00;35;18;04 – 00;35;45;23
He signed a paper that actually qualified him to be called her husband, even though they were not together, not living together, had not been romantic, had not consummated. Nevertheless, he was called her husband. By the way, if he wanted to get out of this, they actually had to get a divorce. They were not even married, but they had to get a divorce if they wanted to get out of it.

00;35;46;01 – 00;36;10;22
Do you all understand what I’m explaining to you so far? All right, now look at your Bible. Let’s look at this controversy. Notice verse 19, then Joseph he’s now discovered that his wife is expecting He’s her husband. They’ve entered into the contract. What does it add? He is a just man and not willing to make her a public example.

00;36;10;22 – 00;36;35;06
You know what that means? That means he loved her. He doesn’t want her to be shamed. He has two options. He can either listen to this, he can either stone her or he can stand her up in front of the whole city, in front of the all the politicians and the the passers by. And shame her not willing to do either of those.

00;36;35;08 – 00;37;02;19
What does it say about Joseph? He’s not willing to make a public example, but he was minded to do what? A third option, a very unheard of option. He was minded to put her away privately. He’s going to just tear up the paperwork as if it had never been signed. She’s expecting he knows it’s not his. He’s troubled, naturally.

00;37;02;21 – 00;37;27;11
Verse 20, he’s contemplating it. It says while he thought on these things, he lies down in his bed, his sleep is gone, his pillow is a stone. He is in love with Mary. He is infatuated with Mary. He has paid the dowry. He knows that if he breaks the contract now, he loses the dowry. But worse than that, he loses Mary.

00;37;27;14 – 00;38;01;16
So he’s lying. There is mine won’t shut off. He’s thinking about it. Thinking about it, thinking about it way over into the night, he dozes off, he falls asleep. The Bible says, When he does verse 20, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take under the Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

00;38;01;16 – 00;38;33;20
And everybody look up here and Joseph went, Woosh boy, that’s good news, right? It’s good news for their relationship, but it’s good news for the world, right? Messiah will shortly be born. Number three, the natural was overcome by the supernatural. She’s virgin conceived. Number two, justice was overcome by love. He could have put her away. He could have stolen her.

00;38;33;20 – 00;38;58;04
But he loved her. Number three feelings were overcome by the message that refers to the commitment. Look at verse 20. I’m hurrying. I want you to see it very quickly. While he thought on these things, behold, the angel Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, if you’re not taken to the Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

00;38;58;04 – 00;39;29;26
Now look at verse 21 closely and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save their people from their sins. Watch this. It is as if God comes to Joseph and says, There’s something more important going on here. The world needs to be saved from their sins by Joseph. Will you forfeit the physical aspect of your early marriage?

00;39;29;28 – 00;40;07;26
Oh, so that the world can be saved from their sins. And what does Joseph do? Watch this. He’s a red blooded man. He wants what every groom wants. But under these conditions, he says, I’ll wait a little longer. He’s been waiting for close to 12 months during the espousal. And now God comes to him and says, Joseph, just a little longer.

00;40;07;29 – 00;40;43;11
And Joseph says, You got it. Can I take a time out here and sing the praises of a hero that almost never gets any credit during Christmas? Joseph If it had not been for his abstinence, listen to this. If it had not been for his abstinence, the story would have scuttled by, isn’t that right? Number four, verse 22.

00;40;43;13 – 00;41;12;09
Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. This is the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy. And listen to this. It is the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies, not just the one mentioned here are called this Odds were overcome by Truth.

00;41;12;11 – 00;41;47;07
That’s the calculation odds Oded is Micah around 700 BCE out of hundreds and hundreds of cities and the scores and scores of nations in existence all over the world. Even in those days, he said Jesus is going to be born in Bethlehem. It’s almost as if I said the next president, United States will be born in Dover. And you would say, What if I said that?

00;41;47;11 – 00;42;20;21
If I if I were to make the prediction for presidents from now, the president will come from Riverview, The odds are of what? Getting worse and worse. If I said 17 presidents from now, the president will be born in Apollo Beach or even worse, Gibson ten. Nobody’s ever wants to be born in. Gibson. Can I get a witness on that?

00;42;20;24 – 00;42;47;22
For those of you that are I apologize to make it more personal, if I were to say 27 presidents from now, he’ll be born in Norman Park, Georgia. The odds are getting less and less. The odds are mounting up that that’s a nearly impossible prediction. And by the way, I have personally been to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the Dover of Jerusalem.

00;42;47;24 – 00;43;24;02
Bethlehem is not some elaborate big match booming metropolis. Bethlehem is a tiny little villa out in the Shepherds fields, way out there in some area. And it was a very secluded place, not some kind of a big city setting. Micah five to Jesus is going to be born in Bethlehem. What are the odds? Isaiah 714 He’s going to be born of a virgin and the odds get even worse.

00;43;24;05 – 00;44;06;17
Are you with me? So far? Church 1012 B.C A prophecy was made that his hands and feet would be pierced. No one had any idea what that meant. You know why? Because crucifixion had never been invented in the odds get worse. For 25 B.C., it was specified that Messiah would be a contemporary with the temple in Jerusalem. That temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and so the odds of that taking place before 70 A.D. were incredibly worsened.

00;44;06;19 – 00;44;37;11
Are you getting the picture? Are you all are you all doing the math with me? Zachariah 11 versus 11 through 13. 500 years before Jesus was born, Zachariah predicted that he’d be born virgin, born, Bethlehem born, Hebrew born, male born. And the specificity is overpowering. If you don’t get it yet, let me help you put your thinking cap on.

00;44;37;11 – 00;45;08;17
Are you ready? The odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling only eight of those. I’ve only listed a handful. There were hundreds of these Old Testament prophecies about Messiah and the odds of one man fulfilling only eight of those major prophecies. Are you ready for this would be one in ten to the 17th power. You may have students listening one in ten to the 17th power.

00;45;08;22 – 00;45;46;23
If you don’t know how to tabulate that. That is a one with 17 zeros behind it. Two one or I had to look it up to a quadrillion. It’s 1 quadrillion to 1. The odds. And on that day, Messiah beat the odds. If you cover the state of Texas to help you understand this, how many of you just a quick poll question how many of you ever driven across the state of Texas?

00;45;46;25 – 00;46;16;23
Raise your hand. You’ve driven across or ridden across the state of Texas. It takes you a day to get from Florida to Houston. If you drive hard on it takes you two and a half, maybe maybe two and a half days to get from Houston to the other side around El Paso. I’ve been across Interstate ten from from Florida all the way to Burbank, California, and Texas.

00;46;17;00 – 00;46;46;00
The worst part of the trip, it’s just nothing after nothing after nothing followed by tumbleweeds and all wheels followed all wells, followed by nothing and nothing else. It’s just bubble. They need it. The governor of Texas needs to do something about Interstate ten. It’s awful in Texas. And those people in Texas don’t know how to drive. They put their tags on the front of their car.

00;46;46;00 – 00;47;29;04
First of all, the second problem that they have in Texas, they’ll pass you in the emergency lane if you’re an out of state or very Texan. And then they throw that in your face and say, don’t mess with Texas. You know how big Texas is. I have no idea. But if you want to know the odds of one in 1 quadrillion, you have to cover the state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep, cover the whole state silver dollars, two feet deep, and set a blindfolded man loose from Dallas by foot in either direction.

00;47;29;07 – 00;47;59;28
And for him to reach down and pick up the one specially marked silver dollar is the odds of one in 101 and 1 quadrillion. What are the odds that Jesus would be born? This is a miracle, you say. Why in the world would God do that? I’ll tell you why. He wanted us to know for a fact this is not earthly doings.

00;48;00;06 – 00;48;36;15
This is heavenly. It’s miraculous. It’s heavenly. It’s divine. Yeah. Five and six and I’m closing verse 23. I’m hurrying, I promise. Can you feel it? Do you sense it like a verse 23 Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son. Verse 23 adds this They shall call his name Emmanuel. My fifth point the finite was overcome by the infinite Emmanuel being interpreted as white.

00;48;36;15 – 00;49;19;29
Say it with me Church God, God with us, so that ultimately it could be us with God and number. Last verse 24 The carnal was overcome by the spiritual. We’ll call that the control. Look at verse 24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him. Can I get a witness on that church control?

00;49;20;01 – 00;49;50;03
He actually did not do something in order to do as the angel of the Lord had bidden him meant that he could not do something. I will let you guess. It says in verse 24 he took on the hymn His wife. They went ahead with the marriage. There’s a ceremony seven days, verse 25, and here it is. He knew her.

00;49;50;03 – 00;50;27;00
Not till she had brought forth her firstborn son to distinctions. They were celibate, they were abstinent. They did not engage physically. And the second distinction, this is her firstborn son, by the way. He goes from a virgin womb all the way to a virgin tomb by he is in a womb where never child has been and his end of his life, he will be in a tomb where never a man has ever laid.

00;50;27;02 – 00;51;00;24
Wow. Again. I have to ask you, what are the odds now you’re not going to get this on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel on National Geographic? They’re going to tell you everything that they can to discredit and to discount the likelihood of the virgin birth. By the way, verse 25 says, they called his name Jesus. Yeah, he’s called that the whole time he’s on Earth.

00;51;00;27 – 00;51;32;07
He’s not called that today. There’s no there’s no specific importance about the name Jesus. That is his earthly name. He’s later going to be called Son, a man, son of David. Early on, he is actually called Emmanuel, which being interpreted means God with us. But none of those are the name at which every initial bell there is another name.

00;51;32;10 – 00;52;15;07
All right, you ready for it? It’s Capital L Capital O, Capital R, Capital D, the name Jehovah. It’s a tricky name. It’s not the ineffable name. The ineffable name is Elohim. It’s the name which we are not supposed to speak. The ineffable name Jehovah is actually a hybrid of two different names. Jehovah is actually the form of Elohim and Adonai.

00;52;15;09 – 00;52;40;16
Both of those names put together in Hebrew, equal Jehovah. So sometimes when we celebrate the name Jesus, we’re actually celebrating that name ignorantly. When we celebrate the name Jehovah, we’re actually celebrating that name ignorantly because it’s really not a name. It’s not his name. What is that name? The book of Philippians says There’s coming a day when every knee is going to bow.

00;52;40;18 – 00;53;23;06
Watch this. Don’t miss it. So doctrinal so important during the Christmas season and every tongue is going to confess. Can I push? Paul’s right there for a moment and tell you every tongue means mine, Yours. Every tongue means all of the host of angels. Heavenly All of the angels hellish. Every tongue means Father, Son and Holy Ghost, every tongue means even old Lucifer himself will one day have to call that name and bow to the power of that name.

00;53;23;09 – 00;53;55;14
There’s a lot of Hispanic people named Jesus. That’s not the name. There’s a lot of American people named Joshua. That’s not the name that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. You ready for it? We’re finally going to get his name. That Jesus Christ is what church Lord, I don’t know anybody.

00;53;55;14 – 00;54;36;17
Name Lord, Lord. I know a lot of people named Joshua and Jesus pursues I even know some people named Emmanuel. Right. But nobody’s ever chosen that name, Lord, You know why it is the name which is above every name. It is the untouchable name. It is the ineffable name. You cannot speak that name neutrality. You cannot speak that name if you’re living sinfully without using it in vain.

00;54;36;19 – 00;55;07;20
You can say Jesus, and you won’t be taken his name in vain. Right? You can say Emmanuel, but you may not be taking his name in vain. But when you use the name Lord out of its context or with sinful lips, you’ve taken His name in vain. Isn’t that incredible? He shall save his people from their sins. Would you by with us together?

00;55;07;20 – 00;55;49;00
Church Father, I want to pray that right now we will be reminded about the true meaning of Christmas. We are overcomer through his birth, his immaculate conception, his perfect and sinless life, his timely, vicarious death, victorious resurrection, heavenly ascension. None of it. None of it would be possible without Matthew. Chapter one. Thank you, Father, for thank you for Mary.

00;55;49;06 – 00;56;17;23
Willing vessels willing to do what we should do. Simple Yield up our body to the calls of Christ, or to help us to learn great lessons today from these truths. In Jesus name, we pray In Jesus name. Will you stand, please, in the invitation time, please. Then let’s gather around the altar for prayer. If the Lord is specifically beckoning you, calling you, would you gather around the altar right now with us while we pray?

00;56;17;26 – 00;56;35;16
Is he calling you to come? Would you come right now? Our time is plenty us. There’s no need to rush away. Would you come and gather round the altar? Maybe our prayer needs to be a prayer of Thanksgiving. Maybe our prayer needs to be a prayer in which we say, Lord, thank you for reminding me, for showing me, for teaching me some things.

00;56;35;18 – 00;56;43;24
Maybe that’s our need. Whatever the need is. Would you gather round the altar and let the Lord meet that need? Gather with us today.