Sunday Sermon: The Lineage of the King (Matthew 1:1-17)

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ and Matthew’s Claim That He Is King

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Please stand for the word of the King. The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. And Rom the father of Ammonadab, and Ammonadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Verse 12. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azar, and Azar the father of Zadok.

Zadok was the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Methan, and Methan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. Thus says the word of the Lord.

The Covenant Promises to Abraham and David Fulfilled in Christ

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to your word today, I pray that this looks to us as more than just a list of names, but it is our heritage, that we come to understand that we as children of God, adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ our Savior, we have become fellow heirs of your eternal kingdom.

Illuminate this to us today through your Holy Spirit, and it's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Well, as we had talked about last week with the introduction to the Gospel of Matthew, the New Testament begins exactly the same way the Old Testament does.

Now, that may not be word for word to our eyes, but it is nevertheless the same. Genesis 1 -1, in the beginning God, Matthew 1 -1, in the beginning Jesus. This is the genesis of Jesus Christ. That word translated genealogy, Matthew 1 -1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Now this is an unusual way to begin somebody's story, and probably not the way that you would start your story. If you were talking to somebody and you were introducing yourself, you're not going to go through a list of your ancestors.

Ancestry is something we kind of do for fun. It's like a hobby. You might have a profile built on Ancestry .com or Family Tree, whatever those websites are. That's interesting to you, but it may not be as fascinating to the person next to you.

They don't want to hear about the famous person that you're connected to through your great uncles, neighbors, sister-in-laws, roommate that she had at the convent she used to be a part of. You know, something like that.

So that's interesting to you, but it's not fascinating to somebody else. However, genealogy was everything to a Jew. In fact, you needed to establish your genealogy, what tribe you were a part of, that you were a descendant of Abraham, if you were even to worship in the temple.

So this was very important to the Jewish people to understand genealogy and especially considering what Matthew is setting out to prove. Remember Matthew's theme in this gospel. What it is that he wants the reader to understand is this, that Jesus is king.

Now if you were to say this to a Jew, if you were to say to a Jew, Jesus is your king, they're going to say, well, he ain't my king unless you can prove two things. First of all, you have to prove to me that this man is a descendant of Abraham.

Secondly, you got to prove to me that he is a descendant of David, that he actually has a rightful claim to that throne because the Jews were looking for a king, a Messiah who was to come, and he would come from the line of David and sit on his throne.

So if you're going to tell me that Jesus is my king, you must prove to me that he is descendant of Abraham, descendant of David. And Matthew does that very thing right from the very first sentence. He makes that claim at the start of his gospel.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, a word that means Messiah, by the way, Jesus was his given name, Christ is his title. He is the Messiah. The son of David, the son of Abraham. And then what follows is the genealogy to establish, to prove those claims, that claim that Matthew has just made, that Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And this is more than being about the family lineage that Jesus is a part of. This has everything to do with covenant. Because through these two men, God made covenant promises. He made a covenant to Abraham in this.

He said, through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed. And to David, he made this covenant promise, that on your throne, I will establish my kingdom forever. So Matthew means for us to understand not just that Jesus is descended of Abraham and David, but that he is even the fulfillment of these covenant promises.

And this is why this is relevant to us. We might look at this and say, well, this may have meant something to the Jews. But really, what do the first 17 verses of Matthew really mean to me? It means everything to us, my brothers and sisters.

For we were once enemies of God. In our sin and in our rebellion, we had committed treason against the throne of the high king of heaven, he who created the universe and everything. We had betrayed him.

We were worthy of death. We were sentenced to death by the king of the universe. But Romans 5 .8 says, God demonstrated his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, paying the price that we owed God because of our rebellion against him.

And through faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. And we've gone from being treasonous criminals to now we are fellow heirs of the kingdom of God. Do you understand that? I mean, this is more than just having the slate wiped clean.

And no longer does God count our wrongs against us. That's good news in and of itself. But even better news than that, we have become fellow heirs of the kingdom of God through Christ our Savior. And that's what this genealogy means to us.

And we'll come to understand that even more greatly as we go through this. So once again, Matthew 1 .1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And some of these names you probably recognize.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah. Well, right there we have what? The patriarchs. Right? When God had spoken to Moses through the burning bush, he said, I am the God of your fathers of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So you know those names. Abraham was a man who lived in a pagan land. And yet God called him as one who was descended from Noah, of course. Everybody on earth was descended from Noah. You and I are descended from Noah.

But specifically through the line of Shem. Abraham was descended from that line. He was going to be the man chosen by God to be the father of many nations. And he said to Abraham and made this covenant promise, through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed.

Well, Abraham did not have any children. He said to God, even my wife is beyond childbearing years. So how can this be possible? Abraham and Sarah tried to take matters into their own hands. Sarah gave Abraham her maidservant.

Abraham had a son through her, and that was Ishmael. But this was not the son of promise. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, and it would be Abraham's second-born son, Isaac. That would be the child of the promise.

And Paul, the apostle Paul, makes this argument. He makes this apologetic in Romans chapter 9. From Isaac, we had two more sons, Esau and Jacob, the twins. And if it were up to Isaac, all of the blessings and the inheritance would have gone to Esau, but that was not God's plan.

His plan was that it would go to Jacob. And in the Old Testament, stated again in the New Testament, once again in Romans 9, Esau I have hated, but Jacob I have loved. And so it is from the line of Jacob that God would continue to fulfill this covenant promise.

Even more specifically, it was through the line of Judah. Jacob had 12 sons, the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel, but it was specifically through Judah that this Messiah would come. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah, by the way, is why the Jews are called the Jews, because this is the people who are descended of Judah. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Now there is a very dark story. That's a dark chapter in the book of Genesis and probably not one that you read around the table at family devotions or that you're teaching to our kids in a Sunday school class.

This is Judah who had a son by a prostitute named Tamar. And yet, even though this was a wicked thing that was done, sexual immorality between Judah and Tamar, nevertheless, God was working to bring about the salvation of wicked people.

That even through this line, even through this union, God would bring a Savior. As we go through this list, we actually see a whole list of wicked people. Everyone on this list is a rotten sinner. You go to their stories in the Old Testament and you find wickedness being done over and over again.

We have other names here you may not recognize so much. Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, the father of Nishan. Nishan, the father of Salmon.

Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And now we get to some recognizable names here, right? We recognize this name Rahab from the book of Joshua. The spies that were sent into the promised land to search it out, and those spies were hidden by a prostitute named Rahab.

And because she had done this, God blessed her and her household and would not allow them to be destroyed when the people of Israel came against Jericho. And not only was Rahab's house spared, but she even married a Hebrew, and she would be blessed in the sense that she would become an ancestor to Jesus Christ.

She would even be the mother of Boaz, who would be the father of Obed by Ruth. Now here we have the mention of another pagan woman. Rahab was a Gentile, Ruth was a Gentile, and she also, through unfortunate circumstance, would come into Israel and would marry a Hebrew man who would be Boaz.

You know the story of Ruth in the book of Ruth. And Ruth and Boaz became the parents of Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. Now this is a very significant pause in Matthew's genealogy, considering who we've arrived at.

We've gone from Abraham to David. So now we have the two names of these covenant promises. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. There is no name other than the name of Jesus Christ.

There is no name mentioned in the Bible more than David's. He is the one other person that is mentioned the most in Scripture after Christ, and then distant after David would probably be Moses. But David is a very, very important figure in the Bible.

And Jesus Christ is the greater David. David was the king, the quintessential king. He was the king's king. Kings wanted to be like David. They wanted to conquer like David. They wanted to be rich and prosperous like David.

Israel was looking for a king like David. And Jesus comes along who is even the greater David. Now again, this is incredibly significant to Matthew's genealogy, and I'll come back to this point here in just a moment.

But remember that I mentioned to you this genealogy is full of wicked people. Even a man who was as righteous as David, who was described as a man after God's own heart, was still not the king to fulfill the promise of salvation that would come to people through the Davidic line.

For David himself was a sinner in need of saving. We have this said in the rest of verse 6, David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And you know this story, right? The story of David and Bathsheba.

David saw a woman bathing. He thought she was very beautiful, took her into his bed, and to cover up this affair, this act of adultery, he had her husband, Uriah the Hittite, murdered. Now the child that was the result of this unholy union, this child died.

But even through this marriage that came about through sin, David to Bathsheba, he would eventually take Bathsheba to be his own wife, even through this marriage would come a king, Solomon, the wisest king who had ever lived.

And then from the line of Solomon would eventually come the Christ. So though David had done this wicked thing, God still used it to bring about some ultimate good. And that is our salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

Such the words of Joseph should echo in our ears. In Genesis 50, verse 20, where he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Our best laid plans are as filthy rags before a holy God, as it says in Isaiah 64, 6.

But God works even through our wickedness to accomplish his ultimate good. David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah and Solomon, the father of Rehoboam. Now let me pause here for a moment and say that just because God uses our wickedness for good, that doesn't give us permission to do wickedness.

We still have to answer for the wicked that we do. But fortunately, we have a Savior who has died for our sins, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And remember the words of Jesus when he said, go and sin no more.

Solomon did not understand the lessons that his father had taught him, for Solomon himself had gone after wickedness even greater than what David did. David repented of his wickedness. Solomon went after the gods of his many wives, and he even built places of worship to those gods.

And so God said to Solomon, I will tear your kingdom from you. Though it wouldn't happen in Solomon's lifetime, he would do this to Solomon's sons. It was thought maybe Solomon was going to be this promised king.

After this covenant that God made with David, on your throne, I will establish my kingdom forever. Well, look at how rich and prosperous Solomon is. Maybe Solomon is that guy. And then he goes after other gods.

And it becomes apparent to us in the line of the king, Solomon is not going to be the king. On whose throne God's kingdom would be established. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. And this was in the split kingdoms, when now because of Solomon's sin, the kingdoms were split to the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.

The northern kingdom was Israel, the southern was Judah. And on the throne sat Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph, who was the father of Josaphat, the father of Joram, the father of Uzziah, the father of Jotham, the father of Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh, the father of Amos, who was the father of Josiah, who was the father of Jeconiah.

Now these are 14 generations from David to the deportation to Babylon. But as many historians have noted, there are gaps here. This isn't a direct succession, but rather Matthew has left out a few kings.

Now there's a reason for this, I'm going to come back to it in just a moment, but some of those scholars will say the reason why Matthew left out the names of some of these kings is because they were wicked.

So Matthew did not want to mention wicked kings in Christ's genealogy, but that can't be the reason. Because we do have wicked kings mentioned here. I just said a few of them. Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amos.

They were very wicked kings. Manasseh even burned his son as a sacrifice. So Matthew could not have been leaving out the names of kings simply because they were wicked, since he did in fact include the names of wicked kings.

Again, we've got wicked people all the way through this genealogy. But remember what it says in Romans 8 -3, that Jesus took on the likeness of sinful man. And it was because he came to us, though he had the appearance of a sinful man, he was sinless and was the perfect spotless lamb by whom we can be forgiven our sins.

He who laid down his life for us as an atoning sacrifice, it is by faith in Christ. We can find forgiveness for our wickedness. The last king that is mentioned here is Jeconiah at the time of the deportation to Babylon, and he was the last king to sit on the throne of Judah.

In fact, some scholars love to harp on the fact that Jeconiah is mentioned in Jesus' genealogy, and this is because of a curse that was made of Jeconiah in Jeremiah 22. Starting in verse 28, we read the following.

Is this man Caniah—that's Jeconiah, also went by the name of Caniah—is this man a despised broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?

Jeconiah had done wickedness in the sight of God and all of Judah with him, and they had continued in this wickedness for so long that God finally had enough of it. And he turned them over to the hands of their enemies.

And the Babylonians came in and took over Jerusalem. This happened in several phases, but the beginning of the Babylonian invasion was in 605 BC. Jeconiah would be the last person to sit on the throne of Judah, and no one would sit on the throne again after him, especially from among his own sons, and that's the nature of this curse.

Verse 29, O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days. For none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.

Now because this is said here of Jeconiah, that he will be childless, there are some of those critics, those skeptics, who will say, well then how could he appear in the genealogy of Jesus if Jeremiah 22 says he's childless?

Well we know that Jeconiah wasn't childless, in fact he had seven sons, but specifically what this curse means is that he will be childless on the throne. One of his sons will not succeed him on the throne.

The throne of Judah had essentially at that point come to an end. And this curse continues to stand to this day. No one from the line of Jeconiah has ever sat on a throne in Israel. So what does this mean then in the genealogy of Jesus?

The Virgin Birth, Legal Sonship, and the Fulfillment of David’s Throne

Well God is able to both uphold the curse upon Jeconiah and fulfill the covenant promise to David in this. Let's skip down a little bit to verse 16 of this genealogy, where it says Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.

See, something has changed here in the way that Matthew has laid out this genealogy. Joseph is not mentioned as the father of Jesus. He wasn't his biological father. He was his legal father, but not his biological father, because it was not from the seed of Joseph that Jesus was conceived.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. So it is said that Jacob was the father of Joseph, who was the husband of Mary. And in this, God is able to uphold the curse that was made on Jeconiah and at the same time fulfill the promise that was made to David.

For both Joseph and Mary were descended from the line of David. And because Joseph was Jesus' legal father, Jesus had legal claim to the throne of David. How beautiful is that? And this all by the sovereignty and foreordained plan of God.

Now of course I skipped a lot of names here after the deportation to Babylon. Verses 12 through 16, a lot of these names are unknown to us. Zerubbabel is a recognized name because he helped to lead the people of Israel back to Jerusalem and to rebuild its walls and the temple.

His name gets mentioned in Nehemiah and in Ezra, so we know of Zerubbabel. But some of these other names are strange to us. Abayud, Eliakim, Azer, Zadok, Hakim, Eliud, Eliezer, Methan. How is it that Matthew was even able to come up with all of these names, given that they're not spoken about in the Old Testament?

We have a gap between Malachi and Matthew, a span of about 400 years, which we refer to as the intertestamental period or the silent age. God was not speaking to his people through a prophet in that period of time.

So these men are not mentioned in the Bible until we get here to Matthew 1. Where did Matthew get these names? Well, remember, Matthew, what was his occupation? He was a tax collector, right? He was a publican.

So he had access to these records, and he could go and look and see who Jesus' genealogy was, who was in his genealogy. And this was all for the purpose of taxation and legal claim upon certain lands and family lineage and things of that nature.

So Matthew had gone to those tax records and found those names and wrote them down in his genealogy. All of this is accurate. There's no reason for us to doubt it. As a matter of fact, Jesus' own opponents did not doubt it.

You look at the arguments that the Pharisees make against Jesus. One of those arguments is not concerning his lineage. They never question his lineage, who he is descended from and whom he was born into.

That's never one of the things that the Pharisees say. So this lineage is fact. It's laid down in Scripture. It is truth. There's no reason to doubt it. Even the Pharisees accepted it and could not question it.

Jesus was indeed descended from Abraham, descended from David. The covenant promises that were made through Abraham, through David, are fulfilled through Christ. Now we have this conclusion to the genealogy here in verse 17.

I said I was going to come back to the significance of David. So in Matthew 1, 17, we have, so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations.

And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. There's gaps here in the genealogy. There's been gaps in the mention of the kings. So why would Matthew want to go 14 generations, 14 and 14?

Why would he do that? Now for us, we as Americans living in a Western world culture, we like things to be precise. We liked exactness. And if something isn't exact, then we think there's a problem. So because Matthew has skipped some names so that he can use these numbers 14, 14, 14, we think, you know what, Matthew might be up to something here.

Well, we're right. Like we might think of some deliberate mistake was being made, but no, that's not the reason. Matthew is intentional in the reason why he's laid out these names the way that he's done so and set them apart in a triad of 14.

So why would he do this? Well, we in our English language, we've got letters and numbers, but the Hebrews had letters which also served as numbers. Each letter had a numeric value. And when you calculate the name of David and you add the numeric value of his name up, you get what number?

14. 14 is the number of David. And so Matthew means to emphasize by setting these generations down in blocks of 14 and 14 and 14, he's emphasizing that Jesus is King. That's why he does it that way. And we've seen this pattern of three come up over the scriptures.

And as a matter of fact, when I went to Jeremiah 22, the curse that was given to Jeconiah, how was that given? It said, oh, land, land, land, right? So when something is mentioned three times, it means this is really, really important.

When you go to the prophet Isaiah, and you see this again in the book of Revelation, how are people worshiping God around his throne? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and who is and who is to come.

We sing it in our hymns. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee. Why is the praise of God sung in that way? Why does it say holy, holy, holy? Well, we might understand it this way, holy, holier, holiest, showing that God is the most holy one.

There is no one holier than God. He is holiest. And to place great importance on a title, it gets mentioned three times in the scriptures. And so, Matthew means to emphasize through this genealogy, setting about in the number of David so that the reader will understand that he is king.

Jesus is king. Jesus is king. Matthew's genealogy, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. God will bless the whole world through Abraham's offspring. God will establish his kingdom forever through David's offspring.

Children of Abraham by Faith, Children of God by Adoption, and Heirs of the Kingdom

Now, what does this mean for us? Well, I had said it to you a little bit at the very beginning, that we come to understand the promises that are given to us through Jesus Christ, our Savior, in this genealogy that Matthew has given.

Let me establish three things for you here, what we can take away from this practical application for us in this genealogy that we have just read. Number one, understand this, you are children of Abraham by faith.

You are children of Abraham by faith in Christ. Number two, you are children of God by adoption through Christ. And number three, you are heirs to the kingdom of God through Christ. Let's look at number one.

You are children of Abraham by faith. Earlier this year, we were reading and studying in the book of Galatians, and in Galatians chapter three, verses six through nine, we read the following, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. That's how that is significant to us. We continue on in Galatians three, verses 26 through 29, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons and daughters of God through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

So the covenant promise that was given to Abraham is a promise that we get to see and benefit from as well through Jesus Christ, our Savior. You are children of Abraham by faith. Number two, the second way this applies to us, you are children of God through adoption in Christ Jesus.

We studied through Galatians this year. We also studied through Ephesians. And remember what we read in Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

You have received adoption as sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ and have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This adoption is also spoken about in Galatians, where in chapter four, verses three through seven, we read, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, just as it said in Ephesians chapter one, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. And that brings us to benefit number three.

You are heirs to the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We read this in Titus three, verses three through seven. For we ourselves were once foolish. We were disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Remember what I said to you at the beginning, my brothers and sisters, we've gone from being treasonous criminals to fellow heirs of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. And that is even spoken about to us in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter one.

In Revelation chapter three, verse 21, Jesus says this, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Again, by faith in Jesus, enduring to the end, when we pass from this life into the next, we will stand before God as all the nations will be brought before him in judgment.

Those who did wickedness, who did as their father the devil, they will be cast into the eternal fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. But for those who are born again in Christ, for those who put their faith and trust in him, for those who have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus, our savior, we will hear from him, not the words, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness, I never knew you.

Instead, we will hear from him this, enter into the kingdom prepared for you by my father from before the foundation of the world. Well done, good and faithful servant, now great is your reward. That's what this means for us, that through Jesus Christ, we have become fellow heirs of the covenant promises of God.

God saying to David, on your throne, I will establish my kingdom forever. And to Abraham, through your offspring, all the nations on earth will be blessed. We have come into those blessings because we have heard the gospel of Christ and have turned from sin and believed it.

Or perhaps you haven't yet turned from your sin and your transgressions and put faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I would invite you to do that today. For as Paul said to the Corinthians, today is the day of salvation.

Turn from your sin and put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and live. But these qualifications of the Messiah, that he must be a descendant of Abraham, he must be a descendant of David, those qualifications are not yet complete.

There is another qualification that the Messiah must meet, and that is this, he must be virgin born, not inheriting the sins of Adam, but instead sinless, even from his conception, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and only Jesus Christ qualifies.

And that's something that we'll talk about further in our Christmas Eve service this coming Tuesday night, as we look at Matthew 1, verses 18 through 25. You might consider that part two of my sermon today.

Let's conclude with a hymn that I mentioned. It's not a Christmas song, but it still suits us well this morning, a hymn I mentioned in this sermon, and that is, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee.

Let us stand together and sing.

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas. For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org. On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.