The Virgin Conception - [Luke 1:26-38]

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How many ways are there for God to make a human odd question?
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How many ways are there for God to make a human? There's a question
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Theologian s Lewis Johnson asked and answered not one not two not three, but four ways
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God can make a human Number one he can make a human without or with a man and with a woman
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That's how we all came into existence through a man and through a woman Secondly Johnson says a human person can be made without a man or a woman.
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That's how Adam came into existence Thirdly a person can come into existence without a woman that's how
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Eve came into existence and lastly a person can
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They made my God without a man and that's what we're going to look at today the virgin conception and virgin birth that God Brings forth the
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Son without a man if you take your Bible, please turn to Luke chapter 1
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Luke chapter 1 this is really the gospel of Jesus according to Luke there are four gospels gospel means good news
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It's talking about the Lord Jesus Who's sinless and who died on the cross for sinners and was raised and ascended and will come back and there are four accounts of?
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This great Lord Jesus, and we're looking at the longest one written by a physician So it's the most detailed one and we have in the book of Acts What Jesus continued to do through the
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Holy Spirit and here we have in Luke what Jesus? Began to do and how he worked his way all the way to the cross
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This is one of those books where the genealogy of Jesus goes all the way back to Adam And so it's not just having a
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Jewish flavor. It's Gentile as well, so it's a good book for all of us Luke starts off with the book wanting to make sure that the man that he's writing to named
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Theophilus had a good solid trustworthy Document to understand about the
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Lord Jesus, and it's important for all of us to know that because we're all sinners And one day we'll die and then there's judgment
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And we would like to be forgiven and we would like to be in heaven and we would not like to be in hell
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Reminds me of that one atheist who said what I envy most about you Christians is you have someone to forgive you and So this whole book is about the
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Lord Jesus who conquers sin and rescues sinners and matter of fact
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He comes to seek and to save the lost Sinners and he writes in such a way that you would think that he was some kind of journalist
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He was some kind of investigative reporter, and he doesn't just start at the baptism of Jesus He doesn't start at the transfiguration of Jesus.
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He doesn't just parachute in and start at the death of Jesus He starts all the way at the beginning because he wants to have a thorough physician like view of This person the
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Lord Jesus, and I've been to bad doctors before and I think how do I know more than you? About medicine and I've been to really good doctors before and Luke is a good doctor and he wants to make sure that he lays out not just the physical needs of the person but also
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Spiritual this is one of those books that we see. Oh, I'm reading Isaiah and now
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I see the fulfillment in Luke very orderly book very much filled with things like Parallelism last week we saw to remember that Zechariah was told by the angel
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Gabriel that he was going to have a son and today We're going to look at the parallel account where Jesus is going to be announced in Mary's womb by Gabriel Himself just to make sure we understand if you go back to chapter 1 verse 4
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In the gospel of Jesus according to Luke this careful account this letter sent to Theophilus with careful
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Investigation he says that you Theophilus and of course everyone else who would read it including me and including you may have certainty
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Concerning the things you have been taught Really, this is a book about Jesus so that you have assurance
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And we all struggle with assurance I met somebody yesterday And he was 70 years old and he came up to me and he said thank you for putting together some of those chapters on assurance in that book and By the way, thank you for telling me in the introduction of the book that sometimes you pastor
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Mike have struggled with assurance We all have struggled with assurance
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No one's assurance can be perfect because is anything on this earth perfect and so when you struggle with assurance
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What's something you should do well instead of chasing assurance? I I'm running after assurance
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How do I know that I'm a Christian and that becomes your goal is to get assurance and to chase it it kind of evaporates?
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And the way to get assurance instead is to put your eyes down in a book like Luke so that you could have certainty
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Certainties not floating around out here Certainties not floating around in here. Remember what
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Luther said when I look to myself. I don't know how I could be saved But when I look to the Lord Jesus Through the lens of the gospel particularly today in the book of Luke.
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I don't know how I could be lost Because you realize how great of a Savior he is and so the gospel of Luke is meant for you to have certainty for you to have praise and for you to say
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Even though my life is difficult and I sin in so many ways and I might doubt and I might fail and I might say
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You know, I just I'm just not acting like a Christian like I should I want to but I'm just falling short
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All eyes on Jesus with the gospel of Luke When I was a kid, we used to go to the three -ring circus
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Trapeze ladies up on ropes, you know swinging around and sometimes there was such a
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Grand act in the circus if there ever could be I guess in a circus. Why were they called a circus?
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the other two rings faded out cleared out and all eyes Spotlight in the center ring and that's exactly what's going on here with the gospel of Jesus according to Luke Remember last week verses 5 through 25 the birth of John the
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Baptist was foretold Remember Zechariah he was a priest and he goes into the temple He's chosen by lot and he gets this grand privilege a privilege that no one hardly ever gets
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But the Lord graced him to do and he goes in the temple and he and he's going to offer Incense and you can imagine the fear and trembling as he walked in I mean people have died going in to do something like this
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Think of Nadab and Abihu and he's walking in and he's putting the incense in its lights and flickering and dark and people outside praying for him that he might not be killed and he might do the right thing and Zechariah senses that there's someone or something there and it is
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Gabriel the angel and Remember what had happened back in Malachi the last book of the
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Old Testament The last book in the Old Testament said there's going to be a curse on Israel and Judah But eventually there's going to be the
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Messiah, but he will be preceded by a forerunner the king comes to town
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There'll be somebody who shows up before the king you know the king will get here when the forerunner comes and that forerunner is going to be someone in the spirit of Elijah and Gabriel for the first time in 400 years speaks words from God and says
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John the Baptist is your son, and he's the forerunner for the king
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Zechariah didn't believe it. I don't believe you Maybe could I have a sign the angel says here's your sign you can't talk
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Right and he was mute. He just did not believe Eventually we'll see that he has no longer mute and we come to the passage today in Luke chapter 1
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Verses 26 through 38, and I know what you're going to say you're going to say something like this sounds like a
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Christmas message But we have Easter messages every Sunday right for 52 weeks
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We don't really know that Jesus was born on December 25th, so we're going to have a good Christmas message today
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But it's not really Christmas message. It's about the Lord Jesus Who's greater than?
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John the Baptist there's a lot of parallels in this account between John the Baptist and Jesus Gabriel shows up There's an announcement.
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Here's what's going to happen supernatural birth Zechariah's wife is too old
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Mary's a virgin But all eyes are going to be not on John the Baptist he might be the greatest man
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Whoever's lived according to Jesus, but he's not greater than Jesus And so there's some parallel things that happen and we see the birth of Jesus And we see the birth of Jesus foretold and it's going to have kind of a different mood by the way the mood with Zechariah is
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It's scary foreboding in that in the temple lighting the incense. Who is this person?
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Who's this angel next to me? here with this account We're not in a big temple.
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We're not around a lot of people We're often some obscure place with an obscure woman with a bunch of nobodies and There's going to be another announcement
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Behind all this passage are these words from Isaiah? For to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty
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God Everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and Over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore
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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this So we're going to look at today verses 26 through 38 and we're going to work through our passage and then
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I'm going to give you some Theological truths that I want you to remember that's the outline Working through the passage.
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It's a narrative. So we will do this very often in the book of Luke We'll work through it Make sure we understand what the context is how it fits in to Luke's bigger purpose so that you have assurance and certainty
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And then we'll have some theological Truth some have called this this is Gabriel's second mission impossible.
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I Don't know how many movies there are now mission impossible But this is the second mission impossible where Gabriel shows up not to Zechariah Not to somebody who's a priest not to somebody who's in a temple but to someone else and I think you know who verse 26
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Very orderly account from the beginning Luke is writing and he's very detailed.
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He understands The details and you'll see that in this passage in the sixth month
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Luke 1 26 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named
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Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the
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Virgin's name was Mary And he came to her and said greetings. Oh favored one.
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The Lord is with you But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be
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Nazareth if you go there today, and I've been there. It's pretty big. It's kind of a
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Muslim city and You can look at a map and find Nazareth if you tried to find
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Nazareth back in those days It probably have 500 people. Did you know Nazareth wasn't even mentioned in the
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Old Testament? It's mentioned in the new but not in the Old Testament. This is a real nowhere land
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This is just out in the middle of nowhere. This is like some city out in Hicksville, Nebraska It's anything good come out of Hicksville, Nebraska.
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Anything good come out of Nazareth Again the contrast is temple people religious small nowhere
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No one this little tiny town in Galilee He even kind of has to say to a city of Galilee named
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Nazareth because if he just said Nazareth You probably wouldn't know where it was. Is it over there by Moab? Is it over here?
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Is it where where is it? It's somewhere around the city of Galilee Backwoods small
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And to think if God is going to become incarnate in the womb of a woman
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Don't you think it'd probably be some lady in Rome? Maybe who's got a senator for a husband
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Someplace big someplace wonderful some some city maybe somewhere like in Cairo or something.
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I Don't know. Maybe Jesus in her womb and she's from Jerusalem at least
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And this lady Mary she was betrothed so sometimes We don't understand what betrothed is and back in those days
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A man would ask a woman to marry him and she would say yes, and they would legally be called husband and wife
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It's a betrothal period for a year and they wouldn't live together They wouldn't sleep together
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But if they broke those vows of being betrothed to their spouse And slept with someone else or committed adultery.
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It's like they were married and it's with anticipation they're called husband and wife, but it's a betrothal period and If you notice the text not once but twice is she called virgin in verse 27
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She's never been with a man and she's called a virgin and that's very very
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Important she's in a legally binding contract with her husband to be and She is a virgin
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Did you know back in those days you could be married at 12 years old?
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Right after you've had the bat mitzvah and you would have a one -year betrothal and you'd get married at 13
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Some would get married a little bit later, but I just keep thinking myself Mary 14 15 years old and what was
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I doing at 14 or 15? I? Don't I don't know I mean, I'm thinking 15 year olds when they're in driver's ed class and I have to you know
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We have a couple people here that that work as driver ed instructions, and I don't know how they have any hair at all
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I Mean this is so I'd be like my all -time worst job. I had to say to Kim I just cannot do this you teach the kids how to drive
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I mean I'd get out of the car and my right quad was just Cramped up from pushing the floorboard on the right -hand side of the passenger thing there's no brake there
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But I'm still pushing down like why is my arm so sore because I'm holding on to that little handle she's from nowhere
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She's she's no one She's young she's a virgin and the angel shows up, and what does he say?
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greetings Oh favored one cheer Grace that's what greeting means
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I'm glad to see you. I'm here for something good Even an imperative. I wish the best for you.
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I Love to go to the store. I did it somebody yesterday I said when I when I the person said hello to me, and I said greetings
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My children hate it when I say greetings to people they think it's weird It would only be weird if I said greetings
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Oh favored one Then it would be weird. I mean yes, she's a
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Wonderful lady yes, she's a virgin chaste Yet, here's a sinless being
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Gabriel an angel and when you're in the presence of an angel even the best of humans Tower by the way it is very very sad
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Later in the account of the Lord Jesus. There's another person that came up and said greetings
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Now the betrayer had given them a sign Judas said I will Kiss the man and then sees him and Judas came to Jesus and said greetings rabbi, and he kissed him
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Mary is startled and She's troubled that's what verse 29 says she's trying to figure out what kind of what do you mean by greetings
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Oh favored one? lowly social position
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Singled out for the Lord's special favor. She's highly favored What sort of greeting is this verse 30
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Angel said to her do not be afraid Mary For you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name
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Jesus He will be great He'll be called the son of the Most High and the
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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he Will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end
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I mean when I read those words about the
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Lord Jesus and those Descriptions from Gabriel about the Lord Jesus matter of fact if you count them
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They're five and they're all pointing to fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus is the king.
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He's the sovereign He's the Savior, and you're going to have him in your womb, and you're not even Married and you've not even been with a man
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By the way, let's just dissect verses 32 and 33 to see those five descriptions that Gabriel gives of Jesus Because they're exalting
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Jesus. They give a high view of Jesus. They talk about Jesus is Essentially prophet priest and King you see the first thing that he says he's going to be great
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I mean John was great, but Jesus is great her He will be great one man said only a four -word description
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But even eternity shall not exhaust the depth and profundity of the greatness of Jesus Jesus is great.
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That's the first thing. He says you're going to have a son, and he is going to be great Great in the sight of the
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Lord was John the Baptist Great overall is the Lord Jesus Spurgeon said is it not proven that Jesus is great
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Conquers are great, but Jesus is the greatest of them delivers are great, but Jesus is the greatest of them
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Liberators are great and Jesus is the greatest of them Saviors are great, and he is the greatest of them
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He goes on though the game the messenger Gabriel, and he's called the son of the most high
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If I were to say to you Old Testament student son of the most high who calls God the most high
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I mean a lot of a lot of gods small G are high Elevated and supposedly powerful, but there's a
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God most high This right this comes right from Genesis when
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Melchizedek king of Salem the priest of God most high
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He's the God most high. He's equal to Yahweh because he is
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Yahweh. He is God John the Baptist in chapter 1 verse 76 is called the prophet of the most high, but Jesus is the most high
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He's sovereign over everything. He's he's the king. He's the exalted one. He goes on to describe this
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Baby that's going to grow up and the Lord God thirdly will give him the throne of his father David See what
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Luke is doing he's trying to show you that everything that the Old Testament talked about is become fulfilled in the
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Lord Jesus and It's fulfilled in his first coming and everything else will become fulfilled in his second coming
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This is the language of Isaiah chapter 9. This is language of 2nd Samuel What is the chapter that talks about the
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Davidic Covenant if you were in seminary, and I said Davidic Covenant you would say 2nd
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Samuel chapter 7 Hebrews 1 talks about that that this is related to the Lord Jesus as the heir to the
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Davidic Kingdom Fourth his reign shall last forever Kings come kings go they live for a long time and then they die kind of like priests they just Die and then you need new ones this
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King. He's going to reign forever Eternal rule the Lord will reign over them in Zion from this time forth and forever more
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Micah 4 says and closely related number 5 is a kingdom that will never end he'll rule and his kingdom will never end
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That's who this Jesus is Now what happens? Remember Zechariah Didn't believe it.
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I Don't believe you. I don't know how this can work. I don't believe it and he was given a judgment sign
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He was mute. How does Mary respond and Mary said of the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin?
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I mean she has no idea How babies are put in the womb without being with a man?
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How will this be and this is different she's not condemned for asking this because here's what she's asking
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While I believe you and we'll see that in just a moment What's the mechanism that it's going to take place?
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It will happen. I just don't know how because The way people are normally born and conceived
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They're conceived through men and women being together sexually How will this be since I'm a virgin verse 35 the angel answered her.
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Here's the answer The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the
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Most High will overshadow you Therefore the child to be born will be called holy the
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Son of God behold your Relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son.
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See there's power there. God keeps his word. He can do anything He's trying to encourage Mary and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
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God can work God does things For nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said
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Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word of the angel departed from her
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I Know I'm a virgin, but I'll take you at your word.
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I just don't know how it's going to unfold What are the details? Now when you study
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Pagan religion when you study gods and goddesses There's language of weird gods and human women
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Getting together for some kind of weird offspring What some people try to do is say see
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Jesus is just in a long line of these weird things about You know weird gods and the writer
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Luke just said, you know what? I see all these weird gods Being with women and I'll just take that story and change it a little bit
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That's the farthest thing from the truth because if you read some of those stories about these weird gods, they're lewd and lurid and What does
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God do here through Luke? He with delicacy he with a restraint
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Simply says verse 35 the Holy Spirit will come upon you and he'll overshadow you
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Nothing weird But everything related to the
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Old Testament when I talk about overshadowing someone what should you think of in the Old Testament? Remember he
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Luke is writing saying this is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Why do we read Isaiah every single week or Jose every single week or Old Testament?
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Because it's one book and it's a fulfillment of the Old Testament Overshadowing what what must you think of when
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I say overshadow you say what means to encompass or envelop or just Surround that's true
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Exodus 40 then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud
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Settled on it or overshadowed it and the glory of the Lord filled the temple
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The Shekinah glory of God in the temple signifying what the presence of God?
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This is the presence of God in the Old Testament temple This is God working.
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How does God make a man? Well here he makes the man by overshadowing
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Mary this is also overshadowing language that's found in the
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Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus and as Jesus was saying these things Luke 9 a cloud came and overshadowed them
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And they were afraid as they entered the cloud and a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my son my chosen one
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Listen to him Gabriel said
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Mary The Spirit will overshadow you think Old Testament Mary, and I want you to know that the
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Spirit of God. He is Powerful he's the eternal God by the way when you think of the
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Holy Spirit, and what he does. What do you think he does? Well he does everything that the
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Father and the Son does right because there's one God not three gods and when you think of the
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Spirit of God in the Old Testament creating the world in Genesis 1 and Jesus creates the world the
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Father creates the world Here the Spirit of God Overshadowing the temple
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Spirit of God raising Jesus from the dead but I want to say it one more time because of some of the gross things that people say about other weird gods and goddesses and how babies are are conceived
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One writer said this delicate expression rules out crude ideas of mating of the
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Holy Spirit with Mary and Another writer said this denotes the mildest and most gentle operation of divine power
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That the divine fire should not consume Mary, but make her fruitful bottom line
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This baby that's going to be born. It's not well. It's going to be a human, but not through human means
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Divine agency divine power the Spirit of God doing something This is not some kind of like static thing, but very very active
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And of course the Spirit of God guiding creating Protecting so that the offspring is called the
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Son of God Just a side note here when you're thinking about okay, virgin birth Holy Spirit overshadowing
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Could anybody hear this is I don't want you to answer out loud, please Maybe one of the kids will can you even describe with words a
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Normal human conception, I mean we can't even figure that out.
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I think of Ecclesiastes 11 as you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with a child
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So you do not know the work of God who makes everything If you study Embryology you're thinking well yes
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I kind of know what happens in DNA and genes and sperm and egg and all that stuff, but this is beyond our realm
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I Don't think we should be that surprised that there could be a virgin conception The psalmist said for you form my inward parts, and you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
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I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made Wonderful are your works my soul knows it well
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And now Mary hears this from the angel and unlike Zechariah she believes
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I don't know how it's going to happen, but if God can create the world can't he do this
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If God can spread the Red Sea can't he do this if God can send the death angel and kill all the firstborn of the
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Enemies of God can't he do this either God is God or he's not and if God's God is anything too impossible for God To me
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I never think to myself the virgin birth That's where I draw the line with Christianity because I can't figure it out
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Well if you're thinking that way I have about 100 other things that you can't figure out So let's just keep going and they're all solved with God is
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God God is Is there a mystery here is there unknown here
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Are we thinking we're finite and fallen and we can't think about who God is and how great he is answers.
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Yes Yes, yes, and yes The incarnation is simple to believe because God is
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God I think at first Timothy 316 great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness
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He was manifest in the flesh The incarnation there's a mystery there the
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God -man and how does Mary respond prove it I don't believe No, she believes
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That's amazing to me. She said well, I'm a virgin. I don't know what's going to happen He gives her some encouragement about Elizabeth and then
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Mary responds this way Behold verse 38. I'm your servant Let it be to me according to your word
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What a great response Contrasting the disbelief of Zechariah and showing the belief of Mary.
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I Believe you let it be done to me Thank you for the encouragement that Elizabeth has been supernaturally helped nothing's impossible with God By the way, just a side note about nothing's impossible with God, I think that's a good pillow to lay your head down on When you're hurting when you're praising when you're thankful nothing's impossible with God You have a wayward child.
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Nothing's impossible with God. You have an old grandparent that's dying and doesn't know Christ Jesus Nothing is impossible with God.
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This is a good refrain over and over and over a Principle that angels know and proclaim to us
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Say well, my faith isn't very strong. Nothing's impossible with God I sometimes falter and sin.
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Nothing's impossible with God One writer said there's no sin too black and bad to be pardoned the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin
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Nothing is impossible with God There's no heart too hard or wicked to be changed.
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The heart of stone can be made a heart of flesh because there's nothing too Great for God to do nothing too hard Mary says i'm your servant
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She not only was given this gift of having Jesus in her womb she's also given the gift of faith
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You don't just come up with faith on your own. Remember faith is what? Well, it's a responsibility, but it's a gift ephesians 2 8 and 9 philippians chapter 1 in the book of acts.
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It's a gift I I i'm your servant Now there are some people that say well this greek word is slave
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And every time you see this word for slave you have to translate it slave This is one of those examples where slave is not a good translation here
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Oh, that's the greek word. That's true But lots of times we think of slavery as kind of this harsh involuntary servitude
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Forced You're the master. I'm the slave What does she say? She didn't sound like that to me.
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May it be according to your word? This is humility this is
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A good servitude. This is like isaiah the servant song's servitude in isaiah 42 and following We could argue about the word slave, but ultimately the point is she said i'm at your disposal
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I i'm going to walk by faith and if you promise the pregnancy and childbirth I believe let it be so to me as you have said
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Could there be a better expression of faith than that? That is so wonderful now, let me
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Have you think theologically for a while that's the passage we kind of walk through it so we can understand it
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Thinking theologically number one As I think of some practical things number one.
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I want you to remember that god takes the initiative when it comes to salvation Mary didn't say
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Lord come lord. I need this. I I want you. I want to do this first and then you can god takes the initiative
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He sends gabriel God takes the initiative for our salvation as well. Everything is not contingent on us
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Nothing is contingent upon us If they do this, then i'll do that and i'll wait for them to move and they'll be the great mover and i'll respond
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God's not a responder god Does something he is the initiator since nothing good can come out of nazareth.
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He makes sure something does God takes the initiative in our salvation.
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And even here was mary looking to become pregnant when she was betrothed. No Did joseph have any role in conception no
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Our salvation is based solely on god's initiative and power Secondly thinking theologically about this passage
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Mary was a wonderful lady, but she was still a sinner Mary was a wonderful lady, but she was still
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A sinner, sometimes we as protestants kind of push mary to the back and say, okay fine
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Mary's worshipped and adored and venerated and I don't want to do that. Of course, we don't want to do that But she is a favored one and the lord was with her
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Go back to verse 28 you See greetings. Oh favored one the lord is with you
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Does that mean she has? Received grace from god Or does that mean she has?
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Received grace from god and now she dispenses grace to other people Noah found grace in the eyes of the lord is noah the great dispenser of grace to all those who had come
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Well, of course not Don't fall into the trap thinking when it says favored one
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That mary has favor to give to other people. By the way, if you are graced by god, it's always because We're sinful if you receive grace, it's because you're sinful
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She receives favor. She doesn't give favor You're highly graced mary
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Hail, mary full of grace. The lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus
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Holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death a lot of that From roman catholicism comes from a wrong view of this
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It does not mean full of favor to give Jerome translated the bible into latin and he
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Sadly made it sound like mary was full of grace pope pius the 10th
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Mary is a dispenser of all the gifts that our savior purchased for us by his death and by his blood
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She is the supreme minister of the distribution of graces and the distributor of the treasures of his merits
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How can that be? Pope leo the 13th mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by god
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Well, how can that be? Pope pius the 9th Mary is the seat of all divine graces adorned with all gifts of the holy spirit and almost infinite treasury
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And exhaustible abyss of these gifts and famous roman catholic
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Theologian ludwig ott said since mary's assumption into heaven. No grace is conferred on man without her actual intercessory cooperation friends
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Don't we know that jesus said? No one is good except god alone Don't we know that even mary soon in this chapter later will say about god
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He's great and that she herself is a sinner God only gives grace to sinners
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By the way, true or false. There's one mediator between god and man true the man christ jesus
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Mary doesn't know what's going on on earth now But if she did she'd be very very sad that the attention was not pointed to the lord
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Jesus like luke does like matthew mark luke does like romans does like axe does like isaiah does
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People are justified by grace through Redemption, which is found in christ.
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Jesus Of course she was honored More highly than any other person up into that time and maybe forever
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Jc. Ryle said no woman was ever so highly honored as the mother of our lord It's evident that one woman out of the countless millions of the human race
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Could be the means whereby god would be manifest in the flesh and the virgin Mary had the mighty privilege of being that one
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Keep your finger in luke and I want you to just turn to ephesians chapter one where this is used elsewhere this language of freely bestowed grace
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Full of grace as people might translate Ephesians chapter one.
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I think this is the only other time it's used in the entire new testament and to whom is it used of ephesians chapter one verse
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Three we'll pick it up In verse three of ephesians one blessed be the god and father of our lord
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Jesus christ who's 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
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In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through jesus christ According to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace and here's the exact same word
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Which he has blessed us in the beloved The idea is that the ephesians have received the favor and grace and blessing of god
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This is not simply just for mary, but now for all those who trust in the lord Back to luke chapter one.
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I just want you to remember that mary was a wonderful lady, but she needed grace She needed to trust in the savior that was going to be in her womb
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Mary is not blessed over women She's just blessed among women You shall worship the lord your god in him only you shall serve
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If you look at luke 1 47 and my spirit rejoices in god my savior mary said
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Theologically thinking number three and lastly for today Did you know that your savior jesus had to be sinless?
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and spotless And you say of course Well, just as a reminder We are going to need the overshadowing of the holy spirit so that the fall is bypassed
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Because jesus can't be born with sin nature because he'll have to pay for his own sin right
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Jesus must be spotless and not tainted by sin in any way. That's why the virgin birth is mandatory
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While we as job 15 says drink injustice like water Like john says in first john one if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and make him a liar
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Paul says in romans three none is righteous. No, not one We're going to need a savior who is sinless and spotless
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One that didn't inherit sin one that wasn't guilty by sin one that didn't actually sin
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The virgin birth is a key component to christianity without it. There's no christianity the only sin that jesus ever had to deal with was what was
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Credited to him are imputed to him are given to him at calvary so that we might be forgiven
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Listen to some of these verses. There's a litany of verses about jesus your savior First peter to who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth
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Second corinthians 5 21 He made him who knew no sin. That's jesus to be sin or a sin offering on our behalf
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So that we might become the righteousness of god in him Hebrews 4 we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses
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But one jesus who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin
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He's going to have to bear his own sins if he sins We need somebody to bear our sins
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A sinless savior first john 3 5, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin
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John 19 even pilot knew it behold i'm bringing him out to you so you may know that I find no guilt in him
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Jesus said it of himself. I always do the things pleasing to him. John 8 Isaiah prophesied of the sinless savior.
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His grave was assigned with wicked men Yet he was with the rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth first peter chapter 1
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Knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life inherited from your forefathers but with the precious blood
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As of a lamb unblemished and spotless The blood of christ
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The virgin birth has to be because we need the spirit of god to overshadow and we'll leave it at overshadowing
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Mary so that the savior would be born sinless And you say well,
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I still don't get this whole virgin birth. I can't quite understand it I don't think you have to understand the means
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I think you need to respond like mary. I'll just take you at your word I don't know exactly how it happened, but it's in the word
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It's it's prophesied in isaiah chapter 7 and here's going to be the sign and I just trust that I know most of you here have no problem with the virgin birth because you have no problem with the resurrection
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You have no problem with the soon return of the lord. Jesus The church has always believed this the apostles creed.
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I believe in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth I believe in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the
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Holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried
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He ascended into hell and the third day he rose again from the dead He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of god the father almighty from there.
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He shall judge the living and the dead The virgin birth is important because we need a sinless savior
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We need to see that scripture is in fact fulfilled from the old testament There's going to be one who is going to bear a child and she's going to be a virgin
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Well, my old pastor used to say there's much more to be said We'll do that another time
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My old pastor said sometimes when pastors say that they've really ran out of material and so they say it's time to close
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There's more to be said there actually is more to be said Luke is writing a book
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It's kind of a new kind of a book there are letters There are poems and now he he writes something called the gospel and the gospel is good news
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And here's the good news even though you and I are sinners and we deserve hell There's a spotless lamb who takes our place
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Who dies sacrificially in a bloody awful vicious cruel way?
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And he's our substitute so that all the wrath of god from all our sins can be
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Absorbed by or intercepted by assuaged by jesus himself the spotless lamb because he's not dying for his own sins
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He's dying for someone else's sins and then amazingly Supernaturally like the virgin birth jesus raises himself from the dead
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It's one thing to raise somebody else from the dead. Jesus says the lazarus arise How do you raise yourself from the dead when you're dead?
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And jesus does that very thing because he's not just man. He's the god man And this is written so that you might say to yourself
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I see how it's all getting put together And people can study all they want and try to say the bible's not true or I don't understand any of this
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They just work their way through And they should see with theophilus through luke.
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Yes. In fact, I can trust this god By the way, if jesus is not born of a virgin and jesus is not born with the holy spirit overshadowing
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Well, we shouldn't even read the next verse We might as well just live Our lives,
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I think we've got a new pagan holiday, and I think they celebrated it yesterday, right? What was yesterday's pagan holiday?
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Happy earth day, I think I got here in 1997 and I preached something about jesus is going to return and just wipe everything out and start the new heavens and the new earth and then
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I said happy earth day I think like five people left Scott farrell was one of them, but I convinced him to come back
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There are these parallel accounts john the baptist is great. Jesus is greater john The baptist is a forerunner.
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Jesus is the king who's going to come after john the baptist There's a miraculous birth, but it's through the conception of a person with a husband and a wife in a normal way
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It's just later in life and jesus is born of a virgin You have to believe jesus is born of a virgin because otherwise you pay for your own sins
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It's just the orderly account walking through 24 chapters of you can be certain that this is true
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I've driven out of this parking lot several times and I think is this all true christianity? Have I dedicated my entire life to something that might not even be true?
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And the answer for people like me who drive out of that parking lot is I should make a u -turn and come back and say
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Yes, luke is the one that will help me understand from a physician's perspective. This is true
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And then we respond like mary does I'm your servant lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
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Let's pray. Thank you father for this time I love it that you have given us this chapter
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So we know about the beginnings For no other reason but sovereign grace we as a congregation say of the lord jesus with gabriel
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That jesus is great We say as a congregation that he's the son of the most high he's god incarnate
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We say we know he has the throne of the father david all the old testament promises fulfilled in him
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And that he reigns now over the house of jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end
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And when we've been there for 10 000 years shining as the sun There are no less days to sing god's praise than when we first begun.