Well, as we turn our attention now to the preaching of God's Word, I ask you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew that many of you thought that last week was the last sermon on the Gospel of Matthew. It's been so long. We've been in here for so long that Just a reminder, I typically do a recap sermon when I finish a book. So what we're going to be looking at today is the whole gospel, and the thrust of the whole gospel of Matthew, and what to take away from it. What has Matthew been trying to tell us throughout our study of this book, and how then to move forward in our life having looked at it. And as we do this, we'll be looking just at the first verse of Matthew, Matthew chapter one, verse one, and then skipping back and reading Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. So here now the word of God, Matthew begins his gospel by saying, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then in the last closing verses of Gospels, Matthew in chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Let us pray. Our great Lord and God, we thank you for this gospel that we have been looking at. We pray, Lord, as we spend one final service looking at this account of Matthew. We pray that you would, Lord, by your spirit, be impressing the truths we examine and look at upon our innermost being. And may it not be simply to fill our heads with knowledge, but Lord, may you cause us to be molded and shaped more. and to the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And Father, I do pray that you would bless my mind and my mouth that I may think and speak clearly this morning. It is in the name of Jesus that I do pray, amen. When we first began this series, I asked the question, what is in a genealogy? Why is it that God saw in his infinite wisdom to move Matthew and Luke to include a genealogy in their Gospels? Why is it so important? In fact, why does God include genealogies in the Old Testament? I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, those are the portions that we tend to skim over and skip to get to the really good, juicy bits of the Scriptures. Why does God include genealogies. God includes them to give us a glimpse and to reveal to us His superintending, His watching over and His preserving and His faithfulness through His Messiah. To give us the clear line and distinction of how He is working throughout human history to a particular end and purpose. Now, Matthew, as he includes at the beginning of his gospel an account of Jesus' genealogy. Why does he include that? especially one that admittedly misses and skips over some aspects or some actual generations in that genealogy. His genealogy is orchestrated so that there are exactly 14 generations between Abraham and David, and exactly 14 generations between David and the Messiah. We know that there were more than this. So why did he include that and then skip over? And this idea of skipping over isn't unique or foreign. This was common in the Jewish literature. I mean, one way we could think about it is this. My great-grandfather's name is John, and my father's name is Richard. And you all know Ezra, Neri, and Silas. Well, someone could truthfully and rightfully say that John gave birth to or begot Richard, and Richard begot Ezra, Neri, and Silas. Now, my grandfather, Wendell and I, would be skipped over. But it's true. And it's right. And what it does is it preserves the method and the line of my children's origin. Well, in the same way, that is what Matthew is doing in his genealogy. And what his genealogy does at the very beginning is it establishes that Jesus is the son of Abraham and the son of David. Now, as we look at the gospel as a whole today, focusing on Matthew 1, 1, and then Matthew 28, 18 through 20, what we'll see is that these two passages parallel one another. Matthew is using his gospel to argue that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. And that is the whole point and the thrust of what he is delivering to his original audience and what he is delivering to us today. Is that Jesus is the Christ, he is the King, and the one through whom we will be blessed. And in that, what we will take away from it this morning is that by God's grace, we can break free from the shackles of this world and live as one ruled by and blessed in Jesus, the Christ of God. Again, by God's grace, let us break free from the shackles of this world to live as one ruled by and blessed in Jesus, the Christ of God. Now, as Matthew points out, first of all, that Jesus is the promised son of David. We see this in Matthew 1, one said explicitly, but also we see it in Matthew 28, 18. And this son of David is promised to David in 2 Samuel 7, verses one to 17. Now to give you a recap of what happened in that passage, David was in his palace and he looked out and he saw the tabernacle. The second Samuel passage takes place before the temple was built. And so the tabernacle had been set up, and David looks out, and he asks the question, how is it that I can live in a palace, but yet the God of heaven and earth dwells in a tent? And so he goes to Nathan the prophet, and he says, I wanna build the Lord a temple, a proper abode. And Nathan at first gives him his blessing, but then God comes to the prophet in a dream and gives him a message to give to David. And in that message, God says to David, first of all, thank you for wanting to do this. Your intentions are good. But first of all, you can't do this because you are a warrior king. You have spilled blood. Your hands are full of bloodshed. You can't build my temple. But then he promises David, but your son will build my temple. And his kingdom will be an eternal kingdom. Now as the story unfolds, Solomon rises to power, takes the throne, he does build the temple, but he lives and then dies. Then his son, David's grandson, Rehoboam, comes to power. and he is a foolish king. And during his reign, early on in his reign, the kingdom is divided into two. The 10 northern tribes continue on as Israel and the two southern tribes continue on then as Judah. We very quickly see in the account in the history that that particular son of David and Solomon was not the fulfillment of the promise of God to David. Jesus is that fulfillment. And we see that in Matthew 28, 18, where he declares to his disciples, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now, throughout Matthew's gospel, he is building to this point, and he is laying down the proof and the foundation for why Jesus could make this claim. Consider all the miracles that Jesus worked. Consider the ways that he healed people, the ways that he rose people from the dead. He cast out demons. Each of these miracles was a declaration by our Lord that he was the sovereign king controlling His creation. He had the power and the authority to make decrees and for His creation to respond in obedience. Now for us to realize here is that was in His state of humiliation when He was born under the law, when He was living out a life of obedience for us. Imagine then now in the state of His exaltation, How much more, how much more broadly his authority in his divine rule, in the fact that he is the promised son of David, the king of heaven and earth. And what does it mean for you and I now that Jesus is king? It means that he has authority over every aspect of our lives. He has authority over our lives, our family's life, the church's life, the state's life, the nation's life. He has authority over all of it. He has the authority to make decrees about what kind of jobs we have, how we live, how we dress, how we interact with one another, what we can do with our bodies, He has authority over all of it. Not parts, all. This leads us to our second point. Not only is Jesus the promised son of David, our king, he is the promised son of Abraham. Now, we see this in Matthew 28, 19 through 20. But first of all, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 12, chapter 15, and chapter 17. In those passages in Genesis, God is unfolding and revealing his covenant with Abraham. It first starts out as a call to leave his homeland and go to a land of promise, and it increases and expands. And in those passages, what we see is that there is a promised seed of Abraham. There is a promised offspring that through whom the earth would be blessed. Now, is this to be in Isaac? We can think that, I mean, Abraham and Isaac plead with, or Abraham and Sarah plead with God to allow Ishmael to be that promised seed. But God comes back repeatedly and says, no, it's going to be through the son born to Sarah. And she was well past childbearing years. When she gave birth to Isaac, she was 91 years old. 91 years old. If I remember correctly, that is older than everyone here in this room. And she gave birth to a son. Why did God do this? Why did God make Abraham and Sarah wait so long? It was to drive home the fact that His working through the Messiah is not by the ordinary means of generation. It's according to the promises of God, according to His word alone, that we will be saved. Now, Paul connects this seed of Abraham through whom all the earth is blessed to Jesus in Galatians 3.16. He points out that it is through the offspring that God said to Abraham, through your offspring, singular, not offsprings. And he uses that to say the one offspring, the one seed, the one son of Abraham through whom we are blessed and have life is in Jesus Christ. Now this blessing through the seed of Abraham is also shown throughout the pages of Matthew's gospel throughout his miracles. Whenever he healed someone, whenever he made someone see that was blind, whenever he made the deaf hear, all these moments of healing that Jesus did during his earthly ministry were for the purpose of showing us that he alone has the ability and the authority and the power to give us the healing that you and I really need. It is a spiritual healing, the healing of our soul. That is what the miracles of Christ show for us and why the gospel writers, not only Matthew, but the gospel writers show his power and authority over and being able to heal people is that it is through Jesus that we are healed. Jesus refers to this in Matthew 28 verses 19 to 20 as being made his disciple. When we are made his disciple, we are brought into a right relationship with him. The first step of being made a disciple is conversion, faith in Christ. And that is the chief blessing that Jesus gives to us, the seed of Abraham. The Westminster Confession of Faith breaks it down into that we are justified, adopted, we're sanctified, we're glorified, we receive eternal life, we're declared righteous, adopted as His children, we're made holy, we're completely removed of all sin, and we are glorified in His final return, and we live eternally with Him. All these things can be summed up in one word of our salvation. Jesus saves. That is why He came to save His people. And we are made His people through being made disciples in Matthew 28, verses 19 to 20. Being baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit and being taught to do and to live according to all that Jesus commanded us. Through Jesus, we have been given the greatest blessing of all, salvation. And Matthew sums up these two aspects of Jesus in his fulfillment, in being the seed of the son of David and the son of Abraham. In that first word that he calls Jesus, this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. This word Christ sums up and brings together the idea of Jesus' rule as king and the blessings we receive in Him in our salvation. You see, Christ is not just the last name of Jesus. It's not His last name. We've come to kind of think of it. It rolls off the tongue, Jesus Christ, so easily. But Christ is a title. It is an office that He bears. It's like when you address President Obama, you say, President Obama. you would say Christ Jesus, as Paul does often. It is his title, it is his office that he bears. And it sums up, or it's used throughout the Old Testament when we read passages that refer to the anointed one. This is seen clearly in Psalm chapter, or Psalm 2, where the nations of the world rage against God and his anointed. The word there in the Greek is the same word translated as Christ in the New Testament. He is the one prophesied of old. He is the Christ. And when we say that Jesus is the Christ, we are saying that he is the promised king, son of David, and the one through whom we are blessed, and the son of Abraham. Now those are the first three points this morning, and we're gonna be spending our final portion on this fourth point and spending a little bit longer here. But in light of this truth that Matthew has unfolded for us in these 28 chapters, laying down the foundation and the arguments and the support that Jesus is the promised King, He is the one through whom we are to be blessed. How are you and I to live? What is its ultimate meaning for us here and now, 2000 years later? Well, in this, you'll see, if you're following along in the bulletin outline, you'll see the references, Ephesians 4.1, Philippians 1.27, Colossians 1.10, 1 Thessalonians 2.12. These passages all call us to the same thing, that in light of who Jesus is, in light of our salvation in him, we are called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. We are called to live and to walk in a way that is consistent with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Well, how do we do that? Jesus, although he made the commands of God all the more difficult to follow, he also very succinctly summarized it for us. In Matthew, chapter 22, verses 36 to 40, he is asked the question, what is the greatest commandment? And his response is to say, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all of your mind. Then he also adds, the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. So how does this show us how we are to walk worthy of the calling that we have in Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, to love God is a summary of what we call the first table of the 10 commandments. Those first four commands that God gave through Moses on Mount Sinai. To love God, and we're gonna go through each of these commands and give just one example of how we might break or fulfill it. And these examples are not to be exhaustive. I'm sure there are a host of ways that we can all think of that we daily break these commandments. But the first one is to have no other gods. Now, this is a struggle for me as the example that I give. It's a personal one. Thought I'd start off with a personal example. I love, at the close of the day, just vegging out and watching TV. I love letting my mind just ooze into nothing and allow myself to be told what to think and to just have that entertainment and enjoyment. Where does that cross the line to become another God? It's when I have a moment of time and I've got my Bible sitting right there. If I haven't had my devotions today, am I going to watch TV? Or am I going to pick up God's Word and have a conversation with Him? If I choose TV in that moment for me, that becomes idolatry. I'm choosing TV over my God. Now there are other ways that that can be broken. The second commandment is no idols. This is another one. Are we going to listen to what the Bible says or maybe what a particular speaker says? Now, this happened in the early church. Paul talks about this, that some said, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. People following a particular teacher, a superstar preacher, instead of being wholly committed to the word of God. Now, if that preacher is good and solid, that's great, We're receiving instruction, but we're not perfect. We're not always solid. We need to be like the Bereans who are examining what we're hearing according to the word of God and allowing that to instruct what we do and say and worship. Taking the name in vain. Now this can happen by what is common throughout our society and the misuse of God's name and saying, oh my God, in an irreverent way. Even the little acronym, OMG, I would argue is a misuse and a violation of this commandment. But also, as we looked at when we did the series on the Ten Commandments, to take the name of the Lord is not simply to speak it, but it's also taking the name is to call yourself a Christian. You are taking the name upon yourself. You have been baptized into the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. So if we're a one-day Christian, we come to church on Sunday, And we spend our hour, hour and a half here worshiping God. But then we leave and the world can't distinguish us from anyone else. We've got mouths that sound like sailors coming off the boat. We've got lives that show that we are living in sin. That is also a taking in vain the name of the Lord. honoring the Sabbath day or the Lord's day. Where are our minds as we come to worship God? Where are our minds as we spend this day? Is it focused on Him and what we can learn? Or are we looking forward to what's coming next in the day? Maybe it's a game, maybe it's a particular TV show, maybe it's something else, whatever. And our minds are there. when He's called us on this day to focus our minds specifically on Him. One day out of the week where we put everything aside and focus solely upon our God. These are ways that we can walk worthy and fulfilling that first of the greatest commandments. The second one, to love your neighbor. Honoring authority. God has placed our authority figures over us. They are put in positions of authority by Him. So ultimately, defying that God-given authority is the defying of Him. Now, we may not like things that the president does, or Congress does, or whatever. Even our bosses at work, or our principals at school, or our teachers, or your pastor and your elders. We may not like it, but if it's not in violation of the law of God, of God's word, then we are called to submit to that as submitting to God himself. Do not murder. Jesus expanded these next few to go beyond just a physical act, but the actual intent of our heart. If you have ever, if you and I have ever hated someone, in God's eyes, we have committed murder. We have murdered them. It doesn't have to be a physical act that we do, but just simply an attitude of our heart towards another person created in the image of God. Do not commit adultery. Statistics show that sadly, Our children at a younger age, younger and younger, are being exposed to explicit images on the internet. Eight, nine years old. A lot of kids have their first experience. That's horrible. But what it shows us is how available these things are to us. They are everywhere. Not just the printed media, in our computers, in our phones, in our tablets. The access is always available. And we must be on guard, brothers and sisters, because the statistics show that things like pornography and explicit images not only affect men, but are increasingly more and more also affecting women. We must all be on guard and not expose our eyes to these things. If we do, it is adultery. We need to call it what it is. That's what Jesus said. When you lust after someone, you have committed adultery. An offense that Jesus says justifies divorce. That is a serious, serious sin. And we must be on guard for our family's sakes and for our children's sake. Teaching them how to protect themselves against this great evil. We're told also not to steal. It's very simple. If it isn't yours, don't take it. Pretty much summed up there. I'll move on. Do not lie. Satan is the father of lies. Now, we might think that, okay, that's, okay, the big lies, of course. But we must also consider that Satan is also the father of the little white lie. He loves to ensnare and entangle us and to lie to us by saying, I can't tell the truth in this instance. It'll cause so much pain. God calls us to the truth. And he says that Satan is the father of lies. Lastly, do not covet. This is the one that the Apostle Paul says, you know, all the other nine, he's good, and he's following great, but then he gets to covet, and he realizes, wow, I have broken them all. How do we combat covetedness? thankfulness. That is the weapon that we have been given by God to combat the sin of coveting, to be thankful to him for what we have. Now, as I've gone through this, and we're called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, I hope that we have all realized that we have failed. And we are failing. That is my purpose. That is my hope. If anyone here thinks that they have somehow succeeded, I have failed. We have all lost. We have all fallen short. Now, as we close this morning, I want to draw our attention to another passage of Scripture in Philippians chapter three. In Philippians chapter three, this is what I want to leave us with. We have been told clearly by Matthew that Jesus is our King and the one through whom we are blessed. Because Jesus is our King and the one through whom we have been blessed in saving faith, we are called then in that light to live in a manner worthy of our calling. Paul in Philippians chapter three gives us how we do that, because we all fail. Well, it's through the grace of God. Listen now as Paul writes to us through Philippians. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God in glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. What does he mean by flesh in this passage? He then explains, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. It's perfect. Fulfilling everything. One might say he was walking in a manner worthy of his calling. But then he goes on, but whatever gain I had, I counted it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Now, when Paul speaks of all the good things he was doing and blameless in the sight of the law, what does he say? He counts them as rubbish. Another way we could translate that word is as dung. All of those good things that Paul was doing in the works of the law are worth flushing down our toilets in the face of Christ. In Christ is the only way that we can please God. In Christ is the only way that we can have salvation. If we fall into the trap of thinking, if I just do this, if I just follow God this way, if I just do such and such, we have missed the point. The life that we live and worth of the calling is not upon our own strength, but also upon the grace of God, which first gave us life to begin with. And when we think that we begin to please God and satisfy any anger or wrath we may think He has against us, we are not understanding the work of Christ who has removed that wrath and the continued work of Christ who gives us the strength to live in thankfulness for Him. The other day, Elisha was making pudding. We had some of the ladies of the congregation over for some dessert and some games last night. And Elisha was making pudding. And I walk up to the kitchen. I see Elisha stirring this wonderful chocolate mixture. And I see Ezra with this spatula full of this chocolate stuff on it. So I was like, oh, this is great. So I quickly, I just grab it a little bit, put it in my mouth, and yank it out. I knew immediately that something was missing. It was unsweetened. It hadn't yet had the sugar put in it, so it tasted bitter and disgusting. I had to grab a glass of milk to wash it out. Brothers and sisters, that's what happens when we begin to think that works of the law make us in a right relationship with God. We see something that is good, something that is a blessing. It's like taking a bite and having a bitter taste in your mouth. It doesn't satisfy. It isn't what we thought. By God's grace, brothers and sisters, let us break free from the shackles that are all around us, in the world that is telling us how we are to live, but also in our own pride and selfishness and trying to live in a way on our own strength that pleases God. and let us submit and live a life worthy of Him by humble submission and reliance upon His grace, as He is our King and the One through whom we are blessed, Jesus alone, the Anointed One, the Christ of God. Amen. Our gracious Father, we thank You for what You have given us in Jesus, for the blessing of knowing Him, We pray, Lord, that you would forgive us for losing sight of what we have in Him and for living lives that are not worthy of our calling, whether it's in open sin or in pride and self-righteousness in what we have done. We pray, Lord, that you would forgive us. And may we live as those who are under the authority of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. And may we, Lord, live as those who have received the greatest blessing of salvation, being made his disciple, being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and being taught through your truth what you command us. In his glorious name, may we live, resting on the grace in Jesus alone. Amen.