Our text for this evening I take from Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, the first five verses. And allow me a brief introduction here, is that when I composed these sermons, when I formulated these sermons, It's a series of three. Lord willing, we're going to have all three, not tonight, but all three. And some of the, I worked with the New King James Translation and you, your Bible of choice is the King James Version. And all the names, some of the names that we're going to read are pronounced differently and even spelled differently in these two translations. So if there's a bit of a confusion for you, they are the same people. They're just pronounced a little bit differently. I want to read the first five verses, and I want to read verse 17. So Matthew chapter 1, beginning to read with verse 1, hear the word of God with me. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. Judas begat Phares, and Zer of Tamar, and Phares begat Esrum, and Esrum begat Aram. And Aram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nashon, and Nashon begat Salmon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, And Boaz begot Obed of Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse. And then skip with me to verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And that's what we want to look at tonight, those 14 generations. From Abraham to David, there are 14 generations. Lord willing, next week, Sunday evening, we will hear from David until the carrying away into Babylon, those 14 generations. And then finally, early in the new year, when we have opportunity to be together again, from the carrying away to Babylon unto Christ are also 14 generations. So three times 14 generations. This evening, by God's grace, we want to look at the first 14 generations from Abraham to David. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm confident that as I read my text of this afternoon, many of you wondered Just what in the world is he going to do with that? We read from Psalm 105, which gave us a historical narrative. And then I chose, of all things, for my pericope, or if you will, for my preaching text, I chose a genealogy. And genealogies are usually not something we like to spend a lot of time with. In fact, in my home as I was growing up, and I suspect in most of your homes as well, when reading the scriptures at the table, when we got to the genealogies, when we got to a long list of names, we simply skipped over them. And I'm sure that even this afternoon, you might wonder if a list of names really is suitable for a preaching text. Well, the answer has to be yes, of course. After all, we confess that all of God's word is given by inspiration. And therefore, God breathed and helpful for instruction and correction, as Paul writes in Timothy. And so then also the genealogies are given us for a purpose. And if it is your habit to skip over these lists, may I suggest to you that you at least try to give some careful thought to their significance. The Holy Spirit of God saw fit to include them in the scriptures, and our obligation is to discover why. I hope to make an attempt at discovering that with you this afternoon. I have the great privilege of leading you, Lord willing, in worship for two more Sundays after today, prior to you welcoming your new minister. And so I want to begin with you this afternoon a three-part Advent series of sermons on the genealogy, the family tree of Jesus Christ. Matthew introduces his gospel by calling our attention to what he calls the book of the generations or the genealogy of Jesus Christ. So what we have here, what we have here is the book of the generations of Christ. And we have to understand that because what that means is that in a very real sense, Christ was in the loins of all of these fathers mentioned here, with the exception, of course, of Joseph. It's also helpful for us to understand at the very outset that the Holy Spirit led Matthew to make it very clear that according to the flesh, according to the flesh, it was impossible that Christ should be born. That too was given us in the introduction, and I believe that to be a major theme in this genealogy. Not only does the list of names give us redemptive history, as we read in Psalm 105, it also demonstrates that the redemptive history from a human perspective could never have survived long enough to give birth to the Christ in Bethlehem. Matthew begins his gospel by explaining that the birth of Christ was a great miracle. He explains in great detail in this genealogy that from a human perspective salvation could not, would not, could not have been possible. Already from the very beginning it was impossible for Jesus to be born since already at the very beginning the generations of Christ were dead. You know what I mean. Abraham was dead. As far as concerning fathering children and his wife Sarah with him, it was humanly impossible for men and women of that age to bear children. And so humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Christ to come from that generation. And yet he did. Why? Because God would demonstrate that He, by His almighty sovereign power, would bring the dead to life. And all of that is given us in the text, and in fact that is the main thought in the opening words of Matthew's Gospel. The first group of 14 generations, the group we're going to look at this evening, are given to reacquaint us with the fact that Christ had his origin in generations that were dead, and to show that God is the one that quickens the dead, or if you will, God is the one, God is the one who brings life from death. And in the group of names of our text, we have that same thought, also from another point of view. If you're a little bit familiar with the Old Testament prophecy, then you will recognize that in these names, we have the beginning of that which culminated in the prophecy of Hosea when he said, centuries before the Christ was born, he said that God would call his son out of Egypt. And now if we put all of these pieces together, then what we have here in the opening few verses of Matthew's gospel is the teaching that not only does God grant life from death, but God also rescues man from bondage. Matthew gives us only names, but the names have great significance and they cover centuries of redemptive history. And that's also why we read from the psalm giving us all of that history. There's a wonderful connection to that redemptive history in the psalm and to these names in my text of this afternoon. And so I want to administer God's word to you this afternoon using as my theme generations preserved. We want to first of all consider the preservation out of tribulation, the preservation out of tribulation. We then want to see the wonder whereby he is saved from the tribulation, the wonder whereby he is saved from the tribulation. And finally, we will learn of the one who was saved. Congregation, when we read these names of our text, and in and of themselves, they are of little significance. These are names which anybody in the Eastern world might have used for their children. They would not be names that we would choose for our children, but that's simply a cultural thing. In the East, these names were perfectly ordinary. There's nothing particularly special about the names. But the moment we look at these names closely, in their historic connection When we examine them in their historical, redemptive, covenantal context, then we come to see that these insignificant fathers carried in their loins the holy seed. Look at the names with me again. We read that Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amenadab, Amenadab begot Nasha. What does that tell us? Well, first of all, it tells us that at the time of Hezron, the family tree of Jesus had been transplanted by God into Egypt. How do we know that? Well, we know from our Bible that Hezron lived during the time of the Egyptian slavery. You remember the story. Abraham had left his home among the Chaldeans and God had led him into Canaan. Matthew begins with Abraham. You know that story, that history of Abraham. He settled in Canaan. But then God took the family tree out of Canaan and transplanted it to Egypt. And that history is given us in the names of our text because you see, Perez, Hezron, and Ram were all part of that period of Egyptian slavery in Goshen. So historically, they lived at a time when the children of Israel were already fiercely being afflicted by their cruel Egyptian taskmasters. But there comes an end to that slavery. And that, too, is given us in this list of names. For Aminadab was the father of Aaron. And so if you know who Aminadab was, then by association, we're immediately reminded of Aaron and Moses. And consequently and naturally, we think of that exodus out of Egypt and the return to Canaan. Aminadab's name reminds us that God takes Israel out of Egypt. Perez, Hezron, and Ram remind us of Israel's captivity in Egypt, but then Amenadab's name tells us of the Exodus. And remember now with me that this is, as Matthew writes, it is the history of Jesus. So what we see then is that the family tree of Jesus is transplanted by God from Canaan to Egypt, and then after those centuries of slavery, uprooted again, and transplanted back into Canaan, but not before spending 40 long years in the wilderness. And that history, too, is given us in this list of names. For after Aminadab comes Nashon, and his name reminds us of the terrible time in the wilderness. The Bible tells us very little about Nashon, but we do know that he died in the wilderness. So in just a few verses. verses containing nothing other than names. We are reminded, we are taught of centuries of redemptive history from Abraham in Canaan to the Egyptian oppression in Goshen and the mighty act of God leading his people out into the wilderness on their way back to Canaan. And my dear people of God, these were difficult times for the Old Testament church. The church didn't flourish. The church didn't flourish. She chafed under oppression and slavery. She suffered famine and hunger in Canaan. She suffered cruel oppression in Goshen. And she suffered the elements and marauders in the wilderness journey. All in all, a difficult time, a difficult time in the history of the church. And when you think about it, it really did seem impossible that that family tree of Jesus could even survive, let alone flourish. But even then, things are not finished. There's more history of the family tree of Christ in those few names. We read that Nation begot Salmon and Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab. Imagine that. Imagine that. Here we have strangers inserted into the family tree of Jesus. You know the story of Rahab. She was not a child of covenant Israel. And then we read that Boaz begot Obed of Ruth. And once more, strange blood, more foreign blood is taken into the family tree through Ruth. But now notice when finally Obed begat Jesse, and then we know that Jesse begat David, and so it seems as if now, now finally that tree will begin to flourish. It seems as if the prophecy is now being fulfilled. Now surely, after all of that terrible history, now God's glory will shine. And it did, but not at all in the way that we and Israel would expect. My dear people of God, follow this with me. We read these names, and in them we are reminded of all of that depressive history. But in order for us to capture the essential teaching of our text, we need to ask and answer the question, what does it mean? What does it mean that the family tree was surrounded by such terrible circumstances? We have been given these names, and these names give us the history of the church, but now we need to ask and answer the question as to why. Why the Holy Spirit determined it to be so important that we know of the suffering and the persecution of the Old Testament church? Why was it now that God brought all this difficulty upon the church? People of God, the answer is at hand. If you thought that this list of names was simply given us so that we could trace Jesus' ancestry back to Abraham, you were right, but you're only partly right because you missed a large part of the significance of the genealogy. Besides tracing Jesus' human ancestry back to Abraham, besides giving us the history of God's people during that period, Matthew wants his audience to deeply appreciate the fact that in order to glorify himself, in order that men and women throughout all of history would marvel at the mighty acts of God in redemptive history, God made it impossible for the line of Christ to survive according to man. We need to understand that. We need to understand that, humanly speaking, or if you will, if you will, had the Lord God not been on our side, the Christ would never have been born. The genealogy is given us and intended to teach us that God is sovereign. And without his grace, without his amazing grace, the Christ would never have been born. And you and I would still be, without hope, and without God in the world. Follow this with me. When we look at that period through which all of these fathers passed, then we find it incredible that Bethlehem ever occurred. It seems impossible given the history and that impossibility has two causes. In the first place, the impossibility for the seed to flourish was because of the onslaught of Satan. The impossibility of the seed to flourish was due to that hatred and the raging of the serpent in those days. That seed was to be and that that was to be expected because already in the opening chapters of the Bible at the very dawning of creation, immediately after the fall, God had pronounced the proto evangel when he had said to Satan, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between her seed and your seed. He shall bruise your head. and you shall bruise his heel, or your heel. That was all part of God's plan. The serpent shall bruise his heel. And that happened. The antithesis was in place. And the serpent hated the woman. He took hold of the heel of the seat of the woman all through the Old Dispensation and he crushed it. Throughout all of Old Testament history, the serpent persecuted the seat of the woman so that the seat of the woman would not come. That was Satan's whole purpose, you will remember. He had to prevent the coming of God's kingdom. That holy family, that family tree of Christ was persecuted to prevent the coming of the Messiah. That persecution began immediately after the fall and it became so intense in the period from creation to the flood that Satan was almost successful in eradicating the family tree. In the period just prior to the flood, you know the story. Satan had so seduced and persecuted the Holy Lion that finally there were only eight souls left, and even one of them, Ham, was a devil. My dear people of God, It had become impossible, humanly speaking, it had become impossible for the line of Christ to continue by that antithesis, that enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, or if you will, to say it in clearer language. Because of the hatred between the world and the church, the church would have been totally destroyed had God not intervened and that hatred remained throughout all of church history up to and including this very day. And that's why we see the history of Christ's people as we do. God had placed that antithesis between the world and the church, and that animosity, that hatred between those two kingdoms made it impossible for the family of the seed to go on without divine intervention. Already at the time of Noah, the family tree had been almost stripped bare. But God, through the flood, demonstrates that what was impossible with man was possible with God. God would keep his promise. God would destroy the world and save the family of Noah, because the Christ was in his loins. And the world and the church would see that God, that God, not man, would save his people. And that now is what we need to see in the history portrayed in this list of names. Humanly speaking, it had become impossible for the family tree of Christ to flourish. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for Bethlehem to ever occur. God led his people into Egypt. God tells Abraham about it in Genesis 15. God said he will bring his people into a strange land where they would be afflicted for 400 years. And then God uses the famine in Canaan to take his people, to take the Christ who is in the loins of Perez, Hezron and Ram. And God throws him in the furnace of affliction in Egypt. And you know what happens there. Egypt says, let us persecute, let us oppress, let us afflict, let us persecute, let us kill the Israelites. But people have got to understand well, it wasn't simply a struggle between Israel and Egypt. It wasn't even simply a struggle between Satan and the Israelites. No, it was Satan's attempt. It was Satan's attempt to destroy the Israelites in order to wipe out the holy family, so that the coming of the Christ would be impossible. Satan, working through Egypt, makes it impossible for Christ's lineage to continue. The hatred of Egypt makes it impossible for the seed of the woman to survive, and people of God understand this. God himself made it so. For behind Egypt's wrath stands Satan, sure, and behind Satan's enmity stands God Himself. God Himself makes it impossible for the seed to continue, and to make it even more plain, when He finally does rescue them out of Egypt, He brings His nation, the Holy Seed included, into a region where they cannot escape. The river before them, the enemy behind them, all becomes more and more desperate for the Lion of Christ to survive. My dear precious saints of God, what we see in our text here over and over and over again is the sheer impossibility for the coming into the world of Christ because of the persecution of the holy family by Satan. That impossibility is what is being emphasized here in the genealogy of our text. That's what Matthew wants us to understand. We read of Nayshan and we're reminded of that horrible time in the wilderness. All of that, all of that impossible history is given us in this genealogy. But there's more. The first reason why the family of Christ could not survive because of the enmity of Satan. But there was also a second reason making it impossible, and that was the carnality of the people themselves. Persecution from without. corruption from within, attack by the enemy roundabout, and corruption from within. You know the history. Already at Sinai they broke the covenant and worshipped false gods. and God constantly chastised them for their harlotry and their idolatry. Now it was the fire that consumed them, and then it was serpents. Their rebellion caused God to deny entrance into Canaan to the older generation, and they all died in the wilderness. They wandered aimlessly about for 40 years in the wilderness, and when they finally did come to Canaan, it becomes impossible again. Giants stood in the way. The impenetrable fortress of Jericho stood in the way. And when finally they did enter, we have that horrible period of the judges when every man did what was right in his own eyes. People of God, if you trace the history given us in these few seemingly insignificant names, then it becomes humanly speaking, it becomes clear that humanly speaking, it was impossible for Bethlehem to occur. It was impossible for Christ to be born. It was impossible for men and women to be saved. And yet, and yet what was impossible with man was possible with God. And God makes it purposely impossible in order to reveal to us that it was possible with God, not with man. My dear people, God, the history of God's people reminds us a bit of the burning bush of Moses. You know that story. There it was, there it was, burning bright and yet it was never destroyed. The same was true of Israel. They were always being destroyed, yet they never are destroyed. Why not? Because God had promised to preserve his people. How? How did God preserve them? by his own power. He had done so before. He had saved the Holy Land when he rescued Noah and his family. How? Well, not by the ark that Noah had built, but by the flood that God sent. It was the flood that separated the world from the church. Later, he again preserved his church by the confusion of the tongues of Babel. He saved them in Egypt. God said to Pharaoh, let my son go. But Pharaoh said, no, I won't. God then said, let my son go or I will kill your son. And when Pharaoh refused, God killed the firstborn son of all of Egypt. And you'd think that that would now lead to peace and prosperity for Israel. After all, they were now leaving Goshen with a mighty army of people and indescribable wealth and possessions. Scripture tells us they left Goshen with 600,000 men, plus all of the women and children and the herds and the flocks and the gold and silver. Oh, now surely, it will now surely go well with them. But no, but no. When Pharaoh lets them go, that huge, mighty, wealthy entourage is brought by God into a place where they cannot get out. But when Pharaoh pursues them, when it seems that Satan would ultimately consume them, God leads his people through the Red Sea on dry ground, and Egypt is destroyed. Why? in order to make it plain that what is possible, impossible with man is possible with God, and God would keep His promise to preserve His people. He demonstrates that again in the desert. He saved them when the enemy attacked. He led them with bread from heaven, gave them water out of the rocks, and it was all a wonder of His grace. Why? To demonstrate that what was impossible with man was possible with God. For man, it's not possible to squeeze water out of a rock, but God does what man cannot. That's the gospel here in our text. It's all a wonder, a wonder of God's grace. When the Christ child is finally placed in that manger in Bethlehem, his family tree had been under attack from every side. But, but, but when God finally announces his birth to the angels, they burst into song singing, glory to God in the highest, for what was impossible with man was possible with God. The Messiah had come. The Christ was born. The savior of the world was born. Despite Satan's hellish fury, the kingdom of God had come. Glory to God. Let's reflect on that for a minute while we sing from Psalter 289 again. This time, the stanzas 12 through 15. 289, the verses 12 through 15. But my dear, precious people of God, there's still one more important element for us to discover in all of this. And I've alluded to it many times already. And that element is this. When God saved the family tree of Jesus, he did so because, if I may say it this way, the Christ was in their loins. The Christ would be born from this lineage. And so those generations of which we read, they had to be preserved, and God did so in marvelous and miraculous ways. But, but, but, where is the Christ now? You know the answer. He is where he has been from the beginning. He is within the church of Jesus Christ. He is within the church he purchased with his own precious blood. And so it was actually the church that God rescued when he preserved these generations of the Christ. That's already evident from the promise of Genesis 3.15. Christ is the seed of the woman. The woman is the kingdom of light. The seed of the serpent is the kingdom of darkness. And throughout all of church history it has been Satan and his legions seeking to destroy the church. And if Christ had not been in her, if Christ had not been in the church, Satan would have no interest in the church. And she would not have suffered all of this hatred. But Christ was in the church. And so Satan had to destroy the church. And God kept her safe for Christ's sake. And finally, that God preserved the church for Christ's sake is evident from what happened to Christ himself. You know the story. Christ is finally born, and God takes him out of Canaan, places him in Egypt. Once more, things were all wrong. An Edomite was on the throne. Herod was an Edomite. You heard that this morning. He was a descendant of Esau. Esau was on the throne. He was of the kingdom of darkness. And in order to save the kingdom of light from the powers of darkness, God brings his firstborn into Egypt in order that it might be fulfilled that what that which was spoken by the prophet, I have called my son out of Egypt. But God makes it impossible once more. He sends Christ to the cross and to the grave. But then God makes it possible once more. He raises Christ from the dead, exalts him to the highest glory. What is impossible with men is possible with God. My dear people of God, that's the gospel here. When God made it impossible for the men and women in the old dispensation, it meant that they could do nothing. They were fallen mortal beings. They could not save themselves. They could not save the church. They could do nothing but, they could do nothing but, they could only cling to the promise of God. The church could not organize and rebel. The church could not overcome Satan and his dominion. The church could not overcome the famine. The church could not conquer Egypt. The church could not cross the Red Sea and dry land. The church could not survive for 40 years in a desert wasteland. The church could not tear down the walls of Jericho. No, all she could do, all she could do was to cling to the promise of God and trust that God somehow would fulfill it. My dear precious people of God, we can still only do the same. We can still only do the same. Satan is not done with us. Satan is as committed to destroying the church today as he was then. In fact, he's even more determined now as he sees the end of days approaching. As we move closer and closer to that last great day of the Lord, Satan will pull out all the stops and he will exert himself to do whatever it takes to destroy you and me because we are the church. We have the Christ in our midst and in our hearts, and that Satan cannot tolerate. So in this Advent season, we remember his coming and we look forward to his coming again, but know this. Between those periods of time, between his coming and his coming again, between those two periods of time in redemptive history, it will not be an easy time for the church. Oh, we still have so much freedom. We see more and more of it eroding away, especially during this time of COVID, but we still have so much freedom. But Satan's work is all around us, and he's becoming ever more vicious and cunning. He has already made such giant strides, and he's been successful in so many areas. Oh, we still have so much freedom in our world, but Satan is being seen. Satan is being heard. Satan is even being felt even now. And make no mistake, unless God shortens the time for the sake of his elect, unless God shortens the time for the sake of the church, the time is coming that all the efforts we make in the world to save the church will prove to be in vain. That's not so yet. By God's great grace, as churches in your history and in mine have capitulated to the seduction of Satan, as schools and churches were lost to Satan, by God's great grace we're able to begin again. We still have a certain limited power. We have money, we have churches, we have buildings, we are building and rebuilding schools, we have resources. But, but, but, know this. The day is coming when God will take it all out of our hands. Satan will become so powerful that we will need to run and hide from his onslaught. And God will again make it plain that it is impossible for the church to continue. What then? Remember the promise. All through the old dispensation, God made it impossible in order that his people would cling to his promise. When they thought about the Messiah, they said, impossible. And suddenly, there was a host of heavenly angels over the stable in Bethlehem singing, glory to God in the highest. There he was. In the Old Testament, over and over and over and over again, God sends prophets to remind his people to put their trust in him. They were to believe and to trust that the Messiah promised already in the fall in the garden would come and come he did in Bethlehem despite all the impossibilities endured by Old Testament Israel. Suddenly there he was in that manger in Bethlehem. Glory to God. Glory to God in the highest. And then in the New Testament, Jesus promised that the gates of hell, nor even Satan himself, could prevail against that church. In fact, he told us that just like the Old Testament church, life for the Christian believer individually and for the church collectively, life would be difficult and would become increasingly more so as the end time approaches. Jesus taught us that, people of God, and we are living in that time today. Our world is becoming ever darker. The kingdom of darkness is expanding at an alarming rate. And the kingdom of light is becoming increasingly smaller. We are seeing, we are even feeling the venom of Satan's vomit all around us. And Jesus told us it would be so, but, but, but he also said, he who perseveres to the end will be saved. Oh, he didn't say that we had to do that on our own. No. We have the Christ in our midst, and through him we can and will endure and be more than conquerors. People of God, we can only marvel at God's great plan of redemption of a fallen humanity. Left on our own, we would be as the men and women of our text. We would say, oh Lord, it is impossible. Satan is just too formidable an opponent. And Jesus says, cling to the promise. Believe it. Stand on my word. We say, oh Lord, the times are so desperate. We see the onslaught of Satan. We see our world becoming ever more degenerate and corrupt and dark. Oh Lord, we fear the future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. And God said, be still and know that I am God. He said, be still. And listen, do you hear it? Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Speak ye peace, doth saith our God. Tell her that her warfare now is over, that her sins I wholly cover. Shall we pray? Mercy for God and Heavenly Father, once again, thou has fed us by thy word, and what a glorious word it was. We listened and we were reminded again of the beautiful words penned by the songwriter when he wrote, God promised us that he would save from all who for our ruin wait, and from the hands of men that rave against us with a warring hate, to show the mercy once foretold unto our fathers and uphold his holy covenant with us. that he would still remember in his care the oath which he to Abraham swear to benefit his seed from heir to heir. We pray, Father, that even our feeble attempts at worship may be sanctified in the blood of Christ. Grant that our worship may have been offered from circumcised hearts, hearts overwhelmed with what God has done for us in Christ. We pray that the word preached may have been accompanied by the power of thy Holy Spirit, and that therefore it may find its way into hearts, into our hearts, and that it may then give color to all of our life and living. May thy word penetrate our hearts and then permeate our lives. Grant that the renewing power of thy word and spirit may once again touch hearts and change lives. for a closing.