turn and Tim was just talking about Luke and the last couple times that I spoke about Christmas I was in Luke but we're gonna go back to Matthew now and we're gonna look at the faith of Joseph and it's particularly and the Christmas story and And let's go to Matthew chapter one. We read in the response of reading verses 18 to 25, but we wanna go back to verse six of chapter one, where it's in the genealogy of Jesus, the genealogy of Christ. And we have the genealogy of Christ both in Matthew and also in Luke. And that shows the lineage of Christ that he comes from David. And so we have that in verse six of chapter one. It says, and Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. And so we have David the king is in the genealogy of Jesus of his forebears. And then you go down to verse 16, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. And let's bow in prayer. Oh Lord, we pray that thou bless as we open up thy word, open it up to us, teach us out of it, help us to behold wondrous things out of thy law. And oh Lord, we pray that thou would forgive us of all the sin in our lives. We pray that thou bless this church. In Jesus' name, amen. And so here we have the Davidic covenant, that it was promised to David way back in 1000 BC, that he would have a son to rule on his throne forever. And that was fulfilled here. And we're gonna see different fulfillments of prophecy this morning. We can trust this Bible, we can trust its words, and we can trust the prophecies that are given. And so here we have the Davidic covenant given to David way back then, 1000 BC, that he would have a son on the throne forever and ever. And it's interesting that there were 14 generations, verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. 14, 14, and 14. That's quite a coincidence, isn't it? Now it's not exactly a coincidence is that God, there actually is no such thing as a coincidence. God is in control of everything. And just like it was said in Sunday school this morning, God knows everybody is gonna get saved. He knows it. And of course he determines it. And here we have 14 generations times three before Jesus came from Abraham. And then we go on to the passage that we had in the response of reading. And we're not gonna read that all, but we're gonna look at some things in it. Verses 18 to 25 of chapter one. And in verse 18, it says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. And they were betrothed back in those days, betrothal was somewhat like engagement, but it was much more binding. It was a contractual type relationship and it was not broken very much or very easily, but they still had not been actually together married. And then verse 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. And so he was just, we're told. And he didn't want to make a scene. He didn't want to make a big deal about Mary getting pregnant. Of course, he was thinking on these things. Verse 20, while he thought on these things, the Lord, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream. We're going to see dreams that Joseph has four different times here in the passage this morning. Four different dreams where God speaks to Joseph. Does God speak in dreams today? Well, one thing's for sure, you can't depend on what you dream. And it's always been down through history. Everybody talks about dreams and there have been the soothsayers and all these people that studied dreams. And we dream a lot of interesting stuff. And it's amazing what we come up with in our dreams. And you come up with things that you never thought of, that you never It would have come up with if you were thinking, but the thing is that you come up with in the dreams. And I think the dreams are just our mind working while we're in deep sleep and dealing with things that we deal with and they all go around and around. But back in these days, God did speak in dreams. They didn't have the full Bible. And we have the full Bible today. We don't need dreams. And even back in the Old Testament, Jeremiah said, you know, what is the dream to somebody that has God's word? What is the chaff to the wheat? The wheat is God's word. The chaff is the dream. And you can't depend on dreams. That's one thing for sure. And God is not speaking in dreams anymore. He's speaking through his word. But back here, he did speak to Joseph in dreams. And here we have verse 20. He spoke to him in a dream, and he said, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So he had not taken Mary as his wife yet. A member of my family, just in the past couple of weeks, had a brilliant idea. And they thought that, you know, when you see Mary here in the Bible, they said, well, you know, when the angel appeared to Mary, Mary didn't say, I have to check with my husband if that'll be okay. And so, you know, that goes against, you know, the husband being the head of the house. But that's not true at all. Okay, number one, they weren't married yet. The husband wasn't really the head of the house yet. And the other thing is, when an angel was announcing these things to Mary and to Joseph, was he asking for permission? Was God asking for permission? No. Was he asking if it was all right with them? Really not. He was just giving an announcement. And Mary in faith just said, be it to me as you have said. But anyway, so we have here, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. Then verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son and now shall call his name Jesus. Jesus meaning savior. He shall save his people from their sins. And that's a big thing about Christmas. is he came to save us from our sins. That is the big thing. And how do we get saved from our sins? Well, we have to pray to the Lord and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Gotta give our life to him. Ask for forgiveness of our sins. And Jesus can save us from our sins. Nobody else saves us. Mary doesn't save us. Nobody else saves us. Jesus saves us. The Lord saves us. Then we go on, verse 22, Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. Verse 23, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So here we have a second thing of prophecy. Number one was a Davidic covenant that David would always have a son to reign on his throne. Here's a second prophecy that is fulfilled. If you remember, we went through the book of Revelation and we went through that chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And the question always is, how do you take prophecy? Do you take it spiritually or you take it literally? And the amillennialists take it spiritually, but we take it literally as premillennialists. And look at all these prophecies that were fulfilled when Jesus came. They are fulfilled literally. Jesus literally came through the lineage of David. And literally a virgin did conceive and bear a son. and they called his name Jesus and also he was called Emmanuel. And we're told what that means right here, God with us, God with us, Emmanuel. And I think I've mentioned to you before that this is my favorite verse to mention with Jehovah's Witnesses. When a Jehovah's Witness comes knocking at the door, And unfortunately, the only people that knock on doors today is basically Jehovah's Witnesses and us. We go out door to door, and they are the Jehovah's Witnesses. And when they knock on the door, we're not supposed to invite them in. We're not supposed to give them a cup of coffee or do anything like that. They were told in 2 John, but I do like to give them a word to chew on. And the word that I give them is, do you know what Jesus's name is? Emmanuel, God with us. And they deny that Jesus is God. And so we have that right here. Very important thing, Emmanuel. And this is a scripture from a prophecy from back in Isaiah, Isaiah. And it was fulfilled literally. Then we go on to verse 24. Here we have the first thing that Joseph did by faith. Verse 24, then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife. He was told to take Mary to be his wife and he did it. Joseph's not talked about too much. Of course, we had in Sunday school this morning, Mary is maybe somewhat minimized in Christian churches due to the Roman Catholics putting her up in the place of God almost. But Joseph is also not talked about a whole lot. But Joseph had some really good faith and God did speak to him in four different dreams here. And he had the first dream to take Mary, and he did it, even though she already had a child. And then verse 25, another thing he did by faith. Verse 25, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. That's another thing by faith that Joseph did. He called the name Jesus. And you know, the thing is, in the Old Testament, the firstborn son was devoted to the Lord, and Jesus was the firstborn son to be devoted to the Lord. And that's why they went to the temple and gave the offering of the couple of doves, turtle doves there, was to fulfill that devotion of the firstborn son. Then we go on to chapter 2, chapter 2, starting with verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. And now Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child. And when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also." Well, here we have the wise men. The wise men are not in Luke, But we have the shepherds and Luke, but here in Matthew, we have the wise men. Now, the first question that people like to talk about is when did the wise men come? And I just heard this past week, as I've heard many times before, that they didn't come for two years. Well, I don't really agree with that. And if you look at verse one there, it says, when Jesus was born, they came. In the days of Herod the king. When he was born, they came. And then one other thing that's interesting to look at that's a parallel scripture to this is Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. And we studied this in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 12 and verse one. And here we have Herod and we have the devil here talked about in the birth of Jesus and having to do, of course, the wise men were there with Herod. In chapter 12 of Revelation, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. This is Israel. And she being with child cried, Travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. Of course here it's Mary. Mary in with Israel. She was pained to be delivered and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his heads. Who's this? This is the devil. This is the devil and the devil was working through Herod. And the devil, his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. That's what happened with the third part of the angels fell with the devil and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered. Does that sound like two years after? No, the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered. for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And Herod figures right in with the wise men. They're both right in there together. In verse five, and she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And so here we have when Jesus was born, the devil is right there. The dragon, the devil with Herod, he stands before the woman, which was ready to be delivered. Not even until she was delivered, but it was right when she was delivered, right there. And I think that slaughter of the innocents there was right after. And so here we have now when Jesus was born in the days of Herod the king. Of course, there's another thing is he was born in the days of Herod the king. Herod, we know through history, seems fairly sure that Herod died in 4 BC. And so that means Jesus had to have been born before 4 BC or 4 BC, at least before Herod died. And so he was born in the days of Herod the king. And so, of course, our calendar is dated right to Jesus, is right to him. And that's a really proof that God is in control of this earth, that the Bible is true, that when we talk about 2024, it is 2024 years since Jesus, more or less. Very close, but that we're dating from the birth of Jesus, even though it might've been a couple of years before that. And so here we have, there came wise men, wise men. And they were saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star. Now, who are these wise men? Is it always a big question? Who are these wise men? Well, the bottom line answer is we don't know. The Bible doesn't give us that detail of who exactly they were. A lot of people have a lot of conjecture about it, as they do with a lot of things in the Bible. A lot of conjecture, a lot of reasoning, but we really don't know who they are. You know, God gives in the Bible the details that we need. We don't need to know who these wise men were. But we can, you know, give a couple guesses, it seems like they had a habit of looking at the stars. So they probably, probably, but not for sure, but probably they were some astrologers or even astronomers that were looking at the stars and they saw this star up there. Now, the thing is, they had to have had some sort of revelation from God though. one way or another, to get this revelation that with that star, that this star has to do with the King of the Jews and it comes when the King of the Jews is coming. They had to have that by revelation somehow, God had spoken to them. You know, people have always been looking at the stars for answers. They always have. We have that great big heaven above us. And of course, there's astrology. People have signs you're born under, Pisces and Leo and all those things. And the other thing in the newspaper where, you know, you shouldn't do this today because it's not with your sign and all that. You know, astrology, people look at the stars. Astronomers look at the stars. It's a huge bunch of them out there, billions of them, millions, billions of stars. This past week, along with those tickets that I just told you that I had that were expiring. We used a couple more tickets that I get at my daughter's Christian school auction. But anyway, we went to the Science Center here in Baltimore. And the Science Center has a big film there. And they had a film there, Deep Sky. And it was all about looking up into the heavens, into the skies, into the stars. And I hadn't really realized it, but they, I think maybe I heard, vaguely heard something about it, but they were talking about, the whole thing was about this new telescope that went up a couple of years ago called the West Space Telescope. West being the name of a guy, I guess. The West Space Telescope, and it's the biggest telescope, the greatest telescope ever. and it's up there in orbit over the earth, and it's better than the Hubble was, which you hear about, heard about for many years. Well, anyway, the whole thing was they were saying, now we're gonna get answers to our origin here in the world. Where did we come from? And we're gonna get those answers by being able to look far and far in the heavens. And so they got it up there and they looked far in the heavens. And I guess they expected to see the big bang or something like that. But it's just a bunch more of what they already have seen. Same exact stuff, just more and more of it. More and more stars, more and more dust clouds, more and more of this. And you know, God is infinite. And basically the heavens are infinite. And you just keep on looking and it's the same thing. And it just shows how little we are compared to God. And we don't need a telescope to tell us where we came from. The Bible tells us where we came from. That in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's it. And of course, then they were going on and say, oh, well, you know, the things that we're seeing off in the heavens, the light has been traveling from them for a million years. Well, no, it hasn't. The thing is, God, when he created everything, he created everything with a parent age already fully set up. And when God created it, the light was already coming. God created Adam as a man of 30 years old or whatever it was. He didn't create him as a molecule. It was all fully developed. And so everything was still, it was all, those lights were coming from the heavens when God created it. But anyway, people have looked to the stars, but here God did speak through a star. And God spoke through this star, a miraculous star, and he spoke to these wise men, these wise men. Then we go on here. They went to Israel here. They came to the land of the Jews, and they wanted to know where is the king of the Jews born, and they talked to the king there, Herod the king. And Herod was very disturbed at this. And it's interesting that Herod was an old man by this time. He was old. And he was there, but as kings usually are, and people in power usually are, they're very jealous of their power. People that are in power are jealous of their power. And so even though he was really old, he was jealous of this baby that had just been born. Even though that baby would never be a threat to him by the time the baby grew up. But anyway, but he was very worried about that. And so they went and asked the scribes and the wise men of the Jews about where the king of the Jews was gonna be born. And they found out in Bethlehem, Bethlehem. And so here we have a third prophecy that's fulfilled literally here with the birth of Christ. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. And that's interesting. They have a lot of people that claim to give prophecies, secular people. You have Nostradamus and other people like that. But their prophecies are very general. But the prophecies that we have that are fulfilled literally are by name. Bethlehem, and thou Bethlehem, from Micah, we read that in the call to worship. Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, out of thee shall come a governor. And so they were able to look in the Bible, they were able to find the prophecy of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. And so here we have a third literal prophecy fulfilled. And then we go on down to verse nine. When they had heard the king, they departed and lo the star, which they saw in the east, went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way." Here we have another dream. Here the wise men get a dream. And they weren't supposed to go back to Herod and they didn't go back to Herod. And so it was a really miraculous star here though. It wasn't just a regular star. It was one that was way down near the earth so that they could tell where it was standing over. And they were able to go and follow the star and find where it was standing over. And it was standing over where Jesus was. And it couldn't have been really very high in the sky. And what was their reaction when they saw The star and the sight, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. You know, we watched a movie about the space telescope and this lady there that was involved in it, she got all teared up and was breaking out into tears about that they were able to see some new stars up in the heavens with exceeding joy. Well, that was nothing. That's nothing she has compared to what we have here with God revealing Jesus. And they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And they came into the house. Well, some people have seen this house here and say, well, the stable couldn't have been a house, but I don't think you can translate this house that literally, that narrowly. It could be just a building, a house, something like that. They were coming to the house. And the young child was there with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and offered gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. People have thought there were three wise men because there were three gifts. We really don't know that, how many there really were. There might've been three, but we don't know. He was given gold because he's a king. He was given frankincense because he was a priest and is a priest. And myrrh, why was he given myrrh? Well, we're told that he was given myrrh because prefiguring his death, his death on the cross. And myrrh was what they usually used to anoint people that had died, to prepare them. And so here we have the wise men, they go away. And I used to have a bumper sticker on my car, and it's saying it's given many times is wise men still seek him. And that's very true. And these guys were wise men, whoever they were. Well, then we have going on here, we have verse 13. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, again, Joseph in a dream, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And there shalt thou be until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. Well, here Joseph is spoken to again, and Joseph does what he's told to do. He doesn't argue. He does it. He took Mary. He called him Jesus. Here's the third thing. They went to Egypt. They were told to flee there away from Herod. How did they have money to go to Egypt? Well, one way they had money is they got those gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they could have used. And he went into Egypt really not knowing where he went, but he just went by faith in the Lord. Then we go on verse 15, and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. And here we have another prophecy fulfilled, literally. Out of Egypt have I called my son. Israel was called out of Egypt and out of Egypt have I called my son is Jesus was called out of Egypt. Literally out of Egypt by name Egypt. Then verse 16, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah there was a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not. Well, here we have the famous slaughter of the innocents. All the children from two years old and under. And of course, people might look at this and say, well, since it's two years old and under, then that must have been the wise men came two years after. But the thing is, I think Herod was just making sure that he got the baby. Just making sure that the baby didn't come a little while earlier. And so this was a terrible slaughter that they had. And it was prophesied back in Jeremiah, prophesied literally. weeping, mourning for their children. And of course, we do have to take Rachel here symbolically, and it's obviously symbolically is Rachel was way back with Abraham, but Rachel is Israel here, is Israel. Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted. You know, in our history of the United States, you know, the great literature of America is built on the Bible. And I always think of, when I see this scripture here, I think of Moby Dick. And in Moby Dick, there was a ship named Rachel, and one of the boats was lost, and it was the son of the captain on the Rachel, and they were looking for the son that got lost, and they were weeping for their children. And this verse here is quoted. It's quoted right there, because they knew the Bible so well. Rachel weeping for her children. And then we go on to verse 19. So here we have Joseph with another dream, three dreams. And here we have the fourth thing he does by faith. He comes back out of Egypt and comes into the land of Israel, just as God told him to do it by faith. And then another thing, verse 22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of Herod's father Herod, he was afraid to go thither, notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream once again. He turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene." Well, here we have the fourth dream that Joseph gets, and the fifth thing that Joseph does by faith. And it seems here that he was going to go live in Judea, not in Nazareth, not in Galilee. It looks like he was looking to go dwell in Judea down around Jerusalem, but he was warned not to go there. And so he turned aside and went into Galilee. That's the fifth thing he did by faith. He went outside into Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. And that was a sixth fulfillment of prophecy, literal fulfillment of prophecy. And with this passage here, as it was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. Well, Joseph was a great man of faith. He was a great man of faith. He got these four different dreams. He did the five different things that he was told to do without arguing. He did them by faith, even not knowing where he was going, not knowing where he was going down into Egypt, not knowing where he was going to go up in Galilee. But he went and he dwelt in a city called Nazareth. Well, what about us today? Do we have the faith of Joseph? Are we willing to do what God says? Can we depend upon God's word? We know where we came from, we know God created us, and we know God's word is dependable through all these prophecies. We see all these prophecies that were fulfilled with Jesus. And we know that God is gonna fulfill all the prophecies that he's given for the future too. The prophecy that if we give our life to him, he'll take us to heaven. The prophecies of what's going to happen to the earth in the future, it's all going to come to pass. And just like these prophecies did. Well, what was Jesus's name? Jesus's name was Emmanuel, God with us. And God is with us today if we're with him. Are we with him? Are we serving him? Have we given our life to him? Well, God can be with us. Let's bow in prayer. O Lord, we pray that Thou would guide us in Thy paths, help us to be the Christians that Thou would have us to be. Help us to be like Joseph, help us to have that faith, to walk by faith. And O Lord, we pray that Thou would be with us as we are with Thee, and give us the strength to be with Thee. In Jesus' name, amen.