Alright, young folks making their way downstairs, I'll invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. We are getting now into that time when we think more specifically about the Christmas season, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, about His birth. And so this morning we are going to do that. We're going to be talking about over the next Well, next week and the week following we will be talking about Christ and some aspect of His birth, if you will. This morning I want us to look at a passage of Scripture that I've actually spoken on before, so for some of you, some of this might simply be a review, but I think it's important that we be reminded of some things that we might not think too much about over the course of the year, but is good to be reminded of this time of year. For some of you, maybe you have heard someone else make reference to this, maybe you haven't, but my hope is this will be an encouragement to us. I want to talk this morning about the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exciting, isn't it? Wow, we're going to talk genealogy. All right. Maybe not the first place you and I turn, but I don't think it is insignificant that the New Testament begins by the providence of God with a genealogy. I mean, the very first thing we see when we come to the New Testament is a genealogy. And we have to remember that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable. God intended for you and me to learn something from the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I were to state it in a nutshell, I think this is what we learn from the genealogy of Christ. His genealogy demonstrates God's wonderful grace. Now, I'm sure that we could probably apply that statement in a few different ways as we think about this. But there's one particular way that I want us to look at it today. And I'll say more about that in just a moment. But what I want to do in the beginning is read the first six verses. And then I'm going to read verse 17, and then we'll ask the Lord to bless our time in His Word. So, Matthew writes, 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, and Judas begat Phares and Zarah of Tamar, and Phares begat Esram, and Esram begat Aram. And Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Naazim, and Naazim begat Salmon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah." Verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we, in these few moments, consider the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and specifically as we think about four individuals that are included in this genealogy, I pray, Father, that this would be an encouragement to us. That it might, if we haven't been introduced to this idea before, that for some of us this might be an opportunity to see how the reality of the reason that Jesus came is highlighted even in the genealogy of those who led up to His birth. So, Lord, teach us from even this passage. Help us to see how it is profitable, how it should be an encouragement, and how, Lord, it in itself will provide us opportunity, if we'll take advantage of it, to share the gospel with others who would be ignorant of this and yet, perhaps, Understanding this would be a way for us to introduce the gospel to them. So bless our time in Your Word. Encourage us through this study, we pray in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. In recent years, of course, discovering family trees has grown in popularity. Perhaps some of you have done the same thing. People want to know where they came from, right? Especially in America, because we are, you know, if your family's been here for any length of time, you probably have a lot of tendrils going out into the world, right? the old countries because for most of us it isn't one direct line back to a particular European country or whatever. So it's interesting, it's kind of a fun exercise. Our DNA tells us something about who we are and where we came from. However, not every detail in a genealogy is awe-inspiring. In fact, some details in genealogies that yours or mine in particular, there may be some details that instead of inspiring pride, perhaps give us a little bit of shame. There may be some links in our family history that we would rather not share with other people. I'm not asking you to stand up and testify to that fact, but I think That probably is true. If you know anything about your family history, there may be parts of it that you would just rather not think about. I'll give you an example. John Adams. Now you and I know John Adams is the second president of the United States of America. An important person, right? From a historical perspective. And yet here is the genealogy immediately following John Adams. John and Abigail's eldest child, who was also Abigail, married a man who was not, he didn't amount to much, I'm trying to be nice here, and basically left her and at her death she left her children to her mom and dad to take care of. Their son Charles married the sister of that brother-in-law and ended up dissipating all of his funds. He died of alcoholism. He left his widow to the care of his parents. They're getting a lot of, as adults, people to care for. Their son Thomas became an alcoholic. He bequeathed his children to his family to take care of. John Quincy turned out rather well, he became president, but he and his unhappy wife, Louisa, hardly went unscathed. Their first son was an alcoholic who committed suicide at the age of 31. Their next son was expelled from college, failed in business, and died of an alcohol-related illness. Only their youngest son, Charles, reacted against the family pattern by his sobriety, his prudence in business, his fervent dedication to his wife and his children, And he spent years writing the biography of his grandfather and editing his grandfather's writings and he concluded this about his family. He said, the history of my family is not a pleasant one to remember. It is one of great triumphs in the world but of deep groans within. One of extraordinary brilliancy and deep corroding mortification. We would think to be in the family of two presidents, John and then John Quincy, wow, wouldn't that be great? And yet, Not a very nice story, is it, to consider how those kids and grandkids turned out. If you know much about your ancestors, it's likely that you know a few that you might not be proud of either. Family members whose shameful ways and deeds the family would rather remain hidden from public view. And there are two graves in Kline Cemetery near where my mom and dad live. One grave is of my dad's uncle who fought in World War II. He was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was a POW at the end of the war in Germany. He is buried there. I would think of him as a hero. And then there is another family member who also was in the army during World War II, who was also buried in the family cemetery, who was a deserter. who camped out in the mountains hiding away from those who were searching for him during World War II, who eventually was found out and in a gunfight, he was killed. He's buried in the same cemetery. Two men, same family. One that we would say, all right, I want people to know I'm related to him. The other is like, hmm. Now, the first one, his name was Yuli. You would say Eula, but there's a long E if you're speaking West Virginians, Appalachian. I'm not gonna tell you the name of the other, because it's irrelevant. The point is simply, here's an illustration from my own family. I could probably share a few other stories, but that's true in every family. The Bible, however, when we think about this genealogy, doesn't hide the family history even if there are shameful forebears." To me, this is one of the reasons that I see this book as a divine book. Because if it had been written by men, we would have whitewashed all of the warts we would have made the genealogy of Jesus to have been pristine. That every member, everyone who was a part of that chain of people from Abraham through David to Jesus would have been just the perfect person in their generation. And yet, that isn't what the Bible does because the Bible is an accurate record. It is God telling us this is the reality. And there are lessons for us to learn. And we could spend a lot of time looking at a number of individuals who are both listed here and who are not listed here and looking at the reasons why. Someday we'll get to some of that perhaps. But I think there are lessons here that we can learn that should be an encouragement to us. When it comes to tracing the ancestry of Messiah, we note some unsavory characters. Let me just give you a very quick synopsis. This list includes and even highlights an adulterer who murdered his lover's husband to cover up his misdeed. There are idolaters, liars, a man who committed incest with his daughter-in-law whom he thought was a prostitute. That says a lot about his character, doesn't it? Another woman who was listed as a prostitute. A notoriously wicked king who burned his sons to death as an offering to a pagan idol. all listed as forebears of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not an exciting crew of people to produce the Savior of the world, is it? And yet therein lies what I think is one of the lessons from the genealogy of Christ. Matthew sets forth for us this tainted lineup as he traces the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah. This is God's book. and He is showing us warts and all. Now when it comes to genealogies, I wonder how many of us, when we get to Matthew, this is where we are in our reading now, how many of us say, oh boy, I get to read the genealogy. Or how many of us say, okay, the book of the generations of Jesus, let me skip down to verse 18. Because after all, do we really need to know the names of individuals who lived thousands of years ago and who have names that we have difficulty even trying to pronounce? I mean, why do we need to know this? Why is it relevant for us? Well, I wanna suggest that these names are quite relevant. I wanna suggest that we can learn some things that are very important and we're gonna focus on one aspect of this this morning. What can we learn? Well, they all lived a short time and then died, right? Whether we live, whether we die relatively young or we live for a century, the reality is that every one of us will one day pass from this life that is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. This is the reality of life. It is inevitable. Most relevant issue for you and me to answer, for anyone who may be watching from home this morning, is simply this. Where will I spend eternity and how can I be sure of this? That's one of the chief lessons that we can take from a list of people who lived, as verse 17 says, 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the captivity, and then 14 from the captivity to Jesus. So a lot of generations, a lot of people, a lot of living, but they all had a date with eternity. And that is a lesson for every one of us to understand that we need to take care of this question. Am I ready for eternity? Now, here's the lesson I want us to focus on this morning from this passage. We can be ready for eternity because one of the lessons of the genealogy of Jesus, and it's actually spoken specifically in verse 21 of this same chapter, is simply this. God sent Jesus to save sinners. How can I be ready for eternity? How can you be ready for eternity? How can our friends and our family members and our co-workers and our neighbors, how can anyone be ready for eternity? through the Lord Jesus Christ and only through the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus to save sinners. So we have a broad spectrum of people here in this passage. Some we know about, others we only know by name. There are kings and commoners For patriarchal Jews who would put the emphasis upon father to son, to father to son, to father to son, to father to son, there are in this women listed. That would be an aberration from the way they would normally think, from the way they would record a genealogy. Oddly enough, not only are there women, but there are three women who were Gentiles and one woman who was married to a Gentile. Women who were notorious for immorality. And so, again, to me a testimony to the reality that God wrote this book, that it is not human, man-made, because it lists these ladies in the very genealogy as forebears of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not what a religious Jew would have done. A religious Jew would not have had a Gentile anywhere in the lineage of Messiah, because that would go against the way that they would think and what they would expect. But everyone in this list shares something in common. Whether they were relatively good people or notoriously bad people, they were all sinners in need of a Savior. The first three chapters of the book of Romans is an indictment. indictment against humanity. We've spent time off and on through the years looking into either the whole passage or parts of that passage, but it's summed up in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's the indictment. Everyone Every one of us, everyone who has ever lived, was born a sinner and needed a Savior. That the only hope that any of us would ever have would be the hope in One who took our sin upon Himself, paid the penalty for our sin before a holy God, redeemed us through His blood unto Himself. who adopted us into His very own family. In short, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, everyone needs a Savior. Sinners need mercy. Mercy is not giving to the person what they deserve. Grace is giving to them what they do not deserve. You and I can celebrate Christmas Because in God's mercy, He has withheld His judgment from us and He has placed it upon the baby that was born on that Christmas morning. And He in turn has given to us unmerited favor, undeserved grace. He has loved us in spite of ourselves. So, with that in mind, I want us to take the next few minutes, and I want us to look at four of the ladies. There are five mentioned in the passage. We're not going to talk about Mary this morning. We're going to talk about four of these ladies. And these are ladies that you're all familiar with, so there's nothing new here, but it's simply recognizing that they are included in this genealogy of Christ. So let's think, first of all, in verse 3. And Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar." The first lady we want to think about this morning is Tamar. Now, Genesis 38 gives us the record of Tamar. Genesis 38 is a sorted chapter. We're not going to take time, we don't have time this morning to go back and read it and look at it because that would be the rest of our message just on Tamar. It's something you might find interesting to read, but understand if you read it and you really think about what it's saying, it's not a very encouraging chapter to read. What is the story? Well, you have Judah. Who is Judah? Judah is one of the 12 sons of Jacob, or one of the 12 sons of Abraham, right? Or of Israel. He had a Canaanite wife. He married a Canaanite. He had three sons by this Canaanite wife. He took another Canaanite woman named Tamar to be the wife of his first and oldest son. But his first and oldest son did wickedly in the sight of the Lord and the Lord took his life. Now it was the custom in that day that under those circumstances, if there were no children to the marriage of the older son, that the next son in line would then basically bear a child with the widow of his older brother so that that child would then carry on the older brother's name and heritage. So the second son was to now take Tamar to be his wife. He basically chose not to do that and dodging his responsibility, he was killed. That left the third son. And Jacob made a promise to her when he is old enough, let that settle in, when he grows up, then you can marry him and carry on the family heritage through him. The problem is he either forgot or he just ignored the promise. I cut her off my back. I told her what she wanted to hear. We don't really know what was going on in his mind, but it didn't happen. So this is the rest of the story. Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute. She hid her face behind a veil, and Jacob coming along, she knew the path he would be taking, and he came along, and here's this woman who is a prostitute, and he had relations with her, and she bore twins, Perez and Zerah. Now that's a sordid story, and it says a lot about Judah, not only the first part of it, but that he would be guilty of that. with someone he didn't know was his daughter-in-law. The point is, Perez, who was a product of this sinful action, was a forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in the line of Christ. Tamar's history illustrates that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. was a great, great, great, great, great, yeah, go back all those generations, grandmother of the Lord Jesus. Think about it with me for a moment. He deliberately associated with tax collectors who were notorious scoundrels. Matthew, who is the author of the Gospel of Matthew, was a tax collector. He understood the grace and the mercy of the Lord Jesus extended to him personally. Now here he is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving to us a record of someone whose reputation is not very nice, and yet, by God's mercy, she is included in that line that resulted in the birth of Messiah. Jesus is known as the friend of sinners, Matthew 11, 19. All those ill-reputed people. When the religious Pharisees expressed their disgust with Jesus, he replied in Matthew 9 that the healthy do not need a physician. Only the sick need a physician. And then he followed that up by saying he didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now he didn't say that to imply that some people could be good enough on their own to get to heaven, but he wanted the Pharisees to understand that they were sinners too. Maybe they thought they were better than the tax collectors and the prostitutes, et cetera, but they too were sinners. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we may compare ourselves with other people and may consider ourselves better than others, but we fall short of the standard that God himself has established. So he wasn't saying they could make it to heaven on their own. He is saying, be careful, don't compare yourself with others. In fact, notice what he says in verse 21 here in Matthew 1. And he shall bring forth a son, or she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Why did Jesus come? Matthew chapter 1 tells us. after giving us this genealogy which includes some shameful episodes that Jesus came to save sinners. Look at His own family tree. They needed a Savior. Jesus came to be that Savior. So, you need a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. Now, how do we obtain that salvation? That brings us to the second lady that we have in this passage. And you'll notice, again, this is in verse 5, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Rahab. Let me ask you a question. If I had mentioned the name of the Apostle Thomas, is there a A phrase that we associate with Thomas? What do we call Thomas? Doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas. For 2,000 years, that's what he's known by. Oh, Thomas. Oh, you mean Doubting Thomas, right? How would you like to have something like that attached to your name? Would that be a little bit, you know, make you feel a little ashamed? Everybody just, they think of me as somebody who doubts all the time. Well, let me give you another name. And I want you to think what is the title or the epithet that is attached to this name. Rahab. Rahab the harlot. I mean the New Testament itself refers to her that way. Rahab the harlot. For centuries that's what she has been known as. Rahab the harlot. I'm confident when we get to heaven we will not refer to her that way. But the reason I think that she has that epithet, that she is referred to that way is because it is a demonstration of something important. What is important about Rahab? Well, Tamar was a Canaanite woman and she was excluded from the covenant people of God. God's mercy brought her in, even in spite of her sinful activity. Rahab also is a Gentile who lived in Jericho. You remember the story, this is the early chapters of Joshua, Joshua chapter 2. She knew the city was going to be destroyed. She believed in the God of the Hebrews. In Joshua 2, verse 11, she is recorded as saying of Him, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. And because she believed in the God of the Hebrews, she hid the Hebrew spies. She pleaded with them to spare her life and the life of her family. And it's interesting because she is included in Hebrews 11, that great New Testament chapter on faith. In Hebrews 11, verse 31, it says, By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. What was it that saved her from destruction? Faith. By faith. Identifying her. This is the Rahab we're talking about. Not a woman who was of high moral standard. But a woman who, in spite of her immorality, came to a place where she exercised faith. She believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She had faith. Rahab illustrates for us that her faith, because she believed, She was spared from being killed when the walls of Jericho fell and the Israelites then fell upon the inhabitants of Jericho. She was saved. She did not die with the others, but beyond that, not only did she not die, but we have the record here that she married Salmon. Looks like salmon, doesn't it? It's almost lunch here in a couple of hours. She married Salmon. She married a Hebrew. Because of her faith, she not only was saved, but she is included in that line. Again, the patriarchy, the way the Jews would list this would have been this person begat this person, who begat this person, who begat this person, all men. But we have Tamar. It's a sordid story, but God's mercy even to her. And now we have Rahab, another woman of ill reputation, but she too is included by name in the first chapter, in the opening verses of the New Testament, introducing the birth of the Savior. Two women, both of whom were immoral. And yet two Gentile immoral women who by the mercy of God and illustrated by Rahab through the exercise of faith on her part, she came to know Christ. She became part of the story that brought Christ into the world physically. Now let's notice the third one. The same verse, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, Jesse begat David. So here we're getting closer to David, King David himself, and we find this person by the name of Ruth. Now you and I remember the story of Ruth, right? Here, by Ruth, we have illustrated that Christ brings salvation to those who are condemned by the law, redeeming them by grace. even Gentiles. Here's another Gentile. She is a Moabite. So again, she is not of the people of Israel. Unlike Tamar and Rahab, Ruth was a moral woman. She was married to a Jewish man, there's a book by her name, you can go and read this story, married to a Jewish man who died. When her mother-in-law decided to return to Israel, out of love for Ruth, or out of love, Ruth chose to go with her. And of course, you remember the famous statement in chapter one, your people shall be my people, your God, my God. She was a Moabite woman. The law of Moses excluded her from the people of God. She is a type of those who are good and moral, not a flagrant sinner like the other two Gentile ladies, but still under the curse of the law. I read for you from the book of James chapter two and verse 10, an important verse. and one that you need to consider when you have opportunity to witness to some. James writes, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. So here you have this standard. Ruth is not like Tamar and Rahab. She was not an immoral woman. She was a sweet girl. I mean, if you look at it from the human perspective, she married a guy. She loved him. He died. Her father-in-law died. Her brother-in-law died. She's left with a mother-in-law who says, I'm just going to go back home. You won't be welcome there because you're a Gentile. And she says, your God will be my God. I mean, can you see the preciousness of this young lady Ruth? who goes back with her mother-in-law and knows that when she does, she will probably be ill-treated because she is not a Jew and would not be welcome. But she loves her mother-in-law and she goes back to take care of her mother-in-law. And of course, you remember the rest of the story that as she does so, the Lord brings about redemption, but here's the main point. Though she was not like Tamar and Rahab, she was like them in the sense that she was still a sinner. Because God's standard is absolute perfection. If you are guilty of breaking the law in one point, then you are guilty of all the law. The entire weight of the law comes down in condemnation upon the person who breaks one small portion of it. In other words, it's not a, well, I'm 99.9% pure. That's how a lot of folks in the world like to think, isn't it? I'm 99.9, I'm really a good person, and you may be compared to other people. But when you're compared to God's standard, that one-tenth of one percent, or even less than that, is all that is necessary for condemnation. So, you can ask a simple question. Have you ever told a lie? I wonder, is there any honest person Who could say they've never told a lie? And we would all have to admit, yes, I've told a lie. If you say you haven't told a lie, you just told a lie. And here's the point, if that's all you ever did, that's all that is necessary to be condemned by the weight of the law of God. It's all or nothing. So yes, Ruth was nothing like Tamar and Rahab. And she was a, from my opinion, she was a sweet young lady who did a very loving and very self-sacrificing thing to go back and to take care of her mother-in-law. But in the story, as she does so, She finds grace and love in the eyes of a man who would be her kinsman redeemer. We don't have time to really get into all the details of the story, but he paid, Boaz paid the redemption price, something that was a part of their culture. He took Ruth the Moabite woman as His bride. A beautiful picture of how Christ, our Redeemer, paid the price of our redemption with His own blood. And as a result, we Gentiles, who were formerly excluded from God's people, just like these Gentile ladies, and being condemned by the law, have been brought into his family as his chosen bride. Hebrews chapter two gives us a good picture of that. So Tamar shows that Christ saves sinners. Rahab teaches us that salvation is through faith. Ruth illustrates God's salvation is for Gentiles who were condemned by the law but redeemed by his grace. And that brings us to number four. The fourth one we see in verse 6. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Well, wait a minute. Who is this fourth lady? She's not mentioned by name. Again, from a patriarchal standpoint, the fact that she's referenced at all is abnormal. But given these other ladies were mentioned by name, why is her name not mentioned? What is the point that that passage, that verse is trying to make about the mother of Solomon? That she wasn't David's wife. Now she became David's wife, but we understand the whole story that led up to that, right? We're talking about Bathsheba. And here we have illustrated for us that Christ's salvation is sufficient to preserve believers in spite of their sin. David and Bathsheba. Her of Uriah. Uriah was a Gentile. So here's a Jewish lady who married a Gentile man. Well, she shouldn't have done that. She did, and Uriah, of course, was one of David's mighty men. And, of course, we know the rest of the story, how David not only sinned with Bathsheba, but to cover it up, sent Uriah to his death, and then pretended to be such a great guy that he was going to take care of Uriah's widow and Uriah's unborn child. And we know the rest of that story. But as such, she and David remind us of the fact that even believers can fall into sin. That's a reality, isn't it? Not an excuse. It's not saying, hey, you can sin and get away with it, so just go live however you want. That's not the picture of what a child of God should look like. But the reality is that children of God, someone like David, someone like Bathsheba, who We don't know much about her history other than the fact that she married a pagan man, a Gentile man. We don't know much else about her other than her sin with David. Either way, for these two Jews, David and Bathsheba, we see the working of God's mercy in their lives. That even for a child of God, you and I can be guilty of sin. Never justifying or excusing sin, but Bathsheba's place among the ancestors of Christ shows us that God's grace works in preserving, if you will, His people. Isn't this a blessing for you and me, really? Again, if I was writing the story, would I have David the king sinning? No. And if he did have a little bit of a hiccup in his life, I surely would not have used his affair partner to somehow be in the lineage of Messiah. And yet that's exactly what God does. Because again, I think it is illustrating to us that these two people who should have known better, who clearly did what they knew they should not have done, who were clearly guilty of that, are still included in this lineage. Because it is demonstrating to us a New Testament fact. This is what the book of Philippians says, and you know it well. Philippians 1, 6, "...being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." The work that God has begun in your heart as a believer, He will bring to completion. Now, that doesn't mean we're only partially saved. It means that in this life, I am as much a child of God today as I ever will be, but I have not yet fully experienced all that that redemption means until I'm in His presence. until I have fully experienced all that comes with it, until I am free from the burden of the sinful nature that is still shackled to me, my flesh. One day I will experience in full the wonders of being in His presence. He will finish the job. And I am so grateful this morning that I know He will finish the job. Because if all He did was give me a clean slate and say, okay, I've taken care of all of your sin up to this point in time and now it's up to you, then James 2, verse 10, if you're guilty of breaking the least of the commandments, you're guilty of all. One point, one little thing. Could you or I have any hope if from this point forward it was on us individually? Would you have any hope that you would be able even for a day to not break one of the commandments. In fact, if you take the Ten Commandments and you think of them in the same frame of thought that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 following, He said that it's not simply, as an example, that it's not simply that you actually commit adultery with a woman, even looking on her. with lust in your heart is the same thing. That murder is not actually physically taking the life of another person. That murder is having hate in your heart for another person. You may never act upon it, but that's what's in your heart. Could any of us have any hope of living even 24 hours without breaking one of those commandments in our hearts. I think if we're honest, we all would say, no, I would have no hope. Again, I'm not excusing sin, but what I'm saying is, it is the work of Christ who maintains our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. My salvation is not dependent to any degree upon my ability to do good. If it is, I am lost. I have no hope. But I have hope because of who Christ is and because of what He has done." So these four women illustrate from different angles the great news that God saves sinners. And if you failed terribly this morning, God sent Christ to be your Savior, to save you from your sin. And then, as a child of God, we're looking here at some have called these the skeletons in the closet of Christ's genealogy. Maybe you have skeletons in your closet. Maybe you are the skeleton in the genealogy. your genealogical closet, if you will. This invites you to come to Christ, not only to save you from your sins initially, but as a child of God who has sin in his or her life, if you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So, trusting Christ as Savior, just turn back to Him and confess your sin. As a child of God, you are saved for eternity. that you can be brought back into fellowship with Him and you can become useful for Him in this life. In Christ, God saves sinners. He made a promise to Abraham and 2,000 years later, Jesus is born. The promised seed. He made a promise to David and 1,000 years later, that son of David is born, the one to whom David himself said, my God, Messiah, sitting on the throne. He makes a promise to you and me that His grace is sufficient, His mercy endures forever, and you and I can look at the genealogy of Christ thinking about all of these generations that led up to the birth of Jesus. And we can see embedded within this genealogy examples of His mercy, examples of His grace. People who were allowed to be a part, I mean, can you imagine? If you could look in your background and you could say, hey, you know what? One of my forefathers was, you know, pick somebody from history. and say, wouldn't it be something if Charlemagne was, you all remember Charlemagne, right? Holy Roman Emperor. Neither holy nor Roman, nor an empire. But that's beside the point. See, I know you understand that. But the point is, it doesn't matter what man or woman may be in your lineage. Doesn't matter. Because you can be saved through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thankful this morning that I can look in this and see an example of God's mercy. Because this is a reminder of me of God's mercy.