All right, brethren, let's turn to Luke chapter one. Let's just read two verses here, beginning in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, And the virgin's name was Mary. Why a virgin? Most of you here have been taught and you know the answer to that question. But there's a lot of people in this world that don't believe it. But worse than that, they don't even understand the necessity of it. They have no idea why this was a necessity. It was an absolute necessity. Scripture tells us that for as much then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise also took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He didn't take on Him the nature of angels. He took the seed of Abraham. It behooved Him in all points to be made like unto His brethren. That He might be a faithful, a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. And because He took part of flesh and blood, He's able to comfort us in all our affliction. The reason the last Adam was born of a virgin is that he might be the holy man. The holy man. That he might represent his people, live the life we could not live, die the death we owed, and bring us to God, holy, perfectly sanctified, and perfectly righteous in Him. That's why a virgin. First of all, why a virgin? Because it's written. Because it's written. That's why it's written in the scriptures. This is Christ fulfilling the law and the prophets. That's what we have here. In Matthew 5.17, the Lord was preaching His Sermon on the Mount. Think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I've not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He's the only one who's holy, who could fulfill the law. He's the one of whom all the prophets speak. He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. He said to heaven and earth pass one jot, or one tittle, one crossing of the T, one dotting of the I, shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. The first mention of this is in Genesis 3. Let's go there, Genesis chapter 3, verse 16. This is after the fall. And verse 14, I'm sorry, verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. On thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity, I will, God said, I will put enmity, hatred, between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, her seed. It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. And I believe that next verse there, this is why sorrow was multiplied to the woman in conception. More than just the fact that It's a travail to bear a child, but because the devil knowing Christ is coming through the woman, through the church, so often in history, over and over and over, tried to kill the male babies. Christ is the woman's seed. He's the woman's seed. It means he was born of a virgin, not born through the corrupt seed of a man. Therefore, unlike his people, he's holy in the womb. See, you and me couldn't fulfill the law because not only are we guilty in Adam, before we were ever even conceived, we were guilty in Adam by his transgression. But then when we were conceived in the womb, we were sinners in the womb. So we couldn't, there's no possible way we could fulfill the law. This is Christ fulfilling the law of the firstborn. Go to Exodus 13. Exodus 13. Here next is 13 verse two. I won't read the whole thing, but let's get enough of it to understand here. Verse two, the Lord said, sanctify, separate as holy unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb. Now that's important. Whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine. Look at verse 12. Thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the males shall be the lords. Look at verse 14. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what is this? That thou shalt say unto him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrificed to the Lord all that opened up the matrix, being males. But all the firstborn of my children I redeemed." The animals were slain and offered to the Lord, but the firstborn males were a lamb was slain in their place and they were redeemed. Now, no sinner ever fulfilled any law of God in perfection as God requires, and nobody, though they observed this law outwardly, nobody in that day, in Moses' day, ever fulfilled that law. There was never truly a firstborn son, because the wounds opened at conception. Christ is the only one that opened the womb at birth. He's the firstborn. He's the firstborn. Romans 8.29 says he's the firstborn among many brethren. Colossians 1.15 says he's the firstborn of every creature. Colossians 1.18 said he's the firstborn from the dead. Hebrews 12.23 says God's elect redeemed by Christ or the church of the firstborn. Our text declares Christ as God's firstborn son. What's the importance of that? Go to Hebrews 3, I'll show you. Hebrews chapter 3. You know the firstborn son is the one the father trusted the whole house to. It's his responsibility to save the house, provide for the house, give the house an inheritance. I'm talking about the children of the house, his brethren. Well, Christ became our elder brother. Hebrews 3.1 says, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house, for this man, The Lord Jesus was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for testimony, a witness of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house. whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. See, it's God's purpose in electing his people and in predestinating us to be conformed to Christ. It's his purpose that Christ be the firstborn among many brethren. You know that from Romans 8, whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren. In Moses' day, those that the Lord had sanctified in their heart, they understood this. Our Lord said Moses saw my day, or Abraham saw my day. They understood this. And by sacrificing those firstborn clean animals to God, they were acknowledging that on that day when God smoked the firstborn in Egypt, he provided them a Passover lamb. That's how come he delivered them. And when the spirit sanctifies us in the heart, when he sanctifies us in the heart, makes you holy in the heart, that's when you start looking and beholding the Lord Jesus Christ and realize, I can't boast about any holiness in me. There's no way, no way. He's the holy one, that's what scripture calls him, the holy one. and it's in Him and by Him that we've been sanctified by His blood. You know, people accuse us of confounding sanctification and justification. Hebrews 10 is pretty clear. We were sanctified by Christ's one offering as He laid down His life for us and justified us from all our sin before the law. It's all in Christ. It's all by Christ. Sanctification and justification is the Lord. He is so. Well, not only was this declared in the law of Moses, and in all the prophets, it's the same message. It's in the law in the prophets. Go with me to, well, you can just look back at Matthew 1.22, and he quotes Isaiah. He's quoting Isaiah 6, Matthew 1.22. or maybe it's Isaiah 7, I think, Matthew 1.22. But he says this, he says, this is when an angel was announcing the birth of the Lord Jesus in Matthew's account. He said, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. Just like Christ fulfilled all the law, he fulfilled all the prophets. I've said this to you before, people take that passage where he spoke on the Sermon on the Mount, said, I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets, and they say, see there, the law's still in effect, you gotta keep the law. Well, can you keep the prophets? No, he fulfilled the prophets. Well, he fulfilled the law too. He fulfilled it all. But in our text here in Luke 1, In verse 32 it says, he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. He's the only man like his brethren and he's God. That's why salvation's eternal. Verse 35 says, the angel answered said to her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God. He is God with us, brethren. And we could stay right here for a long time. But we see here everything written in the Old Testament is concerning the Lord Jesus. That's what Paul said in Romans 1. He said the gospel is concerning, is what God promised to for by his prophets in the Holy Scripture concerning his son, Christ Jesus. We see here God's absolutely sovereign. He said it all those years before, then brought it to pass. That's what we saw A little while back, that's what distinguishes God as the true God. He declares it before and then brings it to pass. We can learn here God's word is sure. If God has said it, he's bringing it to pass. We should trust everything he speaks. And by Christ fulfilling the law and the prophets, that declares to us he's our salvation. His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Now secondly, let's consider this. This is vital to salvation. Him being born of a virgin is absolutely vital to salvation. Absolutely vital. He had to be the holy one. He had to be holy. Every other sinner's conceived in the womb a sinner. Every one of us. Well, from the day Adam fell, his nature was corrupted. So, you know, when it says he bore a son, when it talks about Seth and says he bore a son, It doesn't say he bore a son in God's image. It says he bore a son in Adam's image. And that was us, brethren. When we were conceived in the womb, we were in Adam's fallen image, corrupt and sinful. Behold, David said, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. I was conceived in sin and as I grew and was shapen in the womb, it was just sin being shapen. We don't become sinners by sinning. We come from the womb and we start to sin because we're sinners. Who taught the little, who taught the little toddler, you know, just under one year old or whatever, who taught that toddler that when you take that pacifier out of their mouth or take something from them, they get all red in the face and get angry? Where'd that come from? Come from the womb. sinners. Christ was born of a woman that he might be a man like those he came to save. And he was of the Holy Spirit that he might be holy so he would be fit to represent his people and fit to go to the cross and be made sin for us. It was required. If he'd have been a sinner like us, he couldn't even went to the cross for us. He had had a debt to pay himself. but he's holy, he's the spotless lamb of God. That's what that spotless lamb and all the sacrifices typified. His thoughts, his words, his deeds, they were without sin. He's sinless in his nature. You and me don't even really, we don't at all know what that's like. We've never experienced that. We will one day, Lord willing, but we don't know it now. So he alone, he's fit, he's fit to bear the sins of his people. You know, they would examine that lamb. They'd go from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, and if they found one hair that was off, they couldn't use that lamb. Or any blemish. If they searched that whole animal, and he was perfect from head to hoof, and they get right to the tail, and there's one little blemish, can't use him. Christ was made under the law. When in the fullness of time, the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. And that law examined him for 33 and a half years from the top of his head to the sole of his foot, inside and out. And the law said, I find no fault in him. He is holy. He is holy. He's righteous. And so he went to the garden of Gethsemane and said, Father, I'll drink the cup you've given me. And He went to that cross, made sin for us, who knew no sin. Everywhere it speaks of Christ being made sin, you know it means He really was made sin. Because when it declares it, it also declares who knew no sin. Why would you make that distinction if you didn't really mean He was made sin? You see what I'm saying? He really was made sin for. but himself knew no sin. But he did it that he might make us the righteousness of God in him. And that's what he did for everybody God gave him. He made us the righteousness of God in him. He died that death we owe to justice. And the law can say nothing else to a dead man. And we came out of that grave in him, justified, both holy and righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, righteousness must be maintained for God to be holy. That's His chief attribute, His holiness. He does love, He is love, but He loves in a way that's holy. He won't clear the guilty. He must punish sin to be holy. He's a just God. Thank God He's also a Savior, a just God and a Savior. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. That's right, mercy and truth are met together in Christ, and only in Him. And the Lord's well pleased for His righteousness sake. He's magnified the law, He's made it honorable, both in His heart and in His deeds. He magnified the law, He made it honorable. And by His sacrifice, it pleased the Lord, It satisfied God's justice. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Now lastly, let me declare the good news in all this. Let me declare the good news in all this. Christ saved His people from the curse on the cross. That's the good news. He didn't try. He did it. He saved His people from the curse, from that eternal death that we would have had to die had He not represented us. He saved his people from the curse of the law on the cross and he made us holy in his holiness. You go home and you read Hebrews 10 very carefully. I quote it all the time because it's, you know, the reason I dwell with that and deal with that a lot is because this is the number one deceitful thing preachers are preaching today. They'll preach everything we preach right up to the point of sanctification and they turn it back and put it in the sinner's hands. And the sinner has room to glory then. They tell him it's partly of God, partly of you. No, it's all of God. It's all by the Lord Jesus. When He really does cause you to be born again, you are made holy, but it's nothing you did. It's a new man created in His holiness. He's the holiness of the new man. Christ in you is the holiness of the new man. And just like when you're conceived in your mother's womb, you are a human being. You're not going to be more of a human being. You'll grow up as a human being, but you're not going to be more of a human being. And when you're born again of God, you are holy and fit to be accepted of God in heaven right then. Now you're going to grow in that state of being holy, but you're not going to grow more holy. Because if you grew more holy by something you did, you could have room to glory, and God won't have it. But in Christ, by Christ, we're holy. Wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Newness of spirit. And people going around boasting that they've kept the law. Paul said in Romans 2, thou that makest thou boast in the law, by breaking the law, you dishonor the law. And men will say, well, we'll see that we're not like them. We don't break it, so we honor it. No, Paul's saying all of us have broken it. All of us continue to break it in our thoughts because our old man of flesh is with us. And so if we go around making a boast that we've kept the law, we dishonor it by breaking it. And we're dishonoring God. Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That's the offense right here before God, is if you and me can boast that we made ourselves holy by our works under the law, we're saying there was no point in Christ even having to die, or that he died in vain. Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are, who are justified by the law. You've fallen from grace. You've left grace altogether. Oh, but that's talking about justification. No, we're not justified by the law. We're talking about sanctification. That's what they'll say. You can't separate justification and sanctification. Because justification has to be from a holy, sanctified heart. And Christ is the only one who had a holy heart and justified his people from all our sins. and we're holy and just in Him. Oh, amazing grace, brethren. Go to 1 Peter 1. This is amazing grace right here now. I hang it all right here. It's all my baskets, all my eggs are in this basket right here. 1 Peter 1, 22. The gospel, this good news, It's not the law that keeps God's people living to Him and loving one another. It's this gospel. Listen right here. 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls, and before this it said it's by Christ that we believe. He came and gave us faith. But seeing you've purified your souls, that's holiness right there. Sanctified through faith, Christ said. Faith that's in me. You've purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Well, how could he say you purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit? We didn't do it. Here's how it happened. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, Verse 25 says, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. And so now, constrained by his love, you see, I say this too all the time, motive is everything now. If you're doing what you're doing from a legal heart, it's not a holy heart. You're trying to indebt God to you, trying to get a reward from God, trying to get something more than somebody else has, that's all legal motives. But if you're doing it because you love him, because you love Christ? There's a love in your heart, you just want to please him and honor him? That's the heart he's giving, that's the holy heart. But we don't offer animals like they did in the Old Testament. What do you offer? Romans 12, one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, because of these mercies he's giving you freely, that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice. Holy. Not to be holy, because you are holy. Holy. Acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Brethren, by the blood of Christ, we belong to Christ. Everything we are, Christ made in his righteousness and holiness, and we're his. Paul said, what, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own? You're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. In your body and in your spirit. We're not under the law, we're under grace. Those that are led of the spirit, they're not under the law, they're under grace. Christ has given us this light and easy yoke. Here's the light and easy yoke, brethren. He said, trust me, believe me. All righteousness is your trust in Christ, believe me, and live to me. Do what you do as unto the Lord. Whether it's your boss, remember, do it as unto the Lord. Spouse, love them as unto the Lord. Children, love them as unto the Lord. Parents, love them as unto the Lord. Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord, like you're doing it to the Lord himself. And He's our strength that washes our feet when we stray, so that He keeps us following Him. He keeps us believing on Him, living to Him alone, and loving one another. That's the light and easy yoke. It's a light and easy yoke in what He commands you to do, and it's light and easy because He's the strength that makes you do it. Oh, I pray today, just like that cloud overshadowed Mary, and there was a new man created in her. I pray the Lord would overshadow somebody through this gospel and create a new man within them, holy, holy, to look at Christ and find all your salvation, everything you need in him. God said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear him. Christ said, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. You believe on Christ, life's yours. Believe on Christ and everlasting life is yours. And for you that believe Him, it's this good news whereby He strengthens us in the new man to keep believing Him and to keep living unto Him and to keep honoring Him in our life. So what are we seeing here? Why a virgin? Well, it was necessary for Christ to fulfill the law and the prophets, and he did. It was necessary for him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might represent us and be the only one God looked to. It was necessary because me and you by nature are unholy and unrighteous, but in Christ and by Christ, He's holy and He's righteous and He has made His people holy and righteous in Him. I pray the Lord today would overshadow us again that believe Him and make us believe Him. John said, I'm writing to you that believe that you might believe. I'm preaching to you that believe that you might believe. And I pray the Lord to work that. Let's go to Him. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your mercy, to your grace, for sending your son, our firstborn brother, our elder brother, our savior, our king, our God, who saved us. Lord, we pray you reveal this in the hearts of all your people, whether it be for the first time or one more time. Keep us looking to Christ. Thank you, Lord, for salvation. Full, free, and complete. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.