I would like to, before I start into what I've prepared, I was listening, I'm afraid I do this, listening to the radio this morning, early in the morning. And you get on Sunday morning, early on AM radio, you get some unusual things. A Tampa preacher, I'm not going to name him or name his church, but a Tampa preacher said something that I call a true lie, or a true falsehood. He said there's only two kind of people. People that are following Jesus and people who are not following Jesus yet. Why do you call that a true lie? Because it's not the story that you need to tell. There are two kinds of people, people who believe in Jesus and people who don't believe in Jesus. Of the people who believe in Jesus, there's two kinds, the ones that believe in Jesus and are disciples, and the ones who believe in Jesus and are not disciples. both kinds believe in Jesus, both kinds save, both kinds go to Heaven. And then of the ones that don't believe in Jesus there are two kinds. There's people who do not believe in Jesus who are following Jesus. That's really scary because they think they're good and they're bad. They think they're on their way to Heaven and they're on their way to Hell because following Jesus doesn't save. I'd like you to look, it's on the screen here, John 12, 35, one of the last things Jesus is recorded by John as saying to the multitudes, Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may be the children of the light. And then John records a bunch of prophecy from Isaiah, how this was prophesied. And then he also records this. Nevertheless, in verse 42, among the chief rulers also many believed on him. Stop for a second. Did many among the chief rulers believe in Jesus? I dare you to say no. It says, yes, they did believe on him. Many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him. What? Well, that's wrong. It's in the Bible. There's believers who did not confess Jesus. Why not? Because they didn't want to be put out of the synagogue. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. There are two kinds of people, believers and unbelievers. Among the believers, there are two kinds, those that follow Jesus, those who confess Him, and those that don't. Always distinguish salvation and discipleship. Salvation is by grace through faith. Discipleship is by doing something, following him, confessing him, learning from him, doing good works. These chief rulers who believed in Jesus are with the Lord, no doubt. But at the judgment seat of Christ, they're going to stand closer to the fire than I hope I will. You know what I'm saying? There is a judgment coming. Some people are afraid of James, the book of James. I'm not afraid of it, I'm afraid he's teaching this very same thing. In James chapter 2 it says you're going to have judgment without mercy. He's writing to believers like these chief rulers that are behaving badly. And there's a judgment coming, and yes, you're there with the Lord, but no, you're not safe from a judgment seat of Christ, which could be very uncomfortable. And for these folks who believe in Him and do not confess Him, it's uncomfortable. I hope you will join the great group of believers who also confess Christ and become disciples and day by day become better disciples. That's what I hope. Don't say there's followers and not followers. And I don't know that this pastor is a bad man. I know he's a well-meaning person probably. But some people think following Jesus is a good way to describe being saved. It's not. How do you describe being saved? Believe all through and through and through the book of Acts. They're not called the disciples most of the time, they're called the believers. They're called the believers over and over and over again. Believers. We are believers and that gets us saved. If we follow the Lord we're disciples and that gets us rewards and blessings. So don't be uncomfortable with that. Stand your ground. This is the truth of the Bible. There are many that believed in Him and sadly because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him lest they should be put out of the synagogue. That's a shame but it doesn't mean they're not saved. Now there's another thing that's not a shame, it's a tragedy. And that's those ones that are following Jesus but they're not believers. Because they may have a blessed life but they end up in hell if they never believe in Jesus. So that's John 12, 42. And you ought to remember it, it's in the Bible. And unless you want to argue with the Gospel of John you cannot say these guys who believed in Him and did not confess Him you can't say they didn't believe in Him because they did. And that's all it takes to be saved. I'd like you to take your Bible, and I don't have a place to do this, turn to the page before the Gospel of Matthew. I don't know what that is. In a Schofield Bible, actually I want you to go to page, it doesn't have a page number on it. 987 It's right after the discussion on the period between Malachi and Matthew. It's kind of a title page to the New Testament. And this one I'm looking at, it says, this Gofield reference Bible, the New Testament. Authorized King James Version, and it goes on Oxford University Press down at the bottom. But I want you to think about, this is the New Testament. What does that mean? It means it's not the Old Testament. Well okay, what's a testament? It's a covenant. When somebody, we only use this word much today when somebody is getting ready to pass away. I hope and I imagine Freddie Coyle left a last will and testament devising his worldly goods to whom he chose to devise them, probably his wife and maybe his children. that's how we use the word testament. In the book of Hebrews it says testament's not of any effect until the death of the testator. As long as Freddie was breathing his will was not in effect. Now he's passed, he's in heaven and that worldly good stuff goes to whatever his will says within the bounds of the law. This in the Bible is called the New Testament. It's called the New Testament because there was an old covenant, an old testament. The first The one that this is new in contrast to is new in contrast to the covenant that God made, I don't know, He made one with Adam and He made one with Abraham and He made one with Moses. Let's contrast it to the one He made with Moses. That fills most of the Old Testament. The covenant with Moses was a covenant of works. It didn't save anybody. it showed them how badly they needed a Savior. But this new covenant is in contrast to that, and it's a covenant of grace. We're not going to spend any time here, but in John chapter 1 it says... Verse 17, the law was given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. This is a new covenant. Matthew and Mark and Luke and John record the good news that is the foundation of the new covenant. They record not a biography, but a life and good story, good message about Jesus, who is the promised one of the Old Testament. So we go from the New Covenant, and there's in Scofield's book three pages about the Gospels, but on page 903 we would be going to the first page of the Gospel of Matthew. But I want to introduce you first to who this Matthew guy is. He doesn't talk much about himself in his Gospels. Who is this Matthew guy? In Mark 2.13, it's on the slides, you can turn or not, Jesus went forth again by the seaside and all the multitude resorted unto him. And he taught them. There's a crowd out, not in the synagogue, out on the seaside in the hills, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Altheus, sitting at the receipt of custom. What's this guy do? He's a tax collector. And he said unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Levi is another name for Matthew. Jesus sat at meat in his house. Many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and the disciples. They were many. They followed him. They're just following around. These guys are disciples. Are they believers yet? Don't know. When the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans, that's what they called tax collectors, it's not republicans. Republicans may or may not be honorable people, but publicans were just a mess. publicans were tax collectors who collected for the government the taxes using the power of the government, that is to say soldiers and police, and could take by force whatever, and then they were responsible to pay the taxes that were due and they kept what was left over. So they were known to be taking more than they were supposed to take. So they were appropriately called publicans and then sinners, that's the other kind of sinners, just like maybe bad bad guys. How is it He eats and drinks with publicans and sinners? Jesus when He heard it He said, they that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, to change their mind about who I am and what God has done for them. Stop trying, start trusting. That's how Mark introduces Matthew, excuse me. Here's how Luke introduces Matthew, same setting, much the same thing. After these things he went forth and saw a publican, one of them bad tax collectors, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom. He said unto him, follow me. And this is weird, Levi left all, rose up and followed him. What has he got? Left all. He's got a table full of money. He just left it, got up and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house and it was a great company of publicans, the fellowship of tax collectors. Don't you know? Every Christmas all the IRS agents get together and celebrate all the money they've taken from you. And of others that sat down with him, the scribes and the Pharisees, those are the good people, those are the ones from church, murmured against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? They spit when they talk about those people. And Jesus gave them that same answer. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Which of those groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees and scribes or the publicans and sinners, which of them is more likely to see their need of a savior? The sinners. They know they're needing something. In the middle of in the not quite the end of Sunday school last week, I got called down the hall. My wife needed a physician. I got her in the car and we were headed home and she said, I think I'm having a heart attack. And at that point, I wasn't heading home anymore. I was heading to the emergency room. And we went there and they tested her every which way and assured her she was not at that moment having a heart attack and relieved the pressure in her chest with some nitroglycerin and said, you need to see a cardiologist real soon. And so she's seen one and he's going to see him again tomorrow. more testing. But when you need a physician, you need a physician. Some people say, I don't trust them doctors. Yeah, but do you trust anybody else? What? If I got a hole in the boat I need to know somebody else that knows how to fix the boat. Alright, well we're done with the introduction to Matthew both in Mark and in Luke. He's introduced as a sinful man, a tax collector. And yet he's given the privilege to introduce this first of the gospel records. You say, well isn't, isn't, I read somewhere Mark is supposed to be first. That's wrong. I've read that too, it's wrong. Ancient manuscripts have at the end of them, I'd say this, about 500 manuscripts from the family I think represents the original, the family we call the received text basically, a family of Greek manuscripts. 500 of them contain the Gospels complete and most of those, half of those or more, at the end of the Gospel of Matthew have this little thing written on, they call a colophon. And it says that Matthew was written, you remember Mark, was it eight years after the ascension of Jesus Christ? And I said, Mark, Matthew, eight years after the ascension. It's about 38 A.D. About 38. That's the earliest one. It says Mark's another few years later and then Luke is after that a bit and John is up into quite a few years later in the 50s A.D. in his second introductory paragraph under here on page 993 says, the date of Matthew has been much discussed but no convincing reason has been given for discrediting the traditional date of AD 37. Schofield was familiar with those colophons that we just discussed. So those guys that say, no, no, Mark was first and then Matthew copied from, that's not what happened. That's not what happened. On we go. This is a book with a title. It's not, it's just written there at the top of the page in the Bible, The Gospel According to St. Matthew. That's in the old manuscripts too, even though it might not be in the digital copy I'm looking at here. the gospel according to St. Matthew, or the gospel according to Matthew. What's that word, gospel? I mentioned earlier Freddie Coyle gone to heaven. Freddie Coyle was by trade an evangelist. Evangelist. In English we spell it E-V-A-N-G-E-L-I-S-T. This word gospel if you put it in English letters is E-V-A-N-G-E-L-I-S-T. I-A, evangelia. Pronounced a little different in Greek, but it's the same word. A person who shares the gospel is an evangelist. The gospel that he shares is what an evangelist shares. It's got two parts to it. You might recognize in the second part of it, A-N-G-E-L, the word angel, which is a messenger. and the E-U or E-V prefix means good. Good, and in this case not the good messenger, but the good message. The good message is literally what that word means. The good message, the good news. Good news, good news, Christ died for me. That's what it is, it's all about the Gospel. We say Gospel because we say good news. It's the same thing. The good news according to Saint Matthew. Mark wrote it differently, Luke wrote it differently, John wrote it differently, but they all were writing the good news. At the end of John's Gospel he says, the reason I wrote this one is to write down these seven signs that Jesus did in the presence of his disciples. And these signs are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing you might have life through his name. John's Gospel says it was written so that people hearing the story of Jesus and understanding what He did would believe in Him, believe in His name, and they would by that believing have life. It's the Gospel tract of the whole Bible, the whole New Testament. Matthew doesn't have that same purpose. You read through Matthew and you'll see lots and lots more reference to Old Testament prophecies, more than John or Mark or Luke. You'll see lots of references to Jesus being the king of the kingdom. Matthew's the only one that talks about the kingdom of heaven. The others talk about the kingdom of God, but Matthew talks about the kingdom of heaven. And he does so because he's introducing the king of the kingdom of heaven. There's going to be a time when Heaven rules on the Earth. It's not yet, by the way. Have you noticed we're not under the domination of Heaven as far as our American political system? It just isn't quite right yet. Somebody who is not God is in charge of the presidency and the White House and a bunch of politics. But there's coming a time when the kingdom of Heaven will be on the earth and the king will be ruling on the earth, and Matthew was introducing that concept. There's a kingdom coming, and the king is here for now. He introduces the king and the kingdom is specifically for Israel. Israel, God's chosen people, they messed up, they rejected Jesus, By and large, John says, he came to his own creation and his own people, the Jews, received him not. And then there's that nice, oh, by the way, but, but as many as received him, to them gave you the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. There are exceptions. There are many, many Jews who have believed in Jesus. Most of the early church was Jewish. It was a surprise to the Jewish believers that the Gentiles could get in. But they could. And God surprised them with that. And Paul calls it in Ephesians, this mystery of the church. There's one new thing, not Jew, not Gentile, the church of God. In any case, Matthew is writing mostly to a Jewish audience about a Jewish connection with God. He relies on their Old Testament book and says, now we got the new one here. This is the good news, according to Matthew. And we are finally to verse one. And it starts off saying the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. This word of God that we have has always been written in a book. By the way, on the notes on page two, I'm going to mention here, I touched this without looking at it. in the middle of the column 2 of my notes it says side note, I will refer to family 35 as the most likely original text of the New Testament. The whole family has something like 3,000 manuscripts of them 500 manuscripts of the Gospels and of the manuscripts that have the Gospels half of them have this colophon stuff, an inscription at the end of the book And it very consistently says, Matthew published eight years after the ascension of Christ. That makes the traditional date of Matthew about 38, or Schofield says 37 AD, in that vicinity. The same colophons say Mark is about 40, Luke at about 45, and John at 62. All, listen to me, all New Testament manuscripts of the Bible, all of them, put Matthew first among the four Gospels. Nobody started putting Mark in front of Matthew until the 19th century. And they were wrong and they were stupid. I can say that. I'm a doctor. That's a joke. On column number three, page three of my notes it mentions the New Testament. The new covenant, the New Testament was promised in the old In Jeremiah 31, 31, I'll just do it over here. Jeremiah 31, 31, it's kind of easy to remember because the verse and chapter are the same. Jeremiah 31, 31, the new covenant. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt." He's talking about Moses, isn't he? Which my covenant they break. What? They broke it? Yeah. Although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But here's the new one, this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more, every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord. They were supposed to do that. They don't. And it says, they shall all know me. Oh, when you get to the kingdom where heaven is ruling on the earth, people are going to know the Lord. From the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, I will forgive what I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Wow. That's a good covenant. What about that old one? They broke it. wasn't very good, needed to get superseded. The new covenant God says, I will forgive their iniquity, I will remember their sin no more. That sounds to me like what Paul refers to in Romans chapter 4. In Romans chapter 4 In verse 3, he says, the Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. To him that works, it's not grace, it's debt. But to him that works not, but believes on, here's a name for God, him that justifieth the ungodly. If you're in that group, raise your hand. I hope you recognize we're not saved because we're godly. God justifies ungodly people believe in him, his faith. In the one that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted. It's put down in the check register. I've got one laying on the pew there. It's put down in the checkbook of God in heaven under your account. Righteousness. Because you believe God puts it down as a deposit of righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ in your account, and then David describes the blessed to the man unto whom God imputes righteousness. He puts it down on the account without work, saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Wow. What did God say about that new covenant? He said. Their sins. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Sometimes we're not as good at that as God is. Somebody will say, I need to apologize. I did you wrong. Would you please forgive me? That happens sometimes. And we say, OK, I forgive you. But inside we say, but I'm not going to forget it. Yeah, we're like that. God says, I'm going to forgive their iniquity and I'm going to remember their sin no more. We sing a song, what sin are you talking about? I don't remember them anymore. In the book of life they've all been torn out. I don't remember them anymore. This idea of a new covenant is taught over in the book of Hebrews as well. Hebrews chapter 8, he quotes in verse 8, Hebrews chapter 8 verse 8 finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according, this is just quoting Jeremiah 31, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them out by the hand to lead them out of the hand of Egypt. They continued not in my covenant. Paul softened it there in Hebrews. God said they broke it. and I regard of them not, saith the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my law in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I'll be to them a God, and they shall be a people. And they won't even teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. they'll all know me from the least to the greatest. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And it goes on, it says there's a new covenant because the old is old and if it's old it's ready to vanish away. This is a new thing, this New Testament that Matthew is the first proclaimer of. The New Testament In Hebrews 12, one last reference to this new covenant in verse 24, almost done with Hebrews here. We're talking about where we're going. You're come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, not just the one there in Palestine, in Israel. An innumerable company of angels. He says you're going to heaven. You're come to heaven to the general assembly and church of the firstborn written in heaven and to God the judge of all and the spirits of just men. Just men, made perfect. It doesn't mean no women. Justified men, made perfect. Don't say just men in heaven. Justified men in heaven. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. What? He's the one that's the one that puts his hand on the father and his hand on the believer and says in the New Covenant, the blood of sprinkling, better than the blood of Abel. That's the book of Hebrews, teaching about the New Testament. If we looked, we looked at Mark for a minute, but if we look at Mark chapter one, we're not teaching Mark this time, but Mark starts off by saying, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The title in the manuscripts is the gospel of Mark, but then verse one, he says, this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. the Son of God. It's there. Good message. That word gospel is used 77 times in the New Testament and you've seen some of them because they're so important. In Galatians 3 in verse 8 Paul says, "...the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all the nations be blessed. They that be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Abraham is before Moses, you know that? Quite a while before Moses. God made this arrangement with Abraham. He says Abraham believed God, he counted it to him for righteousness. in thee shall all the nations be blessed. There's a descendant of Abraham coming that's going to give this justification by faith to everybody. They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. In Genesis 12, I'm going to go back there where it says it. Genesis 12 in verse 3, here's God dealing with Abraham, get out! Go out a place I'll tell you later about, and I'm going to bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." That's the first time God's promised to Abraham that he'd be a blessing to all nations, as mentioned. And then I want to, before we get too far gone here in time, I want to look with you at something you know I love, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, talking about what is the content of the message, the good news of Jesus Christ. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18 it says all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ he's taken away that which stood between you've seen this before it's called sin if this is me and this is God before Jesus I had a problem sin separates me from God. But the gospel is the story of how that separation is taken out of the way. And then this verse 18 says, he's given to us who believe the ministry, the service of reconciliation. We're supposed to be taking this message about God and Jesus and us and the sin problem and Jesus died and paid for it, rose again. And passing it on, we've got that service from God. And here's what it is, the ministry of reconciliation. Two wit is not four half wits. Two wit is that is to say God was in Christ. Please don't tell my wife I said that. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Here's God in Heaven, He sent His Son Jesus to Earth. We're separated from God. Jesus and sinners, He said He was separate from sinners. He never got involved in sin and yet He'd go hug a leper and make him whole. He went to Pharisees and rather to publicans' houses and had dinner. He was in Christ and He took what stood between men and God out of the way. When He died on the cross He paid for sin, he really did. My standing with sin is I'm separated from God. God sent his son, he died on the cross, he took the sin on himself, he paid the penalty, it's gone. Reconciling the world unto himself, not some small group out of the world, the world. And then just in case that wasn't clear, not imputing their trespasses unto them. You got your checkbook there, right? In your checkbook, Is your sin written against you? Is it on deposit against you? God said it's on Jesus. He doesn't, as He looks in your checkbook He says, you should wipe that line out. That's not there in my mind. And has committed unto us this word of reconciliation. We, the believers, are ambassadors for Christ as though we did beseech you by, God did beseech you by us. We're begging you. We're beseeching you, we're begging you. We pray you, we ask you please in Christ's head be you reconciled to God. There's work to do. Yes the sin is paid for. The work is not to pay for sin, the work is people over here don't know their sin is paid for. We need to tell them, hey Jesus took that sin, it's not on you anymore. You need to know that. Believe in Jesus. Be reconciled to God. And here's the last verse of the chapter. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the very righteousness of God in Him. How do you get in Him? You believe in Him. That's the gospel, that's the ministry of reconciliation, that's the word of reconciliation. Here's the ministry of reconciliation, here's what it is, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. All right, now we're going to go back to Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1 like we were going to get started. I know, it's 5 minutes after 10. Life is like that. It's a book. It's a book. What does it say in Genesis chapter 5? This is the book of the generations of Adam. Huh. That's a lot like Matthew chapter 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Adam, or one of his descendants, wrote down his genealogy. Here's Adam. He lived 130 years, had a boy, called his name Seth. died. Seth lived 105 years, had a boy named Enos. Enos lived 90 years, had a boy named Cainan. Cainan lived 70 years and had a boy named Mahalalil. You'd think they'd have got better names by this time. Mahalalil lived 65 years, boy that's a young'un for having children in those days, and had Jared And Jared lived 162 years before he had Enoch, and that was probably wise. Enoch lived 65 years, a young'un, but then he was leaving, had Methuselah. And after he had Methuselah, he walked with God. And they were so far from Enoch's house one day that God said, you know, we're closer to my house than to your house. Why don't you just come home with me? And so they did. It says he walked with God and he was not, for God took him. After Methuselah was born, he lived 187 years and had Lamech. And then he lived After Lamech 782 years with sons and daughters he lived a total of 969 years before he died and then there was Lamech and his son's name was Noah the Comforter. Methuselah lived right up until the time of the great flood. But that's a book of the generations. And in Matthew we have a book of the generation of Jesus Christ. two notable landmarks on this book of the generation. One is he's the son of David and the other is the son of Abraham. Abraham came first and Abraham's the one that God gave the covenant to, the promise to that in him would all the families of the earth be blessed. Somebody descended of Abraham is going to be the source of the blessing for all the families on the face of the earth. Genesis 12 and so many other times through the book of Genesis God made that deal with Abraham. And then the son of David a son of David. Yeah, David was the second king of Israel. The first king turned out to kind of be a not such a good guy, Saul. But David, when he was doing what he was supposed to be doing, David got a promise from God that said, you're never going to lack somebody of your descendants to be on the throne of Israel. A son of David will rule over my people Israel forever. That's the deal God, the covenant God made with David. And Jesus is not only the descendant of Abraham, by whom all the world will be blessed with the blessing of Abraham, that of faith, but the son of David, the one that will rule over the house of Israel as king forever. So those are the landmarks. A Jewish person reading that saying, huh, that's a special dude. That's a special guy. Abraham, they got Isaac, and Isaac, they got Jacob, and so on. Go down through here and you get to Jesse begat David the king and David begat Solomon and goes on on Solomon's line. And then it gets on all the way here to going away, going away. And eventually you get to Jacob begat Joseph, verse 16, the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus who is called the Christ. It does not say Joseph begat Jesus, does it? through and through and through. It says this one begat this one, and this one begat this one, and this one begat this one. But Jacob begat Joseph, he's the husband of Mary of whom, of Mary, was born Jesus called the Christ. Then it gives a little memory help here. All the generations from Abraham to David are 14, and from David to the carrying away to Babylon are 14, and from the carrying away to Babylon to Christ are 14. It's just a help so you can remember these things. It's a memory help. You know why? Didn't have written down They were precious and expensive, so you had to memorize stuff. A lot of memory work going on. Three divisions of 14 generations, and then a summary verse there. Now there's another genealogy over in Luke's gospel. In Luke 3, do I have that here? I don't know. Matthew, Luke, that's not it. We'll just go over this way. Luke, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Worm. That's not right. Luke, chapter 3. Luke is another one who gives the good news. In Luke 3, it's in verse 23. After introducing John the Baptist, it says the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Jesus began to be about 30 years of age. as was supposed the son of Joseph. You know, you can read son and think son-in-law if you want to, that's what we've probably got here. Because son-in-law, Joseph the son of Heli, that's probably son-in-law in italics, you see that? He's not saying Heli begat Joseph, doesn't say that. We already know the guy that begat Joseph was not Heli, it's somebody else. And this whole line here of the parentage from Heli on back looks to be the line of Mary. Joseph and Matthew gave Jesus the legal right to the throne of David because he was the son of David, the heir of the throne. But you go back in Mary's line, I'm too far. There's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here's David. It says here, Matathah, the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, the son of Jesse. Wait a minute, I thought it was Solomon that was the son of David. Yeah, Solomon was the son of David. He had an older brother named Nathan. Well, why did Solomon get to be king? Because David said so. Right? Nathan was there. And he had children and among his descendants was this girl named Mary that married the descendant of Solomon, her husband Joseph. But before they came together Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary. From there on the genealogies run the same but they don't stop at Abraham. Isaac, Abraham, you go right on back past where Matthew went from Abraham to Terah to Nahor and all the way back to Methuselah and Enoch and Enos and Seth and Adam. and it ends up saying Adam was of God, Adam was God's doing. That's how he got here. So, in the notes it says David's son Nathan, not Solomon, Mary's genealogy. Matthew gives the legal genealogy of Joseph, giving Jesus the right to the title son of David, the royal line. We get now back to Matthew 1 verse 18 and go on past the genealogy We see the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. And I'm going to be out of time in two minutes, so I'm not going to start into this. We'll pick it up right there the next time we gather together. But I want you to think about what we started the class today with. There's not two kinds of people, followers of Jesus and people who are not following Jesus. That's a true lie. The truth is there are believers and believers of two kinds, those that are also disciples and those that are not. And there are unbelievers and some of those follow Jesus and that's sad because they think they're okay and they're not. And there are unbelievers who do not follow Jesus, that's just the normal rascal. But there are believers who do not follow Jesus and that's a shame. And there are Believers who do follow Jesus, that's what we're supposed to be doing. Be careful you're not in the group of unbelievers who follow Jesus. That can fool you. If you believe in Jesus, you're saved. If you believe in Jesus and then do what the Bible says, you're a disciple, a follower. Two different things. Don't ever confuse salvation and service. Don't confuse salvation by grace through faith and the service that will bring blessings in this lifetime and rewards in eternity in heaven. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, as we gather together for our service and our worship and our praise and our time of prayer and singing and the message from your word from Pastor Jesse, Sense us about, guard us around. Father, strengthen and empower the pastor, the preacher, as he brings the word this morning. Make it plain and make it clear. Encourage him. He may have a heavy heart because his friend Freddie Coyle has gone to heaven and won't be here anymore. encourage him and help him to remind us how good it is to go to heaven, precious in the sight of the Lord as the death of his saints. For those of us that know others that are suffering or failing or perhaps leaving soon to go to be with the Lord, we pray that you'll be a great encouragement to us and we to them as we know and share the comfort that you've comforted us with. We pray if there's anybody listening to this that is confused because they thought they were okay because they were following Jesus, help them to see and realize God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We beseech you, we beg you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. Believe in Jesus. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.