{"id":18304,"date":"2018-12-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/begotten-and-not-made\/"},"modified":"2018-12-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T06:00:00","slug":"begotten-and-not-made","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/begotten-and-not-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Begotten and Not Made"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[68],"series_event":[440],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18304","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-isaiah","series_event-christmas-sermons","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Begotten and Not Made","sermon_date":"20181223","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6308,"sermon_slides":6319,"sermon_mp3":6313,"sermon_id":"122318175542013","series_or_event":440,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":68,"chapter_and_verse":"7:13-14","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nChristmas Sermon \u2013 Begotten and Not Made\n\n12-23-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isaiah 7:13-14\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Isaiah 7, verses 13-14.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Begotten and Not Made.\u00a0 We\u2019re taking a little break from our study in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0\u00a0 I had thought about teaching the Book of Revelation this morning and it talks in the Book of Revelation, the section we\u2019re in, about half of the world\u2019s population being wiped out and so I really didn\u2019t know how to title that into a Christmas message.\u00a0 So I decided to do something that we did Friday, Jim McGowan and myself, on Pastor\u2019s Point of View, defending the virgin birth.\u00a0 And we got so man wonderful comments on that that I thought I would share what we taught there in a sermon form this morning.\n\nI would encourage you also to track with us either by streaming or preferably your attendance, our Christmas Eve service tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m.\u00a0 Kind of our format is to some traditional Christmas songs and you\u2019re going to have a brief message from me and by that I mean brief, as in ten minutes (people don\u2019t think that\u2019s possible but we have the recordings to prove that it can be done).\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of a time to not let the materialism of the holidays sort of overtake its meaning.\u00a0 We recognize that Christmas Eve is sort of a family time and we try to be very respectful of that but it\u2019s just an opportunity to sort of gather as Christ\u2019s body with fellow believers and really focus our thoughts on The Reason For The Season by Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So I\u2019d encourage you to look at that.\u00a0 In fact we got some church members one time out of that, I think the whole Wren family came (and they brought their extended) family came because of one single Christmas Eve service.\u00a0 And Janet Wren, as you know, helped put on our whole thing that we had with the children\u2019s program. So you never know what God is going to do with a single Christmas Eve service.\u00a0 So praise God.\n\nWe\u2019re in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verses 13-14.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Begotten and Not Made.\u00a0 And I\u2019m very sad to say that we\u2019re in a time period where the doctrine of the virgin birth, which is what we\u2019re celebrating this coming week, is under assault today, not even so much by liberals, people outside of Christendom, but by people within Christianity itself.\u00a0 One well known evangelical pastor identified the virgin birth in a recent podcast as a science defying miracle that proved something about Jesus.\u00a0 He says: \u201cWhether you believe the virgin birth story or not\u201d this particular pastor went on to say, \u201cit\u2019s literal factuality is not the point.\u201d\u00a0 Now those are the words coming, not from a liberal but from a pastor within Christianity --- the literal fact of the virgin birth of Christ is really not that big of a deal.\n\nAnother evangelical pastor said this, he said:\u00a0 \u201cMaybe the thought is that they had to come up with some myth about the birth of Jesus to give Him some street cred later on.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting because Matthew gives us a version of the birth of Jesus, Luke does; Mark and John don\u2019t even mention it.\u00a0 And a lot has been made out of that.\u00a0 So it\u2019s only found in two books of the Bible, two Gospels, not the other two, so that would diminish its importance in the mind of this evangelical pastor.\u00a0 He goes on and he says, \u201cYou have heard me say some version of this a million times but if somebody can predict their own death and resurrection I\u2019m not all that concerned about how they got into the world because the whole resurrection thing is so amazing and in fact you should know this, Christianity does not hinge on the truth or even the stories about the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 It really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nSo in the mind of this particular evangelical pastor what\u2019s really important is not the birth of Christ, that\u2019s kind of inconsequential; what\u2019s really important is the resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 Now from this pulpit we will defend the literal resurrection of Jesus and we will communicate to people its importance.\u00a0 But this particular pastor says that\u2019s all you need, the resurrection of Christ, which we believe in here.\u00a0 What you believe about the birth of Christ, whether it\u2019s a fact or whether it\u2019s a myth is somewhat irrelevant.\n\nAnd one of the things to understand about theology is this: I have analogized it many times to dominoes in a row.\u00a0 If you knock over a single domino the other ones start to topple very, very fast.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I would like to demonstrate to you this morning in this special topical message entitled \u201cBegotten and not Made\u201d concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ which we are celebrating this coming Tuesday.\u00a0 Why is the virgin birth of Christ, that Jesus was born of a virgin, why is that a big deal?\u00a0 Why is it something that should not be minimized?\u00a0 Why is it something that should not be marginalized. Why is it something that should not be explained away?\u00a0\u00a0 And the answer is if you start to tamper with the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ these seven dominoes that I have on the screen will start to fall over very, very rapidly.\u00a0 [To fulfill Old Testament prophecy, To emphasize Christ\u2019s humanity and deity, To emphasize Christ\u2019s eternality, To maintain Christ\u2019s sinlessness, To protect the bodily atonement, To circumvent the curse of Jeconiah, To vindicate the New Testament.]\n\nAnd in fact, I believe there is a reason why the devil himself in the last days is attacking this doctrine.\u00a0 He\u2019s attacking this doctrine because he understands that if you gut, if you can rewrite, if you can obfuscate the virgin birth of Christ in the minds of people\u00a0 Christianity itself will quickly topple.\u00a0 Therefore I believe that the virgin birth of Christ is just as significant as the resurrection of Christ; if you don\u2019t have either you don\u2019t have a Christian that we know, we don\u2019t have a Savior that can save us from our sins.\n\nSo the sermon outline\u00a0 this morning is as follows: Why the Virgin Birth, Seven Reasons.\u00a0 Seven dominoes are protected if the virgin birth\u00a0 is true; these seven dominoes tumble, topple, collapse, if the virgin birth is not true.\n\nThe first reason why the virgin birth is so significant is to fulfill Old Testament prophecy.\u00a0 God Himself hundred and in some cases thousands of\u00a0 years in advance said that when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, comes into this world He will be born of a virgin.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t have to look far in the Bible to see this.\u00a0 In fact, in Genesis 3:15 we have the first Messianic prophecy.\u00a0 Some refer to this as the protoevangelium, meaning first gospel; the fall of man has just happened, Genesis 3, and now we see God\u2019s solution to man\u2019s problem of the fall\u2014a Coming Savior!\n\nAnd Genesis 3:15 reads as follows, God says to Satan, \u201cAnd I will put enmity Between you and the woman, and between your seed and\u201d notice this next expression, \u201cher seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 There\u2019s coming one from the seed of the woman, Eve, who will take Satan\u2019s head and crush it.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that this coming one is identified as \u201cher\u201d seed, the seed of the woman.\u00a0 Now you might be thinking well wait a minute, I thought this seed belonged to the man, doesn\u2019t the man contain the sperm necessary to impregnate the woman.\u00a0 The seed should be his seed, shouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what your Bible says;\u00a0 your Bible says \u201cher seed.\u201d\u00a0 So this is sort of the first clue, if you will, somewhat veiled, that the seed that the woman would possess which would bring forth the Messiah would not be the seed of the man, it would be something supernaturally transmitted or planted within her.\n\nNow the prophecies continue, notice Isaiah 7:13-14, that\u2019s the passage I had you open up to,\u00a0 you know these verses well, it\u2019s on all your Christmas cards, and it says this: \u201cThen he said, \u201cListen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?\u00a0 [14] Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,\u201d which means God with us.\n\nThis is a prophecy given possibly seven hundred years before Jesus was born; seven hundred years is an awful long time, seven centuries.\u00a0 The United States of America has only been here two hundred and thirty plus years; this is more than double, almost triple the length of the birthday of the\u00a0 United States of America, roughly speaking, and seven hundred years in advance God says there\u2019s coming one who will be a Messiah, Immanuel, Jesus Christ, and He will be born of a virgin.\n\nNow when you begin to use Isaiah 7:14 to argue for the virgin birth of Christ you run into very quickly three counter arguments; I want to share those with you very fast because when you\u2019re watching the Mysteries of the Bible, A&E, The History Channel, etc. they bring on all of these scholars talking about how foolish it is for Christians to believe Isaiah 7:14 has anything to do with Jesus Christ.\n\nThe first argument that they use is the Hebrew word for virgin, translated \u201cvirgin\u201d is Almah<\/em>, and they say well, that\u2019s not even a Hebrew word for virgin, that just means a young woman, a young maiden of marriageable age.\u00a0 And the word that should have been used is Betulah<\/em> for virgin.\u00a0 And so they believe that Isaiah 7:14 is not even talking about the virgin birth of Christ.\u00a0 The problem with that is Betulah<\/em> doesn\u2019t always mean virgin.\u00a0 Over in the Book of Joel chapter 1, verse 8, Betulah<\/em> means a widow.\u00a0 [Joel 1:8, \u201cWail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.\u201d]\n\nNow just to show you how fast this argument will come at you I was listening to a well-known talk show host that I agree with on political things, Dennis Prager, who I have a lot of respect for, but I was listening to him one time on the radio and all of a sudden he starts going off on how silly it is to believe that Isaiah 7:14 is a reference to Jesus, Dennis Prager being Jewish, and he says don\u2019t these Christians understand that the word Alma<\/em> doesn\u2019t mean virgin, and the word Betulah<\/em> means virgin.\u00a0 And I thought to myself I wish he would read Joel 1:8, because Joel 1:8 is very clear that the word Betulah<\/em> does not always mean virgin.\n\nThe second argument that they give is the Hebrew word Almah<\/em> does not mean virgin; they say this over and over again, it just means a young woman of marriageable age.\u00a0 That\u2019s all it means.\u00a0 And let\u2019s respond to that, can we?\u00a0 Do a Hebrew word study on Almah<\/em> sometime; trace how that word is used in all of its contexts in the Old Testament and what you\u2019ll discover is it\u2019s\u00a0 used about six times, I\u2019ve got the references there on the screen, Genesis 24:23, Exodus 2:8, Psalm 68:25, Song of Solomon 1:3, 6:8, Proverbs 30:18-19.\n\n[Genesis 24:23, \u201cand said, \u2018Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father's house?\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Exodus 2:8, \u201cPharaoh's daughter said to her, \u2018Go ahead.\u2019 So the girl went and called the child's mother.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Psalm 68:25, \u201cThe singers went on, the musicians after them, In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Song of Solomon 1:3, \u201cYour oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the maidens love you.\u201d\u00a0 Song of Solomon 6:8, \u201cThere are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number;\u00a0 Proverbs 30:18-19, \u201cThere are three things which are too wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand: [19] The way of an eagle in the sky, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the middle of the sea, And the way of a man with a maid.\u201d]\n\nAnd I would challenge anybody to show me any use where virgin can\u2019t apply.\u00a0 For example, the Genesis 24 passage is talking about Isaac\u2019s wife, future wife, Rebecca.\u00a0 [Genesis 24:23, \u201cand said, \u2018Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father's house?\u2019\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, is it so hard to imagine that she\u2019d be a virgin; maybe in this day and age, the 21st<\/sup> century it\u2019s hard to imagine but not back in biblical times.\u00a0 It talks in the Song of Solomon about singers in Solomon\u2019s court; is it too hard to believe that those singers would be virgins?\u00a0 So you can look at all of these usages and you can say well, the word Almah<\/em> could easily mean virgin in all of these usages.\n\nAnd beyond that there is something that you may be familiar with, maybe you\u2019re not familiar with, it\u2019s called the Septuagint.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got it abbreviated there the LXX, meaning seventy, translated by seventy scholars in seventy days and what it is, it\u2019s a Greek translation of Hebrew Bible roughly two hundred years before Jesus showed up.\u00a0 A full two centuries before Jesus walked this earth there was actually a translation of Hebrew Bible into Greek called the Septuagint.\u00a0 Why were they even\u00a0 messing around with that translation?\u00a0 Because of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great had made the Greek language in the intertestamental period the known language of the day and so these folks wanted the Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament, understood in Greek.\n\nAnd it\u2019s very interesting that when the Septuagint translators got to Isaiah 7:14, the passage we referenced earlier and saw the word Almah<\/em>, do you know what word they used?\u00a0 They used the word Parthenos<\/em> to translate it from Hebrew into Greek.\u00a0 You say well who cares?\u00a0 It means everything because Parthenos<\/em> in the Greek language is a technical term that always means virgin.\u00a0 And so they apparently thought that Isaiah 7:14 specifically was a prophecy about the virgin birth of Christ and if all that weren\u2019t enough you have Matthew 1:23.\u00a0 [Isaiah 7:14, \u201cTherefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.\u201d]\n\nMatthew is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Greek New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, and he got to Matthew 1:23 and he is quoting Isaiah 7:14 and he translates the verse this way:\u00a0 \u201cBehold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,\u201d which translated means \u2018God with us.\u201d\u00a0 Now when Matthew got to the word Almah<\/em> in Isaiah 7:14 guess what Greek word he used?\u00a0 The same word the Septuagint translators used, Parthenos<\/em>.\u00a0 So what is the point?\u00a0 The point is I think Almah<\/em> does mean virgin.\u00a0 And I think the Septuagint translators agree with me on that, even more important than the Septuagint translators Matthew writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit agrees with that interpretation.\n\nA third argument that people use to dismiss the virgin birth of Christ in Isaiah 7:13-14 is they say well how does this have any relevance to the audience?\u00a0 I mean, Isaiah is talking about things happening in his own day, how does this have any relevance to the crisis that he was facing, talking about someone that wouldn\u2019t be born seven hundred years later.\u00a0 And so they think that our position on it somehow removes the prophecy from the crisis of Isaiah\u2019s immediate day.\u00a0 And they say you know what, virgin birth of Christ, that\u2019s not what it\u2019s talking about, Isaiah 7, because there\u2019s a kid born in Isaiah 8, did you notice that?\u00a0 There\u2019s a prophecy in Isaiah 7, there\u2019s a kid born in Isaiah 8, and they say well, you know, that\u2019s how Isaiah 7 was fulfilled. [Isaiah 8:3, \u201cSo I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.\u201d] Nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with Christmas, just move right on folks.\n\nThe problem is when you start to scrutinize the details you start to see very fast that Isaiah 7 was never fulfilled in Isaiah 8. The child that Isaiah is talking in Isaiah 7 is named Immanuel; the kid in Isaiah is Maher-shalal-hash-baz, say that seven times fast.\u00a0 [Isaiah 8:3b, \u201cThen the LORD said to me, \u201cName him Maher-shalal-hash-baz;\u201d]\u00a0 The child in Isaiah 7 is a blessing, the kid in Isaiah 8 is a sign of coming judgment.\u00a0 The child in Isaiah 7 is born to a virgin; the child in Isaiah is born to Isaiah\u2019s wife.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s a reference to another child as I\u2019ll mention in just a moment named Shear Jashub, his age is twelve in Isaiah 7, the child in Isaiah 8 is age one and two.\u00a0 The child in Isaiah 7 is Assyrian judgment upon Judah, Old Testament times; the child in Isaiah 8 is Assyrian judgment upon Syria and Israel.\n\nAnd you see, this is what the history channel is not going to tell you; they\u2019re not going to tell you all of these details, they\u2019re just going to try to sell you on this line that somehow the Isaiah 8 child is the fulfillment of the Isaiah 7 prophecy. And I\u2019m here to tell you that\u2019s not true because the Isaiah 8 child is completely different than the child in Isaiah 7.\u00a0 And everybody says Isaiah 7 has to be relevant to the original audience, it can\u2019t be a prophecy seven hundred years in advance about a coming Messiah.\u00a0 Well guess what else is in Isaiah?\u00a0 Isaiah 53.\u00a0 I hope we understand what Isaiah 53 is about.\u00a0 It\u2019s about Jesus.\u00a0 In fact, that was the prophecy used to lead the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ in Acts 8.\u00a0 Philip, as he\u2019s evangelizing the Ethiopian eunuch understood Isaiah 53 as talking about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 No one has a problem with that.\u00a0 But all of a sudden they have some big problem with Isaiah 7 as being some kind of prophecy that doesn\u2019t relate to Isaiah\u2019s time period.\n\nYou start playing games with Isaiah 7 and it\u2019s not long until you\u2019re playing games with Isaiah 53. And even beyond that what does Isaiah say in Isaiah 7:14 when he gives this prophecy, \u201cTherefore the LORD Himself will give you a\u201d what? \u201ca sign:\u201d\u00a0 What is a sign?\u00a0 It\u2019s a miracle.\u00a0 So how in the world is a child born naturally in Isaiah 8 a miracle or a sign?\u00a0 But the virgin birth, now that\u2019s a sign; that\u2019s a miracle.\n\nAnd one of the things to understand about Isaiah 7 is there\u2019s actually two threats happening; you might have your Bible there, look at Isaiah 7, and notice verses 1 and 2.\u00a0 And this is what a lot of people miss, they don\u2019t put Isaiah 7:13-14 into the context.\u00a0 It says, \u201cNow it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage<\/em> war against it, but could not conquer it.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 1, the one I just read, is the crisis in Ahaz\u2019s day at the time of Isaiah seven hundred years before Jesus was born.\u201d\n\nBut look at verse 2, \u201cWhen it was reported to the house of David, saying, \u201cThe Arameans have camped in Ephraim,\u201d his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.\u201d\u00a0 Now we have a second crisis, a crisis to the Davidic line.\u00a0 You say what\u2019s the Davidic line? It\u2019s the line coming from David to Jesus Christ; this particular conflict that was happening in Isaiah 7 is not one crisis but two.\u00a0 Crisis A is to Ahaz, crisis B is to the Davidic line.\n\nSo what you\u2019ll see in Isaiah 7 are two prophecies, not one.\u00a0 If you\u2019ll look at Isaiah 7:3 God deals with crisis A, the crisis to Ahaz.\u00a0 \u201cThen the LORD said to Isaiah, \u2018Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller\u2019s field,\u201d God says to Isaiah take\u00a0 your child, Shear-jashub and I want\u00a0 you to go and meet Ahaz who is scared because of this impeding political crisis.\u00a0 And the name of the son is Shear-jashub.\u00a0 Now guess what Shear-jashub means in Hebrew\u2014a remnant will return.\u00a0 The presence of your son with Ahaz is going to calm him down and tell him that no matter what happens with these foreign powers a remnant will come back. God sent Shear-jashub with Isaiah to help with crisis A, the immediate crisis.\n\nBut then there\u2019s crisis B, what about the Davidic line leading to the Messiah?\u00a0 God says okay, I\u2019ll take care of that crisis in verses 13 and 14, our passage.\u00a0 Notice Isaiah 7:13, did\u00a0 you catch how it started, \u201cThen he said, \u201cListen now,\u201d what? \u201cO house of David!\u201d That\u2019s crisis two, that\u2019s crisis B.\u00a0 And how does God say crisis B is going to overcome? He says this, the Davidic line will not be blotted out until the Messiah comes, and by the way, you\u2019re going to know when the Messiah shows up because He\u2019s going to be born of a virgin.\n\nDid you catch what\u2019s going on here?\u00a0 Isaiah\u00a0 7:3, crisis A.\u00a0 Isaiah 7:13-14, crisis B.\u00a0 that\u2019s how it\u2019s completely logical to take verses 13 and 14 as a futuristic prophecy which has nothing to do with Isaiah\u2019s immediate time frame because God already dealt with the immediate crisis with Ahaz in verse 3 with the presence of Shear-jashub.\u00a0 You\u2019re not getting this explanation, Beloved, on the history channel.\n\nBy the way, when you get into verses 13 and 14, the prophecy of the virgin birth it doesn\u2019t show up in English but if you know Hebrew it shows up real quick.\u00a0 The personal pronoun \u201cyou\u201d second person shifts from singular to plural and then back to singular again.\u00a0 If you look at verse 9 and verse 10 it uses \u201cyou\u201d in the singular. Why is it using \u201cyou\u201d in the singular?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s dealing with the crisis to Ahaz personally.\u00a0 Then you get into our territory, that\u2019s on all the Christmas cards, the virgin birth of the Messiah.\u00a0 And the personal pronoun \u201cyou\u201d just shifted from singular to plural.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You see it in verse 13, you see it in verse 14.\u00a0 Why does it shift from the singular to the plural?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s no longer dealing with Ahaz\u2019s personal problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s dealing with something collective, something national, which would involve the Davidic line.\u00a0 And then\u00a0 you get outside of verses 13 and 14 and what does it go right back to? Verse 16, verse 17, the \u201cyou\u201d is singular again.\u00a0 Now why the shift?\u00a0 Because in the surrounding verses God is dealing with crisis A, the immediate crisis.\u00a0 But in the immediate verses, verses 13 and 14 that we read God is dealing with crisis B, a national crisis in the Davidic throne and in that mix God says there\u2019s going to be a Messiah who\u2019s going to be virgin born.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let anybody make you feel foolish for taking Isaiah 7:13-14 as a Messianic prophecy.\n\nAnd by the way, what is that child called that\u2019s\u00a0 coming from a virgin?\u00a0 His name is Immanuel.\u00a0 Now Isaiah 7-12 is what is called the Book of Immanuel.\u00a0 It\u2019s a book within a book, it\u2019s a section within the book.\u00a0 It\u2019s focusing on this coming One, Immanuel.\u00a0 Now who would that be?\u00a0 We get a development of it in Isaiah 9:6-7.\u00a0 You know this verse too, it\u2019s on all your Christmas cards as well.\u00a0 \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.\u00a0\u00a0 [7] There will be no end to the increase of His<\/em> government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and right\u00adeousness from then on and forevermore.\u00a0 The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.\u201d\n\nWho do you think that\u2019s talking about?\u00a0 Some kid born back in the 7th<\/sup> century?\u00a0 No, that\u2019s talking about the one that he just referenced in Isaiah 7:13-14, this coming Messiah.\u00a0 [Isaiah 7:13-14, \u201cThen he said, \u201cListen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? [14] Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.\u201d]\n\nThis coming Messiah starts to be analyzed more in Isaiah 11:2, it says, \u201cThe Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, when He sets up His kingdom the wolf will dwell with the lamb.\u00a0 I was in a zoo not long ago and I noticed that wolf and lamb were in different cages.\u00a0 This is talking about a time period when the two are dwelling with one another, peace in the animal kingdom.\u00a0 It says in verse 8, \u201cThe nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 11:8]\u00a0\u00a0 Would you allow your kids or grandkids to do that today?\u00a0 Oh just go out back, we\u2019ve got a nice viper\u2019s nest back there, just stick your hand in there, no problem.\u00a0 \u201cThey will neither hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 11:9] That\u2019s\u2019 who Immanuel is.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to bring those conditions to the earth one day in what is called the coming kingdom.\u00a0 Is that some child born back in Isaiah\u2019s day, the 7th<\/sup> century B.C.\u00a0 Of course not.\n\nWhat am I really getting at here?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting at a simple point\u2014you fiddle with the virgin birth and\u00a0 you just toppled over a major domino in God\u2019s Word called Messianic prophecy.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a problem because God says, Jesus says, John 10:35, \u201cThe Scripture cannot be broken.\u201d\u00a0 What God says is going to happen.\u00a0 And if any pastor stands up and says the virgin birth isn\u2019t important, what\u2019s important is the resurrection of Christ, then we have a problem because God Himself said, through Messianic prophecy, that the Messiah is going to come forth and be born of a virgin.\u00a0 That\u2019s domino number one.\n\nDomino number two is the virgin birth is necessary to emphasize Christ\u2019s humanity and deity.\u00a0\u00a0 Who is Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Well, He is the incarnate Son of God.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means He\u2019s unique, being 100 percent God and 100% man in one individual, humanity added to eternally existent deity at the point of the virgin conception.\u00a0 That\u2019s when Jesus began with not just one nature but two.\u00a0 The fancy name for that is the hypostatic union, the enfleshment of God, God taking on human flesh.\u00a0 When did the whole thing start?\u00a0 The virgin conception, the two natures of Christ.\u00a0 And as you go through the Scripture what you\u2019ll see is Jesus is very human without sin in His experiences.\n\nFor example, He had to toil and labor with His own hands as a carpenter in a carpenter shop, Mark 6:3.\u00a0 [\u201cIs not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?\" And they took offense at Him.\u201d\u00a0 Mark 6:3]\u00a0 He had to work to survive just like anybody else.\n\nHe experienced distress, Luke 22:44.\u00a0 [\u201cAnd being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.\u201d\u00a0 Luke 22:44]\n\nHe knew what it was like to be troubled, John 12:27.\u00a0 [John 12:27, \u201cNow My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour.\u201d]\u00a0 This is why He can identify with you in your struggles and me and my struggles, because He\u2019s walked in our shoes.\n\nHe was thirsty, John 19:28.\u00a0 [John 19:28, \u201cAfter this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, \"I am thirsty.\u201d]\n\nHe was hungry, Matthew 4:2.\u00a0 [Matthew 4:2, \u201cAnd after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.\u201d]\n\nHe got tired, fatigued, John 4:6.\u00a0 [John 4:6, \u201cand Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour\u201d]\n\nHe felt sadness, John 11:35.\u00a0 [John 11:35, \u201cJesus wept.\u201d]\n\nHe even went through the frustrations that we go through where we just don\u2019t understand where is God in all of this.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t lapse into unbelief, but He wrestled with the same kind of questions that we wrestle with as beings that are finite.\u00a0 In fact, in His humanity He didn\u2019t even know when He was coming back.\u00a0 Think about that!\u00a0 Matthew 24:36.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:36, \u201cBut of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.\u201d]\n\nHe even was tempted like we are tempted, yet in His case it was without sin. If you want to see the natural development of Jesus Christ in His humanity look no further than Luke 2:52, which says this: \u201cJesus kept increasing in wisdom\u201d intellectual growth, \u201cand stature,\u201d physical growth, \u201cand in favor with God\u201d spiritual growth, and in favor with \u201cmen.\u201d\u00a0 Social growth.\u00a0 The natural stages of development He went through.\n\nBut let me tell you something else about Jesus.\u00a0 He was God!\u00a0 He never relinquished deity, when He walked on planet earth He retained it. He always has been God, He was God when He was here two thousand years ago and He will always be God.\n\nYou say well how do you know that?\u00a0 John 1:1, \u201cThe Word was God,\u201d well who\u2019s \u201cThe Word\u201d?\u00a0 John 1:14, \u201cThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\u201d\u00a0 Who is Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Is He man or is He God?\u00a0 The answer is YES!\u00a0 He is the unique God-man.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how the virgin birth of Christ brings out both facets of Jesus.\u00a0 His humanity is seen in the sense that He was born of a woman.\u00a0 In fact, the Book of Galatians, chapter 4 and verse 4 of Jesus says, \u201cborn of a woman.\u201d\u00a0 [Galatians 4:4, \u201cBut when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.\u201d]\n\nHe was humanity but His deity is seen in the fact that it was not just an ordinary birth, the woman that gave birth to Jesus Christ, Mary, at that time was a virgin.\u00a0 The virgin birth, supernatural.\u00a0 Born of a woman, natural.\u00a0 Virgin birth, referencing the deity of Christ.\u00a0 Born of a woman representing the humanity of Christ.\u00a0 The concept of Jesus having two natures, humanity and deity in one person really starts to come into focus with the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, which brings out both beauti\u00adfully.\u00a0 And if you tamper with the virgin birth of Christ you\u2019re tampering with the two natures of Jesus; you\u2019re tampering with the hypostatic union itself.\u00a0 You say well, pastor, what hills are you willing to die on?\u00a0 I\u2019ll die on this hill!\u00a0 I\u2019ll die on this hill defending the virgin birth of Christ because if you don\u2019t have the virgin birth of Christ\u00a0 you don\u2019t have Christianity.\n\nWhich takes us to a third domino that quickly falls over; if we do not accept the virgin birth of Christ as literal factual history the third domino that falls over is you lose the emphasis on Christ\u2019s eternality, the fact that Jesus Christ has always been.\u00a0 There never was a time in which He was not.\u00a0 I hope you don\u2019t think that somehow the virgin birth of Christ started the life of Christ.\u00a0 NO, all that did is it added humanity to eternally existent deity but Jesus has always been and He will always be.\u00a0 This is why many of the statements that He makes to the religious leaders of His day are so perplexing to them.\n\nJohn 8:56-59 puts it this way: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it<\/em> and was glad.\u201d [57] So the Jews said to Him, \u201cYou are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?\u201d [58] Jesus said to them, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u201d\u2019 And they knew exactly what He was talking about because verse 59 says, \u201cTherefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.\u201d\n\nUnder the Mosaic Law if a mere man claims to be God he\u2019s to be stoned to death, Leviticus 24:15.\u00a0 [Leviticus 24:15, \u201cYou shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin.\u201d]\u00a0 They just thought Jesus had blasphemed.\u00a0 The problem is He wasn\u2019t blasphem\u00ading because He is God.\u00a0 He was God, He is God, He always will be God.\u00a0 And He makes a reference here to the fact that He was even around when God was dealing with Abraham.\u00a0 Now when did that happen?\u00a0 Last Sunday?\u00a0 That\u2019s two thousand years before the birth of Christ.\u00a0 Jesus says I was around to see that.\n\nAnd so this idea of Jesus Christ, you can\u2019t think of Him as somehow starting at some point; His humanity started at a point but He has always been.\u00a0 He has always been the eternally existent second member of the Godhead.\n\nNow there was a heretic very early on in the life of the church Christianity, a man named Arius, who challenged this.\u00a0 Arius even had a song, obviously I\u2019m not going to sing it because I don\u2019t have an audio of it, but it went with these words:\u00a0 \u201cThere was a time in which He was not.\u201d\u00a0 And he almost convinced Christendom itself that Jesus had a beginning point.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well pastor, I wish you\u2019d teach something relevant.\u00a0 Well here\u2019s the deal; the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, not when, not if, but when they come to your house they\u2019re going to say the exact same thing. They\u2019re going to tell you that Jesus Christ is a creation of God the Father; Jesus therefore had a beginning point, He is not eternally existent, and so what the Jehovah\u00a0 Witnesses are teaching is recycled Arianism.\n\nAs Solomon said, there\u2019s nothing new under the sun.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Heresies aren\u2019t new, I mean this is exactly what Arius said.\u00a0 And consequently Christendom developed a creed against Arius called the Creed of Nicea.\u00a0 The Creed of Nicea is designed to say Arius is wrong.\u00a0 And here\u2019s what the creed says, written about A.D. 25.\u00a0 \u201cI believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;\u201d watch this, \u201cbegotten, not made<\/u>,\u201d The moment they put that clause \u201cbegotten, not made\u201d into the creed of Nicea they were taking a stand against Arius and saying Arianism is wrong.\n\nNow what does it mean here \u201cbegotten\u201d you recognize that word just from simple Bible reading.\u00a0 \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,\u201d what does \u201cbegotten\u201d even mean?\u00a0 Here is the Greek word for \u201cbegotten,\u201d\u00a0 monogen\u1e17s<\/em>, translated \u201cbegotten.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cmono, you recognize that word from monopoly, someone has a monopoly on something, they\u2019re the sole owner; mono means by itself.\u00a0 You recognize the word gen\u1e17s<\/em> from a study of biology, a certain species or kind, sometimes called a gen\u1e17s<\/em> or a genus I guess is how you say that.\u00a0 You put those two words together, monogen\u1e17s<\/em>, and what it says is Jesus is one of a kind.\u00a0 Well why is He one of a kind?\u00a0 Because there has never been and there never will be someone who has walked this earth that is fully God and fully man in one person.\u00a0 Begotten, sure; one of a kind, sure; made\u2026 no way!\u00a0 Created\u2026 no sir!\u00a0\u00a0 Unique\u2026 yes!\u00a0 But not created!\n\nYou say well I thought this was a study on the virgin birth?\u00a0 What does this have to do with the virgin birth?\u00a0 It has everything to do with the virgin birth.\u00a0 Think about this for a minute.\u00a0 If\u00a0 Jesus had had a normal conception as you have had, as I have had, you know what?\u00a0 He had a beginning point, because I can mark my beginning to when that conception took place.\u00a0 Every natural conception marks a beginning point.\n\nYou say well, didn\u2019t Jesus have a beginning point?\u00a0 NO He did not because His conception was not natural.\u00a0 His conception was miraculous, it was supernatural and it had to be that way.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s not that way then Jesus would have had a beginning point like the rest of us and He would not be eternally existent.\u00a0 You knock over the virgin birth and suddenly you\u2019re in very dangerous territory because you\u2019re damaging the eternality of Jesus Christ.\n\nThere\u2019s a fourth domino that falls over very fast if the virgin birth is not true and that relates to the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Jesus is the only person that has ever walked the face of the earth that never sinned.\u00a0 In fact He said in John 8:46, to His enemies, \u201cWhich one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?\u201d\u00a0 Can you imagine standing in front of your enemies and saying go ahead, point out a sin in my life.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ve had some modern politicians try to do that.\u00a0 Follow me around and see how pure I am.\u00a0 And lo and behold it takes about two weeks to uncover all the dirt.\n\nJesus is standing in front of the people that hated His guts and saying go ahead, pull a skeleton out of the closet.\u00a0 In fact, this is why when Jesus was rushed through the judicial system to get Him killed the evidence brought against him was manufactured.\u00a0 Matthew 26:59 says, \u201cNow the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death.\u2019\u201d Why do they rely on false testimony?\u00a0 Because there wasn\u2019t any true testimony.\u00a0 The man was sinless!\u00a0 And you know a lot about people by asking the opinion of who knows those people the best.\u00a0 If you want to know about Andy Woods you might a little question to my wife, Anne Woods and she\u2019ll be able to produce a truckload of problems.\n\nThere were no closer people to Jesus than Peter and John, the inner circle. And\u00a0 have you read John\u2019s testimony about Jesus?\u00a0 1 John 2:1, He calls Him Jesus Christ the righteous.\u00a0 I John 3:3 He is pure.\u00a0 I Peter 2:22 \u201cWho committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.\u201d\u00a0 [John 2:1, \u201cMy little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;\u201d\u00a0 I John 3:3, \u201cAnd everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.\u201d]\n\nYou say well, this is all interesting but what does it have to do with the virgin birth of Christ?\u00a0 Everything!\u00a0 The sin nature is something inherited from conception.\u00a0 Psalm 51:5, David says, \u201cBehold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 At the point of conception I inherited a sin nature from Adam.\u00a0 And folks, biblically guess who the sin nature is passed down through?\u00a0 The man.\u00a0 The women are saying I knew that was so.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 The man with the seed passes it down.\n\nRomans 5:12 says, \u201cTherefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.\u201d\u00a0 If Jesus had had a normal conception He would have had a sin nature.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 But the virgin birth, the miracle that it was, allowed a single human being to be born into this world,\u00a0 (A) with no beginning point, and (B) with no sin nature.\u00a0 You start fiddling around with the virgin birth of Christ and saying you know, it\u2019s not that important, how Jesus got here is not that important.\u00a0 You\u2019re on very dangerous ground because now you\u2019re fiddling around with Christ\u2019s eternality, number three, and Christ\u2019s sinless, number four.\u00a0 And if you start fiddling around with those two things you\u2019re going to find yourself in dangerous territory with number five because the whole bodily atonement starts to fall.\n\nYou say well what\u2019s the bodily atonement?\u00a0 The bodily atonement is simply this; Jesus stepped out of eternity into time to bear in His body as our substitute, you have to have the word \u201csubstitute\u201d here in this, He didn\u2019t just die on a cross to show\u00a0 us how to live, He didn\u2019t just die on a cross to show us how to be a good Joe, or Joette, or whatever.\u00a0 He died on a cross to absorb the wrath of God in my place; it should have been me on that cross, it should have been you.\u00a0 But He stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of holy God the Father in our place.\u00a0 That is what we mean by the bodily atonement.\u00a0 And the virgin birth is linked to the bodily atonement.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the thing to understand is the sin that took place in Eden was eternal.\u00a0 It was an eternal offense against God Himself and it actually brought to the human race an eternal consequence.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t just somebody stepping out of line, there was an eternal ramification that came to the human race because of the sin of our forbearers in Eden.\n\nAnd how do you fix an eternal problem exactly?\u00a0 Well there\u2019s only one person that can do that and that\u2019s eternal God Himself.\u00a0 Only an eternal God can fix an eternal consequence.\u00a0 See, the Bible says things like the day you eat from the tree is the day you\u2019ll die.\u00a0 Romans 6:23, \u201cthe wages of sin is death.\u201d\u00a0 What kind of wages are we dealing with here?\u00a0 We\u2019re dealing with things that are outside of the human ability to fix, things that are eternal in nature.\u00a0 A human being can\u2019t reverse this, a sole human being.\u00a0 Someone eternal has to fix this and that\u2019s why the virgin birth is such a big deal because the virgin birth protected Christ\u2019s eternality.\u00a0 If the virgin birth didn\u2019t happen miraculously and was a natural conception then He would have a beginning point.\u00a0 If He had a beginning point He\u2019s not eternal.\u00a0 If He\u2019s not eternal He\u2019s disqualified from serving I the bodily atonement.\n\nBeyond that think about this for a minute.\u00a0 What kind of sacrifice does God accept?\u00a0 You read the Book of Malachi and God is so upset with the priests because the priests are bringing to the sacrificial system all of these animals that are blemished and God doesn\u2019t like that.\u00a0 And you learn from the Book of Malachi that God doesn\u2019t accept any sacrifice; He accepts a perfect sacrifice.\u00a0 In fact, this principle is revealed as early as the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:5.\u00a0 What kind of lamb would work to satisfy a Holy God?\u00a0\u00a0 Exodus 12:5 says, \u201c'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear it must be unblemished, no spot, no blemish, no impurity, to imperfection, genetically pure.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why Jesus qualifies to be our substitute, because He\u2019s pure.\u00a0 1 Peter 1:19, \u201cBut with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus is accepted as our sacrifice because of His purity.\u00a0 You say well, what does this have to do with the virgin birth?\u00a0 If Jesus had had a normal conception what would He have inherited?\u00a0 The sin nature.\u00a0 You inherit a sin nature you\u2019re disqualified from being that great bodily atonement.\u00a0 Eternal God can fix an eternal problem, we need the virgin birth because the virgin birth protects us.\u00a0 A perfect substitute is the only thing that will be accepted.\u00a0 Jesus is qualified because the virgin birth protects that.\u00a0 You take away the virgin birth you\u2019re taking away His eternality, you\u2019re taking away His sinless life and it doesn\u2019t matter if He died on the cross.\u00a0 That\u2019s a sacrifice that God Himself will not accept.\u00a0 You go through the virgin birth and isn\u2019t interesting how these dominoes just to start to topple over so quickly.\n\nThere\u2019s a sixth reason for the virgin birth and that is to circumvent the curse of Jeconiah.\u00a0 All the way back in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 22 and verse 30 God pronounced a curse on an individual named Jeconiah and it says this: \u201cThus says the LORD, \u2018Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.\u2019\u201d [Jeremiah 22:30,]\u00a0 God says this guy\u2019s whole lineage is under a curse because of things that Jeconiah did back in the days of Jeremiah.\n\nNow we have a big problem because the legal lineage leading to Jesus Christ through Joseph, which is described in Matthew 1, guess who\u2019s in the lineage?\u00a0 Jeconiah is in the lineage!\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019ll find a reference to that in Matthew 1:12, you\u2019ll see the various names and the genealogy and right there in the middle of it is Jeconiah.\u00a0 [Matthew 1:12, \u201cAfter the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.\u201d]\n\nSo if Jesus Christ is naturally born through that lineage He\u2019s got the same curse on His life, because God cursed all of the descendants of Jeconiah.\u00a0 And so how do we get out of this dilemma?\u00a0 The virgin birth is how you get out of.\u00a0 If Jesus had had a normal conception He would have been in that line but God circumvented the whole thing by giving Him a supernatural conception, making Joseph His legal father but not His biological father.\u00a0 And all of a sudden, just like that, God says the curse of Jeconiah does not apply to Jesus Christ.\n\nNow some of you should be worried about this because if He\u2019s brought out of the lineage of Matthew 1 then He\u2019s not qualified to fulfill the Davidic Covenant, is He.\u00a0 I mean, don\u2019t you have to be a legal descendant of David to inherit the Davidic throne one day?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t 2 Samuel 7:13 say, \u201cHe shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.\u201d\u00a0 The Messiah has got to come from David\u2019s line, but now we have Jesus Christ not a biological heir of Joseph.\u00a0 It gets Him out of the curse of Jeconiah, no problem, but does it take Him out of the Davidic promises?\u00a0 And there\u2019s a lot of tension about this.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, this ought to be something you\u2019re up late at night worrying about, not how you\u2019re going to pay for all those Christmas gifts with your credit cards but this ought to worry you.\n\nAnd we have an answer because there\u2019s another genealogy.\u00a0 Whoooo!\u00a0 Thank You Lord.\u00a0 There\u2019s another genealogy in Luke 3 and this is tracing the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Mary and guess who\u2019s in that genealogy?\u00a0 A guy named Nathan and guess who Nathan is related to.\u00a0 David!\u00a0 [Luke 3:31, \u201cthe son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,\u201d]\n\nSee what the Word just did here with this virgin birth?\u00a0 With the virgin birth He took Jesus out of the curse of Jeconiah.\u00a0 And you say well, wait a minute, what about the Davidic promises?\u00a0 Those have been rerouted, not through His father, Joseph but through His mother, Mary.\u00a0 So through the virgin birth not only is Jesus outside the curse of Jeconiah but He is still the inheritor to the Davidic promises.\n\nI mean, it is mindboggling, mind-numbing what the Lord through this virgin birth of Christ.\u00a0 And to have evangelical pastors, with large followings, stand up and say it really doesn\u2019t matter is just astounding to me that people can say that.\u00a0 I\u2019m wondering at what point you quit calling them evangelical pastors?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they\u2019re evangelical pastors any more, I think they\u2019re false teachers.\u00a0 They do not deserve the title \u201cpastor,\u201d they do\u00a0 not deserve the title \u201cBible teacher,\u201d they do not deserve the title \u201cProtestant Christian\u201d\u00a0 \u201cevangelical.\u201d\u00a0 They just deserve the title false teacher because whether they know it or not they are gutting Christianity by saying a word against the virgin birth of Christ.\u00a0 Even marginalizing the virgin birth of Christ the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.\u00a0 God help us to understand this.\n\nThe last reason why the virgin birth was so significant is to vindicate the New Testament.\u00a0 Well, it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a literal fact or not.\u00a0 The problem is the Bible tells you it\u2019s a literal fact.\u00a0 You ought to gather\u00a0 your family around this Christmas Eve (after our Christmas service) and read to the Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:16-35, Luke 2:1-19, just so your hearts and minds as a family are focused on the reason for the season, Jesus Christ, His virgin birth.\u00a0 If you say the virgin birth is\u00a0 untrue you\u2019re going against what the Bible says.\n\nAnd this particular evangelical pastor that I\u2019m quoting, he says well it\u2019s only mentioned in two books of the Gospels.\u00a0 What kind of reasoning is that?\u00a0 I mean, how many times does God have to say something before we believe it.\u00a0 I mean, would Adam and Eve say when they are from the tree of knowledge, \u2018Well Lord, You only told us to stay away from that tree one time.\u201d\u00a0 Once is enough, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But then it shows up a second time and this guy says well, it doesn\u2019t show up in Mark\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a reason for that.\u00a0 First of all Mark\u2019s Gospel was written after Matthew\u2019s Gospel so why would Mark cover things that Matthew\u2019s already covered.\n\nFurthermore, Mark is portraying Jesus to Roman Christians as a suffering servant.\u00a0 In Greco-Roman times a servant did not have a genealogy; it was unknown for a servant or a slave to have a genealogy.\u00a0 And because Mark is shaping his material to portray Christ in a certain way he doesn\u2019t deny the virgin birth of Christ, he just doesn\u2019t dwell on it, he skips over it because that\u2019s not germane to Mark\u2019s purpose in writing.\n\nAnd this particular evangelical pastor says well it\u2019s not found in John\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Well, it is found in John\u2019s Gospel indirectly.\u00a0 Notice John 8:41, and with this verse we\u2019ll close.\u00a0 This is the Pharisees speaking to Jesus.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018You are doing the deeds of your father.\u2019 They said to Him, \u2018We\u201d us Pharisees, \u201care not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 They just accused Jesus of being an illegitimate child.\u00a0 They accused Him of being born of a virgin.\u00a0 Why did they do that?\u00a0 Because I think they had some kind of understanding of what happened in Mary\u2019s womb, that the birth and entrance of Christ into this world is abnormal and they just took what was understood and twisted it around and said the reason you don\u2019t have a biological father is because your mother was a fornicator, that\u2019s basically what they just said, you\u2019re an illegitimate child.\u00a0 They had some kind of understanding of what was happening and they simply twisted it around to suit their own purposes.\n\nBut here\u2019s the deal folks; with any doctrine it\u2019s going to start affecting another one very fast, like dominoes falling over. Why is the virgin birth so significant?\u00a0 Number one, to fulfill Old Testament prophecy, Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:13-14, which are very clear Messianic prophecies related to the virgin birth of Christ.\n\nNumber two, the virgin birth of Christ is something that is necessary to emphasize the God-man, 100% God and 100% man.\n\nNumber three, the virgin birth is necessary to emphasize and protect Christ\u2019s eternality.\n\nAnd number four, His sinlessness.\u00a0 And if He wasn\u2019t eternal and sinless then He can\u2019t be number five, the One who pays the penalty for our sins in His bodily atonement.\n\nAnd number six, you\u2019ve got to have a virgin birth to circumvent the curse of Jeconiah and\u00a0 yet rewrite the Davidic promises through Mary\u2019s lineage.\n\nAnd number seven, you\u2019d better have a virgin birth of Christ because your Bible says it\u2019s true.\n\nWhat did Jesus say?\u00a0 \u201cearnestly contend for the faith.\u201d\u00a0 Jude 1:3, [KJV \u201cBeloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you<\/em> that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here folks; we\u2019re defending the biblical record so that the offer of salvation can be open to anybody without any ambiguity, or any confusion.\u00a0 What a great time to be born spiritually, this time of the year as we focus on the birth of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 What a wonderful thing it would be to receive Christ personally and be born spiritually.\u00a0 Jesus says to Nicodemus, no one can see, no one can enter without the spiritual birth.\u00a0 The physical birth of Jesus is wonderful but it doesn\u2019t help someone until they trust what He did and receive the new birth.\u00a0 How do you receive the new birth?\u00a0 You trust in what Jesus did.\u00a0 Jesus said \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 You place\u00a0 your confidence and\u00a0 your hope for\u00a0 your future, not on yourself, not on your good works, not in what your favorite preacher says but in Jesus and His Words.\u00a0 He said \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\n\nYou trust in Him and Him alone for salvation independent of yourself which is the only way you can receive a gift from God, by doing that.\u00a0 God won\u2019t accept us any other way.\u00a0 And as you trust Him and Him alone for the safe keeping of your soul you find yourself, number one, receiving the gospel, but number two the light goes on because the Holy Spirit, which has been convicting us of our need to do this, now comes into us and lives inside of us forever.\u00a0 And you\u2019re born again at that point; you\u2019re a new child of God!\u00a0 And our exhortation here at Sugar Land Bible Church is for people to do this, people even listening via internet or social media, our exhortation is to do this.\u00a0 The Bible says \u201cToday is the day of salvation.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 6:2, \u201cfor He says, \u2018AT THE ACCEPT\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.\u2019 Behold, now is \u2018THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,\u2019 behold, now is \u2018THE DAY OF SALVATION.\u201d\u2019\n\nWhy not experience the new birth now, during the very time period on our calendar where we celebrate the physical birth of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I would invite you to do that right now as I\u2019m talking, it\u2019s not necessary to raise a hand to do this, to join a church to do this, fill out a card to do this, give money to do this, make New Year\u2019s resolutions to do this, but it\u2019s just a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where you trust in Him and Him alone for salvation.\n\nIt\u2019s something you can do in the privacy of\u00a0 your own mind and the quietness of your own heart as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on, although I don\u2019t know how to give a better explanation than this one here, but if it\u2019s something that you\u2019re still confused about I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this time of year, we\u2019re grateful for the virgin birth, better said the virgin conception of Jesus, the Messiah.\u00a0 Help us to understand the significance of this doctrine that we might hold out a virgin born and resurrected Christ as the only solution to a lost and dying world. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t