Begotten and Not Made
Isaiah 7:13-14 âą Dr. Andy Woods âą December 23, 2018 âą Christmas SermonsAndy Woods
Christmas Sermon â Begotten and Not Made
12-23-18Â Â Â Â Â Â Isaiah 7:13-14
Good morning everybody. If we could take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Isaiah 7, verses 13-14. The title of our message this morning is Begotten and Not Made. Weâre taking a little break from our study in the Book of Revelation.  I had thought about teaching the Book of Revelation this morning and it talks in the Book of Revelation, the section weâre in, about half of the worldâs population being wiped out and so I really didnât know how to title that into a Christmas message. So I decided to do something that we did Friday, Jim McGowan and myself, on Pastorâs Point of View, defending the virgin birth. 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.
I 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. Kind of our format is to some traditional Christmas songs and youâre going to have a brief message from me and by that I mean brief, as in ten minutes (people donât think thatâs possible but we have the recordings to prove that it can be done). And itâs sort of a time to not let the materialism of the holidays sort of overtake its meaning. We recognize that Christmas Eve is sort of a family time and we try to be very respectful of that but itâs just an opportunity to sort of gather as Christâs body with fellow believers and really focus our thoughts on The Reason For The Season by Jesus Christ. So Iâd encourage you to look at that. 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. And Janet Wren, as you know, helped put on our whole thing that we had with the childrenâs program. So you never know what God is going to do with a single Christmas Eve service. So praise God.
Weâre in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verses 13-14. The title of our message this morning is Begotten and Not Made. And Iâm very sad to say that weâre in a time period where the doctrine of the virgin birth, which is what weâre celebrating this coming week, is under assault today, not even so much by liberals, people outside of Christendom, but by people within Christianity itself. One well known evangelical pastor identified the virgin birth in a recent podcast as a science defying miracle that proved something about Jesus. He says: âWhether you believe the virgin birth story or notâ this particular pastor went on to say, âitâs literal factuality is not the point.â 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.
Another evangelical pastor said this, he said: âMaybe 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.â Itâs interesting because Matthew gives us a version of the birth of Jesus, Luke does; Mark and John donât even mention it. And a lot has been made out of that. So itâs 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. He goes on and he says, âYou have heard me say some version of this a million times but if somebody can predict their own death and resurrection Iâm 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. It really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.â
So in the mind of this particular evangelical pastor whatâs really important is not the birth of Christ, thatâs kind of inconsequential; whatâs really important is the resurrection of Jesus. Now from this pulpit we will defend the literal resurrection of Jesus and we will communicate to people its importance. But this particular pastor says thatâs all you need, the resurrection of Christ, which we believe in here. What you believe about the birth of Christ, whether itâs a fact or whether itâs a myth is somewhat irrelevant.
And one of the things to understand about theology is this: I have analogized it many times to dominoes in a row. If you knock over a single domino the other ones start to topple very, very fast. And thatâs what I would like to demonstrate to you this morning in this special topical message entitled âBegotten and not Madeâ concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ which we are celebrating this coming Tuesday. Why is the virgin birth of Christ, that Jesus was born of a virgin, why is that a big deal? Why is it something that should not be minimized? Why is it something that should not be marginalized. Why is it something that should not be explained away?  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. [To fulfill Old Testament prophecy, To emphasize Christâs humanity and deity, To emphasize Christâs eternality, To maintain Christâs sinlessness, To protect the bodily atonement, To circumvent the curse of Jeconiah, To vindicate the New Testament.]
And in fact, I believe there is a reason why the devil himself in the last days is attacking this doctrine. Heâs 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 Christianity itself will quickly topple. Therefore I believe that the virgin birth of Christ is just as significant as the resurrection of Christ; if you donât have either you donât have a Christian that we know, we donât have a Savior that can save us from our sins.
So the sermon outline this morning is as follows: Why the Virgin Birth, Seven Reasons. Seven dominoes are protected if the virgin birth is true; these seven dominoes tumble, topple, collapse, if the virgin birth is not true.
The first reason why the virgin birth is so significant is to fulfill Old Testament prophecy. God Himself hundred and in some cases thousands of years in advance said that when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, comes into this world He will be born of a virgin. And you donât have to look far in the Bible to see this. In fact, in Genesis 3:15 we have the first Messianic prophecy. Some refer to this as the protoevangelium, meaning first gospel; the fall of man has just happened, Genesis 3, and now we see Godâs solution to manâs problem of the fallâa Coming Savior!
And Genesis 3:15 reads as follows, God says to Satan, âAnd I will put enmity Between you and the woman, and between your seed andâ notice this next expression, âher seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.ââ Thereâs coming one from the seed of the woman, Eve, who will take Satanâs head and crush it. And youâll notice that this coming one is identified as âherâ seed, the seed of the woman. Now you might be thinking well wait a minute, I thought this seed belonged to the man, doesnât the man contain the sperm necessary to impregnate the woman. The seed should be his seed, shouldnât it? But thatâs not what your Bible says; your Bible says âher seed.â 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.
Now the prophecies continue, notice Isaiah 7:13-14, thatâs the passage I had you open up to, you know these verses well, itâs on all your Christmas cards, and it says this: âThen he said, âListen 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,â which means God with us.
This is a prophecy given possibly seven hundred years before Jesus was born; seven hundred years is an awful long time, seven centuries. 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 United States of America, roughly speaking, and seven hundred years in advance God says thereâs coming one who will be a Messiah, Immanuel, Jesus Christ, and He will be born of a virgin.
Now 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 youâre 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.
The first argument that they use is the Hebrew word for virgin, translated âvirginâ is Almah, and they say well, thatâs not even a Hebrew word for virgin, that just means a young woman, a young maiden of marriageable age. And the word that should have been used is Betulah for virgin. And so they believe that Isaiah 7:14 is not even talking about the virgin birth of Christ. The problem with that is Betulah doesnât always mean virgin. Over in the Book of Joel chapter 1, verse 8, Betulah means a widow. [Joel 1:8, âWail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.â]
Now 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 donât these Christians understand that the word Alma doesnât mean virgin, and the word Betulah means virgin. And I thought to myself I wish he would read Joel 1:8, because Joel 1:8 is very clear that the word Betulah does not always mean virgin.
The second argument that they give is the Hebrew word Almah does not mean virgin; they say this over and over again, it just means a young woman of marriageable age. Thatâs all it means. And letâs respond to that, can we? Do a Hebrew word study on Almah sometime; trace how that word is used in all of its contexts in the Old Testament and what youâll discover is itâs used about six times, Iâve 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.
[Genesis 24:23, âand said, âWhose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?ââ  Exodus 2:8, âPharaoh’s daughter said to her, âGo ahead.â So the girl went and called the child’s mother.â  Psalm 68:25, âThe singers went on, the musicians after them, In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines.â  Song of Solomon 1:3, âYour oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the maidens love you.â Song of Solomon 6:8, âThere are sixty queens and eighty concubines, And maidens without number; Proverbs 30:18-19, âThere 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.â]
And I would challenge anybody to show me any use where virgin canât apply. For example, the Genesis 24 passage is talking about Isaacâs wife, future wife, Rebecca. [Genesis 24:23, âand said, âWhose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?ââ]  I mean, is it so hard to imagine that sheâd be a virgin; maybe in this day and age, the 21st century itâs hard to imagine but not back in biblical times. It talks in the Song of Solomon about singers in Solomonâs court; is it too hard to believe that those singers would be virgins? So you can look at all of these usages and you can say well, the word Almah could easily mean virgin in all of these usages.
And beyond that there is something that you may be familiar with, maybe youâre not familiar with, itâs called the Septuagint. Iâve got it abbreviated there the LXX, meaning seventy, translated by seventy scholars in seventy days and what it is, itâs a Greek translation of Hebrew Bible roughly two hundred years before Jesus showed up. A full two centuries before Jesus walked this earth there was actually a translation of Hebrew Bible into Greek called the Septuagint. Why were they even messing around with that translation? 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.
And itâs very interesting that when the Septuagint translators got to Isaiah 7:14, the passage we referenced earlier and saw the word Almah, do you know what word they used? They used the word Parthenos to translate it from Hebrew into Greek. You say well who cares? It means everything because Parthenos in the Greek language is a technical term that always means virgin. And so they apparently thought that Isaiah 7:14 specifically was a prophecy about the virgin birth of Christ and if all that werenât enough you have Matthew 1:23. [Isaiah 7:14, âTherefore 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.â]
Matthew 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: âBehold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,â which translated means âGod with us.â Now when Matthew got to the word Almah in Isaiah 7:14 guess what Greek word he used? The same word the Septuagint translators used, Parthenos. So what is the point? The point is I think Almah does mean virgin. 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.
A 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? 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 wouldnât be born seven hundred years later. And so they think that our position on it somehow removes the prophecy from the crisis of Isaiahâs immediate day. And they say you know what, virgin birth of Christ, thatâs not what itâs talking about, Isaiah 7, because thereâs a kid born in Isaiah 8, did you notice that? Thereâs a prophecy in Isaiah 7, thereâs a kid born in Isaiah 8, and they say well, you know, thatâs how Isaiah 7 was fulfilled. [Isaiah 8:3, âSo I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.â] Nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with Christmas, just move right on folks.
The 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. [Isaiah 8:3b, âThen the LORD said to me, âName him Maher-shalal-hash-baz;â] The child in Isaiah 7 is a blessing, the kid in Isaiah 8 is a sign of coming judgment. The child in Isaiah 7 is born to a virgin; the child in Isaiah is born to Isaiahâs wife. Now thereâs a reference to another child as Iâll 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. 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.
And you see, this is what the history channel is not going to tell you; theyâre not going to tell you all of these details, theyâre 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 Iâm here to tell you thatâs not true because the Isaiah 8 child is completely different than the child in Isaiah 7. And everybody says Isaiah 7 has to be relevant to the original audience, it canât be a prophecy seven hundred years in advance about a coming Messiah. Well guess what else is in Isaiah? Isaiah 53. I hope we understand what Isaiah 53 is about. Itâs about Jesus. In fact, that was the prophecy used to lead the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ in Acts 8. Philip, as heâs evangelizing the Ethiopian eunuch understood Isaiah 53 as talking about Jesus Christ. No one has a problem with that. But all of a sudden they have some big problem with Isaiah 7 as being some kind of prophecy that doesnât relate to Isaiahâs time period.
You start playing games with Isaiah 7 and itâs not long until youâre playing games with Isaiah 53. And even beyond that what does Isaiah say in Isaiah 7:14 when he gives this prophecy, âTherefore the LORD Himself will give you aâ what? âa sign:â What is a sign? Itâs a miracle. So how in the world is a child born naturally in Isaiah 8 a miracle or a sign? But the virgin birth, now thatâs a sign; thatâs a miracle.
And one of the things to understand about Isaiah 7 is thereâs actually two threats happening; you might have your Bible there, look at Isaiah 7, and notice verses 1 and 2. And this is what a lot of people miss, they donât put Isaiah 7:13-14 into the context. It says, âNow 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 war against it, but could not conquer it.â Verse 1, the one I just read, is the crisis in Ahazâs day at the time of Isaiah seven hundred years before Jesus was born.â
But look at verse 2, âWhen it was reported to the house of David, saying, âThe Arameans have camped in Ephraim,â his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.â Now we have a second crisis, a crisis to the Davidic line. You say whatâs the Davidic line? Itâs the line coming from David to Jesus Christ; this particular conflict that was happening in Isaiah 7 is not one crisis but two. Crisis A is to Ahaz, crisis B is to the Davidic line.
So what youâll see in Isaiah 7 are two prophecies, not one. If youâll look at Isaiah 7:3 God deals with crisis A, the crisis to Ahaz. âThen the LORD said to Isaiah, âGo 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 fullerâs field,â God says to Isaiah take your child, Shear-jashub and I want you to go and meet Ahaz who is scared because of this impeding political crisis. And the name of the son is Shear-jashub. Now guess what Shear-jashub means in Hebrewâa remnant will return. 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.
But then thereâs crisis B, what about the Davidic line leading to the Messiah? God says okay, Iâll take care of that crisis in verses 13 and 14, our passage. Notice Isaiah 7:13, did you catch how it started, âThen he said, âListen now,â what? âO house of David!â Thatâs crisis two, thatâs crisis B. 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, youâre going to know when the Messiah shows up because Heâs going to be born of a virgin.
Did you catch whatâs going on here? Isaiah 7:3, crisis A. Isaiah 7:13-14, crisis B. thatâs how itâs completely logical to take verses 13 and 14 as a futuristic prophecy which has nothing to do with Isaiahâs immediate time frame because God already dealt with the immediate crisis with Ahaz in verse 3 with the presence of Shear-jashub. Youâre not getting this explanation, Beloved, on the history channel.
By the way, when you get into verses 13 and 14, the prophecy of the virgin birth it doesnât show up in English but if you know Hebrew it shows up real quick. The personal pronoun âyouâ second person shifts from singular to plural and then back to singular again. If you look at verse 9 and verse 10 it uses âyouâ in the singular. Why is it using âyouâ in the singular? Because itâs dealing with the crisis to Ahaz personally. Then you get into our territory, thatâs on all the Christmas cards, the virgin birth of the Messiah. And the personal pronoun âyouâ just shifted from singular to plural.   You see it in verse 13, you see it in verse 14. Why does it shift from the singular to the plural? Because itâs no longer dealing with Ahazâs personal problem. Itâs dealing with something collective, something national, which would involve the Davidic line. And then you get outside of verses 13 and 14 and what does it go right back to? Verse 16, verse 17, the âyouâ is singular again. Now why the shift? Because in the surrounding verses God is dealing with crisis A, the immediate crisis. 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 thereâs going to be a Messiah whoâs going to be virgin born. Donât let anybody make you feel foolish for taking Isaiah 7:13-14 as a Messianic prophecy.
And by the way, what is that child called thatâs coming from a virgin? His name is Immanuel. Now Isaiah 7-12 is what is called the Book of Immanuel. Itâs a book within a book, itâs a section within the book. Itâs focusing on this coming One, Immanuel. Now who would that be? We get a development of it in Isaiah 9:6-7. You know this verse too, itâs on all your Christmas cards as well. âFor 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.  [7] There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and rightÂeousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.â
Who do you think thatâs talking about? Some kid born back in the 7th century? No, thatâs talking about the one that he just referenced in Isaiah 7:13-14, this coming Messiah. [Isaiah 7:13-14, âThen he said, âListen 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.â]
This coming Messiah starts to be analyzed more in Isaiah 11:2, it says, âThe 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.â In fact, when He sets up His kingdom the wolf will dwell with the lamb. I was in a zoo not long ago and I noticed that wolf and lamb were in different cages. This is talking about a time period when the two are dwelling with one another, peace in the animal kingdom. It says in verse 8, âThe nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.â [Isaiah 11:8]  Would you allow your kids or grandkids to do that today? Oh just go out back, weâve got a nice viperâs nest back there, just stick your hand in there, no problem. âThey 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.â [Isaiah 11:9] Thatâsâ who Immanuel is. Heâs going to bring those conditions to the earth one day in what is called the coming kingdom. Is that some child born back in Isaiahâs day, the 7th century B.C. Of course not.
What am I really getting at here? Iâm getting at a simple pointâyou fiddle with the virgin birth and you just toppled over a major domino in Godâs Word called Messianic prophecy. And thatâs a problem because God says, Jesus says, John 10:35, âThe Scripture cannot be broken.â What God says is going to happen. And if any pastor stands up and says the virgin birth isnât important, whatâs 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. Thatâs domino number one.
Domino number two is the virgin birth is necessary to emphasize Christâs humanity and deity.  Who is Jesus Christ? Well, He is the incarnate Son of God. What does that mean? It means Heâs unique, being 100 percent God and 100% man in one individual, humanity added to eternally existent deity at the point of the virgin conception. Thatâs when Jesus began with not just one nature but two. The fancy name for that is the hypostatic union, the enfleshment of God, God taking on human flesh. When did the whole thing start? The virgin conception, the two natures of Christ. And as you go through the Scripture what youâll see is Jesus is very human without sin in His experiences.
For example, He had to toil and labor with His own hands as a carpenter in a carpenter shop, Mark 6:3. [âIs 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.â Mark 6:3] He had to work to survive just like anybody else.
He experienced distress, Luke 22:44. [âAnd being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.â Luke 22:44]
He knew what it was like to be troubled, John 12:27. [John 12:27, âNow 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.â] This is why He can identify with you in your struggles and me and my struggles, because Heâs walked in our shoes.
He was thirsty, John 19:28. [John 19:28, âAfter this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.â]
He was hungry, Matthew 4:2. [Matthew 4:2, âAnd after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.â]
He got tired, fatigued, John 4:6. [John 4:6, âand Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hourâ]
He felt sadness, John 11:35. [John 11:35, âJesus wept.â]
He even went through the frustrations that we go through where we just donât understand where is God in all of this. He didnât lapse into unbelief, but He wrestled with the same kind of questions that we wrestle with as beings that are finite. In fact, in His humanity He didnât even know when He was coming back. Think about that! Matthew 24:36. [Matthew 24:36, âBut of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.â]
He 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: âJesus kept increasing in wisdomâ intellectual growth, âand stature,â physical growth, âand in favor with Godâ spiritual growth, and in favor with âmen.â Social growth. The natural stages of development He went through.
But let me tell you something else about Jesus. He was God! 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.
You say well how do you know that? John 1:1, âThe Word was God,â well whoâs âThe Wordâ? John 1:14, âThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us.â Who is Jesus Christ? Is He man or is He God? The answer is YES! He is the unique God-man. And isnât it interesting how the virgin birth of Christ brings out both facets of Jesus. His humanity is seen in the sense that He was born of a woman. In fact, the Book of Galatians, chapter 4 and verse 4 of Jesus says, âborn of a woman.â [Galatians 4:4, âBut when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.â]
He 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. The virgin birth, supernatural. Born of a woman, natural. Virgin birth, referencing the deity of Christ. Born of a woman representing the humanity of Christ. 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 beautiÂfully. And if you tamper with the virgin birth of Christ youâre tampering with the two natures of Jesus; youâre tampering with the hypostatic union itself. You say well, pastor, what hills are you willing to die on? Iâll die on this hill! Iâll die on this hill defending the virgin birth of Christ because if you donât have the virgin birth of Christ you donât have Christianity.
Which 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 Christâs eternality, the fact that Jesus Christ has always been. There never was a time in which He was not. I hope you donât think that somehow the virgin birth of Christ started the life of Christ. NO, all that did is it added humanity to eternally existent deity but Jesus has always been and He will always be. This is why many of the statements that He makes to the religious leaders of His day are so perplexing to them.
John 8:56-59 puts it this way: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.â [57] So the Jews said to Him, âYou are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?â [58] Jesus said to them, âTruly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.ââ And they knew exactly what He was talking about because verse 59 says, âTherefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.â
Under the Mosaic Law if a mere man claims to be God heâs to be stoned to death, Leviticus 24:15. [Leviticus 24:15, âYou shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin.â] They just thought Jesus had blasphemed. The problem is He wasnât blasphemÂing because He is God. He was God, He is God, He always will be God. And He makes a reference here to the fact that He was even around when God was dealing with Abraham. Now when did that happen? Last Sunday? Thatâs two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Jesus says I was around to see that.
And so this idea of Jesus Christ, you canât think of Him as somehow starting at some point; His humanity started at a point but He has always been. He has always been the eternally existent second member of the Godhead.
Now there was a heretic very early on in the life of the church Christianity, a man named Arius, who challenged this. Arius even had a song, obviously Iâm not going to sing it because I donât have an audio of it, but it went with these words: âThere was a time in which He was not.â And he almost convinced Christendom itself that Jesus had a beginning point.  You say well pastor, I wish youâd teach something relevant. Well hereâs the deal; the Jehovahâs Witnesses, not when, not if, but when they come to your house theyâre going to say the exact same thing. Theyâre 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 Witnesses are teaching is recycled Arianism.
As Solomon said, thereâs nothing new under the sun. Right. Heresies arenât new, I mean this is exactly what Arius said. And consequently Christendom developed a creed against Arius called the Creed of Nicea. The Creed of Nicea is designed to say Arius is wrong. And hereâs what the creed says, written about A.D. 25. âI 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;â watch this, âbegotten, not made,â The moment they put that clause âbegotten, not madeâ into the creed of Nicea they were taking a stand against Arius and saying Arianism is wrong.
Now what does it mean here âbegottenâ you recognize that word just from simple Bible reading. âFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,â what does âbegottenâ even mean? Here is the Greek word for âbegotten,â monogenážs, translated âbegotten.â âmono, you recognize that word from monopoly, someone has a monopoly on something, theyâre the sole owner; mono means by itself. You recognize the word genážs from a study of biology, a certain species or kind, sometimes called a genážs or a genus I guess is how you say that. You put those two words together, monogenážs, and what it says is Jesus is one of a kind. Well why is He one of a kind? 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. Begotten, sure; one of a kind, sure; made⊠no way! Created⊠no sir!  Unique⊠yes! But not created!
You say well I thought this was a study on the virgin birth? What does this have to do with the virgin birth? It has everything to do with the virgin birth. Think about this for a minute. If Jesus had had a normal conception as you have had, as I have had, you know what? He had a beginning point, because I can mark my beginning to when that conception took place. Every natural conception marks a beginning point.
You say well, didnât Jesus have a beginning point? NO He did not because His conception was not natural. His conception was miraculous, it was supernatural and it had to be that way. And if itâs not that way then Jesus would have had a beginning point like the rest of us and He would not be eternally existent. You knock over the virgin birth and suddenly youâre in very dangerous territory because youâre damaging the eternality of Jesus Christ.
Thereâs 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. Jesus is the only person that has ever walked the face of the earth that never sinned. In fact He said in John 8:46, to His enemies, âWhich one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?â Can you imagine standing in front of your enemies and saying go ahead, point out a sin in my life. I mean, weâve had some modern politicians try to do that. Follow me around and see how pure I am. And lo and behold it takes about two weeks to uncover all the dirt.
Jesus is standing in front of the people that hated His guts and saying go ahead, pull a skeleton out of the closet. In fact, this is why when Jesus was rushed through the judicial system to get Him killed the evidence brought against him was manufactured. Matthew 26:59 says, âNow the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death.ââ Why do they rely on false testimony? Because there wasnât any true testimony. The man was sinless! And you know a lot about people by asking the opinion of who knows those people the best. If you want to know about Andy Woods you might a little question to my wife, Anne Woods and sheâll be able to produce a truckload of problems.
There were no closer people to Jesus than Peter and John, the inner circle. And have you read Johnâs testimony about Jesus? 1 John 2:1, He calls Him Jesus Christ the righteous. I John 3:3 He is pure. I Peter 2:22 âWho committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.â [John 2:1, âMy 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;â I John 3:3, âAnd everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.â]
You say well, this is all interesting but what does it have to do with the virgin birth of Christ? Everything! The sin nature is something inherited from conception. Psalm 51:5, David says, âBehold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.â  At the point of conception I inherited a sin nature from Adam. And folks, biblically guess who the sin nature is passed down through? The man. The women are saying I knew that was so. [Laughter] The man with the seed passes it down.
Romans 5:12 says, âTherefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.â If Jesus had had a normal conception He would have had a sin nature. See that? But the virgin birth, the miracle that it was, allowed a single human being to be born into this world, (A) with no beginning point, and (B) with no sin nature. You start fiddling around with the virgin birth of Christ and saying you know, itâs not that important, how Jesus got here is not that important. Youâre on very dangerous ground because now youâre fiddling around with Christâs eternality, number three, and Christâs sinless, number four. And if you start fiddling around with those two things youâre going to find yourself in dangerous territory with number five because the whole bodily atonement starts to fall.
You say well whatâs the bodily atonement? 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 âsubstituteâ here in this, He didnât just die on a cross to show us how to live, He didnât just die on a cross to show us how to be a good Joe, or Joette, or whatever. 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. But He stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of holy God the Father in our place. That is what we mean by the bodily atonement. And the virgin birth is linked to the bodily atonement. Why is that? Because the thing to understand is the sin that took place in Eden was eternal. It was an eternal offense against God Himself and it actually brought to the human race an eternal consequence. It wasnât 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.
And how do you fix an eternal problem exactly? Well thereâs only one person that can do that and thatâs eternal God Himself. Only an eternal God can fix an eternal consequence. See, the Bible says things like the day you eat from the tree is the day youâll die. Romans 6:23, âthe wages of sin is death.â What kind of wages are we dealing with here? Weâre dealing with things that are outside of the human ability to fix, things that are eternal in nature. A human being canât reverse this, a sole human being. Someone eternal has to fix this and thatâs why the virgin birth is such a big deal because the virgin birth protected Christâs eternality. If the virgin birth didnât happen miraculously and was a natural conception then He would have a beginning point. If He had a beginning point Heâs not eternal. If Heâs not eternal Heâs disqualified from serving I the bodily atonement.
Beyond that think about this for a minute. What kind of sacrifice does God accept? 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 doesnât like that. And you learn from the Book of Malachi that God doesnât accept any sacrifice; He accepts a perfect sacrifice. In fact, this principle is revealed as early as the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:5. What kind of lamb would work to satisfy a Holy God?  Exodus 12:5 says, â’Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.â Itâs very clear it must be unblemished, no spot, no blemish, no impurity, to imperfection, genetically pure.
And thatâs why Jesus qualifies to be our substitute, because Heâs pure. 1 Peter 1:19, âBut with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.â Jesus is accepted as our sacrifice because of His purity. You say well, what does this have to do with the virgin birth? If Jesus had had a normal conception what would He have inherited? The sin nature. You inherit a sin nature youâre disqualified from being that great bodily atonement. Eternal God can fix an eternal problem, we need the virgin birth because the virgin birth protects us. A perfect substitute is the only thing that will be accepted. Jesus is qualified because the virgin birth protects that. You take away the virgin birth youâre taking away His eternality, youâre taking away His sinless life and it doesnât matter if He died on the cross. Thatâs a sacrifice that God Himself will not accept. You go through the virgin birth and isnât interesting how these dominoes just to start to topple over so quickly.
Thereâs a sixth reason for the virgin birth and that is to circumvent the curse of Jeconiah. 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: âThus says the LORD, âWrite 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.ââ [Jeremiah 22:30,] God says this guyâs whole lineage is under a curse because of things that Jeconiah did back in the days of Jeremiah.
Now we have a big problem because the legal lineage leading to Jesus Christ through Joseph, which is described in Matthew 1, guess whoâs in the lineage? Jeconiah is in the lineage! In fact, youâll find a reference to that in Matthew 1:12, youâll see the various names and the genealogy and right there in the middle of it is Jeconiah. [Matthew 1:12, âAfter the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.â]
So if Jesus Christ is naturally born through that lineage Heâs got the same curse on His life, because God cursed all of the descendants of Jeconiah. And so how do we get out of this dilemma? The virgin birth is how you get out of. 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. And all of a sudden, just like that, God says the curse of Jeconiah does not apply to Jesus Christ.
Now some of you should be worried about this because if Heâs brought out of the lineage of Matthew 1 then Heâs not qualified to fulfill the Davidic Covenant, is He. I mean, donât you have to be a legal descendant of David to inherit the Davidic throne one day? Doesnât 2 Samuel 7:13 say, âHe shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.â The Messiah has got to come from Davidâs line, but now we have Jesus Christ not a biological heir of Joseph. It gets Him out of the curse of Jeconiah, no problem, but does it take Him out of the Davidic promises? And thereâs a lot of tension about this.  I mean, this ought to be something youâre up late at night worrying about, not how youâre going to pay for all those Christmas gifts with your credit cards but this ought to worry you.
And we have an answer because thereâs another genealogy. Whoooo! Thank You Lord. Thereâs another genealogy in Luke 3 and this is tracing the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Mary and guess whoâs in that genealogy? A guy named Nathan and guess who Nathan is related to. David! [Luke 3:31, âthe son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,â]
See what the Word just did here with this virgin birth? With the virgin birth He took Jesus out of the curse of Jeconiah. And you say well, wait a minute, what about the Davidic promises? Those have been rerouted, not through His father, Joseph but through His mother, Mary. So through the virgin birth not only is Jesus outside the curse of Jeconiah but He is still the inheritor to the Davidic promises.
I mean, it is mindboggling, mind-numbing what the Lord through this virgin birth of Christ. And to have evangelical pastors, with large followings, stand up and say it really doesnât matter is just astounding to me that people can say that. Iâm wondering at what point you quit calling them evangelical pastors? I donât think theyâre evangelical pastors any more, I think theyâre false teachers. They do not deserve the title âpastor,â they do not deserve the title âBible teacher,â they do not deserve the title âProtestant Christianâ âevangelical.â 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. Even marginalizing the virgin birth of Christ the whole thing collapses like a house of cards. God help us to understand this.
The last reason why the virgin birth was so significant is to vindicate the New Testament. Well, it doesnât matter if itâs a literal fact or not. The problem is the Bible tells you itâs a literal fact. You ought to gather 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. If you say the virgin birth is untrue youâre going against what the Bible says.
And this particular evangelical pastor that Iâm quoting, he says well itâs only mentioned in two books of the Gospels. What kind of reasoning is that? I mean, how many times does God have to say something before we believe it. I mean, would Adam and Eve say when they are from the tree of knowledge, âWell Lord, You only told us to stay away from that tree one time.â Once is enough, isnât it? But then it shows up a second time and this guy says well, it doesnât show up in Markâs Gospel. Well, thereâs a reason for that. First of all Markâs Gospel was written after Matthewâs Gospel so why would Mark cover things that Matthewâs already covered.
Furthermore, Mark is portraying Jesus to Roman Christians as a suffering servant. In Greco-Roman times a servant did not have a genealogy; it was unknown for a servant or a slave to have a genealogy. And because Mark is shaping his material to portray Christ in a certain way he doesnât deny the virgin birth of Christ, he just doesnât dwell on it, he skips over it because thatâs not germane to Markâs purpose in writing.
And this particular evangelical pastor says well itâs not found in Johnâs Gospel. Well, it is found in Johnâs Gospel indirectly. Notice John 8:41, and with this verse weâll close. This is the Pharisees speaking to Jesus. ââYou are doing the deeds of your father.â They said to Him, âWeâ us Pharisees, âare not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.ââ They just accused Jesus of being an illegitimate child. They accused Him of being born of a virgin. Why did they do that? Because I think they had some kind of understanding of what happened in Maryâs 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 donât have a biological father is because your mother was a fornicator, thatâs basically what they just said, youâre an illegitimate child. They had some kind of understanding of what was happening and they simply twisted it around to suit their own purposes.
But hereâs the deal folks; with any doctrine itâs going to start affecting another one very fast, like dominoes falling over. Why is the virgin birth so significant? 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.
Number two, the virgin birth of Christ is something that is necessary to emphasize the God-man, 100% God and 100% man.
Number three, the virgin birth is necessary to emphasize and protect Christâs eternality.
And number four, His sinlessness. And if He wasnât eternal and sinless then He canât be number five, the One who pays the penalty for our sins in His bodily atonement.
And number six, youâve got to have a virgin birth to circumvent the curse of Jeconiah and yet rewrite the Davidic promises through Maryâs lineage.
And number seven, youâd better have a virgin birth of Christ because your Bible says itâs true.
What did Jesus say? âearnestly contend for the faith.â Jude 1:3, [KJV âBeloved, 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 that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.â
Thatâs what weâre doing here folks; weâre defending the biblical record so that the offer of salvation can be open to anybody without any ambiguity, or any confusion. What a great time to be born spiritually, this time of the year as we focus on the birth of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing it would be to receive Christ personally and be born spiritually. Jesus says to Nicodemus, no one can see, no one can enter without the spiritual birth. The physical birth of Jesus is wonderful but it doesnât help someone until they trust what He did and receive the new birth. How do you receive the new birth? You trust in what Jesus did. Jesus said âIt is finished!â You place your confidence and your hope for your future, not on yourself, not on your good works, not in what your favorite preacher says but in Jesus and His Words. He said âIt is finished!â
You 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. God wonât accept us any other way. 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. And youâre born again at that point; youâre a new child of God! 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. The Bible says âToday is the day of salvation.â [2 Corinthians 6:2, âfor He says, âAT THE ACCEPTÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.â Behold, now is âTHE ACCEPTABLE TIME,â behold, now is âTHE DAY OF SALVATION.ââ
Why not experience the new birth now, during the very time period on our calendar where we celebrate the physical birth of Jesus Christ. I would invite you to do that right now as Iâm talking, itâs 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 Yearâs resolutions to do this, but itâs just a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where you trust in Him and Him alone for salvation.
Itâs something you can do in the privacy of your own mind and the quietness of your own heart as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction. If itâs something that you need more explanation on, although I donât know how to give a better explanation than this one here, but if itâs something that youâre still confused about Iâm available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.
Father, weâre grateful for this time of year, weâre grateful for the virgin birth, better said the virgin conception of Jesus, the Messiah. 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. Weâll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesusâ name.