Matthew 1 The Genealogy of Life

The speaker discusses the genealogy in Matthew 1, highlighting the unique aspects compared to the genealogy in Genesis. He emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in inspiring Matthew to write the gospel. The genealogy includes significant figures such as Abraham, David, and Christ, with a focus on four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. These women, some with controversial backgrounds, are highlighted to show God's inclusive nature in his universal Gospel. The genealogy also details the line of kings from David to the exile, showcasing the history of Judah's rulers. The overall message conveys the theme of redemption and inclusion in God's kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. Good morning, how are you all today? I thought we may be having class out on the lawn for a while, but they got it turned off and everything's fine. Thank you all for being here today. If you have your copy of the scripture, we're in Matthew 1, first verse. This chapter has 25 verses, and the first 17 of them are a wonderful, exciting, run-of-the-mill genealogy. Don't you love reading genealogies? And the whole 17 verses is about genealogy, but there are some very interesting things about that genealogy that are not like the one in Genesis 5. Now, you have another genealogy in Genesis 5, and the one in Genesis 5 is from Adam to Noah, and the one here is from Abraham to Christ, and there are four of them. And there are four generations that he's going to talk about, and each of the four generations are 14 generations at one time. And in looking at generational relationship to a genealogy, 14 generations is sometime between 465 and 500 years. So the most that a genealogy generation is about 500 years, sometimes 465, 500. And what you're going to see in this genealogy in chapter 1 is you're going to see a genealogy from Abraham to David, and from David to the exile, and from the exile to Christ. And so you're going to see three 14 generations, and it's kind of interesting what's in there and how different the Matthew genealogy is from the Genesis genealogy. And there are a lot of differences in between. Before we go there, I want to take you to 2 Peter, the first chapter of the 21st verse. You don't have to turn there, I'm going to read it to you. It says, I'm persuaded that all of these gospel writers were no more intelligent, literarily and or otherwise, than you or I. They were no more intelligent than I, nor you. The only difference between their writing a gospel and us writing one is 1 Peter 121. And that's the difference, and I'm going to read it to you. For prophecy never came by the will of man. So man can't write prophecy. But prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So how did Matthew have the intelligence that he needed in order to write this gospel? It's a very simple answer. He was moved by the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit moves into a person's life and the Holy Spirit starts working through a person and the Holy Spirit takes over that person's mind and personality and his abilities, that man can do all kinds of things, a woman too, he either can. And so what happened was, Matthew was taken over by the Holy Spirit and he was moved by that Holy Spirit and having been moved by the Holy Spirit, he wrote. And he wrote the first gospel, the book of Matthew. And as we said before, it is a Hebrew gospel. It was written primarily to the Hebrew people under the title, The King. And it is a majestic gospel that talks about King Jesus and him being not only the king of creation, but the king of all eternity. And he is the king of all. And we're going to talk about that today. Now the kind of interesting thing about this genealogy that starts in verse 1 and goes through verse 17, the one in Genesis only covers the lives of men. And that was generally the way a genealogy was put together. You had the father and then a son and then the father and then a son and then the father and a son. And that's the Genesis 5 genealogy, Adam, begot. But in Genesis genealogy, it is a genealogy of death. If you go and read it, you will read these kinds of words. And Adam begot who? Who was killed? Okay. And Adam died. And Noah begot. And Noah died. And if you read through that genealogy, every last one of the people whose names are in that genealogy died. They may have lived 695 years, 980 years. How many years did Methuselah live? Over 900. And at the end of Methuselah's life, although he gave birth to many, many people, Methuselah died. And that is the difference between the Genesis genealogy and this one. This genealogy is a genealogy of life. Because it's of Christ. And Christ Jesus is life. And Christ Jesus does not give death. Christ Jesus gives us life. In him, John said, was light. And the light was the life of men. And the light shined into the darkness of this world. And the darkness could not put it out. So if you have light, you have life. That's what happens to all our vegetation if the sun goes away. You see folks, you have to have life, light, in order to have life. And that's why the scripture says, and Jesus was life. And him was the light of the world. So what you're going to see here, you're going to see a genealogy naming a lot of Hebrew people and their names are really difficult to pronounce at times. Because they're kind of different. But also what you're going to see in here is something that you don't see in Genesis. Now although we have these 14 generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Exile and from the Exile to Christ in this genealogy. Although we have that 14 generations in there, and there are some names that are not listed here that are listed in the Genesis account of the genealogy because they were not important to Matthew. The Holy Spirit said, those names are not important, I'm going to give you the names that are important. And so the Holy Spirit is now filling in the names. Another very strange difference from this genealogy to the one in Genesis is, this one has four women in it. A genealogy never had a woman. A genealogy only picked up with the male and his son. Not his daughter, but his son. The male and his son. Abraham begot and Jacob begot. But here you have a different story. Here you have four women listed. Interesting four. Now I'm going to tell you the names of the four, we're going to talk about them a minute because they're in this genealogy. And if you look in verse 5, if you look in verse 3, you'll see the name of the first one. Judah begot Perez and Zerah, twins, by Tamar, his daughter-in-law. That's kind of dicey. Now that's interesting, isn't it? Now let me tell you something about a woman during the time of the Old Testament and the New Testament. They were nothing but chattel mortgage. The man bought her. She belonged to him, good court and barrel. Everything she had belonged to him. In fact, if he decided to divorce her, she had to leave with nothing. She was chattel mortgage. During the time of these days, women were of no avail. Sorry, ladies, it's just the way it was. I'm so glad it's not that way now. And this genealogy starts setting up the way it is now. I'm so glad it is now that we, all of us, male and female, are in the kingdom of God and can be blessed. Tamar had a kind of dicey character. And yet she is in the genealogy of Christ, which means that God saw in her something that he needed, brought her into the kingdom and made her name forever in the genealogy. She had a kind of dicey character. And you agree she had children by her father-in-law? That's Tamar. Now, the next one you see in here is the one you know well. And her name is in verse 5. Rahab, Jericho, the one that had a hotel, took in two spies and helped them to be protected until she could get them away, asking them to be sure that these people remembered her. And Rahab's name appears in here, which means that Rahab was approved by God. Rahab had a dicey character, folks. Now, I'm moving towards something I want you to understand. The third person in here is a little gal from, oh, by the way, Rahab was a Canaanite, Tamar was an Amorite. They were both Gentiles. That would go to Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite. She was a Gentile woman. That's kind of interesting. The first three ladies in here are not Israelites. They're all Gentiles. Which is beginning to show you what God's getting ready to do in the Gospels. He is getting ready to go way out beyond our borders, beyond our thinking, and on the other side of where we are. And he's getting ready to include in the world what? Everyone. His Gospel is getting ready to be universal Gospel. No longer the Jews, no longer the Gentiles, because the Scripture says, whosoever will let him come. Now you're beginning to see the development of a universal Gospel in Matthew's Gospel. Then he comes to a person you know well. A gal by the name of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. She is the only of the three who's an Israelite, of the four. She's the only one of the four who's an Israelite. The others were Gentiles. She's an Israelite. But would you say she kind of had a dicey character? Lust, adultery, murder, remarriage, child born, died. She becomes the mother of Solomon. Interesting, huh? Now folks, if God can invite those kinds of women to become part of his eternal kingdom, we have a chance. We have a chance. And our chance is in what I put in the first verse. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, in this particular genealogy, you don't recognize it, but I'm going to tell you something that you need to know. Beginning with verse 6, you begin to pick up the second generation, the second 14 generations. You see it's from Abraham to David. And in verse 6, you pick up David. And it's going to be from David to the exile. From the time David took over somewhere in the 10th century until 586 BC, it's another 14 generations. And you're going to pick up David, and now David is going to have a kid. His name is going to be Solomon, and Solomon is going to have a kid. His name is going to be Rehoboam, and Rehoboam is going to have a kid. His name is going to be Abijah, and Abijah is going to have a kid. His name is going to be Asa, and Asa is going to have a kid. His name is going to be Jehoshaphat. Do you realize whose names I'm reading? From verse 17 all the way to verse 14 are the kings of Judah. Have you ever said to yourself, wow, I'd like to know the names of the kings of Judah? There they are. David begot Solomon. Solomon begot Rehoboam. Rehoboam begot Abijah. Here they are. They go all the way through verse 14 of verse 15. And in verse 15, you see in Elihud begot Eleazar, and Eleazar begot Mathan. Now you're out of the kings. And the next person born is a fellow by the name of Jacob. Not the Jacob you know. Not the Jacob of Abraham. Not Esau and Jacob. Not those two. This Jacob is the father of Joseph. He's the father of the man who in a few minutes we're going to see in the Scripture where it says how wonderfully kind, loving, and caring this man Joseph was. Now, this particular genealogy here begins to pick up all kinds of people. All kinds of people. I mean, go read the lives of the kings. Hey, they're not pure white. Have you ever read the life of the king? That's all of the wonderful king that we all said he was a wonderful king. Hezekiah. You ever read the story of his son? Woo! Not really white. In fact, many, many of these kings were pretty bad. Where am I going with this? You know where I'm going. If God can bring all of these people into his fold and name all of them even though they all have dicey characters, characteristics, and have been rather dicey in their lifestyles. If he can bring all of these people into the kingdom of God and use them in order to genealogy his beloved son Jesus Christ to be sure that he gets into the house of David. See, this is where it's going. Do you remember what Isaiah said in 7? Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. Later on, the same Isaiah had a beautiful passage that we love to read at Christmas time. For unto us a child is born. Chapter 9. Isaiah, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called for. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government, there shall be what? No end. The first genealogy, ladies and gentlemen, in Genesis ended in death. The second genealogy in Matthew ends in life. He was a life of death. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called for. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David. Had to be part of David. He had to get in somehow with Joseph. Because Jacob bore Joseph, and Jacob was of the house of David. And they were from Bethlehem, the city of bread. And he says, to order it. To establish it. Henceforth, forever. The kingdom of our Lord in Christ in the Matthew genealogy is forever. It never ends. You know why? Because the last part of verse 7 in Isaiah 9 tells us. The hot passion of God will see to it. That that kingdom will never end. The zeal of God. Go look up the word zeal. And see what the definitions are. Hot passion. I told you about that about Barbara. And we all laughed about that. Okay, now back in Matthew 1. Back in Matthew 1. There's something else that goes on here. In Matthew 1. When we come down to the birth of Jesus. In verse 18. Now, in chapter 1, the scripture is really beginning to pick up. You're on the other side of the genealogy. Now let me tell you about these people who. My last word about this genealogy. You know that I love literature. And you know I love poetry. And you know I love music. And of course music is nothing but poetry put to music. I love, in fact, one of the greatest things that you could do for your children and grandchildren is read them the hymns. I mean, that's wonderful. Holy Spirit, fill poetry. I mean, we have some beautiful hymns. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. May we thy consolation bear. And from Mount Pisgah's lofty heights. We view our home. And take our flight. This robe of flesh will drop and rise. We seize the everlasting prize. And shout. While passing through the air. Farewell, farewell. Sweet hour of prayer. Hey, that's pretty good poetry, folks. Have you ever read the poetry of the hymns? They have great poetry. Well, there's a hymn that relates to all these people in this genealogy. I want you to hear the last verse of it. It starts off like this. I once was an outcast. A stranger on earth. An alien by choice. And a sinner by birth. Well, that's a pretty sad situation, folks. But I've been adopted. My name's written down. I'm heir to a mansion. A harp and a crown. I'm a child of the king. With Jesus my savior, I'm a child of the king. That's pretty good poetry, folks. Now, John, Jim, I've got a problem. Theologically, I'm good with mansion and a mansion. You know, I have a mansion and a crown. I have a mansion, a harp and a crown. I'm good theologically with the mansion and the crown. A little dicey on the harp. John, do you think we're going to have a harp? No, sir. John, Jim, do you think we're going to have a harp? Well, for a minister of music and education, a harp is okay. But for a pastor like John and Jim, a harp may not be so much important, you know. So I'm not really sure that that harp ought to be in there. But at least it is poetically well done. And we have a mansion, which we know we have a harp, maybe, and a crown. We know about the crown. The crown is a Stephanus. There are two kinds of crowns. One crown is a diadem. That's the one Jesus wears. That's the one God wears. That's the one the king of England wears. A diadem. We are going to get a Stephanus. A Stephanus is a laurel wreath. It's what they gave at the races for who won. Getting ready to do the Olympics right now, you're going to get some people who are going to get some Stephanus. They're going to get the laurel wreath. We're going to get a laurel wreath. Oh, by the way, when we come in front of Jesus, guess what we're going to do? Take them off and throw them. Okay. Now you know how God can intervene into the hearts and lives of people by this genealogy. And it is totally different from the one in Genesis. Because it's built on three 14-generation situations. Abraham to David. David to the exile. The exile to Christ. And when you get to Christ, you don't have to have another genealogy. It's over. Okay. Now we're at the end of the genealogy. And we have had some interesting things about that. Now verse 17, verse 18, begins to talk about the birth of Jesus. And Matthew, by the way, let me tell you about Matthew. I told you last week, let me give you a word about Matthew. He was a very, very numerical intelligent person. He was a tax collector. Jim, he had to be able to read bottom, you know, bottom lines. Jim says he couldn't read a bottom line. I have difficulty also. John can read them because he's got a degree in it. But, you know, the rest of us just look at a spreadsheet and say, oh yeah, that's cool. Matthew could read a spreadsheet. Matthew was a tax collector. Matthew was a Jew tax collector. Matthew was a traitor to the Jewish people. Because he was working for King Herod Agrippa. And King Herod Agrippa had laid some pretty heavy taxes on the people of Galilee, where Matthew lived in Capernaum. And Matthew was accounted to collect all those taxes for Herod Agrippa. And he could take what Herod Agrippa required, but if he could pull more than that, he could extort more money. And every one of these tax collectors was an extortioner. They were crooks. They're like some of the folk we know that we watch on television a lot. Especially in Minnesota, it appears. Okay, so Matthew's a pretty dicey guy. In fact, the first day he's saved, he gets Jesus at his house for a big banquet, and he invites all of his tax collectors to come. And you remember what the Pharisees said about him? They said, look at him, he's eating with tax collectors and sinners. Remember? And Matthew will tell you about that. He'll tell you that story later. And Jesus looked at all of these Pharisees who were saying, you're eating with tax collectors and sinners, and Jesus said, the Son of Man has not come to give life to those who are well. Righteous. If you're righteous, you don't need me. See, that's what Matthew's telling these, I said, Jesus is telling these Pharisees. If you already have righteousness, you don't need me. You've already got it. But you see, these people know they don't have it. So I've not come to give life to the righteous. I've come to give life to the sinner. And that was Jesus, Lord of Apparatia, in the world. Now, after all of this happens, Matthew gets to the birth. Now, in Judaism, and I put it in your paper on page 2, basically, there were three, it's on page 3, there were three activities that happened in a Jewish wedding. So let me read about this Jewish wedding. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Now, circle that word. Because, ladies and gentlemen, you think we have a great appreciation and love for the Holy Spirit. But you cannot imagine the Jews' love and appreciation for the Holy Spirit. Go all through the Old Testament. When somebody got ready to do something, what happened to that person? The Holy Spirit came upon them. When Elijah got ready to call fire, the Holy Spirit came upon them. When Samson got ready to pull the pillars, the Holy Spirit came back upon him. You look at all the prophets and you see the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit came upon David, and the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is a very, very important commodity in Judaism. It still is. The Holy Spirit is still a very important commodity. Because they too believe that the Holy Spirit can still come and go. See, that's the difference between Judaism and Christianity. They believe in God, but not in his redeeming Son. But they do believe in his Holy Spirit, who can come and go. Now, the difference in us is, we not only believe in God, we also believe in his redeeming Christ, Jesus Christ. And we believe that on the day that we were saved, we got him. And he came into our lives. And he's not leaving. And he's there forever. See, Christianity is very importantly related to the Holy Spirit, but so is Judaism. So, Joseph was a righteous man. Joseph was a good man. And Joseph was concerned about what he had found out. And so, he was found with child by the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a good, just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. Now, in the marriage, there was, first of all, the engagement. And the engagement always happened in the house of the bride's father. Okay? Why? He had to pay for her. Okay? So, when he went to her daddy's house to ask him to marry her, the daddy looked at him and said, You going to take good care of her? You going to treat her right? You know, okay, give me the money. There was a dowry. And he had to pay for her. In a beautiful little book that Ed Fairchild, oh, by the way, Ed had surgery this week on his nose. They removed the cancer. It was well done. It's over. And Ed is recovering. We saw a picture of him. Bless his heart. He has two black eyes and a huge, big nose. He will recover, but it's bad. It's bad. You know, it's just the old scar. But they got it all. That's the best part about it. Ed loves this book. I got him from a Jewish friend of mine. By the name of Zola Levitt. And it's entitled, The Christian Marriage. If you haven't read it, you need to read it. It's a great little book. Well, you see, in there, our marriage to Jesus Christ happened the same way Joseph's marriage to Mary happened. Jesus found us, and he said, I want you to be my bride. Oh, by the way, isn't the word bride used all throughout the New Testament? We are the bride of Christ. Guess what the first thing we're going to do when we get to heaven? We're going to go to a marriage supper of the Lamb. We're going to a marriage supper of the... Who goes to a marriage, folks? The bride and the groom. I mean, it's all about marriage. We are the bride of Christ. She, the church, is the bride of Christ. We are married to the church. We are married to Christ in the church. And so, Jesus had to come to our Father's house. That's why he was born as a man. That's why he was born like we were born. He had to come to... And what does the Scripture... Who does the Scripture say our Father is? Jesus said it one day. He said, Your Father, the devil. Got it? Jesus had to come to the devil and make a deal with the devil to purchase us. Are you ahead of me? Yes, you are. You're way ahead of me. Because that purchase will come in his 33rd year of life and it's going to happen on the cross. You see, Jesus is going to pay for us on the cross. That's what Satan, our Father, said, This is what I want. I want you dead. You see, the beautiful part about Christ and Satan is Christ is all-knowing. Satan is not. You know, we say that he is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipotent. He is omnivenevolent. We say Jesus is all of us. And he is. He is omni-everything. Satan is not, folks. Do you think that if Satan knew that Christ dying on the cross was going to be his condemnation, do you think he would have helped put him there? No. But he had to go there in order to pay for you and me. The engagement happened in our Father's house. Here on earth, Jesus had to become Emmanuel, God with us. And when he became Emmanuel, God with us, then he was able in the flesh, without sin, put that down, to be able to become the redemptive person who could, in truth, pay for his bride. I don't know if it does it to you, but it does it to me. When I think of what Jesus paid for me, I'm not worth it. And neither are you. But he did it anyway. Because John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the only one of a kind, that whosoever believes in him will never, ever die. There's that new generation. There's that new genealogy of which we are a part, but will have everlasting life. So the engagement was first, then became, secondly, the betrothal, and that was generally for a year, because when a man was betrothed to a woman in Judaism, he had to go build her a house. I mean, it's not like we do today, you know, where you see a girl, you grab her, you go find a judge, whoop, married and gone. Like that. It took generally a year or more after they were engaged for betrothal to happen. And he had to go back to his father's house and build her a house. Oh, and by the way, that house was not approved until his daddy approved it. I mean, boy, when I met Barbara, if that would have been happening, I'd have run home, got two poles, put up a tarpaulin, put a bed under it, and said, Al, go fix your house. And she would have said, Not on your life, buddy. No, I had to build something. I had to build a house. Jesus said to his disciples, guys, in my father's house, or many houses, I go to prepare a place for you. Look at the marriage. Look at this guy, Luke Joseph, trying to get married all set. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, do you think I'm going to do all that and not come back and get you? Come on. Where's your noggin? If I prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you, that where I am, there you may be also. See, it's all in the marriage plan. He came to this world. He came to our father the devil. He made the deal. He gave his life. And now he's gone back to the father. He's building our house. What if, what if, there's only one house left and there's only one carpet to put down? Do you realize what's next? Rapture. And the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the archangel and the trumpets of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the cloud. Hey, we're waiting for our house to get built. Jesus is doing everything a Jewish boy had to do. He got us engaged with our father, the devil. He paid the price. He paid our dowry. The dowry was on the cross. He went back to the father telling his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you and he is there now preparing your house and my house and their house and everybody's house in the kingdom of God and one of these days, whoo, we're gone. Come on, amen? I mean, that's the story, folks. It's right here. I'm reading you the story. But while he thought about these things in verse 20, behold, an angel of the Lord came. You see, Joseph didn't want to embarrass Mary. There were two things he could do. Because she was pregnant and it wasn't by him, he could have her stoned because adultery cost. You remember the harlot who was taken by the people and they were getting ready to stone her? And Jesus came up there and he said, Okay. Y'all want to stone her? Pick up your rocks. Oh, before you throw one, let me ask you a question. Any of you who are without sin, you hit her the first time in the head. How many times did she get hit in the head? All of a sudden, the rocks started falling on the ground. Jesus looked around just him and the woman and rocks. And he said, Woman, where are your accusers? To which she said, Sir, I have none. He said, Neither do I accuse thee. From this point on, you go in my love and sin no more. She was saved. Okay. And so, he could have her stoned because she was pregnant. And it wasn't him. Or, he could put her away until the child was born. But then she would have to live with the child as if living in exile. And there was only two options to him. Either stone her or put her away. So he was thinking about all this. And he had determined he would do the second thing. He would put her away because he loved her. Now, that's where we pick up here. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away. But while he was thinking about all this, behold, Gabriel shows up. Gabriel is the enunciating angel. He enunciates. He's the one who came to Mary. Behold, Mary, behold, you have favor with God. The Holy Ghost will come upon you and the power of the house will shine upon you. And that thing which shall be born in you shall be called the Son of God. Hey, folks, we're not talking about a conception. We're talking about a creation. Mary did not conceive. Mary, in God's eternal kingdom, created the Son of God. It wasn't a conception. It was a creation by the power of the Holy Spirit, just like He created you in your mother's womb. So Joseph, being the son of David, see that? Joseph, son of David. That is extremely important because all of the Scripture in the Old Testament said that Jesus would be of the house of David. Now, although He was not of Joseph physically, He was born in the house of David. Now, it's kind of interesting. The Scripture says here, and sometimes you just kind of go away from it, in verse 18 it says, She was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Now, you remember what I told you about the Jewish people and the Holy Spirit? Joseph was all over this Holy Spirit thing. He really clung to that. And when Gabriel told him that this child is of the Holy Spirit, he really got into that. I mean, that was very important to Joseph. That's why he kept her. That's why he was willing to take all the embarrassment. That's why he was willing to take a pregnant woman in front of everybody and she had a child and he didn't know about it. I mean, he was willing to do that because the angel Gabriel said, This is of the Holy Spirit, Joseph. You've got to do this, okay? Son of David, it's got to be born in your house. Because the Old Testament prophecy says He will be of the house of David. And so the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is the Holy Spirit and she shall bear a son and you will call his name Yeshua, Joshua, Deliverer, Jesus, Yeshua. He had three names, Jesus, Christ, the Lord. Jesus, Deliverer, Christ, a Messiah, Lord, King of the Universe. They named him Jesus, Christ, the Lord. Deliverer, Messiah, the Weighted One, the Lord, Elohim. And so, he will save his people from their sins. Now, we're at the end of the genealogy. The first genealogy was to what? And they died. Now we're in the second genealogy of Matthew. And in the second genealogy of Matthew, he says, and for he will save his people from their sins and all of the people in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, of which all of us are a part, have life. In him was light. And the light was the light of men. The light of men. And the light shined in the darkness. The darkness could not put it out. John said one day when he saw Jesus coming to the temple, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord through the prophets, saying, now comes Isaiah 7, Behold, a virgin shall be with child. Well, this is a different translation. The King James says, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And you shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. God among us. Here to be able to deal with our daddy, the devil. Here to be able to do the miraculous things he did for the kingdom of God to show us who he was. Here, Matthew will show you he does. Oh, by the way, I can't tell you all the places, but you need to go read it for yourself. Matthew uses this number 14 really a lot. Fourteen generations from Abraham to David. Fourteen generations from David to the exile. Fourteen generations from the exile of Christ. In his book, he has 14 miracles that he talks about. He has 14 commandments that he talks about. He has all kinds of things that deal with the number 14. Oh, by the way, the Jewish people, the Jewish people have all the time, every male's name is numerical. Now, David's name, in English, is D-A-V-I-D. In Hebrew, it's D-W-D. You see, Hebrew has no vowels. Oh, they do now because man put some in, they did a diacritical underneath. So we can look at a Hebrew word, look underneath it, we see two, three little dots, we see a little line, we see something, we see a little triangle, it means A-I-E-O, A-E-I-O. And we can do, we know that, we can see David because the A will have the numbers under it, the little diacriticals under it, and the other word, the other D will have the little diacriticals under it. And we know it's David, D-A-V-I-D, but D-W-D is numerically four, six, four. Interesting, huh? Add four, six, four together, what do you get? Fourteen. That's Matthew. Remember I told you he was a mathematical brain? Matthew's going to do his whole book in fourteens. If you understand that, and as you read it, you can start counting some things, and all of a sudden, you'll end up with fourteen, I promise you. Now, the only time, maybe John and Jim will tell you about some of the fourteens, but if I hit a chapter that I run into one, I'll show you the fourteens. I'd give you a challenge, John. You too, Jim. Give you a challenge. Do some fourteen thinking. Okay? I mean, this book is full of fourteens, folks. Why would it not be if there are fourteen generations and fourteen numerical letters in the name of David, and fourteen miracles, and fourteen parables, and fourteen yada, yada, yada, yada. Okay. Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son. Where? Bethlehem. What? City of David. What? House of bread. What? Bread of life. Hello? Jesus Christ was born in the house of bread. God said, He's the bread of life. When they came back from Egypt, they moved to the house of, to the city of Nazareth. Wine. The Nazarite. He was born in the house of bread. He grew up in the city of wine. I love that. And he said, This is my body. Piece of bread. All of you, eat some of it. This is my blood. Some grape juice. All of you, drink some of it. And every time you do that, remember, you do it in remembrance of me. Jesus Christ, the Lord. Yeshua, HaMashiach, Elohim. Jesus, Deliverer, Christ, Messiah, Lord, King of creation. Are you ready for John to pick up in two and take you further into Matthew? Okay, Brother John. I laid you some groundwork. I'll have time for 14. Oh me, that's fun, John. That's fun. All right. I wish I had time for questions. It's 5 to 11. I don't have time for questions. And we got a little late to start because the fire alarm took us off. So if you have questions, you want to ask them, send me a text. Or send me an email. I'll answer them if you ask them. Now don't make it, I got a letter the other day from a guy who asked me a question and it would have taken me 18 pages to answer him. I'm not going to do that. He's a good friend of mine who lives down in East Texas, but I'm not going to spend 18 pages answering him. Okay. God bless you. May the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you peace. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the miraculous miracle of understanding in your Word. It's all there, Father. We just have to look at it. Read it. You told us to read your Word. The more we read it, the more we'll understand it and the more we'll get to come to have great faith in it. Thank you, Father. Most of all, for Jesus Christ, our eternal Lord. He is our reason for being. Thank you for that. Bless John as he comes in the next two weeks and Jim in the next two after that as they share with us chapter 2 and 3 and chapter 4 and 5. And then four weeks later, I'll be back up here again, 6 and 7. And Father, just bless us. Keep us. Use us. Enjoy us with the Holy Spirit. Give us the wonderful knowledge that we have life and that life is in the Son. And we praise you and thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Enjoy Sunday. Amen.