To certain poor shepherds...

We always hear the story of Mary and Joseph and how they traveled to Bethlehem. And of course we see the Nativity scenes with the manger and Mary and Joseph and the wise men. True or False—the “wise men” were there at the manger when Jesus was born. False. But we just assume they were there because they're in all the Nativity scenes, right? BUT!! If we look at the timeline in the gospel according to Matthew, we see that the wise men didn’t come along for quite some time after. Matthew 2:1-2, 7, 12, 16—Now after Jesus was born—OK, so after Jesus has already been born—after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him”…Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared… Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way…Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. So, Jesus was probably about 2 years old or a little less when the wise men came, but no, they were not there the night He was born.

But there were three of them, right? We don’t know. The only thing we know is they were wise men from the east. But they were kings, right? No. They were sorcerers, pagan priests, but no they were not kings. The word “Magi” literally referred to a worshiper of fire. So “We 3 kings from Orient are”—eh, not so much. But were there shepherds at the manger that night? Yes. And we’re gonna look at the Nativity story from their perspective. Think about the words to "The First Noël":

The First Noël the angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay.

We know what happened that night. But imagine yourself being there when those angels sang that first noel. Bethlehem was what might be called a little backwater town. Although it was the birthplace of Israel's most beloved king, King David, no one paid much attention to it. Nothing ever really happened in Bethlehem. Kinda like living in Rockwood or Coalfield. And if you live in Rockwood or Coalfield, I mean no offense. Now, imagine you were a shepherd in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. You're out watching your sheep one night. And it's a night like any other night. It doesn't feel any different than any other night. And having spent enough nights outside, you know what the sky should look like. You know what belongs and what doesn't. You've tried to count the stars, you've seen a few of them shoot across the sky.

But tonight, when you look up, you notice something. And this thing you notice looks very different than any other thing you have ever seen before. You call your friend Jakub over. “Do you see that up there?” “Yes, I do. What is it?” Then, you notice something. It's getting bigger...it’s getting brighter...and it’s getting closer. Suddenly you realize, “That is no star! If I didn't know better, I'd swear that looks like a...a man?” Luke 2:8-9 (KJV)—And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. “Jakub!! This is an angel of YHVH!!” At first you're thinking, “WOW!! We are being visited by this messenger from YHVH!!” But then you stop and think. “Has he come to perhaps fulfill God’s wrath? Has YHVH sent this angel to destroy?” And you start to get scared.

But then the angel speaks. Luke 2:10-12 (KJV)—And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Joy?! An angel bringing news of great joy from on high!? “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” Of course, being Jewish, you're hearing this in your native Hebrew. You hear three words that grab your attention: “Yasha”, or “Savior.” “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Yasha.” It is the root of Hebrew names like “Joshua” and “Yehoshua”, which are the roots of the Greek “Iesous”, or “Jesus.” Then you hear the word “Mashiacha.” We know that word as Messiah. “Anointed.” Christ. The prophet Daniel wrote that this Messiah would bring peace between God and man. “Adonai,” the Lord. The One who is above all. Even as He laid in that bed of straw in a cave, Jesus was Lord of all!! “For unto you is born this day in the city of David Yasha, which is Mashiacha the Adonai.” Our Saviour, Christ the LORD.

Then it’s like all of Heaven opens up, and Luke 2:13-14 (KJV)—And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And when it's all over, your heart still pounding, “Jakub!! Let’s tell the others and see if they—nah, they're never gonna believe it! An angel came to US—shepherds?? Yeah, right!!” But then you look, and ask Jakub, “Hey—is that Yitzhak running this way?” Of course Yitzhak stops before he gets to you because he's thinking, "Nah, they're never gonna believe me!!" But then everybody realizes they’ve all seen the same wonderful sight, and heard the same glorious words. Maybe heaven really did open up this night! And you all run to each other and rejoice, and sing praises to God! And Yitzhak says, “Ya know, I heard that the prophet Micah wrote that although Bethlehem was small, out of it shall come the One who is to be Ruler in Israel! One who has existed since before the beginning!” (Micah 5:2). You look around, and see all these other little groups of shepherds gathered together, and they all seem to be very excited. It's like a shepherds' convention.

Before you know it, it occurs to you that sunrise is close at hand. You ain't gonna sleep tonight. So, Luke 2:15-16 (KJV)—And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” So you gather up your stuff, and head into Bethlehem. Maybe your sheep are still with you, maybe they're not—do you really care? Because right now, all you know is that something wonderful has happened! And along the way, you remember hearing a rabbi read from the scroll of Isaiah. Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV)—For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. “Could this be what he meant? Is this the One that shall have the rule of Earth upon His shoulders? Whose name shall be Wonderful Counselor? Mighty God? Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace?”

So you get to Bethlehem, and you look around, and all the city is…acting like nothing happened. There’s a ton of people there because they all had to come home to be counted in the census. And you look at each other, and you say, “Uh, guys. We did all see the same thing, right?” So, you start looking through the city, pushing your way through the crowd, knocking on doors. And you remember, “Manger! The angel said something about a manger!” So you start asking at all the farms and all the inns. And you ask at this one place and they say, “Well, yes, a young man and woman came to us last night. And she was indeed with child. We had no more rooms available; we did let them have the use of our barn; that was the best we could do. You can check; they may still be there.”

And you go to the barn, and lo and behold Luke 2:16 (KJV)—And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. Literally, the feeding trough. You see a young lady, with her husband, and a newborn child which they lovingly wrapped in “swaddling clothes.” Time out: Ask 100 people “what are swaddling clothes?” I dare say 90 of them will give you this answer: (insert blank stare here). For many years, I didn't know what they were. Think about what you see at those nativity scenes: They show Mary, and Joseph. The wise men who weren't there. Jesus lying in that manger—and what is He always wearing? Right, usually it’s just a cloth diaper. GET THAT IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD!! It is not biblical!!

For one thing, is a newborn’s skin pretty delicate? Very sensitive. Now, have you ever baled hay? What happens when that hay rubs against your skin? Is it pretty irritating? Imagine that on the skin of a newborn child. But even more than that, the Bible says He was wrapped in “swaddling clothes.” Many countries, especially in the Middle East, they still do it to this day. It is a sign of a love that parents show their child. According to the ISBE—“The swaddling-clothes consist of a square of cloth and two or more bandages. The child is laid on the cloth diagonally and the corners are folded over the feet and body and under the head, the bandages then being tied so as to hold the cloth in position.” They would wind up looking kinda like a little burrito. John MacArthur—“This was for warmth. This was for security. I mean, that little baby in the womb is in there all cuddled and nestled tightly in there and all of a sudden comes out into this stark hospital room, nothing touching it, his little extremities flailing in every way. No wonder they're screaming. This is a scary experience…they also believed that wrapping up those limbs and wrapping up that little body protected that little child. Also believed that it helped to keep their bones straight when they grew in early life…This is just a normal little baby. This is just a baby like other babies. Physically looked like any other child. Physically treated like any other child. No royal robes, no fancy clothing, didn't come out with a little halo over His head. He came out like everybody else comes out, same exact way.”

Now, question. Swaddling was a fairly common practice. Still is. So why would Luke include this seemingly insignificant detail? I'm glad you asked. Even though you didn't. But you should have. When you read the gospel according to Luke, or the book of Acts—which was also written by Luke—watch for details. Little details. Details that may not seem that important. But there was always a reason he included them. Luke 23:50-53 (KJV)—And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone. Now, flip back to Luke 2:7 (KJV)—And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Don’t skip details! Now, back to our shepherds.

You hear one of your friends ask this young lady a question that makes you wonder if he’s lost his ever-loving mind. He asks this young lady, “Are you a virgin?” You know he didn't just say that. “Jakub, have you flipped your lid???? She just gave birth. What in the world would make you think she is a virgin???” But then you're really stumped when she answers—what? “Why, yes I am.” OK, now you're reeeeeeealllyyy confused. Jakub tells you, “Shimeon, have you never heard what Isaiah wrote?” “What do you mean?” Isaiah 7:14 (KJV)—Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. “Shimeon, this is the virgin. This is the Son. This child is Immanuel, God with us!!” The girl looks up and says, “I'll never forget what the angel said when he came to me and told me I would conceive. I asked him, ‘How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’ (Luke 1:34 KJV). But then he told me, ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35 KJV).”

The central point in all of human history unfolded right in front of your eyes. The singular event in all of time—God wrapping Himself in sinful flesh and stepping down into His creation—and you are there. A shepherd!! Yet Almighty God chose you to witness the birth of His Beloved Son in whom He is well-pleased. In fact, this was a moment that made all the faithful in Heaven leap for joy. Jesus told the Pharisees that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56 KJV).

And they kept it to themselves, right? Luke 2:17-18 (KJV)—And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Now, you gotta remember something here. Being a shepherd was not the most respected profession. Socially speaking, they were the bottom of the food chain. It would be kinda like those guys that walk around with picket signs that say, “The end is near!” or some other message. And people look at them like they're crazy? Yeah, that. They made known abroad the saying which was told them.

Can you imagine them running into the middle of the synagogue, while the priest was doing what he did? A bunch of…shepherds? But there were many who didn’t necessarily consider it to be so crazy. “I know they're just a bunch of dirty old shepherds, but they can't all be crazy, can they?” And can you imagine all these people running to their rabbi and asking them about the words of Isaiah and Micah and Zephaniah, and others—the words these rabbis had taught them, and now they were being fulfilled. Like I always say, if you want to know what’s gonna be in the paper tomorrow, read the Bible today.

Maybe these shepherds didn’t understand why this child was born of a virgin. Maybe they didn’t live to see the day when the hands that were wrapped in those cloths would be pierced for their sins and that tender forehead would be gouged by a crown of thorns. They may never have seen the day when He was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their iniquities. Maybe they didn’t live to see Him after He rose victorious from a borrowed tomb. But if you were one of those shepherds, you knew, beyond anything else, that you were indeed looking into the very face of the one, true, living God. After much joy and celebration, you all return to your homes, knowing you have seen something many of the greatest men of God have only dreamed about. Luke 2:20 (KJV)—And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

And think about this: one day, we're gonna get to talk to those shepherds. And we’ll get to talk to that young virgin mother. She won’t be sitting on a throne. She will be worshipping God with the rest of the saints. And with us.

Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.

"Blessed Be"--Blessed art thou among women (Luke 1:26-35; 46-55)

We have seen how the apostle Peter was a man who dearly loved the Lord, and a man whom God used in a great way. But we also saw how Roman Catholicism has elevated him to the point that they consider him to be the "first Pope"—an office he never held, or claimed to hold. Today, we're going to look at another person who was highly blessed and favored by God, but who has been given a title by Catholics that is even higher—we're going to look at Mary, the mother of Jesus and whether she is "Queen of Heaven", as the Roman Catholic Church claims she is and whether we should be praying to her. We're going to look at what some Old Testament prophecies say about her, what the gospels say about her, and what the Roman Catholic Church believes about her from their own man-made "traditions", and whether these traditions are to be believed.

Please join me in turning to Luke 1. One thing you find when you read about Roman Catholic beliefs is that they sure make it sound like they know what they're talking about. Of course, they’ve had about 1500 years to work on it. And when you read things like their Catechism—which is basically the rulebook for being Catholic—they put a lot of Scripture in there. Problem is, they take it out of its biblical context. They’ll take a phrase from this verse and one from that verse and cobble it all together to make it sound like it means something it doesn’t. Which is one reason they don’t like their people to actually read the Bible. Which is why men like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale were in danger of being executed for trying to put the Bible in the language of the people. So let's see what the Bible really says about Mary.

First we see that Mary was a VIRGIN. Luke 1:26-35.

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

The Old Testament prophesied that the birth of Christ was to be a miraculous thing. But there are some who say that word "virgin" simply refers to a "young woman." There are a lot of "young women" who conceive and give birth to children. That would not really be any kind of miracle. But a virgin giving birth? Forget what anybody says—Mary was a virgin. Look at verse 34. "I have not known a man." There's a passage from Isaiah that we hear every year around Christmas time. Isaiah 7:14—Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. This prophecy from Isaiah was simply one of many clues that God gave us in pointing us to the Messiah. That a woman who had never "known a man"—in the biblical sense—would conceive and give birth.

We find this prophecy coming true not only here, but in the first chapter of the Book of Matthew. You don’t need to turn there, but it is in Matthew 1:21-23—The angel said to Joseph, “…do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Now, why would she have to be a virgin? Well, we have to go back even further to find that out. In fact, all the way back to the first book of the Bible.

The first prophecy about Christ is in the Book of Genesis. After Adam sins, God tells the serpent (Satan), Genesis 3:15—"…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." God is telling Satan that the Seed of a woman will destroy him. As I've mentioned before, in the Bible, "seed" refers to the sons of the father. Read through the begets and begats and you'll find that only the male members are mentioned. And if you read the accounts of Jesus' human ancestors, only men are mentioned, although Matthew does mention 4 women in his account. And when he gets to His earthly parents, he writes that Joseph was the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. By doing this, he sets the birth of Jesus apart from all the other begets and begots and he shows us that Jesus did not inherit the sinful human nature that the rest of us do.

Mary HAD TO BE A VIRGIN. Jesus could not have inherited the stain of sin that He would have had if He were born of a human father. You see, when we're born, we inherit the "sin gene" from our fathers. It started with Adam, and it got passed down to all their children, then Cain and Seth, and the other male children passed it along. Now, the gene is passed down by the fathers, but the disease of sin affects everybody. Consider a condition like…baldness. The gene for baldness is passed along by the mother, but it affects all the children in the family, male and female. The same is true for sin, the disease infects all the children, but the gene is only passed through the sons. Daughters are born with the disease of sin—but the gene for the disease does not get passed along unless the children have a human father. How many children have human fathers? All of them. Guess who the disease of sin gets passed along to? All of us.

And don’t let anyone tell you that it was Eve who sinned. It was Adam. Sorry, men. Romans 5:12—Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. 1st Corinthians 15:21-22—For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. Eve did not sin—she was deceived. Sorry ladies. 2nd Corinthians 11:3—But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Go back and look at that verse from Genesis—God said, "I will put enmity between…your seed and her Seed…" Guess who God is talking about when he refers to Satan's "seed." Everyone who has ever had a human father. This makes verses like Romans 5:10 and Colossians 1:21 even clearer. These both speak about us being "enemies of God." Ephesians 2:3 says that we were by nature children of wrath. In that passage in Matthew 1, it says they would call His name Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins.

Now, you’ve probably heard the term "Immaculate Conception." This does not refer to Mary being a virgin when the body of Christ was conceived. It is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that when Mary was conceived, God protected her from inheriting the "sin gene." That while she was indeed born to earthly parents, God shielded her from the penalty of sin from the moment she was conceived. That is simply a misinterpretation of the Greek word κεχαριτωμενη (kecharitoméne), "full of grace." Here's one thing you need to understand—Mary did not need to be "sinless from conception" in order for Jesus to be sinless.

Jesus did not have an earthly father, so He would have been born sinless regardless of whether Mary was or not. So in the end, that argument is pointless. Was she "highly favored"? I won't argue with that. She was chosen to give birth to the Savior. They were to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Some people say that they're saved because they try and keep the Ten Commandments. By doing that, they condemn themselves. You can't just "try" to keep the Ten Commandments. You have to keep the whole Law perfectly, and no one can do that. They'll say, "Well, I haven’t done anything too awfully bad." Maybe not according to man's standards. "Yeah, I like to get drunk once in a while, maybe smoke a little weed, bump it with my girl—hey, we're all human!" Man's standards. But we're not judged by man's standards. We're judged by God's standard—singular. And His standard demands perfection. Matthew 5:48—"Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Friends, that isn't hard—that’s impossible. James 2:10—For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. Only one Man has ever kept the Law of Moses perfectly. Only one Man has ever been able to say, "I've done it all."

We can try all we want. But it ain't gonna work. We have that warning all throughout Galatians 3. We read that no amount of law-keeping can save us. Galatians 3:21—If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But there is no law that can give life. Only Jesus can give us life. Only He can save us from God's wrath that we deserve because of our sins. And in order to save us from our sins, to be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), He Himself had to be born without sin. He could not have a human father. So, Mary had to be a virgin when the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived inside of her. Mary was a VIRGIN.

Mary was VIRTUOUS. Verses 46-55.

46 And Mary said: “ My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. 49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. 50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. 54 He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”

This section is often referred to as the "Magnificat", or the "Song of Mary." The Bible doesn’t talk too much about Mary. We don’t know a whole lot about her. And what some people claim to know is nothing more than speculation. But we do know this: that she was chosen by God to bring the earthly body of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world. And we can speculate about this much: that she must have been a very godly young woman in order for the angel to tell her in verse 30, "You have found favor [grace] with God." We're going to look at that in a moment. Look how she starts out: "My soul magnifies the Lord." That word "magnify" means, "To declare, extol, celebrate, praise." This song was Mary's way declaring to not only her own generation, but to all generations the glory of God.

This was a woman who realized that she needed a Savior as well. Look at verse 47—"…my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." You see, Mary was born to a set of parents—a mother and a father. And what did she inherit from her father? The disease of sin. Just like the rest of us. We're going to look at that a little later also. There has only been one person who has ever been born without the stain of sin. That would be the child she carried in her womb. And she knew this. And she knew that God was her Savior. She had probably read or heard the Scriptures.

She had probably heard the heart of David, from 2nd Samuel 22:47—"The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted!" Or his words in Psalm 25:5—Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. Habakkuk 3:18—I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. She knew she was no different from anybody else—she needed salvation.

She saw herself as the handmaiden of the Lord. Verse 48—"For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed." A maidservant. In other words, "A maid that waits at her master's hand; a female slave, servant or attendant." A woman who is at the very beck and call of her Master. A woman who is dependent upon that Master for everything. She is waiting at her Master's hand. She listens for His words, and seeks only to do His will. She does not seek for her Master to do her will. For even Jesus said in Matthew 10:24, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." She does not think more highly of herself than she should. She does not want anyone to think more highly of her than they should. And because of her obedience to the Lord, and because she did not exalt herself to the position of telling the Lord what to do, she says, "…all generations shall call me 'blessed.'"

In other words, while she was called "blessed", she is not to be exalted to a position she does not deserve. I do not believe for one minute that she would want that. Notice verse 30, the angel tells her, "You have found favor with God." Not, "You were born favored." No, he says, "You have found favor with God." That word "favor" can also be translated "grace." We find this phrase used several times in the Bible. And it always talks about obedience first, then favor.
There are many examples. Here are but a few:
Genesis 6:8—But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Exodus 33:17—So the LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name."
Esther 5:8—She tells the king, "If I have found favor in the sight of the king…then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them…"
This phrase "To find favor" always talks about someone who has been obedient, and that obedience is then rewarded with an even greater blessing. And rather than "find", it means "To get, or obtain, or see." "You have obtained favor from God."

And indeed, she was a very blessed woman. And we should always consider her to be a model of godliness and virtue. A woman of faith—a girl, really, she probably wasn’t more than 15 at the time—who saw herself not as some queen or someone who should be thought more highly of than anybody else. She was a VIRGIN. She was VIRTUOUS. However, she is NOT TO BE VAULTED ABOVE HER POSITION. This is where we get into the Catholic position.

Notice something here. In verse 48, Mary calls herself a "maidservant." Remember, the maidservant does what the Master says, not the other way around. See, this is where the Roman Catholic Church begins their downward spiral in their devotion to Mary. Notice I did not say they "worship" Mary. That's a fine line I ain't walking today.

But they do bow down to statues of her. They do invoke her name in prayers. They say that Mary has a little more pull with Jesus than we do. That sometimes we have to ask her to give her Son a little nudge to speed things up. Friends, that is heresy. Hebrews 4:16—Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Whose throne is that? It ain't Mary's! THE throne of grace belongs to God. And it is by bowing before that throne that we obtain mercy and find grace—from God alone, and no one else!

1st Timothy 2:5 says For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. Now, to say that we need someone to go to Jesus—and not just any one, but a person who is dead—is ridiculous. What, do they think Jesus needs help in interceding for us? Do they think that Jesus doesn’t know what we need, or doesn’t care, so we have to call on mama to talk some sense to her boy? See, Catholics see Jesus as the judgment side of God. He's just too stern and rigid for us to talk to. But Mary—she has more mercy, more compassion. But they’ll tell you, "Well, don’t you ask your friends to pray for you?" Yes—but they're still alive. And what about praying to dead people? Should we do it? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Isaiah 8:19-20—And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony!
Deuteronomy 18:10-12—There shall not be found among you…a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD.
Now, the Catholic will tell you, "Oh, we don’t consult with wizards and psychics." Oh really? By calling on the dead, are they not indeed making themselves mediums and sorcerers? If it's got feathers and a bill, and webbed feet and it quacks and waddles—I don’t care of you call it a Cadillac, it's still a duck! If you want to read about the consequences of calling on dead people, read what happened to King Saul in 1st Samuel 28. They'll tell you "Oh, we don’t pray to Mary, we pray through her." You're kidding me, right? So, how do they get in touch with Mary? When they pray their Rosary, part of that Rosary is prayed to Mary!

Here are, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, their official positions on Mary. The Catechism is like their rules—or dogmas—and they're laid out in paragraphs. Paragraph 969—

This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she…gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation . . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.

In other words, Jesus isn't doing a good enough job as our one Mediator between man and God. He needs His mother to help Him. Kinda makes ya wonder why Jesus said, in Matthew 6:9, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." And not once does He mention invoking the name of Mary. Or any other saint, or even angels. I guess He just forgot. No, He didn’t forget. He didn’t mention it because we aren’t supposed to do it.

We are not to pray to the dead. We have one Mediator between man and God. If we think that praying to dead saints is going to help, then that means there is more than one Mediator, and God is a liar, because His word says there is only one. Well, what about bowing before statues of Jesus, or Mary? No. No. No.
Exodus 20:4—"You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them."
Isaiah 44:9-11—Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit; they are their own witnesses; they neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? Surely all his companions would be ashamed; and the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together.
The Catholic will tell you, "Well, we don’t worship those statues. We use them to remind us of…" whatever. What part of "Thou shalt not bow down to them" don’t they understand?

Oh, then they’ll give you this one: "Well, God said for there to be images of angels in the tabernacle, and on the Ark of the Covenant." True. But what would have happened if, say, the high priest went in there and bowed down to those angels on the wall, or on the Ark. I think it's safe to say he wouldn’t have been high priest any longer. For that matter, he probably wouldn’t have been alive any longer.

In so many places, Mary is held up as the one we pray to. In fact, many Catholics have some kind of little statue or doll that they claim to be "Mary" that is supposed to ward off evil or some such nonsense. There is nothing Mary can do for you. But Rome will insist that if you put a statue of the Virgin Mary in your house and you pray to her, everything will be okey-dokey. In a book called Stones of Venice, John Ruskin says,

"...Take the vilest doll that is screwed together in a cheap toy-shop, trust it to the keeping of a large family of children, let it be beaten about the house by them till it is reduced to a shapeless block, then dress it in a satin dress and declare it to have fallen from heaven, and it will satisfactorily answer all Romanist purposes."

And folks, that ain't too far from the truth. You could take a Bratz doll, call it Mary, and the Pope would probably bless it. Pope John Paul II thought almost as highly of Mary as he did Jesus. In fact, at the start of his papacy, he declared to Mary that he was "Totus Tuus sum Maria"—"I am totally yours, Mary!" He was saying, "Mary, all my devotion is to you." He was considering, in his later years, using his papal infallibility card to name her as Co-Redemptrix, and make it dogma—in other words, "Believe it or you're damned." And he went to his grave fully devoted to the one they call the "Blessed Virgin." He even had a large "M" on his coffin, signifying "Mary" and his devotion to her. And do you know, even apart from the Rosary, there are hundreds of Catholic prayers and devotions to Mary. One of the most widely admired "saints" in all of Catholicism was a man named Alphonsus de Liguori. He wrote many prayers and devotions to Mary. Listen to this one:

The most blessed Virgin can obtain everything from God, because she is his true Mother, and is so much beloved by him; and she will do everything for us…Let us, therefore, always try to gain her friendship… And let us…have recourse to her, have confidence in her; and through her security in life, security in death, security through all eternity…

Some more quotes from de Liguori (From Redemptorist Fathers, 1931):

• "All who are saved are saved only by the means of this Divine Mother... Salvation of all depends upon preaching Mary, upon hearing of Mary and upon having perfect confidence in her intercession."
• "…the Lamb (Christ) followed her, having become subject to her."
• "At the command of Mary all obey, even God."
• "Since, then, the Mother must have the same power as the Son, Mary became omnipotent because Jesus is omnipotent. Of course, the Son is omnipotent by nature, where Mary is omnipotent only by grace. This is proved by the fact that the Son never refuses the Mother anything she seeks."

I could go on but I think you get the picture. Now, the Roman Catholic Church will say this is not their "official" position, and this is just one Catholic author and his thoughts. True. This is one man’s thoughts, and it is not the official position of the Roman Catholic Church…yet. But here's what happens: The Roman Catholic Church will say it isn't an official teaching of the church. But they won't come out and say he's wrong. Then, after enough years, after the teaching is accepted by enough of the faithful, it is considered to be "Tradition." And if it's "Tradition", then, it's "official." You see, Catholics don’t just look at Mary as a woman to be highly esteemed. They don’t look at her as a woman whose devotion to the Lord is to be admired, respected, and even imitated. They look at her as being someone who can pull a little extra weight with our Father in Heaven, because Jesus just can't quite do it by His lonesome, bless His Sacred Heart.

Another Catholic belief is that she was taken up to Heaven—body and soul—after she died. Paragraph 974 of the Catholic Catechism—

The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.

As far as her being assumed bodily up into Heaven—there's nothing in the Bible that says anything about that. That's another man-made tradition. The Catholic website New Advent says that her assumption took place between 3 and 15 years after Christ's ascension. Well, the first New Testament book to be written was the book of Matthew, about 10 years after Christ ascended. John wrote his books 50-60 years after. You mean to tell me, in all that time, the Holy Spirit couldn’t have squeezed in a few words about this "Queen of Heaven?"

The next question is, "Was she a virgin her entire life?" NO. You know, it's amazing the difference one little word can make in a passage. In 1st Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul is running down this list, and showing us how miserable we would be if Christ were not risen. Our preaching is empty, our faith is empty, we are false witnesses of God, our faith is futile, we're still in our sins, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished, and we are of all men the most pitiable. "But…" One three-letter word changes the whole mood of the passage. In Matthew 1, one little word destroys the belief about Mary being a virgin her entire life. In verses 24-25, it says, then Joseph…did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

What's the word we're looking at? "Until."

He did not "know" Mary UNTIL she gave birth to Jesus. What's the big deal about one word? Well, by saying he did not know her UNTIL she gave birth to Jesus, it tells us that he DID know her AFTER she gave birth. WAL-MART—KROGER. The Holy Spirit did not tell Matthew to say that Joseph "did not know her even after she gave birth…" or maybe Joseph "… never knew his wife…" But we don’t have that. By using that word "until," Matthew is saying that after she gave birth, they had normal husband-wife relations.

There is so much more we could go into concerning Catholicism. Purgatory, the Eucharist, the confessional, sola scriptura, justification by faith. Suffice it to say, much of what is practiced by the Roman Catholic Church is not found in the Bible. Now, there are some words and phrases we use and some doctrines we believe that are not spelled out word-for-word in the Bible. But the concepts are there, and you can easily point them out. But much of Catholicism is based on speculation, wishful thinking, and more than a little paganism. All generations will call Mary blessed. I will never argue against that. But I will, until my dying breath, fight against thinking more highly of her than she would want us to.

John MacArthur on the virgin birth (part 4)

Part 4 of Pastor MacArthur's message on the birth of Christ to a chaste virgin. There are many who don't think this kind of thing is possible. It doesn't make rational sense. These people don't know the God that we know. To Him, all things are possible.

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

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At the great commission at the end of Matthew, chapter 28 verse 19, we are to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians, as you will remember, the last verse of 2 Corinthians says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. There are numerous references to the fact that God though one God is three persons.

That is the first thing that lays the foundation for the virgin birth. God, listen to me, doesn't have to fully create a Son, one already eternally exists, understood? The second member of the trinity, eternal God, is literally put into human flesh to be born of a virgin.

When the virgin conception took place, God and Man came together. And that was because the only one who has a right to reign and a right to rule is not just Son of David, but Son of God, Psalm 2.

So you have the Old Testament foundation and you have the foundation in the doctrine of the trinity. The third foundation comes in the duties of Messiah, or in the work of Messiah, the person and work of Messiah.

What do I mean by that? Well, now follow this very carefully, I'm going to show you something that's critical to the Christian faith, absolutely critical. Turn to Isaiah 43, we're going to hang around Isaiah awhile, so for just the remainder of time this morning, so don't leave it, and bounce back a little bit, but just kind of stay in Isaiah 43 is the main portion.

In Isaiah 43 I want you to notice verse 11...verse 11. The prophet is quoting God here, "Thus says the Lord," the chapter begins, the Lord is speaking, verse 10, "Declares the Lord." This is the Lord speaking, first person, verse 11, "I, even I am the Lord," and listen to this, "and there is no...what?...Savior besides Me." No Savior besides Me. Humm...chapter 45 verse 22, "Turn to Me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other." Everybody on the face of the earth who wants to be saved has to turn to Him, He alone saves...He alone saves. God, says Titus 1, our Savior. God, says Titus 2, our Savior. God, says Titus chapter 3, our Savior. God is our Savior. "Who is a pardoning God like You?" God is a saving God. He is by nature a Savior. Paul says to Timothy, "God our Savior, the Savior of all men."

What's interesting about that? What's interesting about that is Matthew...just let me read it to you...Matthew 1:21, Jesus is going to come into the world, verse 21, "You shall call His name Jesus for it is He who will save His people from their sins." Now let me draw a simple conclusion. If there is one God and He alone is Savior and Jesus is Savior, then who is Jesus? He's God...unmistakably...unmistakably.

In Luke chapter 2 the announcement comes in verse 11 to the shepherds, "Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Messiah the Lord." God is the only Savior, Jesus is a Savior, therefore Jesus is God. That is a rational syllogism. In fact, Acts 4:12 says, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, except the name of Jesus." And the Samaritans were right when they named Jesus the Savior of the world.

Back to Isaiah 43 again, and I want you to notice another thing that God says is true only of Himself. Verse 14, Isaiah 43:14, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer...the Lord, your Redeemer, the holy One of Israel." Verse 14...the Lord identifies Himself not only as your Savior, but as your Redeemer. There is no other Redeemer.

Hosea 13:14, "I will ransom them from the power of Sheol, I will redeem them from death." In Luke chapter 1 verse 68, that familiar verse we've read a couple of times, Zacharias says, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people." God is the Redeemer and yet it says in Galatians 3:13 about Jesus, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law."

If God is the only redeemer and Christ redeemed us, then Christ is God. It necessitates a virgin conception and virgin birth for God to be born in the world and Jesus is God, therefore it is understandable that He was born this way. First Peter 1 says, "You were not redeemed with silver or gold, or anything like that, but with the precious blood of Jesus." He is the Redeemer, since God alone redeems, He is God. Since He is God, the Son of God, the second member of the trinity, preexisting, coming into human life, it had to be by means of a miraculous coming together of what is divine and what is human and that is the virgin conception and birth.

Furthermore, back to Isaiah 43 and verse 15, actually verse 14, God defines Himself as the holy One. Verse 15, "I am the Lord your holy One." I don't have time to go all through the whole Old Testament and tell you how many, many, many times God called Himself holy. He refers to His holiness over and over and over again and you have in the text I read you this morning, Luke 1:35 this word from Gabriel to Mary, "The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you, the power of the Most High is going to overshadow you and you're going to bring forth a holy offspring."

If any man says he has no sin, he's a liar, isn't he? How can you have a holy offspring? Only if that child is God in human flesh. In Isaiah 43:15, "I am the Lord your holy One, further, the creator of Israel...listen to this...your King." God says I'm your King. Zechariah 14:9 God says, "I am your King...I'm your King, I'm your only Savior, I'm your only Redeemer, I'm the only holy One, and I am your King and you don't have more than one sovereign, do you? And yet it is said of Jesus in His conversation with Pilate...Pilate said to Him, "Are you a King?" And Jesus says back, "Yes, you have so said it." And what kind of King? Revelation 19:16 says He has a name written on Him and it is King of kings and Lord of lords. There is no other explanation for Jesus Christ than that He is the Savior God, the Redeemer God, the holy God, and the sovereign God in human flesh and that necessitated a miraculous virgin conception and birth.

All of that leads to Deuteronomy 6:13 where we were earlier in Deuteronomy. Don't go back to it. In Deuteronomy 6 after saying the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, love Him with all your heart, soul and might, it says in verse 13, "Worship the Lord your God and Him only....Worship the Lord your God and Him only." And yet Hebrews 1 says, "And when He brought the firstborn into the world, Christ, He said, 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.'" If God Himself calls the angels and men to worship Christ and worship is reserved only for God, then Christ is God.

Isaiah 50...Isaiah 45 again, verse 23, I can't resist these cause they're so foundational, just two more. Verse 23, "I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back...now listen to this, this is what God says...that to Me, God, every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance and they will say of Me, 'Only in the Lord.'" I want every knee and I want every tongue, I want every bowed knee and every sworn allegiance to Me and Me alone. That's God.

You remember Philippians 2, this is what God says about Christ. "God has highly exalted Him, given Him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow." If God demands that every knee bow and every tongue acknowledge His sovereignty, and swear allegiance to Him, and God calls for that for Christ, then there's only one conclusion, Christ is God. This is the Christian faith and anything other than this is not.

The forty-second chapter of Isaiah and I will end with this passage, verse 8, "I am the Lord, that is My name. I will not give My glory to anybody else....I will not give My glory to anybody else." That is an absolute unilateral statement, and yet it tells us in John 1, really pretty amazing, in John 1, "That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory." And in John 12:41 it says, "Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him." Isaiah saw the Messiah and saw that He would bear the glory of God.

So, if you think that somebody just invented the virgin birth, if you think that some people just trumped it up to sort of elevate Jesus above the hoi polloi, guess again. The Old Testament said it would come, the trinity makes it a reality, and the very nature and work of Jesus Christ demands it. This is the foundation of the virgin birth.

John MacArthur on the virgin birth (part 3)

Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.

Matthew recorded that definitely understanding that Isaiah intended to predict that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Jesus used the word parthenos three times in the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25. Luke used it twice of Mary. Luke used it in Acts 21 of Philip's four virgin daughters. Paul distinguishes between a wife and a virgin in 1 Corinthians 7. And John records the word parthenos as descriptive of men who had no sexual relationship with women and were therefore totally yielded to God. That's used in Revelation 14:14.

So parthenos means one who has had no sexual relationship at all. Mary was a virgin and that was the intent of Isaiah 7:14, that was a sign. If a girl got pregnant and had a son, that's not a sign, that happened all the time. But when a virgin is pregnant and brings into the world a son, that's a sign...that's a sign.

You know, some of the rabbis, I think, believed that there was going to be something like this. One rabbi wrote, "Messiah is to have no earthly father." Humm...one ancient rabbi seemed to get the message. Another rabbi wrote, "The birth of Messiah alone shall be without defect." Another rabbi wrote, "His birth shall not be like that of other men." Another wrote, "The birth of Messiah shall be like the dew of the Lord as drops upon the grass without the action of man." There were some rabbis, I'm sure there were some faithful believers who understood that Messiah would be born of a virgin.

Well that was not the popular view, not at all. And certainly the Jewish leaders never thought that. In fact, John 7:27 they're very upset at Jesus and the question comes up, "Is Jesus the Christ?" And in verse 27 this is the...this is the response, "We know where this man is from, He's from Nazareth. But we know His family up there. But whenever the Christ or Messiah may come, no one knows where He is from." See, they just thought Jesus was just a common Galilean guy born in the town of Nazareth to Joseph and Mary.

Back in chapter 6 this is further indicated. They were grumbling at Him, it says in verse 41. And they were saying, "Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven?' We don't get it." So maybe they did believe that there was some...some unique feature to His birth, but not necessarily a virgin birth. Maybe if they'd really believe Isaiah 7:14, Genesis 3:15, Jeremiah's prophecy, maybe if they really did believe those things and really understood them under the illumination of the Spirit of God and they had known that Jesus had been born of a virgin, it might have changed how they viewed Him.

They didn't see it. They may have expected some kind of special birth, apparently not a virgin birth and certainly not somebody born to a common couple in a dumpy place called Nazareth.

Some rabbis had taught that Messiah was of heavenly origin. And some rabbis even said that He eternally existed. Humm...in 150 B.C., a hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, the book of Enoch, not a biblical book, says this, "He appears by the side of the Ancient of Days, His name has been named before God." They were talking of Messiah. Some of them saw Messiah as pre-existing His birth.

There's also Psalm 2 where you have God saying this about the Son, that He is going to bring His Son into the world, He's going to install Him as King on Zion. And He says, "You are My Son, today have I begotten You." So there was a promise that God was going to bring a Son into the world who would be the ruler and Psalm 2 says He would rule the nations with a rod of iron, which is a messianic prophecy. If they had understood Psalm 2, they would have understood that the Messiah who rules the world, who rules in the kingdom of Israel at Zion is going to be born the Son of God and that He was already in God's presence. Now there's a foundation for the virgin birth of the eternal Son.

A second foundation beside the Old Testament is the doctrine of the trinity...the doctrine of the trinity. Now I'm going to give you some theology here. You're going to go away being theologians if you grasp this tremendous truth.

I want you to understand the nature of God. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we're going to do this, I hope, in about fifteen minutes, that's all we have left, so I'm going to turn you into an instant theologian on this subject. Deuteronomy 6, here's the distinguishing truth of true religion, the distinguishing truth of true religion...6:4, Deuteronomy 6, the most defining statement in the Old Testament about the nature of God, this was required to be put on the foreheads and on the arms and on the doorposts of the houses of the people of God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." Boy, that is it.

There were all kinds of gods among the nations. They were polytheistic, they had many gods. Israel had one God because there is only one true and living God. And that is supported by verse 5, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." Now let me give you the point of that. You can do that because you don't have to reserve any of that love for any other deity because there isn't any other one. There is one God and you are to love that one God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your might. You do not divide that love because there is no other God. You love Him and Him alone with all your being. If there were three gods, you could love two of them and not one, or you could love one of them and not two, or you could love three of them with a third of your passion, but you could never love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind leaving nothing back if there was more than one.

James 2:19, "You believe...James writes...there is one God, you do well." Then he adds, "Even the devils believe that." Demons have better theology, far better theology than many religious people. God is one, yet though one in nature and one in essence, He is three persons. Can I explain it? No. Why? Because I can't understand it. Do I believe it? Yes. Why? Because it's revealed in Scripture as such. And the fact that I can't understand it says nothing about God, but an awful lot about me.

We know there are three persons in the one essential God cause in Genesis 1 when God says He creates, "In the beginning God created," the word "God" is elohim that's a plural...that's a plural word. In Genesis 1:26 when God says, "Let us make man," He says, "Let us make man in OUR image," He uses a plural personal pronoun...Let us...and our image.

In Isaiah 6 when God is speaking, He says, "Whom shall I send...referring to the need for someone to go to the people before judgment comes and Isaiah is listening, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us...us?" In Isaiah 48:16 Isaiah writes, "Come ye near unto Me, says God, hear this, I have not spoken at secret from the beginning, from the time that it was, there am I and now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me." There's at least two.

David said, "The Lord said unto my Lord," there you have the Lord and the Lord. Here you have the Lord and the Spirit. There are plenty of references in the Old Testament to the Father God, to the Spirit, and to the Son who very often appears as the angel of the Lord.

You come in to the New Testament and Jesus is there at His baptism, the Son of God, and the Father is speaking out of heaven. "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, and the Spirit is descending like a dove." You have all three members of the trinity in the same scene at the same time.

In the fifteenth chapter of John, that wonderful and complete statement is given, I think it's verse 26, "When the Helper comes, the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, whom I will send from the Father." The Son sends the Spirit from the Father, keeping the distinction.

John MacArthur on the virgin birth (part 2)

Part 2 of 4 on this topic vital to knowing Christ. Part 1 can be read here.

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There have been some amazing births, some miraculous births, as we just saw. And even some wonderful achievements in science, the ethics of which are certainly debatable. But the achievements are amazing. But none of the supernatural births in the scriptures and none of the scientifically advanced capabilities of our modern time to produce unique births come anywhere close to the virgin conception of Jesus Christ. There is no scientific, there is no human explanation.

Jesus was not the miracle child of a barren woman who was made fertile by God. Jesus was conceived in a virgin. He could not be parthenogenetically produced. It wasn't that He was some freak of nature in a pre-sophisticated scientific time, as remote as such a quasi-natural explanation might be, it's impossible to produce a son. He was born of a woman, conceived in a womb where no male sperm existed and where no female capability to reproduce a man was possible. He had no earthly father.

This then is the most amazing birth ever and the only one like it. Jesus Christ was conceived in a virgin without a male source for a seed, conceived...it says in verse 35...because the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High, the Creator God Himself will overshadow you, then the holy offspring that is produced will not be the Son of man, but...what?...Son of God.

Let me tell you something about the Christian faith. It is predicated on the fact that God was conceived and born in a human womb. That's the incarnation. And that is the foundation of Christianity. If you tamper with that, you tamper with the nature of Jesus Christ and if you come up with any other than the Christ of the New Testament, you have a false religion. If anybody, Paul said, preaches any other Jesus, let him be accursed. It is a damnable lie to assault the virgin conception, virgin birth and the nature of Jesus as the God/Man. And anybody who does it is propagating a damnable lie.

If you say that Jesus is a man and only a man, if you say that He is a good man, a noble man, a religious leader, a prophet, if you say that Jesus is a created angel, if you say He was molded and shaped by God in the sense that He was an angelic spirit, if you say anything other than that He was the God/Man, you have pronounced upon yourself a curse. All of the Christian faith is built upon the nature of Jesus as the God/Man which is defined from this conception. In order to be the Son of God, He had to be born of God. In order to be the Son of Man, He had to be born of a woman. And that's precisely what happened. God came in human flesh.

Now the Jewish leaders believed that the Messiah, when He came...they were looking for their deliverer, their Messiah, they believed that when He came He would be a Son of David, that He would come in the royal line, that was pretty obvious. Going back to 2 Samuel 7 it would be one of David's greater sons who could come to be the King and the Messiah. They believed that the Messiah would be in the line of David, He would have royal blood. But it was not a widespread belief, if even a popular belief, that He would be God.

In fact, when Jesus said He was Son of David, that wasn't a problem. But when Jesus said He was Son of God, that was a problem. Jesus could say He was Son of Man all He wanted. Jesus could say He was Son of David all He wanted because t hey could trace His lineage and that's why Matthew chapter 1 gives His lineage as coming from David, and Luke chapter 3 gives the lineage of Mary coming from David. They didn't argue that He was the Son of Man, human. They didn't argue that He was a Son of David, royal blood. But when He said He was the Son of God, they killed Him. So far from expecting their Messiah to be the Son of God, that disqualified him.

Now those Jewish leaders who executed Jesus Christ, they actually passed the execution over to the Romans to carry it out, but it was their idea, those leaders that did that are no different than atheists and skeptics and cultists and liberals today who denounce the God/Man, who denounce the incarnation, who denounce the virgin conception, who denounce the virgin birth.

The last survey that I saw of seminaries in America and it's probably better than in Europe where almost all those schools, well, I suppose nearly all of them are liberal, but the last survey I saw in America indicated that something around 50 percent of students in Protestants seminaries in America believe in the virgin conception and birth of Jesus Christ. These are men, supposedly, in training for Christian ministry. But if you deny the virgin conception of Jesus Christ, you're not a Christian and that's not Christianity.

We know that something around 50 percent of the people in the major Christian denominations affirm belief in the virgin birth, the rest do not. But no doctrine of Scripture is determined by majority vote, is it? Let God be true if every man is liar...Romans 3 says.

Now Luke then wants us to understand the importance of the virgin birth. As miraculous, as astonishing, as inexplicable as it is on human terms, as beyond our grasp from a scientific viewpoint, because of its supernatural character as this virgin conception is, yet we are called in the simplest of language as was Mary to accept it as reality. And it is the explanation of the two-fold nature of Christ as God and Man.

Now somebody might think, as we're going to talk about this this morning, somebody might think that this whole idea of the virgin conception just fell out of the air, just sort of...just sort of arrived in somebody's imagination. After all, if all the Jewish leaders didn't believe it and if all of the people didn't believe that Messiah was going to be God, and that there was going to be some kind of miraculous virgin birth take place, if they killed Him for saying He was the Son of God, if this wasn't part of Messianic expectation and all of the...all of the elite students of the Old Testament and so forth didn't really anticipate this reality, shouldn't we believe that this was something concocted by people so as to cause Jesus to somehow rise above the crowd? And those who wanted to do that on His behalf really invented Him as the God/Man?

Well the answer to that question is not at all. In fact, there are some serious foundations to this reality, and I want to show you what those foundations are this morning. Three of them.

Number one...and by the way, we're going to go through several points in the next few weeks...we're going to go through the foundations, the fallacies and the facts of the virgin birth. But for today, the foundations. Is this something new? Is this something invented? Or does this have a foundation? Three things give it a foundation.

Number one, the Old Testament...the Old Testament. Go back to Genesis 3 in your Bible. We mentioned this in a recent message and I want to go back to it because of its foundation character. You're in the first dawning of redemptive history here, creation in chapter 1, and in chapter 2. Then in chapter 3 man falls into sin and he's cursed and woman is cursed by having pain in child bearing and having conflict in marriage. Man is cursed by having to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and he too has to engage in the conflict that marriage brings.

Then, of course, then God pronounces a curse on the serpent who is Satan. And part of the curse on Satan in verse 14 is he's going to be cursed more than every other animal. And then in verse 15, going behind the animal to Satan himself, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." And then it says this, "And between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise Him on the heel."

Now this is a very important prophecy. This is really the first prophecy next to the one where God said, "In the day you eat of the Tree of Life you'll die," that was a prophecy, too. But this is the first prophecy that looks forward to redemption. There's coming someone...this someone is called "her seed," and this one who is her seed will bruise the head of Satan, a crushing deadly blow. Who is that? Well only one person could effect the deadly crushing blow on the head of Satan...who was it? It was Christ. Satan bruised His heel, Satan dealt a blow against Christ obviously in His death on the cross, but it was only a minor wound and out of that wound came redemption. And the risen Christ came forth out of the grave triumphant to give the fatal blow to Satan. That will be executed on him. It was won at the cross, it will be finally executed when he is sentenced and cast into the Lake of Fire forever.

Now notice that it says "the One who will crush the head of Satan is called her seed." I just remark, a woman doesn't have a seed. When God gave a promise to Abraham, God said this, "His seed would bless the families of the earth....In his seed would all the families of the earth be blessed." The man has the seed. A woman doesn't have the seed. Her seed, how could a woman have a seed? Only one time did a woman ever have a seed of her own and that by the miraculous intervention of God.

The Jews, if they knew Genesis, should have seen that. And then there is Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah 7 chapter 7 verse 14, the Jews, we know, were always looking for a sign, always looking for some supernatural indicator, some supernatural event that would point to God working. And so in verse 14 of chapter 7, Isaiah says, "The Lord will give you a sign." You want a sign? Here it is. "A virgin will be with child and bear a Son." Wow! That will be a sign. That doesn't happen, that can't happen. That's impossible. And if that happens, that is a sign. Furthermore, "When she brings forth that child she will call His name Immanuel, God...el is God, immanu is with us." When the child is born name Him "God is here." That's a pretty clear sign.

When a virgin is pregnant and has a son, that's a sign. It can't happen humanly. And even if parthenogenesis could happen, and it can't, but for the sake of argument if it could it would be a girl...not a son.

By the way, the word used there for virgin, almah, is used only nine times in the Old Testament, eight of which require a translation of pure virginity. That's really what that word means. The New Testament equivalent of it is parthenos and parthenos always means virgin...always means virgin. And in Matthew 1 we have in verses 22 and 23 the message from God, an angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord, listen, interprets Isaiah 7. And, folks, you can trust this interpretation. This is the angel of the Lord's interpretation. And he says in verse 22...verse 21, you're going to have a Son, call His name Jesus, etc. "All this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying, 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son and they shall call His name Immanuel which translated means God with us.'" And he used the word parthenos for virgin which means virgin.

John MacArthur on the virgin birth (part 1)

The following is from a sermon given by pastor John MacArthur, on the virgin birth of Christ. The transcript is quite long, so I've chopped it into 4 smaller parts.

I would encourage you to open your Bible to Luke chapter 1, the rich gospel of Luke. Third book in the New Testament, Luke the beloved physician wrote his account inspired by the Holy Spirit of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are in to this incredible history of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not very far in, we're still in chapter 1, but chapter 1 is long, it has 80 verses and chapter 2 has 52 verses. So we're going to be here for a while. This is also very foundational truth to understand Christianity and Christian theology. In fact, in some ways this morning will be a bit more of a theologian than an expositor as we consider the issue of the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary.

In chapter 1 I draw your attention to verse 30. "And the angel said to her...this is the angel Gabriel speaking to Mary...'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His Kingdom will have no end.'

"And Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative, Elizabeth, has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God.' And Mary said, 'Behold he bondslave of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Your word.' And the angel departed from her."

Here is really where the story of Jesus Christ starts historically. The angel Gabriel comes to a teen-aged girl, probably 13 or 14, living in a humble home, no doubt, in a non-descript town called Nazareth and tells her that God has chosen her for special grace and special favor which is that she will become the mother of the Son of God and that she will conceive and bear that Son while still a virgin.

Obviously from a human perspective, that is not possible. In verse 34 Mary says, "How can this be since I'm a virgin?" In verse 37 the angel reminds her, "Nothing will be impossible with God." What is going to happen is described in verse 35, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you," in place of a man, a husband, "and the power of the Most High will hover around you and because of that you will have a holy child who will be the Son of God."

Now the conception of Jesus Christ in this manner is unique in all the history of humanity. This is the only time this has or ever will occur. This is absolutely critical to the Christian message. This is critical to the gospel. This is critical to Christianity, to biblical theology because it protects the nature of Christ as God and Man. He had to be born of God to be Son of God. He had to be born of a woman to be Son of Man. And so in this incredible miracle, Mary who is human and God who is divine are brought together and one is born of God and of woman who is God and Man, the God/Man Jesus Christ. And the nature of Jesus Christ as God and Man is at the heart of the Christian faith. If anyone denies the deity of Jesus Christ, they have destroyed Christianity. What you have left is a satanic, deceptive, counterfeit, lying religion invented by men and demons to destroy the truth.

I have been asked through my years of teaching the Bible whether it's essential to believe that Jesus was conceived in a virgin. And the answer is yes because it is essential to saving faith to put your trust in the true Christ, you must believe that Jesus is who He is and who He is is God and Man, and that is preserved and launched, if you will, in this very truth of virgin conception.

Now history has had some amazing births. Biblical history has had some amazing births. The birth of Isaac and actually miraculous. The father of Isaac was Abraham, he was 100-years- old. The mother of Isaac was Sarah, she was 90-years-old and barren, unable to have children and at that age God gave Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac, a real miracle child. And Isaac then really became the father of the whole redemptive community through whom Messiah finally came...a notable child, a covenant child.

To the barren wife of Manoah, Judges 13 says, "Whose womb had been closed," to the barren of Manoah was given a son, her womb miraculously opened by God to give her a son. And this son was not like any other son who ever lived before or since. This son could take a lion in his bare hands and turn the lion inside out. This son could slay thousands with the jawbone of an ass. This son was so powerful that he could bring down a stoned temple on himself and thousands of others who were buried in the rubble of it. This son was Samson.

And then there was the barren Hannah who pined away because she never had a child. And the Lord opened her womb that He had shut and gave her a son named Samuel...not just any son, but Samuel the prophet, Samuel the priest, Samuel the anointer of kings.

We come in to the New Testament and already as we move in to the first chapter of Luke we meet a barren old couple, Zacharias and Elizabeth. And we know they were old because he was serving as a priest in his old age. There was a 60-year cap on service for the Levites, but there was no cap on service for the priests. And so he well could have been in his seventies or his eighties, they never had had children. And God allowed Zacharias and Elizabeth to come together and conceive a son. And she who was barren became pregnant, not just any son was born out of that union, but John the Baptist of whom Jesus said he was the greatest man who had ever lived up until his time. He was the forerunner of the Messiah Himself.

Isaac miraculously born. Samson miraculously born. Samuel miraculously born. John miraculously born. And all of them with incredible and astounding lives as God miraculously and supernaturally allowed those children to be conceived and born.

There have been some remarkable births that weren't miraculous. In our own society we all look back to the 1934 event in Canada when the Dionne quintuplets were born and that without the aid of any fertility drug...a rare, almost unheard of birth of five children at once.

More recently it's becoming a bit more common as fertility drugs are being used today. And we read about...well it was back in, I think, 1973 when the Stannick(?) sextuplets were born in Colorado. And then it was the McCoys, and I think they had seven. And then recently somewhere, I think, eight. And that is astounding to all of us. Fertility drugs are involved in that. There is no miracle occurring there. It takes a man and a woman in the normal way to produce children, it's just the amount, the litter that is a bit rare, induced by drugs.

I think in my life time probably the most defining and remarkable birth was the birth of little Louise Brown, five pounds, twelve ounces, born to John and Leslie Brown of Lancashire, England on July 25, 1978. The first child ever born, conceived outside human bodies. For the first time God permitted a baby to be born that had been conceived outside the human body.

After years and years, 12 years of specific research, the capability came to remove a mother's egg, fertilize it with a sperm removed from a father, do it all in a test tube, then place that fertilized egg back into the womb of a mother, or for that matter a surrogate mother, to be cared until birth. That's amazing. It's becoming something we take for granted today.

And so, if you look at biblical history there have been some really amazing births, miraculous, supernatural births. And if you just look at modern history, there have been some amazing non-miraculous, non-supernatural, normal births assisted by science.

Science has even made some attempt at parthenogenesis. Parthenos is the Greek word "virgin," and parthenogenesis literally means "virgin generated...virgin conceived." Science has attempted to allow life to be reproduced without the normal partnership of male and female. And through lab experiments they have produced parthenogenic life among some lower forms.

For example, within the world of honey bees, the unfertilized eggs can be developed into drones or males. It was in 1886 that a man named Decomeroff(??) was able to create artificial parthenogenesis in unfertilized eggs of silkworms. Morgan and Mead from 1896 to 1900 started the eggs of sea urchins and marine worms to develop by placing them in various salt solutions, sea water. In 1939 and 1940 Pincus(?) produced several rabbits, all female, through chemical and temperature effects on rabbit ova.

Never has any kind of parthenogenesis been done on the human level. It is a biological impossibility. There is no scientific explanation, no fertility drugs, no external lab kind of environment, no environment can be created to produce on a human level parthenogenesis.

Now even if parthenogenesis of some form could be achieved on a human level, and it can't, but let's say for the sake of argument even if it could, the case of Mary parthenogenetically bearing a son would be impossible. Geneticists have demonstrated that mammals have two X chromosomes in the females and the males have an X and Y chromosomes. Most of you remember that from your education. Thus if you took an unfertilized egg cell, a female egg cell and could somehow create an environment in which it could reproduce itself, two X chromosomes could only reproduce X chromosomes and thus the product of that parthenogenesis could it occur would have to also be female. And that was the case in the Pincus rabbits. They were female only.

So even if somehow we could assume that there was some way in which natural parthenogenesis could occur, and we know it can't humanly, but even if it could, Mary would only have been able to produce a daughter, not a son. When Mary gave birth without a man, without a male sperm as a virgin to a Son, there was then no human explanation. And that's exactly the way God designed it. Since the human determines the sex of the child, it is obvious that the sex of Jesus' human nature was determined by God. God divinely produced a male child. He produced the male chromosomes and divinely fertilized the egg in Mary's womb.

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Part 2 tomorrow.