Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/50248/jesus-and-his-uniqueness/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Well guys, this gender identity thing and switching of genders and gender operations and everything to modify or to change sexes is, in my estimation, probably the most bizarre thing yet that has confronted our culture.

[0:20] And you can look for more of the same. It all has to do with a redefinition of right and wrong and it is moving away from black and white as being identifiable to making everything a gray.

[0:42] So, definition is right out the window and whatever it is that you want, that's what it is. And we are becoming more and more a culture that is adopted to that and if you leave out the idea of absolute morality and, what shall I say, absolutes insofar as behavior, etc. is concerned, if you leave that out, all you've got left is this kind of thing that we're dealing with now.

[1:18] And, sad to say, it's pretty much true that America has walked away from its traditional values.

[1:31] I'm not saying that years ago everybody was Christians as opposed to today because they weren't. But there was a lot larger Christian constituency in the generations past than what there is today.

[1:43] And every new generation that comes on the scene seems to be further and further removed from the principles and standards of our founding fathers. And the further away you get from the anchor, the more you are adrift.

[1:57] And that's where we are today. So, we are dealing with a new spate of, I don't know what else to call it other than just, you have your truth, I have my truth.

[2:15] Your truth and my truth are contradictory. But, neither of us is wrong. Isn't that wonderful? So, everything is up for grabs.

[2:25] Nothing is certain. Nothing you can pin anything on. We are in a morally fluctuating society. And it is as you will. And whatever you will is just as good as what anybody else will.

[2:38] And when you take that approach, of course, you are denying absolute truth. And you're saying everything is relative. Where does that put the gospel?

[2:52] Exactly. Right down the tank. So that, in essence, Christianity has nothing more to offer than does Islam or atheism or anything else.

[3:04] Because whatever you believe is just as right and just as good as what anybody else believes. And nobody's got a lock on truth because truth is determined by the individual.

[3:15] You have your truth, I have my truth. This is exactly what we are being inundated in now. And this gender change and men and boys competing in activities with girls, etc.

[3:30] Is nothing more than being in step with that philosophy. It is the homogenization of races, morality, and everything else.

[3:41] That's where we are. That's where we're headed. That's where we're headed. And it's possible that it could get turned around. But I don't see any indication of that happening. So, we will just continue on with what we consider to be absolute truth.

[3:57] And at this time of the year, in fact, at any time of the year, what we have to share with you this morning is more important than anything else I can think of.

[4:07] You've already been given. I've been given a couple of pages of information. And many of you have received this before because this is one of the sheets that I consider my keepers forever.

[4:19] And I encourage you to file this away. And make sure you know where you put it. And you can leave it in your will to the next generation because this stuff is that important.

[4:31] And if you've got an extra copy because you've already had one from before, then feel free, of course, to give this one away to somebody who will benefit from it. Because these sheets of paper I've given you this morning are absolute gold mines when it comes to truth and the pursuit of it.

[4:49] And that is exactly what we're going to be talking about. And I guess maybe it's the season of the year that's got something to do with it. But this is in vogue any time of the year that you want to think about.

[5:00] So, what are you going to do and what are you going to say about a man who comes on the scene and makes statements like, I am the bread of life.

[5:16] I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the water of life.

[5:29] These are all valuable things, aren't they? Light, truth, water. I am the alpha and omega. You know what that means? That means I am the everything.

[5:42] I am the A to the Z, alpha and omega, first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. Amen. He's saying, I am everything from A to Z, from alpha to omega. What's left?

[5:55] Nothing. He's everything. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall go in and out and find pasture. I am the resurrection and the life.

[6:07] I am the I am. He is identifying himself with Moses all the way back in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14.

[6:19] When Moses was called of God to go to the people of Egypt and say, let my people go. Pharaoh is going to ask you, well, why should I let your people go?

[6:32] And Moses says, because the I am hath sent me. What does that mean? The I am means he is the ever-existent, ever-present one.

[6:43] He's not the I was. He's not the I will be. He is the I am. The ever-present one. And he is the one who is requiring you to let them go.

[6:54] And then in John chapter 8, when Jesus was comparing himself and the truth he had to offer with others, they said to him, who do you think you are anyway?

[7:06] Do you think that you're greater than our father Abraham? And Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. What a statement to make.

[7:19] These people knew the implications of that. They understood what he was saying. And you know what their response was? They took up stones and were prepared to stone him to death.

[7:31] Because the penalty for blasphemy is execution. They were going to kill him. Because this one, who is a man called Jesus of Nazareth, made himself equal with God by saying, before Abraham was, by the way, that was 2,000 years earlier, I am.

[7:57] He was actually saying he existed prior to Abraham. Are you kidding me? And the Jews said, you aren't even 50 years old yet.

[8:07] And you're saying that you were before Abraham? And then he made that statement before Abraham was, I am. I am the good shepherd. I am the gate of the sheepfold.

[8:19] I am the true vine. And if Jesus is not who he claimed to be, then he is the greatest fraud, the greatest counterfeiter, the greatest con man who ever lived.

[8:37] And he has succeeded in hoodwinking millions and millions of people over thousands of years. Fellas, he's got to be one or the other.

[8:51] There is no middle ground to this. Jesus Christ is not the son of God, kind of. He is not deity, kind of.

[9:03] He is not who he said he was, if you really believe it. Because if you don't believe it, then for you, he isn't.

[9:16] That's where we are in this world today of moral relativity. You have your truth, I have my truth, and we're both right. In essence, both of us may be wrong.

[9:29] But not with today's moral relativity, because it isn't nice to say that anybody is wrong about anything. So truth goes right out the window.

[9:42] Ambiguity and uncertainty and everything comes in. And guys, this is where we are today. And there's no indication that it's going to improve.

[9:52] So, I want you to take the sheet that I've given you. We're going to go through these things, simply because I can't think of any better way to end the year than looking at this.

[10:06] I'm sure that I already told you about the little anecdote about the author of this article. Mark Rosenthal, he's with the Lord now. I kind of claim him as a kin in a sense, because his birthday was the same as mine.

[10:22] He passed away this year, earlier this year. And I remember having met him at Word of Life up Scroon Lake and having heard him speak a couple of times.

[10:33] And I was really blessed by his ministry. And he is with the Lord now. And he's the fellow that I told you about, I'm sure, that operated the family delicatessen in Philadelphia.

[10:47] He was the guy who ran the cash register and the customers would come up. And he would take their check and make payment and give them their change. And there was this little missionary lady who was there in a capacity of home missions.

[11:01] And she was stationed there in Philadelphia. And she'd deliver tracts and give people words of encouragement. And she paid her check and started to turn away. And then all of a sudden she turned back and she said to Mark Rosenthal, who was running the cash register, she said, young man, I just want you to know I'm praying for you.

[11:21] And he said, you're praying for me? Why are you praying for me? And she said, I'm praying that you might be saved. Lady, do I look like I'm drowning?

[11:36] Saved? The only thing I want to be saved from is nuts like you. And with that, he went about his business running the cash register.

[11:49] And the little lady left. I have no idea who she was. Never did get her name. But that same Marv Rosenthal wrote this article on the incarnation. And shortly after that, he spent a time, four years in the United States Marine Corps.

[12:08] And after he was discharged, somewhere along the line, as a young Jewish boy, he came to a personal faith in Jesus Christ as his Messiah and as his Savior.

[12:18] And from that time on, everything changed about Marv Rosenthal, so much so that he wrote this article that's very scholarly. And I just want to go through it with you.

[12:29] I want you to follow along as we read. My only regret about this is that those who are listening by way of CD or radio won't have the advantage of having it in front of them as we do.

[12:45] But it will perhaps encourage them to listen carefully. So I want you to follow along, and we'll have an opportunity for Q&A perhaps if we get through this quickly enough.

[12:56] As this Christmas season approaches, which of course is already past now, but men and the world over will look back 2,000 years to the incarnation of the Son of God.

[13:08] And the word incarnation means the enfleshment. It is the word that comes from our word carnivorous. And we talk about carnivorous animals.

[13:20] A carnivorous animal is one that eats flesh. That makes it a carnivorous. Lions are carnivorous. And when you talk about the incarnation, you're talking about the enfleshment, the putting of flesh into something.

[13:36] And in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, it was putting flesh, human flesh, into deity. Contemplate that mix, if you will.

[13:52] The only utterly, completely unlike anything else individual who ever lived. This is the only being who could ever be classified as God with him.

[14:06] In him. The enfleshment of deity into humanity produced the God-man. Emmanuel. God with us.

[14:17] No one before, no one after has ever come close to being identified like this. He is the one and only. The text goes on to say, But for more than 4,000 years, men living on the other side of the incarnation, that is before Christ came into the world, looked forward to that same event.

[14:40] The birth of the eternal Son of God was no accident. It was not the result of unforeseen or uncontrollable events. Jesus was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.

[14:56] God does not respond to human events. He superintends them. Nowhere is that more clearly seen or more profoundly delineated than in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:12] Down through the Old Testament period, there were definite prophecies concerning the ancestry of the Messiah who was to come and the conditions that must be fulfilled.

[15:24] For instance, and by the way, these seven things that are listed, none of them are optional. All of them are required. They are absolutely necessary.

[15:35] He must be of the seed of Abraham, Genesis 12. He must be of the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49. He must be of the house of David, 2 Samuel 7.

[15:50] He must have legal right to the throne of David. Isaiah 9. He must be born of a virgin, Isaiah 7, 14.

[16:01] He must be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5, 2. He must be God, Isaiah 9, 6. During Old Testament times, there were many determined effects on the part of man inspired by Satan to interrupt the bloodline of the Messiah.

[16:23] Among them, the decree of Pharaoh to kill all the newborn male children among the Israelites, recorded in Exodus 1. The attempt of Athaliah to exterminate all the seed royal in 2 Kings 11.

[16:40] And the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities with the attendant danger of assimilation. It often appeared that the promise of a divine deliverer who would meet the required conditions had been rendered void.

[16:58] In other words, it couldn't happen. And the adversary, knowing these things, made deliberate attempts to block the fulfillment and the completion of this at several different junctures.

[17:11] Each one of them, of course, a failure. God overruled man's wickedness and actually made it serve his purposes. God made two unchangeable and irresistible promises to David.

[17:25] Psalm 89, first. That the throne of David would endure forever. And by the way, has that throne ever been established by Jesus of Nazareth?

[17:40] No, of course not. Some say, well, it is. He's ruling on the throne in heaven. No, no. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the throne of David, which is the physical throne on a physical earth as it is going to be.

[17:56] But Jesus has never occupied that throne. Now, keep in mind that when he does, it will continue in perpetuity. But as for now, he has not yet.

[18:09] In other words, David was unconditionally assured that lineal descendants of his would be preserved to sit upon the throne.

[18:22] That's the promise God gave David in 2 Samuel 7. These promises, of course, look forward to the coming of the Messiah. And guys, we Gentiles, 2,000 years removed, have absolutely no idea what the Jewish mindset, hopes, and dreams were for 4,000 years.

[18:46] From the time that promise was given, in Genesis chapter 3, where the seed of the woman, which means the offspring, the descendant from the woman, would crush the serpent's head.

[19:02] And that that same one would be struck in the heel, that a wound would be inflicted upon him. This is a promise of God dealing with human sin.

[19:18] And he's going to do it through a promised one to come. You and I, as Gentiles, thousands of years removed, have no idea how this affected and infected Judaism from the time of its inception all the way back to Genesis and into the Exodus and the creation of the creation of the creation of the nation of Israel in Egypt when the Lord brought them out of Egypt and so on.

[19:47] All their hopes and dreams, everything was staked on God fulfilling that promise. Everything hinged upon the Messiah, the Messiah, the Messiah.

[20:00] That means the anointed one. Who anointed him? God anointed him. And God is going to send this Messiah. And you know what he's going to be? He's going to be? He's going to be God's fix-it man.

[20:11] He's going to redeem a broken world and a broken humanity. And they had no idea how he was going to do it.

[20:22] But when the Messiah comes, it's going to be a whole new age. Everything that is wrong with man and with the world is going to be fixed. Well, now, can you not understand why people wouldn't look forward to that?

[20:35] They realized that they were living in a ruined world where sin and death and disease were rampant. And when the Messiah comes, he's going to do away with all of that.

[20:48] It's going to be wonderful. It's going to be heaven on earth. Heaven come to earth. And every generation that went by, they hoped and they dreamed that theirs would be the favored generation.

[21:04] And every Jewish mother knew that she was considered a potential bearer of that Messiah.

[21:15] How could that be? Every generation that came along, maybe this will be the one. Every new baby that came along, maybe this would be the one. And this went on for 4,000 years.

[21:29] And one day, one day, God sent an angel to an obscure peasant girl named Mary from an obscure Jewish village named Nazareth and told her, Mary, Mary, you're the one.

[21:58] God is going to invade your body. And he is going to implant within you a seed that God himself will fertilize with deity.

[22:17] And you will go through a birth process and bring into the world that long sought one for which you have waited 4,000 years called the anointed one.

[22:32] He will be the one. We know very little about him apart from his birth, recorded in Luke and in Matthew.

[22:43] And we know virtually nothing from the time he was born until the time he was 12 years of age when that incident in the temple happened. And it was then that most are of the opinion that Jesus bar mitzvahed then as a 12-year-old in the Jewish economy.

[23:02] That meant that he had come into what they considered adulthood. And that simply meant that he was responsible for his own behavior at the age of 12. And Jesus began in an educational process the likes of which we can understand.

[23:22] And it's impossible for us to separate deity from humanity. We just don't understand that. But we know that this was an unusual child, most unusual one who ever lived. And for the next 18 years, until the age of 30, he is in relative obscurity.

[23:39] And we have nothing in Scripture that is recorded about Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30. And at the age of 30, that's the time that a Jew who was destined for priesthood would be entering into the priesthood.

[24:00] But he had to be 30 years of age to do that. And Zacharias was a priest. And his wife came from the priestly line. And Jesus is going to be a priest too.

[24:11] But he will be from the order of Melchizedek, an entirely different thing, a unique priesthood. Not after the line of Aaron. And this man who is born of Zacharias and Elizabeth, his name is going to be John.

[24:29] And he will be John the Baptist. And when he hits his 30 years, he's inducted into the priesthood also. And he begins his ministry. And his ministry consists of message to the whole nation of Israel.

[24:43] And it was, you people, Israelites, you better clean up your act and get ready for the Messiah. Because the kingdom of heaven and the Messiah who's going to bring it is right around the corner.

[24:58] And John began preaching that message. And people began identifying with his message. And great crowds came out. And one day, coming down the road, John looked up over the heads of the people he was baptizing.

[25:11] And he said, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. What? He was speaking of Jesus.

[25:25] He just arrived on the scene. Jesus was six months younger than John. And now, his 30th birthday had arrived. And he'd just undergone the ordeal of temptation by Satan and proved his worthiness.

[25:40] And now, he's ready to begin his ministry. And nothing is going to be the same from that time on. So, you can understand. Every Jewish mother, for 4,000 years, thought that she might have the privilege of bearing the Messiah.

[25:57] And that's something that God bestowed upon this girl by the name of Mary. It often appeared that the promise of a divine deliverer who would meet the required conditions had been rendered void.

[26:12] But God overruled man's wickedness and actually made it serve his purposes. If you look at the list below, the list of David's descendants to whom was given the right to sit upon the throne of Israel is given in Matthew 1.

[26:28] And by the way, guys, don't look down your nose at these genealogies. I know it's boring to read them. And most of the names you can't even pronounce. But they are critical. In the Jewish economy, they were critical to establish parentage and legitimacy.

[26:43] So, they are very necessary. And they're not just there to take up space. And as you look at these, you will see, we'll just jump in here with David. Now, David had several sons.

[26:57] But the right to sit upon the throne passed to only one of them, namely Solomon. Solomon was the king. Remember, it was Saul who was deposed.

[27:10] And Solomon, who is of the tribe of Judah. And Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, so he would not have been eligible anyway. But David is going to be from the tribe of Judah.

[27:22] That is the royal line, the fourthborn son of Jacob. And he is going to be the beginning of the Davidic dynasty. A royal dynasty is when the line is continued.

[27:40] Every generation is father to son, father to son, father to son. And the line is not broken. It remains intact. That's what constitutes the dynasty.

[27:53] And if it ever happens that the new one who comes to the throne is not a direct descendant of the one who was on the throne, then the dynasty has ended.

[28:05] And a new dynasty begins with that new king. And you see this in the royalty of Great Britain, even, where they have different houses. The House of Tudor, the House of Windsor, etc.

[28:15] Each one of those was a dynasty because the bloodline was maintained. So in this particular case, we read that David had several sons.

[28:26] The right to sit upon the throne passed to only one of them, Solomon. Only those who were of the kingly line inherited throne rights. In other words, one could be a descendant of David and yet not have a legal right to sit upon the throne.

[28:44] Then the list of David's descendants is given to whom was given the right to sit upon the throne of Israel. It's given in Matthew chapter 1.

[28:55] And this genealogy terminates with Joseph. In other words, it ends with Joseph, who was the betrothed husband of Mary.

[29:06] The genealogy beginning with Solomon is as follows. And I'm not going to read all of these, but you can see that Solomon was a son of David. And he is listed first.

[29:19] And it goes on and lists several more who follow him. Now you will notice that number 14 in the list was Jeconias, whose name also was called Jeconiah or Coniah.

[29:36] Same guy. Jeremiah 22.30 pronounces a curse on this king because of his sin. And that's taken from Jeremiah 22 and verse 30.

[29:50] Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his seed, that is, no human being of his seed, shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah.

[30:15] Jeremiah 22.30. In other words, that guy's line stopped right there. This curse did not mean that Coniah would never have any children, but rather that none of his descendants would sit upon the throne of David.

[30:34] Those who had the legal rights to the throne were thus barred from occupying it. This is really important stuff, guys. It may seem technical, but I'll tell you, God deals in technicalities.

[30:49] God is a God of precision. And there is another example of it. In Matthew 1, it is recorded that Joseph, the espoused, or that is, the engaged husband of Mary, was a direct descendant of Coniah.

[31:07] He was in the line. This means, although Joseph inherited the legal right to the throne of David, because he was descended through the kingly line of Solomon, yet he could not sit upon that throne because he came under the curse of Coniah, which was that no man of his seed would ever sit upon the throne.

[31:33] But it means something else of far greater importance. It means that if Jesus had been the real son, that is, the biological son of Joseph, he too would have come under the curse pronounced on Coniah and would not have been able to sit upon the throne of David.

[31:56] This poses a real problem. Three main conditions must be met that seem humanly impossible of fulfillment.

[32:07] And guys, here is the explanation of the necessity of the virgin birth. You can take this stuff to the bank.

[32:18] This is why it was so critical. People today, many of them say, well, virgin birth, that's just fantasy. That's not real. That's just made-up stuff.

[32:29] And besides, there wasn't any real reason for that to be. They were just trying to say that Jesus was special. He was born of a virgin. Hey, that's stuff of nonsense. He had to be born the way he was, or he could not be eligible to do what he did, which was redeem you from your sin.

[32:46] Poses a real problem. Jesus must be a lineal descendant of David in order to fulfill God's promise to David that his seed would sit upon the throne.

[32:58] Yet, he must also be the legal son of Joseph in order to inherit the right to sit upon the throne of David. He was the legal son, not the real son or biological son.

[33:14] Yet, he cannot be the real son of Joseph without coming under God's curse on Canaan. So, what a dilemma. What a problem. Enormous problem. Humanity has no way to solve this problem.

[33:27] But God does. And God's solution is the virgin birth. He's going to provide a human instrument to give birth to deity, but it will not be because her egg, it would not be her egg, and it would not be implanted by Joseph.

[33:47] It would be that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be the Son of God, the angel told Mary. So, this is all coming from God. What's Mary?

[33:58] Mary is the carrier. Mary is going to provide the birth process of bringing this baby into the world so he will have a human element as well as a divine element.

[34:11] Only person ever to exist like this or ever will. Jesus stands utterly alone. Totally unique in every way. Could such a problem ever be solved?

[34:23] God provided it by the miracle of the virgin birth. The genealogy in Matthew 1 traces the kingly line from David down to Joseph. Jesus was not the real son, that is the biological son of Joseph, at the same time of the Savior's birth because Joseph had never known Mary as his wife, Matthew 1.25, but Joseph adopted Jesus as his son and thus the Lord inherited the legal right to the throne of David.

[34:56] Jesus became the legal son of Joseph even though he was not his real son or biological son. This leaves one condition unfulfilled, however.

[35:08] It was prophesied also that the Messiah would be a lineal that is a direct descendant in the bloodline of David. Was he?

[35:19] The answer is found in Luke 23-28 where Mary's family tree is recorded. Get that, guys. You'd be surprised how many people say, well, there's a glaring contradiction in the Bible because Matthew gives one line of genealogy for Joseph, but it gives it a completely different line for Joseph in Luke, and that's a big contradiction.

[35:48] They just aren't reading carefully because the genealogy of Joseph is in Matthew. The genealogy of Joseph is not in Luke.

[36:01] That's Mary's genealogy. Wow! Are you kidding me? Yeah. Mary is also a direct descendant of David the king, but she comes not through the line of Solomon.

[36:16] She comes through the line of Nathan, and yet both had David as their father, as their parentage. The text goes on to say, the curse of Caniah did not affect her or her child.

[36:31] To summarize then, Jesus was the actual son of Mary and thus a direct descendant of David. In him, God's promise to David that he would always have a son to sit upon his throne is fulfilled.

[36:47] Jesus was the legal son of Joseph by adoption and thus inherited the legal right to sit on the throne of David, but he was not the real son of Joseph and thus escaped the curse of Caniah.

[37:01] The question must be asked, who worked out this wonderful interweaving of circumstances? Does not such design, spread over centuries of human history, demand a designer who also spans the centuries?

[37:19] This is clearly the work of God. No human being could ever trace the bloodline of the Messiah in such a way as to fulfill all the promises and yet escape the curse through the miracle of the virgin birth.

[37:34] So, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a virgin, born under the law to redeem lost mankind. The gift of Christmas is the gift of God's son, a living savior for a dying world.

[37:49] And all the world can do is shrug their shoulders and look at that and say, what an amazing coincidence. Baloney. Coincidence by foot. And you know something?

[38:02] Where is, where is the line of David now? Where is the throne today? Do you realize that when Zedekiah was king of Babylon, the Babylonians overran Jerusalem, they captured Zedekiah, the king, they made him watch the execution of his own sons as they put them to death, and then they put out Zedekiah's eyes, blinded him.

[38:36] How's that for treating royalty? The king of Israel. And made him walk all the way to Babylon. I don't know if he survived the walk or not, but you know something, guys?

[38:47] Zedekiah was the last king to sit on the throne of David. And that throne has been vacant ever since.

[39:02] Israel does not have a monarchy. They have a constitutional government that is presided over by the Knesset, which is the equivalent of our Congress. They have a prime minister.

[39:13] They haven't had a king or a kingdom since Zedekiah in 586 B.C. Almost 600 years added to another 2,000 years.

[39:28] 2,600 years. And Israel has been without a king for 2,600 years. Hey, guys, doesn't this give new meaning to those apostles who in Acts chapter 1 at the ascension of our Lord back to heaven, they ask him the question, Lord, is it at this time, meaning, your crucifixion and your resurrection is past.

[39:58] And Jesus spent 40 days with them after that. And they ask him, is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel with which we've been without for 2,600 years?

[40:17] Are you going to do it now? Jesus had every right to sit on the throne of Israel and rule and reign. And by one of these days, he's going to.

[40:31] And you know who's going to be his right-hand man? David. David the king, the original, is going to be resurrected and so are you if you die before this time and so is every believer going to be resurrected to live in that kingdom when Christ will establish it and it will be the absolute opposite of everything this world is.

[41:02] It will have a newfound beauty, a newfound purpose, death and ruination and corruption will be done away with. It will be the rule and the reign of the Son of God and the text says he will rule the world.

[41:17] Not just Israel. Israel is going to be the lead nation. Think of that. All of the suffering, deprivation, and persecution that the Jewish people and the Jewish nation have suffered from the time they were in Egypt to the present time, ostracism, isolation, persecution, murder, six billion in the Holocaust and all the rest of it and God is saying to Israel I'm going to make it up to you.

[41:46] The time is coming when according to Deuteronomy you will no longer you will be the tail. You will be the head. And Israel is going to be the lead nation of the world and all peoples from all over the globe will flow into Israel and pay obeisance to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

[42:14] that will be the establishment of the kingdom when everything that is wrong with this world including death is going to be fixed.

[42:25] Little wonder we call it heaven on earth. It is the kingdom of heaven come to and establish on earth and it's going to be glorious beyond description.

[42:37] Now if you look at the second sheet quickly it just gives you a diagram of David. If you look at that page it has David at the top on the very back and you see the line on the left Solomon is simply but one of the children of David.

[42:56] Nathan on the right is another of the children of David and he had even more than that but these were in that line. So from David came Solomon and then ultimately Joseph who was in the line and Jesus as the legal heir to the throne and then on the right hand side it is the genealogy of Mary.

[43:17] Mary is a descendant of David also but through David's son Nathan as opposed to Solomon and then Mary is there and both you see Joseph and Mary across from the page focusing and centralizing in the person of Jesus the heir of both and it is a beautiful beautiful story.

[43:39] Here we have the top of the page prophecies fulfilled confirming Jesus as the Messiah the Christ the son of God and we are indebted to Josh McDowell from his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict for this second sheet that you see here.

[43:55] So this guys this this is what Christmas is all about and it's a beautiful thing and you know the world every year goes through the motions of the trimming and the trees and the gifts and everything and for the most part they are utterly clueless about what was really involved but you're not because of stuff like this and what this does if it does anything for you like it does for me it simply confirms and fortifies everything that we believe about Jesus of Nazareth who he is why he came who sent him what he did and why it matters it's all wrapped up in this and this is the real stuff that life is made of you got this for your center base you're decked out as well as you can be it is just absolutely amazing Joe what oh I just I just just a thought that the the Lord's Prayer many of you some of your churches repeat this repetitively the Lord's Prayer that is not a prayer for us to say the Lord's Prayer is not a prayer for us to say that is a Jewish prayer for the kingdom to come our prayer is not for the kingdom to come our prayer is for the Lord's appearing in the sky on those clouds when he raptures us we'll be raptured long before the kingdom comes to earth

[45:31] I don't know how long but it'll be sometime after that so that Lord's Prayer is not for us we do not pray that prayer thank the Lord I'm looking for that blessed hope of him coming and I'm watching now everybody should be watching and waiting right now thank you Lord and you've heard me say that even though we are all terminal in so far as this life and this world is concerned we need to be diligent in looking for the upper taker rather than the undertaker we don't know when he's coming we only know that he is so we put all of these things together and Mark Rosenthal has given us a priceless piece of history here and this is why you can see I consider this my keepers forever and I want you to have this and this I make no bones about duplicating him if you got him give another copy to somebody else or duplicate him or whatever yeah Jeff why didn't John the Baptist say he knew that

[46:37] Jesus was the Messiah before he started preaching why didn't he ever say it earlier because it just wasn't his time well I don't know I don't know these are questions that we all have we can't help but ask them because we're just naturally curious about these things but as I've often said guys God never gave us any of the scriptures to satisfy our curiosity but to tell us what we really need to know as he knows we need to know it and so far as curiosity is concerned Jeff just brought up an interesting question and I've got a thousand like that questions that you wonder about this and that you know we know we know that Mary and Elizabeth were first cousins one was much younger than the other because we know that Elizabeth was past the year of childbearing and she and Zacharias were just not able to ever produce a child you could say her womb was closed dried up or whatever

[47:47] Zacharias was over the hill and couldn't produce a child and Mary she too is on the miraculous side because she's going to produce a child never having known a man physically so we've got a miracle with both and we know that Mary and Elizabeth were first cousins which would of course be their offspring John the Baptist and Jesus second cousins we don't know what kind of or how much interaction they had during those 30 years we do know that Jesus is going to grow up in Nazareth born in Bethlehem but he's going to grow up to adulthood not in Bethlehem but in Nazareth now we don't know for sure where

[48:49] John the Baptist is going to be growing up we do know this we know that his father was a priest of the order of Abiah and it was customary for most of the priests to dwell in and around Jerusalem because of the service of the temple and everything that required so John John may have grown up in Jerusalem we don't know that but we do know that Nazareth and Jerusalem were maybe 80 to 90 miles apart and when you're talking about walking to get there or being on horseback that's quite a distance so what kind of interaction they may have had during their growing up years we just don't know did those families ever get together did they compare notes we would think maybe so but we're not given that information and we don't know who knew each other or for how long or on what level it's just information that is too scanty and we can speculate but we can't pin it down we just don't know someday someday we will know because all of these things will be made plain any other comments or questions yeah do you know that the end of John's life

[49:58] John the Baptist's life that he had some he wanted to know some doubts what's Jesus are you really that Messiah that's the king he had some doubts about that and Jesus of course satisfied that for him before his death yeah when John was in prison when John was in prison and he didn't even know he was going to be executed he was just in prison and he was wondering if Jesus whom I introduced to Israel as the Messiah John chapter 1 if he is the Messiah and I'm the one to announce him what am I doing here in prison why doesn't he spring me why doesn't he get me out why does and he started wondering hey could it be and by the way guys doubts a doubting mind a doubting mind is an indication of a thinking mind anyone who has never doubted has never thought because doubts are part and parcel of our being we do doubt that

[51:02] John introduced Jesus as a Messiah now he's in prison now he's wondering oh my could I have this whole thing wrong and he called some of his disciples and said listen guys you got to go find Jesus and confirm this thing I got to know ask him if he is the promised one that should come and we've got this right or ought we to be looking for somebody else and the disciples went and they found Jesus and they told him about John's concern and Jesus said I understand you go back and tell John that the blind see the deaf hear the lame are healed raised from the dead and blessed is he who is not offended in me go tell John that so they go back and they tell John what Jesus said and John says put it together connected the dots

[52:05] John says yeah okay alright he is thank you and John was satisfied and then the next thing you know here comes an executioner with an axe and said John I hate to tell you this but we're going to take your life and John put his head down on that chopping block and had it severed from the block and you know what you mean to tell me that God is in charge of even that well guys if he isn't we're in a world of hurt because if he's not in charge of things like that he's not in charge of anything we look at it from a human standpoint and we say God should have stepped in he should have saved John he should have you know we all have ways of second guessing God and I've done that for years until I finally got smart enough to give up on it you don't second guess the deity all that

[53:10]  God does is right take that to the bank enjoy your breakfast and I'll see you next year the Lord willing