 Hey man, first of all, that was pretty good. So you never want to have to read chapters that have genealogies in them. I struggle with announcing things even to this day, but yeah, that was pretty good. So good job there. Anyway, so we see the genealogy of Joseph in Matthew chapter one. We're going to focus on the last half of that. We're looking at the Christmas story in the next few weeks, in the past week. We're looking at the Christmas story, the run up to the birth of Christ, see what we can learn from this tonight. Of course, last week we talked about Elizabeth. We talked about Mary's cousin Elizabeth, who is, she's with child. She's with child with John the Baptist. We looked at the prophecy there of, you know, turning the hearts, the father's hearts towards the children, and the children's heart towards the fathers, which was the purpose of John the Baptist. Because in order to accept Christ, the reason that that prophecy was there, and the reason that it was in the Old Testament in Malachi, and the reason that it was repeated to Elizabeth as to be the purpose of John the Baptist's life was because if you have the proper attitude, if you have the proper heart towards your heavenly father, your heavenly father is about to send the Savior of the world. So if your heart is right towards the heavenly father, you will accept Jesus Christ. So that's why we looked, what we looked at last week. Tonight we're going to focus on Elizabeth's cousin, of course, Mary. So we're going to look at Mary tonight. Turn back to Luke chapter one, keep your place in Matthew chapter one. We're going to look at Mary. We're going to look at just the life of Mary, the interaction, I guess not the life of Mary, but the interaction in this time with Elizabeth and Mary and see what we can take from this. I believe that the verses we're going to look at tonight, Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter one, tell us the most about the kind of person that Mary was. So we'll take a look at that, we'll look at kind of, you know, how people have twisted Mary and some falsehoods that are talked about with Mary. But I believe that these two passages in the Bible, Luke chapter one and Matthew chapter one, really give us, you know, they give us a testimonial on who this young lady was in the Bible and why the things happened to her that happened to her. Look at Luke chapter one, look down at verse number twenty-six this evening. And in the sixth month, the Bible says, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto the city of Galilee named Nazareth. So this isn't June, this is talking about, remember Elizabeth, she hid herself in the verses before she hid herself five months when she was pregnant. Of course, she is an older woman where she's much older than Mary. She was an older woman. It was miraculous that she was with child, but of course that happened through the hand of God. But she's in the sixth month of her pregnancy here and the angel Gabriel at this point was sent from God unto a different city, okay. The angel of God was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. So Gabriel's the same angel that visits Mary that visited her cousin Elizabeth, okay, to a virgin espoused, to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and to the, in the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in under her, this is Gabriel, and said, Hail thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. So basically the angel is telling Mary, he comes to her and he says, you know, you are very favored with God, you are very, you're very blessed. He just tells her the situation that, what does he tell her? He tells her how God feels towards her, right? Again, remembering this morning sermon, does he go and tell, does he go and tell Mary like how great she is? No, he says, you're highly favored, you're very blessed. You know, God, you know, basically, you know, you are in the right standing with God and you know, you're very blessed. And Mary will repeat this, we'll see, she'll repeat this later on in our sermon this evening. When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be, this should be. And the angel said in her, fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. Again, just saying how favored she is with the Lord. And behold, that thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name, Jesus, and he shall be great. He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father, David. Verse 33, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Of course, this is, he's telling her that this is going to be the fulfillment of the prophecy in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where David is told, remember 2 Samuel chapter 7, David wants to build a house for the Lord. David wants to, he goes and he tells Nathan, I want to build a temple for the Lord. David had a great house to live in, he's like, but the ark is in a tent. And he wants to build a house for the Lord. And then Nathan ends up coming back to David saying, no, your son's going to build the house, however, in verse 16, he tells him, your kingdom basically will have no end, prophesying, prophesying that the Messiah will come through the line of David. And then of course, we see that actually happen in history as the kingdoms split, two generations after David, and then the northern kingdom is just dynasty after dynasty after dynasty after dynasty, different families just destroying each other, wiping each other out, but the lower kingdom of Judah is always the son of David, son of David, son of David, son of David, the whole way through. And then we see it culminate with Christ, and then of course Christ takes that kingdom into eternity, because his kingdom will have no end. So David, he knew that the Messiah was coming from him because that's the only way that a man's kingdom could have no end as if the Messiah was taking it into eternity, because as we know from the stories of the kings, kings do not reign forever. Many of them reign for a very short period of time. So look at verse number 34. So we see that prophecy. Gabriel tells Mary, hey, prophecy is going to be fulfilled through your child. Mary doesn't understand. She says, Mary said unto the angel, how shall this be seeing I know not a man? She's saying, I am a virgin. I have never been with a man. How could I have a child? Verse 35. And the angel answered and said unto her, 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. Now turn back to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. So the angel tells her that it's going to be a miraculous event. You're not going to know a man, and you are going to be with child that's going to be God's Son. All right, look at Matthew chapter 1 in verse number 18. Go back to Matthew chapter 1. Look at verse number 18. So the angel Gabriel after talking with Elizabeth goes and tells Mary this great miracle that's going to be used, that she's going to be used for. She's going to be the mother of the Messiah of Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 18 of Matthew chapter 1. I love Matthew chapter 1, Luke chapter 1. We get different kind of different details as the Bible always does, especially in the Gospels. Verse 18 says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when asked his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph. Before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So we see that this event that Gabriel talked to Mary about has now happened, and this is how it actually went down in verse number 18. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, notice in verse 18 that word espoused, she was espoused to Joseph. Then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily, put her away privily meaning privately, quietly, not making a big deal about it. Now to understand these two verses we kind of need to understand, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22. We need to understand the difference between marriage and espousal or what the Old Testament will call betrothal in the Bible. So Mary was espoused to Joseph, but she had not physically come together with Joseph. But notice in verse number 19, I'll just read it for you if you're not there, you're turning to Deuteronomy chapter 22, but notice she was espoused to him, meaning they weren't married at that point yet, but they were espoused or betrothed as the Old Testament would call it. But in verse number 19 it says Joseph her husband. So Joseph is still considered her husband even though they are espoused, okay? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 23. And then you're gonna keep your place in Deuteronomy 22 because we're gonna come back there in just a few minutes. The Bible says if a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then verse 24, she shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and ye shall stone them with stones that they die, the damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he had humbled his neighbor's what? His neighbor's wife, okay? So basically what I'm trying to get you to understand is this betrothal, this espousal in the Bible is she is considered his wife and he is considered her husband in the Bible, okay? So thou shalt put evil from amongst you. So I mean the Bible is considering this situation in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 23 and 24 is considering even if two people were espoused to each other, betrothed to each other and they would go lie with somebody else, the Bible considers that adultery, okay? And that's the punishment that you see here in Deuteronomy chapter 22. So basically all that to say this an espousal or a betrothal is a promise to marry but that promise is as good as marriage as far as the rules of physically being with someone else, all right? And it depends on the culture, who you talk to, what you read, these betrothals, these espousals could have lasted for months, they could have lasted for years but the point is it's before the couple physically comes together as husband and wife but it is considered marriage, okay? That's what you have to understand when you read the Bible as compared to like what we do today, okay? So when you read the Bible, you just kind of have to remember that it's a different culture here than what we're living in today. There is no modern equivalent in the United States to espousal to betrothal, okay? I mean we have like this modern day engagement or whatever you call that, you know? Which basically amounts to there's fornication before the engagement, there's fornication during the engagement and then the engagement breaks off or whatever and the engagement lasts for eight years or whatever. You know what I mean? It just doesn't mean anything today. So the Bible is obviously speaking of something very different, a very different culture than what we see being exercised in our country. I'm sure in other places in the world there is betrothal, there is espousal in other places of the world. Now go to Matthew chapter five. So we see, this is all in context of Joseph, all right? He was espoused to this woman, she became with child of the Holy Ghost and he was, you know, minded to put her away privately. He was gonna put her away meaning he was going to divorce her. Look at Matthew chapter five in verse number 31. Matthew chapter five, look at verse number 31. The Bible says it had been said that whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. The only point I wanna make here is that putting away equals divorce. What we're talking about as far as putting away means, you know, getting a divorce, all right? So he was again proving that this espousal is as good as marriage, meaning if he would put her away, you know, it's like they're divorced, okay? But I say unto you that whosoever, look at verse 32, whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery. So a lot of people are confused when Jesus will come in and say, it has been said of them of old time and then Jesus will say something else. And a lot of people think that don't know the Bible, you know, very well and want to misquote the Bible or have a different version of the Bible. Many people will say, well, Jesus is changing the rules. But Jesus is not changing the rules. As a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter five verse 17, Jesus says, think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. He says, I have come to not to destroy, but to fulfill, Jesus said. He's not coming to, Jesus is the word. He is not going to contradict the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament anywhere, all right? He's simply reiterating what the Bible said. I mean, these people were so far from the word of God that he's just reiterating what it was supposed to be in the first place. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 22. So Jesus basically said that not only did he define putting away as divorcement, but he's saying that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication. Cause of her to commit adultery. So you say, that's weird. I mean, fornication is, like fornication is, you know, being, you know, two people being in a physical relationship outside of marriage. So how could that possibly have to do with divorce? Well, Deuteronomy chapter 22 explains exactly what Jesus is talking about. Look at Deuteronomy 22 in verse number 13. The Bible says, if any man take a wife and go into her, go in unto her and hate her. Again, remember what hate means. We find that Wednesday extremely dislike, right? If anybody tells you that they don't extremely dislike anything or anyone, they're lying to you, all right? So he goes into her and he just doesn't like her. Doesn't want her as a wife anymore. You say, why? And give occasions of speech against her. Then he starts talking against her. So something's clearly happened here, right? Something has clearly happened where he wanted to marry this woman and they went in to come together as husband and wife and now he doesn't want to be married to her anymore. He doesn't like her anymore, all right? Then shall the father, he says, and bring up an evil name upon her and say, I took this woman and when I came under her I found her not a maid. Not a maid meaning not pure, not a virgin. Like she had been with someone else before. Like she had done what? Committed fornication, okay? Look at verse 15. So then she's automatically guilty and she's, you know, no, then there's sort of a trial of some sorts. Verse 15, the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the gate in the city. And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife and he hateeth her. I'm not gonna explain verse 15. You can ask your parents about that no matter how old you are. I won't explain that from the pulpit, but basically there's supposed to be evidence that she is pure and that she has not committed fornication and the father, you know, it's her dad that's standing up for her, by the way. It's her dad that is defending, you know, her honor so to speak and they go to the leaders of the city. I gave my daughter unto this man to wife and he hateeth her. He all of a sudden he doesn't like her anymore, verse 17. And lo, he had given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity and they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city and the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him and they shall immerse him in a hundred shekels of silver and give unto them the father of the damsel and give them to the father of the damsel because he had brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel and she shall be his wife he may not put her away all his day. So in this case, he went to, in this case right here, as far as I've read it, this guy goes to the elders of the city, he's accusing this woman that he's married to this girl that he's been married to of, you know, a fornication in the past or whatever saying she wasn't a maid, she claimed she was, she wasn't and he was wrong. And in this case, it's the man who's chastised. It's the man who's chastised, he has to pay a fine and he has to remain, they have to remain married. So they say, no, you cannot put away your wife. The divorce is like canceled, right? They say, no, she shall be his wife and he may not put her away all his days. Now it's interesting here because what we see, the next couple of verses will seem like very harsh to people that read it, especially people that are caught up in just, you know, any culture of the day. But notice in verse 19, how valued made a woman that is pure is. It says that this guy is chastised because he brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. This is a nation, this is a nation here, the nation of Israel, any godly nation, this is a nation that values its purity, values its women, values its women's purity, values women, period. I mean, we are so far, so the next couple of verses talk about that, you know, if she was the one that was lying, then she goes out and she's to be stoned and all this and people will say, well man, that seems harsh. But you have to understand today that we live in a society, that we live in a nation, we live in a culture that completely devalues women. So before you go and start, you know, criticizing the culture of the Bible, look around you. We live in a society that completely devalues young ladies, young girls and just throws, tries to teach them to not be pure, tries to teach them that, you know, marriage is nothing, that fornication is okay and there's no shame in how you look or how you act, it teaches the men the same thing. But the point is, the nation of Israel here, they valued their virgins, they valued their women and they valued their purity. They were mad at this guy because they were like, look, you accused a virgin of this nation, like she's some crown jewel. She's some prize, but isn't that what the Bible says? Isn't that what the Bible says when you see the virtuous woman is compared to rubies in Proverbs chapter 31? Isn't that what the Bible says when it talks about a woman that is of a meek and quiet spirit is of great value to the Lord? I mean, this is the culture of the Bible, is to value young women, is to value purity, value, you know, just chasteness. But that's the opposite of what we have today. Yet people will read something like this and say, oh, that's so harsh, right, that's so harsh. We're so far from God's law today. I mean, you pretty much have to just do like a format on yourself, you just gotta reformat yourself, you know, just do a quick format on yourself and just realize that everything that we've been taught is wrong. You know, as you get saved and you start reading the Bible, you just gotta be like, no, I'm not gonna be influenced by all of this other garbage we talked about this morning. I mean, Psalm 14, 14 talks about how just, you know, the psalmist says, thou make us a reproach to our neighbors. You know, so here we are saying, I don't like that harshness in the Bible, I don't like the way that is, but we're a reproach, we're a joke. We're a joke the way we do things. The nation of Israel became a joke to the psalmist in Psalm 14. The Bible even says, even says, thou makest us a byword amongst the heathen. Like even the heathen were making fun of them in Psalm 14. Even the heathen, the heathen laugh at us today. You know, the heathen laugh at us today. So point being, back to the sermon, before we say, oh, you know, I don't like the way that this sounds, like look, our culture is become a byword. We become a byword to people because of our culture. And the point is, if she was guilty, the Bible is saying she hurt the nation. She hurt the purity of the other, you know, ladies in that nation. Go back to Matthew chapter 19. So fornication, fornication is the only cause. So the man in Deuteronomy chapter 22, you know, if she was guilty of fornication, that was taken care of, but if she was not guilty, the divorce was not granted. So they remained married and they had to remain married his whole life. It's like, no, you, and why is that? Because here he went in and they came together physically and now she wasn't made anymore. And he's supposed to just throw her off to the wayside. No, that was a nation that valued her. That was a nation that valued that purity for her husband is in that nation is saying, no, you're not just gonna throw that away. You're not just gonna walk away from that. That's why fornication is the only cause. Doesn't it make sense when you think about it from a biblical purity standpoint, that two people should like, I don't know, just like two people should come together and like be virgins when they get married. I mean, like what? But that is the way the Bible says it should happen. And fornication is the only cause. But since there's no betrothal today, you can see where I'm going with this. Look at Matthew chapter 19. Look at Matthew chapter 19. Look at verse number one. Fornication is the only cause. And we see that it has direct influence that fornication has to do with it ties directly in that idea of betrothal or espousal that is basically marriage. It's looked at the same as marriage. Look at Matthew chapter 19, verse number one. The Pharisees are trying to catch Jesus here. In verse number one, it says, and it came to pass. When Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee and he came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came up to him, unto him, tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put his wife away for any cause, for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, have ye not read? I mean, he's always saying that. That ye which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain, you know what that means? That means two, first of all. They twain shall become one flesh. It was never God's plan for a man to have 600 wives. It was never God's plan for a man to have multiple wives. It's like, but men just went and did these things. It was what you have to understand. Like God has to manage this mess. He has to manage what, you know, he's like, I told you what to do. He's like, you know, twain should be one flesh and then a guy goes out and gets married 600 times. God's like, now what do I do? You know, so the point is it was two people get married and they're one flesh, all right? And then it says in verse six, wherefore there are no more twain but one flesh. So they're not two anymore. They're one, they're one. So, and who made them one? See, this is the key, right? Who made the two, the man and his wife, who made the husband and wife one? God did. Now, like, you think about things that God made. You think about things that God seals. Think about things that God keeps. Who can break that apart? Is what the Bible is trying to say here. It says, Jesus is explaining this. And he says, there are but one flesh, wherefore what God had joined together let no man put asunder. And then they came at him and they said, well, they said to him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? And he said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. So, Jesus is trying to explain here, hey, just because people were divorcing themselves during the time of Moses, doesn't mean that's what God wants. Doesn't mean that's what God's plan was. It was just, that was just Moses being pragmatic. That was just Moses trying to take care of people that went through a terrible situation and were doing the wrong thing. Look at verse number nine. They repeats what he said. He said, and I said unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, accept it be for fornication and shall marry another, commiteth adultery. Jesus didn't change the rules here. This is the way it always was. This is the way it always was. Jesus is just like resetting them, reminding them. Just because you messed up as a nation and you were doing wicked things, that's not what God wanted. And whosoever marryeth her, which is puteth away, doth commit adultery. I mean, so look, the Bible says in Malachi 2.16 that God hadeth putting away. God extremely dislikes divorce. You may not have to just use that from now on, so it doesn't sound so hateful. But God extremely, God hates divorce, the Bible says. That kind of puts outside the realms of possibility of this idea of no fault divorce today, does it not? I mean, doesn't everyone want to say that, oh, I got divorced, but it wasn't my fault. I got divorced, but she was wicked or I got divorced, but he was wicked. But the Bible is saying there's no equivalent to a spousal today, so it's kind of like there's no real excuse for divorce. I mean, you think about, oh, what about adultery? Well, the Old Testament had a solution for that, too. I mean, in the Old Testament, if we were to follow that, there would be no like, oh, my husband committed adultery, I mean, or my wife committed adultery, I mean, because at that point, you'd be a widow. It's pretty simple, but you don't follow the Bible, you end up, you could almost see how Moses ended up where he was. Because if you don't follow exactly what God's law is, you end up in all these weird halfway situations where you have to deal with this somehow, and Jesus is just like walking you back to the law. That's what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is just walking you back like, hey, let's just go back to the way it was supposed to be. All right, now, here's another interesting point. When it comes to divorce, probably one of the most wicked things that new Bible versions do is give justification for divorce. I gave a sermon a few weeks back or a few months back on just things in the NIV that are just crazy and completely nuts, like you have to marry your rapist and all this crazy stuff in the NIV. Why would anyone have this Bible? But here's the thing, the NIV completely opens the floodgates for divorce. Like if you wanna get divorced, you better get rid of your King James Bible, and you better get an NIV. That's step one. Step one, I want out of this marriage, get an NIV. Because then it'll just, it just gives you permission. I'll read for you Matthew chapter 19 and verse number eight. You look down at your King James Bible. In Matthew chapter 19 and verse number eight and verse number nine, I'm gonna read for you the NIV version. All right, in verse number eight of Matthew 19, it says, Jesus replied. Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. You're like, okay, that's pretty close. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, are you reading your King James Bible right now? Anyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. So it turns fornication into sexual immorality. Now turn to Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. You're like, okay, what's sexual immorality? I mean, what's that? Well, Jesus kind of defines that for us, all right? Look at Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. I'll wait for you to get there because it's important that you see this. But basically, I mean, you think these changes are on accident, you think these changes, they are subtle, but salty is never good and it's usually not on accident. All right, look at Matthew chapter five verse 28. Jesus says, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in its heart. So look, Jesus is pretty clearly explaining here that looking at a woman and lusting after a woman is immoral. Lusting after a woman, looking at someone and lusting after her is, you know, if you're a married man and you go and you look upon another woman that's not your wife and you lust after her, you know, you're committing adultery with her in your heart. Obviously, he's not equating these two things. Jesus is never saying like, this is equal because people will do this stupid thing too. This is the, you know, all sins are equal crowd. They'll say, oh well, looking, you know, walking by a woman and looking twice or something is just as bad as committing adultery on your wife, like actually doing it. I mean, that's ridiculous. Jesus is saying it's a sin. That's what he's saying. He's saying to lust after, you know, another woman, a married woman, you know, if you're married, you know, whatever, both sides is immorality. So the point is, is if you take that, what Jesus said there and combine it with the NIV verse, like basically a wife could divorce her husband biblically in the NIV for looking at, you know, the sports illustrated on the checkout of the grocery store or whatever. I don't know that those there. But the point is sexual immorality is a broad spectrum. Whereas the Bible says that divorce is only to be granted in this very specific case of fornication in the espousal period that doesn't even exist today. So King James Bible, you have to stay married forever. NIV, whatever, whenever you wanna walk out the door, walk out the door because every man will be guilty of that at some point in his life of some kind of lust or some kind of, you know, you know, look, and you should work on those things and get those things out of your life. But it is certainly not cause for divorce. And you see how wicked these modern Bible versions are. I mean, think about it, like, oh, what's the big deal? It could literally ruin your life. It would literally ruin the life of generations of your family. Why? Cause you don't have God's word, that's why. It's not God's word. It's that simple. Go back to Luke chapter one. So all that to say this, Joseph, Joseph, the Bible says in Matthew chapter one, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter one, go back to Matthew chapter one. The Bible says in Matthew chapter one that Joseph was a just man. He was a just man. Look at verse 19 of Matthew chapter one. Joseph was following the proper rules. And not only that, but Joseph didn't want to do what the man in Deuteronomy 22 did. Joseph, he wasn't gonna take Mary and go between, go to the elders of the city. Instead, he just wanted to just like, he cared about her too much. He didn't, he was too good of a man to throw her under the bus. Even though it was quite clear to him at that moment in time that she had committed fornication. Okay, but look at verse 19. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. He could have done it. It was his right to make her a public example. That's exactly what happened in Deuteronomy chapter 22. And I would think that in that court case, if the woman that is brought before the elders of the city is actually with child, I would think that it would be a short trial at that point. But that's why God steps in here in the very next verse. But look at verse number 20. So the point is, Joseph, he was within his rights. He was doing what was okay, what was right. And in a better way, showing his character to even though he had the right to kind of be public, he was going to just do it quietly. Look at verse number 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not, to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived of her is of the holy ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done and it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which interpreted as God with us. So the angel steps in and talks to Joseph. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him. Now that shows you something about Joseph right there. Like, I mean, think about this. Think about this, he's married to this woman, he's a spouse to this woman, she becomes pregnant. She becomes pregnant and then in a dream the angel of the Lord tells him what's going on. It shows you that his heart was right with his father in heaven too. Because right away, he just accepts it right there. And right away, he just gets moving on with the plan. You start to think, like maybe there's a reason God chose these two to do this, right? There was no, are you sure? Or I'm gonna need another vision. You know, I'm gonna need two or three visions like many people in the Bible did. But look, Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took him, his, took unto him his wife and knew her not until she brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus. Let's go back to Luke chapter one. So he knew her not until, there's a lot of things about Mary that were talked about that aren't true either. Mary had a normal marriage with Joseph. You know, it knew her not until Jesus was born but then they came together physically, they had a normal marriage, they had children. The Bible is very clear about that. Now let's look at Mary's interaction with her cousin Elizabeth here because this is very interesting. Look at verse number 36. Verse number 36 of Luke chapter one. So Mary visits Elizabeth like right after this conception. So Jesus is basically, Jesus is like six months somewhere in there, six months younger than John the Baptist, okay? And so she visits, she's conceived just a few days after this angel visits her. She goes and she visits Elizabeth and Elizabeth is in the sixth month of her pregnancy. But look at the verse number 36. We see a lot about Mary here. And behold, my cousin Elizabeth, she hath also, this is the angel still, conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called Barron. So the Bible, I mean, Gabriel's saying, like look, we performed, I performed, God performed a miracle with your cousin too for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, now this is Mary talking now. Behold the handmade of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her. You know what handmade means? Handmade, handmade means female servant. Mary basically says, I'm your servant. Whatever you want. And the angel departed from her. And Mary rose, verse 39 in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered in the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence this is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for low as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my nears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. So first of all, there's an interesting little side note here. Basically, Mary comes in and says hello to the family and Elizabeth's baby like jumps in her womb. Why? Cause she heard the voice of Mary and the baby. And then Elizabeth like, you're like, well, what was it? Maybe it was just saying any voice or whatever. But then in verse number 44, it says, the babe leaped, why did the babe leap? She was filled with the Holy Ghost. This is literally the Holy Ghost speaking through her at this point. And she says, the babe leaped in my womb for joy proving that babies experience feelings right there. Babies experience feelings. This baby, John the Baptist, experienced joy in the womb. That's what the Bible says. Look, even science knows this, by the way. Even science knows this. I mean, secular scientists have gone and they've done all kinds of tests and studies on how babies can recognize their mother's voice. It makes a difference with them. Let me just read you one little test that I read about on parenting.com. There's tons of these out there, by the way. But let me just, I mean, science knows this. Science knows that babies in the womb experience joy feelings and they can recognize voices, especially the voice of their mother. Listen to this test. Perhaps the most significant noise or sound a baby hears in utero is his mother's voice. This is from parenting.com. Obviously a secular publication. Around the seventh and eighth months, a fetus heart rate slows down significantly whenever his mother is speaking, indicating that the mom's voice has a calming effect. By the time they're born, babies can actually recognize their mother's voice. In one study, doctors gave day-old infants pacifiers that were connected to tape recorders. Depending on the baby's sucking patterns, the pacifiers either turned on a tape of their mother's voice, or that of an unfamiliar woman's voice. The amazing result, within 10 to 20 minutes, the babies learn to adjust their sucking rate on the pacifier to turn on their own mother's voice. It is an interesting little test, but the point is, this is why moms will, they'll sing to their babies, because they know. They know that, first of all, moms can feel their babies moving when they talk to them, pushing back when the babies kick, and all these types of things. I remember, I mean, just as a farmer, I mean, I remember, I mean, just as a natural thing in God's creation, the last year we were on, we had about 180 lambs. That's a lot of lambs. And they all just like, it sounds like a bunch of babies screaming if you've ever been around a lot of lambs. And we would twice a day, this was my favorite part of the day, twice a day, we would give moms the use, we would give them grain in these feeders. And at that point was the only time that the moms, and each mom usually had two lambs. They usually had twins, sometimes triplets. But when the moms would feed, they would leave their babies. So here you had a situation where we would go and we would dump grain in these feeders, and all the moms would leave the babies. And all the lambs would get together like a bunch of little kids. They would just get in, we called it the lamb gang. They would get in this lamb gang and they would just run circles around the barn, and they would play around. But within like seven, eight minutes, all the moms were done eating. And what the mom sheep would do is they would just go and they would just go. And all the lambs would just start screaming. And you're like how, it just sounded like chaos. But they would just beep to each other, bow to each other, and each one would find their own lamb through the sound of the lamb's voice. Even though the lamb, they all sound the same to us, but to the mother, the mother could hear the lamb's voice. And then they would find their lamb, and then they would smell their lamb and know it was theirs. You know, just do a double check there. But the point is, it was just through their voice. That's just animals, imagine us. Imagine us. The point is that babies can experience feelings and joy. Here's the thing, because they're people, because they're human beings. You know, so science, I mean, if you're, all these people that are four, I mean, you just admit that you're for murder. Just say, hey, I think we should be able to murder these children. Just be honest about it, because science is against you on every single turn. There is no other place in the process from conception to birth, where someone could become a human naturally, even though DNA says they become a human, rate of conception, everything in science says that they're their own human being the entire time. They experience feelings, they experience joy. You can see them suck their thumb when there is an actual, you know, something in there trying to kill them. They try to get away, they experience pain. It's the most terrible thing in the world to even think about, and it happens every day thousands of times. So look, I mean, just admit that you're for murder, but that's not the point. Who was Mary? Let's come back to the sermon. Luke chapter one and verse number 45. But you see how there's all these little tidbits of information in the Bible that we can just use to apply to the clown world of today as we were talking about? I mean, it is truly just, the wisdom is all in the Bible. Look at Luke chapter one and verse number 45. So who was Mary? Who was Mary? And blessed, this is Elizabeth, this is Elizabeth talking to Mary, just talking about how the babe left in her room, verse 45, and blessed is she that believed. Why is Mary in heaven, by the way? Because she believed. Why is any Old Testament, well, I mean, are we not still in Old Testament with Mary here at this point? I mean, she is saved the same way that Abraham was saved the same way that you are saved because she believed God. It's that simple. And blessed is she that believed. She believed God's promise, her heart was right towards the Lord. And when God came and he told her what he was gonna do, she accepted it just like that. For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, I am awesome. Verse 46, look what she said. She said, she's like, I am the greatest. I was chosen, I'm the chosen one. But look what she, this is who Mary is right here. She says, my soul doth magnify the Lord. Remember the mirror this morning? What do we do? What do we do? What's our job as Christians? To magnify the Lord. That's it. That's the whole duty right there. She said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior. She's such a great mirror. She's such a great reflection of the glory of God, this young lady. This young lady. She's probably not even 18, she's probably not even 20. She's a very young lady. For he hath regarded, and look, this is her self-esteem. This is Mary's self-esteem in verse 48. This is what she thinks about herself. And she's not telling you this to tell you about herself. She's just, you can just tell what she feels about herself in verse number 48. This is what people will call self-esteem today. He hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. And she's not saying they'll call me blessed, like they'll worship my statue. She's saying all, she's like, I'm just this lowly servant, she says, and everybody in the history of mankind going forward, and even the saints in heaven are gonna look at me and realize how God blessed me. She's appreciating her blessings here. It's very simple. But you just, it's regarded the low, he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden, of his servant. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed the strength in his arm, he hath scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down, turn to Luke 14 chapter 11 as I read this verse to you. And let's bring this thing from this morning full circle. She says he hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. Does that sound familiar? What did he do? Luke 14 verse number 11, for whosoever exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbled with himself shall be exalted. She's basically quoting Jesus' words right there. She's basically saying like, he'll put down the mighty from their seats. Like you go and you sit in that high seat, you're gonna be put down. But the low seats, the people that sit in the low seats are gonna be exalted exactly what Jesus said. He had filled the hungry with good things and the rich, he had sent empty away. Because God doesn't esteem riches. Remember that? God doesn't respect riches. He hath helped us serve in Israel in the remembrance of history. As he spoke unto our fathers Abraham and to his seed forever and Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house. So what happened in about three months? Just an interesting side note. So Elizabeth was six months along. Mary stayed there about three months. She probably stayed for the baby to be born. And then she went back to her own house for the rest of her pregnancy. So the point is, Mary was blessed. She was highly favored. But even she knew that she was not the focus. I mean, she just kept repeating it over and over and over again. She had a normal marriage. She went on to have children with Joseph in Mark six verse three. I'll just read it to you. It's the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simon and are not his sisters here with us and they were offended at him. Jesus had many half brothers and half sisters that the Bible talks about. But the point is, Mary was very blessed. She was very humble. She was somebody that, you know, maybe people would say, oh, that's low self-esteem. The Bible would say that's a meek and quiet spirit is what Mary was. And she was highly favored for that from the Lord. I mean, this woman, let me tell you something. In Acts chapter 10 of verse 25, Cornelius, he came to Peter. He came to Peter and he bowed down and Peter said he bowed down and he started worshiping Peter. He was a man that he wanted to see the truth and he wanted to get saved and he did get saved. But he bows down and he starts worshiping Peter and Peter says, stand up, I'm a man. Just as you. He's like, I'm just a man. How would Mary feel if she knew that people were literally worshiping her today? She would not like it. She would not like it at all. It's complete irony, really, because the Bible just shows us again and again and again how humble this woman is and how meek and quiet this woman is. I mean, it's true irony because, you know, the fact that she's being worshiped and being prayed to by, you know, Catholics and maybe other religions, she knew she was favored. She knew she was blessed. She knew she was just, she's just like the whole time, she's just like, I'm just a servant. I'm just a servant. I'm just a servant. I just, I can't believe I'm so blessed. I'm just a servant. So, I mean, the bottom line is if you want to be, you say, I would like to be blessed in my life by God. All you have to do is just follow, Mary's a great example for you. Whether you're a man or a woman, all you have to do is just be a based. All you have to do is just be a servant, be a based and God will do the exalting. And by the way, this doesn't just work with God. This works everywhere. This works everywhere. You wanna be like the, you know, I would like to be, you know, higher at my company than I am now. Go to work and be the lowest servant and just, just nothing's too low for you. Be the best servant you can do. You see something on the floor. I don't care if you're the senior, whatever, pick it up. I mean, just do the best that you possibly can and other people will exalt you, just like God will exalt the lower people. Same thing at church. You're like, you know, I'd like to be a leader in my church. I'd like to, you know, lead in church. Hey, be a servant. You know, be a handmaiden. This is all Mary said. It's just I wanna be a servant and I'm just a servant and I'm just, you know, I can't believe that I'm so highly favored. It's totally ironic that people would worship her because she's one of the best examples of humility in the entire Bible, this woman, because all she ever says is like, humble things and things just exuding humility in her life. But we see this great example of how she knew the focus. Even after God gave her this huge blessing, she knew the focus was still not her. The focus was all generations. I mean, what did she say? All generations are gonna be blessed through the Lord. I mean, she's talking about the Lord in her, the Lord that did this work and blessing all generations. What, I mean, what a great example of a Christian is Mary. You can see why God exalted her. You really can when you read her words in the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.