 Amen. All right. Keep your place there in Matthew chapter one. We'll be going back and forth there. So this evening we're finishing up our Christmas story sermon series. So what do we talk about in the first two sermons? We talked about the shepherds in the first sermon. We talked about how the shepherds can relate to us as the shepherds were local. They were there to share the news, the good news of the birth of Christ to the people in the area. Then we talked about the wise men or the kings as they could correctly be called. According to the Bible, the wise men and how they were Gentiles that came from afar from the east. And they, you know, spread the gospel to the uttermost. And we see how that relates to us as well. This evening we're going to talk about in the last sermon on the Christmas story, the details of the Christmas story. We're going to talk about the first family. We're going to talk about Joseph and Mary and their role in the birth of Christ and how that can relate to us, what we can take from that. So we see in Luke chapter one, turn to Luke chapter one, we see the angel first visits Mary. We see in Matthew chapter one, we saw that the angel came to Joseph and we'll go back to that. But we see the story of Mary and Joseph is found in Luke chapter one, Luke chapter two, and then of course in Matthew chapter one. So there's a couple different areas we're going to look here this evening. But in Luke chapter one, take a look at verse number 26. In verse number 26 of Luke chapter one, the Bible reads, this is the angel visiting Mary. And in the six month, the angel Gabriel, not just any angel by the way, it was Gabriel. All right, the angel was sent from God onto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in under her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he shall be great and be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary into the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man. And the angel answered her and said, 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. So at this point you have to understand the knowledge that Mary would have, the knowledge that women in this time and even men in this time as Jews would have had is that they were waiting for a Messiah. So when he said you know he's going to be the son of the most high, the son of God. You know Mary knows exactly who this angel who Gabriel is talking about basically saying you are going to give birth to the Messiah is what she's being told here and she understands this. There's a lot of reference to you know the kingdom of David. You know of course you know this is how God is to fulfill his promise to David that David's kingdom would last into eternity is going to be through Jesus Christ. We saw you know the line of the kings of Judah was always a son of a son of a son of a son from David all the way to the end of the carrying away of Judah into Babylon. And then this kingdom goes into eternity through Jesus Christ. This is how God fulfills that promise. So let's look at one aspect of Mary. See Mary here you can already see Mary's demeanor. You can already get if you read this you can already start to see the type of woman that Mary is. How could this be? How could it be me? You can already start to see Mary's you know you can tell what kind of woman she is. Look at Luke chapter 1 look at verse number 46. The Bible says in Mary said my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. She's like a lowly person like me has this great honor is what she says. Turn over to Luke chapter 2 and look at verse number 17. This is another aspect this is when the shepherds came and this is you know gives you another idea of just the character of Mary. Look at Luke chapter 2 and verse number 17. We're trying to get an idea of the type of person, the type of demeanor, the type of character that Mary has here. Look at verse number 17 of Luke chapter 2. The Bible says and when they had seen it they made known abroad. This is the shepherds they made known abroad they went and they told everybody about the saying which was told them concerning this child. And they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. So here the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God has just been born. Has just come into the world. This is a promise that everyone has been waiting for for hundreds of years. And it finally happens and it's through Mary. And here these shepherds come. The first people to come visit Jesus other than Mary and Joseph they come visit the child in the manger after the birth. And they're there and they go and they just tell. They're telling everybody the Messiah is born. I mean the Son of God is here. I mean the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And Mary, the mother, Mary the mother, I mean think of this. The mother of Jesus. She just ponders it in her heart. She's quiet. I mean think of how mothers are today. I mean my kid this, my kid that, my kid smarter than this. My kid started walking when he was three days old. I mean my kid, my kid can read. My kid read the whole Bible and he's two. You know I mean moms are ridiculous now. Mary just, I mean she, her son is the Son of God. I mean she just gave birth to the Messiah and she's just humble and quiet about it. Turn to 1 Peter chapter three. Are you there? Are you in 1 Peter chapter three? Let me get there myself. Look at 1 Peter chapter three. And look at verse number four. Well look at verse number three. The Bible says talking, this is talking about wives and how women should be. And they behold, you know it's talking about wives being a blessing to their husbands. You know beholding their chase conversation. Verse number three. Who's adorning, it's saying what they wear. Let it not be the outward adorning of plating of hair and of wearing of gold or putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. This is telling women how they should be. It's not about how you look on the outside and all this gold and apparel and all this. It's about having, what's valued is having a meek and quiet spirit. The Bible says, which is in the sight of God of great price. The Bible is saying, what the Bible is saying here that humility and meekness and quietness are of a great price to the Lord in a woman. These are the character traits of a woman that are highly valued by the Lord. That are of great price to the Lord. And look, Mary had this. This was Mary. Think of this woman. Her child is the son of God, the savior of the world. And she just meek and she's humble about it. What pops out at me when I read this, when you look at 1 Samuel 13 and you look at Acts 13 where it talks about David being a man after God's own heart. This is like the female equivalent of that. You know, the Bible talks about, look, David had a lot of problems. David fell into some issues and had some sin. But David's heart was after the Lord, the Bible said. David had a heart that was after God. He was a man after God's own heart, the Bible says. And this type of woman is the equivalent of that. A woman who has a meek and humble and quiet spirit. It's kind of funny from the sermon this morning. Talking about how we looked at a lot of opposites, like the world will tell you one thing and then, you know, the Bible says this. I mean, every single point from the sermon this morning was the exact opposite of what the Bible said. That's why, you know, I kind of, it was a tongue in cheek sermon where I was like, hey, you know, here's reasons not to homeschool your kids. Let's see what the Bible says. Oops. It's exactly the opposite of every single point that I gave you. And it's funny because this woman, this woman that Mary was and the woman that the Bible teaches you to be, ladies, is exactly opposite of what the world will tell you. The feminist, the loud, the loud and profane woman that they want you to be. These profane men out there, now the women are just trying to emulate the profanity of the men to show that they can be just like the men. That's what feminism will teach you. It's the opposite of the Bible. It's not a little bit different. It's the exact opposite. It's the exact opposite. So that's Mary. Let's take a look at Joseph. Let's look at when the angel visits Joseph in Matthew chapter one. Go back to Matthew chapter one. So we see that Mary, I mean Mary was a woman of tremendous character. I mean, to even the most humble person, when something great happens to them or something wonderful happens to them or they've done something great, even the most humble person really has to hold back to not want to let that out. And Mary, she just pondered these things in her heart. So Mary was a woman of great character. Turn to Matthew chapter one. Look at verse number 18. The Bible says this. We're not going to go through the genealogy. We've preached through that before. Don't skip over the genealogies when you're reading the New Testament. There's a lot to be studied and a lot to be learned from the genealogies in the Bible. That being said, look at verse number 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together. Super important right there. They weren't fully married. They were espoused. So they had not come together. That's talking about the consummation, the physical consummation of the marriage. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So imagine the situation that Joseph finds himself in. He's got himself a maid, a virgin, a chaste wife that he's a spouse to and she's pregnant. Look at verse number 19. Now we're going to start to see the character of Joseph, by the way. Verse number 19. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man. So it's interesting, number one, something to point out there, that espousal was considered marriage. We're going to get into this at the end of the sermon when we do some application this evening. But espousal was not fully married, but it was considered marriage. She was still considered her husband. In verse number 19. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privately. That means he was minded to put her away. That's divorce, privately. So another thing that we can see that espousal was considered marriage in this time was that it was a putting away. It was a divorcing situation. And the Bible describes this in the Old Testament. We'll talk about that. 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, marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the holy ghost. Okay, God explains it to him. But he could have still not wanted to deal with the shame. But we'll see what Joseph does. Turn to Luke chapter 2. Turn to Luke chapter 2. So first of all, I want to point out that espousal, she was considered his wife at this time. Being espoused was considered a wife. It was considered marriage, okay? Look at Luke chapter 2 in verse number 5. The Bible says that when they went to Bethlehem, the Bible says to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. In 2 Samuel chapter 3 in verse 14, I'll just read it for you. Talking about David with Michael, the Bible says, and David sent messengers to Ispishess, Saul's son, saying, deliver me, my wife, Michael, which I espoused to me for 100 foreskins of the Philistines. So espousal was the marriage before they came together. It was the promise of marriage, but it was considered marriage. There's really, I mean, I want to point this out because it's going to be important as we talk through this in a few minutes. There's really no equivalent to this today in our culture of this espousal, okay? Engagement, you're saying, oh, it sounds like engagement. Engagement means little to nothing today. People get engaged. I mean, no one even takes it seriously anymore because you're like, what does that even mean? It means the guy just doesn't really want to get married. That's what he usually means. But look, engagement today means little to nothing and it is not the equivalent of espousal. That's the point I'm trying to make here. So remember that. Joseph, but look, Joseph, before the angel visited him, Joseph could have legally and morally put away Mary before the visit from the angel because he found that she was pregnant, turned to Matthew chapter 5. And there is only one reason in the Bible, there's only one reason in the Bible for divorce. One reason. And I'm going to show you that even that one reason, I'm going to wreck your day, maybe, hopefully not, but that one reason doesn't even apply today, which is why I'm considering, I'm putting so much emphasis on espousal. Matthew 5, look at verse number 32. The Bible says, But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication. You better have a King James Bible right now because if you don't, you're going to be all messed up. Saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery. So look, the great thing about this verse is it distinguishes fornication from adultery because you can't say that the King James Bible doesn't distinguish the two because they're both mentioned in this one verse. It says, For the cause of fornication. Well, what in the world does that mean? Well, if you go and you look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 and for the sake of time we're not going to study through all that. In the espousal period, if the espoused wife was found to not be chased to not be a virgin, the man would then go through this process of bringing her to the council and her father would vouch for her and if he could not vouch for her and she was not a virgin at that point in the Old Testament she could be stoned with stones, the Bible said. I mean, it's taken very seriously. So the point I'm trying to make here is that's the type of fornication is that during that espousal period before they came together physically as husband and wife if she was found to have committed fornication in the past and not be a virgin the Bible says that in that case you could, in Deuteronomy 22 he could put her away. He could put her away. But we see Joseph's heart here because Joseph was not going to do that. Joseph was not going to make her that public example. He was not going to get her in trouble. He was just going to privately just put her away. Turn back to Matthew chapter 1 and that's why the Bible, I mean we see Joseph's character even before the angel visited him in Matthew chapter 1 because look, God's no matter what fornication or whatever in the Old Testament God hated putting away the Bible says God does not want, it's for the hardness of their hearts that God even allowed that one reason. He wants there to be reconciliation all the time. Look at verse 19 in Matthew chapter 1. The Bible says then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privately. Then of course God steps in and explains look at verse 24 then Joseph and so God steps in and explains the situation hey no it wasn't fornication it's of the Lord, it was of the Holy Ghost the whole thing he understands but look he could have not wanted to go down that road because there's people that are still going to be talking I'm sure but he could have not wanted to go but look what he did verse 24 then Joseph being raised up from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bitten him and took unto him his wife and knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus. So Joseph listens Joseph hears the angel he's good to go he's just going to go and do what God wants him to do so we have a man of good character here as well so when I'm trying to get you to understand as God did a pretty decent job of picking you know the people that would take care of Jesus and raise Jesus the right stewards for his entrance into this world so we see Mary and Joseph the story there but I do want to go back now to the application and see what we can figure out from this espousal because I want to point out some of the differences between the espousal of the Bible and the espousal of the children of Israel and what happens today and what we do today and I want to point out some of the reasons that that worked and the reasons that we do the things that we do today and maybe why you know the things of the Bible are a little bit better than what we figured out today so look, espousal versus dating and engagement is what I want to look at here so why espousal espousal period would last sometimes as long as 12 months it was considered marriage, number one we saw that and it was only broken off in cases of fornication and when it was broken off it was considered divorce it was that serious so today we have these engagements that people go and they get engaged for and it seems to me, I don't know if it seems like this to anybody else but the engagements today in our culture that we're living in in America they're getting longer and longer and longer and then even aside from engagements we have this dating that goes on and let me just say, both with dating and with engagements not a fan of either and I'm going to explain to you why you say why you say what, you're against dating and you're against people getting engaged well no, I'll explain that but here's the thing, it's not ideal it's not ideal because it's not what happened in the Bible think about Israel let's look at this idea of espousal Israel was a homogenous culture they all believed the same thing they were all generally they were Israelites they may have been not I'm not talking race I'm talking religion I'm talking their culture what they believed they knew what everyone believed they knew what everybody's morals were they knew the cultures that everyone came from today, you don't have any idea what you're getting if you meet somebody and you don't know where they came from so and after that after you date you have to have this this nervous engagement period which not only means nothing but many times lasts forever it's more of a failure period from what I've seen or an appeasement period for a guy that doesn't really want to get married anyway he just wants to appease his girlfriend that they've been dating for years or whatever but in today's culture we're talking about the world with dating and engagement first of all with the world both dating and engagement are all wrapped up in fornication and it is wicked as hell it's all wrapped up in cohabitation look folks it's a mess it's a mess out there it's a mess when all this I mean who in the world would want that for their daughter to be dating and engagement culture that we're living in right now and even look even in Baptist cultures even in Baptist Christian Bible believing cultures look the dating and there's proper ways to do it there's proper ways to do it with chaperones and teenagers dating with teenagers you should not be alone together you know riding in cars together going on dates together that should not happen but look I'm still not a fan of it you say why because it's not ideal that's why dating even in the Baptist culture even in the Christian properly run culture dating is a pragmatic solution it is not an ideal solution it's a solution to just solve a problem it's definitely not ideal it's pragmatic because you have to find out who the person is you have to you have to find out what their culture is you've met some guy or you've met some girl teenagers or young people I mean you have to know where they came from I mean you have to know how they were raised you have to know what their character is you have to know who their parents were who their parents are you have to meet their parents who created this person that I might marry and spend the rest of my entire life with and who will be integral in leading my family or raising my children as we talk about a lot here but look here's the thing and as I've said before eventually we all come to church together eventually we will find out who all of you are I will find out who all of you are I mean I have found out who most of you are over the last year and a half but look it takes time it takes time to find out who people are it takes time to because we spend time together so that's how we figure these things out so what is the ideal situation you say okay you're not a fan of dating but it's pragmatic and I understand the point of it are you just saying are you just going to state problems are you going to give any solutions up here this evening you're just going to complain but look this is why you must have a church this is why you must have a Bible preaching Bible believing church this look this is our Israel in that sense this is our common culture we know who we are you know who my family is I know who you are ideally these kids would grow up together in this culture in this Israel of this church these families would know each other imagine this look I've hired people this way I've hired people this way back in North Dakota there's some guy applies for a job and we're like who's this guy and another guy in the room is like I know his dad well who's his dad oh is this guy hire him happened all the time when I grew up who's his dad this guy don't hire him simple this is how it should work this is the ideal situation this was the situation in Israel when you had the espousals these these kids would grow up friends right these kids wouldn't just meet each other they'd grow up friends they'd know who each other are turn to Exodus chapter 22 the kids would grow up friends and eventually eventually guess who has a say guess who has a big say dad dad has a big piece of this pie right here Exodus chapter 22 look at verse number 16 this is just giving an example look this is the same situation as Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 28 when basically you have two people two unmarried people that commit fornication together they fornicate together and the Bible says they should get married an unmarried couple they should get married they should get married they should get married they should get married and the Bible says they should get married unless dad vetoes it because the dad has the option to the dad has say who his daughter marries the Bible is super clear about that and by the way a lot of people they've got to have a King James Bible here too because in Deuteronomy chapter 28 there's two situations one is you know he lay hold on a maid that is not talking about a forced situation how do I know the verse rate before it verse 25 talks about a forced situation it's two completely different situations oh the Bible condones rape no it doesn't the guy that forced he's killed he's executed the Bible teaches capital punishment for someone who would force himself on a woman death penalty it's talking about fornication Exodus 22 and Deuteronomy chapter 22 but dad gets a say so somebody commits fornication they have to get married well not if dad says no if dad says no then that's it there's a fine paid and it's done so look I mean there should be no question but this is the beauty of a common culture and a biblical church is that it should this is the ideal case is that these kids would grow up from this big to we would know who they are they would approve they would have an espousal period they wouldn't have to go date 10 people why in the world would anyone ever want that even if there wasn't fornication involved why would you want that and I mean no thanks it's why you have to be involved in a good church folks you have to be get faithful well those of you with older children you say well what about us here's the thing maybe you're just going to have to rely on the lord to play some catch up for you it's that simple parents you should be praying for spouses for your children I mean my wife she's nodding her head right now I mean my wife does this all the time and she's constantly reminding me all the time I know it's on the top of her prayer list she's constantly praying for spouses for our children I focused heavy on the practical I'm trying to get these boys ready I'm trying to get this machine ready to be married I'm trying to get these boys ready to be able to support a family and take you know but I need to pray too and I'm glad she's there to remind me let's get this vehicle running right I'm a practical fixer let's go to the mechanic shop and teach the mechanics how to fix your car so like look let's just recap here the world's philosophy the world's philosophy this dating this meaningless engagement all intertwined turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 all intertwined in cohabitation and fornication I mean look it's completely normal today it's completely normal today nobody even bats an eye about it anymore it is wicked as hell we should have nothing to do with it no matter of fact 1 Corinthians 6 look at verse 18 flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that committed fornication sinned it against his own body the bible specifically points out this sin as worse than most other sins because you're sinning against yourself your own flesh your own body I mean look and young people fornication will destroy will destroy your chances and having a successful marriage I've said this before because when you do get it right and get into a good church and finally you found that person well hey that person has to agree to marry you too this isn't a hey come marry me no she has a choice she has a choice and her dad has a choice her dad has a choice here's the thing from this evening to this morning and one of you mentioned this today but you pretty much if you were raised in the world in public school and you weren't raised in a good church you pretty much have to look at everything that you've learned in the world and you pretty much have to do the opposite you pretty much have to realize that everything that you've been taught is wrong everything that the world is teaching you is wrong get your family into you can establish and live a culture that your kids can grow up in pray for their spouses and you know what I believe we're going to get crazy here you know what I believe get ready turn to Daniel chapter 3 turn to Daniel chapter 3 turn to Daniel chapter 3 this is where Daniel in Daniel chapter 3 this is where Shadrach Neshach and Abednego were supposed to worship a false god and they wouldn't do it look at Daniel chapter 3 in verse number 17 look at Daniel chapter 3 verse 17 the bible says Shadrach Neshach and Abednego said this they're going to be killed if they don't do this and here's what they say and I believe this and I believe this and I don't understand why more bible believing Christians they may say they believe it but they don't act like they believe it sometimes but look what they said here in verse 17 if it be so our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O king but look what they say in verse 18 but if not be it known unto the O king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image you know what they said our god is able to save us our god is able to do whatever he wants to do but they didn't say he would do it they didn't say he would do it they said you know what we're not going to bow down our god is able to save us we don't know if he will but we're still not bowing down and I believe that if you pray and you live an obedient life and look I'm not talking about salvation here I'm talking about living a life that shows that you love the lord I believe god is able to make those prayers come true I believe that god is able to do whatever I believe if I raise children to love and serve the lord look where's my base case my base case is that my children get saved and that they learn to love and serve the lord after they get saved but look I believe in Romans chapter 4 I believe that if I live an obedient life that he will answer these prayers for us look you don't want to be this guy though you don't want to be this guy that saved in Romans chapter 4 let's look at this in Romans chapter 4 you got two guys here Romans chapter 4 look at verse 4 the bible is talking about two guys here Romans 4 4 now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt this guy doing great works he's out there doing great works and he's going to come up short this is talking about salvation here he's going to come up short he's going to come up with nothing but debt but here's a guy but to him that worketh not but believeeth on him that justifies the ungodly this guy is saved how do I know because look at the rest of it his faith is counted for righteousness this guy is a jerk this guy doesn't do good works this guy who's a jerk who's living in a bad relationship with his heavenly father and then trying to ask God to provide a spouse for your kids it doesn't make you not saved it makes you in a bad relationship with your heavenly father this guy here he's not doing the works he's saved all the day long but he's not doing the works look I believe that if your faithful answer your prayers I believe that these are good prayers Lord could you provide I have these children Lord I've been serving in church I've been soul winning Lord I've been consistent in my life I've been the word has lost me I've been faithful with my life Lord and I've raised these kids these kids are saved these kids love you Lord we need a spouse for them so they can continue to serve you are you kidding me what kind of heavenly father do you think that you have if you don't think that that kind of prayer would be answered so that's the answer if you're late to the game that's the answer I mean look God shocker God is able God is able to do whatever he wants that's what just kills me about this year it kills me I can't believe it as people are just they're just freaking out all the time about everything is God on the throne or not I mean Jesus sits on the right hand don't forget who's on the left I mean God the Father is on the throne folks I mean he can do whatever he wants and these are prayers look these are prayers God you know can I have a Porsche and that's a stupid prayer you know God's not going to give you a Porsche because he doesn't want you to quit serving him and you know God can I you know have a billion dollars or whatever these are stupid prayers God could I have a spouse for my children so they can continue to serve you could I have a faithful spouse provided you watch miracles happen but get right get serving get plugged in and then ask when you're a bratty kid you know get faithful get faithful it's not about salvation folks it's just about being a good standing with your heavenly Father and he'll provide those things for you so look I'm not a fan of the way things go today and I get you know the Christian dating scene and it's pragmatic it has to happen I get it I get it but it's not ideal because ideally these kids would grow up together and we would all know who each other are and there would be an espousal in a marriage and that would be it both dads the dad of the daughter would consent and he's like yeah I know that kid and I know his dad and that's how that would go that's the ideal situation folks so look we see a lot of things that we can take from the Bible we can take from this situation with Mary and Joseph there is no cause for divorce today that's why you have to have a King James Bible you get these other Bibles and they'll say you know except for the cause it doesn't say fornication except for the cause of sexual immorality I mean are you kidding me divorce somebody for any reason then you looked upon a woman that's adultery I mean there you go I mean it's just you must have the proper word of God sitting in front of you you're just going to get all messed up on your doctrine espousal marriage that's the Christmas story folks the wise man great stories in the Bible hopefully now you know more about Christmas than most people let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer