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[0:00] Well, let's get to God's Word this morning and I am going to kind of take leave of Luke for the next three Sundays as we kind of draw closer to Christmas and want to preach some messages that are on that theme.

[0:29] ! And so I want you to take your Bibles and open them to Matthew chapter 1 and find verse 23. And I'm just going to read here just a moment just one single verse of Scripture.

[0:43] And I have to pray God's forgiveness that I'm going to be preaching a topical sermon this morning. I was telling my son, you know, one of the books that I had to read and study when I was working on my master's and also my doctorate was a book by Walt Kaiser.

[1:08] And he said that it was okay to preach a topical sermon once every five years and then repent afterwards. So I thought I'd go ahead and repent on the front end.

[1:21] But the topic this morning is a topic that I really find myself needing and desiring to preach at least every couple of years around Christmas time.

[1:32] And it is the topic of the virgin birth. Now, you know, I'm looking around at this congregation and I really doubt seriously that there is anyone present here this morning that does not believe in the virgin birth.

[1:48] That is, that is, that our Lord and Savior Jesus was born, conceived and born of a virgin, that Mary was a virgin, not only when Jesus was conceived in her womb, but she was a virgin when he was birthed.

[2:09] I believe in the virgin birth. And I really believe that we would all be in agreement about that here in this church, for sure. And yet it's surprising to me to discover from time to time that there are believers who mistakenly think that the virgin birth, though it is true, it's really not all that important.

[2:34] And there are those believers who believe in the virgin birth and those who don't. And it really is not one of those crucial doctrines. But it is crucial.

[2:48] It is not a negotiable. It is not one of those doctrines that we can have differing views on and still have fellowship together as believers, as Christians.

[3:00] It is crucial. It is, it is something that Christianity is built upon. And when you take the virgin birth out, then you don't have anything. And so this is what I want to talk about this morning.

[3:13] I have preached on this subject, as I said, a number of times over the years. I think I have probably a couple of times since I've been here as your pastor. And so this is going to sound very familiar.

[3:25] And hopefully that it is familiar. And when we start looking at this in Scripture and start considering it based upon what the Bible says, then we're going to be, hopefully all of us are going to be on familiar ground.

[3:40] But if there has ever been or is now any doubt in your mind about the birth of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, then I hope that that will just be totally obliterated by the time we're finished here this morning.

[3:58] So Matthew, then chapter 1, verse 23, and again, I'm just going to read that one verse, which, of course, is a quotation from the Old Testament. Matthew particularly focused upon the fulfillment of Scripture as he wrote his gospel, writing primarily to a Jewish audience.

[4:18] And so it was important for them to see the connection between Jesus and the prophecies of the Old Testament. And so he's quoting here from Isaiah 7, verse 14, and he says, Behold, the virgin shall be with child.

[4:35] And by the way, let me just say, behold means perk up your ears. There's something great here, something unusual, something way out of the ordinary.

[4:49] Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

[5:01] And that comes straight out of the Old Testament. And then, of course, Matthew translates the word Emmanuel for us, which is translated God with us.

[5:11] God with us. And all of that is very important when we begin to understand the virgin birth, the doctrine of the virgin birth. And so I really am compelled to begin with the question, and really I've already addressed the question.

[5:26] You know my position, and I think I know your position. But here's the question, is it absolutely necessary that a person believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ?

[5:41] And I think we would all say yes. And yet that is not the conclusion of many, even in our world today, especially in our world today.

[5:52] And has not been the general consensus among scholars, all scholars in general over the centuries. It's greatly debated.

[6:05] And particularly among those that we would call liberals. All right? I hate to use names like that or titles like that, but there are those who have a liberal theology.

[6:17] And we might even add to that those who would be, maybe come under the name of moderate. Moderate, which I hate even more than I hate other titles.

[6:28] Because either you believe it or you don't believe it. Either you have a liberal theology or you have what I would rather call a conservative theology. And that means simply you just believe every word of the Bible.

[6:41] And so, but among liberal theologians, which was very prevalent, actually very strong among biblical scholarship in the early part of the 19th, or excuse me, the 20th century.

[6:54] We had theological liberalism that was just running rampant throughout our country and especially in our seminaries, schools and seminaries, and even in many of the larger churches.

[7:05] And these theological liberals were greatly influenced by the German theologians that came out of the 1900s, or even before that, the 19th, close to the 19th century.

[7:21] Who were attempting to take the Bible and do what they called demythologize it. And the very words suggest that they had the idea that much of the Bible was just simply myth.

[7:33] And so they are studying scripture and they're trying to eliminate the myth out of the Bible. And they did that a number of ways. They would explain it away or use some kind of natural cause to explain some of the phenomena, the supernatural of the Bible.

[7:50] And so because they were demythologizing the Bible, they certainly threw out Genesis chapters 1 through 11. You can't have, you know, the creation of everything in the way that the Bible describes it.

[8:02] And you can't have, you know, the flood, a universal flood, because, you know, that's just beyond reason, beyond science. And so they demythologized that.

[8:13] They just kind of threw it out or explained it in natural terms. And you go throughout Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea and some of the other supernatural miracles that took place in the Old Testament.

[8:26] And they either threw it out as something that didn't belong there, something that was not authentic. Or, again, they tried to explain it by way of natural terms.

[8:36] And even still today, we'll watch television shows, you know, on the PBS sometimes. And they'll examine the flood or examine other miracles that took place in the Old Testament.

[8:50] And they bring into play all of these scientific ideas about how these things could have come about. And it's just simply an attempt to demythologize, again, their word, not mine, the Bible.

[9:03] There are no myths in the Bible. There's supernatural in the Bible. And there are miracles in the Bible. You have God acting and acting against his natural order that he himself created in order to accomplish his purposes.

[9:19] And then when you get into the New Testament, of course, they greatly scrutinize the Gospels and all the accounts of Jesus and his miracles. And after him, the apostles' miracles. But it seems that the virgin birth has always been in the crosshairs of the theological liberals.

[9:38] Those who just do not believe the Bible to be God's inerrant word. And so let me give you the reason why, though they would never admit it, admit this.

[9:49] But let me give you the reason why there is so much unbelief about the virgin birth. Why this has seemed to be a battleground for biblical theologians over the centuries.

[10:04] And it is because if Jesus was born of a virgin, then Jesus is God incarnate. And that's the bottom line.

[10:14] Jesus is God incarnate. And if, and we have to take this a step further because this is where the tire meets the road, really, for unregenerate man.

[10:26] If Jesus is God incarnate, then, dear people, everything Jesus said is true. Everything that was said about him is true.

[10:36] And everything he said was true. And authoritative. If he is the God-man. He is God incarnate. And so the question, it begs the question, why would that be such a problem for many people today?

[10:51] And many people who are these theologians and liberal theologians. But just, also just the common, everyday, run-of-the-mill person today. Why would this be a problem?

[11:03] Well, it's because if Jesus is God incarnate. And if what he said is true and authoritative, then, naturally, everyone must believe it and obey it.

[11:19] Obey his teachings. And I'm talking about something more than just simply the words that were written in red in your Bible. Talking about the whole of the Bible. Because Jesus also upheld the full truthfulness and authority of God's word.

[11:34] Not just those words he spoke. And so, if he is God incarnate and everything he said and all of the word of God is true and authoritative, then we must believe it and we must obey it.

[11:48] And the simple fact is that unregenerate, that is, unbelievers, do not want to obey the teachings of God's word.

[12:00] They don't want to obey the Lord.

[12:30] No God for me, is what that scripture means. That is, no God to rule over me. No God to tell me what to do. No God to make me feel guilty when I disobey his laws.

[12:43] No God to judge me, ultimately. That's what the fool says in his heart. That is the epitome of the thinking of unregenerate man.

[12:56] All right, so then, what do you have if Jesus was not virgin born? Well, you just simply have a man. Just a man. Albeit an exceptional man.

[13:08] Certainly so, even the liberals would agree with that assessment. He was an exceptional man, a good man. Possibly even, in some of their minds, a perfect man.

[13:19] But he is a man nonetheless. And so, what does that make, if that's true, what does that make of his life? What does that make of his ministry? Well, his ministry was just simply a collection of moral and ethical teachings.

[13:34] That's all it would be. Nothing more, nothing less than that. And so, therefore, we're just using logic to lead us here. What does that do to the cross of Jesus Christ?

[13:45] What does that do? The more technical term would be the atonement. What does it do to that? Well, it renders it little more than a moral example.

[13:57] That the atonement was just a moral atonement. An example of humility that we should emulate, that we should desire. An example of self-sacrifice.

[14:08] An example of love. And so forth. That's really all there is to it. And if that is all there is to the atonement, then you can just simply take or leave it. You can believe it or not believe it.

[14:20] And you'll be no worse off if you don't believe it. If that's all there is to it, that Jesus was just simply a moral example, then you can say, well, that warms my heart. Maybe it encourages me.

[14:32] But if I don't believe it, it's no big deal. You see, it makes no eternal demands upon your life. That is what you believe and how you live and your standing before God and your eternity and so forth.

[14:48] If all there is to the atonement is just simply Jesus' example of sacrifice, example of morality, then what difference will it make in your life if you don't believe it?

[15:01] Let's see. And so here's yet another question. We'll get to some facts here, something a little bit more substantive. If you wanted to discredit, even destroy the gospel, what would be one of the best ways to do it?

[15:20] Well, I'm here to tell you it would be this, to convince people that Jesus was not virgin born. Or at the very least, to convince people that it really is not that important, that it doesn't really matter.

[15:36] And you can believe it or not believe it won't make any difference. That's all you have to do to begin to destroy the underpinnings, the very foundation of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

[15:46] You see, listen, there are really just so many options that you can take here when it comes to the deity of Jesus Christ. Either he was a liar because he said he was God, or he is a lunatic because he believed he was God, or he is a great deceiver because many believe that he was God and followed him and he allowed that, or he is God.

[16:13] Just those four options, that's all you've got. He is God. And he can only be God, the God-man, if the virgin birth is true.

[16:24] So you see, just at the very bare minimum, you can understand how important the virgin birth is. Now, if you were going to make a case for it, where would you begin?

[16:35] Well, obviously, you'd have to begin with the Word of God. And so here's number one in our case for the virgin birth. And that is the reliability of God's Word.

[16:48] The reliability of God's Word. Because, you see, to deny the virgin birth is to deny the veracity of the truthfulness of the reliability of God's Holy Word, the Bible.

[17:03] And so does the Bible teach the doctrine of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely it does. And there are those who would say, well, you know, they might object to the importance of the virgin birth based on the fact that it only appears in two of the Gospels.

[17:20] I mean, I haven't even heard that objection. You say, well, you just can't say that a particular doctrine is important only because it's mentioned two times. And by the way, Mark never even mentioned it.

[17:32] And John, in his Gospel, never mentioned specifically the virgin birth. And so the argument is, it's really not that important. If it had been really important, like the importance of the resurrection, then you would have all four Gospels mentioning that.

[17:46] Well, in the first place, I would ask a person like that, with that view, how many times does the Bible have to say something before it is true? Huh? Does it have to say it more than two times?

[17:58] How about just one time? If a Bible says something one time, does that make it true? Absolutely. Does it make it important? Absolutely. But in the second place, Matthew and Luke are not the only books in the Bible that mention the virgin birth.

[18:16] They're not even the only ones in the New Testament. The virgin birth was not some new thing when they spoke about it in Matthew and then also in Luke.

[18:29] The virgin birth is not some new doctrine that just was revealed only in the New Testament. We can go to the Old Testament. I've already quoted one Old Testament passage.

[18:41] We'll get to that one in just a minute. But the virgin birth did not just come out of nowhere when it appeared in the New Testament. It is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament.

[18:53] There are several Old Testament passages. We can go all the way back to the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, the beginnings, the book of beginnings. We can go all the way back to chapter 3 and verse 15.

[19:07] And God speaking to Eve. Now, he's already given the curse because of Adam and Eve's sin. And now, in this passage, he's speaking directly to the serpent.

[19:17] And who's the serpent? It's Satan. And he's speaking to the serpent. And he says in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, And I will put enmity or opposition between you, that is the serpent, Satan, and the woman.

[19:35] So I'm going to put conflict, going to put hostility between you, Satan, and the woman, that is, in the immediate sense, Eve.

[19:45] And so there's going to be a hatred. There's going to be a hostility between the serpent and Eve. Or Satan and Eve and all those who come out of Eve.

[20:01] At the very minimum, that's what he's saying. But he's saying something much more than that. I mean, we all know that there is going to be a constant opposition between those who are of Satan and those who are of God.

[20:17] Those who belong to God. But I want you to notice there in that passage, and I'll point this out to you, what comes next. And I will, he said, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

[20:35] Her seed. Now, the word seed is singular. It's not plural. It's not seeds. It's seed.

[20:46] All right, that's the first thing we notice that's odd about this. And so this is a reference to a single person who will come out of Eve, who will come from Eve.

[20:58] Actually, he's looking way on down the corridors of history to another woman. We could even call her the second Eve, in a sense. And so it's a seed.

[21:10] It's a reference to a single person. And, of course, this is a reference to the Messiah, the Christ, who would one day come. But even more significant and amazing, the phrase, her seed, introduces something here that is biologically impossible.

[21:31] This is impossible. A woman with a seed. This is not normal. This is something way out of the ordinary.

[21:42] This is something unusual. This is something actually impossible. The seed is in the man, not the woman, biologically speaking.

[21:53] And this is the only time in all of Scripture that it is ever said that a woman has a seed. But now listen, God is saying then to Satan, the serpent, he's saying to Adam and Eve, he's saying to us as well, that one day there will be a woman who will have a seed, singular.

[22:15] And that seed, God says in this passage, shall crush your head, Satan, and you shall bruise his heel, which is a clear allusion to the cross.

[22:29] Of course. Where Jesus will crush Satan's head, albeit Satan will bruise, Jesus' heel, the cross. Now, then, only one woman in all of history has had a seed.

[22:46] And her name was Mary, and her son was Jesus, the virgin birth. Second, we have Isaiah 714, which I quoted, or Matthew quoted, and I read a moment ago, the quotation of.

[23:02] In Isaiah 714, we won't get into the story that surrounds this particular prophecy, but the prophet Isaiah is speaking to King Ahaz, and he says to King Ahaz, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

[23:18] He'll give you a sign, which is synonymous to a miracle. It's going to be a miracle. Now, by the way, understand that when the Bible contains many miracles, that these miracles were not just something to be enjoyed by individual people.

[23:35] They were signs. Miracles is a sign. It's a sign of something, a sign of God's purpose, a sign of what God is about to do.

[23:45] And so he said to Ahaz, I'm going to give you a sign. And here's the sign. Behold, and here's what Matthew quoted, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

[24:03] Sounds very familiar. That's exactly what Matthew quoted. Matthew quoted it in reference to Jesus. All right, so that's how we know that this sign, what this prophecy that Isaiah spoke to King Ahaz, was attached to, was a prophecy of the Messiah.

[24:21] We know that because Matthew in the New Testament attaches that to Jesus. All right. So we know it's a clear prophecy of the Messiah. It's a messianic prophecy. But pay attention to what is said here, because this has been kind of the battleground between liberal theologians and conservative theologians.

[24:40] Because there has been much debate about this word virgin in the Hebrew text, in Isaiah 7.14. And those who deny the virgin birth, they say that this word here in Hebrews, excuse me, Isaiah 7.14, simply means maiden.

[25:00] It means young woman. Not virgin. But a young woman. Now, indeed, the word can be translated that way.

[25:13] It can be translated maiden. It can be translated young woman. We would all agree. All theologians would agree on that point. But consider this.

[25:23] In fact, consider a number of things about this. First of all, of the nine times this word appears in the Hebrew Bible, eight of them are clear references to a virgin.

[25:36] And the ninth one is probably implied there. That the reference is to a virgin. And even if, second, I would say, even if maiden or young woman is the intended meaning here, the assumption on the part of the reader would be that the Bible is talking about a virgin.

[25:55] That would be the natural assumption. The words maiden and virgin were practically synonymous terms. A young woman is a maiden is a reference to a woman, a young woman who has never been with a man.

[26:09] That would be the general understanding of the Hebrew reader. Third, I would say that if the idea, and this is very logical, if the idea in Isaiah 7, 14 is a young woman, that a young woman would give birth to a son, then what kind of sign would that be?

[26:29] That wouldn't be a miracle. I mean, there's nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to a young woman having a baby. I mean, it happens all the time. Happens then. Happens in our day.

[26:41] That would be no miracle. That would be no sign for Ahaz or for anyone. And then fourth, I would say that Matthew, when he quoted Isaiah 7, 14, he, of course, was writing in the Greek language, and so he's translating the Hebrew into the Greek, and he chose a Greek word that can only mean virgin.

[27:05] All right? It can't mean anything else. Parthenos is the Greek word, and its meaning is virgin. And we have some examples in the New Testament of this word being used.

[27:15] For example, Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, 34, Paul is making a distinction between two kinds of women. He's making a distinction between Parthenos, virgin, and a wife, Gune, making a distinction between the two.

[27:34] And what's the distinction? A Parthenos is a woman who has never been with a man. She is a virgin. Gune is the translated wife, and obviously that would be a woman who has been with a man, who's married.

[27:49] Do you see the difference? So the word means virgin. Matthew definitely meant virgin when he was referring to Jesus, but he's simply quoting what Isaiah the prophet said several hundred years before, and so it's clear that Isaiah meant the same thing.

[28:06] The prophecy is that a virgin would give birth to a child. And then fifth, I would say this, and this is interesting, the English translation of Isaiah 7, 14, which is what I just read a moment ago, the English translation loses its significance, really a very powerful significance because of the change in grammar and how English would translate the Hebrew text.

[28:38] And I'm talking about the phrase, the virgin shall conceive. The virgin shall conceive. Now, in the English, shall conceive is a verb.

[28:51] A virgin shall conceive. But in the Hebrew, shall conceive is an adjective. And so here's how it would be translated.

[29:02] In the English text, the English text reads, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. But in the Hebrew text, it literally reads, a pregnant virgin shall bear a son.

[29:16] A pregnant virgin. That is, an already pregnant virgin bears a son. Now that is a sign. That's a miracle. All right, so we have Isaiah 7, 14.

[29:29] We can also go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 22. And here's what the prophet Jeremiah said. How long will you gad about, oh, you backslidden daughter?

[29:44] And he's speaking, of course, to Israel. For the Lord, now listen to this, the Lord has created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall encompass a man.

[30:01] That's the new thing. You say, is that a new thing? Well, it is in the sense that he said it. It's a prophecy. The Lord is going to do a new thing. That is, it's something that's never, never ever happened before.

[30:14] And we could also say, implies that it will never ever happen again. It's a unique thing, a new thing. And what is this new thing? A woman shall encompass a man.

[30:26] Now, what could that mean? Well, in the first place, this would never be the way you would say it in reference to the birth of a child in the natural way.

[30:37] You would never say it that way. They wouldn't say it that way in the Hebrew, Greek. We wouldn't say it that way in the English. This is out of the ordinary. And, in fact, there are a number of ancient rabbis that we still have have quotes from in Jewish literature.

[30:58] Rabbis who lived and wrote and taught prior to the birth of Christ. And they said things about the birth of Messiah, the coming of Messiah.

[31:12] They said a number of things that referred to it being unusual, that it being unique. You can find this in A.C. Gabalene's commentary on the Gospel of Luke, particularly Luke chapter 1 about the virgin birth.

[31:27] And here's some of the quotes from some of these ancient rabbis, rabbis from antiquity. One said, The birth of the Messiah alone shall be without defects.

[31:41] Every birth has some defects. But the birth of Messiah will have no imperfections, whatever. Another one said, His birth shall not be like that of other men.

[31:57] He doesn't go on to say just how that would be, but clearly this ancient rabbi was expecting the birth of Messiah to be unique, something different, something out of the ordinary.

[32:08] There would be mystery. It would be shrouded in some mystery. And here's another quote, The birth of the Messiah shall be like the dew of the Lord as drops upon the grass without the action of man.

[32:23] Now that's pretty clear, isn't it? Now we don't know if this rabbi understood everything he was saying. We don't understand, you know, all of his other mental processes as he wrote these things, but clearly he is expecting the coming of Messiah, the birth of Messiah to be something out of the ordinary.

[32:47] Like the dew of the Lord. The dew is on the grass. The grass is wet, but it's not because of any action of man. And this was the, apparently I think, the prevalent understanding among not only the rabbis, but even the people prior to the coming of Jesus Christ and even in his day.

[33:07] And we have some indication of this in John chapter 7 and verse 26. The people here in this passage were asking, kind of speculating about the position of their Jewish leaders in regard to Jesus and what they thought about Jesus and whether they thought he was the Messiah.

[33:27] And so here they ask this question, do the rulers, our rulers, know indeed that this is truly the Christ? I mean, they know he's the Christ. Do they know that this Jesus is the Christ?

[33:39] And then they give an objection. However, we know where this man is from. But when Christ comes, no one knows where he is from.

[33:51] Now, clearly, you see, they clearly believed in some mystery connected with the birth of the Messiah.

[34:03] And Jeremiah said that God is going to do a new thing. Something that has never happened before. A woman shall encompass a man.

[34:17] And then, of course, when you get into the New Testament, we have the testimony of Matthew chapter 1, 18 through 25. And we have the testimony of Luke. In Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 35, just boil them down to a few phrases.

[34:31] In Matthew 1, 18, the Bible says of Mary that she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. or from, from the Holy Spirit.

[34:45] Found with child from the Holy Spirit. In Matthew chapter 1, verse 20, the angel said, that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

[34:58] It could not be clearer. And, of course, the angel is speaking to Joseph. And Joseph needs to be let off the hook here. He knows it's not his child.

[35:09] He's suspected it might be somebody else's child. And the angel said, don't worry about it. The child that is in Mary's womb is conceived of the Holy Spirit. Is of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 1, 23, the fulfillment of prophecy.

[35:21] And I read that at the beginning. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. And then, in Luke chapter 1, verse 35, the angel said to the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest, that would be God, will overshadow you.

[35:41] Therefore, what will be the result? That Holy One, speaking of the child in Mary's womb, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

[35:58] Clearly. And so, you know, really might add here if you believe, don't believe in the virgin birth, you not only have a problem with Scripture, you have a problem with Mary. Think about what it says about Mary's character.

[36:11] If the child in her womb was not conceived of and eventually born of the Holy Spirit. What would that say about Mary?

[36:22] And then we can also add something that Paul said in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4. God sent forth His Son. He sent Him forth.

[36:34] He wasn't created. He was sent forth. But here's the phrase. Made of a woman. That's not the normal way of putting it.

[36:46] That's not the standard biological reference to the birth of a child. Made of a woman. All right, so if you do not believe in the virgin birth or if you just simply think, well, I believe it but it's really not that crucial, not that important, then think about what it says about the Word of God.

[37:12] If you do not believe in the virgin birth, you've got a real problem with God's Word. The reliability of God's Word. Second, you have a problem with the deity of God's Son.

[37:25] I've already mentioned that you have to have the virgin birth in order for there to be the deity of Christ. And if you don't believe in the virgin birth, then you've got a big problem with it.

[37:36] I want you to listen to what the Bible says about the deity of Jesus. And of course, I could read dozens of scriptures that refer to the deity of Jesus, but possibly the most well-known would be John 1, In the beginning was the Word.

[37:53] We have to go on down through chapter 1 to realize that the Word here is a reference to Jesus, okay? In the beginning was the Word. That is, at the very beginning the Word was already there.

[38:06] We're talking about the eternality of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

[38:16] That couldn't be any clearer than that. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made and we go on from there in that marvelous, wonderful chapter in John, the Gospel of John.

[38:32] We could also read and look at Hebrews chapter 1 and starting with verse 1. Hebrews 1 and verse 1, God, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.

[38:56] His Son, that's Jesus, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. He didn't make the worlds starting there in Bethlehem.

[39:07] He was God before Bethlehem and through Him the worlds were made. Who, and this is speaking of Him, was the brightness, He being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, the very person of God, the very image of God, He is God, and upholding all things by the word of His power.

[39:26] When He by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. We could even look at Philippians, one of my favorite passages, Philippians chapter 2 and verse 6, who being in the form of God, that is, in form, in His very makeup, in His reality, in nature, He is God.

[39:52] In the form, God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

[40:05] He was God before and He became man. He's the God-man. He's all God and all man. And these are just a couple of references in the New Testament that deal with the deity that establish the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[40:20] And listen, the virgin birth is the only way that you can have the incarnation, God becoming a man. It's the only way. There could be no deity of Jesus apart from the virgin birth.

[40:35] You cannot have God being produced by two human beings. He is born of the Holy Spirit.

[40:45] He's born of the Virgin Mary. So we're just kind of building a case for the virgin birth, the reliability of God's Word, the deity of God's Son.

[40:56] And so if you do not believe in the virgin birth, then you have a problem with God's Word because it clearly says that He was born of a virgin.

[41:06] If you do not believe in the virgin birth, then you have a big problem with the deity of Jesus. And then one more very quickly this morning. The reliability of God's Word, the deity of God's Son, and then third, the validity of your salvation.

[41:24] The validity of your salvation. I'll just make a bold statement right here. If you do not believe in the virgin birth, then you have a huge problem with your salvation.

[41:36] Huge one. In fact, I've heard Adrian Rogers say, I don't know how many times, he used to say, if you do not believe in the virgin birth, I wouldn't give you half a hallelujah for your chance of eternity.

[41:50] You see how crucial it is. Now, the Bible says in Galatians 4.4, in fact, you can turn to it, I want to read through that. Galatians 4, starting with verse 4. I quoted a portion of this a moment ago.

[42:05] But this gets us into the implication of the virgin birth as it relates to our salvation and the validity of our salvation. Paul wrote in Galatians 4.4, But when the fullness of time had come, I mean, the right time, perfect timing for God, God sent forth His Son.

[42:29] He did not create Him, He sent Him. He sent Him, which means He already existed. So we have, again, the implication of the deity of Christ, the eternality of Jesus.

[42:40] Born of a woman. He sent Him forth, sent forth His Son, born of a woman. Again, not born of a man, but born of a woman.

[42:53] He was virgin born. So He's fully God and fully man, the God-man. Now, why did God send His Son in this way? So that He would be born under the law, just like you and I are.

[43:10] So that He could be born under the law. There was a reason for that, a very important reason. Paul goes on, to redeem, born under the law, to redeem, to save, those who were born under the law.

[43:25] That's us. So that He could save those who were born under the law. So He was born of a woman, that is, He was virgin born, so that He could be born, God could be born under the law, so that He could redeem those who were under the law.

[43:42] See, Jesus was born under the law and He kept every law perfectly. You and I, also born under the law and we've broken every single one of them.

[43:53] And so we need forgiveness. We need a Redeemer. And then, since Jesus never broke the law, then He was qualified, then, to redeem or save those who were under the law.

[44:12] So that, now listen to it, look at it, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. That's our salvation.

[44:26] You see, all this has to go together. You take the part out about His unique birth and incarnation, you take that out and you don't have anything.

[44:38] Because it all builds from there. so that we might receive the adoption as sons so that we might be saved. This is glorious.

[44:49] This is how important the virgin birth is to us. We needed a Redeemer. You may not know that here this morning. There might be one or two or so here that don't know.

[45:02] You just don't know you need a Redeemer but you do. Because you've broken God's laws. You have been separated from Him because of your sin. You need that sin forgiven and there's only one way it can be forgiven.

[45:16] That is through the blood of Jesus Christ. The virgin born Jesus who lived and died and paid the price for your sin so that He can then redeem you.

[45:30] To redeem you. To save you. This is glorious. We need a Redeemer. Redeemer. And our Redeemer had to be the man and God.

[45:40] He had to be the God-man in order for this to work. And in order for that to happen there had to be a unique birth. There had to be a virgin birth.

[45:51] You see how important the virgin birth is. Let me put it in a nutshell and I'll be finished. No virgin birth. No incarnation.

[46:03] That is God becoming a man. No incarnation. God becoming a man. No deity of Jesus.

[46:15] No deity of Jesus. No sinless Savior. No sinless Savior. No atonement for our sin.

[46:26] No atonement for our sin. No hope. No hope. See how important is the virgin birth.

[46:43] If you take it out or you think it's not important which is effectively taking it out of the equation then you don't have anything. You don't have anything.

[46:54] Jesus could not be our Savior. His death was meaningless except that he might have saved himself from his own sin.

[47:07] His resurrection couldn't have happened. There would be no need for it. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

[47:19]  is still still