Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
And if you would turn in your Bible for the Sunday school hour
to Isaiah chapter #7 this morning, Isaiah chapter #7 I'll
let you know what we're doing here in just a moment.
But do just want to say a few words.
Thank you, gentlemen, for pivoting this morning, for not
having men's prayer like we normally would have and kind of
did that late last night. A lot of people dealing with
sickness here in the church over the last few days.
Of course, that seems to be the case all over the place right
now. And I've been under the weather
the last couple days. But thank the Lord, no fever,
nothing like that. And so I'm not contagious.
You don't need to be afraid of me.
We might need to be afraid of me, but not because of that.
If there's nothing else, but I am thankful and still feeling a
little bit under the weather today, but glad to be able to be
with you. But pray for those who are not
able to be here. I know Brother Anthony is one of
those. And then others who are having
some longer term issues like Brother Vince and I know I'm
forgetting people, but just keep one another in prayer.
But then also we were so glad to have the four young men from
Heartland preach for us on Wednesday.
That was a joy. Wasn't I mean, that was just a
real joy. I, I enjoyed the passion, but I
also enjoyed the content. And so you can have a lot of
passion, not necessarily have content, you have content, not a
lot of passion. But it's nice when those two
come together. And I really felt like that was
the case on Wednesday night. And all four of them left very
early on Thursday to be able to go back to Heartland.
And so obviously, Chuck, he's not with us this morning.
So continue to pray for him as he continues his training.
But then also, Batova was getting a lot of different
things settled to get back to Heartland, hadn't had all of his
flight details and all those things worked out.
And it ended up that Wednesday night was his last service.
And I didn't realize that none of us realized that, including
him. And so he was on a plane this
morning at 6:00 AM for David to take him to the airport and
back. And so pray for him as he is
heading there. I'll be able to check on both of
them on Tuesday. Obviously, I'll be heading out
on Monday to be able to go to the Church Players Conference.
And we're looking forward to being able to disperse those
funds that we've collected over the last few weeks and to give
those the worthy church plants. And so I'm looking forward to
giving you a report on that when I get back.
But also looking forward to seeing Chucky, Charles and
Batova. Those are only two people, not
3. But you noticed his friends know
him as Charles, but we know him as Chucky.
Either way, that's all right. And so looking forward to being
able to see them on Tuesday. And then probably the thing that
makes me most nervous, if I could maybe use that word
nervous for Sunday school is the fact if I take the wrong step
backward, I'm going to get baptized this morning because we
got this baptistry. You can't see it online, but
this baptistry is really about 1 foot away from my right leg.
And so we're looking forward to being baptizing 3 this morning
in the morning service after the morning service.
Praise the Lord, all three have gotten saved here at church over
the last few months. And so thank the Lord for that.
And so looking forward to a great morning service as well as
being the day for the theme reveal for 2026.
So if you didn't grab a bulletin in the back, there's a reason
for that. It's because if I put them out
there, you know what the theme is for 2026.
And so as soon as we reveal that the ushers will pass out the
bulletins today. So you'll still have those on
the way home. Well, we are not going to be in
our series this morning. We will resume our series on
world religions and cults and we'll look at how to win the
Jews to Christ next week in our Sunday school hour.
But this week actually want to go back and talk about the
virgin birth. You say, well, pastor, it's not
Christmas. Why are we talking about the
virgin birth one, because the issue, the virgin birth is a 12
month out of the year issue, not just a one month out of the year
issue. And doctor, I think it's
important that we understand why the virgin birth is so
important. And secondly, because I was
prepared to teach on it a few weeks ago and then we had no
heat. All right, so I want to get
another chance at being able to give you this lesson that I was
supposed to give you on December 21st, but was not able to.
But again, no apologies for the thought process that when it
comes the issues of Christmas, if you will, that Christmas and
the Bible texts and the Bible doctrines that deal with that
are not just confined to the end of November after Thanksgiving
is done until Christmas time. They really can be talked about
all 12 months out of the year. But, you know, when it comes to
the issue of the virgin birth, there's really these two camps,
these two extremes. Maybe if you would that you'll
find there are those who dismiss it out of hand as unscientific
storytelling that they say that there's no such thing as a
virgin birth. There could be no such thing as
a virgin birth. So what the Bible says isn't
really what the Bible means. There are those who would go to
that extreme. And I would also say that there
were others who would maybe be in this other camp, and maybe we
would call it an extreme, but we would say in this other camp, if
you will, there are Christians who would affirm the virgin
birth, but they really have no idea why they do.
They just know that the virgin birth is spoken of.
They know that it's probably mentioned somewhere in the
Gospels, in one of those texts that talk about the Christmas
story, if you will, but they really couldn't argue,
articulate why the Bible teaches it and why it's important.
And so I feel like it's a good thing for us to go over maybe
every couple of years, and that's what we've done for the
last several years, to just remind ourselves to resharpen
ourselves on why the virgin birth matters.
Why is it so important? Now, back in the 1940s, there
were two very famous evangelists that were coming up through the
ranks, if you will. One was Billy Graham and the
other was Charles Templeton. Now interestingly enough, there
are paths forked into two different directions in the
1940s with with Billy Graham going the direction that he did
and then Charles Templeton actually denying Jesus Christ
and denying the faith of which he said that he was preaching
about. And Charles Templeton, this
former evangelist who became a skeptic of the gospel, then a
full blown atheist, said this of the virgin birth.
If one approaches the New Testament account with an open
mind and unflinching realism, the evidence clearly indicates
that Jesus was an illegitimate child who, when he came to
maturity, resented it and was alienated from his parents and
siblings. That's blasphemous to be able to
teach or to say such a thing. By the way, I'm doing some study
on Charles Templeton. It's interesting enough that all
of his doubts about the Bible, all of his doubts about the Word
of God, who Jesus was, all started with the creation
account. When he started to deny the
creation account, we started to deny there were six literal days
of creation. When he started to believe in
the scientists and the so-called scholars more than the word of
God, he started to question everything and really everything
unraveled. It's why it's important that we
believe what the Bible says about creation.
By the way, Jesus believed what the Bible says about creation,
the reason why he was there, he was part of it, and so to deny
creation is to deny Jesus Christ and his own testimony.
But I will say that it seems like for him and many others I
have met, that is a starting point for the unraveling of what
someone might believe about God. Now, on the other side of that,
Pew Research had a poll that according to their findings, 8
out of 10 professing Christians believed in the virgin birth.
So it says that 80% of Christians believe that Jesus
Christ was born of a virgin. But let me ask you this.
Do you believe 80% of Christians could articulate why that's
important? Do you believe that 80% of
believers here at liberty would be able to articulate why that
is? And I'm not saying that this
morning to try to to cast any shade upon anyone this morning.
No, no, I'm just saying that it's important for us to be able
to look at and to understand and it's worthy of us being able to
discuss it more than just saying Jesus was born of a virgin, but
not knowing where it says that and why it is so important.
First Peter 315 you've heard us say this many times before,
says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
We need to as best as we can be able to be apologists.
Not that we apologize for the Word of God, but to be able to
articulate our faith and say why doctrines are important and
where we find those doctrines in the Word of God.
Now what we do want to avoid is the other extreme, and this is
where I was getting to before this other extreme that where
there were some that would deny the that's so close, there's
some that would deny. Yeah, I think I need a life
preserver for certain. But on one side, those who would
say it's it's impossible, it's it's bogus.
There's others who worship Mary and that's not what we're
suggesting this morning either. There was only one to be
worshipped and that is the Lord that there we don't worship
Mary. We do not take on the Catholic
doctrine of Mary Ology. We don't pray to Mary.
We don't believe that our prayers are heard through Mary
to Jesus. We don't believe any of those
things, nor we try to suggest those things here this morning,
but we do believe what the word of God said, that Mary was a
great woman, that she was chosen for a specific task and a
specific purpose because of her obedience of the Lord and love
for the Lord. But listen, Mary need to be
saved just as much as you need to be saved.
And Mary was saved just the same way as you were saved, and I was
saved, and that was through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so we want to avoid those extremes, but we also want to be
able to articulate why we stand in the middle of those.
So we are in Isaiah Chapter 7. Let's begin in verse #10 Likely
you're familiar with this. We read this as a text for
worship just a month ago or so. And it says, Moreover, the Lord
spake again unto A has saying, Ask the sign of the Lord thy
God. Ask it either in depth or in the
height above. But A has said, I will not ask,
neither will I tempt the Lord. And we'll stop right here for a
moment. Now A has is told by the Lord
that he is one of the kings of the divided Kingdom, a king of
Judah, and he is told that he can ask of the Lord and the Lord
will give him some sort of sign because of the turmoil that's
taking place in his nation. Now Ahaz says in verse #12 I
will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.
Now I'll say, that sounds very spiritual, doesn't it?
I mean that sounds like really, really spiritual and such a good
thing to say. There's only one problem.
God said do it and he said no. Now I don't care how spiritual,
this is my message this morning, but I don't care how spiritual
your no sounds to the Lord. No is still no to the Lord.
No matter how spiritual your no is, or not obeying, and whatever
the Lord tells you to do, no is still no to the Lord.
And so here we find in verse #13 it says, And he said, Now this
is the Lord. Hear ye now, O House of David.
Is it a small thing for you to weary men?
But will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.
Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the
evil and choose the good. For before the child.
No, to refuse at the evil and choose the good.
The land that thou abhorst shall be forsaken by both her kings.
Now, I'm not going to go too deeply into another direction
here this morning, but this is one of those prophecies that has
both a near fulfillment and a further fulfillment.
One would have been in a has his time, and certainly there would
have been some sort of understand.
There's a lot of different thoughts about exactly what that
could have been nearer, but there's also no doubt that there
was a further prophecy that was also with this as well, and that
would have been Jesus Christ, that nearer prophecy being
something different, the further prophecy being of Jesus Christ.
Why verse #14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call
His name Emmanuel. And of course, we know that when
you go to the New Testament, this is the verse that is spoken
of, that is referred to linking those things together.
Now, why does the virgin birth matter?
Well, here we are right here in the Old Testament, and #1 it
matters because it was prophesied in the Old Testament.
The virgin birth matters because it was prophesied in the Old
Testament. It is clearly found for us right
here. Now, if you were holding a newer
version of the Word of God, and again, I would counsel you not
to do so, But if you were holding a newer version of the
Word of God, very likely that word virgin, there is not the
word virgin in your copy of that Bible.
Why? Because in most newer versions,
virgin is taken out and young woman is put in this place.
Does that bother you? It should bother you.
That's very problematic for that to be the case.
Now, the Hebrew word alma that is found in Isaiah 714 never
refers to a married woman and always implies sexual purity.
When the Old Testament was translated into the Greek,
that's the Septuagint around the 2nd century BC, Jewish
translator rendered alma as the word parthenos, which
unambiguously means virgin. So even before Jesus was born,
there was an understanding that this word meant virgin, that the
word young woman would be a mistranslation of what was
trying to be coming across here. And there's a lot of studies
that you can look at. You can look at them online.
Certainly I would welcome you to do so.
But I think we always come back to the same thought here that
this, that for this to be a sign a young woman having a child
isn't really much of a sign of something miraculous.
Listen, we understand any time a baby is born, it's a miracle of
life. Life only comes from the Lord.
We know that. But we're talking about
something that would be a earth changing sign.
Well, what would that be? Something that only happened
once and never has happened again.
That is a virgin that conceived and shall bear a son.
There are explanations why the translator chose translators
chose to change the word in newer translations, but none of
them bear scrutiny. How could that be a sign of
anything if you took the word young woman and in the place of
virgin? It just cannot be.
Now, we've also looked at this next text before, but I feel
like we need to again if we're going to look at this whole
element of the virgin birth. And that is in Genesis 315.
So you don't need to save your space there.
But go to Genesis chapter 3 and we'll look at verse #15 the
darkest day of human history, certainly in the short period of
human history to that point. And we look back and look at all
the troubles that we have today. And we can all trace them back
to Genesis chapter 3, can't we? There's so much that we deal
with there. We understand what happened with
Eve. We understand what happened with
Adam. We understand they took of the
fruit. By the way, that this again, not
my message, but just a reminder, the Bible never says it was an
apple. All right, I know this people,
people say all the time that they, they just kind of add that
in there. There's nowhere where it says it
was an apple. It could have been a
pomegranate, I've heard people say, but there's as much
foundation of it being a pomegranate as there is an
apple. We don't know what it is and it
was a fruit. If you want to draw an apple,
that's great, but just know it may not have been that.
If you're, if you're drawing that scene or you're showing it
to young people in the children's church and we know
that once they sin. Verse 7, it says the eyes of
them were open and they knew that they were naked and they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of
the garden. Of course, this has been the
first time they had ever had broken fellowship with God.
They had always communed together and now the presence of
the Lord is upon them and they are hiding.
They're trying to cover their sin and their shame.
And of course, the apron of fig leaves would certainly not have
been a way to fully cover themselves.
And we understand that mankind tries to cover its own sin and
his own sin, her own sin. And it's always inadequate.
Every single time it says verse #9.
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where
art thou? Now I've mentioned this before,
but anytime God asks the questions, not because he
doesn't know what's going on all right, Anytime God asks the
questions because you don't know what's going on all right, And
he's trying to get you to answer and get you to think about what
it is. So anytime you see the Lord ask
a question, it's not a fact finding mission.
He's trying to get the person he's questioning to be able to
think about the answer that's about to come out of their lips.
Well, where art thou? And he said, Adam, I heard the
thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked
and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree?
Where of I commanded thee that thou should not eat?
And what did Adam say? Did he fess up?
Did he say that he was the one that allowed this to happen?
Well, no, He said this. The woman whom thou gave us to
be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And marital harmony from there on you could see in verse #12
right? And verse 13.
And the Lord God said unto the woman, But what is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. So the finger is pointed from
Adam to Eve, from Eve to the serpent.
And the serpent has no problem admitting that he was the
culprit. And it says in verse 14.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done
this, thou are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of
the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
That's why anytime I kill a snake, I feel like I'm doing the
Lord's work. You know what I'm saying?
I said, this is exactly what the Lord wants from us, right?
Verse #15 Sorry, Marsha, All right, and then verse #15 And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, in between thy seed
and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise it's his heel. Now, what's talking about here
when it says her seed? Now listen, this is couched in
mystery. Certainly Adam and Eve would not
have understood when he said this.
Oh, Jesus Christ, they wouldn't have understood this.
But as time goes on and the mystery of Christ is unraveled
and revealed, we look back now and see what it says.
There'll be enmity between thee and the woman and between thy
seed and her seed. We understand what's talking
about her seed, that it would be talking about Jesus Christ.
You say Well Pastor, that seems like quite a stretch to be able
to say Jesus Christ from her her seed.
Now understand the term her seed is very unusual in Scripture
over 40 times the term his seed is found because typically as
the nature of life is that seed comes from the man.
But yet here only once in the Old Testament and the second
time found in the Book of Revelation prophetic, talking
about Jesus Christ and Israel and all those things, we find
her seed only twice. Why is that important?
Because the birth of Jesus Christ was not going to be like
any other natural birth. That's why her seed was
important, because it's talking about the seed of the woman of
Mary, that he would be 100% God and 100% man.
Ancient Jewish and Christian commentators recognize her seed
as abnormal language. Again, you don't find it
anywhere else. And Hebrew lineage and covenant
language seed is always traced through the Father.
This points to a deliverer not descended through a human
father. You say a deliverer?
Yeah, well it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his
heel. Meaning what?
That a blow would be placed upon Jesus Christ, yet the blow that
we know He would live through. Why do we know that?
Because He lives today. But we know that there will be,
if you will, a death blow based upon Satan.
And we know that he will be tormented and tortured for all
eternity. But we also know this.
We know who wins, and this tells us that the one who is of her
seed will be the victor. Who is that Jesus Christ?
Again? Would Adam and Eve have
understood what he was saying? No, they trusted it by faith.
But we're able to look back as the mystery has been unfurled.
And we look at that and say, oh, sure, there's something that's
different here than what we have seen before and what we will see
throughout the Word of God. And so it seems very clear in
the Old Testament that there was a prophecy that Jesus Christ
would be born of a virgin. So why does the virgin birth
matter #1 because it, it was prophesied in the Old Testament.
But number two, it was proclaimed in the New Testament.
It was prophesied in the Old Testament, and it was proclaimed
in the New Testament. Modern skeptics tell us that
because only two of the four gospels record the virgin birth,
it's on shaky ground. Well, we need to look at those
scriptures for ourselves to understand.
So go to the New Testament. Let's go to Matthew chapter 1.
And I know we looked at these a couple weeks ago, but it's good
for us to look at them again, particularly through the lens of
what we're trying to search out right now.
Which is the virgin birth of Christ Matthew chapter 1
beginning in verse #18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on
this wise when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. Well, hold on a second, you'd
probably just stop right there, couldn't we?
That would help us tremendously. Right there she was found with
child of the Holy Ghost, something that's never been
spoken of before and will never be spoken of again.
Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to
make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
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 in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall be
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins.
Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was
spoken of by the of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold, a
virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and
they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. That's Isaiah Chapter 7 verse
14. So it's spoken of in the Old
Testament, confirmed to the New Testament.
So there's no way that we can go back and try to retroactively
change Isaiah 714 into young woman.
Why? Because it's confirmed in the
New Testament that this is Speaking of a virgin birth, of
her being overcome by the Holy Ghost.
Now go to Luke chapter 1. Again, the other account of the
birth of Christ is found in Luke.
It's not found in Mark. It is not found in John.
Both with different focuses. Luke, chapter one verse #26.
And in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God
unto 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. It seems very clear that there's
an emphasis in this verse, isn't there?
This is just a young woman, but rather this is a virgin verse
#27 or verse #28 rather. And the Angel came in unto her
and said, Hail thou that are highly favored, the Lord is with
thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying, and
cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the Angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou has
found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and shalt bring forth the Son, and shalt call
his name Jesus. He shall be great, shall 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. And Mary said unto the Angel,
How shall this be, seeing? I know not a man?
And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow
thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And excuse me, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she had also
conceived a son in her old age, and this is the 6th month with
her who was called barren. For with God, listen, nothing
shall be impossible. This is really what it comes
down to. Verse #37 You say, Well, this is
not the way it should be. This is not the way that nature
takes place. Well, with God nothing shall be
impossible. Who put those laws of nature
into place? Who was the one that instituted
those very laws of nature? And who is the one who is
allowed to overcome those laws of which he placed at any given
time? Which by the way, is what every
miracle is, Jesus or whoever's performing the miracle through
the power of God, overcoming the very laws that God put in place
in the 1st place. How can God overcome the laws of
nature? Well, who's the God of nature?
It really shouldn't be that confounding for us to be able to
come to that place. But you see that what was spoken
of in the Old Testament in Genesis, veiled in Isaiah
openly, is confirmed now in Mark, or rather in Matthew, and
also in the book of Luke as well.
It seems quite clear. These verses report with all
clarity that the child to be born would be conceived of the
Holy Ghost. Why is that important?
Well, Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation, took upon in the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
May I remind you that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the
same time that He. It says here that He became of
no reputation. He literally allowed himself to
become a man, to be able to do the things that we do, to sleep,
to eat, to have all of the physicality of which that we
deal with, both good and bad. Here is the Lord who has allowed
himself to be able to take that, but yet at the same time, he did
not put off his deity. He was not man and no longer
God. He also wasn't 50% man and 50%
God. As I've often said, 100% God,
100% man. That makes bad math, but it's
good theology that he was completely God and completely
man. You know who makes half God,
half man? The Romans.
You know who makes half God and half man?
The Greeks. They were the ones and their
mythology who would take these men and take these figures and
these women as well, and to make them into these half man, half
God creations. No, that's not what we're
talking about when we talk about Jesus Christ.
John 1 verses 910 and 14. We looked at these on Christmas
Eve. That was the true light which
lighteth every man and cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.
The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. The virgin birth of Jesus isn't
just a nice story, it's a necessary part of salvation of
mankind. In the same way as His
sacrificial death was necessary, as the same way as the as His
resurrection was necessary, we find the virgin birth is
necessary as well. Without the Manger there is no
cross. Without the cross, the Manger is
of none effect. We have to make sure our
theology is strong on all of these issues, not just on His
death or on His direction. We must be strong on all of
these because the Bible is quite clear about them.
Those who would take it out of the word, the virgin birth out
of the word, are no more than than gapping dogs that are
trying to nip at the heels of those who are going on the
narrow way. And we must not listen to those
who try to tell us that the virgin birth is unimportant or
there's more weightier matters for Christians.
Listen, don't worry about these divisive issues.
There's more important things for Christians to worry about.
No, no, I'm concerned about whatever the Bible says and I
want to stand wherever the Bible says it.
And I don't want to just take something that is a very clear
doctrine of the word of God. And for the sake of quote UN
quote unity or for the sake of quote UN quote ecumenicalism or
for the sake of quote UN quote, whatever you want to put in
place there to be able to put a key doctrine of the word of God
aside just to be able to say something that sounds more
palatable to society. Be honest with you.
If you take the if we're to take the virgin birth away, let's
just say we don't believe it anymore.
Of course, this is for the sake sake of argument.
I'm not saying that in anyone's way, shape or form.
Do you think this world would be satisfied if we said, well, I
mean, listen, we don't believe in the virgin birth anymore.
The war's going to be satisfied. They're going to go through.
Well, you believe in creation, there would be, it's not
satisfied. You believe that there's an
afterlife. They wouldn't be.
They wouldn't be happy with that.
You go right through. So maybe it would just be better
we just believe what the Bible says and just take it for what
it is and not try to make it more palatable for the world or
not try to make it so that the world might come on our side.
Well, listen, if we believe in theistic evolution, wouldn't it
be better? Because I mean, we're talking
about God, but we're also talking about the clear
scientific evidence at the same time.
You know, I don't think that they would be pleased if we
believe in theistic evolution. They would only be pleased if we
believe their narrative. And by the way, their narrative
changes all the time. What took millions of years then
turned to billions of years, and then even more billions of
years. And by the way, it doesn't
matter how many billions of years you put in something had
to come first and someone had to be there to put that which came
first. And I would say that evolution
is much as a faith as Bible believe in Christianity.
And I'll say this, evolution is a faith is found wanting in
every single way. Stay away from it.
But in the same way, if we were to lose ground, if we were to
cede the high ground of the virgin, of the virgin birth,
what would we accomplish? Would it be better that we just
stand on the Word of God for what it is and what it says and
say, well, the world doesn't understand, but they don't
understand Jesus Christ at all. And they're not going to
understand and him until the Holy Spirit stirs within him and
they trust Him as their Savior. And then all of a sudden they'll
get it and then they'll understand.
So we see that it was prophesied, the Old Testament,
the virgin birth. It was proclaimed in the New
Testament. And this is what it really comes
down to #3 it's possible with an Almighty God.
It is possible with an almighty God.
I've already alluded to this a few moments ago.
But we take the word of God by faith and understand that we
cannot make our own construct of who we believe Jesus Christ is.
We don't change the Word of God to fit our own sensibilities.
We take the Word of God and allow it to change who we are.
We are the ones who change, not the word of God.
This is one of the many problems, the multitude of
problems of new versions. Every time they come through and
they strip out another doctrine, they take out another thought.
They take out more and more or change more and change more.
Well, listen, I just happen to believe the word of God.
We have it here. We have what we need.
And I don't need some theologian to swoop in and say, you know
that verse you memorize that verse you learned about, you
know, it's really not as great as you think it is.
Or even as they say, sometimes that verse actually isn't even
in the Bible. It really was never meant to be
in the Bible in the 1st place. And there's places where there
are just verses that are skipped over completely dozens of places
where that's the case. You know, listen, I just, you
say, well, why would God preserve his word?
Because He can that he promised he would.
And just in the same way that a virgin can give birth to the
Messiah, well, God can do anything he says he's going to
do. And we, we know what that's
called faith. Faith is a substance of things
hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
But yet we believe it because it's faith.
Now the idea of the virgin birth has been attacked for
generations. One of the most recent that has
attacked it would be Andy Stanley.
He is the son of the famous Baptist pastor Charles Stanley.
Andy Stanley went his own way many years ago, but he said this
and it sounds at first blush, I would imagine if you're not a
believer or first blush, maybe you're a new believer.
What he says sounds very reasonable, kind of like a has
saying I will not tempt the Lord.
Well, that sounds really spiritual, except you're doing
exactly opposite of what God said.
And what he says here sounds reasonable at first, but then
once you start to put a little pressure on it, like a House of
Cards, that falls apart. He said this.
If somebody could predict their own death and their own
resurrection, I'm not all that concerned with how they got into
the world because the whole resurrection thing is so
amazing. And Christianity doesn't hinge
on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus.
It really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.
Now, my question would be to Andy Stanley.
Where do you get that idea from? It all hinges on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, perhaps you could go to 1st
Corinthians 15 where it talks about if there was no
resurrection that, you know, where would we be with
salvation? But at the same time, that is
not minimizing the rest of the gospel.
That's not minimizing the rest of who Jesus Christ is.
It's just saying that the resurrection is the capstone of
all that Jesus's life was. And so it never even suggests
Paul's not suggesting in First Corinthians chapter 15 that
really the only important doctrine about Jesus is the
resurrection. He's not suggesting that at all.
But but here's where I this is where I just don't understand.
It goes back to what I said a few moments ago.
You believe a man died, was gone for three days, rose from the
dead and is alive today and have no problem with that.
But you have a problem with another unnatural idea, the
virgin birth, which just seems like if he's God either
impossible. What's so hard to wrap your head
around with that? But again, there's something so
palatable to those who don't understand to say listen, geez,
all about the resurrection and listen the resurrection's
amazing. That's why what we do what we do
around Easter time every year, we call it Resurrection Sunday
here for the most part to remind people that it's really about
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We do that because it's important that the world loses
their focus on what that is and they think it's some kind of
spring celebration or they think it's some kind of time when when
you do all these different things but never thought about
the resurrection of Christ. But why would you have a problem
with one but then not a problem with the other?
Again, we just saw just a few moments ago, Luke chapter 1
covers that for with God, all things are possible.
If it's not possible, He's not much of a God.
If he's not much of a God, then we don't need to believe in him,
don't need to serve Him, He won't save us.
So certainly there's a line in the sand drone there.
Others will deny it outright, as well as attacking other areas of
his life and deity. These are names that you might
not be familiar with. I can't say I'm familiar with
all of them either, but quotes that I've sourced through time.
Adolf von Hornack and the book History of Dogma said the virgin
birth is not part of the original gospel.
James DG Dunn in Christology in the Making said belief in Jesus
divine sonship did not initially require belief in the virgin
conception. Walter Brueggemann theology of
the Old Testament. The virgin birth is a
theological affirmation, not a biological explanation.
I had to read that one a few times.
The idea is this is it's really more of a spiritual idea than a
physical idea. And again, there's something
that sounds very spiritual about that except for the fact that
you're denying what God said. Raymond Brown the birth of the
Messiah. The infancy narratives are not
meant to be read as strict historical accounts.
John Shelby Spong Jesus for the non religious sign right there
as we get into it. There was no biological miracle
at the beginning of Jesus life. John Hick the metaphor for God
Incarnate. The virgin birth is not a
necessary belief for a meaningful Christian faith.
Karen Armstrong, A History of God The virgin birth was never
meant to be taken literally. Harvey Cox The Future of faith.
Whether the virgin birth happened biologically is beside
the point. You know, what is the point?
Is the word of God true? Is when the word of God speaks
of something, whatever that is, did it really happen?
Because again, when you get to the place, when you say, well,
is this exactly what the word of God is saying?
You get yourself to the place where who is the final arbiter
you are and not the Lord. Oftentimes when I talk about
Bible stories, I, I don't always use the word story.
I like to use the word account. To be honest with you.
I don't have a problem saying story because, you know, you
read a news story and you know it's true whatever.
Mind. OK, accounts probably better,
right? Yeah.
So the idea is we're not looking at Bible stories in the sense
that they're Disney stories or Universal Studios stories or
Dreamwork stories or Aesop stories or whatever you want to
call them. You know, they are true accounts
of things that happen. And I want those young people in
the back. And by the way, they get this in
Sunday school and they get this in junior church, that they
understand that they're not reading Aesop's Fables, that
they're not getting just good moral stories.
They are finding out the very truth of the Word of God, of
real events with real people that had real thoughts, because
that's what the Word of God is. And we get to the place where we
start to question, well, is this really necessary or is that
really necessary? Well, you get yourself in a very
dangerous position where you are the one deciding what is truth
and what is not truth. You know what's truth?
This is truth. And if I don't get it, then the
problem's with me and not with this book, because there's a lot
of people that came before. And if Jesus tarries, there'll
be a lot of people to come after and listen.
Let God's word be true. The Bible says in every man a
liar meaning this God is true. The texts that or the rather the
quotes I just gave you very clearly show what a low opinion
someone has of God when they have a low opinion of the virgin
birth. They're not just saying they
don't believe in the virgin birth, they're really saying
they have a very low opinion of who God is.
To believe the virgin birth is vital, to take it out of our
doctrine is a grave, grave issue.
Now, I've used this illustration before for different things, but
I think it fits here very well of putting together a puzzle.
And I remember when my mom had surgery, we put together a
puzzle, one of her surgeries before she passed and just tried
to pass the time. And we looked around the waiting
room. There was a puzzle there.
And so we did it. And everybody kind of gathered
around the table and you're doing the puzzle.
And we like puzzle. We go through like, phases where
we really enjoy them. And then I don't want to look at
them for another two years. And then then we say, hey, man,
our puzzle's fun. And then we, you know, three
months later, like, let's not do any more puzzles.
You know that it's kind of how we are with puzzles.
But I remember doing it because it was just that kind of idea
that you want to do something together.
You didn't want to be on your phones.
You just want to pass the time. We were doing it and we got to
the end and there was about four or five pieces out of this 500
or whatever it was that we're gone.
I don't know about you. That kind of bugs me.
I'm a completionist, you know, if I wasted who knows how much
time of my life to be able to put this puzzle together, I want
to see the whole picture right there, not just on the box.
And we looked at the box and they and to try to see if we
missed something and then turned it over.
And on the back there was a piece of masking tape and
someone had written missing pieces.
Like if you put that right in the front, maybe that would have
helped. Maybe we'd have done something
else instead. Maybe we stayed on our phones.
Who knows what we would have done.
But here's the idea. You take out the virgin birth,
there's missing pieces. You can't just say you have the
full picture and take out the virgin birth and there'll be no
consequences. You know, it is a very great
missing pieces when you take out a key doctrine of the word of
God. And this is a very brief of
course we can go very deep into all that is here.
But I would say this, this gives you pretty much a good basic
understanding and way to be able to explain to someone else
through 2 Old Testament passages confirmed by 222 New Testament
passages to help you to be able to explain why the virgin birth
was so important. And if God is who he says he is,
that we're just going to trust his word.
And that's where we stand as a church, not just on this
doctrine, but on whatever the word of God says.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.