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So, I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the gospel according to Luke. And we're in Luke chapter 1, and today we're going to be looking at verses 26-38. The title of this message is "The Virgin Birth." So, this is a big message because this is a big passage of Scripture, and I want us to really sink our teeth into this text and for it to really grip us.
So, Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26, "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, 'Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.' But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.'
"Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?' The angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.' And Mary said, 'Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her." What a passage. What a text. Let us go to the Lord in prayer.
[Prayer] Our Father in heaven, we are so grateful for what You have done by sending Your Son into this world and the manner with which You commissioned Him to enter the human race, that He would be born of a virgin. Only You could have conceived this idea. Only You could have thought this extraordinary plan. And so we stand amazed and astonished at Your perfect wisdom and the genius of Your mind as You have designed this entrance for the Son of God into this world to become the Son of Man. So I pray that as we look at this passage today, You would give us clarity of thought and insight; and may each one of us be astonished and amazed at this great gift that You have bestowed upon us in the person of Your Son Jesus Christ. And it is in His name that we pray. Amen. [End]
In these verses, we read about the announcement by Gabriel to Mary concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. This is a subject of utmost importance to our Christian faith. In fact, it would be virtually impossible for me to overstate the significance of the virgin birth to Christianity. The virgin birth is not incidental, it's fundamental. It's the very foundation upon which the cross is built. We are not saved by the virgin birth, but there would be no salvation without the virgin birth. Jesus had to come as He did in order to be what He was in order to do what He did. Let me say that again. Jesus had to come as He did, to be born of a virgin; to be what He was, sinless; to do what He did, to die upon the cross in the place of sinners.
The virgin birth is one of the most important links in the chain of salvation. In the virgin birth, eternal deity was joined to sinless humanity, resulting in the God-man. Because of the virgin birth, Jesus Christ was perfectly God and perfectly man. He was truly God and truly man. He was fully God and fully man. Because of the virgin birth, Jesus was not half God and half man, but truly God and truly man. And because of the virgin birth, Jesus was not born with a sin nature inherited from Adam. Because of the virgin birth, He was able to live a sinless and perfect life, and to lay down His life as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
The virgin birth is so important, that to deny the virgin birth is to deny the sinless humanity of Christ. It is to deny the perfect holiness of Christ. To deny the virgin birth is to deny the active obedience of Christ and the substitutionary death of Christ. To deny the virgin birth would mean that one, that person is a heretic, is an apostate, is an unbeliever. No true believer can deny the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ; it is that important, and therefore non-negotiable.
So, as we look at this passage – which is, really, in my estimation, the most important passage in the Bible on the virgin birth. It's not the only passage, but it is the most important passage. I want to walk through the flow of this narrative with you. And the first thing that I want you to see is "the unexpected visit." That begins in verse 26. This account begins in the most unexpected way.
And we read in verse 26, "Now in the sixth month" – that refers to the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy who we looked at last time – "the angel Gabriel" – not just any angel, but the archangel – "was sent from God." So obviously, Gabriel, who came and delivered the message to Elizabeth, immediately returned back to heaven, and he is now being re-commissioned or re-dispatched down to the earth, sent by God to come to Mary.
And we read in verse 26, "to a city in Galilee" – Now that should capture our eye. Not to Jerusalem where the religious establishment was, not to Jerusalem where the temple was and the scribes and the Pharisees were, but to Galilee. Galilee is up in the north. It's removed. It's, really, outside the beltline. It's outside the power structure of Israel – "to a city" – not really even a city, it's like a tiny village – "called Nazareth."
Now, Nazareth is, really, Nowheresville. I mean, Nazareth is just a bump in the road. John 1:46, "Can any good thing come from Nazareth?" The question is, "No. Nobody of any significance has ever come from Nazareth." Nazareth is not even mentioned in the entire Old Testament, and this is the first time in the entire Bible that we read, "Nazareth." Nazareth was looked down upon. If you said you were from Nazareth, I mean, you would be ostracized. People looked down their long nose at people from Nazareth. They looked at them with contempt like, "You have come from the wrong side of the tracks, this little out-of-the-way place."
Nothing significant has ever happened in Nazareth, has ever come from Nazareth; and yet, this is where the angel Gabriel is sent. I mean, Gabriel must have wondered if he had gotten the wrong address, he ended up in the wrong place. But here he is in the middle of nowhere. "To a virgin," to probably a teenager of low social standing. She's not even married yet, so she's not even entered into the fullness of womanhood. "And she's engaged" – she's pledged to be married – "to a man named Joseph." He's just a very common worker. He's not a king, he's not a prince, he's a village carpenter, and she's just an unassuming young lady. "He is of the descendants of David. And the virgin's name was Mary."
It's a very common name for a very common woman. In fact, there's so many Marys in the New Testament, you almost need a worship guide just to keep up with which Mary is this. And so, she's a very common woman with a very common name living in a very common place, engaged to a very common man who has a very common occupation. There's nothing that stands out about Mary; and yet, she will be the one chosen to be the mother of Jesus.
This is so much like how God operates. God, for the most part, bypasses the elite, He bypasses the top drawer, He bypasses those who are at the top of the ladder, and God loves to, instead, go to the person that the world does not even know exists and choose to use that person to accomplish great and mighty things. And this should really encourage us here today because in a sense, we all – we can relate to Mary. She's just a common person, an average person that God will use in an extraordinary way.
This is the way God chooses to operate; and I've got a text for you: 1 Corinthians 1:26. I've read it to you before but hear it again. Paul writing to the church in Corinth and he says, "But consider your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh," – having gone to the elite schools – "not many mighty," – don't have clout in the community – "not many noble," – not a blue blood – "but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things," – I mean, just ordinary, base people – "and the despised" – like Mary in Nazareth – "God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God."
This is God's playbook. This is how God usually chooses to operate. Oh, every once in a while there will be someone who is mighty in this world that God will work through; but they are the exception, not the rule. And how this should encourage us here today, because it just may well be that God is looking for someone just like you to carry out a special assignment that He has prepared for you.
So, that's the unexpected visit. I want you to note, second, "the unexpected message" in verse 28. In verse 28 we read, "And coming in," – Gabriel entering the presence of Mary – "he said to her, 'Greetings,' – which means rejoice – 'favored one!' – which means one endowed with grace – 'You have been graced by God and favored by God.' – and then Gabriel says – The Lord is with you.'" When he said this, she must have looked behind her to see who is Gabriel talking to. And she's by herself, and she realizes, "Oh, he's talking to me." "The Lord is with you. The Sovereign One is with you."
Verse 29, "But she was very perplexed." She couldn't sort this out. "Very perplexed" means she was very startled and shocked. In fact, it means to be greatly troubled and to be disturbed. She is overwhelmed at this and doesn't have a category by which to process this.
And we read, "and kept pondering" – The word "pondering" is a Greek word that really is drawn from the world of accounting, and it's like, "This just doesn't add up." Her wheels are turning, but she cannot connect the dots on why this angel has appeared to her and has said what he has – "kept pondering what kind of salutation this was." Literally, this salutation is an out-of-this-world greeting. She's never heard anything like this.
"And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary,' – Why would he say that? Because she's terrified, just like you and I would have been terrified that day. She is obviously shaken to the core of her being, and the angel Gabriel is seeking to calm her beating heart. And he says – 'for you have found favor with God. You have found grace upon grace upon grace with God, unmerited favor. And behold,' – You know what the word "behold" means? It means, "You need to see this in sharp focus what I'm about to tell you, and you need to see what I am saying" – 'behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.'"
There's a sense in which this is believable to this point. Sure, after she's married she would conceive and hopefully have a family. Hopefully one of the children would be a son. And Jesus is actually a very common name. And so the angel says, "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus." And it begins to dawn on Mary that the angel is talking about now, not later after married, but now.
And in verse 32 he begins to describe this: "This son that you will bear, He will be great," literally, megas. He will be a mega son with a mega life and a mega influence, and be given a mega mission with a mega message. Everything will be, like, on steroids with this son, the influence that He will have upon the world. "And He will be born in Nazareth." I mean, nothing has ever come out of Nazareth of any significance.
But the angel goes on to say, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. "Most High" is an Old Testament title for God, and it stresses His sovereignty and His supreme authority towering over the entire universe. He is the Most High. There is no one on His level and there is no one above Him. He is the Most High God, the Creator of heaven and the earth, and the sustainer of all life and all that there is. "And your son who will be born will be the Son of the Most High. He will be the Son of God." This is extraordinary! He will be of the very same essence of God as His Father. He will be God incarnate! What an unexpected message this is.
And then we read, "and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David." Because Joseph is in the Davidic line and in the royal line, though he will not be the legal father; nevertheless, he will be positioned to sit on the throne of His father David. He will be of Davidic descent. And on top of that, not only will He sit on a throne, the angel says, "and He will reign. He will exercise supreme authority over the house of Jacob." "The house of Jacob" refers to the nation Israel, the ethnic Jewish people.
"He will reign over the house of Jacob" – the twelve tribes of Israel; and notice this – "forever." David sat on that throne and he died and was no longer on the throne. And his son sat on that throne, Solomon; but he died and he no longer was seated on that throne. And other kings sat on it. But when this Son sits on this throne, He will never usurp the throne. He will sit on it forever throughout all of the ages to come. What a child! And then he adds at the end of verse 33, "and His kingdom will have no end." The kingdom will be forever, and the King will be forever, this son that you are to bear."
Now, to fully understand the significance of this, I need you to turn back to one Old Testament passage, back to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 7, and the promise that was given to David from God through the prophet Nathan. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, beginning in verse 12, this is what God said to David through the prophet Nathan. And we read, beginning in chapter 12 of 2 Samuel 7, "When your days are complete" – that is saying, "David, when you die and you lie down with your fathers – meaning you will be placed in the grave just like your fathers were placed in the grave – I" – God is the direct speaker – "I will raise up your descendant after you. There will be a son who will come from you, David, who will come forth from you, and I will establish His kingdom." This son who would come after David was Solomon. And God is saying, "I will firmly establish your son's kingdom."
Verse 13, "And he shall build a house for My name," – referring to the temple, Solomon's temple, a house of worship – "and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." Now Solomon did not live forever in his human existence in this life as we know it; but yet, the throne of David and the kingdom of David will last forever, though Solomon will no longer live to be upon the throne. Verse 14, "I," – God is a speaker – "I will be a father to him" – to Solomon – "and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity," – and Solomon committed many iniquities, did he not, and had many wives – "I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men." And so God has said, "I will be a father to him, and I will discipline him when he does wrong."
Verse 15, "but My lovingkindness – My hesed love, My loyal allegiance – shall not depart from him," – Solomon – "as I took it away from Saul," – who was the first king of Israel – "whom I removed from the throne before you." "You" refers to David the second king of Israel. Verse 16, "Your house" – referring to David's house – "and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; and you're throne shall be established forever." And it was the promise that one day there would come the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, who would sit upon the throne of David and rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. And it would be a reign that would endure forever. So this Messiah who will come will have an eternal reign forever over the Jewish people. So come back now to Luke 1.
So, this is what Gabriel has said to Mary that "You will bring the Messiah into this world, and He will be the Son of God, the Son of the Most High. And He will be the one who will sit on the throne of His forefather David; and when He assumes that throne, He will reign forever and ever, there will be no end to His government."
So, we come to verse 34 in Luke 1, and I want you to see, third, "the unexpected miracle." So the question is, "How? How is Mary going to conceive this son when she's unmarried? How?"
So, verse 34, "Mary said to the angel, 'How? How can this be, since I am a virgin?'" She understands that the angel is saying, "This is going to happen to you now, before you are married." "So how is this going to happen? Because I'm a virgin." And literally in the Greek language this reads, "I do not know a man. I have never had an intimate, physical relationship with a man. How could this possibly happen? It's impossible."
Verse 35, "The angel and answered and said to her," – and what an answer this is – 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you.'" Wow. Clearly, this is saying that "The Holy Spirit will impregnate you. The Holy Spirit will sire the child that is in you. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and will overpower you; and the Holy Spirit will, by the omnipotence that belongs to Him as God alone, will bring this miracle to pass. No, it will not be Joseph who will sire this child, this will be the Holy Spirit of God. And the power of the Most High will overshadow you, like a cloud passing overhead and casting its shadow on the terrain of the ground." This is figurative language, and this is so beautifully discreet. There's almost a veil that is drawn over how this happened, and Gabriel communicates this in the most delicate of ways.
The Holy Spirit does not have a body. The Holy Spirit does not have a physical body with physical organs, so it will not be like any other conception that has ever happened. The Spirit is an incorporeal being without a physical body. But in the mystery of the invisible world of God, it will be the Holy Spirit who will create in the womb of Mary sinless humanity that will be joined to eternal deity, such that none of His deity was ever lost, was ever given up. He will voluntarily choose not to exercise all of His divine prerogatives as God during His incarnation here upon the earth; but He will remain fully God, truly God, perfectly God, while at the same time, now taking on the limitations of sinless humanity. And so metaphorically speaking, "The Spirit of the Most High God will overshadow you," almost like the glory cloud, the shekinah glory passing over Mary, creating life in the womb that did not previously exist.
And we read in verse 35, "and for that reason," – meaning the reason of the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit – "for that reason the holy Child, the holy Child shall be called the Son of God." Wow. There's a lot here. Define the virgin birth and you'll lose your mind, deny the virgin birth and you'll lose your soul.
The holy Child. There there's never been once a holy child. Every one of us here today, when we were born, when we were conceived in our mother's womb, we came forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. David said, "We inherited the sin nature at the moment of conception." Nine months before we entered into this world, the poison of sin was already in us and had permeated the whole of our psyche and of our being, from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. The cyanide of sin was in us, was death within us. But this child, the conception would be different. It would not be by a human father, where this sin nature would be passed down from Adam; it would be the flawlessly perfect Holy Spirit would create the sinless humanity of Christ, and the result would be the holy Child.
Not even Adam was born holy. Adam was born innocent. This child is born holy because He is sired by the Holy Spirit, resulting in the God-man. Jesus, mystery of mystery, was the earthly son of a heavenly Father, and the heavenly son of an earthly mother. The day He was born, He was older than His mother, yet younger – the holy Child.
And so, the Holy Spirit created two things. The Holy Spirit created a human body and a human soul. He created a human body, Hebrews 10:5 tells us that, "a body You have prepared for Me," a body just like your body and my body, a body that has to eat and drink, a body that grows tired and weary, a body that has to sleep, a body that has to rest, and a body that can die. And this is why Jesus had to be born of a virgin, because He had to die for our sins; and God cannot die. So He had to have sinless humanity to be joined to His eternal deity so that He could die upon the cross and shed real blood to make an atonement for our sins upon the cross.
So God created a body, a body that would be an embryo in the womb, a body that would be delivered out of the womb, a body that would grow and increase in size and in age. And inside this human body created by the Holy Spirit would be a human soul, a soul with a human mind, affections, will; a soul that can be sad; a soul that can rejoice.
And we read in the next chapter of Luke in Luke 2:40, "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." He had to study. He had to read. He had to learn. He had to memorize. He had to grow in wisdom to know how to apply Scripture to His life and the situations.
And then in this same chapter of Luke 2, verse 52, "And Jesus kept increasing." He wasn't static, He was developing in His humanity. "He kept increasing in wisdom." That is, how to apply biblical truth to real-life situations. "He kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men."
This is an incomprehensible miracle that God has performed in the womb of Mary, that the eternal Son of God will become the Son of Man, to identify Himself with us, to get into our shoes, to get into our skin, and to be faced with every temptation that will be thrown at you and me, and yet have to rely upon what you and I rely upon to resist that temptation, to rely upon the word of God and the Spirit of God, as Jesus would grow in wisdom and in stature.
And it had to be this way, because by His virgin birth, Jesus became our perfect Savior. He became our perfect mediator, because a mediator is one who stands in the middle between two parties that are irreconcilable and becomes the peacemaker to bring these two parties together. But a mediator must be equal to both sides. And so Jesus had to be truly God, truly man, because He must represent man to God, and He must represent God to man. No one else could have stood in the middle but this virgin-born Son who would go to the cross to die for us. No angel could have stood in the middle, and no prophet, no apostle. No one else could have stood in the middle and been our Savior. No false teacher, no cult leader, no one else ever born on the planet earth could have ever been the one that Jesus is, the God-man, to stand in the middle. And He had to become a man in order to die for our sins. He had to become a man in order to become the second Adam, to reverse the curse, to undo what the first man did to us. By his disobedience, he opened the floodgate for sin to come into the world; and the curse of Holy God was upon the human race because of the sin of one man who stood as our representative. And so Jesus, in order to undo what Adam did, Jesus had to stand where he stood, yet choose to obey, in order to secure the blessing for us, and to remove the curse. So He became the second Adam. No angel could be that. Only one who is God who enters the human race, and is yet without sin. Did you see the profundity of what God is doing?
And further, Jesus had to become a man in order to reveal the Father to us. We cannot see God. God is a spirit being; He does not have a physical body. God is right here in this room right now in our very midst. Every square inch, God is here, but we can't see Him. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us in a physical body that we can see. Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God." He is the icon of the invisible God. And as Jesus became man, He would become the great expositor of His own law, and He would be the great teacher and walk among us, and open the law of Moses and give the true interpretation of the Scripture.
No, this is extraordinary what we are looking at – the virgin birth. This isn't a little side peripheral truth tucked away in the Bible that plays a small part in redemptive history. No, this is the very ground, the very foundation upon which the cross rests. Take away the virgin birth, and the whole of Christianity comes crashing down.
So this leads us then to verse 36, "the unexpected sign, the unexpected sign." Verse 36, "And behold," – here's that word again – "behold." This this could be the gospel of behold. It's in verse 20, verse 31, verse 36, verse 38. It's just a thread that keeps being woven through the tapestry of this first chapter.
"Behold, fix your mind on this." And this is meant to encourage Mary, to bolster her confidence and her faith. "And behold, even your relative Elizabeth" – now, how they are relatives, we do not know; they're just of the same family. "Your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age." Well, Mary knows that Elizabeth has been barren her whole life and she now is past the stage of her life to be reproductive, and there's really no chance she's going to have a child. And now Gabriel says, "Listen, God has done something in your relative Elizabeth. God has created life in her dead womb. She has conceived a son in her old age." It's another miracle. And this is intended to bolster the faith of Mary that God is a make-it-happen God. God can do this. "And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month."
And now this extraordinary statement in verse 37. Let this be plastered on the forefront of our mind: "For nothing will be impossible with God." Literally, God will not be without power. Whatever is in the heart of God to do, He can do it. God never overpromises and underdelivers. "Nothing will be impossible with God. God can create life in the barren womb of Elizabeth; so therefore, God can create the Son of the Most High in your womb."
We need to be reminded of this truth, that nothing is impossible with God. No prayer that we ever bring before the throne of grace is impossible for God to answer. The only question is, "Is it His will?" No heart is impossible for God to convert. The only question is, "Is it within His will?" No circumstance is impossible for God to overturn. No door is impossible for God to open. No opposition is possible for God to route. God majors in the impossible.
And this ought to bolster our faith, just as it was intended to do to Mary. And whatever seems to be impossible right now in your life, if it is the will of God. God can bring it to pass. God's purposes can never be thwarted. And the right arm of the Lord cannot be resisted. He overpowers all. And I think sometimes we think like in spiritual warfare that it's a tug-of-war between two equal powers. Oh, no! God is the superpower; the devil is, as Martin Luther once called him, God's devil that God uses for His own purposes. God but flexes His muscle and it comes to pass.
And so finally in verse 38, "the unreserved submission." What would be Mary's response? What would be your response: "I need more information. I need to go home and pray about it. I need to go talk to Joseph. I need to understand the hypostatic union of Christ. I have some doctrinal questions. I have some theological questions. I can't say yes with a clear conscience until You untie all the knots that are between my two ears and You explain to me the virgin birth, okay?"
That's not how Mary responds. We've got to love Mary. Notice the first word is" and." That tells us this is a continual flow in this narrative story. Without hesitation, immediately she responds with, "Yes." And Mary said, "Behold." Mary's now talking like an angel. Mary's now speaking with tongues of angels. Now she's mimicking Gabriel. "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord. That's what I am; I just report for duty. God is my Master. You tell me what to do. I don't need to understand it. I'm certainly not going to negotiate it. You make Your will known to me, and it's done."
"Bondslave" here is the Greek word doulos. That really means "slave." "I'm the Lord's slave, and He is my Master; and no slave ever had a more gracious and wise Master than what I have in the Most High God. Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done. Just do it, God. My life is on the altar. I'm presenting my life as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable unto God, which is my spiritual service of worship. God, my life is on the altar; and if this is what You have called me to do, then may it be done. I don't need any more information; You have spoken, I now respond. May it be done according to Your word." And it is always according to Your word. It's not according to our feelings, it's not according to our spiritual goosebumps, but it is according to the word, the objective word of God. The answer must always be, "May it be done to me."
And so the end of verse 38, "And the angel departed from her." It was a short meeting with a long flight, short meeting. Five minutes? I don't know. But as soon as he appeared, he disappeared. The message had been delivered, the message had been received, and Mary is all on board.
So let me ask you this: "Where are you today spiritually with the Lord? Are you sitting on ready to do whatever is the will of God for your life?" We must be. And I don't know what is hard for you in your life, but whatever is the will of God, you must proceed, you must do it. You may be caring for an elderly parent, and that's hard, but you've got to press on. You may be single and wanting to be married; you've got to press on until God's plan unfolds. You may be married and wanting to be single; you're just going to have to press on, because nothing is impossible with God. The only limitation is with you and me, but not with God.
Now as I bring this to a conclusion, I want you to know that to enter into the kingdom of God, you too must experience a miraculous birth. You too must be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. You too must come under the sway of the power of the Most High God. You must be born again, which is a miraculous birth. It's not the virgin birth, but it is what God the Holy Spirit must do within your soul in order to enter into the kingdom of God.
Listen, you can walk an aisle in a church and not be born again. You can mimic a prayer and not be born again. You can join a church and be baptized and not be born again. The only way to enter into the kingdom of God is for you to be the object of a miraculous birth where the Holy Spirit of God passes over your soul and impregnates your soul, and there is the conception of life eternal life within you. The word of God must be planted like a seed within you. And that Greek word is sperma. It must be planted within your barren soul, and for God then to cause that seed of the word of life to come to life; and you are birthed into the kingdom of God. That's what must happen in your life.
And I would assume for most of us here today, I would make the reasonable assumption that most of you are born again. But I could never assume that everyone here today is born again. Jesus said, "Truly, truly I say unto you, unless you are born again you will not see the kingdom of heaven." He said, "Truly, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." He said, "That which is born of flesh is flesh," – that's your physical birth – "and that which is born of Spirit is spirit." – that's your second birth – "Do not marvel that I say to you, 'Yust be born again.'" And so just as powerfully as the Holy Spirit worked in the womb of Mary to create the sinless nature of Christ and a human body, so the Spirit of God must work in you and create new life, and create repentance, and create faith in you that enables you to call upon the name of the Lord.
If you have never called upon the name of Christ to save you, this message today should be a clarion call to you, that you need this sinless Savior, the perfect Savior Jesus Christ, to rescue you. There's never been anyone else like Him, and there never will be anyone else like Him. He is the only way to the Father. There is salvation in no one else; for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
I trust that you have laid hold of this perfect Savior by faith. This is something that you must do. No one else can do it for you. I cannot believe for you. If I could, I would; but I cannot. Your spouse cannot believe for you. Your parents cannot believe for you. Each and every one of us must personally and individually "Commit my life to Christ" as a decisive act of your will. And so, may God be at work overshadowing your heart and overpowering you to bring you to this point surrender. May you say today, "May it be done to me, Lord." Let us pray.
[Prayer] Father, what a glorious passage this is, a glorious passage concerning our Savior. And our hearts are filled and are full to overflowing, and we are, really, like Mary, stunned in many ways at the extraordinary wisdom of Your plan of salvation for us. Bring this home to our hearts, each and every one of us, in Christ's name. Amen. [End]
I'm going to ask you to stand for the closing benediction. I normally have you seated, but you've got to stand. I'm still in a preaching mode. Receive the benediction: "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." God bless you.
