InPerspective

Harry Reeder: He grew in favor with God. This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. As in His humanity, He took obedience step after obedience step and did not sin. And those brothers and sisters, they wanted an argument. He said, "No, only such a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment."

And what will that cause? That will cause Him not only to grow in wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with man. Can you imagine the neighbors? Mary and Joseph, I tell you, your Son is like He dropped out of heaven.

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Today, we continue with Dr. Reeder's series on the Apostles' Creed.

The angel appeared to Joseph and proclaimed the fulfillment of Isaiah's Old Testament prophecy centuries before. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which means God with us. God's glory, God's salvation, and even God Himself have come to us in the miraculous conception, virgin birth, and incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder takes us to Matthew chapter one and verses 18 through 25 as he brings us part two of the message, "Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary."

Harry Reeder: Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, buried, descended into hell. All of those are taking you through His humiliation to save you. Then comes His exaltation. On the third day, He rose again. He ascended into heaven and He is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

You not only have the flow of humiliation to exaltation, which, by the way, is our life, isn't it? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you at the right time. And so, here is Jesus' humiliation for our salvation, His exaltation because of our salvation, and also you get ten statements of what He did to save you. Then you get three statements of what He will do to complete you and bring you to glory.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified. He was dead. He was buried. He descended into hell. Now, on the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. That's what He has done. That's history. Now comes what He will do to complete what He did: He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.

But it starts with the conception and the birth. These 13 statements—none of them are the gospel, but every one of them is necessary for there to be a gospel. No one of them is the gospel, but every one of them is crucial that you have a gospel. Who He is and what He's done. And He can't suffer and die and be raised and go to a grave. He can't do that savingly unless He has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

And that's where we start. Let me just give you three thoughts around it and then a takeaway. Here's the first thought with it. "Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary" is here because it affirms and explains Scripture, specific Scripture passages. Do you remember in Matthew chapter one, Joseph is in a quandary? Mary is with child. They haven't been together. They haven't been with each other. She's with child.

That means he doesn't want to embarrass her. But out of righteousness' sake, he can't affirm this with marriage of her. He decides he's going to divorce her secretly. And then, an angel says, "Don't fear. Don't fear. I know you're working through this. Let me tell you why. What you think is true is not true. Let me tell you what's true. The child she has is one that has been conceived within her womb, and it is the gift and power of the Holy Spirit that has placed this child that is there."

This child is none other than the Son of God, Immanuel. You'll call Him Yeshua because God has come to save. You'll call Him Immanuel because God has come to save by being one of us and with us. And that's the way he directs Joseph. And then he says, "Joseph, no wild tale here. You've already known about this. Remember growing up and you were taught Isaiah 7:14? Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall give birth to a son, and you shall call His name Immanuel, for He will save His people from their sins."

This affirms and explains the Scripture. It not only affirms and explains the Scripture of Isaiah 7:14, it affirms and explains Genesis 3:15. What seems to be nonsense all of a sudden makes sense. Because as the curse of sin falls upon humanity, God says to Eve that He will put enmity between her seed and the seed of the serpent. But her seed shall crush the head of the serpent though His heel is bruised.

Now, which is the lethal blow? The head or the heel? The head. But it'll cost: bruise the heel. But now wait, hold it. This doesn't make sense. Why? Women don't have seed. Women don't have seed. This seems to be nonsensical. But now it's affirmed and explained. The woman, Mary. Mary has seed, not from Joseph and the line of Adam. She has seed that the Holy Spirit has brought and implanted this zygote.

Son of God, Son of Man. In her womb, fastened to the umbilical cord, nourished from her body, bearing the DNA of her body. And He will be born with flesh and blood and all the weaknesses of that flesh and blood that we have. He will be born with it and without sin because He has no sin nature from Adam's seed.

But with all of the weaknesses we face with a human body and a reasonable soul, He'll be tempted at every point like unto us. He will go through every point of life like unto us. Could Mary and Joseph have gotten married and come home one day and at their doorstep is a little basket with a baby in it that says, "Hi, name Jesus. My name's Gabriel. I left this here. This is Jesus. You raise Him up"? Sure. Could have done that. Miraculously.

Or how about just at age 30, there's a knock on the door? "Hi, I'm Jesus." Remember Jesus has had appearances. He wasn't a man, but He had appearances as a man. They call them Christophanies in the Old Testament. Couldn't Jesus have just showed up at age 30 and said, "You know, at age 30, I can be the Messiah, Prophet, Priest, and King. So I'm going to go get baptized, but first I'm showing up here. You're my adopted father and mother." Could He have showed up there at age 30? Yeah.

But then that would not have fulfilled the Scripture. For number one, He's got to be of David's line. The Scripture says so. He's got to be of the tribe of Judah. He's got to be of Abraham, and He's got to be of Adam's race. So you get two genealogies to affirm that that Old Testament Messiah promise is fulfilled. By a man comes death; by a man comes a resurrection of the dead.

Can I give you a practical thing? Now I can minister to all these teenagers and college students. I can minister to all of them, and I can say to them, "I know you're going through a tough time, but Jesus said there is nothing taking you that is not common to man, and He was tempted at every point like you." He didn't show up at age 30. He came as a zygote. He was birthed. He had a childhood. He grew in wisdom. Can't you imagine it?

"Mom, I got my catechism." "Good job, Jesus." And by the way, "I also did my geometry." Well, they didn't have that back then, but something like it, whatever they had. He grew in wisdom. He grew in stature. "Hey, Dad. Hey, those beams you carry? I can carry them." Guess what beams one day He'll carry. "I can carry them now. Can I go to work with you tomorrow? Look how tall I am now, Dad."

He grew in favor with God. "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased." As in His humanity, He took obedience step after obedience step and did not sin. Mother made the cookies. She said, "Don't get them." He didn't sneak it out. And those brothers and sisters, they wanted an argument. He said, "No, only such a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment." And not only grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with man.

Can't you imagine the neighbors? Mary and Joseph, I tell you, your Son is like He dropped out of heaven. He comes over and helps me out. I watch Him with His brothers and sisters. I see Him. Man, y'all have done some significant parenting. He grew in favor with God. He grew in favor with man. He was a real man from a real zygote through development, down a birth canal, with a real birth, not a supernatural birth. It's a supernatural conception.

It was a real birth. With all due respect to "Away in a Manger," "no crying He made" is probably not accurate. He did what every other baby does and yelped for that first breath. But that's not when His life began. And the Bible's clear to you on this. The one who can redeem life begins life where life begins: conceived in the womb.

The reason it has to be a virgin is not because the marriage bed is not holy. It's not because there's something sinful about the intimacy of a marriage bed. When David says, "In sin my mother conceived me," he is not speaking of the marital act. He is saying the sin record you get from Adam begins at conception because you begin at conception. There's life right there. And so He is a man to save men and women from their sins, and He comes when men and women begin their life: conceived by the Holy Spirit.

And you can go to Him. He was a teenager. He was a child. I'm sure He graduated from synagogue school. I'm sure He went through all of that. And you can call upon Him. And everywhere you go in life, there's no virgin territory. His footsteps are there. And you can speak to Him. This is the one who has come to save us from our sins.

Well, I've got to just give you these other two headings and I'm out of time, so let me just give it to you very quickly. Secondly, He affirms and explains the preceding affirmations. In other words, now you see how can this historical Jesus be the Christ? Because He's the Son of God. Well, how can the Son of God be a Christ? Because by a man comes death; by a man must come the resurrection of the dead. And this is the one that's eternal.

Remember what He said to the Pharisees? "Before Abraham was, I AM." This is the one who in the beginning was with God, who was God, and always will be God. He has now come in the flesh. And so this one is now Jesus the Christ our Lord, is the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us. And this one who is God with us has come to save us from our sins. He has humbled Himself and is now exalted. It's the only case of humiliation by subtraction.

Humiliation by addition. Most of the time we think of humiliation as something I give up. It is, but it's more than that with Jesus. Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held onto, but emptied Himself—not of Godhead, but of its privileges. Emptied Himself. That's subtraction. Next phrase: and took upon Himself to be found in appearance as a man. That's addition. That was humiliation as deity became humanity while maintaining deity.

So, away with the Socinians, away with the Arians, the Arius heresy, and away with all the cults. Jesus is not a man who lived a great life so God made Him God. This is Jesus is God becoming a man. Not man becoming God. God becoming a true man so that He could save us from our sins because by a man came death; by a man comes the resurrection of the dead.

Thirdly, He affirms and explains the gospel provisions and assurances. When I was in Charlotte, some of you are aware that I had a relationship that preceded my privilege to be a pastor at Briarwood, and that was the relationship that I enjoyed as a church planter from Briarwood when I went to Charlotte. And while I was there in Charlotte, there was an Episcopalian priest who actually used to be a Baptist. And he chose the wrong seminary.

He not only left being a Baptist, but worse than that, he left Christian theology for theological liberalism, which is not a subset of Christianity; it is anti-Christian. His name was John Shelby Spong. And he wrote a book, and in the book, here's what he said: "Evangelical Christianity is nothing more than what the first-century followers of Christ wanted to be true, and that is pagan myths. Thus, the Bible has a pagan myth of God's entrance into humanity. It's called the incarnation, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. And then you have to have a pagan myth for the exit. It's called the resurrection and the ascension."

What we say is the conception and birth of Jesus was a gospel blessing that brings gospel assurances that Jesus can save because He is truly man and He is the new Adam because He is God having come in the flesh to save us from our sins. The miracle, I repeat, is not a virgin birth. The miracle is a virgin gave birth because of the miraculous conception of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible doesn't give us a whole lot of details on this, but I love the phrase that is used. I can just hear Mary, "You know, I took Biology 101 and how can this be? I'm still a virgin. How can this be?" And what does the angel say? "Mary, power of the Holy One, the Holy Spirit, shall overshadow you. Shall overshadow you."

We don't know a thing about Mary before this happens until Gabriel comes and identifies her as the favored one. She doesn't merit this. She hasn't had an immaculate conception for her birth. Just like she said, "I've given birth to my Savior." That's who this is. She is a godly woman, there is no doubt about that. She has been faithful to the Word of God to maintain her sexual purity until marriage. But this is one that we know nothing about until the Spirit of God sends the angel of God.

And the angel of God comes before her to tell her that the Spirit of God will overshadow her. And then she says, not "I'll do it," she says, "Let it be done to me as you have said." And just as Joseph does not contribute, neither does Mary. It is the work of the Spirit of God in the conception, and then the virgin is maintained her virginity and then gives birth to the glory of God.

So what is the takeaway? Here it is. God—and we're going to keep building on these as we work our way through these 13 declarations—God has come to us not only to seek us. You know what Jesus said? "I have come to seek and to save the lost." But He didn't come just to seek us. He came to save us. God has not only come to seek us but to save us from our sins.

Our only contribution to salvation are the sins from which God by His grace saves us through Jesus the Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. If you ever thought that there's something we got to do to make this thing work, well, at least you would go to His adopted father and His appointed mother. But then when we go there, we find out they are passive just like we are passive in our salvation.

I am not saying Christians who are saved are passive. Oh no, no, no. We love what Jesus teaches. We're hungering for His word. We want to obey Him. But our obedience is never more but gloriously is the evidence of our salvation, not a contribution to our salvation. And it's true of Joseph and Mary just as it's true of us. That He came to seek us and to save us because He has loved us to save us from our sins.

When He has come for us, then we can be saved by His grace and for His glory. Folks, I love the Advent season. I think it's a great opportunity for outreach. It's not binding on the conscience and never should be, but it's a great outreach and I love to use it. That's fine. But what we had—we didn't have Christmas in December. We didn't have Christmas in June. What we had was Christmas in the Apostles' Creed, Christmas in the gospel is what we've got.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Who? Jesus the Christ, our Lord, our Savior. And He was born of the Virgin Mary. He's come to save us, to be one of us and among us and to be with us, so you can be with Him. But I will tell you this. Every Christmas season, I see people busily buying Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, Christmas events, and they have no intention of worshipping the Christ of Christmas.

But I want you to know something. We have every intention to seek them that they may know the one who came to save them. That's our intention because that was the intention that brought us to Christ as God came to save us through His Son. I know you know His name is Jesus, Yeshua, God saves. I know you know what His name means. But I don't know—but you know. Not do you know what His name means, but do you know Him as your Savior? He was conceived by the Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. What's the next thing? To suffer for you.

Guest (Male): You are listening to InPerspective, featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Our current sermon series: "I Believe: The Apostles' Creed in Biblical Perspective." For additional teaching by Dr. Reeder, visit InPerspective.org. Jesus told us, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and strength." Does that describe you? Recommit to that charge with this month's free InPerspective gift offer. It's Dr. Reeder's series, "Cultivating a Heart for God."

We will be pleased to afford this resource when you call 1-800-488-1888 or visit our website, InPerspective.org. Your prayer support as well as your financial support are both vital for us to continue with this ministry and with Dr. Reeder's insightful biblical teaching over the radio and the internet. You can make a single contribution or, better yet, become a monthly donor. Contact us through InPerspective.org, call 1-800-488-1888, or mail a gift to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601.

The message you have just heard, as well as audio, books, and more from Dr. Reeder and many other reformed teachers, authors, and speakers, are available at ReformedResources.org. That's ReformedResources.org. And once again, for a copy of this month's free gift offer, "Cultivating a Heart for God," call 1-800-488-1888. Pontius Pilate gave the people a choice, and their choice: rejecting Jesus and setting Barabbas free. Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder explains why every person today must also choose what to do with Jesus Christ. That's next time as we turn back to the Scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.