In this enlightening episode, explore the profound theological insights regarding the lineage of Jesus Christ and its significance in fulfilling biblical prophecy. We delve into the genealogical records in the books of Matthew and Luke, uncovering the miraculous fulfillment of age-old promises despite the curses upon certain royal lines. Discover how the divine plan of salvation necessitated Jesus’ virgin birth and how it defied human lineage expectations, vividly illustrating the power of God’s redemption plan.
We’ll be right back. Again, that’s 7028 Westwaters Avenue, Suite 316, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Feel free to send Dr. Arnold your questions or comments to yankee at yankeearnold.com, and he will respond as quickly as possible. Now, here is Dr. Arnold with today’s message.
SPEAKER 01 :
How is the Messiah ever going to claim the throne because he’s the king of Judah and nobody in this line can claim the throne of Israel? So this was mentioned before God revealed the answer. Now if you will look there in chapter 23 and verse 5. Look in verse 5. Here is the answer to the problem. But God didn’t tell you how he was going to do it yet, but it’s an answer. Because he said, I’m going to have someone come that will be my righteous branch. In other words, everybody that is a tree that brings forth bad fruit, he’s going to cut down. So that means all have sinned and all will be cut down. The ax is laid to the root of the tree. And everybody is a sinner, so everybody is cut down. But God says, I’ve got a tender plant that’s going to grow up. And this little plant is going to grow up into be a tree, a fruitful tree, a righteous tree. And all of his fruit will be good fruit. He won’t have any bad fruit. And he’s the one that’s going to be my righteousness. Look there in verse 5. Behold, the days come. Sayeth the Lord that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name. whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now, in the New Testament, we have several places where the Bible says Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God has come down. And Bible says that this righteousness is unto all, but upon all them that believe. So God’s righteousness is what we need. And so God says, I’m going to bring my righteousness into the world. And his righteousness is going to be his son. Now, look very quickly in the book of Psalms. Just look there in the book of Psalms, chapter 2. And you’ll notice something written here in verse, the second Psalm. And look in verse 1. And verse 1 says, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. Against the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah, and his anointed. That’s his Christ. This is the one that’s going to come into the world. So here in the second Psalm, we have a verse that talks about God’s having a son. And this is the righteous branch that’s going to come. And the reason that he has to be of a virgin-born child is is because the child cannot have an earthly man as its father. Because of the line, there is a curse put upon the line. And unless God works out a miracle, there’s no way anyone after that can claim the throne of Israel. So, how is God going to perform this miracle? Well, I’m glad you asked. Now, if you’ll notice there in chapter 2, look in verse 7. In verse 7, he says, I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now when you read the book of Hebrews in chapter 1, you’ll know that this son is talking about Jesus Christ. So did David, whom God used to write this psalm here in a thousand years in advance, know that God had a son? And that the son, the anointed one, was the Messiah. And that the sun was coming into the world. And why do the heathen rage? So when you read in the book of Acts in chapter 4, I believe it is, that it says that the foolish people gathered themselves together against his anointed. And talking about them. And then in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 2, it says, If the princes of this world were so wise, why did they crucify the Lord of glory? But you see, God prophesied in advance and tells us that he had a son. And that’s why he says down here in verse 11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. And look at verse 12, kiss the son. lest ye be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Remember a promise that was made to Abraham in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, that when he called him out of the ear of the Chaldeans, and he says, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them which curse thee. And then all the families of the earth will be blessed because of thee. That the seed that comes from you, Abraham, and Abraham, and all the way down the line, there’s going to be some child that’s going to be born down the road in whom the world will be blessed because of this child. Well, this is what he’s saying, blessed. And that word blessed, when you read it in the book of Galatians in chapter 3, is a reference to believing on Jesus Christ because he would be the one to make the payment for the sins of the world. Because it makes this statement that the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And this blessing is the righteousness of God that comes upon the believer. It is the lost man being justified by faith. So here in verse 12 of Psalms 2 is the gospel that you’re justified, saved, made righteous by faith alone in the Son. See, God told about it, but people don’t seem to catch it. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of Proverbs. Look in Proverbs. In chapter 30, I believe, the book of Proverbs says, And notice there in chapter 30 and verse 4. He makes a statement in verse 4. Who hath ascended up into heaven? Or descended? Now this is found in several places in the New Testament. Who hath gathered the wind in his fist? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is his son’s name? If thou canst tell. Well, he’s named after his father. You know, most people name their kids after them. That whenever it says a child is born unto us, a son is given and his government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Well, that’s what he’s going to be called. How can you call him the Everlasting Father unless he has an everlasting son? So evidently they might be the same age. But then can anything have age if it lasts for eternity? Betty asked me a nice interesting question today. I’m not sure if I can remember it right. But if we live here for so many years and we live in eternity for so long, when is middle age? Can you imagine somebody would ask me a question like that? When is middle age? Well, I don’t really know. Compared to eternity, it’s not that long. Not going to be long at all. So the Bible tells us that this is what’s going to take place. Now go back there to the book of Jeremiah. Back to Jeremiah. And let me see if I can find that verse that I wanted to show you. In Jeremiah… Look in chapter 30, no, 36, Jeremiah 36. And just take a look at this word. Because I showed it to you earlier, but I wanted to show it to you one more time because it’s so important. In verse 30, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David. So we know that this was going to happen. He’s not going to be able to sit upon the throne. So God had said this is what’s going to take place. Now look there in Jeremiah chapter 39. Jeremiah 39. And notice up there in verse 6. In verse 6 says, Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah and Riblah before his eyes. Also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. So who is going to claim the throne? You see, he took the king and this is what else he did. In verse 7, moreover, he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire and break down the walls of Jerusalem. So this is what he did. And he slew his… own sons right before his eyes. And then after he slew them so that he could see what he did to his sons, then he burned out his own eyes. He put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in chains. Now, did that have to happen? No, that happened because he was rebellious. He didn’t have to do what he did. He would not believe the prophet of God. He would not believe the word of God. He’d already done seen and heard what God did with Syria and the northern ten tribes. But they didn’t think it would happen to them. Well, we’re bad, but we’re not that bad. Oh, we’re bad, but we’re not that bad. Well, I guess God’s the one that determines how bad something is. So when you read the whole book of Habakkuk, the book of Habakkuk is just about this. Lord… Why are you doing what you’re doing? I mean, you’re going to use this nation to whoop us? Well, we’re better than them. And God says, I’m going to take them as a rod and I’m going to whoop you with it. And then when I get through, I’m going to whoop them for whooping you. God moves in strange and mysterious ways as wonders to perform. He plants his feet upon the clouds and rides upon the storm. So, as you go down through here, you can see some of these things. But now, how is God going to get out of this jam? He’s in a jam. Can you believe that? God’s trapped. How is he going to get a son born through the line from Solomon, David and Solomon, on down the line and get on the throne? Well, there was a way. Go back to Matthew. Go back to Matthew. And remember that there’s two things that has to be accomplished. One, there is a lineage of Jesus Christ found in the book of Matthew. And this is the lineage that goes all the way down to Joseph. And this is the one that comes from like Abraham and then David and then Solomon. And from Solomon on down the line to where we have Jeconiah who has an accursed line. And then lo and behold, on the other road, we just read it, Joseph. But Joseph couldn’t be the king. So how is Jesus going to be the king of Israel when he has to come from this line? So that’s why over in the book of Luke, It talks about something just a little bit different. See, it goes all the way back to Adam. And going back to Adam, because Jesus not only has to have a miraculous birth, He has to be the Son of God, yes, but He has to be the Son of Man to redeem man, all of man. It goes all the way back to the first man, Adam, and comes all the way down the line. But when you get to David… David had two sons. He had Solomon and he had Nathan. And you see, Joseph came through the line of Solomon. Mary came through the line of Nathan. So by these two individuals, Joseph and Mary, getting together and being married, but not in a relationship, Jesus could be born. But if he’s going to be born, it has to be a miracle birth. This is why a hundred and something years before the curse was down, the Bible says, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. She has to have a virgin birth. Means that she’s not to be touched by a man. So therefore the Bible says the Holy Spirit will come upon her and overshadow her and that holy thing shall be called the son of the highest. So it was God who fathered the child. Jesus was a son of God. And you have her in the right line from Solomon. Because God promised that through the line of David and through the line on down to Solomon, he confirmed it again. But then it came through this line because of the lineage. Because he has to be of the son of David. And he is. But by Joseph being in the right line, he has a curse put upon him. But Jesus is considered his son legally. But he wasn’t his father. So therefore, Jesus could be the son of God, the son of man. He can claim the throne of David and rule in Israel. and be the king, just like God promised. And nobody else could. Nobody else has the right to claim the throne except Jesus. So that’s why you have these two genealogies. One mentioned in the book of Matthew and one mentioned over there in the book of Luke. Go over there to the book of Luke. Look in Luke chapter 3. The book of Luke in chapter 3. Luke chapter 3 tells you about the genealogy of Mary here. And it makes a statement in verse 23, And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being, and get this, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, as was supposed. He wasn’t his son, but he was supposed to be his son. That’s why later on when Jesus says, my father, my father, keep talking about my father, my father, and it says, if Abraham were your father, if Abraham were your father, you would believe on me. And they said to him, we be not born of fornication, which was a slap in his face, like you. Because they knew his mother. They knew his dad. They knew Joseph. And they knew that she was found with child before they got married. So, you’re an illegitimate child. How would you like to live with that stigma? And you know it’s not true, but people believe it. What about Mary? What that would have been like for her? I have to live with that? Okay, Mary, explain what’s going on now. You what? Yeah, you have a baby. Mm-hmm. And you never had a relationship. No. Uh-huh. Would you have a problem trying to explain that? Or if somebody else was to say that, would you have trouble believing that? Well, it says here that the son of Joseph makes the statement, which was the son of Heli, and we believe this is talking about the son-in-law, which was the son of Mathat, and goes on down through Levi, all these things, goes all the way down, and lo and behold, you come down there to verse 31. Look in verse 31. Which was the son of Mele? Which was the son of Menan? Which was the son of Matatha? He says, which was the son of Nathan? Nathan. Wow, Nathan. See there? See there was, David had more than one son. He had a bunch. And there was Solomon, Nathan. So he’s in the right line. So it says here, which was the son of Nathan? Which was the son of David? And you notice down here in the last part of verse 33, the son of Judah. Judah going on back down. The son of Jacob. The son of Isaac. See, he has to be in the right line, the right family. So Mary was in the right line. But the king was supposed to come through the tribe of Judah through the line of Solomon. But he is in the right line. But it can jump over that curse here. Because, you see, he wasn’t of Jeconiah’s seed. He cursed the seed. So the Holy Spirit placed a holy seed inside of Mary’s womb. And that seed had no curse upon it. He didn’t have even a sinful nature. Therefore, he can claim the throne of Israel. And then you see up there in verse 38, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. So Jesus Christ has to be a son of God and he has to be the son of man. So when you read the gospels, you’ll hear Christ talk about the son of God, the son of God, the son of man, the son of man. Because you see, to pay for our sins, he has to be God because only God was perfect. But he has to be a man because he has to be a near kinsman redeemer. For example, if I had lived in Israel times and Old Testament times and there was James over there and He was a rich landowner and I’m poor, starving half to death and I ain’t got anything. And I said, look, how about me making a deal with you? I’ll work for you five years and I’ll be your servant for five years. But whenever, you know, I paid my debt, then I’m free to leave. If I can pay for it off earlier than that, fine, I can pay it. But I got to work five years if I don’t. And I can only be redeemed by a near kinsman. So I got a brother sitting here, and he’s my near kinsman. So after I done worked two years, man, I’m struggling. I can’t hardly make it, can’t pay my bills, and I’m really in hurtsville. And my brother, who has a compassionate heart, see, the near kinsman not only has to be a near kinsman, he has to be willing to pay it. You are willing, yes. He has to be willing to do it. He has to be able to do it. And so he can come and he can pay my debt and I can go free. That’s being redeemed. But that was the law in Israel and it was called a redeemer. So the one that has to pay for the sins of the world has to be a kinsman. Of the human race. So Christ has to come into the world and be a person, a human being. But he has to be able to pay the price. But the price for our sins is death. He has to be willing to pay that price. And then is he willing to pay that price for the whole world? And because he was willing, he loved the whole world, he was willing to make that payment for all the sins of all the world. And he died on the cross and he came back from the dead. And all that we have to do is believe that he did it. Now, if a little man was willing to pay it and wanted to pay it, I can keep working for him as long as I wanted to. I’d be dumb, a little stupid, but I can reject what’s being done. No, no, no, I’ll do it myself. And there’s a lot of people that don’t know how simple it is to be saved. That all they have to do, all they can do is simply believe that when Christ died, he died for them. He paid for my sins. And that’s all you have to believe. It’s the best news in all the world. So this is why you find the two genealogies mentioned. One through Mary in the book of Luke. And one through Joseph in the book of Matthew. And why Jesus had to have a virgin birth. Because he could not have a sinful nature by man. And God had put a curse upon the line. Therefore, by a virgin birth, the Holy Spirit placed the seed within the woman. And Jesus could be born of the right line because he was accepted as the son of Joseph legally, even though he was not the father. And therefore, he can claim the throne of his father, David. Look up here. Can you all follow this? You follow? I can repeat it again. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin upon us. Now God, he loves us, hates our sin. And for us to pay for it is eternal separation from the Lord. And that’s why we need a redeemer. Someone to pay our sin debt. What God says to go to heaven and its perfect place, you can’t go unless you’re perfect. And just to think for a moment, if there was no hell, if there was no hell, and you had to live in this world forever, eternally like you are, Did you know just not being able to get in, knowing that it’s there, that there’s a heaven and all that wonder and glory and joy and peace and happiness and all that for all eternity, just not being able to get in would be punishment enough. But there’s more punishment than just not getting into heaven. It’s going into hell. So the Bible says that God loves us and He wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. So God says, I’m going to send my righteousness into the world. So Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God that came into the world. That’s why God wants us to accept the righteousness he sent down. He does not accept the righteousness we send up. So Christ came into the world, born of a virgin, had no sin, didn’t have to die. But because he loved us and hated our sin, he took our sin. Paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. And said if we would believe that he did it for us. See, we have a redeemer. We have somebody who is willing to pay this price for us. So that we don’t have to be a slave of sin for all eternity. You see, whenever you die and you go to hell, you’re still a slave to that old sinful nature, that old flesh nature for all eternity. Don’t you think you’re still going to be filled with bitterness and hatred and all those sinful things that you could do forever and ever and ever? But once you trust Christ as your Savior, He puts this payment to your account, you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for you. That’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bowed, eyes closed, and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight or watching by internet, friend, I want more than anything else in the world for you to understand that the Lord loves you. And he proved that by making a payment for your sins. He died in your place so that you wouldn’t have to pay for your sins. We did it. We ought to pay it. But he made a payment for us. Would you believe he did it for you? I did. I believe he did it for me, and I believed that 53 years ago. I know I have eternal life. I know I’m going to heaven when I die because I can’t earn it, can’t work for it. It’s the gift of God. So with heads bowed and eyes closed and no one looking around, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you right now say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, and I will trust him right now as my Savior. Friend, if you’ll believe that and trust him, would you let me know by just slipping your hand up very quickly and putting it right back down. Not going to embarrass you, not going to have you forward, but right where you are. You know it all. Our Father, we thank you so much for giving us your word so that we can know these things. To know and understand why it had to be a virgin birth. Why there had to be two genealogies mentioned. And how come we can have such confidence and faith in your word and to be able to embrace it as truth. And to know that we have eternal life because we believed this message. You died for our sins. We thank you for that. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Have you ever heard that faith without works is dead? Or have you ever read James chapter 2? Does your faith produce good works? Some teach that if you don’t serve the Lord, you’re not saved. Is that true or false? Pastor Yankee Arnold has prepared just the right book with answers straight from the Bible. The book is called Gospel Driven Man, and Pastor Yankee wants to send it to you free of charge. Simply write to Pastor Yankee at Yankee Arnold Ministries, 7028 Westwaters Avenue, Suite 316, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And request the book or request by email at yankee at yankeearnold.com. That’s yankee at yankeearnold.com.
SPEAKER 04 :
Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound.
SPEAKER 01 :
we will be changed, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.
