SERMON TEXT: MATTHEW 1:18-25                    AUTHOR: DR. JERRY VINES

                                OUTLINE

Introduction

  I. Joseph's Dilemma
     A. His Tension Between Law And Love
     B. His Tension Between Conviction And Compassion

 II. Joseph's Dream
     A. The Cause Of Mary's Conception
     B. The Character Of Her Child
        1. His Humanity
        2. His Divinity

III. Joseph's Decision
     A. Faithful To The Will Of God
     B. Faithful To The Will Of God

                              SERMON TEXT

     I want you to turn in your Bible to the first chapter of the book
of Matthew and I'll begin reading today with verse 18 and probably I'll
read all of the verses this morning.  Beloved, I want to speak to you
this morning on the subject of gluttony.  Everybody I know is on a
diet.  I haven't met anybody in the last day or two who is not on a
diet.  I'm kind of like the fellow that said, By the time I eat my diet
I can hardly eat my regular meal.  That's the kind of diet I'm on most
of the time.  No, we're looking today at the verses in verse 18 and
following in the first chapter of Matthew which have to do with the
birth of the Lord Jesus.  So let's begin reading with verse 18...

     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 Spirit.

     19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to
         make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
         (That is, secretly.)

     20. 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 Spirit.

     21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
         JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

     22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was
         spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

     23. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a
         son, and they shall call him name Emmanuel, which being
         interpreted is, God with us.

     24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the
         Lord had bidden him, and too unto him his wife:

     25. And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son:
         and he called his name JESUS.

     Hundreds of years before the birth of the Lord Jesus there was a
prophet named Isaiah who made many wonderful predictions about the
birth of our Lord.  In the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah he gives
a picture of the cross of Jesus Christ as if he was an eyewitness when
it occurred.  On down in that Isaiah 53, Isaiah the prophet raises a
question.  He asks the question, Who, talking about the Lord, who shall
declare His, the Lord's, generation?  Well the answer to that question
hundreds of years afterward was answered by Matthew and in the first
seventeen verses of his gospel he answers the question, Who will
declare His generation?  So in the first seventeen verses we have the
blood line of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, having established that
Jesus Christ had a rightful claim upon the throne of Israel and a claim
to be the Messiah, he proceeds to give the birth of the Lord Jesus.

     Now, of course, we know that this genealogy in the first of
Matthew is given to us through Joseph.  There is another in Luke's
gospel that gives it to us through Mary.  In Matthew we have the legal
line of the Lord Jesus, in Luke we have the literal line of the Lord
Jesus.  In Matthew it is traced through Joseph, His legal father, in
Luke it is traced through Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, having done that, he comes to verse 18 and he says: Now the birth
of Jesus Christ.  The word translated "birth" is really the word
"genesis."  It's the same word that is used in Genesis 1:1: In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Well, you see, here
we have the genesis, not only of the heavens and the earth but the
earthly beginning of the one who created the heavens and the earth.

     Now Matthew gives us the birth of our Lord from the vantage point
of His earthly father Joseph.  We do not have a great deal about
Joseph.  In fact, Joseph seems to be one of the neglected characters in
the Christian story.  We really don't hear a great deal about this man
named Joseph.  He's kind of like men are today in weddings.  Now,
fellas, you do know, don't you, that you're just incidental to the
whole affair.  I mean when there's a wedding the bride is the star of
the show, they write up in the newspaper what she had on, they never
tell what the man had on.  He could have on blue jeans, nobody would
ever say anything about it.  And when the ceremony begins everybody's
looking at the bride.  He could come out barefooted, nobody would know
whether he had shoes on or not.  It's all from the perspective of the
bride.  Well Joseph is incidental it seems to the whole affair and yet
we're going to discover that Joseph played a very, very important role
in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     I was interested to observe several years ago that there is no
recorded words of Joseph in the gospel accounts.  Not one time are we
given a word that Joseph said.  Oh, I'm sure that Joseph spoke and yet
the Holy Spirit has chosen not to reveal a single word that Joseph
spoke.  I have a feeling that this was in character for Joseph.
Joseph, you remember, was the carpenter of Nazareth.  Joseph probably
was one of those strong, silent kind of men whose words were very few.
Now the Bible tells us that our words should be few.  Probably most of
us would be better off if we spoke less and listened more.  Probably
we'd be better off if our words were few also.  Sometimes there is
trouble when we say too many words.  Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is
immortal for the brevity of its words and yet for the impact of its
message.  I read some time ago that a government order concerning
cabbage had 26,000 words in it and yet somehow in one simply little
message that Lincoln gave, small in words, brief in words, it was
immortal in the message that it delivered.  Joseph had very little to
say, evidently, and yet Joseph was the kind of man that Mary was going
to need.  Mary was going to need a man just like Joseph to be her
husband.  She was going to need a man just like Joseph to take care of
her.  Jesus was going to need someone like Joseph to care for Him while
He was a baby.

     And, of course, you know this is the first of two Josephs that the
Father put in the way, in the life, of Jesus.  There was a Joseph at
His birth and there will be a Joseph at His burial.  You see, the Lord
Jesus had a heavenly Father and He also had an earthly legal father.
Every child needs two fathers.  Every child needs a heavenly Father but
every child needs an earthly father to teach them and to guide them and
to bring them up in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord.
Men, we cannot abdicate our responsibility as the spiritual priest in
our home.  We must be faithful to our children to lead them the way God
wants them to be led.  So what I want to do is talk a little bit about
Joseph and in connection with Joseph talk about the birth of the Lord
Jesus.

     I want to call your attention first of all in verses 18 and 19 to
Joseph's dilemma.  Here is a young man who is going to have a dilemma
in his life.  Now start off with me if you will with Joseph's problem.
It says here in verse 18: When as his mother Mary was espoused to
Joseph.  Now, of course, that gives us just a statement but there had
to be some background there probably, didn't there?  It's probably one
of the great love stories in all of the Bible.  There's Joseph, the
carpenter of Nazareth; here is Mary, dark hair, gorgeous dark eyes,
complexion kissed by the sun.  So from time to time maybe she would
drop by the carpenter's shop and see how Joseph was getting along.
Maybe they would walk the mountains and the valleys together and as
they walked love blossomed.  There's a statement over in Proverbs 30
that I've thought a lot about.  The writer there says there are several
things that are too wonderful for him, too hard for him to understand,
and one of them he said is the way of a man with a maid.  Somehow love
blossomed in that relationship.

     Now the Bible says here that before they came together he was
espoused to Mary the mother of Jesus.  Now the word "espoused" there
really is a word "betrothal."  Actually in Jewish marriages there was a
three-step process.  Now we normally don't follow that process, it's a
little bit different in our marriage process today.  But in Jewish
marriages there was a three-step process.  There was, first of all, the
engagement, or the contractual stage; secondly, there was the
betrothal, the trial stage; and then the marriage, which was the stage
of consummation.  Now in those days a young couple normally had nothing
to do with the contractual stage.  Sometimes the couple's parents would
agree when they were still little bitty children.  I mean the couple
just didn't even have anything to do with it.  Mom and dad would pick
out your husband for you.  How would you like that, girls?  Or they'd
pick out your wife for you.  How would you like that, guys?  I heard
about a little girl one time and someone said to her, she was about 3
or 4, somebody said to her, "Who are you going to marry when you grow
up?"  She said, "Donnie."  They said, "Well how do you know you're
going to marry Donnie?"  She said, "I've got to.  All the other boys
live across the street and mama won't let me cross the street."  Well,
when you were Jewish you had to marry who they picked out for you.

     Now the second stage though was the betrothal stage which is kind
of roughly equivalent to our engagement.  It lasted about a year, it
was a period of trial.  The couple would get acquainted with one
another, they would see if they would be compatible one with another.
Kind of like our engagement time.  Now, of course, you know what the
engagement time is don't you?  For a girl the engagement time is that
period of time between the lipstick and the broomstick.  So it's that
trial period to see if this thing is going to work out.  I read a
letter to Dear Abby several years ago.  Do you read Dear Abby?  Well
someone had written Dear Abby and said, "Dear Abby, I'm engaged to this
man and we're just getting ready to marry and I have just found that he
has a wooden leg.  Should I break it off?" Well the engagement time is
the time when you break it off if it's not working the way you think it
will.  Also, it was a time to be sure that both were pure and to be
sure that both were what God wanted them to be.  Could I encourage
every young person in this building this morning to make up your mind
that you're going to keep yourself pure for the marriage vows, that
you're going to be pure when you stand beside that one you have chosen
as your mate, before that preacher who will unite you in holy
matrimony?

     And then the third stage, of course, was the stage of marriage.
Now Joseph is a young man who finds himself face to face with a
dilemma.  Before they came together, before the marriage was
consummated, in that one-year trial period something happened that
absolutely perplexed the young man Joseph.  Now Mary, you remember,
went away to see a cousin up in the hill country.  When she returned
she could hide it no longer.  It was evident to all now that Mary was
carrying a baby under her heart.  Joseph knew that the baby was not
his.  Probably Mary assured him that the Lord was doing something
supernatural in her life.  But you see, what you and I read in verse 18
Joseph couldn't read at that point.  We're told there that she was
found with child of the Holy Spirit.  You and I know that right now but
Joseph didn't know that when he first found that Mary was expecting.  I
wonder what you and I would have said.  I wonder if Mary had said to
us, "God has chosen me to be the human vessel through whom the Savior
of the world would be born," I wonder if we would have believed Mary.
A few years ago when I was in Mobile, Alabama, I was called to the
psychiatric wing of one of the hospitals in our city.  And in that
psychiatric wing there was a young lady and as I went into the room she
was chanting and she was singing and she was claiming that she was
going to give birth to a child who would be the Savior of the world.
Well, of course, I did not believe her and so after Christmas came it
was obvious that it was not so, that she was having mental problems.
Well just imagine how it must have been in Joseph's life.  Imagine the
perplexity of his life.

     Well, there may be some of you today and you're facing problems in
marriage, you're facing a perplexing problem and you really don't know
what the solution is.  I want you to notice Joseph's plan in the
matter.  It says in verse 19 that Joseph her husband, being a just man.
Now I like that statement about Joseph but let me give you one I think
is even closer to its meaning.  Joseph, being a straight man.  The word
means that there was nothing crooked in his life.  Joseph was a man who
wanted to do the right thing.  Girls, that's the kind of man you want,
you want a straight man.  Now you know, we put a lot of emphasis on
girls being pure as they approach marriage but I want to tell you
something, it's just as important for the boys to be pure as it is for
the girls.  Joseph, being a straight man, a man wanting to do the right
thing.  Now, you see, Joseph had a dilemma on his hands, Joseph has a
problem on his hands, there's a tension that Joseph faces right here.
He faces the tension between law and love.  I have a feeling that
Joseph did what all of us ought to do when we have a problem in our
lives.  I think Joseph went to his Bible and searched for scriptural
direction in this time of perplexity in his life.  And probably the
only verse that Joseph could find that addressed itself to this
particular problem was Deuteronomy 24, verse 1.  That verse made
provisions for the man to divorce his wife, or his wife-to-be, if there
was found any impurity in her.  But you see he's got a problem, hasn't
he?  He knows what the law says: the law says she's to be taken out
there and stoned.  But you see he has love in his heart for Mary and so
there's that tension between what the law says and what love wants to
do.

     You know, there was only one who could ultimately solve that
problem of the tension between law and love?  Do you know who finally
soled the problem of that tension between law and love?  It's the Lord
Jesus, that's the one who solved it.  Do you remember the woman who was
taken in adultery and she was brought to the Lord Jesus?  The law said
stone her to death; love said she needs to be forgiven.  And you
remember what Jesus did?  He stooped and He wrote in the ground and He
said, He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.  All those
stones began to come thudding to the ground and they all made a line
and they walked away, the oldest first because he had sinned the most.
And then you remember what Jesus said to the woman?  He said, Woman,
where are those thine accusers?  Has no man condemned thee?  She said,
No man, Lord.  And then Jesus solved the tension between the law and
love, He said, Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.  Do you
know what Jesus was saying there?  Jesus was saying, I'm going to pay
the penalty of the law in order to make it possible for you to be
forgiven.  And, friends, that's how all of us are saved, that's what
the meaning of the whole Christmas message is: it's that Jesus came
down to pay the righteous demands of the law in order that you and I
might experience the love and the grace and the forgiveness of God.

     Well, of course, he had another tension, didn't he?  He had a
tension between conviction and compassion.  Now Joseph was obviously a
man of conviction.  He was a man who stood for what he believed in, but
he was also a man of compassion because he had love for Mary.  Well,
here's how he was going to solve his problem, here was his plan, he was
going to put her away as the law said, but he was not going to do it
publicly.  He was going to show compassion on Mary because he loved her
dearly and he was going to set her aside secretly.  Because you see,
already those old gossiping tongues of Nazareth were beginning to wag.
Can you imagine how it was up there in Nazareth, that little bitty
town?  I'm from a little town.  Any of you folks from a little town?
I've got news for you, anybody's news is everybody's news in a little
town.  And, oh, the gossiping tongues of a little town.  Hey, I've got
news for you though, you've got gossiping tongues in a big town.  Isn't
that right?  Now don't be a gossiper, don't go around spreading smut.
I don't care if it's true, you don't have to go around talking it.
Don't go around saying things that are hurtful to people.  But, oh,
those old gossiping tongues of Nazareth.  I pray God will help me not
to be a gossip.  I don't want to go around putting people down and
talking about people who are having problems in life.  So Joseph makes
the decision: he'll put her away, but he'll put her away privately.
That's Joseph's dilemma.

     But now we move on in verse 20 and I want to talk a little bit
about Joseph's dream.  It may be that Joseph had been to the synagogue
that day.  I don't know.  And it may be that the scripture reading for
that day was Isaiah 7:14.  I don't know, maybe.  But anyhow Joseph goes
to sleep that night and he has a dream and, oh, what a dream Joseph
has.  I don't know about you, I love to dream.  Every night when I go
to bed I hope I'll have a dream.  I enjoy it.  Why waste all that time
sleeping when you can have a motion picture show during your dreams.  I
have had some of the most glorious dreams and the wildest dreams you've
ever seen, I mean bizarre.  Well Joseph had a dream that night and in
that dream the angel of the Lord came to visit him.  When you put all
of the accounts of the birth of Jesus together you will find that this
is the third visit of the angels to earth during the birth of Jesus.
The angels worked overtime when Jesus was born.  The angel of the Lord
came to Joseph in a dream and whispered into his ears two secrets.

     Secret number one, he whispered into Joseph's ear the cause of
Mary's conception.  Look at what he says in verse 20.  Joseph, thou son
of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.  You know, I like
that right there.  Fear not.  Joseph had all kinds of fear running
through his soul.  And you know, that's true at Christmas time isn't
it?  People have a lot of fears during Christmas time.  So you see, the
good news of Christmas that we're getting ready to celebrate is there
is a Savior who has come to dispel our fears.  Fear not, Joseph.  Don't
be afraid, Joseph.  And then he gives the cause of her conception.
That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  Now Joseph knows
what you know.  He knows now what Mary has known all along.  The angel
of the Lord lets Joseph in on the secret that God is doing something
supernatural in the life of Mary.  Do you believe in the supernatural?
Do you believe that miracles occur?  If you bought some of the
philosophy that you were taught in institutions of higher learning you
may not believe in the supernatural because, you see, we are living in
a society today which has basically said miracles do not occur.  They
do not believe in the supernatural intervention of God in this
universe.  They just believe that the universe is kind of like a
machine, that somehow it just got started and that it's just all
working according to natural law and there is never any intrusions of
the supernatural.  But I've got news for you, friends, I believe in the
supernatural because I believe in God.

     Lee Scarbrough, a great preacher of many years ago, had a little
six-year old son who came home from Sunday School one day and he said,
Daddy, I don't buy that stuff about the whale swallowing Jonah.  And
his daddy said, Now, son, if God could make a man and a whale, couldn't
God make a whale swallow that man and keep him alive for three days?
And the little boy said, Oh, if you put God in it, of course I could
believe it.  Well, friends, if you put God in it you can believe
anything if you believe in a supernatural God.  Listen, friend, I'll
just give you one simple little statement in the Bible, if you can
accept that you shouldn't have problems with anything else in the
Bible.  Genesis 1:1---In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.  If you can accept that statement by faith you're home free the
whole rest of the Bible.  I believe in the supernatural, I believe that
Jesus Christ was supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary of the
Holy Spirit of God.  Jesus Christ had an earthly mother but He did not
have an earthly father; Jesus Christ had a heavenly Father but he did
not have a heavenly mother; Jesus Christ is the only baby ever born who
was older than His mother and as old as His Father; Jesus Christ had an
earthly mother that He might be human, but Jesus Christ did not have an
earthly father that He might not be a sinner; Jesus Christ was without
human failure because He was without human father.  It was a miracle.
It was supernatural.  So God let Joseph in on the cause of her
conception.

     And then, secondly, He let Joseph in on the character of her
child.  Look at what the angel says in  verse 21: She shall bring forth
a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus.  And then on down in verse
23: they shall call His name Emmanuel.  And in those two Christmas
names of Jesus we have revealed the character of Mary's child.  Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, that's His humanity.  Jesus was a very
common name in the time of Jesus.  Hundreds of Jewish boys were named
Jesus.  In fact, it is the Joshua of the Old Testament, and the name
Jesus, or Joshua in the Old Testament, means "Jehovah is salvation."
But you see, when our Lord was named Jesus it was no longer a common
name.  Because, you see, the Bible now says in Acts chapter 4, verse
12, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.  Bless your
heart, that name Jesus is the most wonderful name ever mentioned on
this earth now.  It's the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There have been names that I have loved to hear but never has there
been a name so dear as the name divine, the precious, precious name of
Jesus.

     You know, there are many names that mean many things.  You say,
"Alexander," and you think of a name who could build an empire.  You
say, "Napolean," and you think of a man who could conquer the world and
re-shape the face of the earth.  You use the name "Edison" and you
think about a man who builds a new world of science.  But there is only
one name that can change the human heart, that can forgive of sin, that
can change your life, that can give you an eternity, that can give you
a reason for living right now---it is the name of the Lord Jesus.  He
shall save His people from their sins.  That's what Christmas is all
about, by the way.  See, Christmas is the good news that you've got a
Savior from sin.  God doesn't start with us with out goodness, God
starts with us with our badness.  That's the first time in the New
Testament the word "sin" is mentioned: He shall save His people from
their sins.  You see, right on the first page of the New Testament God
hits your problem.  God knows just exactly what your problem is today,
friend.  Your problem is sin and your only answer to the sin problem is
a Savior and His name is Jesus.  You see, the name makes all the
difference in the world.  Suppose I wrote you out a check today, I mean
personally to you.  Suppose I just put your name on a check and I wrote
it out for a million dollars and signed my name.  You know what?  You
wouldn't be a bit better off than you were before I wrote it.  But---
suppose someone else signed your name to a check and wrote it out for a
million dollars and then signed his name "Donald Trump?"  I've got
news, friends, there's a lot of difference in the name.  There is only
one name that brings salvation---the name of Jesus.

     And do you know what the Bible says?  Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Listen, right here in this
building, I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done, I
don't care how far down in the pit of sin you are today, the Bible says
if you'll call on the name of the Lord you'll be saved, you can walk
out of this building today a brand new creature in Jesus Christ.  Amen.
Amen.  Jesus---that's His humanity.

     And then, in verse 22, it says all this was done that it might be
fulfilled.  Do you see that word "fulfilled?"  I've got that word
circled in my Bible because that's the key word in Matthew's gospel.
All through Matthew's gospel Matthew will use that word "fulfilled."
His point is to show that Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies the Old
Testament had made about the coming Messiah.  And the particular
prophecy he's talking about here is Isaiah 7:14, and he quotes Isaiah
7:14 in verse 23.  You know, that prophecy was like an empty cup that
had sat empty on the table for hundreds of years, and then one day God
filled that prophecy to the brim and Jesus was born.  A virgin shall be
with child.  Now you see, that's the clear statement of the divinity of
Jesus---the virgin birth of Jesus.  Now somebody says the virgin birth
doesn't matter.  I want to tell you something, friends, the virgin
birth is absolutely essential to the gospel.  If there were no virgin
birth there would be no gospel.  You see, here's the way it lays out
right here: if Jesus were not born of a virgin then that would mean He
had an earthly father; if Jesus had an earthly father then that would
mean that He was a sinner; if Jesus was a sinner that would mean that
He was not God; and if Jesus was not God then that would mean He could
not be our Savior from sin; and if Jesus is not our Savior from sin
then, friends, we don't have a Savior from sin, the whole thing goes
crashing to the ground.  The virgin birth.  Virgin.

     And shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us.  God
with us.  You see, when Jesus was born it means God came down, it means
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, it means for approximately
33 years God walked on this earth in human flesh.  Paul, in the book of
Colossians, says that Jesus Christ, that in Him dwelled the fullness of
the godhead bodily.  And John 1:14 says the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.  God with us.  Oh, listen, that's the good news of
Christmas.  The good news of Christmas is that Christ is the cure for
loneliness.  Do you ever feel like nobody's with you?  Well I've got
news for you, if you've invited Christ into your life you're never
alone, He's always with you.  I'll tell you something else, this is
what helps you cope with the fear of death.  Do you remember what the
psalmist said in Psalm 23?  Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.  That's
the good news of Christmas---God's come down to be with you.  Emmanuel.
Joseph's dream.

     So I want you to see now Joseph's decision.  What did Joseph
decide to do?  Verse 24: Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the
angel of the Lord had bidden him.  Joseph made a two-fold decision.  He
decided first of all to be faithful to the will of God.  He decided to
just do what God had told him to do.  The greatest decision you'll ever
make in your life, dear one, is to decide to do the will of God.  Just
do whatever God wants you to do.  When I was a boy I had the idea that
the will of God was something real bad.  I don't know where I got that
impression.  I don't think the preachers and the teachers I had taught
that to me but I just had the idea I was supposed to do the will of God
but it was going to really be bad if I did it.  Oh, listen, do you know
what the will of God is?  The will of God is just exactly what you and
I would choose for our own lives if we had sense enough to choose it.
I mean really.  So Joseph said, I'll just do the will of God, and you
know, he did, he did the will of God.  Now Joseph could have said, Now
wait a minute, Lord, this job's too hard for me, get somebody else in
Nazareth to do it.  No.  He said, I'll do the will of God.  So you
follow Joseph all through the picture here, he's doing the will of God.
You see him leading that donkey on the long journey down to Bethlehem,
he's doing the will of God.  You see him standing faithfully there at
the manger scene as Christ is born, he's doing the will of God.  You
see him as he carries Mary and Jesus down to Egypt, he's doing the will
of God.  At every step in his life Joseph did the will of God.
Friends, there could be nothing greater said of you or me than that we
did the will of God in our lives.  The Bible says the world passes away
and the lust thereof but he who does the will of God endures forever.
Faithful to the will of God.

     I'll tell you something else he decided.  He decided he'd be
faithful to the Son of God.  Now it says in verse 25 that he, Joseph,
knew her, Mary, not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and
he, Joseph, called His name Jesus.  Now in Luke's gospel it says that
Mary called Him Jesus.  Here it says that Joseph called Him Jesus.  Do
you know what that means?  That means that this sweet couple, chosen by
God to care for the Son of God, joined together in the decision to link
their lives to the Son of God.  He just linked his life to Jesus.  He
gave Jesus his name.  He gave Jesus a home.  Joseph taught Jesus a
trade.  Did you know Jesus was a carpenter?  He was known as the
carpenter's son.  Joseph linked his life up to that of Jesus.  I can
almost see him now walking.  You know, Jesus was about 30 years old
before He began His public ministry, so for the first years of His life
He was working in the carpenter's shop with Joseph.  I can almost see
them walking the streets of Nazareth, Joseph and Jesus, and somebody
says, Who is that?  Oh, that's the carpenter and Jesus.  And then, of
course, you know what happens, the day comes and the Lord Jesus leaves
the carpenter's shop at Nazareth and He goes about His earthly ministry
for about three and a half years.  Do you remember the day that Jesus
went into the temple and the Bible says that He turned over the money
changers' table.  Don't ever get the idea Jesus was a wimp.  I detest
those feminine pictures that the Middle Ages artists drew of the Lord
Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ was no weakling, Jesus Christ was a man.

     And I've got new for you, friend, it takes a real man to live for
Jesus.  Any old sissy can live for the devil, it takes a man to live
for Jesus.  I can almost see them clearing out of the temple that day.
Why do you reckon they did that?  Brother, they saw those rippling
muscles and they saw the fire in His eyes and somebody said, Who is
that?  Oh, that's the carpenter's son from Nazareth.  And you know
what?  One day old Joseph died and went to heaven and I can almost
imagine that up there in heaven the one to whom he gave his name, the
one to whom he gave a home, the one to whom he taught a trade, said to
Joseph, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.  So Jesus was born,
hardly caused any commotion on the earth.  It took over a year for
Herod the king to even hear about it.  A few shepherds, and old man and
old woman in the temple---hardly noticed on the earth but do you know
what?  It really did cause a commotion in heaven.  There was excitement
going on up there in heaven.  Do you know why?  Because there was a new
name for God in heaven.  Not only was His name Jehovah, Lord, Elohim,
but now in heaven His name is Jesus.  And, friend, if you'll make the
decision Joseph made today, to link your life to the will of God, to
link your life to the Son of God, you'll have the greatest Christmas
you've ever experienced in your whole life.