004 Gaining a Perspective From God

Okay, great to have you with me as we continue our chronological study through the New Testament. And as you know, last time we left off in Matthew chapter one and we ran out of time and I wanted to go a little bit more into Matthew one and verse number 18. And so let me just read the first part of this verse to you as we begin again in our study.

Actually verse 19, this is after Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant. And it says that Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. So we learned something very important from that.

Righteous people don't desire to disgrace other people. We think sometimes that those who are righteous are sticklers for the law and they're holding everybody else accountable and they're pointing out when people make a mistake. Well, Jesus had some words to say about that.

He said, why are you trying to pick the speck out of your brother's eye when you've got a log in your own eye? So get the log out first, he said, and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. And he also told us that if our brother sins against us, that we're not supposed to broadcast it. He didn't say, if your brother sins against you, run to the pastor or get on the church prayer chain and tell everybody or call up your spouse.

No, he said, if your brother sins against you, go to him privately. There it is. Because righteous people don't want to expose other people's sins.

We're trying to get people out of sin. We're not trying to aggravate relationships. Love covers a multitude of transgressions.

God is righteous. He's not in the business of exposing everybody instantly. Yes, there is a time for exposing hypocrites and so forth, but Joseph was a righteous man.

Now, like so many times, people who have a relationship with God need to hear from him to get the right perspective. Joseph made a conclusion. He looked at Mary.

You can see she's pregnant. And he just assumes, and again, who can find fault with him, just assumes she's been unfaithful. And so this marriage is over with.

That's the assumption he made. Who wouldn't have made that assumption? But I'm just trying to point out, so many times we make assumptions based upon what we see. And when God gives us additional insight, oh my goodness, it changes everything.

And God gave Joseph additional insight. Have you ever received additional insight that totally changed your perspective when you realized the way I was seeing things was totally, completely 100% wrong? And so we're so happy when God helps us to see things we didn't see. He sure helped Joseph.

And he said to him in a dream through an angel, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So the actual name Jesus, as we translate it today, it means Jehovah saves.

And Joseph was told something there that many Christians still haven't grasped, even many preachers. He said that Jesus, this one, Jehovah saves, will save his people from their sins. And I want to point something out here.

He didn't say he's going to forgive his people of their sins. Although, of course, that is something that he did. He's, however, going to save his people from their sins and not just from the penalty of their sins.

I'm trying to point out that there's more to the package of salvation than just being forgiven or being saved from the wrath of God. And what else is in the package? The package includes being saved from our sins, that is being delivered from sin, that is being released from our bondage to committing sin. To put it in a nutshell, holiness is a part of the salvation package, praise God.

And you see, that's one reason why when you believe in Jesus, the scripture makes it very plain, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. And don't take that lightly. God, the Holy Spirit, has come to live inside of those who have believed in Jesus Christ.

Think about that. God has come inside. And God in particular, God, the Holy Spirit.

He could have been called the powerful spirit. He could have been called the comforting spirit. He could have been called the leading and guiding spirit.

But in the scripture, he's revealed foremost as the Holy Spirit. So what's he all about? He's all about holiness. And so if he, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside of us as part of the salvation package, obviously, God's intent in that is to make us holy.

And so scripture teaches us that there's a process that begins right from the start when we first repent. There's an initial work of the spirit within us. And then there's an ongoing work of the spirit called sanctification.

Have you been through that? Oh, I hope you have. If you've been born again for very long, you have. We are the vine.

Jesus is the vine dresser. And he prunes from us what is not producing fruit, what is not pleasing to him, what hinders us from bearing fruit for his glory. And that's an ongoing process.

And sometimes it can be, wow, rather difficult to go through when the Holy Spirit points out something in your life and he begins dealing with something that you ought to change. Sometimes you begin to wonder, my goodness, he just revealed to me this area. What a wretch I am.

I wonder if I'm even saved. I'm such a wretch. But no, think about how much you've changed.

Think about the work that he's already done in you. Think about how much progress you've made. Think about how you used to be.

And hopefully there's a significant difference, but there's still more significant differences to come yet even at this point to where God has brought you today. So he's saving us from our sins. Praise God that the gospel includes not just forgiveness of sins, but it includes deliverance from sin.

Okay. And one last thing, he said that you will call his name Emmanuel. That was said in verse number 23, which means God with us.

So these guys that are coming up to your front door and telling you that Jesus is not really God, quote them that verse and show them that's not the case. Well, okay. See you next time.