Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, chapter one. We are going to continue our study of Matthew, and we're going to go regress a little bit back into chapter one. Just briefly, we have already looked at the wise men, and we've also seen Herod and the goings on related to those two. We have not seen anything about Mary, and we will not see anything about Mary, because it is not Matthew's purpose to talk to us about Mary. Matthew speaks gives primarily information about Joseph because Joseph was the one who was in line to be the king of Israel. He's called the son of David in chapter number. In chapter one.
[00:00:54] And so we will begin reading in verse.
[00:01:00] Let's start in verse number.
[00:01:02] Let's start in verse number 18.
[00:01:05] I'll read this short passage. It's actually the first point I want to make, but we'll read it and then we'll pray. Matthew 118. The Bible says, 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 Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 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 marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth the son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
[00:02:00] Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Let's pray together, our Lord, as we come and look at your word here this morning. Thank you for your people that have gathered here today. But, Lord, we don't gather just for one another. We gather especially because we want to meet with you, Lord. Thank you for the good songs that we were able to sing, Lord, those that wrote them so long ago, and the hearts for God that those people had, that led them to write such good songs that bless us to this day. Thank you for your word and Lord, we need your word. We need the things that are written in the scripture to help us. Lord, I pray especially that you would help us as we examine the subject of obedience and of faith this morning. And, Lord, I pray that you would increase our faith, that our obedience would also be increased.
[00:03:27] Please, Lord, help your people.
[00:03:29] Lord, meet the needs that they have, because you alone know the hearts of all Mendez. And so, Lord, speak to people. Lord, meet with us. Be our teacher. Help me to say what you would have me to say and not say the things you do not want me to say, that your people might be helped. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:49] Thank you. Thank you, Jo Jo.
[00:03:54] The only other real character that we haven't covered in chapter two is the person of Joseph, the major characters, at least. And so I was looking at Joseph, and I wanted to touch on Joseph, because there's not a lot said in the Luke account of the nativity of Christ, about Joseph like there is in Matthew, obviously, as I just stated, because of the emphasis on Christ being the king of Israel.
[00:04:20] But Joseph is mentioned several times. In fact, Joseph in these two chapters is presented, and rightly so, as the leader of this family. In other words, when God wants to make a move here, the Lord sends his angel to talk to Joseph, even though Joseph is really not directly connected to Christ. He's a stepfather, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ, but yet he is the leader of his family. And so the Lord sends messages to him by means of dreams and angels. And so I got to looking at Joseph and looking at the different accounts and asking myself, what character, what aspect of Joseph stands out, what is prominent in Joseph's life in these couple of chapters? And the thing I kind of went away with and is repeated at least three or four times here is Joseph's obedience.
[00:05:14] Joseph's obedience.
[00:05:17] You know, the word obey is not a dirty word, because, remember, the word obey implies a commandment, right? Right. When you obey something, it's because you were given a commandment, whether it be a speed limit or whether it be your parents, or whether it be whatever the case might be, whether it be the Lord. The word obey implies a commandment. And listen, in a lot of places, that's a dirty word. That's not something people are interested in obeying God's commandments or that is just unsavory to a lot of people. But it is a scriptural truth. And let me encourage you, listen, don't be afraid to command your children.
[00:06:01] It's not bad.
[00:06:03] I mean, there's a, you can do it in the right spirit. Right. And in a wrong spirit. There's a way to do it, a right way to do it, and a wrong way to do it. But it is perfectly within the purview of a parent to give commandments to your kids.
[00:06:20] And the Lord does it. And he's the greatest father that any of us have ever had, is he not? And he gives us commandments, and then he furthermore expects obedience. So it's a good thing. To obey one's parents is good. And as a parent, it's important that you lay out the commandments clearly, kindly, unambiguously, to allow your children to follow them. Right. That's a good thing. I know there's a lot of ideas and concepts and theories about parenting, and the people who promote them are often highly credentialed, aren't they? Because they fail not to remind you of their credentials when they propose said theories.
[00:07:06] And sometimes they shy away from the concept of commanding your kids. But listen, there's a right way to do it. Your kids will be helped. Your kids will be helped by those commandments. The Lord gives commandments. Did you know that? Did you know that? Even. Even in the context of salvation. Maybe I'll touch on this in a minute. We think of salvation as something, a gift we receive, right. Would you, whenever you're telling someone about the Lord and you're giving the gospel, in our Sunday school, we've been talking about that we often present the gospel as God's making an offer. And you know that's true. Right? Right. John, chapter one. But as many as received him. Right. He came into his own. His own received him not. There was an offer made. As many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So that is a scriptural way to explain the gospel, right. The Lord makes an appeal, and that's. Right.
[00:08:01] But did you know there are other ways to describe the offer of salvation? And one of those ways is a commandment. God does not only appeal to us and invite us to receive Christ, he does, but he also commands us to.
[00:08:22] And so what you find, and I have these verses written down. Maybe we'll take a peek at them in just a minute. Look, since we're already in Matthew, just look a couple books over to acts, chapter six. I want to show you this because I'll probably refer to it in just a minute. Acts, chapter six. And verse number.
[00:08:43] Verse number seven.
[00:08:49] Acts, six, seven.
[00:08:52] And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. You see that?
[00:09:07] Obedient to the faith. That's the word. Obey, right? Look over a couple more. Look at second Thessalonians. I just want to show you this because I don't want anybody to get confused when we talk about obedience here. Second Thessalonians, chapter one.
[00:09:23] Two Thessalonians, chapter one.
[00:09:29] This is, of course, a negative, but the principle is here as well. Second Thessalonians, one, verse number seven.
[00:09:37] The Bible says this, and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not goddess and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? What does it mean to obey the gospel? I could go also. Go and I'll just read this to you because you're probably familiar with it already. Romans chapter one and verse number five describes the obedience of the gospel by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to. To the faith among all nations for his name. What are we talking about? When the Bible says, we obey the gospel, we obey the faith.
[00:10:27] Some people have taken this and have described it as the Lord has given commandments about things we should do, and we're obeying those. Become a member of the church and get baptized and take the Lord's supper and help your neighbor. That is not what obeying the gospel means. No. Obeying the gospel is the response of a person to God's commandment to believe, believe on Christ. That's what obeying the gospel is. So when we read that in acts six, a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith, that means they heard about Jesus and they heard God said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as an example, and thou shalt be saved. That's a commandment. Right. And so they respond in faithful, and I'll say this again, but in faithful obedience to the gospel. Now that our response to the gospel is not, is not why we're saved. We're saved because a savior died on a cross and we receive that truth, that gospel. Right? So it's not like, you know, well, I'm obeying the Lord, and because I'm obeying the Lord, I'm a good little boy. And so God gives me. Yeah. No, no, no. We have no righteousness. Right? We cover this extensively. But to obey the gospel means to believe the gospel because that's what the Lord commands us to do is to believe the gospel. And you know what?
[00:11:53] For anyone that does not repent of their sin, because that's a command, too. Acts 17.
[00:11:59] But now God commandeth all men everywhere to believe, to repent, right? So that's a commandment. So to anyone that does not repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that person, listen, will be judged as a disobedient person, right. They have broken God's commandment to believe, and those that receive it have obeyed the gospel, have obeyed the faith. I just want you to understand that, because we'll see. That'll apply in just a minute. Going back to Matthew, chapter one, this is the character of Joseph that stood out to me. Maybe something different stood out to you as you've read it in the past. But Joseph was a man who was obedient.
[00:12:50] Look at verse number 20 of chapter one. The Bible says this. But while he thought, Joseph 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 Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. We already saw last Sunday how important this name is, but, and we also saw how that Joseph was given the command by the angel to name this child, in this case. Now, Mary was also prior, but ultimately, Joseph would be the one who would name the Lord Jesus.
[00:13:38] Here's the thing.
[00:13:40] In these two verses, Joseph is given basically two commands, two directives, if we might say it like that. Number one, he is to take Maryland unto himself as his wife. We've already seen he is espoused to her, but they've not come together, as you might say, a full fledged husband and wife at this point. So the Lord's command, number one, is to take her to you, to your house. She becomes your wife in full measure. And number two, to name the baby Jesus. And then it says in verse number 20, fear not to take unto thee, marry thy wife. So there's an aspect of fear here. You also see fear a little bit later with Joseph, because Joseph, this is apparently something that was there, some fear. And you know what? Joseph's fear is legitimate.
[00:14:32] Is legitimate.
[00:14:34] Why is that? Because it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out what the implications of taking Maryland as his wife would have been.
[00:14:45] Right? She's already to the point where it's obvious that she's expecting a baby. Now, how far along is that, ladies?
[00:14:54] Four months, five months before it becomes really obvious ish.
[00:15:00] So she's like halfway there, right? The baby is half baked. That doesn't sound right, does it?
[00:15:11] So she's halfway there. It is obvious to everyone that's around. They all know, especially in a little town like Nazareth, they all know who she is espoused to. They all know the rules. They're not supposed to be together until they're married at the end of the espousal period. They know all of that. Everyone knows that. So for him to take her, there's a certain shame factor and a certain fear and a certain hurdle that has to be overcome by Joseph just to obey what this angel is telling him to do.
[00:15:48] And once he did that, no doubt word of this situation would have spread quickly. And I think probably Joseph being a just man, that's what the scripture says in verse 19. He was a just man. He cared about right and wrong. Right. He cared about doing that which was right in the sight of God and that which was wrong in the sight. He cared about that he was a just man. Verse 19.
[00:16:17] So the reproach of this, of this situation of basically, essentially, either he has taken a woman who has committed fornication to be his wife and has overlooked it, or he himself has committed sin with her and is marrying her to sweep it under the rug.
[00:16:39] In either case, this would have been a reproach.
[00:16:43] You think Joseph is probably thinking about that?
[00:16:47] He was thinking about the reproach, I believe, probably as a factor that he was considering.
[00:16:56] But the angel says, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. So let me explain something to you. So when that word comes to Joseph's heart and mind, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. The Lord has given Joseph a commandment, and he's reassuring Joseph. But at some point, Joseph has to respond to this commandment from the Lord and actually take Mary to be his wife.
[00:17:19] So at some point, his faith in what the Lord is telling him, which is the basis of all faith, right? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So the basis of faith is God's words, right? So Joseph gets God's word by means of the angel, and he has a choice to make. Is he going to allow his fear of this situation, the reproach, the implications, whatever, is he going to allow that to prevent him from following through in obedience to the Lord?
[00:17:59] And here's the thing, and this is the lesson, I think, from this portion here.
[00:18:04] Fear is not an acceptable reason to disobeye the Lord.
[00:18:12] Fear is not an acceptable reason to disobey the Lord. That's why sometimes, how many of you have heard this fear over or faith over fear? Have any of you heard faith and fear being put kind of as enemies, as contradictory? Because this is true. Remember, this is not just plain obedience. What is Joseph looking at? This is obedience by faith, because Joseph, Joseph does not know for certain that Mary has been faithful. He does not know that.
[00:18:44] The only person that knows that is Mary.
[00:18:48] Joseph does not know that. But he is being told by the Lord that Mary has been faithful, that she is pure, and that the baby in her womb is actually the Lord Jesus.
[00:19:00] So he's heard the word, but he does not know it as a matter of certainty. And so his obedience to take Mary is an act of faith. Now notice what I said is an act of faith.
[00:19:14] It's an act of faith because faith has action with it.
[00:19:24] We cannot allow fear to override our faith and then prevent us from obeying the Lord. It doesn't matter if we're talking about fear of the future or fear of something we don't know or fear in our finances. Listen, fear drives a great deal of our decision making.
[00:19:50] Fear drives a lot of our decision making. Some people listen, some people will not share the gospel with another person, even though the Lord has commanded us to do it out of fear. You see, fear overrides their faith, that it's worthwhile, that it matters, that it's pleasing to the Lord. And so what is the result? The result is we don't obey.
[00:20:14] So if you can visualize it like this, faith is here, and obedience is built upon faith. It springs out of faith.
[00:20:23] It's the result of faith. We're often afraid to obey the Lord. You know, you think of husbands and wives and the conflicts that often arise between husbands and wives.
[00:20:37] I mean, listen, I know what I'm saying, and you know what I'm saying. If you're married, you know what I'm saying is true. When a husband and wife are in conflict with one another and the husband and wife, they don't want to talk, they're at odds with each other. And the wife and the husband, separately, independently, are both thinking.
[00:20:57] Are both thinking.
[00:21:00] I know I shouldn't have said that, and I know I shouldn't have done that. But if I go to him, if I go to her and I acknowledge what I've done, then that's going to give that person a reason to mistreat me further.
[00:21:19] You know what that is? That's fear.
[00:21:23] Fear of future mistreatment. And so what is the result?
[00:21:28] The result is you do not obey the Lord.
[00:21:33] Humble yourself. And when you have done wrong, go to that person and say, I am wrong. I should not have done that. I should not have said that. Will you please forgive me?
[00:21:45] And because you don't do that, the problem persists, and it's on both sides, and it creates this kind of perpetual problem. Listen, I'm just giving you examples. I'm giving you examples of fear. Fear invades us all the time. And fear fights our faith. And when our faith is when our faith has been cast aside because of fear, we will not obey the Lord.
[00:22:09] Obedience is based in faith. That's what we have to understand.
[00:22:14] But fear, whatever that fear is, if the Lord is telling us to do it, it is right for us to do. And fear is no excuse. Fear cannot be used as an excuse for not obeying the Lord.
[00:22:28] Look at verse number 21.
[00:22:31] I'm sorry. Verse number 24. And Joseph being raised from sleep, this is his obedience, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. And he, Joseph, called his name Jesus. That act right there, the fact that. And I know this seems simplistic, but listen, if you. If you did not know what was happening and, you know, in the natural world, you know, this can't be right. Right. What's happening here with Joseph cannot be. It's not possible. And so the only reason that Joseph follows through and names this child, which is an indication of his identity, right? He's acknowledging this is a mark of his faith.
[00:23:17] This child is the savior.
[00:23:22] So his naming of Jesus is actually. And his obedience in that is an act of his faith.
[00:23:31] Without knowing for certain which is what faith is, it's the essence of faith. He acted upon what the angel of the Lord had told him concerning the identity of the child.
[00:23:43] Now, if you remember last week, one thing we talked about how we saw how that was it last week, maybe the week before, we talked about how that the story of Joseph and Mary and really the truth of the virgin birth of Christ, which is a core christian doctrine, is it not? Is an absolute core christian doctrine. Without it, there is no savior. Right.
[00:24:09] That truth is built on the fact of a young couple who remained pure until they got married. Right? Do you remember when we talked about that the Lord used the purity of a couple to bring forth the virgin birth of Christ? All right? That's just a fantastic truth.
[00:24:34] But think about this.
[00:24:40] The name of the Lord Jesus in verse 25 hinges upon one guy's faith.
[00:24:50] The reason Jesus was named Jesus is because one guy who did not have certainty in this matter, took the word of the Lord, embraced it in faith, and then in response to faith, obeyed what the Lord told him to do. And the result was the name of Christ is Jesus. The name of this one that was born was Jesus.
[00:25:15] And there are many, many times in scripture you think the best example of this is what I'm trying to show you, is Abraham.
[00:25:22] All of the history of Israel about Abraham, when he left ur of the Chaldees and he came into Canaan and Jake and Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes and all of those things, the entire history of Israel started because one guy exercised faith and that faith led him to obey what God told him to do when God told him to leave his homeland. Right? Here's the question I have for you, or the point we need to see is that your faith right now, your present faith, which will lead to your obedience, is going to have ramifications and repercussions in your life and in the lives of your posterity and your children and your church for years to come. You can't see it now, but your obedience upon your faith in the Lord right now is going to have direct effect on things that come after you.
[00:26:24] And you know what? If you and I, we obey the Lord and we follow him, we listen to him, we embrace our faith in his word over our fear and obey him. You know what he'll do? He'll use, he will build good things on the basis and foundation of the faith that we have right now. He'll do that in the future.
[00:26:52] You know, the best example of this is your kids right now. Those of you that have little kids, you are either going to raise those kids in obedience to God or you're not, right? And if you do, those kids as a result will be affected as they become adults, and that will affect the way they raise their kids. That will affect whether they walk with God. That'll affect how everything about their lives is going to be affected by this.
[00:27:25] Here's the point. Your faith has repercussions far beyond you.
[00:27:32] Just like with Joseph. Look at Matthew, chapter two, verse number 13. You see another instance where Joseph's faith and his obedience is seen. Verse number 13 of Matthew two, the Bible says, and when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Verse 14. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed. There's his obedience. And was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. Now, the first thing I want you to see is before we can get to verse 13. In verse eleven, these three wise men have brought gifts.
[00:28:25] This is awesome. Listen, I actually, you know, gold, frankincense and myrrh. I actually ordered some myrrh because I don't know what myrrh smells like. So I found. I did some research to find the exact likely species of tree that this SAP is made from. And I order some so when I get it, you guys can smell it. Okay. Some of you probably know what it smells like. But anyway, I did that because I'm just a nerd, I guess.
[00:28:56] But these wise men brought Mary and Joseph and baby, young child Jesus these gifts in preparation for his word. In verse number 13, Joseph and Mary are poor people.
[00:29:16] A lot of people don't know this. Joseph and Mary are poor people, as evidenced in Luke, when they brought the offering.
[00:29:21] In Luke, chapter, I think, two, they brought the offering that they were required to bring, and they didn't bring the regular offering. They brought the poor person's offering, the turtle doves, rather than the lamb, which indicates their poverty. They were not wealthy people. This was not, this was just a, this was like a lower class family.
[00:29:41] And yet these gifts are given to them because the Lord knows that in just a few days, likely after the wise men leave, the Lord knows that they're going to need that in order to obey the Lord.
[00:29:59] Because in verse number 13, the Lord sends his angel in a dream to Joseph to say, listen, arise. You got to go into Egypt because they're going to try to kill the baby. You can't do that for free.
[00:30:12] You're in a place where you likely can't work your normal, you can't do your normal activities. You don't have the support of your family. You're on your own. And any of you that have traveled know what it's like to travel. You are hung out to dry. People do not help you. You better have money when you go because don't expect people to help you because they're probably not going to.
[00:30:32] And here Mary and Joseph have this long journey. It's a journey that is undefined. Nobody knows how long it's going to be. Joseph himself doesn't. And yet here's a question.
[00:30:41] Here's a question.
[00:30:43] Is Joseph going to obey the word of the Lord?
[00:30:47] And so you know what the Lord did to encourage him in that the Lord provided for him in advance so that he could obey.
[00:30:58] He encouraged his faith.
[00:31:04] When it came time to obey, provision for the family was available.
[00:31:09] In other words, here's what I'm trying to say to you. God's grace was already present to enable him to obey.
[00:31:19] He was not obeying in his own strength. It's not that his faith was great. It's that God sent at the right time what was needed, the grace of God. What was needed to enable Joseph to obey, to give him the encouragement he needed to step out of upon the word of God and nothing else. And that is exactly what he did. But even still, nevertheless, notwithstanding the provision that Joseph received, it was still Joseph's responsibility to respond to God's directive and to depart to Egypt. In other words, even though God had provided grace, it was incumbent and required upon Joseph to actually act in faith.
[00:32:06] And, you know, listen to me. We'll look at a couple of verses and I'll show you this.
[00:32:11] Many times God provides the grace necessary to us to enable us to respond to him in faith and obey.
[00:32:21] But we still fail to respond.
[00:32:26] He's provided grace in advance and yet we still say no.
[00:32:32] Look at Hebrews chapter twelve, really quick.
[00:32:37] Hebrews chapter twelve, verse 14.
[00:33:01] Hebrews 1214. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently, lest any man notice what it says. Fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. What does it mean to fail? Fail of the grace of God.
[00:33:23] Does that mean God's grace failed? No. Look at one corinthians chapter 15. We'll see the answer here. First Corinthians 1510, 1st Corinthians 1510.
[00:33:54] It says this, but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. You see that.
[00:34:11] Did God give Paul grace to do this ministry? Yes.
[00:34:17] Did God give Paul grace in vain?
[00:34:21] No. Why not?
[00:34:23] Because he took the grace that God gave him and used it. It was not wasted. It was not in vain.
[00:34:33] In other words, Paul did not fail of the grace of God listen for you and for me.
[00:34:40] God has given us. He always gives us grace to obey what he says. He always does.
[00:34:49] If there's something in your life that you are having trouble saying yes to, the Lord on, God has already sent you grace in advance to do it. He knows we're weak. He knows we don't got a chance. He knows that we are liable to say no and we're liable to make excuses. I'm afraid I don't want to. Whatever he knows, we're going to do that. So what he does is he sends his grace and provision and his help to sustain us so that we have it when we need it to say, okay, Lord, I'm gonna do this, I'm afraid, but I'm gonna do it.
[00:35:25] But then sometimes, as I said, we still say no and that grace is wasted. We fail even with the grace of God.
[00:35:35] You see, Joseph's obedience in Matthew, chapter two, to go to Egypt was an enormous act of faith, leaving everything familiar to him, his resources, family support, all of those things, literally on a whim, basically on a word of God.
[00:35:53] And remember, just as we saw a minute ago about the naming of Christ, the reason they're going to Egypt is to protect Jesus from Herod, which is actually Satan. Okay, that's actually what's happening here. But listen, the protection of the Lord Jesus hinged upon a guy's faith and obedience. Think about that. The Lord used one man's faith to protect the savior.
[00:36:21] What is the Lord? What is, how is the Lord going to use your faith and my faith, followed by the obedience from that faith in your life to do good things in your faith family and to accomplish his work, not only in your family, in your life personally, but in our church and in the work of God more broadly, he will use your faith. He is. That's one thing that is a principle of scripture. From start to finish, God uses the faith of the puny, pitiful, small faith of one person to do great things and to build up his work. That's how, how he does it.
[00:36:58] And he gives grace so that we can say yes. Not only that, in acts, in, I'm sorry, in Matthew chapter one, it says this and verse 13. And be thou there until I bring thee word. Not only was it did Joseph exercise faith to go to Egypt, but now he's going to have to have patience because he has no idea what's happening in Israel. In verse 22 of the same chapter, look what it says. And when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea, in the room of his father, Herod. He doesn't even hear who took Herod's place until he comes back. That means basically in Egypt he was totally in the dark. He had no idea what was going on. He didn't know when Herod died. He didn't know who his son was. He didn't know who was in charge. He's wholly, 100% trusting in what God's telling him to do and nothing else.
[00:37:52] And God's saying, in essence, do this until I tell you otherwise.
[00:37:56] You know what? That's a scriptural principle. Do you know that sometimes the faith that we need to obey comes in the form of patience to keep doing what God told us to do, even when it's hard to continue doing that thing that God told us to do.
[00:38:15] And when things get hard, we start looking for an exit.
[00:38:19] It's true in marriages, right? It's true in jobs, it's true in relationships, it's true in churches. Things get hard. We say, I'm looking for an exit. Something's not right. Well, it could be that the Lord wants you to exercise that faith and obedience, to just stay put and continue and persist by his grace and in your marriage. That is exactly what he wants you to do, without question.
[00:38:50] The last place is in Matthew, chapter two, verse number 19.
[00:38:56] But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, arise. And here's a third time the Lord has talked to Joseph. He's acting solely on God's word to him.
[00:39:12] And take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead. Which sought the young child's life and he arose. There's his obedience by faith. And took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go, thither notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream. Number four, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.
[00:39:52] Once more we see that the Lord, what I would call the permanent and the most common identity of, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. Did you know that the Lord Jesus called himself Jesus of Nazareth to Paul on the road to Damascus?
[00:40:11] The book of acts says that. So this where Joseph is, where he ends up being at the direction and obedience of the Lord is not a minor thing. It fulfilled the prophecy here. But this is part of the story again, built upon one man's faith, one man's obedience.
[00:40:36] See, Joseph did not know everything that was going on politically, but he didn't need to know everything in order to respond by faith, in obedience.
[00:40:46] In fact, this is part of our faith, knowing that God knows what we don't know.
[00:40:56] So when he directs us, listen, the Lord knows your child's temperament. The Lord knows your job, your boss and your job situation. The Lord knows how much, what your expenses are going to be in the future. The Lord knows what your needs will be. He knows all the things you don't know. That's part of the faith, you see.
[00:41:15] So that means you take you knowing that you act in faith, right? In obedience to what the Lord says. Now, he knows all of these things.
[00:41:34] Listen to this verse.
[00:41:36] Hebrews eleven eight.
[00:41:38] By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went. Now remember that by faith, Abraham obeyed.
[00:41:59] Here's the truth. Obedience.
[00:42:02] Obedience to the Lord is always supposed to be built upon our faith. That's why we got to build up our faith. We got to hear the word of the Lord. Our faith is being built. That is what helps us obey the Lord and maintains a good relationship to him is the word of God, builds our faith, and by faith, we act by the grace of God to obey what he says.
[00:42:29] Obedience is a natural outcome and fruit of faith. So I just want to summarize, and I'm finished.
[00:42:37] First thing, number one, if you want to write it down, this is where you can write it down.
[00:42:42] Faith always has obedience attached to it.
[00:42:48] Obedience is a natural outcome and fruit of faith.
[00:42:55] And number two, our present obedience by faith will have permanent effects upon the work of the Lord and the spiritual state of those around us in the future. And we cannot fully know that impact.
[00:43:16] The Lord will build his work on the faith and the faithful obedience of his people.
[00:43:25] Let's pray.
