Does the Virgin Birth Really Matter? | January 11, 2026 Sunday School

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

And if you would turn in your Bible for the Sunday school hour

to Isaiah chapter #7 this morning, Isaiah chapter #7 I'll

let you know what we're doing here in just a moment.

But do just want to say a few words.

Thank you, gentlemen, for pivoting this morning, for not

having men's prayer like we normally would have and kind of

did that late last night. A lot of people dealing with

sickness here in the church over the last few days.

Of course, that seems to be the case all over the place right

now. And I've been under the weather

the last couple days. But thank the Lord, no fever,

nothing like that. And so I'm not contagious.

You don't need to be afraid of me.

We might need to be afraid of me, but not because of that.

If there's nothing else, but I am thankful and still feeling a

little bit under the weather today, but glad to be able to be

with you. But pray for those who are not

able to be here. I know Brother Anthony is one of

those. And then others who are having

some longer term issues like Brother Vince and I know I'm

forgetting people, but just keep one another in prayer.

But then also we were so glad to have the four young men from

Heartland preach for us on Wednesday.

That was a joy. Wasn't I mean, that was just a

real joy. I, I enjoyed the passion, but I

also enjoyed the content. And so you can have a lot of

passion, not necessarily have content, you have content, not a

lot of passion. But it's nice when those two

come together. And I really felt like that was

the case on Wednesday night. And all four of them left very

early on Thursday to be able to go back to Heartland.

And so obviously, Chuck, he's not with us this morning.

So continue to pray for him as he continues his training.

But then also, Batova was getting a lot of different

things settled to get back to Heartland, hadn't had all of his

flight details and all those things worked out.

And it ended up that Wednesday night was his last service.

And I didn't realize that none of us realized that, including

him. And so he was on a plane this

morning at 6:00 AM for David to take him to the airport and

back. And so pray for him as he is

heading there. I'll be able to check on both of

them on Tuesday. Obviously, I'll be heading out

on Monday to be able to go to the Church Players Conference.

And we're looking forward to being able to disperse those

funds that we've collected over the last few weeks and to give

those the worthy church plants. And so I'm looking forward to

giving you a report on that when I get back.

But also looking forward to seeing Chucky, Charles and

Batova. Those are only two people, not

3. But you noticed his friends know

him as Charles, but we know him as Chucky.

Either way, that's all right. And so looking forward to being

able to see them on Tuesday. And then probably the thing that

makes me most nervous, if I could maybe use that word

nervous for Sunday school is the fact if I take the wrong step

backward, I'm going to get baptized this morning because we

got this baptistry. You can't see it online, but

this baptistry is really about 1 foot away from my right leg.

And so we're looking forward to being baptizing 3 this morning

in the morning service after the morning service.

Praise the Lord, all three have gotten saved here at church over

the last few months. And so thank the Lord for that.

And so looking forward to a great morning service as well as

being the day for the theme reveal for 2026.

So if you didn't grab a bulletin in the back, there's a reason

for that. It's because if I put them out

there, you know what the theme is for 2026.

And so as soon as we reveal that the ushers will pass out the

bulletins today. So you'll still have those on

the way home. Well, we are not going to be in

our series this morning. We will resume our series on

world religions and cults and we'll look at how to win the

Jews to Christ next week in our Sunday school hour.

But this week actually want to go back and talk about the

virgin birth. You say, well, pastor, it's not

Christmas. Why are we talking about the

virgin birth one, because the issue, the virgin birth is a 12

month out of the year issue, not just a one month out of the year

issue. And doctor, I think it's

important that we understand why the virgin birth is so

important. And secondly, because I was

prepared to teach on it a few weeks ago and then we had no

heat. All right, so I want to get

another chance at being able to give you this lesson that I was

supposed to give you on December 21st, but was not able to.

But again, no apologies for the thought process that when it

comes the issues of Christmas, if you will, that Christmas and

the Bible texts and the Bible doctrines that deal with that

are not just confined to the end of November after Thanksgiving

is done until Christmas time. They really can be talked about

all 12 months out of the year. But, you know, when it comes to

the issue of the virgin birth, there's really these two camps,

these two extremes. Maybe if you would that you'll

find there are those who dismiss it out of hand as unscientific

storytelling that they say that there's no such thing as a

virgin birth. There could be no such thing as

a virgin birth. So what the Bible says isn't

really what the Bible means. There are those who would go to

that extreme. And I would also say that there

were others who would maybe be in this other camp, and maybe we

would call it an extreme, but we would say in this other camp, if

you will, there are Christians who would affirm the virgin

birth, but they really have no idea why they do.

They just know that the virgin birth is spoken of.

They know that it's probably mentioned somewhere in the

Gospels, in one of those texts that talk about the Christmas

story, if you will, but they really couldn't argue,

articulate why the Bible teaches it and why it's important.

And so I feel like it's a good thing for us to go over maybe

every couple of years, and that's what we've done for the

last several years, to just remind ourselves to resharpen

ourselves on why the virgin birth matters.

Why is it so important? Now, back in the 1940s, there

were two very famous evangelists that were coming up through the

ranks, if you will. One was Billy Graham and the

other was Charles Templeton. Now interestingly enough, there

are paths forked into two different directions in the

1940s with with Billy Graham going the direction that he did

and then Charles Templeton actually denying Jesus Christ

and denying the faith of which he said that he was preaching

about. And Charles Templeton, this

former evangelist who became a skeptic of the gospel, then a

full blown atheist, said this of the virgin birth.

If one approaches the New Testament account with an open

mind and unflinching realism, the evidence clearly indicates

that Jesus was an illegitimate child who, when he came to

maturity, resented it and was alienated from his parents and

siblings. That's blasphemous to be able to

teach or to say such a thing. By the way, I'm doing some study

on Charles Templeton. It's interesting enough that all

of his doubts about the Bible, all of his doubts about the Word

of God, who Jesus was, all started with the creation

account. When he started to deny the

creation account, we started to deny there were six literal days

of creation. When he started to believe in

the scientists and the so-called scholars more than the word of

God, he started to question everything and really everything

unraveled. It's why it's important that we

believe what the Bible says about creation.

By the way, Jesus believed what the Bible says about creation,

the reason why he was there, he was part of it, and so to deny

creation is to deny Jesus Christ and his own testimony.

But I will say that it seems like for him and many others I

have met, that is a starting point for the unraveling of what

someone might believe about God. Now, on the other side of that,

Pew Research had a poll that according to their findings, 8

out of 10 professing Christians believed in the virgin birth.

So it says that 80% of Christians believe that Jesus

Christ was born of a virgin. But let me ask you this.

Do you believe 80% of Christians could articulate why that's

important? Do you believe that 80% of

believers here at liberty would be able to articulate why that

is? And I'm not saying that this

morning to try to to cast any shade upon anyone this morning.

No, no, I'm just saying that it's important for us to be able

to look at and to understand and it's worthy of us being able to

discuss it more than just saying Jesus was born of a virgin, but

not knowing where it says that and why it is so important.

First Peter 315 you've heard us say this many times before,

says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready

always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a

reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

We need to as best as we can be able to be apologists.

Not that we apologize for the Word of God, but to be able to

articulate our faith and say why doctrines are important and

where we find those doctrines in the Word of God.

Now what we do want to avoid is the other extreme, and this is

where I was getting to before this other extreme that where

there were some that would deny the that's so close, there's

some that would deny. Yeah, I think I need a life

preserver for certain. But on one side, those who would

say it's it's impossible, it's it's bogus.

There's others who worship Mary and that's not what we're

suggesting this morning either. There was only one to be

worshipped and that is the Lord that there we don't worship

Mary. We do not take on the Catholic

doctrine of Mary Ology. We don't pray to Mary.

We don't believe that our prayers are heard through Mary

to Jesus. We don't believe any of those

things, nor we try to suggest those things here this morning,

but we do believe what the word of God said, that Mary was a

great woman, that she was chosen for a specific task and a

specific purpose because of her obedience of the Lord and love

for the Lord. But listen, Mary need to be

saved just as much as you need to be saved.

And Mary was saved just the same way as you were saved, and I was

saved, and that was through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And so we want to avoid those extremes, but we also want to be

able to articulate why we stand in the middle of those.

So we are in Isaiah Chapter 7. Let's begin in verse #10 Likely

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

you're familiar with this. We read this as a text for

worship just a month ago or so. And it says, Moreover, the Lord

spake again unto A has saying, Ask the sign of the Lord thy

God. Ask it either in depth or in the

height above. But A has said, I will not ask,

neither will I tempt the Lord. And we'll stop right here for a

moment. Now A has is told by the Lord

that he is one of the kings of the divided Kingdom, a king of

Judah, and he is told that he can ask of the Lord and the Lord

will give him some sort of sign because of the turmoil that's

taking place in his nation. Now Ahaz says in verse #12 I

will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

Now I'll say, that sounds very spiritual, doesn't it?

I mean that sounds like really, really spiritual and such a good

thing to say. There's only one problem.

God said do it and he said no. Now I don't care how spiritual,

this is my message this morning, but I don't care how spiritual

your no sounds to the Lord. No is still no to the Lord.

No matter how spiritual your no is, or not obeying, and whatever

the Lord tells you to do, no is still no to the Lord.

And so here we find in verse #13 it says, And he said, Now this

is the Lord. Hear ye now, O House of David.

Is it a small thing for you to weary men?

But will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall

give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive

and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the

evil and choose the good. For before the child.

No, to refuse at the evil and choose the good.

The land that thou abhorst shall be forsaken by both her kings.

Now, I'm not going to go too deeply into another direction

here this morning, but this is one of those prophecies that has

both a near fulfillment and a further fulfillment.

One would have been in a has his time, and certainly there would

have been some sort of understand.

There's a lot of different thoughts about exactly what that

could have been nearer, but there's also no doubt that there

was a further prophecy that was also with this as well, and that

would have been Jesus Christ, that nearer prophecy being

something different, the further prophecy being of Jesus Christ.

Why verse #14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call

His name Emmanuel. And of course, we know that when

you go to the New Testament, this is the verse that is spoken

of, that is referred to linking those things together.

Now, why does the virgin birth matter?

Well, here we are right here in the Old Testament, and #1 it

matters because it was prophesied in the Old Testament.

The virgin birth matters because it was prophesied in the Old

Testament. It is clearly found for us right

here. Now, if you were holding a newer

version of the Word of God, and again, I would counsel you not

to do so, But if you were holding a newer version of the

Word of God, very likely that word virgin, there is not the

word virgin in your copy of that Bible.

Why? Because in most newer versions,

virgin is taken out and young woman is put in this place.

Does that bother you? It should bother you.

That's very problematic for that to be the case.

Now, the Hebrew word alma that is found in Isaiah 714 never

refers to a married woman and always implies sexual purity.

When the Old Testament was translated into the Greek,

that's the Septuagint around the 2nd century BC, Jewish

translator rendered alma as the word parthenos, which

unambiguously means virgin. So even before Jesus was born,

there was an understanding that this word meant virgin, that the

word young woman would be a mistranslation of what was

trying to be coming across here. And there's a lot of studies

that you can look at. You can look at them online.

Certainly I would welcome you to do so.

But I think we always come back to the same thought here that

this, that for this to be a sign a young woman having a child

isn't really much of a sign of something miraculous.

Listen, we understand any time a baby is born, it's a miracle of

life. Life only comes from the Lord.

We know that. But we're talking about

something that would be a earth changing sign.

Well, what would that be? Something that only happened

once and never has happened again.

That is a virgin that conceived and shall bear a son.

There are explanations why the translator chose translators

chose to change the word in newer translations, but none of

them bear scrutiny. How could that be a sign of

anything if you took the word young woman and in the place of

virgin? It just cannot be.

Now, we've also looked at this next text before, but I feel

like we need to again if we're going to look at this whole

element of the virgin birth. And that is in Genesis 315.

So you don't need to save your space there.

But go to Genesis chapter 3 and we'll look at verse #15 the

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

darkest day of human history, certainly in the short period of

human history to that point. And we look back and look at all

the troubles that we have today. And we can all trace them back

to Genesis chapter 3, can't we? There's so much that we deal

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

with there. We understand what happened with

Eve. We understand what happened with

Adam. We understand they took of the

fruit. By the way, that this again, not

my message, but just a reminder, the Bible never says it was an

apple. All right, I know this people,

people say all the time that they, they just kind of add that

in there. There's nowhere where it says it

was an apple. It could have been a

pomegranate, I've heard people say, but there's as much

foundation of it being a pomegranate as there is an

apple. We don't know what it is and it

was a fruit. If you want to draw an apple,

that's great, but just know it may not have been that.

If you're, if you're drawing that scene or you're showing it

to young people in the children's church and we know

that once they sin. Verse 7, it says the eyes of

them were open and they knew that they were naked and they

sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden

in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of

the garden. Of course, this has been the

first time they had ever had broken fellowship with God.

They had always communed together and now the presence of

the Lord is upon them and they are hiding.

They're trying to cover their sin and their shame.

And of course, the apron of fig leaves would certainly not have

been a way to fully cover themselves.

And we understand that mankind tries to cover its own sin and

his own sin, her own sin. And it's always inadequate.

Every single time it says verse #9.

And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where

art thou? Now I've mentioned this before,

but anytime God asks the questions, not because he

doesn't know what's going on all right, Anytime God asks the

questions because you don't know what's going on all right, And

he's trying to get you to answer and get you to think about what

it is. So anytime you see the Lord ask

a question, it's not a fact finding mission.

He's trying to get the person he's questioning to be able to

think about the answer that's about to come out of their lips.

Well, where art thou? And he said, Adam, I heard the

thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked

and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that

thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree?

Where of I commanded thee that thou should not eat?

And what did Adam say? Did he fess up?

Did he say that he was the one that allowed this to happen?

Well, no, He said this. The woman whom thou gave us to

be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And marital harmony from there on you could see in verse #12

right? And verse 13.

And the Lord God said unto the woman, But what is this that

thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent

beguiled me, and I did eat. So the finger is pointed from

Adam to Eve, from Eve to the serpent.

And the serpent has no problem admitting that he was the

culprit. And it says in verse 14.

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done

this, thou are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of

the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,

and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

That's why anytime I kill a snake, I feel like I'm doing the

Lord's work. You know what I'm saying?

I said, this is exactly what the Lord wants from us, right?

Verse #15 Sorry, Marsha, All right, and then verse #15 And I

will put enmity between thee and the woman, in between thy seed

and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and

thou shalt bruise it's his heel. Now, what's talking about here

when it says her seed? Now listen, this is couched in

mystery. Certainly Adam and Eve would not

have understood when he said this.

Oh, Jesus Christ, they wouldn't have understood this.

But as time goes on and the mystery of Christ is unraveled

and revealed, we look back now and see what it says.

There'll be enmity between thee and the woman and between thy

seed and her seed. We understand what's talking

about her seed, that it would be talking about Jesus Christ.

You say Well Pastor, that seems like quite a stretch to be able

to say Jesus Christ from her her seed.

Now understand the term her seed is very unusual in Scripture

over 40 times the term his seed is found because typically as

the nature of life is that seed comes from the man.

But yet here only once in the Old Testament and the second

time found in the Book of Revelation prophetic, talking

about Jesus Christ and Israel and all those things, we find

her seed only twice. Why is that important?

Because the birth of Jesus Christ was not going to be like

any other natural birth. That's why her seed was

important, because it's talking about the seed of the woman of

Mary, that he would be 100% God and 100% man.

Ancient Jewish and Christian commentators recognize her seed

as abnormal language. Again, you don't find it

anywhere else. And Hebrew lineage and covenant

language seed is always traced through the Father.

This points to a deliverer not descended through a human

father. You say a deliverer?

Yeah, well it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his

heel. Meaning what?

That a blow would be placed upon Jesus Christ, yet the blow that

we know He would live through. Why do we know that?

Because He lives today. But we know that there will be,

if you will, a death blow based upon Satan.

And we know that he will be tormented and tortured for all

eternity. But we also know this.

We know who wins, and this tells us that the one who is of her

seed will be the victor. Who is that Jesus Christ?

Again? Would Adam and Eve have

understood what he was saying? No, they trusted it by faith.

But we're able to look back as the mystery has been unfurled.

And we look at that and say, oh, sure, there's something that's

different here than what we have seen before and what we will see

throughout the Word of God. And so it seems very clear in

the Old Testament that there was a prophecy that Jesus Christ

would be born of a virgin. So why does the virgin birth

matter #1 because it, it was prophesied in the Old Testament.

But number two, it was proclaimed in the New Testament.

It was prophesied in the Old Testament, and it was proclaimed

in the New Testament. Modern skeptics tell us that

because only two of the four gospels record the virgin birth,

it's on shaky ground. Well, we need to look at those

scriptures for ourselves to understand.

So go to the New Testament. Let's go to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And I know we looked at these a couple weeks ago, but it's good

for us to look at them again, particularly through the lens of

what we're trying to search out right now.

Which is the virgin birth of Christ Matthew chapter 1

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

beginning in verse #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

Ghost. Well, hold on a second, you'd

probably just stop right there, couldn't we?

That would help us tremendously. Right there she was found with

child of the Holy Ghost, something that's never been

spoken of before and will never be spoken of again.

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 Mary thy wife, for that

which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall be

bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for

he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was

spoken of by the 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. That's Isaiah Chapter 7 verse

Isaiah 7:14

14. So it's spoken of in the Old

Testament, confirmed to the New Testament.

So there's no way that we can go back and try to retroactively

change Isaiah 714 into young woman.

Why? Because it's confirmed in the

New Testament that this is Speaking of a virgin birth, of

her being overcome by the Holy Ghost.

Now go to Luke chapter 1. Again, the other account of the

Luke 1 · chapter mention

birth of Christ is found in Luke.

It's not found in Mark. It is not found in John.

Both with different focuses. Luke, chapter one verse #26.

And in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God

unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused

to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David, and the

virgin's name was Mary. It seems very clear that there's

an emphasis in this verse, isn't there?

This is just a young woman, but rather this is a virgin verse

#27 or verse #28 rather. And the Angel came in unto her

and said, Hail thou that are highly favored, the Lord is with

thee. Blessed art thou among women.

And when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying, and

cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the Angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou has

found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive

in thy womb, and shalt bring forth the Son, and shalt call

his name Jesus. He shall be great, shall be

called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto

him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over

the House of Jacob Forever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no

end. And Mary said unto the Angel,

How shall this be, seeing? I know not a man?

And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall

come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow

thee. Therefore also that holy thing

which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And excuse me, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she had also

conceived a son in her old age, and this is the 6th month with

her who was called barren. For with God, listen, nothing

shall be impossible. This is really what it comes

down to. Verse #37 You say, Well, this is

not the way it should be. This is not the way that nature

takes place. Well, with God nothing shall be

impossible. Who put those laws of nature

into place? Who was the one that instituted

those very laws of nature? And who is the one who is

allowed to overcome those laws of which he placed at any given

time? Which by the way, is what every

miracle is, Jesus or whoever's performing the miracle through

the power of God, overcoming the very laws that God put in place

in the 1st place. How can God overcome the laws of

nature? Well, who's the God of nature?

It really shouldn't be that confounding for us to be able to

come to that place. But you see that what was spoken

of in the Old Testament in Genesis, veiled in Isaiah

openly, is confirmed now in Mark, or rather in Matthew, and

also in the book of Luke as well.

It seems quite clear. These verses report with all

clarity that the child to be born would be conceived of the

Holy Ghost. Why is that important?

Well, Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8, who being in the form

Philippians 2:6–8

of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made

Himself of no reputation, took upon in the form of a servant,

and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and

became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

May I remind you that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the

same time that He. It says here that He became of

no reputation. He literally allowed himself to

become a man, to be able to do the things that we do, to sleep,

to eat, to have all of the physicality of which that we

deal with, both good and bad. Here is the Lord who has allowed

himself to be able to take that, but yet at the same time, he did

not put off his deity. He was not man and no longer

God. He also wasn't 50% man and 50%

God. As I've often said, 100% God,

100% man. That makes bad math, but it's

good theology that he was completely God and completely

man. You know who makes half God,

half man? The Romans.

You know who makes half God and half man?

The Greeks. They were the ones and their

mythology who would take these men and take these figures and

these women as well, and to make them into these half man, half

God creations. No, that's not what we're

talking about when we talk about Jesus Christ.

John 1 verses 910 and 14. We looked at these on Christmas

Eve. That was the true light which

lighteth every man and cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the

world knew Him not. And the Word was made flesh and

dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.

The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and

truth. The virgin birth of Jesus isn't

just a nice story, it's a necessary part of salvation of

mankind. In the same way as His

sacrificial death was necessary, as the same way as the as His

resurrection was necessary, we find the virgin birth is

necessary as well. Without the Manger there is no

cross. Without the cross, the Manger is

of none effect. We have to make sure our

theology is strong on all of these issues, not just on His

death or on His direction. We must be strong on all of

these because the Bible is quite clear about them.

Those who would take it out of the word, the virgin birth out

of the word, are no more than than gapping dogs that are

trying to nip at the heels of those who are going on the

narrow way. And we must not listen to those

who try to tell us that the virgin birth is unimportant or

there's more weightier matters for Christians.

Listen, don't worry about these divisive issues.

There's more important things for Christians to worry about.

No, no, I'm concerned about whatever the Bible says and I

want to stand wherever the Bible says it.

And I don't want to just take something that is a very clear

doctrine of the word of God. And for the sake of quote UN

quote unity or for the sake of quote UN quote ecumenicalism or

for the sake of quote UN quote, whatever you want to put in

place there to be able to put a key doctrine of the word of God

aside just to be able to say something that sounds more

palatable to society. Be honest with you.

If you take the if we're to take the virgin birth away, let's

just say we don't believe it anymore.

Of course, this is for the sake sake of argument.

I'm not saying that in anyone's way, shape or form.

Do you think this world would be satisfied if we said, well, I

mean, listen, we don't believe in the virgin birth anymore.

The war's going to be satisfied. They're going to go through.

Well, you believe in creation, there would be, it's not

satisfied. You believe that there's an

afterlife. They wouldn't be.

They wouldn't be happy with that.

You go right through. So maybe it would just be better

we just believe what the Bible says and just take it for what

it is and not try to make it more palatable for the world or

not try to make it so that the world might come on our side.

Well, listen, if we believe in theistic evolution, wouldn't it

be better? Because I mean, we're talking

about God, but we're also talking about the clear

scientific evidence at the same time.

You know, I don't think that they would be pleased if we

believe in theistic evolution. They would only be pleased if we

believe their narrative. And by the way, their narrative

changes all the time. What took millions of years then

turned to billions of years, and then even more billions of

years. And by the way, it doesn't

matter how many billions of years you put in something had

to come first and someone had to be there to put that which came

first. And I would say that evolution

is much as a faith as Bible believe in Christianity.

And I'll say this, evolution is a faith is found wanting in

every single way. Stay away from it.

But in the same way, if we were to lose ground, if we were to

cede the high ground of the virgin, of the virgin birth,

what would we accomplish? Would it be better that we just

stand on the Word of God for what it is and what it says and

say, well, the world doesn't understand, but they don't

understand Jesus Christ at all. And they're not going to

understand and him until the Holy Spirit stirs within him and

they trust Him as their Savior. And then all of a sudden they'll

get it and then they'll understand.

So we see that it was prophesied, the Old Testament,

the virgin birth. It was proclaimed in the New

Testament. And this is what it really comes

down to #3 it's possible with an Almighty God.

It is possible with an almighty God.

I've already alluded to this a few moments ago.

But we take the word of God by faith and understand that we

cannot make our own construct of who we believe Jesus Christ is.

We don't change the Word of God to fit our own sensibilities.

We take the Word of God and allow it to change who we are.

We are the ones who change, not the word of God.

This is one of the many problems, the multitude of

problems of new versions. Every time they come through and

they strip out another doctrine, they take out another thought.

They take out more and more or change more and change more.

Well, listen, I just happen to believe the word of God.

We have it here. We have what we need.

And I don't need some theologian to swoop in and say, you know

that verse you memorize that verse you learned about, you

know, it's really not as great as you think it is.

Or even as they say, sometimes that verse actually isn't even

in the Bible. It really was never meant to be

in the Bible in the 1st place. And there's places where there

are just verses that are skipped over completely dozens of places

where that's the case. You know, listen, I just, you

say, well, why would God preserve his word?

Because He can that he promised he would.

And just in the same way that a virgin can give birth to the

Messiah, well, God can do anything he says he's going to

do. And we, we know what that's

called faith. Faith is a substance of things

hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

But yet we believe it because it's faith.

Now the idea of the virgin birth has been attacked for

generations. One of the most recent that has

attacked it would be Andy Stanley.

He is the son of the famous Baptist pastor Charles Stanley.

Andy Stanley went his own way many years ago, but he said this

and it sounds at first blush, I would imagine if you're not a

believer or first blush, maybe you're a new believer.

What he says sounds very reasonable, kind of like a has

saying I will not tempt the Lord.

Well, that sounds really spiritual, except you're doing

exactly opposite of what God said.

And what he says here sounds reasonable at first, but then

once you start to put a little pressure on it, like a House of

Cards, that falls apart. He said this.

If somebody could predict their own death and their own

resurrection, I'm not all that concerned with how they got into

the world because the whole resurrection thing is so

amazing. And Christianity doesn't hinge

on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus.

It really hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.

Now, my question would be to Andy Stanley.

Where do you get that idea from? It all hinges on the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, perhaps you could go to 1st

Corinthians 15 where it talks about if there was no

resurrection that, you know, where would we be with

salvation? But at the same time, that is

not minimizing the rest of the gospel.

That's not minimizing the rest of who Jesus Christ is.

It's just saying that the resurrection is the capstone of

all that Jesus's life was. And so it never even suggests

Paul's not suggesting in First Corinthians chapter 15 that

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

really the only important doctrine about Jesus is the

resurrection. He's not suggesting that at all.

But but here's where I this is where I just don't understand.

It goes back to what I said a few moments ago.

You believe a man died, was gone for three days, rose from the

dead and is alive today and have no problem with that.

But you have a problem with another unnatural idea, the

virgin birth, which just seems like if he's God either

impossible. What's so hard to wrap your head

around with that? But again, there's something so

palatable to those who don't understand to say listen, geez,

all about the resurrection and listen the resurrection's

amazing. That's why what we do what we do

around Easter time every year, we call it Resurrection Sunday

here for the most part to remind people that it's really about

the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We do that because it's important that the world loses

their focus on what that is and they think it's some kind of

spring celebration or they think it's some kind of time when when

you do all these different things but never thought about

the resurrection of Christ. But why would you have a problem

with one but then not a problem with the other?

Again, we just saw just a few moments ago, Luke chapter 1

Luke 1 · chapter mention

covers that for with God, all things are possible.

If it's not possible, He's not much of a God.

If he's not much of a God, then we don't need to believe in him,

don't need to serve Him, He won't save us.

So certainly there's a line in the sand drone there.

Others will deny it outright, as well as attacking other areas of

his life and deity. These are names that you might

not be familiar with. I can't say I'm familiar with

all of them either, but quotes that I've sourced through time.

Adolf von Hornack and the book History of Dogma said the virgin

birth is not part of the original gospel.

James DG Dunn in Christology in the Making said belief in Jesus

divine sonship did not initially require belief in the virgin

conception. Walter Brueggemann theology of

the Old Testament. The virgin birth is a

theological affirmation, not a biological explanation.

I had to read that one a few times.

The idea is this is it's really more of a spiritual idea than a

physical idea. And again, there's something

that sounds very spiritual about that except for the fact that

you're denying what God said. Raymond Brown the birth of the

Messiah. The infancy narratives are not

meant to be read as strict historical accounts.

John Shelby Spong Jesus for the non religious sign right there

as we get into it. There was no biological miracle

at the beginning of Jesus life. John Hick the metaphor for God

Incarnate. The virgin birth is not a

necessary belief for a meaningful Christian faith.

Karen Armstrong, A History of God The virgin birth was never

meant to be taken literally. Harvey Cox The Future of faith.

Whether the virgin birth happened biologically is beside

the point. You know, what is the point?

Is the word of God true? Is when the word of God speaks

of something, whatever that is, did it really happen?

Because again, when you get to the place, when you say, well,

is this exactly what the word of God is saying?

You get yourself to the place where who is the final arbiter

you are and not the Lord. Oftentimes when I talk about

Bible stories, I, I don't always use the word story.

I like to use the word account. To be honest with you.

I don't have a problem saying story because, you know, you

read a news story and you know it's true whatever.

Mind. OK, accounts probably better,

right? Yeah.

So the idea is we're not looking at Bible stories in the sense

that they're Disney stories or Universal Studios stories or

Dreamwork stories or Aesop stories or whatever you want to

call them. You know, they are true accounts

of things that happen. And I want those young people in

the back. And by the way, they get this in

Sunday school and they get this in junior church, that they

understand that they're not reading Aesop's Fables, that

they're not getting just good moral stories.

They are finding out the very truth of the Word of God, of

real events with real people that had real thoughts, because

that's what the Word of God is. And we get to the place where we

start to question, well, is this really necessary or is that

really necessary? Well, you get yourself in a very

dangerous position where you are the one deciding what is truth

and what is not truth. You know what's truth?

This is truth. And if I don't get it, then the

problem's with me and not with this book, because there's a lot

of people that came before. And if Jesus tarries, there'll

be a lot of people to come after and listen.

Let God's word be true. The Bible says in every man a

liar meaning this God is true. The texts that or the rather the

quotes I just gave you very clearly show what a low opinion

someone has of God when they have a low opinion of the virgin

birth. They're not just saying they

don't believe in the virgin birth, they're really saying

they have a very low opinion of who God is.

To believe the virgin birth is vital, to take it out of our

doctrine is a grave, grave issue.

Now, I've used this illustration before for different things, but

I think it fits here very well of putting together a puzzle.

And I remember when my mom had surgery, we put together a

puzzle, one of her surgeries before she passed and just tried

to pass the time. And we looked around the waiting

room. There was a puzzle there.

And so we did it. And everybody kind of gathered

around the table and you're doing the puzzle.

And we like puzzle. We go through like, phases where

we really enjoy them. And then I don't want to look at

them for another two years. And then then we say, hey, man,

our puzzle's fun. And then we, you know, three

months later, like, let's not do any more puzzles.

You know that it's kind of how we are with puzzles.

But I remember doing it because it was just that kind of idea

that you want to do something together.

You didn't want to be on your phones.

You just want to pass the time. We were doing it and we got to

the end and there was about four or five pieces out of this 500

or whatever it was that we're gone.

I don't know about you. That kind of bugs me.

I'm a completionist, you know, if I wasted who knows how much

time of my life to be able to put this puzzle together, I want

to see the whole picture right there, not just on the box.

And we looked at the box and they and to try to see if we

missed something and then turned it over.

And on the back there was a piece of masking tape and

someone had written missing pieces.

Like if you put that right in the front, maybe that would have

helped. Maybe we'd have done something

else instead. Maybe we stayed on our phones.

Who knows what we would have done.

But here's the idea. You take out the virgin birth,

there's missing pieces. You can't just say you have the

full picture and take out the virgin birth and there'll be no

consequences. You know, it is a very great

missing pieces when you take out a key doctrine of the word of

God. And this is a very brief of

course we can go very deep into all that is here.

But I would say this, this gives you pretty much a good basic

understanding and way to be able to explain to someone else

through 2 Old Testament passages confirmed by 222 New Testament

passages to help you to be able to explain why the virgin birth

was so important. And if God is who he says he is,

that we're just going to trust his word.

And that's where we stand as a church, not just on this

doctrine, but on whatever the word of God says.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.