The Virgin Birth is the Foundation of your Christian Faith!

12.17.2023

Introduction

When we leave this building and go out into our mission field, what I talk about today will 100% apply!

The very foundation of Christianity begins with the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.

There can be no faith for salvation without belief in the Virgin Birth.

As our culture moves away from its Christian roots, Jesus Christ has lost His place in speaking to the morals of our generation.

In a moment I want to read you a quote from over 80 years ago that I believe was prophetic.

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, if a culture has no consciousness of sin, and if a culture doesn’t believe in punishment for sin after death in hell and then in the lake of fire, then that group of people will see little need for a Savior who died for us.

Let’s look at that statement a little closer:

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired, Word of God,

2 Timothy 3:16 (NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible provides a moral compass for sinful, wicked people.

Psalms 119:105 (NKJV)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God,

…if a culture has no consciousness of sin,

Romans 3:23 (NLT)

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Matthew 15:19 (NLT)

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

The belief today is that we are all good.

There is an emphasis on self in public learning. Let a child be what it wants to be, and don’t correct.

That comes from a belief that we are intrinsically good within and that we are not sinful.

If you believe that, then there is no need for a savior.

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God,

…if a culture has no consciousness of sin,

…and if a culture doesn’t believe in punishment for sin after death in hell, and then in the lake of fire,

Hebrews 9:27 (NLT)

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,

Revelation 21:8 (NLT)

But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Revelation 20:15 (NLT)

And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God,

…if a culture has no consciousness of sin,

…and if a culture doesn’t believe in punishment for sin after death in hell, and then in the lake of fire,

…then there is little need for a Savior who died for us.

Then John 3:16 means nothing:

John 3:16 (NKJV)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

If a culture doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, if a culture has no consciousness of sin, and if a culture doesn’t believe in punishment for sin after death in hell and then in the lake of fire, then that group of people will see little need for a Savior who died for us.

Sadly, that is where America is right now!

Belief in the Bible makes people in sin uncomfortable. And our culture is all about doing what we want to do, period.

John 3:19-20 (NLT)

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

Also, political correctness, and the mass immigration from other countries of people from faiths other than Christianity has created a melting pot of beliefs. Multiculturalism is urging us to mute our voices, and not be bold about our beliefs.

Persecution and vilification of Christians is here.

For these reasons, we need to know what we believe and why, and be able to kindly and lovingly defend our faith.

Listen to this quote from the early part of the last century. Today it stands as a prophetic warning to America.

Quote From The Name of Jesus by E. W. Kenyon

Taken from The Wonderful Name of Jesus by E. W. Kenyon (Lynnwood, Washington: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 1964), pages 13-14.

The deity of the Man of Galilee is the crux [the most important part] of Christianity. If this can be successfully challenged, then Christianity has lost its heart and it will cease to function; it will become a dead religion.

There is no denial that the challenge of His Deity has already had its reactionary effect upon society.

If Jesus is not Deity, He is not Lord. If He is not Lord, then He cannot interfere with our moral activities. If He is not Lord, then the laws that have been founded upon His teaching have lost their force. The morals that surround marriage with its lofty ideals have no basis of fact. If Jesus of Nazareth is not a revelation from God with Divine authority, then He is but a man. If He is but a man, all we have built around Him must be destroyed, and we have built around this Man our modern civilization.

He has been the inspiration of young men: they have kept themselves clean and pure as they have looked upon His wonderful life and sought to win His smile. Young women in the secret of their chamber have looked upon the face of the Man of Galilee and have pledged to preserve the purity of their womanhood that they might be found worthy of the love and confidence of the Man Who died two thousand years ago for humanity.

Children have been incited to obedience and purity by the example and teachings of this man. Business men have been deterred from crooked dealings by the consciousness that one day they would meet that Man and give account of the deeds done in their office.

Men of all walks of life have felt a strange kinship with this man Who walked the shores of Galilee, solitary among a multitude. To say He was but a good man is an insult. To say that He was the highest expression of Deity in humanity is to throw the lie into His face. Jesus is or He is not what He said He was. We have no record of His sayings nor of His doings outside the four gospels, and if we repudiate them, then we have but a mythical picture of the Man. If we challenge one of them, we have a right to challenge all of them: either He stands or falls on these four biographical sketches. If He is not the Son of God, who is He?

I want to believe that He is an incarnation. I want to believe that He dealt with the sin problem. I want to believe that He died for my sins and that He rose again for my justification. I want to believe that He is seated at God’s right hand today as the Intercessor and Mediator of the human race. I want to believe that what He said about heaven is true: In My Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.

Skepticism holds no guaranty for my future. Civilization has not only been builded around this man, but He has been builded into civilization. If you destroy His character, His standing, His place, then civilization must disintegrate. The wave of crime and lawlessness that is sweeping over the land is but a byproduct of the modernists’ challenge of His integrity.

Why is the Virgin Birth Important?

Why is the Incarnation necessary?

Definition

Incarnate –

(Latin) in-Caro – flesh.

Endowed with a human body; to give bodily form to; to be the type or embodiment of.

 

Incarnation- a taking on of human form.

It was foretold in the Old Testament:

Genesis 3:15 (NLT)

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Her offspring – a woman bearing a child without the help of a man.

Isaiah 7:14 (NKJV)

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

 

Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53:2 (NLT)

My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.

Micah 5:2 (NKJV)

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”

Here’s why the Incarnation is God’s greatest gift to us…

A man got us into sin…a man must get us out!

 

No person born of two human parents qualifies to conquer the sin, Satan, and curse problems we face because that person is born as a sinner.

10 things that only Jesus Christ – the God made flesh Man – can do:

 

1. Be born in fellowship with God.

2. Be born free from Satan’s rule.

3. Be without sin Himself.

4. Have only one human parent.

5. Be immortal – not subject to death.

6. Be able to legally pay for our sin.

7. Conquer death and give us an ability to defeat our enemy.

8. Make immortality available to us.

9. Remove the curse from the earth.

10. Completely restore man to his pre-fall condition.

The virgin birth gives back to us all that was taken away when the human race became sinful with their disobedience in the Garden of Eden.

Because Jesus was also God, He was able to pay our sin penalty for us.

He took our spiritual death and separation from God.

He defeated Satan, our enemy, for us and gave us authority over him.

He has made provision for us to get a glorified body at the rapture of the church which will replace our current death-doomed, or mortal, bodies.

At His second coming, Satan will be thrown into the Lake of Fire along with all fallen angels and demons.

He will create a new heavens and new earth free from the curse of sin and the contamination of evil.

The earth will be once again what it was before Adam sinned. God will be our Father and we will be His family.

Do you live as though you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ?

Are you ready for heaven? Are you going?

You will not go to heaven without accepting this free gift of salvation from Jesus Christ.

This is an important time for us to share the good news of the love God has for us by sending His Son to pay our sin penalty and prepare us for heaven.

To accept – lay down your life in repentance!

Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Action Points:

1. Do you believe that Jesus’ mother was a virgin?

2. Does your belief in Jesus’ virgin birth change how you live your life?

3. What changes do you need to make in your life that would be a witness to those around you who do not believe in the virgin birth?