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Book: Matthew
 Print ( PC Only )
Matthew 1:18-21 His Name is Jesus
I. God is not a name, but a title.
A. Whatever is the controlling force of your life is your God.
1. For many people that would be their sex drive.
a. Their mind, life, and their conversations are
always occupied with overtones.
b. In the days of yore, they would be known as
worshippers of Venus, or Aphrodite, or
Ashtoreth, Ishtar. All the same goddess, just
the name given by the different cultures.
c. The temples built for this deity, were houses
of prostitution.
d. Today Hugh Hephner could be classified as a
high priest of this religion.
e. If you are purchasing or perusing
magazine, or any of that type of magazines, or
if you are drawn to movies, which are
designed to stimulate you sexually, you are
into idolatry. The worship of idols, and false
gods.
f. The adult book stores, or the bath houses of
San Francisco are the temples dedicated to
these deities.
g. There are always those who find a way to make a
fortune from the people who worship the various
gods, as has Hugh Hephner.
2. For many it is riches and power.
a. Their lives are obsessed by the desire to be
rich. They are always looking for a way to
increase their riches, though often they have
more than they could ever spend.
b. Moral principals are often set aside, and they
will cheat, deceive, pressure, or use any other
method to make a profit.
c. Ted Turner, or Donald Trump could be seen as
high priests of this religion.
d. You see books advertised on How to be Rich, or
How I became a millionaire.
e. The lottery, and Las Vegas appeal to the people
looking for easy riches. Their are many
elaborate temples built along the strip in Las
Vegas for those who worship the god Mammon.
3. Still others are worshipping pleasure. Not necessarily
pleasure, just any kind of pleasure, sensation,
of excitement.
a. The pleasure of hooking the perfect wave.
b. The pleasure of down the slope.
c. The excitement of watching two men seeking to
knock each other senseless.
d. The excitement of watching 22 men beating on
each other as they try to move a ball down the
field to cross a goal line.
e. You think of the great temples that have been
constructed that the followers of Molech might
gather together to worship their god.
B. Let it be noted that none of these things in and of themselves
are wrong, or sinful.
1. God created your sex drive. His purpose was the
perpetuation of the human race.
a. He gave us an attraction and a desire for the
opposite sex and purposed that a man should
leave his father and his mother and cleave to
his wife, and the two should become one,
produce offspring, and provide a loving secure
environment for the children to grow up in.
b. In it's place, it is a wonderful gift of God.
c. If you make our god, you will find that it
will ultimately destroy you.
2. Money is not evil. God often blessed His servants with
riches. It is the love of money that the scripture
condemns. When it becomes the chief passion of your
existence. When it takes the first place in your heart
and begins to control you.
3. Pleasure in and of itself is not wrong. It is not a sin
to go to a , or game. God is the one
that gave you the capacity for pleasure. He designed
you to enjoy different things.
a. The scripture reveals that God takes pleasure
in certain things.
b. It's just that pleasure should not be the
controlling passion of your life.
4. These things are all good, and proper, in their place,
but their place is not to be the ruling passion of your
life, when they begin to control your life, when you
become a slave to them, they will then begin to destroy
you.
5. God commanded, "Thou shalt have no other gods before
me."
a. He is to be the supreme master passion of your
life.
b. You are to love Him foremost, above and beyond
all other gods and desires.
c. He wants the first place in your life.
d. He wants to be the first love of your life.
e. When this is so, your life is in balance. Every
thing else falls into its proper secondary
place, you become fulfilled and satisfied.
f. When these other things usurp the place of God
in your life and actually become your god, then
is when you begin to go to extremes, for you
are constantly seeking for them to provide you
with contentment and satisfaction which they
are incapable of doing. You begin to indulge
more and more until your life is obsessed, and
finally destroyed.
C. These other gods all had their names. We are familiar with the
names of these gods. Each culture worshipped the same gods only
by different names. The Zeus of the Greeks, was called Jupiter
by the Romans. The Venus of the Romans, was known as Aphrodite
by the Greeks. The Nordic people had their names for the gods,
as did the Indians, and the Babylonians. The gods were always
the deifying of a certain principal, or passion.
II. What is the name of the true and living God, the creator of the
Universe.
The God who created us, and demands our highest love and devotion.
A. When Moses was called by God to lead the children of Israel
out from their in Egypt, he said, "When I come to the
children of Israel and say unto them the God of your fathers
has sent me, and they shall say unto me, what is His name? What
shall I say unto them? God answered Him I Am that I Am. Tell
them that I AM hath sent you. Tell them that the God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Issac, and the God
of Jacob has sent me unto you, this is My name forever.
B. The Hebrew name is Yahweh, often pronounced Jehovah. The
literal meaning is the becoming one. I Am to you, whatever your
need may be. I will become to you your joy, your strength, you
power, your hope, your life.
C. The name is thus compounded with words that express the various
needs of man.
1. When Abraham and Issac were going up the hill together
for sacrifice, and Issac said, "Father here is the
wood, and here is the fire, but where is the sacrifice,
Abraham answered, "Jehovah- Jireh" The Lord will
provide. Or more literally, I Am the provider.
2. Jehovah Shalom, I Am your peace.
3. Jehovah-shamah, I Am there.
4. Jehovah-tsidkenu, I Am your righteousness.
5. The Jeh or the Jah or the Jo at the beginning of a
name, was often a shortened form of Jehovah.
a. Johanan means Jehovah is gracious.
b. Josiah meant whom Jehovah heals.
c. Joshua, Jehovah shua, or Jehovah is salvation.
II. You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their
sin.
A. The name Jesus is the Greek for the name Joshua. Thus the name
means, I have become salvation.
B. Why is His name to be called Jesus? "He shall save His people
from their sins."
C. The Greek word for sin, (harmatia) means to miss the mark. The
mark if perfection. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father in heaven is perfect." You say, "But nobody is perfect"
You have just acknowledged what the scripture has declared is
true. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There is none righteous no not one."
1. That means that all men need salvation or someone to
save them from their sin.
2. If we are not saved from our sin, then our sin will
destroy us, for the wages of sin is death.
3. God has labeled everything that is destructive, as sin.
a. You may not agree with God's list.
b. You may think that you can get by with certain
things that God has labeled sin, without it
affecting you, but you are wrong, and some day
you will wake up to the fact that it has slowly
eaten away at your soul until you are lost.
D. His very name, implies His mission. He has come to be the
Savior of the world.
1. One day as the religious people were finding fault with
Him for eating with sinners, He replied, "For the Son
of Man, has come to seek and to save those who are
lost."
2. Peter in responding to the question as to by what power
or what name they made the lame man to walk said,
ACS 4:9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the
impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
ACS 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, [even] by him doth
this man stand here before you whole.
ACS 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders,
which is become the head of the corner.
ACS 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved.
3. Paul in responding to the Phillipian jailer who had
asked, "What must I do to be saved?" said, "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
4. To the Romans he said, "If you will confess with your
mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be
saved."
5. Salvation is related to the name of Jesus.
B. How can He save us from our sins?
1. He took the guilt of your sin, and died in your place.
2. To the believers in Phillipi Paul wrote,
PHI 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God:
PHI 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
PHI 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.
PHI 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him
a name which is above every name:
PHI 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things]
in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the
earth;
PHI 2:11 And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is]
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
C. This brings up then the following issues.
1. Who is the controlling god of your life?
2. Have you received salvation from the consequences of
your sin through Jesus Christ?
3. Would you like to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior
today?
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