Adrian Rogers: The Virgin Birth of Jesus
Adrian Rogers: The Virgin Birth of Jesus
Many proclaiming Christians have difficulty comprehending the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, and oftentimes gloss over it when explaining the Christmas story to others. However, if the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ did not happen, the foundation of Christianity collapses like a house of cards! Adrian Rogers explains how and why this unequaled birth came to be.
I’m aware that the world laughs at the idea of a virgin birth.
They think of that as some sort of primitive, medieval superstition, or something. They laughed.
They mock at the idea of the virgin birth.
I can tell you furthermore, the devil hates the idea of the virgin birth because it teaches both the humanity and the deity of his nemesis and our savior.
The lord Jesus Christ. But we’re worse than the mockery of this world and the hatred of Satan is the ignorance of many so called Christians concerning the virgin birth.
Many of them doubt it. Some don’t believe it at all. And others think that it is incidental.
I want to show you that if you take away the and birth by Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
You have destroyed the whole foundation of Christianity. It is not incidental It is fundamental.
ProFound Truth simply stated. This is love worth finding with pastor, teacher, and author, Adrian Rogers.
Take god’s word and turn, if you will, to Luke chapter 2, the Christmas story.
I’m gonna begin reading in just a moment.
In the verse 1, Luke chapter 2, upon an occasion, I had an opportunity to witness to Mohammad Ali.
And I had prayed much about it, and god arranged it where we could be together in a small room late at night, actually, before one of his fights.
And, uh, we were talking about Jesus Christ, and I’d have a prayer in my heart that this man might receive Christ as his personal, lord, and savior.
And he was studying the Islamic faith. And so we were talking back and forth.
And he challenged me with this question.
He said, you say that Jesus Christ is the son of god because he was born of a virgin.
He didn’t have a an earthly father.
Then he said to me, Adam didn’t have a father or a mother.
Wouldn’t that make Adam more a son of god than Jesus?
I said, champ, I want you to understand this.
Jesus was not the son of god because he was born of a virgin.
He was born of a virgin because he was the son of god.
You see, Jesus did not have his star in Bethlehem.
Uh, Jesus stepped out of the glory as we’ve already told you, unto us, a child is born.
Under us, a son is given, we’re gonna be talking today about the virgin birth of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
Now I’m aware that the world laughs
at the idea of a virgin birth.
They think of that as some sort of primitive, medieval superstition, or something. They laugh.
They mock at the idea of the virgin birth.
I can tell you furthermore, the devil hates the idea of the virgin birth.
Because it teaches both the humanity and the deity of his nemesis and our savior, the lord Jesus Christ But worse than the mockery of this world and the hatred of Satan is the ignorance of many so called Christians concerning the virgin birth.
Many of them doubt it. Some don’t believe it at all. And others think that it is incidental.
Friend, I want to show you this message.
That you have no hope of salvation apart from the virgin birth.
I want to show you that if you take away the virgin birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, You have destroyed the whole foundation of Christianity, and it will all collapse like a house of cards.
It is not incidental. It is fundamental. 3 thoughts this morning.
First of all, I want you to think of the sacred mystery of his birth.
Now go back to chapter 1.
Uh, the angel has announced to Mary that she is going to be with child.
Now Mary is a virgin.
She is a spouse, a man named Joseph, but they’ve not come together in the act of marriage.
The ceremony has not yet, uh, transpired They’re not living together as husband and wife.
And yet, the angel Gabriel says, Mary, you’re going to have a baby.
Now she asked a very pertinent question beginning in verse 34.
Then said, Mary, unto the angel, how shall this be? Big question.
How’s this going to happen? This is a mystery to me.
Now there’s some people who say, is not the idea of a virgin birth?
Is that not a biological impossibility?
Again, I wanna tell you, uh, that it is not a biological impossibility.
Uh, if you let the angel answer the question, is there anything too hard for god?
With god, all things are possible.
God is not bound by the very laws that he himself has created in the universe that he himself has made.
He is the master and the lord of that universe.
Now god can do anything he well pleases because he is god.
I have no difficulty with the virgin birth if I believe in creation.
Fred, I’ve often said if you can get past Genesis 11, you’re home free concerning miracles.
In the beginning, god created the heavens in the air. You have difficulty believing a virgin birth.
Listen to me precious friends. God made the first man without a father or a mother.
Out of Clay, that he formed out of nothing.
That may be a mystery to you, but it is not a mystery, uh, to god Now I love this verse.
1st Timothy, 3 verse 16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness god was manifest in the flesh.
Now that’s that’s what the virgin birth is all about. God was manifest in the flesh.
Justified in the spirit, seeing of angels. Have you ever thought about that, seeing of angels?
Did you know, through all eternity, the eons of the ages, no angel had ever seen god because god is invisible.
The first time any angel or anybody ever saw god was when the word was made flesh.
Managers. Look. There is god lying in a manger.
Seen of angels preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory.
Don’t worry if you can’t explain the virgin birth.
You couldn’t explain the virgin birth anymore that you could explain god.
When you can explain god, then perhaps you can explain the virgin birth.
You see, there is this sacred mystery of the virgin birth. Great. Is the mystery of godliness.
We join Mary in saying, how can this be?
And we join the angel when we say with god, all things are possible.
And god’s people said, amen, settle. That’s it. God did it.
If you have difficulty believing the virgin birth, I tell you what your real difficulty is.
Your god is too small. Your god is too small.
Second point, I want you to see not only the sacred mystery of it, but I want you to see, and this is very important, the saving ministry of the virgin bird.
Now let’s begin in Luke 2 verse 8.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watcher, their flock by night, and lo The angel of the lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were sore, afraid.
That means they were scared of the wits.
And the angel said unto them, fear not, well, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, underscore this phrase, a savior.
A savior which is Christ, the lord, and this shall be a sign under you.
You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising god and saying, glory to god and the highest.
And on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
The virgin birth and the incarnation that is god being made flesh was necessary for our salvation.
Now I want you to follow me here.
God gave Adam and Eve dominion in the Garden of Eden. They sinned and they lost that dominion.
They forfeited it. They turned it over to Satan.
And rather than being servants of god, they became slaves of Satan, and they infected the entire human race uh, with sin.
Our dominion was lost by a man.
The only way it can ever be returned to us is by a man, another man.
And that other man is the lord Jesus.
All of us today are represented by 1 of 2 men, either Adam or Jesus.
And Adam all died, and Christ all are made alive.
And really, so all there are really only 2 men who’ve ever lived and the rest of us are part and parcel of those 2 men?
Now, uh, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, came born of a virgin, undo what the first Adam did.
Now apart from the virgin birth, therefore, there is no hope of salvation.
Well, how did he come to undo what the first Adam did?
Well, the Bible clearly plainly teaches that the wages of sin is death.
The soul that sineth, it shall surely die.
And the Bible says without shedding a blood is no remission.
Now sin must be paid for. It must be atoned, and it must be atoned by shed blood.
God in spirit has no blood. Now god in spirit, god is spirit.
The Bible says, the great eternal I am is spirit. Well, the great eternal I am cannot die.
The great eternal I am cannot bleed, but this this salvation was lost by man.
This dominion was lost by man. Therefore, it must be redeemed by a man.
That’s the reason I said you take away the virgin birth. You don’t have no hope of heaven.
He came as he did, born of a virgin to be what he was, senseless.
He was what he was, senseless to do what he did, die a substitutionary death. He died a substitutionary death.
To do what he did, atone for sin.
He did what he did that we might be born again and go to heaven.
No sinless sacrifice? No atonement? No atonement? No new birth?
No new birth? Known a hope of heaven.
He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. Never.
Overlook. Never mock the virgin birth. Thank god.
That god stepped out of heaven and be was born of a virgin.
That’s the way that’s the reason.
The angel said, this is good tidings, a great joy, which shall be to all people.
Jesus Christ is not the white man savior, the black man savior, the yellow man savior, the western savior, the Eastern savior.
He is savior of the world. This is good news, which is to all people.
He is the world needs Jesus, Jews, and need Jesus. Young and old need Jesus. Rich and poor need Jesus.
Intellectual and illiterate. We all need Jesus, white man, black man, yellow man, red man, Here, there, everywhere.
This world needs Jesus. He is the virgin born son of god.
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Now I come to the 3rd and final point. I’ve talked about the sacred, uh, mystery of his birth.
I’ve talked about the saving ministry of his birth.
Let me talk to you about the sovereign majesty of his birth. Look again in Luke chapter 1.
Let’s begin in verse 30.
And the angel said it to her, the angel now is Gabriel’s her is married. Fear not married.
For thou hast found favor with god, and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son Vow shall call his name Jesus.
And by the way, the name Jesus, the Old Testament named Joshua, same name, means jehovah saves.
Now notice verse 32, and he shall be great.
And shall be called the son of the highest And the lord god shall give unto him the throne of his father, David.
Now we’re talking about the sovereign majesty of this baby.
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.
Now as the son of god, he shares the nature of god, like father, like son.
Who is this baby virgin born? Plain, straight, simple, Listen to me.
He is god in human flesh. Now, the Mormons don’t accept this.
Oh, they believe he is a god, but not the one true god.
Jehovah’s witnesses do not accept this.
Those of the Islamic faith do not accept this.
The unitarians do not accept this. The liberal theologians do not accept this.
Let me tell you what the Bible says. Put in your margin. Hebrews 1 verse 8.
But unto the sun, he saith, thy throne, oh god.
Now listen, he’s talking to the sun.
To the son, s o n, he said, thy throneal god is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.
This baby is as much god as if it’s not man at all.
He is the earthly child of a heavenly father and the heavenly child of an earthly mother.
That little baby lying in a manger, wrapped in, swaddling clothes with his dimple feet, Tatching the straw is the mighty god of Genesis 11.
Do you believe it? I believe it. The apostle John believed it. John 1 verses 1 through 3.
Listen. In the beginning was the word. The word is Another name for Jesus.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with god.
Now here it comes, and the word was god. And the same was in the beginning with god.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
He made the manger that he lie in. He is god from everlasting.
Jesus did not begin with Mary in Bethlehem.
He existed as ageless with his father in heaven as has been well said when he was born, He was as ageless as his father and older than his mother.
And he has come to rule and reign. What’s the world coming to?
It’s coming to Jesus.
His is the cradle that will rock the world. You can believe that.
One day our dear savior is going to step out of the glory.
And those blessed nail pierced feet will touch the mount of olives, and there will be a great earthquake.
And Jesus is going to make his way, uh, to Jerusalem.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder. What’s wrong with the world today?
Have you read the news this morning yesterday last week?
Pick up any newspaper and you know there is something strategically wrong with our world.
And it looks like we’re looking into the barrel of a loaded cannon.
There can be no real peace without the prince of peace.
The answer to this world’s problems is the second coming of the lord Jesus Christ.
And the hope of the individual, the hope of the church, the hope of the family, the hope of this nation, and the hope of this world is Jesus Christ.
There used to be an old English evangelist whose name was Henry Morehouse.
And Henry Morehouse uh, was a fearless preacher. He told a story I wanna share with you.
It’s a it’s an interesting story to me.
He said in London, There were group of men many years ago who were in the London zoo, and they were having a little contest to see how many rats a terrier dog could kill, and they were betting on these things.
Very much like men bet on horse races or pet on dog races.
I go over here, uh, uh, to the dog track. Yeah.
It’s one of the few places where the windows clean the people.
And, uh, they were betting on how many, uh, rats a terrier could kill in a given period of time.
And they took this little terrier and put him in a pen with 25 vicious rats.
And the terrier was killing those rats rapidly, but he didn’t kill enough.
His owner lost some money on him.
His owner pulled him out of that pit and kicked him and beat him mercilessly.
And then in a fit of anger, took the little dog and threw him over the fence into the lion cage, thinking the lion would devouring.
That old lion came over and looked at that pitiful creature there, beaten and bloody.
The lion just kinda nosed him and coddled him.
And then kinda put his paws over him to protect him and look at the man who had done such a thing.
The old lion had seen it all. He was angry.
That such a thing had been done to another creature.
About that time, the zookeeper came according to Henry Moore House and said, who did this?
Who threw that dog in there?
And the man said, well, I did. I was just excited.
I want you to get him out for me.
The zookeeper acted like he didn’t even hear it. Then again, the man got belligerent.
He said, I said I want my dog back.
There’s the dog there being protected by the lion.
The zookeeper said, you do? Alright.
I’ll open the gate and let you go in and get him.
And then Henry Moorehouse said, you know, I was like that.
Beat bruised maimed and wounded by Satan and by sin, in the line of Judah, the lord Jesus, has come as my savior and my protector.
I’m so glad that we have such a wonderful savior this Christmas season.
You know, this is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time to tell about Jesus.
Some time ago, a lady received a telegram, and the telegram she was middle aged She received a telegram.
The telegram told her that she had inherited a fortune.
In this day, when a $1,000,000 was truly a $1,000,000, she had inherited more than a $1,000,000.
She was flabbergasted. She didn’t even know that she had a relative that had that kind of money.
She was so excited. She didn’t know what to do. She was home by herself.
She went to the telephone, picked it up and said, operator. Get me somebody on the line. Anybody.
He hit anybody. I wanna tell him what has happened.
Shouldn’t we feel that way about Jesus?
Oh, I just wanna tell people about the lord Jesus Christ. Why the virgin birth?
He came to Earth that we might go to heaven.
The whole purpose is wrapped up in a substitutionary death.
You see, the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray.
We’ve turned to everyone to his own way, and the lord hath laid on him on Jesus.
The iniquity of us all.
Let this hand represent you Let this Bible that tells about sin represents sin.
You are a sinner, you know.
You know that the Bible says the wages of sin is dead.
You know that you’re destined and doomed to eternity without Christ if something’s not done about your sin.
Because I can tell you there’s one thing god will not do, and that is he will never overlook your sin.
Is this getting through? There you are. There’s your sin. Here’s Jesus.
Virgin born, the senseless son of god, No taint in him, no sin in him, no blame on him, And the Bible says, and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Our sins are laid on Jesus. The sinless one carried those sins to the cross.
And in agony and blood, he died upon that cross to pay our sin debt because our sin is on Jesus.
Thank god, his righteousness is on us. That’s good news. That’s good news.
And the Bible says it clearly plainly, simply, sweetly, divinely. Believe on the lord Jesus Christ.
And you will be saved. If I could do it for you, I would.
God knows I’ve preached as best. I know how.
If I could do it better, I would. Go ahead.
What? You say?
Why should you die and go to hell when we have such a wonderful salvation?
Value heads in prayer.
Now if you’re not saved, truly saved, This is the time when you need to get saved.
And I want to lead you to prayer.
And in this prayer, this morning, You can pray and receive the lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior and lord.
Pray this way. Lord god, I confess that I’m a sinner, that I need to be saved.
Jesus You died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you.
I do trust you.
I believe you shed your blood on the cross to pay for my sin.
I believe it got raised you from the dead.
And I now receive you by faith as my personal lord and savior.
Forgive my sin, cleanse me, save me, come into my life, and begin now to make me the person you want me to be.
And help me never ever to be ashamed of you.
Give me the courage to make this public because I really mean business In your name, I pray.
Amen.
