Why Christ Had to Be Virgin Born — Romans 9 & Genesis 3:15

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, I'm glad to see everybody still with us. This is number four this afternoon, so you can turn with me to chapter nine, and we just might finish verse five in this half hour. If not, we'll go on into verse six, but I'd like to just stay in verse five, and save verse six for our next program. Well, once again, all of our television audience, we always appreciate hearing from you. We just love your letters, and we like especially when you can say that you feel like you're right at the back end of the room, you're sitting in with us, and that you're learning. Nothing thrills me more than when someone says, Hey, I'm learning, because that's all we hope to do is to help people to enjoy this book. It's the greatest book on earth, there's nothing like it, but you have to study it to appreciate it. So, this is our whole reason for doing what we're doing. We certainly don't hope to make a great following or anything like that, but if we can just get people interested again in the Word of God. I intended to bring a quote, and I forgot it, maybe next program, but it was the quote that I ran across of one of the former presidents of Princeton University. And I want to make sure I can quote it word for word, but this must have come... In fact, I was even going to call Princeton and see at what time this guy held forth as president. But the quote was, either it's the epistles of Paul, or it's back to nothing. And like I say, that's not the full quote. I'm going to try and think to bring it next taping. But that says it all. Unless Christendom gets back into the letters of Paul, and realize that here is the seat of our doctrine for us as Gentiles, it's going to be on and on and on into a darkness. It's going to be a Christendom without any power. And I'm afraid we're seeing the results of it already. So anyway, Romans chapter 9 for just a moment. And again, I guess I should remind folks that we do have all the past programs available on videotape, and in the printed page. So if you're remotely interested, you write to us or call us on that 800 number, and we'll get the lists out to you. And you can pick whatever subject matter you'd like to have us send you. All right, those of you here in the studio now, we are with me again in Romans chapter 9 for just a moment. We're still in verse 5 now. Speaking of Israelites in verse 4, "...whose are the fathers," and we spoke of that in our last program, "...and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is overall God -blessed forever." Now we looked at that in that last 30 minutes in Colossians, where He is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything. We saw that His finished work nailed all of the rituals of religion to the cross, and that He is the Creator and the Almighty. And then of course in our closing moments in our last program, we were back in Genesis chapter 3. So let's go back there for just a second again. "...that as soon as man fell, as soon as sin entered, God stepped in with the remedy." And that of course was the promise of a Redeemer. And this is the first parcel of that promise. Verse 15, we'll read it again. "...I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It, the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head, that is the serpent, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Now that sounds like gobbledygook a lot of times to the casual reader, but you want to remember that the seed of the woman, as Galatians explains, is Christ, and He's speaking to the serpent. So the seed of the woman is going to bruise the head of the serpent. Now you have to stop and think for a little bit. When did Christ bruise and defeat Satan? Well, at the cross. Now, how did Satan get in the last part when it says, "...thou shalt bruise his heel," that is the seed's heel, and that was the suffering that Christ went through through the ordeal of the cross. So in reality what this verse is telling us is that the seed of the woman is going to defeat the serpent at the cross, but the serpent is going to cause the suffering of the cross, and consequently bruise the heel of the Redeemer. So here is your first promise concerning Christ in the flesh. Now we've looked at several others throughout the Old Testament, but I think I'll take you all the way up now to the New Testament a minute, to Matthew chapter 1. Now in our previous program we were dealing with the Davidic covenant, how God promised David that through him would come this royal line of kings, out of which would come the final king, the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. But now in Matthew chapter 1 we have another reference to this same fulfillment of the coming of the seed of the woman, which is Christ. Now we'll look at that verse in Galatians in a little bit, so take my word for it in the meantime. The seed of the woman of Scripture is Christ. Got that? The seed of the woman in Scripture is Christ. In other words, beginning with Eve, God promised that through the woman of the human race would come the Messiah. Now remember when we were back there studying in Genesis, I showed that so clearly, that the very physiological makeup of the woman's reproduction system, in fact I've got one of the doctors in my classes finding me another copy, I lost mine, out of physiology textbooks, that shows so vividly that the fetus in the mother's womb never receives any of the blood from the mother. Now that blows the mind of a lot of people, I know it does. But it is physiologically the way it is, that the blood of the mother never courses through that fetus or that infant in her womb. The blood comes from the father. And so Christ as the seed of the woman then, had to be virgin born, otherwise the blood would have come from a human father, which would have tainted His divine ability to die for the sins of the world. And so consequently His blood came from the father, as does every other creature that's reproduced. In fact I remember just a year or two ago reading an article on cattle genetics, and I'm a cattleman, I make no apology for that. And here we had some veterinarians in Colorado State University proving the same thing. That even in the species of cattle, none of the blood of the mother cow ever courses through the fetus. The blood system comes from the sire. Well this is all part of God's intrinsic plan of getting ready for the virgin birth. That Christ's blood was divine because it came from His father, who was God Himself. See how beautifully that all fits. Now I know the first thing people say, well what about the RH factor and so forth? Well another physiology book that I read one time, explained it the best that I've ever read. And he used an analogy of fencing your garden. If you want to keep out the rabbits and the dogs and the larger animals, you can just put up a netting around your garden, and it'll keep all the bigger animals out. But what is still going to get through? Well the insects and the smaller mice and so forth. Now that's exactly how the placenta in the mother's womb works. The major components of the mother's blood never goes through the placenta to the fetus. But some of the small chromosomes and genes that carry our inherited characteristics, they'll go through. So don't misunderstand me, and I hope that will clarify a little bit. Because this boggles a lot of people's minds, that when Mary was the physical fleshly mother of the Lord Jesus, none of Mary's blood, which was just as corrupt as any other woman's blood, she was a sinner just as well as anybody else, but none of her blood coursed through the baby Jesus. Because that's just not the way physiologically it works. But His blood system came from His Father, just like any other child's blood system comes from the Father. And of course I've got all kinds of illustrations I could give you, but I haven't got time here in 30 minutes. But nevertheless, it all began back there with the promise of the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15. Now you come up to Matthew chapter 1, and we're going to introduce the New Testament with almost the same kind of language. Matthew 1, verse 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. And then He goes through the genealogy. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and so on and so forth. Now here we have Christ then, born of the human element, Mary, but from the Father, giving Him then that divine attribute of incorruption. His body did not suffer corruption in the tomb. It was incorruptible. His blood was not corrupted. It was divine. It was sinless. Otherwise it could never have paid your sin debt and mine. So these are principles that have carried all the way up through human history and all the way up through the Scriptures. All right, now I'd like to have you turn to Luke, I think it is, with the Annunciation, as some people like to call it. I hope it's in Luke. No, I think I should have stayed in Matthew. Well, anyway, you all know it where the angel appeared to Mary, and what did she say? Thou shalt conceive, and thou shalt have a son, and thou shalt call His name what? Jesus, which of course in the Hebrew meant Yeshua, or the Savior. All right, then let's just go on to Romans, if you will. We won't bother going back into Matthew, because you know that verse as well as I do. Now back into Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. All with me? Starting with verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, all of the aspects of His death, burial, and resurrection were back there in the Old Testament. Oh, it was in veiled language, but it was back there. Now as we have an understanding, we can go back and we can see it, that in Psalms 22 and various other places, there is graphic language of His death, burial, and resurrection. Isaiah 53, as well as others. All right, now verse 3. Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David. You see how that word just keeps chasing all the way through Scripture? The seed of the woman in Genesis 3 .15 is going to come right on up through these Jewish patriarchs, through the little nation of Israel. And all the covenant promises that I've been talking about now, this whole four programs, all are based on God's promise of the coming of the seed of the woman, which is Christ. All right, read the verse again. Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. See, that's why He's the God-man. Now you come into verse 4. And He was declared to be the Son of God. With what? Power. Now He manifested that power, of course, with all of His miracles. Throughout that three years of earthly ministry, one miracle after another. And some were more explicit in His power over nature than others. For example, when they were in the little boat on the Sea of Galilee, and a storm was raging, and the disciples were getting scared to death, and Jesus was probably in a little double-deck boat, the way I've got it pictured. He must have been below deck sleeping. And what did the twelve do? How in the world can He sleep through something like this? So they go and wake Him up. And they let Him know how worried they are. They're about to sink. What does He do? He comes out on the deck, or whatever the case may be. He spoke the Word. And what happened? Hey, the wind died down, the sea became calm. And what did the twelve say? What manner of man is this that even the wind obeys His voice? Well, now they didn't have the full comprehension of who Jesus was, because they still couldn't comprehend that He could speak a word and the wind would die down. Well, the other, of course, obvious one, He came walking on the water. And Peter tried it, and as soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus, what happened? Well, He went down. Oh, and there's umpteen times how He manifested His power even over nature. You remember when He needed tax money? What did He tell Peter? Well, go down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and you'll find a fish, and in His mouth is just enough to pay our taxes. How did He know? Well, He knew, see. And then in the last chapter of John's Gospel, the eighth sign in that book, fishermen had been out all night, the twelve, or the eleven rather. How many fish had they caught? Nothing. And here He is on the shore with fish ready for breakfast, but He's still not going to let them be skunked, you know. So He says, have you caught anything? Nothing. Well, He says, put your net on the other side of the boat. So, now you know with net fishing, it's pretty obvious that if you've gone all night without catching a thing, something was miraculously wrong, I would think. But anyway, they put the net on the other side of the boat, and what happened? Full! Full! And yet it didn't break. Well, how did He know? Well, He had that power over even the fish of the Sea of Galilee. Alright, now that's what Paul is referring to here in Romans, that He's the Son of God after the seed of David, but with what? Power. Power. And never underestimate that power. Alright, now I'm going to show you in Galatians where the Scripture declares that it is Christ who is the seed of the woman. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. And oh my goodness, I never know where to start because I don't like to jump in. Let's start at verse 13. And let me again remind you that Galatians was written to Gentile believers who were being besieged by Judaizers, that they couldn't just be saved by faith in the Gospel alone, they had to embrace Judaism. They had to practice circumcision, they had to keep the Law. And so Paul has to write this little letter to refute all that and to straighten them up. We may someday teach the book of Galatians on the program, I haven't decided yet. But whatever, this is the theme of the little book of Galatians. You're not under Law, you're under Grace. Verse 13. "...Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us." I'm in Galatians 3. Verse 13. "...for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Now that goes clear back to Deuteronomy. "...that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles." How? Through Jesus Christ. Now put all this together, I hope your mind is still working. You've been sitting here for 2 hours, I know. But do you remember what is said back there in Genesis 12? That through Abraham all the nations of the world would be what? Blessed! Blessed! How? Because the seed of the woman would be coming through Abraham. Alright, read on. "...that the blessing of Abraham," verse 14, "...might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, not through Judaism, not through law keeping, but through what? Through faith." See? Simply believing the Word. Oh, that's so hard for people to understand. That it's not what we do, it's just simply believing the Gospel. Now then, verse 15. "...brethren," Paul writes, "...I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulleth or addeth to it." Do you see what that says? When God made a covenant with Abraham, or He made a covenant with David, or Isaac, or any of the other patriarchs, none of those great men could take away a single word or what? Add to it. It stood settled in concrete, because God was the one who made it. And even though thousands of years of time may have elapsed, these covenants are still absolute. No one can annul them, no one can abridge them, they are settled forever. Alright, read on again. Verse 16. "...now to Abraham and his seed." Now in this case, it's not just talking about Christ, but it's talking about that line of men and women who would bring us all the way to the coming of the Messiah. Alright, so now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. And He sayeth not, and to seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one, now here it comes. "...and to thy seed," that is the seed of Abraham, as well as the seed of woman, "...and to thy seed, who is Christ." And so whenever you see that term, the seed of the woman, in one form or another it's always a reference to Jesus Christ, the One who was promised way back in Genesis chapter 3. And so all of this falls back on that Abrahamic covenant of Genesis chapter 12, that through that man all the nations of the world would be blessed. And how would we be blessed? Through that seed of the woman who would go to the cross, who would be raised from the dead, and would become the very epitome then of our salvation experience. Alright, now then for just a moment or two, let's move on into verse 6. I really didn't want to until I had a whole half hour, but maybe we can do it justice. Now back to Romans 9, verse 6. Romans 9 again, verse 6. "...not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel." Gobbledy gook? No, only the U.S. government can do that. Not all Israel are Israel. Now let's go all the way back to Genesis 17. This is the only way we learn, over and over and over. You know I sometimes apologize for repetition, but then someone always brings me up short and says, don't you apologize, because I never learned until you repeated something. And so we will, we'll hit some of these things over and over. Now you all know the story of Ishmael. Abraham and Sarai were having no son, no children, period. And so being human, they got impatient. And so what did one day Sarah suggest? Oh, she lived to regret it, but she's the one who suggested it. Well, according to their custom, she said, why don't you have a child by our slave girl, Hagar? Well, of course, Abraham was just as anxious to have a child as anybody, so he immediately agreed. And so Ishmael is born. But you see, Ishmael was not the son of promise. Israel was after the energy of the flesh. And never lose sight of that, because that carries all the way through Scripture. Ishmael is after the flesh. Isaac is the son of promise. God kept promising, promising, promising. Now a lot of people don't realize how many years went by. I think that when God first promised Abraham or Abram, that a nation of people would come from his very body, and with his own wife Sarai, he was only 50 years old. I'm pretty sure of it. Then 25 years go by before he even leaves Haran to go down into Canaan. Now he's 75. Another 14 years go by before they finally decide, well, God's not going to do anything. We better take it into our own hands. You have a child by Hagar, because he was then 86. God didn't come through with his promise of a son until he was 100. So how long did he wait? 50 years. That's a long time. No wonder the poor guy got impatient. But nevertheless, God's Word was sure. In due time, you'll have a son. But not every child of Abraham was the promised son. So he has Ishmael. Now let's come back. We read this a few programs ago. Verse 18 of Genesis 17, where Abraham said unto God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. But God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. Now what is that? That's a promise. I think we went through this with one of my classes in the last week or so, yeah. Whenever God said, I will, I will, what was it? A promise. Now even though Abraham and Sarah may have lost sight of it, yet it was God's promise, and it was going to happen. Now it's the same way with the promises concerning the nation of Israel tonight. God has promised that He is yet going to return and be their king. He is yet going to give them the kingdom. It's promised. Is it going to happen? You better believe it, because God has said it. Now man doesn't go on God's timetable. We get impatient. But with God who is eternal, time doesn't mean anything. Now for 20 years I've been expectantly waiting for the Lord to call us up. Now 20 years in God's timing isn't even a split second. I think it's been a long time, and it may be that long yet. I don't see how it can be. I think we're getting so close, but it may not, because with God, time isn't all that important. Alright, so now then he says, you'll call his name Isaac, and now reading down in verse 19 again of Genesis 16. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. Then the next verse, As for Ishmael, now remember Ishmael is the son of Abraham. As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he be given. I will make him a great nation. Has God done it? Yes. I mentioned a few programs ago, the Arabs outnumber the Jews tonight 50 to 1. So God has blessed them. They've got all the oil in the world. What more could they ask for? Alright, but verse 21, and here's where we're probably going to have to stop. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off speaking with Abraham, see. So, going back to Romans, not all the children of Abraham are children of the promise. Only those that came through Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.