The Obedience of Mary and Joseph

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the great and glorious work that you do. We thank you, Lord, that when it comes to salvation, you did all the work, and therefore, Lord, our response is to trust you and to believe in what you did and give our lives to you. We thank you for Calvary's cross, and we thank you, Lord, that when you came to this earth, you purposed to die and rise again, that we might gain the victory as you yourself are that great victor. And so we pray that the things we learn today would move us on to maturity, that we might better follow you in spirit and truth.

In Jesus' name, amen. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 2. We have just finished up studying that great birth announcement as well as the great birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and coming to understand the significance of his birth. And for the most part, that's very familiar to us. We know about the angels. We know about the shepherds. We know about Joseph and Mary. And before that, we were studying about Zacharias and Elizabeth. And for the most part, we know about them as well. Very familiar parts of the Christmas story.

And for 11 months out of the year, they're usually pretty dim to us because we don't ever study them or bring them up. And yet, during the Christmas season, we focus in on Luke chapter 2, and we focus in on the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and the events surrounding that birth and the characters involved in that birth. And we are reminded once again of the greatness of the coming of God in the flesh. But there are many parts of the Christmas story that, for the most part, we know little or nothing about.

And we are about to embark in the second chapter of Luke in those areas. Areas that we really don't study much. Areas that, if we were to read them, would not be familiar to us. Simeon is one of those characters involved in the great Christmas story. And we'll study him next week. But for the most part, we don't know about Simeon and this great man and how God used him in the life of Mary and Joseph and, of course, the Son of God. And then there's Anna, that great prophetess. We don't know much about her either because we don't study her very much.

But she plays a very significant part in the whole birth of Jesus Christ and what takes place during the time of his early childhood. All those things are important. And yet we don't know much about them. And yet they add much to our understanding of the truth. That we might better walk in the truth of God. And today we embark on an aspect of the birth of Christ that, for the most part, we don't know much at all about. And it's about Mary and Joseph. It's about them bringing their child to be dedicated to the temple.

It's a part of the story that helps us understand more of Mary and Joseph. They were a great couple who lived a life of obedience to God. This young couple becomes the key example in the Bible of two people, as a couple, totally sold out to follow their Lord. And therefore they become an example to us that we might understand what it means to follow the Lord with all of our hearts. Let me review for you, just for a moment, if you go back to Luke chapter 1 verse number 35, excuse me, verse number 38.

You remember what Mary said when she recorded these words. And Mary said, Behold the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. Be it done to me according to your word. Here was this young girl who wanted to be obedient to God. And whatever God said, she would do. Then over in verse number 45, listen to what Elizabeth said. Elizabeth said to Mary, Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. Mary believed what the angel said.

Mary believed what God had said to her. And she trusted the Lord God. And she was obedient to God. And she was a young teenage girl. And yet she understood what it meant to fully trust the Lord. That's why when the shepherds came in Luke chapter 2, she began to treasure and ponder all these things in her heart. And when you read on in Luke's account in the second chapter, when our Lord is now 12 years of age and our Lord has an encounter with his mother and father in the temple.

And he tells them that he must be about his father's business. It says at the end of Luke chapter 2 that Mary once again would treasure all these things and begin to ponder all these things in her heart. She wanted to know more about her God. She wanted to keep learning about her God because she was totally committed to following her God. She was obedient. At the same time, the one that she was betrothed to, Joseph, he too was obedient. Back in Matthew chapter 1, it records these words in verse number 19.

And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. This is when he found out about the fact that she was with child. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.

Now all this took place that was spoken by the Lord, that a prophet might be fulfilled, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Here was Joseph. He wanted to put his wife away, or his betrothed away, so that he would not disgrace her, or they would not be disgraced.

And yet, and yet, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, he realized what had taken place and was obedient to God. If you read on in the narrative, it says this in verse number 13, Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, this is Matthew chapter 1, in a dream saying, Arise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. And he arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.

And then down in verse number 19, it says, But when Herod was dead, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise and take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. And he arose and took the child and his mother and came to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Achilles was reigning over Judea in a place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the regions of Galilee.

You see, Joseph was sensitive to the Word of God. Joseph wanted to do what God had told him to do. All that to say is that Mary and Joseph were completely obedient to doing exactly what God had said. Now you have to ask yourself the question, is that the way you are as a husband and as a wife? Are you committed to doing everything that God says no matter what?

Listen to what our text says. Our text says in verse number 22 in Luke chapter 2, that in the days of their purification, according to the law of Moses, verse 23, as it was written in the law of the Lord, verse 24, what was said in the law of the Lord, verse number 27, to carry out for him the custom of the law, verse 39, and when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, five times at the end of Luke 2, it talks about Mary and Joseph doing exactly what the law of the Lord says.

They were going to be obedient no matter what because they believed in the law of the Lord. You see the essence of your relationship with God is obedience. The essence of a great marriage is obedience to God. The essence of great parenting is obedience to God. Everything about Christianity centers around obedience to God. For once you disobey God, that's when the problems begin to really engulf you. It doesn't mean that when you are obedient you don't have problems, you do. But you know how to handle the problems because you follow the word of the Lord.

Mary and Joseph were committed to following what God had said. And therefore we have to ask ourselves the question, are we that dedicated? Are we that devoted as couples, as individuals, to do exactly what God says in his word?

Listen to what Psalm 112 says. Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. You have to ask yourself the question, are your children, are your descendants mighty on the earth? Are your descendants mighty, strong for God? And is your home filled with wealth and riches? Not that you have lots of money.

It's not about money. It's not about the kind of house you live in. It's about the character that envelops that house, the love that surrounds that house. It's all about what wealth truly is and what riches truly are when people follow the Lord and are obedient to his word. What kind of home do you have? Is it filled with those kinds of things? Over in Psalm 128 it says this, how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The man who fears the Lord, who delights in the commandments of God and walks in the ways of God has a wife that will not let him go. Has a wife that clings to him like a vine, who will not let him go, who wants to wrap her arms around him because he becomes the anchor. He becomes a source of her life. She will not let that kind of man go.

And if you have problems with your wife today, you got to ask yourself, am I a man who fears God? Am I a man who delights in the commandments of God? Am I a man who obeys the commandments of God? Because that's the root of all that. How blessed is a man who fears always and delights in the law of the Lord. Because this will be the product of how his wife responds to him. And your children will be like olive plants around your table. Olive plants and vineyards were symbols of prosperity in Judaism.

Your children will be prosperous. They will be strong in the Lord. And it all stems from a man, from a woman, who desire to be obedient to God no matter what. And Mary and Joseph provide for us that example. And they were just young teenage couple. And it would continue on when you get later on in Luke 2 when Jesus is 12. Now they're in the twenties. And they're still going to carry out the law of God as was the custom. They're still going to follow the law of the Lord because that was the drive.

That was the desire of their heart. And is it not true that that's the way genuine faith is truly proven? James said it this way. Faith without works is what? It's dead. True genuine faith manifests itself in a life of obedience to God. It doesn't mean that you're perfect. It doesn't mean you never sin. It doesn't mean you never make any mistakes because we all do. What it means is that at the depth of my soul there is this desire. There is this drive. There is this dependency upon God that will not quit.

And therefore I keep trusting Him. I go to Him when I seek forgiveness because when I sin I need to be forgiven. And I go to Him and I beg Him for His forgiveness. And I seek to get right with Him because I love Him. I don't want to compromise the truth of God's Word. I don't want to bring a reproach upon the name of God. I want to honor Him. That's true genuine faith. That's how it manifests itself. And that was Mary and Joseph. That's what they did. In our text today we see how they carried that out in great detail.

How they did everything God said because they were obedient to Him. Let me read to you our text this morning.

It's Luke chapter 2 verses 21 down through verse number 24. And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

The obedience of Mary and Joseph is seen, number one, in the circumcision of the child. Number two, in their identification of that child.

Number three, in the purification of the child's mother. And number four, in the dedication of that child. This is how Mary and Joseph demonstrated once again their obedience to the law of God. First of all, in the circumcision of the child, the Bible says, and when eight days were completed before circumcision, His name was then called Jesus.

The law of the Lord, Leviticus chapter 12, says that the male child will be circumcised on the eighth day. Remember back in Luke chapter 1 verse 59, John the Baptist was circumcised on that eighth day. And remember that at the time of the circumcision was the time of the naming of the child. That's when they gave the name of the child, eight days later. But you need to notice what Mary and Joseph were doing.

They were following the law of the Lord. Now remember, circumcision was very important. Why? Because it was a sign that you believed in the covenant promise to Abraham. It had national implications, it had physical implications, it had spiritual implications. It had national implications because it says that we are Jews and we believe in the promise that God made to our father Abraham. And you go back and you read Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 17, Genesis chapter 22, you understand what that promise entails.

And it promises, it entails a seed, the soil, the land, and a substitutionary sacrifice. Those three elements make up the Abrahamic covenant. And every Jew who circumcised his child was identifying with that promise and believed it. It was also for physical purposes because they didn't want to pass diseases onto one another. And thirdly, and most importantly, it had spiritual consequences because it reminded them of the depth of their sin.

That sin was passed from generation to generation. That man is born a sinner. He's not a sinner because he sins, he is born a sinner. And because he's born a sinner, he commits sin. That's his nature. He's born dead in his trespasses and sin. So God instituted circumcision at a very early age. Why? Because it was a reminder, listen carefully, it was a reminder to the parents, it was a reminder to the child that they were sinners. That's important, isn't it? And you'll see in this text that Judaism, listen, Judaism centers around reminding the Jewish people that they were separated from God.

Did you know that? Everything involved in Judaism centered around them understanding that they were far from God, that they were sinners, and they needed a Savior. That's why when we read about Simeon next week, we're going to see where he longed for the consolation of Israel, the comfort of Israel, because it's centered around the coming of Messiah. And then we're going to read about Anna, where she longed for the redemption of Israel. You see, every true Jew was reminded of their sin, and which caused them to long for the coming of the Redeemer, the coming of the Messiah, the Comforter, who would come and bring consolation to them as a people.

And circumcision reminded them of that. You say, well, if circumcision reminded the parents and the child of the depth of their sin, that is, the depths of their soul. And by the way, that's why the Bible talks about circumcising your hearts, right? Over in Romans chapter 2, verse number 28, it says this, for he is not a Jew who is won outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is won inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God.

That's why in Colossians 2, 11, that's why in Philippians 3, 3, it speaks about the circumcision of the heart. Why? Because sin is a heart issue. And therefore, Christ's sacrifice dealt with the depths of a man, the depths of a woman, in their soul, in their heart. There had to be a cleansing. And it only came through the shed blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. So every time they circumcised that male child on the eighth day, they were reminded that they were sinners, and that that child was a sinner.

And sin would be perpetuated from generation to generation, from generation to generation, and would cause them, listen, to long for the coming of their Redeemer. See, God had a perfect plan here. He instilled it to help them understand the depths of their sin. If you're a Jew, and you were to keep the law of God, you would keep it in such a way that on the day of the Sabbath, you would be able to evaluate your life in relationship to God, and in relationship to man. If you're a Jew, you use the Sabbath day to reflect on how you violated the law of God, and how you sinned against man.

That's what the Sabbath day was all about. It was about evaluating where I stood with God, and where I stood with man, and how I have fallen short over, and over, and over again. That's why God said, make sure that you keep the Sabbath, and you make it holy. Make sure you take the time to reflect on how far short you fall from me. That's what the Sabbath was all about. And so, you see, Judaism was designed to remind the Jewish nation that they were separate from God. They were sinners, which would, in effect, cause them to long for the coming of Messiah.

Now, when you come to the birth of Messiah, very few people are in that category. You have Zacharias and Elizabeth. You have Joseph and Mary. You have Simeon. You have Anna. You got some shepherds. You got a few wise men. That's about it. There's not a lot of people recorded in Scripture who are really, truly longing for the comfort that Messiah would bring. But you see, that's what Judaism was designed to do. And yet, if that's the case, why is it Jesus was circumcised? Because he had no sin. He was a sinless son of God.

There was no sin in him at all. So why was he circumcised? The answer to that is very simple, Matthew 5, 17. He said, I came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill it. Now, this is very important for you to understand, because everything Jesus did, he did according to the law of God, because he was going to fulfill it perfectly, in every situation. And therefore, he wasn't circumcised because he was a sinner, because he wasn't. But he was circumcised because his parents were obedient to the law of God, and the law of God said, this is what you got to do.

And therefore, Christ came to fulfill that law perfectly. He had to do that. You notice that in his baptism, it was the same way.

And we'll notice this later on when Jesus comes to be baptized and John the Baptist says, whoa, what are you doing?

You know, you shouldn't be here. You should be baptizing me. I shouldn't be baptizing you. What did Jesus say? It must happen so that we can fulfill all righteousness. Jesus didn't need to be baptized, but he did it in order to fulfill the law of God. He had to. Why? Because you see, when Jesus died on the cross, it all ties in to the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says that Isaiah 53, he bore in his body our sins, right?

It was for your iniquities, for my iniquities that he was bruised. It was because of your transgressions and my transgressions that he was nailed to the tree. And so we begin to understand that he who knew no sin would become sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's why Jesus just couldn't come down for the weekend and die. He could have come down on Thursday and said, hey, I'm the Messiah, but I'm going to die tomorrow. And therefore I'll die in place of you dying.

And I'll offer myself up as a ransom for you and then die on Friday and rise on Sunday and then go home. And how much easier it would have been for the Son of man. But he couldn't do that. And the reason he couldn't do that is because he would not be able to impart to you his life. The life he lived was the perfect life, right? So when he died in your stead on Calvary's tree and rose again, what God in heaven does, he treated his son as if his son were you. So he can now treat you as if you were his son.

That is the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now we have his life, right? So when God the Father sees us, he sees his son in us. He sees his son's perfect life in us. It doesn't mean that we're perfect. We're still sinners. When we go home to be with the Lord, we will be complete. But that was exactly why Christ had to be born and to live a perfect, righteous, holy life and then die in your stead and in mine and rise again. So when God would look at us, it would be the life of Christ that was credited to our account.

See, that's what the whole salvation experience is about. It's more than just Christ dying on the cross. It was him living the perfect life so he could die in your spot on the cross. So now you can have his life. That's why Paul said, the life which I now live, right? I live by faith in the Son of God who gave his life for me. He's living the God life, the righteous life, the holy life. And that can only happen because the Spirit of God resides within us. And that's why the circumcision was so important.

Because as Mary and Joseph were involved in that whole process, they were reminded of their sinful nature. And they knew that the one in their arms was the sinless one, the perfect one. But it goes deeper than that. Point number two, the identification of the child.

What do they name him? Jesus, right? Who told them to name him that? Angel Gabriel? You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. This is his name. They didn't sit around and say, you know, I don't like the name Jesus. Let's name him something else. Let's give him the middle name Jesus, okay? Let's name him Joseph Jesus and give him the middle name Jesus. No, this was his name. Why? Because that's what they were told to name him. Again, they were obedient to what God said.

And this naming of the child on the eighth day was significant. Same thing they did with John the Baptist in Luke 159. They named his name John because that was the name that the angel said, you got to name him. His name shall be called John because God is gracious, right? And he would be the forerunner to the Messiah. And you're going to name this one Jesus because God is salvation. God is the Savior. See? And that's why you name him Jesus. Folks, let me tell you something about Jesus.

And we don't understand this necessarily, but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ loves to save sinners from their sin. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a point of repentance, 2 Peter 3.9. 1 Timothy 4.10 says that God is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. You see, our God is the Savior. We told you a few weeks ago that every other religion, listen, every other religion sees God as angry or apathetic, but Christianity sees the true God as truly gracious, kind, merciful, and loving toward people who are undeserving.

Now, you think about that. You think about that for a moment. And I want you to think just for a moment about our Roman Catholic friends. Think about it. Roman Catholicism teaches that God is an angry God. He is a God who is furious with man, and therefore you can't approach God. So how do you get to God? You get to God by going through Mary. And that's why you say this phrase, Hail Mary, full of grace, plead for us sinners now in our hour of need. Now think about that. Hail Mary, full of grace. Remember we told you way back in Luke chapter 1, when the angel came and said, Hail favored one, that was a mistranslation of that verse, and that's how Roman Catholicism came up with Hail Mary, full of grace.

John 1.14 says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that Word was full of what? Grace and truth. So either Jesus is full of grace or Mary is full of grace, but they both can't be full of grace. But Catholicism teaches, because God is a reluctant God, because God is an angry God, and you can't get to Him, this is what you do. You go and plead to Mary. And what Mary then will do, will plead to her son, Jesus. And because a loving son can't resist his mother, he will take that plead and bring it to the father.

And that reluctant father then may or may not save you. That's the essence of Roman Catholicism. That's what they teach. So you have no guarantee. But what that does, listen, what that does is make Mary the Supreme One. Because you see, unless you go to Mary, you can't get to Jesus. Unless you go to Mary through Jesus, you can't get to God. And Jesus does what Mary says, in essence, making Mary the boss. And the father does what the son says. And therefore, what you have is Mariolatry. Mary as God, as co-redeemer.

And therefore, what you have is supreme idolatry. And our Roman Catholic friends are sucked into that. And it's all based on a false belief that God is a reluctant God, that God doesn't want to save you unless He has to. And so in Catholicism, you have no guarantee that when you die, you go to heaven. So where do you go? You go to the safety. Catholicism has a safety net. It's called Purgatory. Okay, so you go to Purgatory, and what happens then? People pray, light candles at the church, and pray on your behalf that somehow they'll plead to Mary, that somehow she will plead to Jesus, that somehow He will go to His reluctant Father and get you one day, maybe, out of Purgatory.

Maybe. But no guarantee. So you have a religion that guarantees nothing. Christianity guarantees everything. True religion as portrayed in the one Savior, Jesus Christ, helps us understand that Jesus is a Savior. Ezekiel tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants us to repent and live. That's what He wants. He doesn't want you to die in your sins. He doesn't want you to be separated from Him. And so Mary and Joseph, they would come, and they would name their child Jesus because they knew that they held in their arms the Savior of the world, because that's what was told them by the angel.

You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And that's why it was Peter who said in Acts chapter 2, verse number 32, 38, excuse me, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of sins. It's the name of Jesus that forgives you your sins. So you have the, number one, the circumcision of the child.

Number two, the identification of the child. And number three, listen, the purification of the child's mother.

The purification of the child's mother. It says, and when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two pigeons. Turn back with me if you would to Leviticus chapter 12. This is quite eye-opening for all of us.

I think that for the most part we've never read this before. But you're going to see something very interesting here. Leviticus chapter 12, verse number 1, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel saying, when a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days as in the days of her ministration she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of the foreskin shall be circumcised as we talked about with the circumcision of the child. Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for 33 days.

She shall not touch any consecrated thing nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. So you have a child. Giving a birth to a child was kind of a bittersweet kind of thing for a woman. Because here she was, she would give birth to this male child. She'd remain unclean for seven days. She'd have to go, have the son circumcised, and then she would remain unclean for the next 33 days. So there would be 40 days in which she would be ceremonial unclean. That is, she could not touch anything holy.

She could not go to the temple. She could not go to the tabernacle before the temple. She could not go and worship God. She was reminded, listen, she was reminded that she was separated from God for 40 days. She had that constant reminder that she, because of her sin, was separated from God. And therefore at the end of that purification time, she would then have to come and offer a sacrifice. And when she offered that sacrifice, then she would be made right with God because she would be obedient to the law of God.

That's what Mary was doing. That's where Mary and Joseph were. When the days of her purification were completed, that means the 40 days had gone by, they were now going to bring the child to the temple. Now listen, you didn't have to bring your child to the temple to dedicate him, but that's what they wanted to do because they knew who he was. But the law of the Lord did not require they had to bring the child to the temple, but that's what they did. But she couldn't get to the temple because she was unclean for those 40 days, so she had to offer a sacrifice.

We'll talk about that in a second. But listen to what else Leviticus says, verse 5, but if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks as in her ministration, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for 66 days. Now wait a minute. If you bear a male child, you're unclean for 40 days. But if you bear a female child, you are unclean for 80 days, almost three months. Wait a minute. How can that possibly be? Why would God do that? Answer, I don't have the foggiest idea.

I can speculate, and number one speculation would be this, that because of the circumcision of the child, it was a reminder of the depth of their sin, right?

And if it was a male child, it would happen. That's why there was only 40 days of purification versus the 80 days of purification, because if you had a female child, there was no circumcision involved. So God would use another way to remind them of the depth of their sin and keep them further away from the holy places, keep them further away from the temple, keep them further away from recognizing that they were not close to God and come to grips with the fact that they needed a Savior. They needed a Redeemer.

You say, well, why did God even institute these days of purification? Why not the seven days? Why is that not enough? Why does He have the 33 days, then the 66 days on top of that if it's a female? Why can't God just let it alone? Because Judaism was a constant reminder that you are far from God and you need to be close to Him. You need a Savior and you need to trust Him. You long for Him. Another reason, remember what Paul said in 1 Timothy 2.15? When a woman shall be saved in childbearing, if she continues in love and faith and sincerity.

Remember that women carry the stigma of bringing sin into the world. The woman was the first to sin. Now we know that through Adam that he was responsible, but we know that the woman was the first to sin, and God provided a way for the woman to erase that stigma.

And that was to give birth to children in such a way that she could raise them in the ways of God that they might be able to transform another generation to follow God. And so God in 1 Timothy 15 shows us that a woman can erase that stigma through childbearing. That is giving birth to children, leading them and teaching them the ways of God that they in turn would be able to follow God and reverse the curse upon their lives based on the sacrifice of Christ Himself. But other than that, that's the only answers I got for you.

But the bottom line is this was her purification. And as she would go into that temple and offer those two turtle doves, because if you read on it says this in verse 6, and when the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest or at the doorway of the temple meeting a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood.

This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or female. But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. So we know that Joseph and Mary were not wealthy because the text says in Luke chapter 2 they offered a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. They didn't offer a lamb. If you were wealthy, you offered a lamb.

And by the way, this is how we know that the wise men had not yet to visit them. Because if the wise men had already visited them within the first 40 days, they would have had what?

Money. Gold, right? They could have purchased the lamb. They would come later in the story. But the point is, is that Mary had to offer a sacrifice because she was impure. She was not immaculately conceived. She was not sinless. She needed a Savior, and she was unclean for those 40 days, and she had to offer a sacrifice for her sin. She had to offer a burnt offering and a sin offering, or she would remain unclean, not clean. And only sinners have to offer the sacrifice. That includes everybody. So now we begin to understand the implications of this.

Mary was obedient to God. She obeyed the law of the Lord. Joseph did the exact same thing. And then when it comes to the dedication of the child, it says this. This is our fourth point. They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens a womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Folks, this is so important, because here they would present their child to the Lord. Now, He is the Lord. They know that. But they were presenting Him because that was their duty, and they were obedient to the law of God.

You know, when families come and they bring their child to be dedicated, we talked to them about dedication to the Master for the sake of the ministry. That's what dedication is. It doesn't mean your child is going to be a pastor or a missionary. By the way, when you brought your child to be dedicated, you had to pay, listen, a ransom. You had to pay a redemption tax unless your child was a Levite. If your child was a Levite, you didn't have to pay the redemption tax. But if he wasn't, and Christ was from the tribe of Judah, they had to pay five shekels.

You can read about this in Numbers chapter 18, verses 15 and 16. They had to pay five shekels, which is a lot of money for people who didn't have a lot of money. Five shekels to redeem your child from priestly service. That was the law of the Lord, and that's what they would be doing. So here was our Lord being circumcised, although He wasn't a sinner, being baptized, although there was no need for cleansing, and being redeemed, and He's the Redeemer. All of it picturing the significance of His birth and what it meant to Mary and Joseph.

And they would come and they would offer their son, and what they do in that temple area when they find Simeon is so amazing. We'll read about that next week. But the important thing for all of us to grasp is that here was Mary and Joseph, this young couple, completely obedient to the law of God, doing everything God said. And we have to ask ourselves, where do we stand with the Lord God? Are we willing to do all that He says, no matter what? Are you obedient to what God says concerning salvation, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?

Are you obedient when it comes to leading your family spiritually? Are you obedient to leading your children in the ways of God? Are you obedient in providing for them a model, a testimony, an example of Christlikeness? Are you that kind of parent so that you are willing to do whatever God says?

That's the lesson for today, the obedience of Mary and Joseph to do everything that God said. That's the way we need to be, right? Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for the truth of Your Word and the greatness that's there for this young couple, Mary and Joseph, that You chose to raise Your Son. Thank You, Lord, for all that You did through them that we might understand obedience to the law of God, following everything Your Word says. And Lord, I pray that as parents in this room today, as grandparents, that Lord, they would realize the incredible responsibility they have of leading their children by example.

Pray, God, for all of us that no matter where we're at in life, we need to obey the Word of the Lord, that we need to do exactly what You have said and how You've said it. Not because we have to, but because we love You, Lord, and we love You so much we want to do exactly what You say. In doing so, Lord, bring great glory to Your name. Provide a testimony for others as to what Your Word says about the blessed man who delights in the law of God and who obeys the Word of God. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.