1. Title : How did you say (Isaiah) he was born?;
Is 7:14 Luke 1:34,35 Matt 1:20,22,23

2. How important is “the virgin birth of Jesus”
For some, the belief that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin is nothing less than evidence of intellectual dimness. One writer for the New York Times put the lament plainly: “The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time.”

3. What does the Bible say?
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favoured woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
Lk 1: 26-35

4. What does the Bible say?
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matt 1:18-23

5. What does the Bible say?
Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7: 13, 14

6. Why its important? ASB – Nicene Creed
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
I believe in life eternal
I believe in the virgin birth
I believe in the saints' communion
And in Your holy Church
I believe in the resurrection
When Jesus comes again
For I believe, in the name of Jesus

7. A Miracle Son conceived by the Holy Spirit?
Millard Erickson states this well: “If we do not hold to the virgin birth despite the fact that the Bible asserts it, then we have compromised the authority of the Bible and there is in principle no reason why we should hold to its other teachings. Thus, rejecting the virgin birth has implications reaching far beyond the doctrine itself.”
Implications, indeed. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, who was His father? There is no answer that will leave the Gospel intact. The virgin birth explains how Christ could be both God and man, how He was without sin, and that the entire work of salvation is God’s gracious act. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, He had a human father. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, the Bible teaches a lie.
Christians must face the fact that a denial of the virgin birth is a denial of Jesus as the Christ. The Savior who died for our sins was none other than the baby who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin. The virgin birth does not stand alone as a biblical doctrine, it is an irreducible part of the biblical revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ. With it, the Gospel stands or falls.

8. What is happening in Isaiah?
Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7: 13, 14

9. A Manifestation, to King Ahaz?
Now, what in the world is going on here? Here's a quick summary. Ahaz and his kingdom did not want to be part of an alliance with two other neighbouring kingdoms, one being their brothers in the northern kingdom of Israel, and the other being Syria. These two kingdoms were forming an alliance to resist the neighbourhood "super-power", Assyria. So because Judah didn't want to go along with the plan, Syria and Israel were going to kill Ahaz and replace him with a puppet king who would do what they wanted.
But Ahaz wanted to curry favour with Assyria in order to get their protection; you know, take the biggest bully on the block a plate of cookies so he'll protect you from the smaller bullies. But God wanted to give Ahaz an even more certain promise of protection. Even though Ahaz resorts to a kind of false piety ("I will not put God to the test"), God still gives him a sign.
And the sign that God gives him, the sign that will confirm God's protection, will be a child. A virgin, in Hebrew, simply an unmarried young woman, will have a baby, and call that baby Immanuel, which means "God is with us" or “God with us”. We don't know if this young woman was a member of Ahaz's household or not, but somehow, Ahaz would know about it.
You see the baby's name was a confirmation that God was with his people and would not abandon them to these two kings. In fact, by the time that little Immanuel was weaned and was learning right from wrong, maybe about three years, by that time, Israel and Syria would both be in ruin...deserted. But, as the prophet tells us, Assyria was still coming and Judah would have to deal with them.
Now, the big question is this: why would this strange, little-known incident from Middle East in the 8th century BC, inspire a song that we sing today at Christmas? We didn't sing, "O come, O come, Emmanuel, driving out Syria and Israel."
There has to be more going on here. And in fact, the next few chapters in Isaiah reveal that there is more going on here, that this is bigger than just a false alarm for Judah and Judah's king.
Chapters 7 through 12 in this book of Isaiah all seem to be connected. And one of the themes that you find all over this section is the significance of children being born. Some children simply have names that are in and of themselves messages from God. But other children seem to be much more important.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6, 7)

10. A Manifestation, to King Ahaz?
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse [Jesse was the father of King David], and a branch [a rod] from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1, 2)
We go on to read that when this branch of Jesse, when this king from David's family comes forth that...
The cow and the bear shall graze; heir young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:7-10)
That’s a pretty big promise of transformation, isn’t it? This is much bigger than a political problem with a couple of neighboring countries.
And if we had time this morning to look at the entire Old Testament, we would see that the coming of this future king, this king who will change the whole world, his coming is predicted time and time again in very specific prophecies, specific predictions. Let me give you one more example, this time from the prophet Micah, who lived just a little while after Isaiah:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2)
So this coming king would come from, would be born in, the town of Bethlehem.
So in light of all this, in light of this setting, this context in Isaiah, it would seem that the name "Immanuel" is a fuller glass than we first thought. It for this reason that a man named Matthew writes these words over 700 years after Isaiah's message was given to Ahaz

11. A Manifestation, to King Ahaz?
Do you see what Matthew saw? He saw that this verse from Isaiah 7 was (pardon the expression) this verse was pregnant with much more meaning than its initial fulfilment seemed to indicate. The promise of "God with us" given to the house of David would only be 'fully fulfilled' when the coming king would rescue his people, not from their political adversaries, but from the power of sin and death.
Even though there was a little boy named Immanuel born 700 years earlier, only Jesus Christ can fully be called Immanuel, since he alone was God in human flesh.

12. Mary’s Magnificent…
Let's look briefly at what she says in her praise to God. I see three distinct sections in the Magnificat. First, there is Mary's expression of what she feels in her heart (verses 46 and 47), namely, joy. Second, she mentions what God has done specifically for her as an individual (verses 48 and 49): regarded her lowliness, did great things for her, and thus gave her an enduring reputation for blessedness. Third, she spends most of the time describing the way God is in general. This general character of God accounts for why he has treated her the way he has in her lowliness and thus leads her to rejoice and magnify the Lord. We'll look at these three sections in reverse order.
The Holy God Helps the Lowly
In the second half of verse 49 Mary makes the general statement that God's name is holy. That is, God's nature, his essence is holiness. He is completely free from sin, and his ways are not our ways. He is separate from and exalted above the creature. All his attributes are perfect, and they all cohere in a perfect harmony called holiness. But what Mary stresses is the way this holiness expresses itself. God's holiness has expressed itself and will express itself by exalting the lowly and humbling the haughty.
What fills Mary's heart with joy is that God loves to undertake for the underdog who calls on his mercy. She mentions this three times: verse 50, "He has mercy on those who fear him"; verse 52, "He has exalted the humble"; verse 53, "He has filled the hungry with good things." That's one side of God's holiness. The other side is that God opposes and abases the haughty. Mary mentions this three times also: verse 51, "He has scattered the proud and hauhty ones"; verse 52, "He has put down the mighty from their thrones"; verse 53, "The rich he has sent away empty."
It is clear from Mary's words (and from the whole Bible) that God is not partial to the rich, the powerful, or the proud.
The Holy God Blesses Mary
Here Mary simply sees in her own experience an example of the way God is. He condescends to Mary's lowliness and does a great thing for her: he makes her the mother of God! It is such a singular and unimaginable blessing that all generations from that time on have acknowledged Mary's blessedness. Once Mary learned from the song of Hannah and all the Old Testament that God abases the proud but blesses the lowly who look to him for mercy, but now she has found it to be true in her own experience. Probably it is because she had learned it so well from Scripture that she was ready and able to experience it herself.
This is probably the place for a warning against an undue exaltation of Mary as morally unique. She is unique. No one else bore the Son of God. But the Roman Catholic doctrines of her sinless life, her perpetual virginity, her bodily assumption into heaven have no warrant in the New Testament.
Mary's Heart Magnifies the Holy God
But let's not let the excesses of the Catholic tradition keep us from sharing the admiration for Mary that Luke obviously had. Her spiritual beauty reaches its emotional peak in the first part of her song where she responds from the heart to all God did for her, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour."
How does a soul magnify God? A mouth magnifies God by saying, "God is magnificent," by speaking his praises. But no one hears a soul. No one but you and God. But I doubt that Mary means she is verbalizing a silent prayer. I think she means that at this moment her soul feels the greatness and holiness and mercy of God. And the feeling is primarily one of joy. "My spirit rejoices in God!"

13. Let us magnify the Lord….
My song will be a burst of praise to you. My glory shouts will make your fame even more glorious to all who hear my praises For I know Lord that my praises mean more to you that all my gifts and sacrifices Psalm 69: 30-31