I direct your prayerful attention
to the portion we read, the Gospel according to Matthew chapter
2, and reading from our text, verse 2. Where is he that is born King
of the Jews? We have seen his star in the
east and are come to worship Matthew chapter 2 verse 2, what
the wise men came to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born
King of the Jews? The Lord has been pleased to
choose witnesses that were to make known the birth of his beloved
son. He chose out the shepherds appearing
to them by the angel and the heavenly host and directing them
to the stable upon the immediate time of the birth of our Lord. And they in turn, when they had
seen the babe, as it was told them by the angel, then made
known that saying throughout all the region. So not only were
they witnesses, but they were those that witnessed to a large
number. Many would have also been witnesses
of what had first-hand been heard and said by the shepherds. And then, of course, later on
we had Simeon and Anna in the temple, Simeon who had been told
of the coming of our Lord and that he would not see death until
he had seen the Lord's Christ. And when he came by the Spirit
into the temple and saw the bane, then he lifted him up in his
arms. He said, Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. And Anna as well, a widow of
a great age, and she spake of him to all them that looked for
redemption in Jerusalem. The Lord was pleased also to
use these wise men and to cause that they would be another witness
of the true coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Not only were they used, but
in a most solemn way was the reaction of Herod to the wise
men not returning back to him and telling him where the babe
was born. He then made the decree and had
all of the young children from two years of age killed in that
time, thinking to, by that means, to kill the Lord Jesus. But of course he had been warned,
and Joseph and Mary, Joseph had been warned in the dream, and
so they had fled to Egypt. But that happening, the most
sorrowful, terrible happening in Bethlehem at that time, was
again a great witness as to what was actually happening. This was not to be something
that was passed over without having a real effect at that
time. We cannot help thinking when
our Lord died, when he laid down his life at Calvary, then there
was a great earthquake, then there was the Earth in darkness
for three hours. Then there were those things
that were witnessed by Roman soldiers. Certainly this was
a righteous man. There were so many things that
were happening. In addition to the witnessing
of believers and God's people, and those to whom Christ revealed
himself to, There was many other things that were happening at
the same time. When our Lord returns at this
second time with power and great glory in the heavens, then there
shall be great things to happen then. The end of the world shall
take place. The dead in Christ shall rise
first, and then all men, but they shall be caught up with
the Lord in the air. great things shall accompany
the second coming of our Lord and so with his first coming
there were those things as well that accompanied it and that
we used to witness it. Also it was the scriptures we
have in the portion that we have read twice a reference to the
Scriptures being fulfilled and shown that the great weeping
had been foretold by Jeremiah 31 verse 15. Thus saith the Lord,
a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rahel, weeping
for her children, refused to be comforted for her children
because they were not. That is how it reads in Jeremiah. And then the prophecy concerning
our Lord to be brought out of Egypt in Hosea 11 and verse 1. When Israel was a child, then
I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. Now many might
read that prophecy and say, well, that's referring to the children
of Israel as God's sons. coming up out of Egypt and going
to the promised land. And so they did. But the prophecy
says, not sons, but my son. And so the inspired word here,
it clearly declares that this was fulfilling that prophecy
in Hosea. And so these witnesses are being
chosen by God and to show forth the reality of the coming of
the Son of God. Now with these wise men, we are
not told how many there were at all. It is supposed because
there is three gifts mentioned, gold and frankincense and myrrh,
that there were three wise men. We are not told what they were,
whether they were kings or whatever they were. It is supposed that
they were kings, possibly because of the expensive gifts that they
were able to bring. They were certainly men of great
wealth. But we are not told those things,
but we are told what they actually did bring. We're not really told
in the scriptures the significance of the gifts that is not highlighted
in the portion here, but we do know from the scriptures that
gold is associated with kingship, with Solomon's kingdom. It was said there that everything
was of gold, that silver was nothing to be accounted of in
those days. Certainly, as the most precious
metal, it is set forth as belonging to kingship. And then we also
have frankincense or incense, which is the symbol of deity. We have in the type of the tabernacle
the altar of incense just before, the holiest of all. And then,
of course, the sweet fragrance filled the holy chamber. And then we have myrrh, which
is an embalming oil, a symbol of death. And so these gifts,
no doubt, did have some significance, If we were to look back in scripture,
especially to the Song of Solomon, we find these mentioned. The
Song of Solomon is a love song between Christ and his church,
the bridegroom and the bride. And we see these things that
are mentioned here. In chapter 5 of Song of Solomon
and verse 11, we have a description in this part of the Word of the
Beloved, of Christ really. My Beloved is white and ruddy,
the chiefest among 10,000. And this is what is said in verse
11 of his head. His head is as the most fine
gold. His locks are bushy and blank
as a raven. And then we have in the fourth
chapter and verse 14, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the
chief spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams
from Lebanon. And he's setting forth the garden
of the Lord in chapter 1 and verse 13. We have again the mention
of these beautiful fragrances, a bundle, or if we go back to
verse 12, while the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth
forth the smell thereof, a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto
me. he shall lie all night betwixt
my breast. And that inspired portion of
the word is very clearly speaking of our Lord and of his church
and these spices, these gifts that the wise men brought are
mentioned here. We also have a prophecy in Psalm
72 that may well point to this time in Psalm 72 and verse 10
to 15, the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles. Now, of course,
Tarshish, it is not in the direction of the east. The kings of Tarshish
and of the Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba
and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver
the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath
no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy,
and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their
soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood
be in his sign. And he shall live, and to him
shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made
for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. And we have these prophecies
of our Lord, and we cannot but feel that in part they are fulfilled
in such passages as this. Now, our Lord was pleased to
take the account of the Queen of Sheba, who in Solomon's day
had heard of his greatness, and she came with a great train and
again with many, many gifts, and she came to see his glory. And our Lord used it in his ministry
as an exhortation to those in his day He says that she came
from the utmost parts to see Solomon's glory and behold a
greater than Solomon is here. In other words he is saying here
is the example of the Queen of Sheba and what she did is a greater
than Solomon here. What are you doing? Have you
heard of his glory? Are you seeking him? Do you see
the same beauty, the same loveliness, the same greatness that the Queen
of Sheba saw in Solomon? Do you see what she said of how
God had so blessed Solomon and how he was blessed, his servants
were blessed, and that the glory that God had given him and the
wisdom was greater than what she'd heard in her own country.
Do we see that in Christ? Do we see the glory, the beauty,
the loveliness of Christ? And our Lord used the case of
the Queen of Sheba as a way of stirring up the Jews and those
that were listening to him. Of course, later on in the ministry,
when the apostles were sent forth to minister, the Jews that rejected
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, were to be stirred up by, shall
we say, jealousy, in seeing the Gentiles believing, and to be
brought in to see the Lord's blessing on them, that they were
then to be provoked emulation to actually follow seeing the
Lord's blessing on the Gentiles. You think of when David sought
to bring up the Ark of the Covenant and Uzzah put forth his hand
and he was slain for his error in touching the Ark. And David
then was frightened to bring up the Ark and it went into the
house of Obed-Edom. But then the Lord blessed the
house of Obed-Edom And when David saw that, then he was able to
bring up the ark. And so with the Jews, they've
seen the Gentiles blessed. Others that are seeking the Lord
may see other people blessed. And by seeing that, they are
encouraged and they are drawn also to follow after them and
to see the same things. And it is in that way that, with
that thought, that I desire to speak to you concerning these
wise men. You know, when they came, they
came, they said three things. They said, where, where is he
that is born King of the Jews? And then they said that they
had seen, they'd seen his star in the east. We have seen his
star in the east. And then they said, we are come,
are come to worship him. Those are the three things that
they said. And I desire this morning to
turn these into a message for gospel days. And shall we call
it wise? Seeking. Why seeking? So I want to look firstly at
what these men were doing. They were seeking Christ. And then secondly, why they were
seeking. We are told the reasons why. They had seen the star, or his
star, in the east. and also a second reason that
they were coming to worship him. And then in the third place,
how they were seeking, how they were seeking. There are several
things that are mentioned to us here in how they were seeking. But firstly, I want to speak
to you on what these men were doing. They were seeking Christ. Our Lord was very emphatic that
we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and that all other things shall be added, those temple things
shall be added unto us. We read of our Lord reproving
those that had eaten of the loaves and the fishes. They were seeking
him But he says, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. They were seeking for a wrong
motive. We look more later on at that
as to why one was seeking. But the important thing in this
first point is what they were doing, that they were seeking
unto Christ. Where is he? that is born King
of the Jews. They were looking for Him. They had one object and one desire. And I bring this before you as
that which shall sweep away many things that will distract a seeker
from a true object. It is Christ that is set forth
before us here. You might say, well, what else
can we seek? Well, there might be those that
say, well, we're seeking to know the truth, or we're seeking to
have our sins forgiven, or we're seeking to know the true doctrines or know
the scriptures. We might be seeking to have a
blessing in our souls or we might be seeking to find some help
in our circumstances, some direction and some guidance. And many might
have things that we are seeking. When we come to the house of
God or when we come to prayer, when we gather together, But
one thing that we are constantly brought back to in the Word of
God is the person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. What would the Gospel be? What
would the message of the Bible be without the Lord Jesus Christ,
without the eternal Son of God? What would heaven be without
him? Our Lord says, without me ye
can do nothing. The Apostle Paul says, let us
run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. The message constantly is in
one person. If, says our Lord, ye have seen
me, ye have seen the Father also. The work of the Holy Spirit is
not to magnify himself, but Christ, he shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you." Our Lord's message was, except ye
eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, there is no
life in you. Christ, who is our life, when
he shall appear, then we shall also appear with him. the Apostle when he speaks of
death. It is not absent from the body
and present in heaven. It is absent from the body and
present with the Lord. It is the person of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ that is to be the object of each one
that seeks. Where is he that is born King
of the Jews? The one that had been set forth
right through the Scriptures by the Jews in all of the prophecies,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, the scepter that shall
come to Judah, the blessed one that shall be greater than David,
that shall be greater than Solomon, that shall be the great King." What they were doing, they were
seeking Him. And we may ask ourselves, what
are we doing? Are we seeking Him? Is it a person? Is it the Son
of God? Is it the Saviour Himself? Not
seeking Him for His gifts or what He might do for us, but
seeking Him, desiring Him. If we have someone that we love,
then we desire them and we want to be with them or to seek them
just for themselves. It is their presence that is
so valued. So the promises of our Lord,
Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, they
mean so much more. Our Lord knows His presence with
His people is so vital. When He's taken from them and
He says, but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, I preach thee prayer in John
17. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And again, all
the time the emphasis is a people to be with Christ and Christ
to be with a people. And those that seek are to be
seeking after him. He is the most important. He is vital. The people of God
are chosen in him before the foundation of the world. They
are bound up with him, buried with him in baptism into death,
risen again in newness of life. He is the elder brother born
for adversity. He is the one that all of the
people with, and so they are to seek
Him. We are to seek Him. Do we have that object of our
first desire? Is the professed mission of these
wise men our mission as well? that we might find him? Can we
join with the Greeks and say to the disciples, sir, we would
see Jesus? Shall we join with Zacchaeus,
low of stature, and even desire to climb up into a tree that
he might see him, who he was? All the time. there's the emphasis
on the person of our Lord. And in one sense, it's laying
aside all doctrines, all articles of faith. Everything else is
just stripped away, and there's, like the disciples on the Mount
of Transfiguration, that they saw no man. but Jesus only. And yes, we have in the very
words of these wise men, those seeking that he was a king. And
what we esteem and believe of the Lord is very important. That he is the King of kings
and Lord of lords, that he is the eternal God, that he is Emmanuel
God with us. that he is the promised Messiah,
that he is verily truly God and truly man in one person. God to be able to save, and man
to be like unto his brethren, to suffer in their place a near
kinsman, and also that he should be the one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus. So when we think of these wise
men and we think of what they were doing, that they were seeking
Christ, if we are seeking wisely, if we are seeking like them,
then we also will have this one aim and object in view that we
also will seek Him. But secondly, why were they seeking? We're told in our text two reasons. For we have seen his star in
the east and are come to worship him. Two reasons. So let us bring these into a
gospel sense. Why? would we be seeking after
Christ? Well, the first reason is what
we have seen. With these wise men, it was a
star. But in gospel days and for those
for whom the Lord has come, it is what they have been shown
and what they have seen in a different way. Maybe we can put it in the
words of Hebrews 11, where we read of those that had faith
and what was one common thing with them in Hebrews 11 and verse
13 was that they had seen afar off. hadn't received the promises,
in that the promises hadn't been fulfilled in them, they hadn't
seen the Christ literally, but having seen them afar off, we're
persuaded of them and embrace them. If we read of the promises
in the Word of God, which all the promises of God are yea and
amen in Christ, And the Holy Spirit is pleased to shine upon
those promises, and we realise those promises are real promises
of God, and they centre in Christ. Then through what the Lord has
already shown us and opened up and revealed to us in the Word,
will cause us to seek Him. Another way is how it was with
the Apostle Paul, Saul as he was, a Pharisee, and there was
shown to him his sin through the word of God, through the
law of God. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. He says, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The apostle also says that the
law is a schoolmaster unto Christ. It was used to bring him unto
Christ. The law isn't given that men
might have life or be delivered from sin. It is delivered so
that all the world might be brought in guilty before God, that no
flesh might glory in his presence. And so, as a sinner, What we
have seen of our sinnership, what we have seen of the evil
and depravity of our own heart, is a reason why we are to seek
Christ. In Matthew 1, those beautiful
words, His name shall be called Jesus, or thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. and
a true, a right, valid reason for seeking Jesus is a sense
of our own sinnership. And be very careful that you
don't stumble about by saying, well, I don't know whether I
know my sinnership enough. I don't know whether I feel my
sins enough. And so instead of seeking after
Christ, We are seeking to know our sin more. Don't be deceived
by Satan when he does that. You know, Paul, when he writes
to the Romans in chapter 10, and he says there, the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, is not heights of blessing, or who shall descend
into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead,
is not depths of experience or depths of knowledge of sin, but
what saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in
thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And what we may say is
this, if the sense of our sinnership is enough so that we have a need
of Christ and that we seek him, that is enough. The aim is that
we seek the Lord as a sinner and to be saved from our sins.
But our language is that we desire Christ. We want him. We want
to find him. Let us go unto him without the
camp bearing his reproach. Let us to be like the Israelites
that fled to the city of refuge as a sinner fleeing unto Christ. So if we can say, well, we see
Christ and there's a reason It is because what we've seen in
the Word of God is what we've seen in our own heart. We've
seen the sinnership, we feel it and know it day by day, and
we see a ray of hope in the Word of God. That's why we seek Him. But the second reason was that
they were come to worship Him. Sometimes I think we may forget
this and we think, well, we're coming And we pray, we want the
blessing and we want the help. But you know, they both do go
together. When our Lord was ministering,
he had a Syro-Phoenician woman, a woman of Canaan, not of Israel,
that came to him. And we read that she came worshipping
him. She was giving him the due reverence
and honour and glory to his name, worshipping him. as the true
God and Saviour. But how did she worship Him?
With the words, Lord, help me. That's how she worshipped Him.
But may we, in our seeking for help, come in the attitude of
worship, that we're not losing sight of who we're coming to,
and that in all of our seeking, We have one set before us who
is the true God, who is able to do. This is the question our
Lord sometimes asks those seeking him, believest thou that I'm
able to do this. We need those high, great views,
believing views of the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of
the eternal Father the Most Blessed One, able to do exceeding far
above all that we can ask or think. And that when we're seeking,
we're not like those, like the lepers, that when they got their
healing, off they went, and there was the Lord left alone. Yes,
one, the Samaritan, turned to give glory to God. But the rest
of them, and mankind is like that, many must seek and they'll
pray to God in extremity and need. When they get what they
want, they never return to give thanks and they forget God. They're only just for the loaves
and the fishes. But when we have this desire,
we are seeking because we want to worship Him. And you know
those that worship Him here below will worship Him at last in heaven
above. Those who have never been brought
to truly worship the Lord, and bless Him, adore Him, and serve
Him, and honour Him, and praise Him here, will not do so above. How much worship do we have in
our stated formal worships, or in our homes, or in our closet?
Do we worship Him? And is this why we are seeking
Him? that we might worship him. I
want to then look in the third place at how they were seeking. And we might ask ourselves, well,
how are we seeking? Well, they were going, firstly,
where they expected to find him. They were seeking that one that
was born King of the Jews. Where else to go than to go to
Jerusalem? And where else to go than to
go to Herod the King? Of course, that was where one
would go. That was where we'd expect to
go. In one sense, Naaman did the
same thing when he was told by the little maid that was carried
away captive that if only he was with the prophet in Samaria,
then He would heal him of his leprosy. But the king of Syria,
he didn't send just to a humble prophet. He sent to the king.
And of course, the king wasn't able to help Naaman at all. And King Herod wasn't able to
help these wise men at all. But that's where they went first.
And a most solemn thing, when the Lord told the parable of
the five wise and five foolish virgins in Matthew chapter 25,
those that had no oil in their vessels with their lamps, when
the bridegroom came and they arose to trim their lamps and
couldn't because their lamps had gone out, and they asked
of those that had the oil, and they said no, they couldn't give,
otherwise they wouldn't have enough for themselves, they said
go to them that buy, those that sell. And they did. They didn't
need to ask, where shall we go? And you know there are many.
There are many that will be found at that last great day when the
Lord comes again. And they will have known full
well through their lifetime where they were to seek the Lord in
a general way. They'll say, well, to the chapels,
to the churches. And they might even say to the
Bible, to the word of God. They would have some idea of
where to actually go. But do they go? Do they seek? Even in that general way, no. But here, the first step, as
it were, for these was to go where they, in their limited
knowledge that they had, they went where they would expect.
But then when they went, they were asking. They were asking,
where? Saying, where is he that is born? They were very, very definite,
weren't they? They were certain he was born. Where is he that is born? Not might be born, may be born,
is born. And then they're very definite
as well that he is the king of the Jews. They're very certain
in all what they're saying. It's a blessed thing to be like
that in our seeking And here they are, though, asking. And
very many of the Lord's dear people, when they have first
been awakened to their need of a saviour, they may have ended
up in a church that is a dead church, a church that is just
outward but not inward, a church that really is like those spoken
of in the revelation that had a name to live and yet be dead. And in the history of God's dear
children, there's been many that have begun in that way. They've
came into a building, and they've been seeking for Christ. They've
had a real need in their souls, but they've come to a people,
and that people doesn't have a need, and that people do not
know Christ, and they do not know their own sin. And all they
are content with is just an outward form of religion. They're like
the Pharisees in Christ's day. And when they start asking, where
is he that is born King of the Jews? Where is Christ? Those
people, they don't know. The king here, he did not know.
But he asked those that were religious. He asked the Jews. and the Jews were able to point
to prophecies, but were the Jews going there? You know, there
are those that can point where Christ may be found, but they
do not seek him. They do not go themselves. They could say to others where,
but they do not enter in themselves. It is a good test of whether
a place is a true place of worship and a true witness of Christ,
if they are a place that is all pointing to Christ, that is able
to clearly point a sinner in need to the saviour of sinners. And it is a vital question for
all in true concern of their souls to be asking where is Christ
and to seek after him. Well, how were they seeking? You know, when they were brought
to need in their country, they went. They didn't stay where
they were. They went and in their going,
their seeking was seen. In their being prepared, because
they brought the gifts. They didn't say, we'll see if
he is there first, and then we'll bring the gifts. They were prepared. You know, when we come for worship,
how much prayer, how much preparation, how much preparation are we done
on the Saturday so that we can have a day of worship and not
be bothered with all the many things that may be pressing to
be done and we can have a true Lord's Day, a day hallowed, set
apart for the worship of God. When they came, We mentioned
how believing they were. May we be like them in our seeking,
that we might be believing that which we read, believing that
which we hear. The word we read did not profit
them being not mixed in faith in them that heard it. When the
gospel was first preached, We read of a division between the
hearers. Some believed the word spoken
and some believed not. And then we read of the reason
for that division. As many as were ordained unto
eternal life believed. It is a blessed thing that we
are brought to believe that which we heard. Even the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Prince, the Preachers, the Perfect, some that heard and they did
not believe, they did not receive his word, they did not even hear
his word. But our Lord says that my sheep
they hear my voice and they follow me. In our seeking may there
be asking, may there be action, may there be that preparation
in our seeking and coming up to the house of God. May we come
up to the house of God. May we come to the preaching
of the word. May we believe that which we've
heard. May we be like these wise men. And that our seeking is not just
seeking, but it is wise seeking. And so it has a real aim, and
it has a real reason for it, and that how we are seeking is
in a way that we shall find. Ask and it shall be given you,
says our Lord. Seek and ye shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye shall have eternal life, and they are they which
test blessing and make us wise seekers. Amen.