Once again, our sovereign God
does all things well. And our sovereign God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, said in John chapter 8, He said, I am the light of
the world. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The reality is, of course, that
there is just one source of light in this world, and it doesn't
come from inside of men. All the light we have in this
world comes from outside of us. People might say, well, what
about those little bugs that can light up things? Well, where
did they get their life from, and where did they get their
energy from? They got it from the light that comes from without
us. And, of course, the light in the scriptures is a picture,
isn't it? is a picture of the fact that we need to be illuminated
by God, and unless there is an illumination from God, unless
God shines a light in our hearts, It shines to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We will go on in darkness. So we come before our God continually
when we are made more aware of His absolute sovereignty and
rule over all things. It's a cause for God's people
for more fervent prayer, because if something spiritually good
is going to happen, it's going to happen in response to light. He is the light of the world.
The Old Testament finished with those words in Malachi chapter
4. But to them that fear His name, the Son of Righteousness
will appear with healing. The Son of Righteousness arrives
with healing in His wings. and that you shall go forth and
grow up as calves of the stall." There is a promise of life. When
the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Luke chapter 2, we see that
the glory of God shone from heaven, the Shekinah glory of God, that
Shekinah glory of God which was in the temple in the old days. Before those events that we read
about in Micah chapter 4 and 5, that Shekinah glory was missing
from that temple that Herod had so magnificently built and the
men had put back together again. There is in him, we see light. He lightens the darkness of his
people. The first words of the scriptures
from our God are, let there be light. Let there be light. And it's a simple, wonderful
declaration of the sovereignty of God. He says, light be and
light was. And the sun and the moon and
the stars weren't created until much later. He's talking about
spiritual light. He's talking about spiritual
light. And you might recall on the Mount
of Transfiguration, The Lord Jesus Christ's humanity,
the veil of humanity, was just opened to those few select people
for that very brief time. And what happened? What happened? What did they see? They saw a
shining God. They saw an illuminating God. They saw a God who came as the
others spoke, as Moses and Elijah spoke to Him. They spoke of a
sovereign God. They spoke about what? They spoke
about the decease, His exodus, His death that He would accomplish. The sovereign King came to accomplish
that. He makes things manifest. When
things are made manifest, as it was on the Mount of Transfiguration,
all that those men saw was the reality of who he was. If we
pull the curtains down here and we can't see the mountains and
the trees behind us, pulling up the curtains doesn't create
the mountains and the trees. Pulling up the curtain is revealing
them. And in the preaching of the Gospel,
we pray that our great God, who dwells in unapproachable light,
as 1 Timothy 6 says, He dwells in that extraordinary
light might be revealed to us. So there is no light in man by
nature. All men died. All men died and
they live in darkness. And they live in darkness until
a light from heaven comes. A light from God. And the light
from God reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. King of the Jews, it
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling the Scriptures. A
light must shine on the Scriptures for you to see them. The Holy
Spirit must take those words that He has penned and cause
them to be spirit and life to you. And he puts in the hearts
of all of his people, like Bartimaeus, I just want to see. I'm blind
and I want to see. I'm blind and I want to see. So in his light, and by his light,
in the presence of his light, we see the glory of our God. So I want us to see that it was
a light. In verse 2 of our text in Matthew
3, saying, they came and they said, where is he that is born
King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in
the east. They saw in that eastern land,
we don't know where, and we don't need to know where. All we know
is that they came from a far country, and they came from the
east, and they've come to worship him. See, the light that God
brings is always a particular light, and it's a peculiar light,
and it's a personal light. As I said in Luke chapter two,
the glory of God shone around them. Our God, Emmanuel, God
with us, came. He came from heaven to earth. It's a particular light, a particular
light from Heaven. You see what they say? We, verse
2, we have seen His star in the east. That's what Zachariah promised,
isn't it? The day star from on high will come. See, it's a personal
light. It's a particular light and it's
a personal light. We've come to see his star. We've
come from the east. We've come from the rising. We've come from when it rose. We've come to see His rising.
We've come to worship Him. And we've come to worship Him
with gifts for a King. This One who was born King of
the Jews. We spoke about that earlier.
He was a King before He came. That wonderful verse in John
3.16, for God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten
Son. He sent. See, He was a Son before
He came. The Christ was the King before
He came. For God so loved the world. This
is the way God loved the world. He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
John 3.19, that light is come into the world. Light is come
into the world. And men loved darkness. When you were walking in darkness,
were you troubled by it? Or were you like me, you loved
it? You loved it. Men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought. in God. It's exactly what we
read in Micah, isn't it? That God does these works. He
will rejoice in the work of his hands. God will cause this to
happen. A light. There has to be a light
from heaven. There has to be a particular
and a peculiar light. And there has to be a personal
light. These men came seeking He that
is born King of the Jews. King of the Jews. See, only these
three, these men came. We don't know that there were
three. We have no idea. All they did was brought three
sets of gifts which are emblematic of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
deity and emblematic of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sufferings
on Calvary's tree. That's where he reigns as king.
He reigned as a king on the cross. He reigned as a king over Satan
and over sins of his people on the cross. See, only these men were guided
by the light. And they were guided by a light,
and it's remarkable, isn't it? They were guided by a light,
and they come to Jerusalem. They've come to Jerusalem. And
when, verse 3, when Herod had heard these things, he was troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him. And so this was a public event.
The Lord Jesus Christ may well have been 18 months old at this
stage. We see that later on when Herod killed all the children
two years and younger. But all Jerusalem, all Jerusalem
was troubled by these things. All Jerusalem, this is a public,
the Lord's activities are public manifestations of who He is.
They were all troubled. They were all troubled. But they
had no light from God. to go to where they knew this
king was. Only these wise men were moved
to come and worship. And only these men were guided
by the light to Bethlehem's child. Just like Paul, you might recall,
on the road to Damascus. It was only Paul who saw the
glory of that light, and Paul was blinded by that light. He
saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory on the Damascus road.
The others heard a voice and they saw no man. But Paul did. So when the light comes, the
light is particular. And the light is a peculiar light. And the light is a personal light. And the light is a purposeful
light. You see what this light had done,
this light from heaven, this star, it had directed these particular
people to that particular city, Jerusalem, where they would hear
about where this particular son was born, this one-born King
of the Jews. This light guided these men from
the east of Jerusalem. And then, in Jerusalem, this
light, having heard from these men where this child must be
born, the King must be born in Bethlehem, it guided them. from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. And look how purposeful and particular
it is. In verse 9, when they heard the
king they departed. And lo, the star which they saw
in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where
the young child was." The Lord has his witnesses in
places, but Jerusalem is a picture of darkness in that world. It's a picture of the darkness
of religion. when the light of God has been
withheld from those people. And there were people in there,
Simeon. Maybe a year or so before this, Simeon had held that little
baby in his arms. He held that baby in his arms
and he says, now I've seen God's salvation. I've seen God's, I've
seen the Saviour. I can go in peace now. If you've
seen the Saviour, you can go in peace. You can go in peace
into this world. You can go in peace into the
next one. You can go in peace. I've seen your salvation. What
did he see? He saw a baby. He just saw a
baby. This star, this light from heaven
directed these men to Bethlehem and it stood above where he was. And we've got to get rid of,
out of our minds, all the notions that we have of these things
from all the pictures that religion has presented for all this time.
The Lord Jesus Christ may well have been 18 months old. Herod
killed all the babies two years and younger. It was a young child
they went to see. What did he look like? He looked like any other young
child. He may have been an 18 month
old child just running around like any other child. What did
he look like when he preached? You see, from a human perspective,
from an earthly perspective, no one sees any glory in Him. No matter how much evidence that
they might have laid out before them, they see no glory in Him. They see no desire to come and
see him. There's not a record of anyone
going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. These priests knew he was there,
knew he was born there. They said this is where he's
to be born. They knew from their calendars that Daniel had given
them that this was the time he was to come. They were excited
and expecting he was to come, and yet they stayed in Jerusalem.
All of them stayed in Jerusalem. There's not a single record of
any of them going there. Why? Because they had no light
from heaven. These men came, they were guided
to Jerusalem. They were guided to a particular
person, a particular child, with a particular mother. And they
were guided there to see the scripture fulfilled. So if you're
going to see him in his light, you're going to see him in the
light of the scriptures. That's what he did to those men
on that road to Moses. And he took this Old Testament
scriptures and he started in Genesis 1.1. And he preached
the Lord Jesus Christ to them. And he proved and he showed them
what all the scriptures are about. That the Christ must suffer all
of these things and enter into his glory. And he finished with
Malachi chapter 4. And he showed them that all of
the Old Testament scriptures, what did they say? Their hearts
burned within them. And they didn't see him. He seemed on
the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, like an ordinary
man. And then he sat down in that
inn and he broke bread and opened their eyes and they saw him. And immediately they scurried
back off to Jerusalem. Why on earth are they going away
from Jerusalem when everyone had said he was there? See, when
the light comes, when the light comes, there is a purposeful
light and a guiding light. And that's what we read in Micah
chapter 4, didn't we? And many nations shall come and
say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and
we will walk in his path. The law shall go forth out of
Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. will go to him. So this light is a purposeful
light and this purposeful light reveals the light of the world. This one who was born king, the
one who always was king, the one whose origins are eternal
as Micah told them and promised them. This light went before
them and then this light stood still. stood still over where
that young child was. It stood still there. So the
light stands still to shine on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
still shines on him. All the glory of heaven's light
shines on the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ reflects back to that extraordinary place where
the saints of God are. And it's exactly the same in
the new creation. There's no need for the sun or
the moon. The light of the glory of God will shine upon them and
every look of every glance and every thought that we'll ever
have in all of eternity will be of Him in His glory. We'll see our brothers and sisters
in Christ and we'll be amazed. We'll be amazed at how glorious
they are when they're robed in his righteousness and his light
shines upon them. That was the high priest when
he came out after finishing that remarkable work, isn't he? Lord,
lift up your countenance upon us. Lift up your face, show us
who you are. When sins put away, when sins
put away, the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed. You see, the forgiveness
of sins is not the end of this process of salvation in our understanding,
it's the very beginning of it. It's the very beginning of it.
We start with all of our sins put away, which is why the Lord
Jesus Christ said, behold, believe the gospel, the kingdom of God
is at hand. The kingdom of God is him. This
king's dominion is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. Believe the good news. Believe
the great news of the scriptures. Believe the great news fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Which is why, if you turn down
to verse nine, and when they heard the king,
they departed and lo, the star which they saw in the east went
before them till it came and stood over where the young child
was. And when they saw the star, they
rejoiced, verse 10, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The angels came with rejoicing
from heaven over the glory of that child that was born in Bethlehem. These men, drawn by a light from
afar, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Has he made you to rejoice? is
he made you to rejoice in who he is. If this particular light
shines on this particular saviour, the light from heaven shines
on this saviour, you'll rejoice. Brothers and sisters, you'll
rejoice. You'll rejoice in who he is. and you'll rejoice in
the midst of what you are revealed to be. Verse 11, and when they
came into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his
mother. And what happens when this purposeful
light leads you to him? You'll fall down. You'll fall
down. You'll cry out like Isaiah did. when the glory, the veil of heaven
was rent. And he saw the Lord Jesus Christ
in that temple. And he says, woe to me, I'm undone. I'm unraveled as a human being. Isaiah spent the rest of his
life rejoicing. that he could rejoice, because
salvation wasn't about him and his goodness. He says, woe to
me, I'm a man of unclean lips. He's been a priest up to that
stage, and he would have thought that he had clean lips, but now
he's a man of unclean lips. And a live coal comes and it
touches him from heaven, doesn't it? touches his lips, and the
Lord's taken away your sin, Isaiah. They fell down and worshipped
him. They fell down when this purposeful, particular,
personal light that shines on this Saviour comes. They'll fall
down and worship. See, only the humble worship, only the humble worship. See, all true worship is in His
presence and directed towards Him, this One Born King of the
Jews. And what does it cause people
to do? So we're born into this world,
Satan said to us, you take and eat. You take and eat and you
can have all of these treasures of mine. You'll have the knowledge
of good and evil and you'll be able to choose the good over
the evil. You won't die, says Satan to
us. You'll be as gods. When this
light from heaven comes, proud man falls. Proud man, fallen
man, falling before him becomes a worshipper, and takers become
givers. It's so natural for us, isn't
it? The most natural thing for us
is to say, me, me, me, me, me, all the time. Our first cry in
this world is me. Our first cry says, I'm starving
to death unless you feed me. Our first cry is not even telling
the truth. Me, me, me. When this light shines
on the Lord Jesus Christ, there's rejoicing, there's a humbling,
there's a worshipping, and they opened up their treasures. They opened up. All that I have is yours. All that I have is yours. Take
it and use it for your glory. Takers are made to be givers. When this light comes, this light
is a separating light. The light that came in Genesis
1 separated the darkness from the light. This light This light,
this purposeful light, this particular light from heaven, led these
people away from Herod, and away from the chief priests, and away
from the scribes, and away from all that religious worship in
Jerusalem, all that earthly religious worship that exalted men and
despised God. It led these men to the real
light of the world. It's a separating light, isn't
it? The second last of the plagues in Exodus, the second last of
those plagues on Pharaoh's land, having had so much evidence and
so much witness and so much of his own confession, about how
wicked he was and how righteous Moses and others were and God
was. That last plague in Exodus 10.21,
stretch forth out thine hand toward heaven, says God to Moses,
that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness
that may be filled. A darkness that may be felt.
There was three days of darkness over the land of Egypt and no
one could see another person at all. And yet, where was the
light? The light was in the houses. It was in the houses of the children
of Israel. You might recall when they were
there at the Red Sea, that pillar of cloud and that pillar of fire
went between Israel and the Egyptians. And for one, it was light. a pillar of light, a light showing
God's faithfulness to His promise. You stand still, says Moses,
you stand still here. In this situation where everything
is impossible, you stand still and you'll see the glory of God,
you'll see the faithfulness of God. It was darkness to the Egyptians. So these wise men were guided
by the light, guided by this star into the very presence of
God. Herod, the chief priests and
the scribes were left in Jerusalem. They are left in their religion. They are left in the darkness
of their depravity. Listen to Herod. Listen to Herod's
scheming. When Herod had heard that the
king was to be born, the one born king of the Jews was to
be born in Bethlehem, then verse 7, and then Herod, when he had
privately called in the wise men, let's have this little conference
here, you guys. Let's have this little conference.
He called them in, he didn't want others to know about it.
And he inquired of them diligently at what time the star appeared
and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently
for the young child and when you have found him, bring me
word again that I may come and worship him also. What evil there is in the hearts
of ungenerate people. What evil is revealed when the
Gospel is revealed? What darkness is revealed when
the Gospel is revealed? The Lord said to those people,
the light you have in you is darkness. How great is that darkness? How great is that darkness? He knew they'd come from afar
to worship. He knew they'd been led by a
star. He knew that there was a King,
a King, one born King of the Jews. And these men, as we see
in verse 12, when this light comes and people are guided by
this light into the glory of God, they'll be preserved and
protected from joining the enemies of God. They'll be preserved
and protected from any danger. This light from heaven is a penetrating
light. Because these men, when they
finally got there, these rejoicing men fell at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Heaven's light sees all, all
the time. Do you like it that way? Do you
like to think that God sees the thoughts and the intents of your
heart? I like the fact that God sees
everything. I like the fact that it means
that I can go to Him and be absolutely honest before Him and simply
say, this is what I am. I like the fact that He can see
everything. I like the fact that He has seen
everything. I like the fact that everything that will happen is
seen by Him, that there's nothing hidden from Him. I like the fact
that he's made that glorious promise, hasn't he? He purifies
the hearts of his people by faith. Purifies their hearts. He cleanses
their consciences. When we're washed in the blood
of the Lamb, we're washed completely. When we're robed in his righteousness,
that's all that God sees. And I see the blood. I'm going
to pass over. I'm going to pass over in mercy
and justice and love and grace and sovereign provision." Herod thought that he could play
games with God. The priests and him were left
in their darkness. You see, wise men are led by
light. All wise men do. Wise men come
and rejoice in his presence. All wise men do. All wise men
fall before his majesty. And as I said earlier, the majesty
of that child was only seen through the eyes of faith. The majesty
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is only seen as he gives
us light to see him. That's why Simeon was given the
eyes of faith to see what was a very ordinary baby and the
most extraordinary baby that was ever born. I've seen his
salvation. I've seen all of God's salvation
and here it is, all of God's salvation is wrapped up in this
eight day old baby. When light shines, it shines
internally. There's a remarkable verse in
Ephesians 1 verse 18 that speaks of that light that shines. It says... His prayer is, Paul's prayer,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you, give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. So you won't have any knowledge
of Him unless it's given to you in revelation. The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of His calling. When His calls, His people come. And what is the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints? The children of God are
His inheritance. That's what Micah 5 says. It's
in His inheritance. It's the purchase of His possession,
isn't it? It's what is redeemed by His
own blood. Precious, precious people are
the children of God. This light is a prophetic light,
isn't it? It reveals the Scripture's truthfulness. You'll go to Bethlehem, and if
you go to Bethlehem, you'll see Him, and you'll be guided by
that light. You'll see that the Scriptures are true, that this
Christ is a King. So let's just finish, where is
he that is born King of the Jews? Where is he? Where is, who is
this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, Psalm 24 says,
he's the King of Glory. He is, as Revelation says, he
is that great King that rides out on that great white steed
throughout this world. King of kings and Lord of lords
is him. He's doing it right now, he changes
not. Acts 1 says it is ascended into
glory. Hebrews 1 has one of those most
glorious verses in all of the scriptures, isn't it? "...who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself by himself purged our sins. He sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Our God reigns. Our
God reigns on a throne. He is a priest as well as a king
and that's why we come to a throne of grace. The Lord drew these
wise men from the east. He drew these Gentiles and brought
them to himself and he protected them and he preserved them. And he does exactly the same
to all of his people now. He draws them by the light of
who he is, the light of the glory of God. And he draws them to
himself and he always cares for them. He comes to poor sinners
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is my rock,
the rock of my strength and my refuge. I can hide in Him. I can hide in Him. He's my hiding
place, says Psalm 32. God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. So He reigns in glory to save
and to help His flock on this earth. He says in Zephaniah 3,
He says, I will lead in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor
people. Are you poor or afflicted? They
shall trust. They shall trust in the name
of the Lord. God is our refuge and strength,
our very present help in time of trouble. That's why Paul says, he doesn't
say, I know what I have believed. He says, I know whom I have believed. Salvation is knowing him. I know
him I have believed. He's in this world seeking his
own and creating seeking hearts. He says, seek and you shall find.
He's made a promise. And he causes his people to seek
him. Wise men come from a far country. Sin has made us far
from God, but the light, the light from heaven draws his people
to himself. And they have one desire, where's
the king? Where's the king? And the king says, come. The
closing words of this glorious book that we have before us that
speaks of him, says, let him that is a thirst come, whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. Come is called
to you, brothers and sisters, is come to him. Come and bring
to Him all that you are, all your sins, all your backslidings,
all your mistakes, all your worries, all your sicknesses, all your
responsibilities, all your cares, all your concerns, all of what
lies before you now and all of what lies before you in the future.
Come to Him. What does Peter say? He cares
for you. He careth for you. We cast all
of them into His arms. Where is he now? These men rejoiced. Psalm 22 says he inhabits the
praises of his people. He inhabits the praises of his
people. He's here. Never, never to leave
you, nor forsake you. He's here. Upon that one who is the light
of the world, a great darkness of sin and the judgment of God
fell, until the wrath of God had expended all of its fury
on all of your sins and mine, brothers and sisters in Christ.
And God says, it is finished. It is done. Our King reigns now
in heaven. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your light, which you shine through your
scriptures and through your gospel preached, heavenly Father, upon
your dear and precious son. And Father, we pray that we might
be led again and again back into the presence of our great God. We might come expectant. We might come when we meet Him
rejoicing, falling down and worshipping, and opening up all of our life
before Him. Heavenly Father, Your Son bore
our sins in His own body on Calvary's tree. and He's borne them away,
and He's made for all of His people, His shed blood to be
precious, and His broken body to be esteemed amongst us. Heavenly
Father, grant us light from heaven to simply trust Your Son, to
simply see Him, as he is described in your precious word, Heavenly
Father. Enlighten our darkness, Heavenly
Father, and reveal your Son. We pray in his name and for his
glory. Amen.