Matthew chapter 2. I want to thank you so much for
the gift that you gave to me and to my family. I'm always
constantly thanking the Lord for you. It's so encouraging
to me and such a blessing to me to watch you grow in grace
in our Lord by Him and by His hand. And it's just such a comfort
to me. And you are. And then to have
you do something so generous, it really, really... It's just beyond the gift itself. Something God's done for you
that I'm just so thankful for. And I really, really appreciate
it. And thank you for the gift too. I do. And I'm so thankful. Thank you.
Let's turn to Matthew chapter 2. Let's look here now at God's
unspeakable gift. Matthew 2, 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea, In the days of Herod the king, behold, there came
wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born
king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in
the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had
heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with Him. Now in these three verses we
have three people mentioned. Three people mentioned. They
make up our title as well as our divisions. We have wise men,
we have the king, and would-be kings. Wise men, the king, and
would-be kings. The only three persons that exist
in heaven and in earth are these three. They are wise men who
have been made wise by God's grace, who bow and worship the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is Christ the King, who
is the fullness of the Godhead, who rules all things in heaven
and earth, who is Lord over the living and the dead. And there
are would-be kings. There are rebels against God
who are troubled in their heart any time they hear that Christ
the King reigns. Those will be our divisions.
Now let's begin with the wise men. Verse 1, Now when Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, there came wise men. They came from the east to Jerusalem,
saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have
seen his star in the east, or while we were in the east we
saw his star. They came from the east westward,
and are come to worship him. Now, I don't intend to say anything
about these wise men in particular. It won't do you any eternal good
for me to speculate about who these wise men are or about how
many of these wise men there are. By the way, the Scripture
doesn't say there are three wise men. They brought three gifts,
but they're not three wise men. And maybe that is significant
because those that God truly does make wise men are a number
that no man can number. But these were wise men. But
what we are going to look at is we're going to use these wise
men to see how God makes lost sinners into wise men. There are four things given here
that are true of every sinner that God makes wise by his effectual
grace. First of all, men that God makes
wise are all saved from depravity. Verse 2 says, there came wise
men from the east. You note they came from the east. After Adam plunged the whole
human race into sin, he was cast out of God's presence. And the
only way back into that garden, into God's presence, was by an
entrance that was on the east side of the garden. The only
way back into God's presence was to travel from the east westward
into that garden. The Lord's Scripture says, He
drove out the man and He placed at the east of the garden of
Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way.
Cherubims in the scripture often represent God's preachers. And
there was that flaming sword. And to keep the way of the tree
of life. And Christ is the tree of life.
Every sinner that Christ saves is a lost, ruined, utterly helpless,
hell-deserving sinner. Every one. You know, there's
an illustration, a very good illustration in earthly travel. If you're traveling, if you go
on a trip overseas or what have you, and you're traveling from
the west to the east, you're traveling against the sun, against
the S-U-N. And that is always harder on
your body. It's always more difficult to
travel from the west to the east. But when you're traveling from
the east to the west, you're traveling with the S-U-N, It's
always easier. It's always easier. These men
were traveling from the East to the West. They were traveling
with the S-O-N. With the Son. To the Son. Sinner,
do you know why Christ was born into this earth? Do you know
why? This week is just a day marked
for Christ's birth. It's not when He was actually
born. But do you have any idea why
Christ was born? The scripture says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, Savior, for He shall save His people
from their sins. from their sin. He shall save
his people from their sins. Paul said this is a faithful
saying. This is worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners. That's who he came to save. He
came... A sinner's not somebody who's just a little bad off,
but they can kind of help themselves. A sinner is somebody who can't
do anything. They're lost. They're undone.
They are altogether unrighteous and worthy of death. That's a
sinner. Can you say, as Paul said, I
am the chief? I'm the chief of sinners? That's
who Christ came to save. He came to save sinners. Wise
men come from the East. They come from the private. Now
here's the second thing. Men who God makes wise are turned
from vain religion to the house of the Lord, to the house of
bread. Notice first that these men, verse 2 says, they came
to Jerusalem. That's where they came to first.
Now, throughout the Old Covenant, earthly city of Jerusalem was
where God made His presence known. God made His presence known there.
He put a temple there. He put the Holy of Holies there.
He put the Ark of the Covenant there. He had prophets there.
He had His law there. He had His presence there. But
by the time that Christ came, that was nothing but a form and
an empty ceremony. That's what the Scripture said.
Paul said, Jerusalem, which now is, is in bondage with her children. And they had a form. They had
a ceremony. And it was impressive. But they
had no ark in that holy place. They had no mercy seat in that
holy place. They had no presence of God.
No Shekinah glory was in that holy place. I'll tell you how
empty that place was. You know our Lord Jesus Christ
never spent a night in Jerusalem. except for that one night when
he came and turned himself in to the religious rulers and to
the civil rulers, and they tried him, they arrested him, they
tried him, and they crucified him. That's the only night he
spent in Jerusalem when he walked this earth. That's a testimony
to how empty and vain religion is without God's presence. Without God's presence. You know,
the Lord says here about warning us about false religion. He said
it and it applies to our day. This book does not go out of
date. It's from the eternal God and it's always relevant to whatever
age you live in. And so when He warns us about
false prophets, you know, The only people in
our day who are false and wrong and untrue, according to the
majority's opinion, is somebody that speaks the word of this
book. But to hear man talk, there's nobody that's false religion.
There's nobody whose religion is vain and just ceremonial form,
to hear vain man talk about it. But there are, God says, the
majority are. Paul stood there and he said,
there is right now a remnant You know what a remnant is? If
I could pull just a thread out of this suit right here, that's
a remnant. That's a remnant. There is a
remnant according to the election of grace, he said. You see, God's
salvation is a rare and precious thing. It's a rare and precious
thing. And it's going to take God to
make you see it's not common. Nothing about what God does is
common. Men just see everything God does is common. His word's
common. His churches are common. His
blood's common. It was shed for everybody without
exception, they say. Those that make His God to be
common and His work to be common, they tread underfoot the Son
of God and put Him to an open shame. Nothing about our God
is common. Nothing. But God turned these
wise men from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. You know what Bethlehem means?
It means the house of bread. Isn't it significant that the
bread from heaven was born in the house of bread? And that's
where these men were turned from Jerusalem, from a vain form,
from vain religion, to the house of bread. And that's where they
met the Savior, in the house of bread. God's wise men are
turned by the hand of God from vain religion to Christ's own
house, to the house of bread. And those who worship God, they
must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And only God can make
you do that. But like Bethlehem. Bethlehem,
it means the least. That's what it means. That's
how God's regarded. That's how His gospel's regarded. That's how His church is regarded
in this world. Because it's never something
fancy and impressive. Ever. He came without form. without
comeliness. There was nothing about him that
would make men desire him. The gospel was hated because
there was nothing that would make men love it. It offended
men. And it still does because it
takes all the salvation out of a man's hand and puts it in God's
hand. And that makes a man mad. Mad
as a hornet. But though it's regarded as the
least, like Bethlehem was, like Christ was, though it's regarded
as the least, God chooses the least. to make nothings out of
people. He chooses nothing and nobody's
to confound the wise and to bring his people down to nothing. May
the God turn you from the vain house to the house of bread,
to Christ in his house. Now, here's the third thing that
we see in these wise men. Men who God makes wise are drawn
by God. They're drawn by God. Verse 2
says, They came saying, Where is he that is born king of the
Jews? For we have seen his star from
the east. We have seen his star. Now, this
is a good illustration. The master told us, he said,
no man can come to me except the father which has sent me
draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. That word draw there is the same word that's used
when it says Peter drew his sword. You get the picture? Peter reached
and grabbed that sword and drew that sword out of his holster
and drew it out. That's the word here. No man
can come to Christ unless God the Father draws that man. He
puts His hand on that man and He draws that man. And we got
an illustration of it. First of all, in this gospel
age in which we live, God uses the preaching of the gospel to
draw His elect. He always does. In the revelation
of Jesus Christ, and I mean the book of Revelation, that's what
it is. It's not the revelation of signs and wonders and dragons.
It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in the revelation
of Jesus Christ, when he's writing to the seven churches, he writes
to the star of the seven churches. And the star is God's preacher. It's Christ's preacher. that
He provides to give light to His people. The star that the
wise men saw here, they said we saw His star. We saw Christ's
star. This star was put there to wait
upon the Lord, to be His herald to men afar off. It was put there
to be Christ's usher, to conduct these men to Christ. That's what
it was there for. That's what Christ makes His
preachers. They're His star. They're His
preachers. And they're there to conduct
men from afar to Christ. That's what the purpose is. And
Scripture says... One person I was reading, he
says, see this star proves that God can bring His people to Christ
without a preacher. So if He quits giving preachers,
He'll still bring us some other way. But Scripture tells us,
it pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching. And
Christ said, until I've called the last one in, I'm going to
provide you with preachers. That's what he said. The Scripture
says this in Isaiah 30 verse 20, Though the Lord give you
the bread of adversity, and though the Lord give you the water of
affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner
any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. Jeremiah 23,
4, the Lord said, I will set up shepherds over them, which
shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. When Christ sets
His shepherds up, He sets them up, and He has the power to set
them up. Now, right along with this same thing of God drawing
us and using light to do it, He also uses His preachers to
preach His Word. He uses His preachers in conjunction
with His Word. He doesn't use one without the
other. If I stand here and preach, but I don't preach His Word,
I'm preaching nothing. And he doesn't use his word without
the preaching of the gospel. He uses them together. Now, there
is a prophecy in the scriptures, in Numbers 24, 17, and it says
this, There shall come a star out of Jacob. Well, in our text
here we have a star come out of Jacob. A star over the land
of Jacob, over the land of Israel. There was a star. And that scripture
goes on to say, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. Meaning
a scepter holder. You know who holds a scepter?
The king. That's who holds a scepter. And
that's what our text says. A king was born that day. So here you've got a star come
over the land of Israel to come to these men, to guide these
men to the king, and here you've got the king come out of Israel. So it appears from the text that
these wise men, they came saying, where is he that's born king
of the Jews? So it appears that they understood
that scripture. They understood it to speak of
Christ. And here's my point. God uses preachers to preach
His Word. And God reveals through the Gospel,
through His Word, that these words speak of Christ. All these
words speak of Christ. And then together with the preaching
of the Gospel, together with the Word, Though we have the
preacher and though we have the Word, it won't do us any good
until God gives us light by a supernatural miracle of His grace in our heart.
These three things have to go together. Now here you got this
star in the sky drawing these men. This star was not a normal
star. It couldn't have been a normal
star like we see stars. because it had to be a supernatural
star, some kind of light, because it moved before these wise men.
Do you know how close Jerusalem and Bethlehem were? If you had
a star in the sky over Bethlehem, that star would look like it
was over Jerusalem. But this star led these men. You go on to read chapter 2 there
and it says, look at verse 9, when they had
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." You remember the pillar of fire and the cloud
in the wilderness that led the children of Israel? That's how
this star led these wise men. That's a miracle. That's not
a regular star. Well, at any rate, the point
is this. Certainly, it is a supernatural
work of the Holy Spirit when God regenerates a sinner and
gives you divine light in your heart. And that's when you're
going to come to Christ. When you have the gospel of His
Word accompanied with divine light in the heart, that's when
you'll be a wise man. And that's when you'll come to
Christ. That's the only time we'll let go of our Gnosticism
and say, I taught myself. That's the only time we'll let
go of any other vain way and come to Him and say, Lord, You've
saved me. You've saved me. Fourthly, God
makes wise men come bowing down and worshiping Christ. Look at
verse 2. We're come to worship Him. That's what they said. Those
made wise by God's grace are given a heart and a mind single
toward Christ. That's right. He's our all and in all. He's
the fullness of wisdom. We stop looking to our wisdom.
We stop looking to our knowledge. and thinking and figuring out
how we came to Christ, how we justified ourselves, how we make
ourselves whole. We stop looking. He becomes our
wisdom. He's the fullness of righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. We find everything we desire,
everything we need, and everything God will receive in Christ. We're
given childlike faith to just Well, I can't understand that
anymore. You've got to prove it to me. That is a haughty,
arrogant bastard right there that says something like that. And I mean bastard as an illegitimate
child. It is God's grace that makes
a man become a child and say, Lord, I believe you. Help my
unbelief. I believe you. So with all love
and joy we bow before King Jesus and we worship Him. And there's
no distance too great for a believer. These men came from a long way.
Christ's sheep will go a long way to find green pasture. These
men came from a long way. When we behold what great sacrifice
Christ has made, it makes the distance short. Some of you are
traveling over an hour, you're traveling a great distance to
come here. The more you hear, doesn't that
distance become shorter? Isn't that right? The more you
hear Him, and men will sit there and say to you, I don't know
why you drive that far. I don't know how you drive that
far. I know you don't know. If you did, you'd be driving
it too. You'd be right behind me. Now these are four things
that are true of all those that God makes wise. They're drawn
out of depravity. They're turned from vain religion
to the house of bread, the house of the Lord. They're drawn by
God through the gospel, through His Word, by divine light, and
they come worshiping Christ. Now, are there any wise men here?
If so, who gets the glory? He does, doesn't he? Christ said,
no man can come to me except my Father which is in heaven
draw him. The Father that sent me draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. Alright, there's our wise men.
That's how God makes wise men. Now let's look at the King. Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, is the King. He's the King. They came
and they said in verse 2, where is he that's born King of the
Jews? Well, I made the Lord Jesus the
Lord of my life. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. He's Lord before you ever had
a life. And you don't have a life to
make Him Lord of unless He gives you that life. He's the Lord. He's the King. He's the King.
Christ is the true King of righteousness and the true King of peace. Without
father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning
of days nor end of life, Christ abideth a priest continually.
Look over at Isaiah 9, verse 6. Isaiah 9, verse 6. Unto us a child is born. Unto
us a son is given. There's a difference there. That
says volumes. Unto us a child is born. Unto
us a son is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. Not mine, not yours, his. Not
the preacher, not a council of elders, his. and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom, his kingdom, to order it, order it, and to
establish it, and here's how he does it, with judgment and
with justice, in wisdom and with justice, from henceforth even
forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. He will perform this. Christ
is man, he's the child born, and Christ is God, he's the son
given. He is the God-man. As man, He
could be made sin and die in the place of His people. And
as God, that work is eternal. It's an eternal work. He has
obtained eternal redemption for us. And now He's risen and all
His people are risen in Him. I read a story that I thought
was a good illustration of substitution. That's what our gospel is, substitution. Christ took the place of somebody
in particular. He took somebody's place in particular. Called an elect people. That's
substitution. And he paid what they owed. That's
substitution. And now they don't owe it anymore.
That's substitution. And he's going to come and tell
them about it. He's going to come and tell them this good
news. I read this story in the French Revolution. There was
a young man that was condemned to the guillotine. And he was
shut up in prison. He was waiting. They were going
to cut his head off. That's how they executed him.
They were going to cut his head off. And he was greatly loved
by a lot of folks, but there was one person that loved him
above anybody else. It was his father. And his father
had the same name as this boy, as his son. And so whenever it
got time for this boy to be called to go be executed, they called
his name. And the father, with this same
name as him, he said, that's me. He answered for his son.
And so they took the father, and they took him out to the
place of execution, and they put him in the guillotine, and
they chopped the father's head off in the place of his son.
And the son walked away a free man. Christ laid down his life in
place of his people. Whenever judgment time came at
the cross, and my name was called, Christ answered for me. And when
judgment day comes in the end of this world, and my name is
called, Christ shall answer for me. And because He died in my room
instead, I've been saved. I'm free now. Free from sin,
free from condemnation, free from death, free from hell, free
from the grave. That's substitution. This government
is on His shoulder. The government of the universe
is on His shoulder. but particularly the government
of his church and of his kingdom, it's on his shoulder. Now, he
says here he's the kingdom of the Jews, the true Jew. Look at Romans 2.28. You know
who the true Jew is. I've shown you this repeatedly.
The true Jew is not one that's just born naturally in Israel. Look here, Romans 2.28. It's
not just one who's been circumcised in his flesh. Look here, Romans
2.28. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly.
We believe God, we believe His Word. This is what His Word says.
He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But He is a Jew which is one
inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God.
Look at Philippians 3. Men will say, yeah, but don't
you believe that there's some special significance about Israel? I do there, there's a very special
significance about God's Israel made up of Jew and Gentile that
are His elect, His church and kingdom has a very special significance
about it. But He used natural Israel to
show us that, to give us a picture of that. And so now he says,
now in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile. We're one in
Christ. His people are one in Christ
and he's making his people to know that. Look here. Paul said,
verse 3, we are the circumcision. This is the same as saying we're
the Jews. We're the true Jew. We're the Hebrews. We're the
circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. We've been born
of His Spirit. So now we worship God in the
new man, in the inward man, in Spirit. And we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. All our confidence is in Christ
alone. And have no confidence in the
flesh. That's a true Jew. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The man that's poor in spirit is not bragging about what he
did. He's not bragging about his decision for Christ. He's
not bragging about how I'm doing the best I can. He's not bragging
about, oh, I'm just trying everything I can. I hope my good outweighs
my bad. He's talking about what Christ
did. He's supporting his own self that he knows he has nothing
to boast in. And he says, those, theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. And the man who does that is
going to be persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed is the man who
is persecuted for righteousness sake. Theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. We're talking about the king and his kingdom. The kingdom
and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heavens shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall
serve and obey him. That's Daniel 7.27. Now, He established
His church in peace and justice by His obedience unto death.
It says there, He shall establish this government in judgment and
justice. And He did that. And He brought
us into peace by putting away all the sins of all God's elect
when He died on Calvary's tree. And then He's ordering and ruling
the universe. He's ordering and ruling everything in the universe
as well as His church in justice because Christ is King of kings
and Lord of lords. The Scripture says, Jesus came
and spake and said, All power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth. And the Scripture, when it says, The king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turns
it whithersoever he will, that Lord is Christ. The king in the
earth, his heart's in the Lord's hand, in Christ's hand. I support
everything that my president does. I might not believe that
it's right, and I might not think that it's going to turn out for
our immediate good, but whatever he does is okay with me because
his heart is in the hand of my true king. And he's turning it
with us wherever he will. And he says, and of the increase
of his government there won't be peace, there shall be no end.
He shall call every chosen child of God that he has redeemed.
That's how he's increasing his kingdom. He's calling them out
of darkness, out of Satan's kingdom, into his kingdom. because He
chose them and redeemed them and He has power to send them
the gospel and say, I've saved you, I'm calling you now with
the holy calling. And He makes that word effectual
in their heart and they have light now for the first time
and they bow down and worship the King. And that's, look at
Galatians 3.13, I put this in the bulletin but I want you to
see this, Galatians 3.13. I know there's a denomination,
I know that years ago Years ago, the Baptists decided they wanted
to take up money and send it to a central Baptist union, and
then the union decide where that money goes and what missionaries
they're going to support. And a big old argument broke
out between the Baptists, and some said, we're not going to
send this church's offerings to a central place and let them
choose who we support. The church is independent. We're
going to send our money to who we want to send it to. And so
there was a split among them. And these who split off over
here decided they want to take his whole thing so far, they
just decided the Scriptures don't even say we have to support missionaries.
If God has somebody, he's elected unto salvation, and he's redeemed
them by his blood, and they're an elect child of God, it doesn't
matter if they ever hear the gospel or not, God's going to
call them into glory. The only one Scripture says that's
true of is an infant. An infant. And it's not real
clear on that, but we trust it's so. I hope it's so. But let me show you something.
God made a promise to Abraham and he made a promise to Christ.
The same promise he made to Abraham he made to Christ. And he said,
in thy seed. He said that in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And Isaac's a picture of Christ. In Christ shall thy seed be called.
Look at Galatians 3.15. Look at verse 16. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. God made a promise to Abraham
and to his seed. He says, He said not to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
So God made that same promise to Abraham. He made that same
promise to Christ. God the Father promised God the
Son, Christ Jesus, that every one of His children were going
to be called and were going to be redeemed, were going to be
given the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. He promised
that to His Son in the eternal counsel the covenant of grace
before the world began. And that promise from God the
Father to His Son is the very reason Christ came to the earth
and laid down His life and redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Look back at Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That, this tells us,
this is why he did it. That, the blessing of Abraham,
that same promise that was made to Abraham, was also made to
Christ. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That, what does
he mean by the blessing of Abraham? That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. That means everybody Christ redeemed,
He's going to cross their path with the gospel and He's going
to call them out into His marvelous light by the Holy Spirit, giving
them faith and repentance, and they're going to believe on the
Lord. That's the only thing. Peter said it's that same Word,
that same unchangeable Word of God that's holding everything
in place right now. That's why this world is not
destroyed. Christ still has elect people that have have not been
called to faith in Him, and they shall, and He will not lose one. That ought to end it. If it's
for God's glory, that ought to end all this bull about time
salvation, about one salvation being eternal and one being in
time. That is just a loophole to try to find a way for a man
to glory in his own works, in his own will. And to say, Mama
didn't believe nothing, she was in some vain false religion,
but if she was an elect child, she saved. No, if she was elect
child, God would send her the gospel and he'd save her. That's
true. That's true of my mama and your
mama. All right. And this kingdom's eternal because
he is eternal. Now this is why... Art, I'm glad
you read that scripture where it says, unto you therefore which
believe he's precious. You know what that word precious
means? It means honorable. It means worthy of all honor.
Because he's a king. And that's what you do to a king.
You honor the king. You bow to the king. Unto you
which believe Christ is worthy of all honor. Because Christ
is our King and our Savior. That's why His name is Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Thine is the Kingdom and the
Power and the Glory forever. That's what the Scripture says.
He saves like He wants to because He can. What do wise men say when we
are saved by Christ and we get this good news? Wherefore we
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. This earth is going
to be shaken and everything in it is going to be destroyed.
We have received a kingdom that cannot be moved. Therefore, serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now let's go
to the third thing. I'll be very brief here. Would
be kings. Would be kings. Verse 3. Matthew
2.3. Verse 3 says, When Herod the
king had heard these things, and he was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. Now what would a man be troubled
about when he hears these things? What would cause a man to be
troubled? Why would Herod and all Jerusalem be troubled about
this? because they, a man that's lost in sin and he's wrapped
up in vain religion and his vain imagination and his vain thoughts,
this is what I think God is, this is how I think God saved,
this is what I believe, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He would
be king. That man would be king. He wants
to be king. See, Herod was in an office of
a king and when he heard the king has come, they all thought
it was going to be an earthly kingdom. And so did Herod. And so when he heard Christ the
King has come, his natural thought was to do what Kim Jong Lee,
is that what his name is over in North Korea? Whatever his
name is. Like he did to his uncle the
other day. He said, kill him. Kill him. He's threatening my
throne. Kill him. Well, that's what sinners do
every day when they hear that Christ reigns, that Christ, God's
chosen His people, whom He will, Christ has redeemed them, Christ
has power to send the gospel to them, call them out, and bring
them to faith in Him, and to keep them to the end, that He'll
raise them, and He'll get all the glory. A man says, but I
wanted to be king. I wanted it to be by my will.
I wanted it to be by my wisdom. I wanted it to be by my work.
And so he's troubled. And all religious Jerusalem's
troubled with him. They want to take Christ off
his throne. What's going on in our day? The same thing's been
going on since the fall of Adam. Why do men usurp God from the
pulpit? This is where it starts. In God's
Word, the most important calling there is, profession there is,
in this world is a gospel preacher. He's above kings, he's above
all civil rulers, a gospel preacher. And with that blessing comes
great responsibility. The problem in our day is because
of the pulpit. That's where it started. in this
nation. That's where it started. The
issue is the pulpit. It's something, I don't know
what the word for it is, ironic, but that right now everybody
that's jumping on the religious bandwagon and condemning the
sodomites are themselves preaching man's power, man's will, man's
works, and they're the very cause of the problem. That's what God
says. I can show you this. I'm going
to show you this. Why do lawmakers usurp God's law in the legislature?
And make the law of the land say, well, we say this is legal.
God says it don't. So a whole bunch of people got
together and said, I just murder. I can't help murder. It's how
I was born. I love to murder. It turns my stomach. If I don't
murder, we're going to pass a law and make murder legal? And if
a man stands up and condemns the murderers, even though the
law of the land says it's legal, and says that's against God's
law, we're going to condemn them for it? What's the difference
in making sodomy legal? God says it's against the law.
What's the difference in making any other sin legal? God says
it's against the law. Yeah, you were born that way.
Born dead in sin. But sin's a choice. It's always
a choice. Why do men hold their word to
be true and God's word to be a lie? There would be kings. who would be kings. Sodomy in
a land received and defended is a sign of just reprobation
from God, because men would not receive the love of the true,
but change the glory of God and worship and serve the creature
more than the Creator. I don't have time to read it
all, but read Romans 1, 21 through 28 when you get home. They received
not the love of the true, or when they knew God they glorified
Him not as God, and they turned the truth of God into a lie,
into an image like a demand, and they worshipped and served
the creature more than the Creator. For this cause, God turned them
over to a reprobate mind. They did not like to retain the
knowledge of God in their minds, and so God made them so they
could not possibly know God. He made it so that, and not only
that, but He took the reins off of them and gave them what was
already in their heart. He let them change the course
of nature and defile their bodies, men with men and women with women.
That's called divine just reprobation because of man. Now here's the
reason, 2 Thessalonians 2.10. Here's the reason, 2 Thessalonians
2.10. Listen to me, brethren. Sodomy. I'm talking about what
men politely call homosexual. What God calls sodomy. It is
not to be accepted. It's not to be looked over and
winked at. It's not to be acted like, well,
it's just a difference of taste. This is what God says. I'm not
afraid of them. And I'm not bigoted toward them. And I'm not trying
to I preach, every time I preach,
to sinners. And sinners are sinners. And
I'm just telling you what God says in His Word. And I do not
care what the world says about me. I don't care what your opinion
is of me in those things either. Because if it's contrary to this
Word, you're wrong. That's plain and simple. Plain
and simple. God's right. Sin is not a civil
right. I don't care what men say. Sin
is not a civil right. It's wrong to condemn somebody
and judge somebody on basis of race and sex and those types
of things. But sin is never a civil right.
This is different from the civil rights movement. Sin is not a
civil right. I don't have a civil right to
fornicate. I don't have a civil right to
commit adultery. I don't have a civil right to be drunk. I
don't have a civil right to You don't have a civil right
for sin. All right, look here. Here's why God turns men over
to reprobation. 2 Thessalonians 2.10. He says,
look at the second part there. Because they received not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. It says, for this cause
God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
When you hear men talk today, man's right, the law of the land's
right to them. And God's wrong. And you're wrong
if you believe God. How dare you? Well, we've got
a long way to go. And they say, we've got a long
way to go to get men to see it this way. But they will. They're
going to come along. Well, religion will. Catholic church already
has. It won't be long when vain religion
works, religion will too. God won't. God won't. He won't pass by any sin. Period. Period. Why do the heathen
rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Why do they take counsel
together, God says, and say, let us break his bands asunder.
Let us break his courts from us. We don't have to be ruled
by God anymore. Just like that. He can take a
breath away from them and you stand right in front of them.
He says, now what do you say? And every one of us is going
to stand there. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sordid pleasure. Yet have I set my king on my
holy hill of Zion, he said. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen
and faithful. All of his enemies are going
to be made the footstool of Christ our King. All of them. All of
them. All are coming into this world
enemies. Some are enemies in their mind by wicked works. All
are. And some, though, He makes to bow down to His footstool
by grace in the heart. It's His prerogative to do it,
because we all sinned and rebelled against Him. But others that
go out of this world raging against Him, saying, we don't have to
serve Him. They're going to meet Him one
day. And you know what Philippians 2, 9 says? God has highly exalted
Him and given Him a name above every name. And at the name of
Jesus, that name that men took on their lips in vain, isn't
it something? Men don't want to worship God,
but they want to enter into an institution that God made to
picture how God saves His people by Christ. Men don't want to
worship God, but they use His name every other breath. I tell
Will's and Emma's friends in the house all the time, listen,
use my name in vain. Don't use God's. You can say,
you know, oh my clay, I don't care, do that. But don't do it
with God's name. But that the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow of things in heaven, those in heaven shall, things
in earth, those in the earth shall, things under the earth,
those under the earth shall. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of Father. Here's the Word from God. Here's
His Word. He says, Be wise now, therefore,
O ye kings. You want to be a wise king? Be
instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and you perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. You hear
what I'm saying? I hope so. These wise men came
naturally from the East. Let us come spiritually, leaving
our sins. They came guided by the sight
of a star. Let us come guided by faith in
the Divine Spirit, by the teaching of His Word. They came to worship
Him that was born King of the Jews. And you'll find it even
more of a blessing to worship Him now that's seated at the
right hand of God. And don't stop. Don't delay.
Don't look for something in you that makes you good enough to
come. Come to Him now. He says, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Preacher,
what's it to come to Christ? Do I walk an hour? What do I
do? What do I have to do? In your
heart, you say, Lord, I believe you. Lord, forgive me of my sin. I trust you. You're all my hope.
And then publicly confess him in believers baptism. confess
him to the world that he's all my hope. When he lived, I lived. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he rose again, I rose again.
I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus. And serve him with his
brethren the rest of your days, hearing his gospel preached,
providing for your brethren, loving one another, and doing
anything you can for the enemy, and try to teach them this gospel.
They might not be an enemy. They might be a child of God.
Oh, I pray God will bless it. Kiss the king. Kiss him. Amen. Alright, one announcement before
we get