May God be pleased to be with
and bless us this evening. So once more with his help we
turn to his word. And tonight we'll turn back to
the chapter that we read earlier in the gospel according to Matthew
and chapter 2. And we'll read the question of
the wise men found in verse 2 of this chapter. So Matthew chapter
2 and verse 2. where they asked, 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. In all the thoughts and services
of this time of year, in all our meditations on the different
events of the birth of Jesus Christ, or you can spend much
time thinking of the place or of the people or of all those
things which took place at that time. And they're all important
and they're all full of instruction for us. But there is one vital thing
that we must not lose sight of. One eternally important thing. And that is that we all personally
seek this Jesus for ourselves. That we all, like the wise men,
find the King of the Jews. That we find him not just as
a character of history, and not just an important person in an
account of scripture, but that we find him as our Lord and our
Saviour. We mustn't just know about him,
we need to know him. And this passage records for
us the events particularly surrounding these wise men who travelled,
it would appear, some long distance from different culture, and they
came because they wanted to find this newborn king. And they had, it would seem,
an understanding, a God-given understanding, that this king
was no ordinary king, but there was something very precious,
something very special about him. and that this king was worthy,
not just of the effort, not just of the gifts, but was worthy
of worship. And they would adore and fall
before this young child, believing by faith that he was more than
just a child. He was the very son of God. And in this passage we see a
great contrast between two key characters. Firstly there are
the wise men themselves. And then there is Herod. The
real king or the political king of the day. And we see a great
difference in their desires, in their attitude, in their hearts,
And we also see a great difference in what they received, in the
blessings they knew. And the solemn warning for us
this evening is that we must consider whether we are with
the wise men or if we're with Herod. If we have sought and
found the Lord ourselves or if we have no desire to do so. And so tonight really I want
to consider particularly with the wise men, but God willing
we will turn to Herod later as well. What does it mean to seek
the Lord? They sought him and found him.
And in this account we can learn much for us of what it means
to seek the Lord ourselves. And what it means to find him.
And what impact What effect that has on us so that we know when
we have found him. Well these wise men made a long
journey. And the first thing I want you
to note is that they saw and they followed a star. Now there are many different
views on what this star was. Was it a literal star? Was it, as some people have calculated,
an aligning of certain planets at that time which would have
made it seem very bright in the sky? Or was it some supernatural
event, some supernatural light, almost like the fiery cloudy
pillar of the wilderness journey? And there were different views
on that. But one thing is clear, whatever
it was, they recognised it to be important. They realised it was showing
them something. And now some people have surmised
that if these men had come from Babylon that they may well have
known the writings of Daniel. And they may well through these
things have been acquainted with the promise of a king, of a Messiah
to be born in Israel. That may or may not be the case. But what is clear is that them
seeing this star brought them to the conclusion that it was
signalling the birth of a king. And that however it led them,
they must follow. They must go where they were
shown. But God was speaking to them,
in that sense, through nature. He was speaking to them through
an event that they could literally see. They saw the star and they
followed it. They recognised it as something
important, surely recognised it as something divine, that
God was speaking. But they didn't yet have the
full revelation, the full knowledge of what they were going to find. But with this prompt and with
this appearance, they followed. They acted on what they saw.
Now, for us, as seeking the Lord for us. The Lord speaks through
creation. His creation speaks to us of
the truth, the reality that there is a God. We're told in the Psalms
that the heavens declare the glory of God. We only need to
look up on a clear night sky to marvel at the glory of God's
creation. We only need to look at the intricacy
and the beauty and the order of that creation to see there
is power, there is wisdom, there is glory in what God has made. We only need to look at the order
of the night sky or of the sun and the moon and the perfect
positioning of the planets and the perfect positioning of earth
and all of these things, it makes us marvel at the wonder of our
God. And in looking at the world around
us, we see a God of wisdom, we see a God of goodness, we see
a God who provides, who sustains his creation. And so we see His
glory. It speaks so loud and clear to
us that this world must have been made and must have been
made by one who is so great and so powerful and so wise. It declares the glory of God. And so through the very creation
around us, we are being brought to consider, or God is speaking
of His glory. to lead us ultimately to Him. But the wise men had further
to go. There was more on their journey
than just the star. And as much as creation speaks
very loud and clearly to us, it does not have the fullness
to show us the way of salvation. It speaks to us of a God, it
speaks to us of his glory, but it doesn't lead us to Christ. And so where did they go next?
Oh, having followed the star, they came to the palace. Now, why did they go to the palace? Was it a mistake on their part?
Was it an assumption, a wrong assumption on their part, that
the king would be born in the palace? Did they take their eye
off the star and the way the Lord was guiding them and make
their own decision? Well, again, we can only surmise. But they did come to the palace
of Herod in Jerusalem. And there they found this king.
and the king was troubled. Herod the king heard these things,
he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him because Herod had not
had a son. A new king, an heir, had not
been recently born. And so Herod's conclusion is
that there is a rival king that has been born and a king who
is going to threaten his throne. But they didn't Find Jesus there. They found much. They found a
king, a powerful king. If you learn anything from secular
history about Herod the Great, he was a tyrant. He was a dreadful
king, but he was very powerful. They found a palace. They found
all of the trappings of royal life. They found earthly power,
earthly authority. They found much to impress. But
they didn't find the king of kings. And they were left disappointed
in the palace. In fact, who they met was a troubled
and a worried King Herod. Now for us, are we seeking the
Lord in the palace? What I mean is, are we seeking
the Lord in this world? Are we seeking to find the Lord
in all of the noise and glitz and glamour of the world around
us? And yet finding that the truth
is that the world is fallen. The world is a place of sin,
like Herod's palace was. The world is a place that doesn't
need a saviour, or they don't think they need a saviour. A
place that does not recognise the saviour, a place that in
fact wants to do away with the saviour. There's no need of a saviour
in this world, so they think. No need of grace, for there is
no acknowledgement of sin. No need of mercy, for there is
no acknowledgement of guilt. No need of God because we can
do it ourselves. And in fact no need of Christ
because there is a denial of the very existence of God in
the first place. And so if we are looking for
God's blessing in the mix of the world we will not find him.
If we're looking for that real blessing for the soul in the
enjoyments of the world, we will not find him as impressive as
it might be, as enjoyable, in a sense, as it might be. We will
not find the blessing in the soul that the Lord Jesus Christ
brings, just as they did not find him in the palace. And you
can have all the glitz and all the glamour of the world, and
yet the still for the soul and aching void. And for them it was just disappointment.
Here was a king, but not the king that they sought. And so
if we are to seek the Lord, we will not find him in all the
enjoyments and pleasures of the world. We will not find him in
a life of sin. The Bible says to us, you cannot
serve God and mammon. And the Lord knows we try. How
often we try to have both. How often we try to hold the
Lord in one hand and the pleasures of sin in the other. How often
we try to justify both. How often we try to mix them
together and yet we can't. they are opposed to one another
and we will not find him then in the sins of this world. And
so there's disappointment for them at the palace but then there's
this glimmer of hope because Herod gathers the chief priests
and the scribes of the people together demanding of them where
Christ should be born and they said unto him in Bethlehem of
Judea For thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem
in the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of
Judah. For out of these shall come a governor that shall rule
my people Israel. They turn to Micah 5 verse 2
as we considered this morning. They clearly recognize this text
to be messianic, to be a promise of the coming Messiah. And they
give the answer. Where is the king? He's in Bethlehem. And with this announcement, Herod
calls the wise men together and tells them he sends them to Bethlehem. Now, how did the wise men receive
this news? They received it from Herod who
received it from the priests. But where did they get it from?
The Word of God. they knew from the word of God
that there was a king to be born in Bethlehem prophesied as we
thought this morning so many years before but now they were
certain they were sure that this was the place this is what God
had said and God is faithful to his word God who is unchanging
would keep his word and what he had said back in Micah's day
he would fulfill and though they would not believe him There's
a sense that they did believe the word. And they said in Bethlehem,
in the land of Judah. And so you see the wise men get
this more specific guidance from the scriptures, from the word
of God. Now, for us, if we do not find
the Lord in the world, and if the voice of creation is loud
but not saving, where do we find the Lord? Where do we find that
direction to Him in the Word? In the Scriptures that the Lord
has spoken. Because here, in His Word, He
is revealed to us as God. Here in his word he's revealed
to us as the Saviour. And we are told of the message
of the angels to Joseph, that he shall save his people from
their sins. We are told of the message of
the angel to the shepherds, that unto you is born a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord. We are told that this child in
Bethlehem is the fulfilment of these promises. But in the Word
of God we are told more and more because we know that this One
in Bethlehem is the Saviour who would die, the Son of God who
would give His life, the One who has come, God who has come
to be a sacrifice for sin. And so the Lord directs us through
His Word to see the fulfillment of these things. Christ promised
has been fulfilled. The types of Christ in the Old
Testament have been fulfilled. The gospel passages, if you like,
of the prophecy of Isaiah have been fulfilled. He has come. He has lived. He has died. He
has risen again. And that gospel of grace is preached
and expounded through the epistles of the New Testament. And we
read this, and it reveals to us the truth of the work and
the word of God. And so as the Word directed them
where they might find the Saviour, so the Word today directs us
where we as sinners might find the Saviour. The Word calls us,
directs us to repentance and to trust in Him alone. And that Word then is vital. That's why it's such a blessing
that we, in our day, have the Word of God in front of us. We
have that revelation of God to read. God is speaking. And it's good if we can remember
that when we open our Bibles day by day. God is speaking. God is revealing his truth to
us. God is leading us. And we hope
and pray he's leading us deeper into that truth. and bringing
us closer to Him. And so often we find that word
then reveals to us our sin and need of confession and repentance
that through that path we might be brought closer to Him as our
all-sufficient Saviour. And so it was vital that they
heard this word. And it's vital that we hear His
word, but they have not yet found the Lord, you see. They're still
in Bethlehem, they're still in Jerusalem, they're equipped,
they know more than they did before, but they're not there
yet. And then they leave. When they
heard the king, they departed. Lo, the star which they saw in
the east went before them till it came and stood over the young
child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding
great joy. When they were coming to the
house, They saw the young child with Mary, his mother. They finally
reached that wonderful destination, a house in Bethlehem, a young
child and his mother, Mary. They didn't find him in the palace,
they didn't find him with Herod, they found him in a small, quiet
house in little Bethlehem. And we can imagine such a A quiet
scene, can't we? Where these men draw near to
the Lord in this home. It's rather like Simeon and Anna,
isn't it? Again, there's a quietness. personal nature to their interaction
with the Lord. It's just them, just Simeon holding
up the Lord in his arms, just Anna greeting in the temple. There's a personal quietness
and there is here. They'd left the big city behind,
they left the palace behind and they've come to the quietness
of this house in Bethlehem and there they find him. Having gone on their long journey,
having been guided by the Lord, having been taught from His Word,
they find Him, the Saviour, in the home in Bethlehem. You see, to find the Lord, to
know the Lord Jesus Christ, is an intensely personal thing. It's for us and the Lord. Between us and Him, Not in the
crowd, not in the noise of the palace or of the city, but a
quiet coming to the Lord, a quiet finding of Him, ourselves. When
all aside, all is put to one side. You know how the Lord described
it, didn't he? That when we pray we should come
aside into our closet and close the door, that no one can see
us, and that he who sees in secret shall reward us openly. And it's
like that in the things, isn't it? It's like that in finding
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's as if the door is shut and
he who sees in secret, he sees our hearts and he sees our longings
and he knows our desires and it's a private individual pouring
out of the heart to the Lord and an individual praising him. Oh, we need to know the Lord
personally. We can't go to heaven behind someone else. We can't
get into the kingdom of God just with the right name or connections. We need to know Him personally.
We need to come by ourselves. I know there was more than one
wise man, but they came as a group, but we need to come by ourselves
and individually find the Lord and seek that He might be our
Lord. and our Saviour. You see, true Christianity is
a religion of the closet. A religion of the private time,
the quiet time. And this is what they found.
This is where they found Him. And so have we come aside? Have
we been brought to that quiet place? That individual closet? When the noise of the world,
you shut it out and you're alone with the Lord. Well, that's where
they found him. They were directed in all these
ways, but that's where they found him. And who did they find? Who did they find? Well, in an
outward sense, they found a young child with Mary, his mother. What faith these men needed to
recognize who he was. There were many children in Israel,
and at this time at least, before Herod's dreadful massacre, there
were many children, or at least some children, in Bethlehem.
But what faith they needed to see that in this young child
was the one whom they had journeyed to find, was the king of kings. And they found him. And they
recognised something in him that was special. And we can see this
in the gifts that they bring him. They presented their treasures. Gifts, gold and frankincense
and myrrh. Now how much did these wise men
understand what they were bringing? We don't know. But these were
costly things. things that they had prepared
back home, things that they had carried on their journey for
the long journey that they had made, things that they had selected. Again, whether they understood
the full significance, we don't know, but there is significance
in these gifts. They came and brought gold. They knew him to be the king. They knew him to be worthy. They
knew him. They were seeking the king of
the Jews. But before them was the king of kings. And the gold
represents that kingship. The sovereign Lord is before
them. And they knew him and acknowledged
him to be God. Frankincense, the incense being
used in the times of worship in the temple. There's for worship
and they present their worship before the Lord. They are acknowledging
him here to be God, not any ordinary child, not just a special child,
not just a descendant of a king and a new king to be on the throne,
but God himself, God who had been guiding them with a star,
God who had been leading them to Bethlehem. That God in the
mystery of the Trinity has come and is before them. And they
worship, they bring the frankincense and myrrh. Myrrh used in burial
and in funeral ceremonies. A sign here of his death. A reminder
that the Saviour who is born has come to die. That the way
of salvation is through the cross. And the way of purchasing his
people is through the great payment of his own precious blood. And
it would seem through the gifts that they bring that they had
a little glimpse of this. That before them was not just
a king, but before them was the Saviour, the Christ who has come. And so, do we? Do we know Him
as King? Do we own Him as King? Do we
fall under the sovereignty of this King and desire to serve
Him as Lord and Master? Do we bring our worship, the
frankincense, that we know Him to be our God, that there is
a God in heaven? Do you believe there's a God
in heaven? And I say, what a foolish question. Here we are in chapel
on a Sunday evening, most of us being brought up from the
cradle to believe there's a God in heaven. And of course we believe
there's a God in heaven. But do we believe it just intellectually,
just in your head? You say, well I've been taught
there's a God in heaven. Do you worship this God in heaven? Do
you bring your frankincense? Do you recognize him as your
Lord? Do you recognize him as the one who has all authority
over you? Do you recognize him as the one
who is worthy of this worship? And do you know him as the Savior,
the suffering Savior, the Myrrh? Oh, you know, if we have truly
found the Lord, this is how we know if we've truly found the
Lord, if we're a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
that He is to us King and God and sacrifice and Lamb. He is
to us our Lord. He is to us our God. He is to
us our only hope, our gold, our frankincense, our myrrh. Have
we found Him to be that? that precious to our souls. And what did they do? They fell
down and worshipped him. They fell down and worshipped
him. This was their response. This was their automatic response
and this is not a natural response. You do not fall down and worship
anyone. That in itself would be blasphemy.
You certainly do not fall down and worship a young child. It's
not a natural response. But it was their natural response. Because they knew who he was.
And they worshipped him. And this is the response of real
religion. This is the response of those
who have found the Lord. Those are the response of those
who have confessed their sin and sought the Saviour. They
will worship Him. Not just that they will meet
for times of worship on a Sunday morning, not just they will sing
the hymns, but from the depths of their heart they will love
and exalt the Saviour. There will be worship. Now, let's not get confused with
what worship is. Today, to many people, worship
just means singing. Worship just means having a good
time and feeling happy. Well, worship can be enjoyable. Worship should be uplifting.
But just remember this, they fell down and worshipped him. Worship is humbling. Worship
brings us down and exalts Christ. Worship is Christ-centered and
God-glorifying. And it brings us down in confession,
because when we confess our sins, it's then that we come to know
Him who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It's
through confession that we know the blessing of forgiveness.
And so when we confess our sins, that in itself, as we confess
our need of Him and our trust in Him, is worship. And so they worshipped him, the
true believer worships. This is the response of those
who find the Lord. This is how we know if we have
found the Lord. But what's wonderful, in all this account of the wise
men, how God is revealing things to them, how he is opening things
to them, how he's teaching them, how he's bringing them finally
before the Lord Jesus and teaching them who he really is. What is
wonderful is that behind all of this or flowing underneath
all of this is the unseen and yet unmistakable hand of God. He is drawing them to Christ. Why? Why did they even notice
the star? Because God was drawing them.
Why did they have an inquiring mind to consider what these things
meant? Because God was drawing them.
Why did they have a desire to pack up for their journey and
go to Jerusalem? Because God was drawing them.
Why keep making that long, arduous journey across the desert in
all the difficulties of those days? Why keep going? Because God was drawing them.
There's the unseen and the unmistakable work of God here. And this is
the case in every true believer's life, isn't it? That yes, God
uses the means. He may speak through creation.
He may speak, He will speak through His word. He may speak through
a particular sermon or particular preacher. He will bring them
to their knees. He will convict them of their
sins. He will bring them to trust and believe in the Savior. But
underneath all of that is the unseen hand of God. He is drawing
them. He is bringing them to Himself. He uses the means, but the Spirit
is at work. And this is the wonderful thing,
isn't it? That if we've been given a desire, if we've been
given a hunger, if we've been given that longing to find the
Lord, that emptiness, that void within us that only He can fill,
He has given it. He is drawing his people to himself. Oh, all the praise and the glory
to his name. And so take courage, comfort. And if we find just this little
scene in our own hearts and lives, this little scene between us
and the Lord, how have we got there? The Lord has brought you. He has taught you and drawn you
there. But then I said in opening that
there was a contrast in this chapter. There's a blessing of
God to the wise men and there's the hardness of the heart of
King Herod. Herod refused to find the Lord. Now think of all that Herod had
that the wise men didn't. Herod had all around him the
Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the scribes. They were on
hand. Whenever he had a question, he
could call them. They would come and speak to him. They would
come and teach him. All around him were, at least
outwardly, godly people. Now we know, sadly, the state
of the chief priests and the scribes and the elders in the
days of Jesus, they were not real believers, were they? But
they had the word, they had the truth in their hands. Herod was
with people who had the truth. Now we may be with people who
have the truth. We may be surrounded with Christians. We may be surrounded with people
who know the truth. We may be surrounded or under
sound gospel ministry. and yet not believe, and yet
remain hard-hearted. Not only did he have the leaders
around him or near at hand to him, he heard the word. He heard this word of prophecy
from Micah 5, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, not least among
the princes of Judah, out of these shall come a governor.
He heard this word from the chief priests and the scribes. The word that he passed on to
the wise men that the wise men acted on to go to Bethlehem and
find him. He heard the same word and he
knew that that word was believed to be about the Messiah. He knew
that they were not looking just for an earthly king but that
the Christ had come and that this word was leading him to
Bethlehem. He knew God's word. And yet he didn't believe. And
again, we have God's word. We have his promises. We have
the revelation of scripture. We have the promises, the prophecies
of the Old Testament. We have the fulfillment in the
New Testament. We have it in our language. We
have the ability to read it. And I expect all of us in an
intellectual sense could explain the gospel of grace to someone
else. We can know all of that and yet
not believe it. Herod lived in Jerusalem. Jerusalem
is not far from Bethlehem. He could have got there in no
time. The wise men travelled, it would
appear, many miles on their journey. Herod just needed to go an afternoon's
journey. He just needed to go the little
way, and he had probably made the journey before in his role
as king in the area. He was not far from Christ, literally. But in his heart, he was as far
as you can get. He could physically have got
there, but he was not interested. And again, we are not far from
Christ. Now what I mean by that is that
we know so much to many people in the world who
have never heard of Jesus Christ. Many people in the world who
have never opened his word and never heard it explained. Many
people in the world who do not know what the gospel is and have
not heard of a suffering resurrected savior. Many people in the world
who have not heard that great call of the gospel to come unto
him and find rest. And we all have. In that sense,
we are close. Now I know that our hearts by
nature are far from the Lord. But in that sense, we are close. And yet, like Herod, we can be
so far. And Herod also saw the witness
and the desire of these men. He saw these men. He knew what
they had travelled to come to Jerusalem. He knew the earnestness
of this question. Where is he that is born King
of the Jews? We have seen his start in the
East. We've come to worship him. They saw this desire. Sorry,
Herod saw the desire in their hearts. He heard the earnestness
of their question. He saw how determined they were
to find Jesus. And he knew why had they come.
They've come to worship him. He witnessed God's working in
the hearts of these men. And yet even that witness had
no impact on him at all. And again, we can witness God's
working in one and another. We can hear the testimonies of
born again believers. We can hear of what God has done
for them. We can listen, we can take it
in, engage to a certain degree, and yet still find there is no
desire in us. Is that us? Do we have such a hard heart
this evening? Are we so self-centered? Are
we so independent? Are we so content without Christ? That Herod could be left to know
so much, to be so close, And yet issue this dreadful decree
in absolute desperation to do away with Christ that all those
two years and under in Bethlehem should be killed. So determined
was he to do away with Christ. This is the heart of man, isn't
it? I will not have that man to reign over me. That's the
word of sinful, hard-hearted man. And I pray that it is not
ours. And if it is, I hope tonight
that the warning of Herod has shaken us out of that sleepiness. Because Herod was left to a dreadful
end. He never came to the Lord, he
never sought him and in fact the Lord left him. He was gone into Egypt and he didn't
return until Herod was dead. Oh may we not be left to know
so much and yet not to know really anything that we come to the
end. And Christ is not there. He has
left the country, so to speak. May we not be unmoved. May we
not be unconcerned. May we be like these wise men
whom God was working in and who in their desire would seek and
seek and seek. and would go on as God gave them
more and more desire and revelation until they came to that final
wonderful place where they found the young child and they fell
down and they worshipped him. May we, each one of us, even
tonight, fall down and worship him as our King, as our God,
and as our offering, that lamb. Well, may God bless his word
to us. May the hard-hearted be softened.
May those who seek find. And may the Lord be glorified,
because he has come. Amen.