Turn with me, if you would, back
to Matthew 2. Matthew 2, let's read these verses
again. Matthew 2, verse 1, it says,
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. And
when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of
the people together, he demanded 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 art not the least among the princes of
Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule
my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately
called the wise men, inquired of them diligently 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. 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. When they saw the star, they
rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come
into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother,
and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their
treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense
and myrrh. And being warned of God in a
dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into
their own country another way. As I thought on tonight's service
this week, studying for it and just preparing myself for it,
I was very excited for this service. I just felt like it would be
a special service. I felt like it would be a special
time together. And that's not because we have
an annual holiday coming up. It's because we have come to
the place in Matthew where these wise men have reached the savior
and they have rejoiced. I believe we could say with joy,
unspeakable and fallen down before him to worship him. These men had the privilege of
seeing Christ to be there all and they left all. They left all, they left everything. They left everyone. They said
everything that was of any importance to them aside in order to seek
the Lord Jesus Christ and to come to this Lord and savior
and to worship him. They left everything to worship
him. It is reported by some that they
traveled for as much as two years. It was not just, you know, a
night's journey. Uh, that's a long time. That's
a long time. Herod, when he found out that
he was mocked by them, he slew all the children, two years old
and younger, according to the time which he had inquired of
the wise men. When did you see that star? When
did you start following that star? So they had traveled a
long way. That's a long way. And in this
moment of them finally reaching him, I envisioned that moment
as being a very solemn moment. There's a song that's not in
our hymnal and we don't sing it necessarily, but the song
says, Oh, holy night. That's what I, that's what I
think of this. Just a solemn, quiet, all filled
special moment. Can you imagine that moment?
Just a special moment because they were led by a star. I envision
it being at night. It doesn't necessarily say it
was at night, but in my mind, that's how I have an envision
that they came at night. And I envision Joseph and Mary
very quietly sitting either by a fire or by candlelight staring
at the Lord of glory. That's what I envisioned them
doing. Because our Lord was sinless. He was perfect. Our Lord was
perfect. He was so perfect. There was
no unnecessary crying. Those of you who have had a newborn
baby in the house, there was no unnecessary crying. There
was no unruly temper tantrums. He was perfect. He only brought
joy and peace to that house. That's all he brought, gladness,
happiness, joy, and peace. And I can see these wise men
who have been following this star for such a long time, realizing
the star has stopped. That it kept moving, so they
kept following it. And finally they realized the
star has stopped over this house. He's here. We found him. We made it to him. I can see
them being absolutely overcome with excitement. It says when
they saw in verse 10 that the star had stopped, they rejoiced
with exceeding great joy. And I can see them being so excited
and so nervous to go knock on that door. Just overcome. But they go and knock. I can
see them knocking on the door and I can see Joseph answering
the door and I can see them saying to him, sir, I know you don't
know us. Well, we've been following this
star. We have been following this messenger of light that
has been pointing us to this place all this time. It has been
pointing us to this one place and we have followed this star
all the way from the East country. And the reason we've come here
is because it was told to us that an eternal savior would
be born right here, right now. And sir, all we want to do is
we just want to come in and bow down before him and worship him. That's all we want to do. And
I can envision Joseph leading them saying, yeah, come on in.
We were told the same thing. Come on in. I can see Joseph
leading them to where the Lord was. And the moment they laid
eyes on him, they knew who they were looking at. They knew exactly
who they were looking at. And I can see them without saying
one word, bending their knee, going down to the ground, and
in the quietness of their soul, thanking God for allowing them
to see what they're seeing. And allowing them to enter into
what they're entering into. I imagine every one of them being
speechless. I don't envision a lot of conversation
in that house at that moment. I envision them being absolutely
speechless and one by one, they lay their gifts at His feet. One by one, they cast their all
upon Him. And being filled with the thrill
of hope, knowing who that is and realizing He came. He's here. He fulfilled the promise. Being
filled with the thrill of hope, those weary men rejoiced, and
then they go home another way. Now, this is what I want us to
consider for just a moment. I want us to realize just how
blessed those men were. I want us to enter in for just
one moment to the fact that those men were counted among the most
blessed men in all the world. Those were the most blessed people
this world has ever known just to be told about him. You know, that they, that star
could have appeared to anyone and just to be told about him,
just in the fact that they were selected to be told about him.
And in the fact that they were given faith to believe what they
were told. And they didn't stand there and
watch the star leave and say, well, I got work to do right
here. Can't quit my job. Just in the fact that they were
given a desire to leave all and to follow the messenger of light
to seek him. Oh, how blessed they were to
seek him. You know how blessed they were
to find him and how blessed they were in the fact that they knocked
and it was opened to them. And they were allowed the privilege
of seeing the savior and casting their all upon him. Oh, how blessed they were. How
blessed they were. Just like another man here in
the scripture named Simeon and some other men who were shepherds. If you turn with me over to Luke
chapter two, these other men were given the same privilege. Luke chapter two, verse six. It says, and so it was that while
they were there, the days were accomplished that she should
be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn
son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came unto them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth,
peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven. The shepherds said one
to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing
which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto
us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and
the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they
made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And oh, how blessed
every soul is who can do that same thing. Glorify and praise
God for everything that has been told to them from this word concerning
their Lord and Savior. Oh, how blessed. Look at verse
21. It says, and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising
of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of
the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days
of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished,
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As
it is written in the law of the Lord, every bale that openeth
the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice
according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair
of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was
a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man
was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ." Now you talk about a blessed man. What if
that was revealed to you? What if that was revealed to
you? What if God's Holy Spirit revealed to you that you would
not see death before you had seen the Lord's Christ? Would you consider yourself to
be a blessed person? If before you left this world,
the Holy Heavenly Spirit of God Almighty, I'm talking about God
in the Spirit, If He came to you and revealed to you, if He
pointed you to and showed you God manifest in the flesh, would
you consider yourself to be a blessed person? If you had the ability in this
life on earth, before you left it, to bend your knee and bow
to and call upon and worship the Lord of glory, would you
consider yourself to be a blessed person? If God has revealed who Christ
truly is to us, we are. He has, and we are. If we have seen Christ for who
He truly is, oh, how blessed we are. Every child of God, every
single child of God will be allowed the honor and the privilege of
experiencing what these wise men experienced and what these
shepherds experienced and what Simeon experienced. Every child
of God, before he leaves this world, by faith, With his eyes
of faith, we'll see the Lord's Christ. Every single one. Everyone will bow before. Everyone will lay hold of. Everyone will worship. the Lord's
Christ. Every child of God will experience
this right here. Verse 26, Luke 2, verse 26. It was revealed unto Simeon by
the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him after the custom of the law, then took Simeon the
Lord Jesus Christ up in his arms. Mary came in holding this child
and Simeon said to her, may I hold your child for a moment? And
he took him up in his arms and he blessed God. And he said,
Lord, I can die in peace now. Now let us thou thy servant depart
in peace. according to thy word. Now I
can leave this world. Now I can die in peace. Verse
30, he said, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen your salvation, not
mine, not anybody else's. I've seen yours. Mine eyes have
seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Verse 30, mine eyes
have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the
face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the
glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them
and said unto Mary his mother, behold, this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel. He said, because
of a fall into sin, This child has been set by God to raise
them again. set for the fall and rising again
of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against.
Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And there was one Anna,
a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser. She was of great age and had
lived with an husband seven years from her virginity. And she was
a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not
from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night
and day. And she coming in that instant
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had
performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they
returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth." Now God
has selected a particular people to be blessed in seeing the Christ
for who he is. What I want us to see is if God
has allowed us to be among those people. Are we blessed of the
Lord? Have we seen the Christ? Have we seen the Christ? Have
we seen God's salvation? God's provided salvation. Without
the revelation of God's Holy Spirit, we read things like this,
and you hear that the Holy Spirit of God Almighty came and revealed
this to a person. Well, that's what He does to
every one of His people. Without the revelation of the
Holy Spirit, the world can only see Him as the world sees Him.
It's all the world can do. But when the Spirit reveals Him
to the blessed, the blessed ones, they see Him as He is. Now, are
we among the blessed? Who did those wise men see? And
those shepherds, who did they see? Who was Simeon holding? What think we of Christ? What think we of Christ? Who
is he? Who is he? Have we been allowed
the privilege of bowing the knee and casting our all? on the Holy
One of God, the Holy One of God. Are we among the world or are
we among the blessed? That's our question. Listen to these scriptures, all
right? Isaiah 54 verse 5 says, for thy
maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name
and thy redeemer. The Holy One of Israel, the God
of the whole earth shall He be called. He said, the One who
made you is the One who married you. What's His name? The Lord of hosts. What's His
name? Thy Redeemer. The One who redeemed
you, the very One who hung on that cross to redeem you. What's
his name? His name is the Holy One of Israel.
You remember when those devils said to our Lord, they said,
have you come to torment us? We know who you are, the Holy
One of Israel. We know that's who you are. What
is his name? The God of the whole earth shall
he be called. Have we been allowed to see that? Don't turn to this, but in Isaiah
45, he said, I am the Lord and there is no God else beside me. I am a just God and a savior. I'm both the just God and the
savior. I'm both. Have we been allowed
to bend the knee to that? John 1 verse 1 says, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 14 says, and the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. 1 Timothy 3, 16 says, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. He was justified in the Spirit,
He was seen of angels. He was preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Have
we been allowed the privilege of casting our all on that? If
so, we're blessed people. If we've been allowed to come
to that, if we have been drawn to Him, we're a blessed people. All right, now with that, listen
to this. I'm not one to call out names,
so I'm not going to, but a dear sister sent me this. And this
is just wonderful. All right, this is wonderful.
Have we seen who this is? Have we ever seen God's Christ?
Have we ever seen God's salvation? Thus it was written of this God
manifest in the flesh, all right? Genesis 3 told us of this woman's
seed who would come for the purpose of having his heel bruised. Exodus told us of the Passover
lamb. And God said, when I see the
blood of that lamb, I'm gonna pass over my people. Job cried, I know that my Redeemer
liveth and that He's coming. In some latter days, He's gonna
stand on this earth and He's gonna accomplish something for
me. David cried, blot out my transgressions. I'm crying to
you. Isaiah cried, bear our sins and
carry our iniquities. Call this God our Savior. Call this just and holy God our
Savior because He is going to accomplish something. And the
angels told those shepherds, we just read about, this shall
be a sign to you. You're gonna find this child.
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Now, this
is a historical account. I don't know who wrote this,
but this is a historical account of something that was commonly
performed in ancient Israel. This was a common practice back
in ancient Israel. It says, mangers were feeding
troughs. And in ancient Israel, they were
made of stone. And there was a picture of one. It looked like a little canoe,
little small carved out stone. All right, so mangers were feeding
troughs. And in ancient times, they were
made of stone. That is why priests who lived near to Bethlehem near
a hill known for raising sacrificial lambs would put lambs in them. Not all the lambs, just the ones
they thought were without blemish and suitable for the blood sacrifices
that took place twice a day. Sacrifices to cover sin. The
priest wanted to keep the lambs without bumps and bruises, so
they'd wrap them up tightly. They would swaddle them, wrapping
them in cloths like precious and terribly fragile bottles
of wine. And they'd lay them in a manger. There was only a small group
of people who would understand this practice and its significance besides the priest. And that
small group of people who understood that practice were the shepherds
who were over the flock of sacrificial lambs. And they were the very ones who
heard the words You are going to find a baby, not an actual
lamb. You're going to find a baby wrapped
in cloths, swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Those shepherds knew what the
cloths and the manger meant. And they said, this will be a
signed, a sign to you. And it was, it wouldn't have
been a sign to many, but to them, most definitely. And this sign
was staggering. The long expected King wasn't
headed to a palace. They immediately knew he was
headed to a sacrifice. And they knew what that sacrifice
meant. It meant peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners
reconciled. In the Lord who came, the world
sees a baby. The blessed see a sacrifice. A sent sacrifice that willingly
came down. The world just sees a man, the
blessed see God, the God man. The world sees one who at that
moment was born into a beginning. The blessed see one who at that
moment was born the ancient of days who had no beginning. The
world sees one who came to give his example. The blessed see
one who came to give his blood. He said, for this cause came
I into the world. The world sees one who came to
try and is still trying. The blessed see the one who came
to accomplish and he finished it. The world sees the one who
showed us the way and the blessed see the one who is the way. The
world sees him to be most of our salvation and the blessed
see him to be all of our salvation. Now, who do we see when we look
at him? When we look at this one who
came, who do we see? What think we of Christ? If in our hearts we honestly,
truly do bow to Him, when you see that baby wrapped in those
clothes, laying in that manger, knowing what that means, if we
truly do bow to Him and worship Him for that, and cast our all
upon that, then we're a blessed people, blessed of God. And in seeing what the Holy Spirit
of God has revealed to us, after we see it, we can go on our way
rejoicing, glorifying and praising God. However long it did take
for those wise men to seek the Lord before they found Him, After
they saw Him and they bowed to Him and worshiped Him, they had
to travel all the way back home. However long it took them to
get there, they had to travel all the way back home. And I've
thought about this before. You think about their conversation
on the way back home. You think about that conversation,
that rejoicing. You know they had a pep in their
step as they were leaving that place. And that's how it is for
all of the blessed. All of the blessed are right
now traveling home. We've seen him, haven't we? And
we are right now traveling home. And because we have seen him,
it makes for some excellent conversation. When the blessed get together,
all they want to talk about is him. That's it. Who he is, what
he did. And every time we do, it puts
a pep in our step. Glorifying and praising God,
don't we thank God for the things that we have seen and heard concerning
Him? Thank God for calling us, leading
us to Christ, revealing Him to us, giving us a heart to bow
and to worship and to cast our all upon Him. Thank God for His
unspeakable gift. Oh, that child laying in that
manger. Who that was, what that meant. Thank God for His unspeakable
gift. His birth, His life, His death,
His resurrection. Thank God we bow to Him. We worship Him. Oh, come let
us adore Him. Christ our Lord. We're gonna
sing that together. Let's all stand.