Turn back to Matthew chapter
2. I was reading this portion of
Scripture. I've actually been reading it
for the last couple of weeks. And when I read the Scripture
that I'm going to preach from, My prayer is that the Lord will
give me the message that's in this portion of scripture, the
message he would have me to give you. And the one thing that stood
out to me in reading this was the providence of God in the
life of his son and of his sons and in the fulfilling of scripture.
Did you notice, and I'll point it out as I go along, three times something happened and it fulfilled
the scripture. The scripture, it says, was fulfilled. Nothing happens by chance. Nothing. You are not lucky. I was sitting in a barbershop
one time getting my hair cut. This sign's probably been everywhere.
But it had a lost dog. Blind. Had one leg cut off. It was a
three-legged dog. And it went by the name of Lucky.
I thought, that's about right. You know. Every time I think
of it, they had a picture of that dog. I'd like to put that right up
here on the front of this pulpit. There's your Lucky, right there.
It's like a rabbit's foot. They call him Lucky Rabbit Foot.
What a lucky for that rabbit. What was it? He's got a missing
foot. Nothing happens by chance. Everything
in heaven and earth happens according to
the will and purpose of God. Everything. Everything. God did not create this world,
turn it loose to see what would happen. God purposed Everything from
beginning to end. Everything. Every person here
this morning, you are here on purpose. Every person. God has purposed the end from
the beginning. He's not designing this thing
as we go along. It's already finished. It's purposed,
that's who God is. Turn over to Isaiah 46. Look in verse nine. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. There is nothing to be compared
to God at all. Declaring the end from the beginning. and from ancient times to things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all My pleasure. That's exactly what's going on
right now. That's exactly what's going on.
God's counsel is being done, and God's pleasure is being done.
Listen, calling a ravenous bird from the east, The man that executes
my counsel. He probably doesn't even know
it. There are men, there are leaders out there right now executing
God's counsel and they don't even have a clue of what they're
doing. They don't have a clue they're executing God's counsel. Cyrus, remember how God prophesied
of Cyrus before he was ever born? And then here comes a man named
Cyrus. executing my counsel from a far
country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. I will do it. Our God is infinitely
wise. He makes no mistakes. He has
all knowledge. And I thought about this after
I wrote this down. I wrote this down. There's nothing
he does not know. But it's really deeper than that.
It really goes deeper than that. Knowledge does not exist apart
from God. God is knowledge. He doesn't
just have knowledge. I have knowledge. I went to school. I got an education. I know some
things. I'm few, but I know some things.
I have some knowledge, but God is knowledge. Christ is said to be the wisdom
of God. It's not that he was just a wise
man. He's the wisdom. He is the embodiment of wisdom. He's the embodiment of knowledge.
The scripture says he is the key of knowledge. He's the key
of knowledge. And God has all power to bring
to pass all that He has purposed. The Scripture says none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what are you doing? None can do that. Now the way
God brings to pass all that He has purposed is by His providence. Everything that's going on right
now, I mean from the weather to everything that's happening
is by the providence of God. There is nothing that is not
providential. I know we say sometimes, boy,
that's providential. What is it? What is it? Everything is. Now what is providence? It is God making all things work
together for our good in His glory. Everything in this world,
everything in creation, everything in the universe is literally
working for our good, the good of God's people, the good of
God's elect, the good of every one of you that believe, everything.
Even the stars out there, I can't even see. Somehow, are working
for my good. That's just beyond comprehension. It is God using means to accomplish
His eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ before the
world began. It says in Ephesians 3.11, according
to His eternal purpose, which He purposed in Jesus Christ our
Lord." Everything God purposed has to do with Jesus Christ. Everything God purposed Jesus
Christ is at the very center of it, the very heart of it. Now in the rest of Chapter 2,
we will see God's providence at work in fulfilling the Scriptures
and in taking care of his son, that tender plant spoken of in
Isaiah, and in taking care of his sons and daughters providentially. First of all, God provides for
his own. We will see in verse 11 and 12 and 13 that Joseph and Mary did not realize it yet, but they
were about to go on the run. You would think, you would think
that God using Mary, using her womb to raise up his son in that
house, you would think that house would be so blessed, so rich,
and just, I mean, it would just be so great. But it wasn't like that, was
it? It wasn't like that. They're gonna have to leave their
home, pack their bags, leave their family, and they're gonna
have to go to Egypt. Egypt means house of bondage.
House of bondage. Now what are they gonna do? The Lord will provide. whatever situation He calls us
to, wherever He puts us, He will provide. God will provide. The Lord sends them wise men
to offer gifts that will provide for their journey. The Lord will providentially
provide for every one of His children. He's providing you,
provide you with a job, provide you with, I told my wife
once, I said, if I go before you, we kind of talk like that
now. If I go before you, I said, the
Lord will provide. I said, he's providing now. He uses me. I said, he's using
me to provide. I said, he'll provide. Me and Tom Hardy was talking
about that the other day. We was talking about the Lord providing.
Take care of us. Take care of us. The Lord will providentially
provide for us as we journey home. Abraham said, son, the
Lord will provide. His name is Jehovah Jireh. The
Lord will provide. He'll see to it. It says in Matthew
6, 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you. Try it, see if
it doesn't happen. Set your heart on the kingdom
of God first. Set your heart on Christ first.
Set your heart on things above first, and see if God doesn't
provide. It was absolutely necessary for
Joseph and Mary to go to Egypt. Why? The scripture's gotta be
fulfilled. That's why. Hosea 11.1, when Israel was a
child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. That verse of scripture applies
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So they've got to go down in
Egypt. They have to go down into the house of bondage. And here's another reason he
must go, he must be taken down to the house of bondage. That's
where I live. That's where I live. In the house of bondage. He must
identify with us in every way. Therefore, he's gotta go to the
house of bondage also. Christ must go there to fetch
us. To fetch us. All God's children
are called out of this house of bondage. And then we see that God is good
for His Word. It is written in Psalm 138, 2,
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for
thy lovingkindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified
thy word above thy name. God gave this prophecy, his word
on this back in the Old Testament. Is God good for his word? Can
we take God at his word? Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Also in fulfilling the scriptures,
it is a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the
Christ. This is the One whom the prophet
spoke of. All the Scriptures that spoke
of Him were fulfilled by Him. They were fulfilled by Him. Now God is a God of means, and
He has ordained the means to bring about His purpose. And
for that to happen, for him to go to Egypt. God is
going to use the wickedness of King Herod. The scripture says, the wrath
of man shall praise him, the rest he will restrain. So he's
going to use the wrath of this king who's scared to death that
someone has risen up and is going to steal his glory, steal his
fame, steal his power, steal his throne, not realizing that
he's on that throne by the very one he's trying to kill. Oh, the wisdom of God. The wisdom
of God. Herod is fearful of losing his
power and his glory as king. And here's what's... He's just
a child. By the time he grows up, he'll
be dead anyway. He didn't want his family to lose that. Because
Archelaus later on becomes the king because Herod dies and Archelaus
is his son. But he's fearful of losing his
power and glory. He wants to kill this king. Kill this king. And God uses
this to fulfill the Scriptures. Now, I don't want to overlook
something here in this. Let's not overlook the ministry
of angels in the providence of God. God uses the angels in taking
care of his elect. You and I can't see them, but
we have no idea how many times we've been, or trouble's been
averted by angels. We don't worship them, no more
than we worship each other. But we do recognize, we do recognize
them. Listen to Hebrews 1.14. Speaking of the angels, are they
not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation? He hath given his angels charge,
it says, over thee. Now the first reference to that
is Christ, but that also applies to us in Christ. He's given his
angels charge to protect and keep us, hedge us about. You remember when Elijah was
surrounded by the army, and there was a young man there with him,
and he was scared to death. Scared to death. And Elijah said,
Lord, open his eyes. And he opened his eyes and the
whole hillside was full of flaming chariots of angels. Does God still use them? Absolutely. Absolutely. You'd be shocked. I know I would. I would be and
you would be. if God would open our eyes and we could see what's
here this morning. That's not being psycho now,
I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. Now, what we're going to see
here next is trouble over Christ. You'd think that the Creator
that we looked at this morning has come into the world. God
has become incarnate. God is among us. You would think
we would rejoice. You'd think His creation would
rejoice. But not. Herod. Herod, it says in verse 16, Then
Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, See,
they were warned of an angel to not go back to him, and they
were obedient, and they went out another direction. And when
he found that out, he was exceedingly angry, wroth, and sent forth
and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem." Oh, can you
imagine what went on that day? This really happened. And not just in Bethlehem, he
wanted to make sure he got him, so he went to all the coast.
All the coast, they went into the homes. Went into the homes. And they'd grab a two-year-old
child or under, and they would kill it. Kill it. Two years old and under, according
to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. The
end was fulfilled. It wasn't just happening. There
was a purpose in it. Purpose. Then was fulfilled that
which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah
was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because
they are not. This prophecy brought trouble.
Christ no sooner comes into the world and the world turns on
him. Kings of the earth rise up against
him as soon as he's born. He's hunted down like an animal.
What we see here, we see the evil of the human heart. Herod
orders the death of these children, even out to the coast, way outside
where he's supposed to be born. How evil does one have to be
to do such a thing? How evil. Now someone might say,
it'd have been better if Christ had not been born there. On the surface, it looks that
way, doesn't it? On the surface. But what grace,
now listen to me, what grace God showed to those young children. Where do you think they are?
Where do you think they are? As hard as it was on their parents,
as heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, you know, can't even comprehend
a heart-wrenching experience like that. But where do you think
they are? David, remember David when God
was going to kill that child that was between him and Bathsheba?
And David wept and wept and wept, and then God took it. God took
it. And then after God took it, David
just stood up and you know, washed his face, and one of his generals
said, I don't understand this. You're weeping, weeping, and
the child dies, now you're happy. And David made this statement.
He cannot come to me, but I can go to him. David knew, he knew
where that child was. And then there's another scripture
that I think has some weight to it. The Lord says, suffer
the little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. I honestly
believe that for the most part, the kingdom of heaven is made
up that way. How many people do you meet out here that believe
the gospel? I mean, I'm 62 years old, I've not met many. Out there
in the workplace, out there, I've not met many that believe
the gospel of the grace of God. And God said there's gonna be
a people saved out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under
heaven. And I believe this is one of the ways it happens. That's not justifying Herod.
No, not at all. Herod meant it for evil, God
overturned it for good. That's what Joseph said to his
brethren. When they sold him, he said, you meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. Now here's the third prophecy
in Matthew 23, verse 23. And he came and dwelt in a city
called Nazareth. You see on the way back, God,
the angel told Joseph to go back. They have died who sought the
child's life. So on the way back, he hears
of Archelaus, Herod's son, and he was just as wicked as Herod.
At one time, he killed about nine, one writer said 9,000 people
when he was offering the sacrifice. He killed about 9,000. Wicked
man. So he was told of the angel,
warned of the angel, go down into Galilee, down to Nazareth.
You see how God providentially directing this, just totally
every step, directing, guiding. Everything about Christ was ordained
of God, purposed of God, and providentially brought to pass.
And so is everything about you. Everything. Now what can we learn
from this? And I'm gonna close. First of
all, the scriptures concerning Christ have been fulfilled. There's nothing else left. There's
nothing else left. To my knowledge, in reading the
Scriptures, the only thing left is when God saves that last sheep. When that last sheep is brought
into the fold, this thing will be wound up. And then we learn that everything
is providential. Everything's providential. And
God is making everything work together for your good. You say, it sure don't feel good.
Have you ever taken medicine that didn't taste good? I've
taken medicine. Back when I was just a kid, they
thought I had rheumatic fever. Apparently, I don't think I did,
but they thought I did. So one of the prescriptions that
the doctor gave to my mother to do was to make me eat beef
liver. Oh, listen, I can't tell you
how bad that made me sick. Just smelling it was just, but
it was good for me. It was good for me. I've taken
medicine that was good for me that tasted awful. And everything
God, God is making everything work together for our good, even
though it's not, it doesn't feel good. It is. And then we learn that the world
hates Jesus Christ. It hates his sovereign reign.
It hates his purpose, his person. It hates him. You want to find out, just tell
the truth. of who Jesus Christ is, what he did, who he did it
for, where he is now, and you'll find out. You'll find out. And then you'll find out, we
also learned this, having Christ brings trouble from the world.
In this world, you shall have tribulations. You shall have
them. And then last of all, don't drive
your tent stakes too deep. Don't drive them too deep. If
the gospel ever leaves here, you pack your bags and you go
where it is. When the cloud moves, you move. You move. All right.