Matthew chapter 2. Title of the message is Seeking Christ for the Purpose
of Worship. Seeking the Lord Jesus Christ
for the purpose of worshiping him. Very few took notice of the birth
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One of the greatest events in
the history of this world, in the history of creation, went
mostly unnoticed. That is a witness to the depravity
of the human race. That when the God of creation,
the one who made us, all things were made by him and for him,
went mostly unnoticed. Our Creator came into this world,
and the world knew Him not. The world knew Him not. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and very few were aware of
it. And it's still the same today.
Very few Worship. And I mean worship. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Very few have truly bowed to
the King of kings and Lord of lords. Very few. There are many who confess to
believe on another Jesus, the one the Bible knows nothing of,
But the sovereign king, the sovereign potentate, the sovereign ruler,
very few worship. Very few. But there are some,
there's some here this morning, that worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And there were some in that day
that were made aware of his birth. The shepherds, who came at his
birth. We have Simeon and Anna. When
they saw him in the temple, Simeon said, now let thy servant depart. I have seen thy salvation. When
he was looking into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here these wise men, And that's gonna have our attention this
morning. These wise men seeking the Lord for the purpose of worship. Now in verse one, we have one
of the most profound statements in all the word of God. Jesus was born. That to me, I was reading over
that this week, that is one of the most profound statements
in all the Word of God. Jesus was born. The Word made flesh. Turn over to John chapter 1. The Gospel of John chapter 1. Verse 1, in the beginning was the Word,
and that's a capital W. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
and without Him was not anything made that was made. Nothing,
nothing exists that Jesus Christ did not make. Everything you
see in the heavens, in the universe, the untold, innumerable stars,
galaxies, everything on this earth was made by Jesus Christ,
everything. And in Him was life, and the
life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. Look down now in verse
14. And the Word, the same Word that
was in the beginning, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among,
walked among us." Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who is God,
walked among us. And we beheld His glory. The
apostles, the disciples beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full, full of grace and truth. Jesus was born. That's who was
born. This Jesus is God in human flesh. If you want to know who God is,
if you want to know what God is like, study Jesus Christ. There is no way of knowing who
the true and living God is apart from Jesus Christ. There is no
way of knowing except by Him, through Him. This is Emmanuel. God with us. It is written in 1 Timothy 3.16. Great is the mystery of godliness. God. God was manifested in the flesh. God was revealed in the flesh. And here we have it in verse
one of chapter two. Now, when Jesus was born. The birth of Jesus Christ is
the fulfilling of all the Old Testament pictures and types. All the lambs that were slain,
all those lambs that were offered, the tabernacle, the high priest,
we don't have those anymore. And the reason we do not have
those anymore is because they were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
We have all of that in Him. We have the reality of it in
Him. We don't have all these ceremonies
and all these types of pictures anymore, all these shadows. The
real has come. He's come. He's the fulfillment
of all the promises. All the promises. He's the fulfillment
of all the promise to Abraham. God promised that through Abraham
that his seed would come and all nations of the earth would
be blessed. And right now, all nations of the earth are being
blessed through the gospel. There are, here it is, there
are men and women in every nation, every tongue, every tribe that
God has saved some. God has saved some of every kindred,
tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven through this seed, this
seed of the woman, this seed that was promised to Abraham.
Here he is. Here he is. We are on Sermon Audio, and at
the end of each month, they give you a report. And we are listened
to in China. We are listened to in Africa.
I mean, you can go down through there and just name nations.
Germany, Korea, there was one in North Korea listening to us. So this message preached from
this pulpit, that's amazing. That's amazing. I have no doubt
that's one of the ways that God is using to spread the gospel
throughout this world. That's one of the ways. But He
is that promised seed. He's the promise to David. God
said He would raise up one to sit on His throne. Jesus Christ
is that one. He's that one. He's the promise
to Israel. As I read you, we are the circumcision. I am looking, every believer
in here, I'm looking at the true Israel of God. I'm looking at
the true Jews. Everyone who believes the gospel.
Circumcision, the scripture says, is that of the heart and not
of the flesh. You are the true Israel of God.
Everyone who believes the gospel makes up the true Israel of God.
And then his birth, the birth of Jesus Christ, was not only
fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures, but it was also a
miraculous birth. Born of a virgin, who ever heard
such a thing? Only God can do such a thing.
Only God. The sinful seed of Adam, the
sinful seed of this corrupt human race did not enter into his person.
He said, a body hast thou prepared me. The human nature, the body
of Jesus Christ, the human nature of Christ was begotten by the
Holy Spirit. And when He was born, He's the
only person born who knew no sin. Knew no sin. Now, what we have in verse 1
is the birth of our Savior. Brethren, we have a Savior. I
have good news this morning. I have good news for sinners.
We have a Savior, one who's able to save us from sin. One, listen,
one provided by God Almighty. God provided this Savior. Jesus
Christ is the lamb of God's providing. Isaac said to Abraham, he said,
Father, here's the wood and here's the fire, but where is the lamb?
And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. Now listen, God provided the
lamb and God provided himself as the lamb. God himself is the
lamb. That's who he is. I want you to turn over to Luke
chapter two. We have a savior. Luke chapter two. If you know anything about sin,
that's good news to you. In Luke 2, verse 9. Let me go to verse 8. 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 upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them. And they were sore afraid, and
the angel said unto them, Fear not, fear not, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,
people in every nation, to all people. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. A Savior
is born. A Savior for sinners. A refuge for sinners. One who
can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One who can save us from sin.
You have any sin? Brother, I don't just have sin,
I am sin. I'm sin from head to toe. Inside
and out. That's why David said in Psalm
51, wash me throughly, throughly. That means inside and out. Cleanse
me from all my iniquity. The gospel is good news to all
men of all nations, all men and women of all nations. Now, these wise men seek the
King of the Jews for the purpose of worshiping Him. Who are these
wise men? Well, they're called wise men,
but they were known as magicians. The magi, M-A-G-I, the magi. They were known as magicians,
sorcerer. They dealt with sorcery, like Simon Magus did. You say,
really? What were you when God saved
you? That was the first thought. When I looked at that, and I
was looking at the, they were magicians. The first thought
that hit my mind was, John, what were you when God saved you? Lost and undone. They were magicians. They were
known as astronomers. That's what they were known as. But I tell you what, they were
also this, Gentiles. Gentiles, people like me and
you. The Jews didn't think we had any part in it. The Jews
called us dogs. We were considered to be dogs.
The Gentiles were. And these men were Gentiles,
and they were coming to worship the king of the Jews and their
king, their king. The scripture says, those who
sat in darkness have seen a great light. there was a time that every one
of us sat in darkness. We were born in darkness, we
lived in darkness, we walked in darkness, and one day, and
I'm sure this happened with many of you who believe the gospel,
one day, you're sitting where you are, and you heard something. For the first time, you heard
the gospel. For the first time, you began to see. Well, the first
time you had light, you had understanding. You understood who you are, who
God is, and your need of Jesus Christ. You understood that. For years, you sat in darkness.
I know this from my own experience. For years, I just sat in darkness.
I didn't care whatsoever. I didn't give a flip about God.
And then one day, one day an interest was created. And one
day I began to have some understanding. I was in trouble. I was in trouble. And I understood my need of Christ. And I heard that scripture, come
to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. He that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Oh, that was good news that day.
That was good news that day. Those who sat in darkness have
seen a great light, and no doubt, and no doubt, they had heard
of him. And when they heard of him, they believed the message. You know, concerning those shepherds
that I just read to you about, it says, when they left, they
noised it abroad. They told everybody about it.
They told everybody, didn't they? People they told and they told.
Somehow these men heard about it. God sent them a messenger
and they heard about the king being born and they believed
the message. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And they believed it. And God
also, after they believed it, God gave them a star, a sign,
a star to follow. And they did. God gave Israel
a cloud to follow. What has God given us to follow? The gospel, His word, His faithful
minister. Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. And these men, walked in the
light they were given. And I say this to anyone here,
walk in the light that God has given you and He will give you
more light. Walk in the light you've been
given. You walk in the light you've been given and He'll give
you more light. He'll give you more light. And these wise men,
sought Him out. They sought Him out. They packed
their bags, put them on their camels, and just followed that
star. They just followed that star.
That's what they were told to do. Follow this star. I'm not
going to get into what this star was. I don't know. God gave them
a star to follow. And they followed it. I do know this, Jesus Christ
is the bright and morning star. I have no doubt that he's probably
that star. But I'm not gonna get into all that. That'll distract
us. But here's what they did. They
sought him out. They packed their bags. They
left their home to find and worship the king. That's what they did. You know, the scripture says
in Jeremiah 29, 13, he that seeks me with all his heart will find
me. No one ever finds Christ with
half heartedly. We are taught in the scriptures,
whatever we do to do with all our mind. And we are told to
seek the Lord with all our heart. And we would find him. And I
pray that God give me, God give you a heart to do that with. Because I naturally don't have
it. I don't naturally have it. And they come to Bethlehem now,
and they start asking the question, where is he? I love this question
they ask. Because they didn't put a question
mark on it. They said, where is he? that is born King of the
Jews. Where is he? Where is he? I can tell you where he is right
now. It's my responsibility to tell you where he is right now.
He's seated at God's right hand. He's seated at God's right hand. But they asked, where is he thinking? Thinking, no doubt, when they
walked into Jerusalem, into Bethlehem, when they walked into Bethlehem,
I have no doubt they thought, well, everybody will know. But
just ask anybody, they'll know where he's at. Nobody knew. Isn't that amazing? Nobody knew. Ask this one. It's like the lady in the Song
of Solomon. Have you seen him who my soul
loveth? Have you seen him? Tell me where
he is. And nobody knew. No one knew. That's sad, isn't it? He came
to his own people and his own people knew him not. They had
no clue what was going on. No clue. And their purpose for coming
here, listen, was to worship Him. That's why they came. To worship, not to get something
from Him. Not to even make a request. But to worship the King. That's the reason I wanted to
sing that song this morning. Oh, worship the King. We have
a King. We are under a theocracy. Jesus Christ is the King. Jesus
Christ rules and reigns over everything in this world, in
the world we can't even see. All principalities, all powers,
all authority is put under the dominion, the reign of Jesus
Christ, our King. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, and like the rivers of water, he turns it
whithersoever he will. That gives me great comfort to
know that the king of kings is on the throne. Things are not
just happening. He is orchestrating absolutely
everything that's going on. He's fulfilling the very purpose
of God Almighty from eternity past. He's fulfilling every decree,
calling out every sheep, calling them out. He knows his. He knows
them by name. I know my sheep by name. You have children, don't you?
You know their names? Well, so does God. So does God. He knows every one of them by
name. And it's a number, the scripture says, that no man can
number. No man can number. Jesus Christ, the King, deserves
our worship. He deserves our worship as God,
as our Savior, and as our King. Oh, worship the King. Why have
we come here this morning? Because it's Sunday morning. I hope that I have and you have
come with a purpose of worshiping the King of Heaven. I hope we
have come to worship King Jesus. That's why I hope we're here
this morning. If not, we've wasted our time. We've totally wasted
our time. What is it to worship the King
of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, it's to forsake all others. To truly worship Him is to forsake
everything, everyone else, every hope you have, except Him. Except Him. It's to worship Him
in spirit and in truth. That's why we are not having
ceremonies and hocus pocus going on here this morning. It's a
spiritual worship. It's a heart worship. Worship
begins in the heart. He that seeks me with all his
heart. It is a heart worship. God is spirit. And he that worships God must
worship him in spirit and in truth. then it's to give unto
Him the glory due unto His name. All honor, all glory in salvation,
in creation, in providence. We're to give all that glory
to Him. Everything's providential, you
know that, don't you? Not just the big things, not
just the obvious things. Everything is providential. Everything. It is to have no other rival
to him. Our Lord said this. He that loves
mother, father. Sister, brother, son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. But I tell you this, if you love
Jesus Christ supremely, you will love mother, daughter, sister,
brother, like you ought to. Like you ought to. Then it's to submit to Him
in all things. It is to submit, no matter how
hard the trial, no matter how hard the heartache, is to submit
to His divine, wise will in all things. In all things. Not my will, but thine be done. And that's just scratching the
surface of what it is to worship Him. Now in closing, the good
news of the gospel is not good news to everyone. It's not good
news to everyone. Herod, it says, when he heard
this, where is the king of the Jews born? It says, Herod and
all of Jerusalem were troubled. They were troubled at the news.
The very good news that you and I rejoice in, who believe, is
not good news to those who do not believe. It's not good news
to them. Herod saw Him as a threat to
His power and His glory. He saw Him as a threat. I see
Him as a Savior. I see Him as God, as King, as
Redeemer, as my all in all. That's the
way every believer here sees Him. But Herod didn't see Him
that way. And all of Jerusalem, it says,
was troubled, troubled. This is the way natural men see
Christ. They see Him as a threat to their
power. I'll be my own God. They see
Him as a threat to their way of life. Men love their sins. They love their sins. And they
see, now listen, they see salvation from sin as a negative. They
see it as giving up this, this, and I can't do this no more,
you know. But it's not until God saves
them that they see salvation in Christ as a positive. What
did I read to you out of Philippians? Paul said, I count all things
as what? Loss. what things were gained to me,
the things I loved, things I went after. He said, it's nothing
but dung. And that's putting it politely. Nothing but dung. But until that
happens, we see it as a threat to the things we love by nature,
which really ought to be our shame. Herod privately calls the wise
men with a purpose to find Christ and kill him. Kill him. He said, tell me where he's at
so I can come and worship him. Such is politicians. So I can come and worship him. His mind was to come and kill
him. But I am so glad that God knows
the hearts of all men. God knows every thought that
passes through every mind. He knows the intent of everything we set out to do. Everything. And God and the Lord
Jesus Christ rules and overrules everything that goes on. Everything. And if you'll notice, one thing
that I noticed when those wise men went in and spoke to Herod,
that star didn't stand over his house. It didn't stand over his house.
It wasn't until they left. See, he called them in for a
private meeting. It wasn't until they left that the star appeared
again to them. But while they were there, it
didn't shine. I tell you what, there's a, There's a lesson in that. Stay
out of those places where the gospel's not. Just stay out of
it. Let me close with verse 11. And when they were coming to
the house, they saw the young child. Some say he was about
two years old by this time. They saw Him with Mary and Mary,
His mother. And one thing I want to point
out here, they did not worship Mary and Christ. They worshiped Christ and Christ
alone. Christ and Christ alone. And
they fell down and they worshipped Him. They just fell down right where
He was at. Here he is, about two years old.
Here are these wise men, and they fall down before this two-year-old,
who is the king of glory, who is God. He's a two-year-old kid,
but he's also God. Who can comprehend such a thing?
And they worshiped him, and when they had opened their treasures,
they didn't come empty-handed. They presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I guess that's why they call
it three wise men, because there's three gifts. I don't know how
many wise men there were. It doesn't say. It doesn't say. But they offered gold, frankincense,
and myrrh. And here is the, let me make
this point. Here is the, Mercy of God. Because right after
this, after they leave, Herod seeks to kill this. He's upset
because he feels like he's been duped by these wise men. So he
seeks to kill them. So God tells, an angel appears
to Joseph and tells him to go to Egypt. Because Herod seeks
to kill him. And God, in bringing these wise
men to worship Him, provides for their journey. Gold, frankincense
and myrrh, all that they'll need while they're down there in Egypt,
God gives it to them. Provides for them. Doesn't our
Lord provide? He provides everything we need.
Everything that we need to stand in His presence, He has provided
for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. And everything we need as we
go through this life, He's provided. Has anything failed? That's what
Joshua said. Has anything failed of all that
the Lord has promised? He's provided. And He provided
for them. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh
took care of them. But wise men, wise men seek the
Lord for the purpose of worship. And I pray God make us wise men
and enable us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.