Matthew chapter 2 beginning at
verse 13. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
has many names and many titles throughout the scripture that identify him and distinguish
him as the Lord of glory, as the savior of sinners, as the
peacemaker between God and sinners. Every book of the Bible portrays
him in all the various facets and ways that he is such a glorious,
valuable, necessary savior to his people. And one of the names
that we see him called is the Nazarene. Jesus the Nazarene. And why is that significant?
How did he get this name? Why is that important? And so
I entitled this message, Jesus Christ the Nazarene, because
this passage here tells us why. Understand first of all, the
Jews, and I started the message off this way on your paper, even
though most of the Jews looked for a Messiah, Now this is something
that distinguishes the Jews from other religions. They looked
for a messiah. The word messiah means the anointed
one, the promised one, to be the savior of the people. And
so most of the Jews, if not all of them, looked for a messiah. But generally, they were ignorant
of the details that described the kind of messiah that was
to come. And you know, we've talked about this before, the
Jews look for a sort of a military-like Messiah who would ride in on
a white horse as a mighty conqueror to defeat all their enemies on
earth, especially Rome at this time, and set up his kingdom
on earth and rule the world through them on earth. And basically,
he would come and he would pat them on the back and say, well
done people, y'all deserve this, and now you're the rulers of
the world. And that's the kind of Messiah
they looked for. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one
and only Messiah, he is a mighty conqueror. But how did he conquer? What did he go through in order
to conquer the enemies? And who are the enemies? Sin,
Satan, the world, the flesh, all of that. He's the mighty
conqueror, the Bible says that. But he didn't come riding in
on a white horse with a sword and in a military-like fashion
and conquer all the kingdoms of this world and set up a kingdom
here on earth. In fact, he said, my kingdom
is not of this world. He came in a very humbling way,
a babe in a manger. That's where they feed animals. You know, like a barn or something
like that. And well, Isaiah described, I've got this in your lesson.
The Jews did not expect the true Messiah as described by the prophet
Isaiah in Isaiah 53, three. He's despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And you can go back
through Isaiah 53 and other passages to see how he came, that he didn't
come as a great military leader. Well, From the very beginning,
Satan set out to kill Jesus. And that's what he wanted to
do. And we saw that in the last lesson when he inspired Herod. To go after him Herod, you know,
you remember the wise men coming to Herod and they were seeking
the king of the Jews Herod in his Selfishness and his evil. He said well come back and tell
me where he is so I can go worship him. Well, he had no intent no
desire to worship him, but Satan inspired Herod to set out
to kill Jesus. That's what he wanted to do because
Satan feared the one who was sent to do what? To crush his
head. Remember back in Genesis 3, 15? The seed of woman, he'll bruise
your head. You'll bruise his heel, but he'll
bruise your head. He'll crush your head. And as
God manifest in the flesh, Christ came. to accomplish salvation
for his people by establishing the only righteousness that would
overturn what Satan had brought in as an instrument of condemnation. So he, you know when Christ,
when he talked about his death, for example, in John chapter
12, he said, he said, now is the time that he should be lifted
up. And he said, the prince of this world will be cast out.
That was Satan's defeat. Satan wanted to kill him, but
he didn't want him to go to the cross as a substitute, as a surety,
as a savior. So he wanted to defeat that purpose.
And you remember when Peter and the apostles, after Christ revealed
himself to them, you remember when he asked them, who do men
say that I am? And then he said, who do you say that I am? Peter
said, thou art the Christ, the son of God. And Christ said,
blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my father which is in heaven. And then he began
to instruct him how he was to go to Jerusalem and how he was
to die. And Peter said, not so. He said,
no, no, you can't go and die. You remember what Christ told
Peter then? He said, get thee behind me,
Satan. Because what Peter was doing
was a satanic spirit, trying to stop the Lord of Glory from
going to the cross. Well, that's why he came here
for. And so his life on earth, his death, his burial, his resurrection
that people are talking about today. which is fine if you understand
what it means. What does it mean? It was for
the purpose of fulfilling all righteousness on behalf of His
people to enable God to be just and justify. That righteousness
which justifies us and which Satan can find no flaw in, and
his accusations hit the dirt because they cannot reach us.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. You see, Satan's work is defeated,
totally defeated by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. And then that life-giving power,
that Christ has for his people. And he said, the gates of hell
cannot prevail against it. Well, look at Matthew chapter
two. Look at verse 13. It says, and when they were departed,
now this was the wise men, they departed. Behold, the angel of
the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise and
take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. and
be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the
young child to destroy him. Now this is one of several times
that the Lord appeared to people in a dream. Joseph, he appeared
several times. He appeared in a dream. And I've
got in your lesson here how, need to understand that that
was a common way of revelation back then during the Old Testament.
And realize that we're still in the Old Testament times now,
even though this is the New Testament literature, The time is still
in the Old Testament because the Old Testament did not end
until Christ died. And that's when that reformation
came about. But up until the time through
the Old Testament and then even through much of the early days
of the New Testament, until the time of the completed revelation
of God in the written word, God revealed himself in visions,
in dreams, in visitations, angelic visits, all until the inspired
word, which speaks of the incarnate word. Christ is the living word,
he's the eternal word, he's the incarnate word, and he's the
subject of the written word. When these things began to be
written down in scripture, until that time was completed, the
completed scripture, God revealed himself that way. And so we have
the completed revelation of God in the written word. And that's
why we study the Bible. And I know there's been many
translations and all of that, but that's why we have to be
students of the word. But anybody today who claims
to have a vision from the Lord or a word from the Lord that
is not consistent with what has already been revealed, you can
mark it down, they're a false prophet. Because anything that
God reveals to his people, it's already been written down in
his word. And he's just, he'll give us
new life. One old preacher said it this
way, he said, there's no new revelation. God's already revealed
all he's gonna reveal. From Genesis to Revelation. But there can be new light. And
I've gotten that, many of you have gotten that. You know, you
study the scriptures, and God sheds some light on what he's
already revealed. He teaches, you know, I didn't
see that before. But there it is, and we learn. We grow in
grace and in knowledge of Christ. But understand that those who
claim to have revelations from God that are extra-biblical,
that means outside of, or contrary to the written word, are false
witnesses, and they can't be trusted. Joseph Smith? It's a
false prophet. Any of those, and we can name
others, you know. He wrote his own Bible, and he
says this Bible's true, but this is extra. No, it's not. No, it's not. In fact, of course,
their religion is a religion of work, so that's opposed to
grace. So anytime you see that, just
mark it off. It's no good. Our hope of salvation. is in the written word of God
as revealed by the power of the Spirit. And of course we know
the Spirit of God has to reveal what God's revealed in his written
word. People read their Bibles today,
they memorize it, they study it. False preachers write commentaries
on it. But until the Holy Spirit reveals
what this book is about, and it's a book of Christ, In the
book that I wrote on rightly dividing the word of truth, the
first rule of interpretation is the rule of Jesus Christ crucified,
risen, and risen from the dead. It's the gospel. So understand
that. Well, notice here too in verse
13, the angel of the Lord referred to Jesus and Mary as the young
child and his mother. And of course we know that Mary
was the mother, the human mother, of the humanity of Christ. Jesus
Christ always has been the Son of God, the eternal Son of God,
eternal God, and he's never changed. But that human body that was
formed in her womb by the Holy Spirit, she was the mother of
that human body, that humanity that's united, with his deity. So he is God and man in the flesh. He's manifest in the flesh and
everything about this, every detail, was predetermined by
Almighty God. Everything. And it was prophesied. Look back at verse 13. He says,
he said, Arise and take the young child and his mother, flee into
Egypt. And that's part of a prophecy
I believe it's in Hosea chapter 11, where out of Egypt he will
be called. And he says, and be thou there
until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child
to destroy him. Look at verse 14. When he arose,
he took the young child and his mother by night and departed
into Egypt. And he was there until the death of Herod, that
it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the
prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. Yes, that's
Hosea 11 verse one. Now you see what's happening
here. The Holy Spirit is inspiring Matthew to weave these details
in from the Old Testament to show that there's absolutely
no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, that one born in Bethlehem, that
he is the one and only true Messiah, Son of God. He is the Lord of
glory. He is Jesus, the Lord our salvation. He is Emmanuel. And so everything
here is set in stone by the predeterminate, predestinating counsel and will
and power and purpose of Almighty God. And not one second of it
can be altered by what man does. What Herod did here didn't change
a thing. It was all set in stone. God's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. Now think about that. Doesn't
that just kind of just float your boat a little bit on that? I know, listen, I've learned
this over the years. It's been brought to my attention
in the last years that, you know, I'm ashamed of the things that
I've done that are wrong, but I can't mess God's purpose up.
It's going to take place. And I love that. And it's for
his glory and the good of his people. So all of this, according
to the fulfillment of all the prophecies to which Matthew refers,
prove that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the only true Messiah. Nobody else fits this bill. We'll
look at verse 16. It says, then Herod, when he
saw that he was mocked of the wise men, in other words, they
repudiated him, they just sloughed him off, he was exceeding wroth,
exceeding angry, and he sent forth and slew all the children
that were in Bethlehem and in all the coast, the surrounding
areas thereof, from two years old and under, according to the
time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. What
an awful, awful sin. Killing all the male children. Well, it says all children, but
I believe it's all males. Two years old, old and under. And you say, and I say, you know,
what a decadent human being. And here's the thing, you know,
Herod's, he's operating out of his own evil desires. But all
of this is prophesied too. Every bit for the glory of God.
And you know, a lot of us, I put in your lesson, you know, we
think, well, we're incapable of things like that. The Bible teaches us that given
the right circumstances and the right position, we're all capable
of every known sin. And that's why we need salvation
by grace. That's why we need Christ's righteousness
and not our own. But you think about it, if you
want to describe total depravity, yeah, you can go to things like
this, Herod doing this. That's the act of a totally depraved
mind. There's no doubt about that.
But if you really want to describe total depravity in its essence,
the sinfulness of man in its essence, Go to passages like
Romans 3, 10 through 12. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. There's none
that seeketh after God. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. The preaching
of the cross is foolishness to them that perish. Total depravity
can only be seen in its reality as we see people naturally responding
to the preaching of the glory of God in Christ. How do you
respond to that? And we know if you respond positively,
that's the glory of God, that's the grace and power of God. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. That's total depravity. So yes,
we look at things like this, like King Herod, we look at things
like Adolf Hitler, killing so many people out of their evil
heart, and that is total depravity. But understand that all of us
by nature, are totally depraved. Sinners who need salvation by
grace and not by works. Well listen to this, look at
verse 17. It says, now out of this awful, depraved act, it
says in verse 17, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy,
that's Jeremiah, the prophet, and it's in Jeremiah 31, saying,
in Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentations and weeping and
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not
be comforted because they are not. Now what is that all about? Well, this evil act, as I said,
was a fulfillment of prophecy. And in your lesson, and I'm gonna
stick close to the lesson here because I want you to see what's
happening here. How the Holy Spirit is inspiring
Matthew to intricately weave these facts together for the
purpose of showing that this Jesus is our Savior. And in scripture, Bethlehem,
the city of Bethlehem was first mentioned in the death of Rachel
back in Genesis 35. I know you can read all this,
but you remember when Rachel had the son Benjamin, and she
named him Ben-oni, or Oni, and that means son of my sorrow.
She died in childbirth, and she named him Ben-oni, or Ben-oni,
which means son of my sorrow. But Jacob changed the boy's name
to Benjamin, and that means son of my right hand. And both of
those names prophetically point to Christ, who was a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief, but who's now exalted to God's right hand,
a prince and a savior. So this is prophetic. And in
Jeremiah's prophecy, if you read that whole prophecy back in Jeremiah
31, God promised through the prophet
Israel hope. Now you remember what Jeremiah
was doing, he was prophesying telling them that they were going
to be punished and they were going to be in Babylon in captivity
for 70 years because of their sins but he gave them some hope. And it was the hope of a future
return to their land that was fulfilled prophetically, that
was fulfilled temporally in them being delivered from Babylon
and being brought back to their land. But it's fulfilled ultimately
and eternally in the salvation of spiritual Israel. God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Jacob and
Jeremiah, they associated Bethlehem with death and mourning, but
the Messiah's birth transformed it into a symbol of hope and
life. And that's what it is for us. It's a symbol of the hope
of salvation, eternal life by the Son of God. And so when he
talks about the weeping and the mourning Rachel for her children,
Matthew, He's inspired by the Spirit to include these statements
of voice heard in Rhema, weeping and loud lamentation to show
that the details of Christ's birth and his life and his ministry
and his death and his resurrection, they're all in harmony with the
Old Testament. This is all pre-planned, prepared
by God for the salvation of his people. And then he was brought
out of Egypt, and then look at verse 19. He says, but when Herod
was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt. Now here's appearing in a dream
again. And he told Joseph, while Joseph
was in Egypt, saying, arise and take the young child and his
mother and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which
sought the young child's life. And he rose and he took the child
and his mother and came into the land of Egypt. He came out
of Egypt. What does Egypt symbolize? Bondage. And here he comes out of Egypt.
What did God do when he brought the children of Israel, Hebrew
children, out of Egypt through Moses? He delivered them. What
does he do when he brings us out of sin and depravity? He brings us out of bondage,
out of darkness, out of that depravity. I know we're still
sinners now, but we're sinners saved by grace. We've been brought
out of, as it were, Egypt. in that sense. And Joseph obeyed
the Lord. But look at verse 22. But when
he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father
Herod, he was afraid to go there, notwithstanding being warned
of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. Now Archelaus was Herod's son
and Archelaus was just as evil or more evil than his father.
So the angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph, don't go back to Bethlehem,
or to Judea, but go into Galilee. And he says in verse 23, and
he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. Well, You know something about
different areas that people live in and how people think of this
area or that area or something like that. You remember when
Christ came on the scene and he came upon Andrew, or I think
it was Andrew's brother who came to him and said, we have found
him, whom the Lord said, the Messiah, and come out of Nazareth. And you remember, I think it
was Andrew, John one, you all check me out on that. I may be
wrong on who it was. But he said, can anything good come out of
Nazareth? There might be areas of the country
we might say today, can anything good come out of that place?
Well, I don't want to live there. And that's the way Galilee was. Galilee was known for people
who were Jews mixed with Gentiles. A good, self-respecting Jew just
didn't want to live there, out of Galilee. And Nazareth was
known for people who were poor, and decrepit, all of those things,
you know. So it's associated, I've got
in your lesson here, it's associated with the Hebrew word netzer,
which signifies a branch or a sprout. And so think about how that all
applies to Christ in his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection.
He's known as the branch of Jesse, the sprout, the branch of David,
come out of David. And he was one, like we said,
quoted in Isaiah 53, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,
poverty, all of that. He wasn't born as this military
king, rich and powerful, who comes down on a white horse and
slays all the enemy. He came out of Nazareth. Jesus
the Nazarene. We're gonna sing a hymn this
morning. My Savior's love, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Nazarene. And what does that Nazarene say
about him? It all fits perfectly with the
glorious person and finished work of Christ who came to this
rotten world and grew up in this as a root out of a dry ground
Again, a man of sorrows. And all of this shows that he
himself came out of weakness to accomplish what he did for
his people. To conquer. He is the mighty
conqueror. But he didn't come down out of
the sky that way. He came out of the manger. Came
out of the womb of the virgin. And He, through His obedience
unto death, His fulfillment of all righteousness, He conquered
sin, He conquered Satan, He conquered the law, He conquered the flesh. And He now, the resurrected,
the risen Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us, and He'll bring us to glory. Amen. All right.