Turn back to Matthew chapter
2. Matthew chapter 2. As we heard this morning already,
nothing, absolutely nothing happens haphazardly
by accident. And I'm sure glad of that. I'm sure glad of that. is infinitely wise. There's no
measure to God's wisdom. God is a God of knowledge. He
knows all things. He does not learn anything. You and I learn. He knows all
things. And He has all power to execute
His will. Therefore all things are ordained
by Him. All things are ordained by our
God. Not a God, our God, our Father. This is what gives us great comfort.
Our God, David said, our God is the God of salvation. Our God is the God of salvation.
He's not one among many gods, He's God. And thank God we know
that. Thank God he's given us an understanding
of who he is and enabled us to believe and enabled us to worship
him this morning, to enable us to worship him, to gather as
his family in spirit and in truth. What a blessing. What a great
blessing. Satan has to get God's permission. He has to have his permission
to touch any of his children. to even look in their direction.
He has to have His permission. He had to go to God before he
could touch Job. He had to get God's direct permission
to do anything. And he couldn't do anything more
than what God allowed him to do. And if he allows Satan to touch
us, good will come out of it. I thought when you started teaching
this morning, I thought this is the same message. It's the
same message. I hope we say the same thing
all the time. We better. We better say the same thing
all the time. When I stand up here, you can
say, well, Frank said that. Henry said that. You know, what
we are saying now, we've heard for years. The message has not
changed. And the reason the message does
not change is because God does not change. And the way God saves
sinners does not change. And so we never have to worry
about a change. Never. Now we're going to see here in
verse 11, then we'll look down through these verses for a little
while. How God provides, first of all, for His own. Joseph and
Mary don't realize it yet, but because of Christ, because of
that child, because of their possession of Him, They're going
to be on the run. Their life is going to be turned
upside down. It's not going to be the same
anymore. It's not going to be the same. And God brings these
wise men here to recognize and to worship the king. This child
that is born king, not born to be a king, he's born king. He
came as a king. You know, Prince William and
them have to wait for Queen Elizabeth says, you have to wait for them
to die so they can become a king. He doesn't have to wait for anybody
to die to become a king. He was born a king. Born a king. And so God sends these wise men
and they bring these gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And
little do they know at this particular time that these gifts are going
to be used for a journey that they are going to take. They're
going to have to flee their home. But the Lord will provide. The
Lord will provide. Having Christ, I wrote down here
a little while ago, having Christ changes everything. It changes
everything. Now God warns these wise men. They came, they went to Herod,
or Herod called them in. They didn't go to him. He called
them in to find out about this king. He wanted to destroy this
king who he felt was a threat to his throne. Not realizing
that the king of kings is the one who put him there. And these
wise men go back and they follow that star and it rests over this
house where the child is. And they go in and worship him.
And the Lord warns them in a dream, don't you go back to Herod. Don't
go back to Herod. You go another way. You obey
me, not Herod. Herod has evil intentions. So
God gives them a warning in a dream. But you know, I thought last
night, looking over this again, we have something better than
that, better than what I call a dream, what here is a dream.
We have the whole Word of God. How many warnings do we have
from Genesis to Revelation? We have the whole Word of God.
to look at, to instruct us, to direct our steps. As the psalmist
said, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. Wherewith shall
a young man, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by
taking heed thereto to thy word. We have the whole word of God
now. Our troubles would be less if
we are guided by His Word. We are guided by His Word. Study
it. You know, we have to study it
to know it. I wrote this last night in parenthesis. We have
to study it to know it. The Holy Spirit will not bring
Scripture to your mind, to your remembrance, that you don't know. You know, He brought things to
the remembrance of the disciples when they walked with the Lord,
but it was what the Lord had told them. To know it, you have to
study it. And then you'll be guided by
it. Oh, how important the Word of God is. But God warns these
men by an angel. Angels were busy. And they are
busy. And they're real. They have a
real ministry. They have a real ministry. They are said in Hebrews 1 to
be ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who are
heirs of salvation. We're not walking out here by
ourselves. The angel of the Lord what? Encampeth round about them
that fear Him. Look over Psalm 34. I believe
that's where that is. This is why when you study the
Word, you can find so much comfort in it in times of trouble. It's
relevant to everything we'll ever face. In verse 7, look in
verse 6, this poor man cried, And the Lord heard him and saved
him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth.
He doesn't just visit. We don't just get in a visitation. He encampeth round about them
that fear him. And delivereth them. He encampeth. I tell you what, you're well
protected. We are well protected. Well protected. And they were
busy, these angels, were busy in that day watching over that
tender plant that Isaiah speaks of. Watching over Him. But they're busy today. They're
also busy today. They have a ministry. They still
have a ministry watching over His children, watching over His
sons and daughters. Although God does not speak to
us by angels, He speaks to us by His Word. We have His Word. We have His Word, we have His
Spirit, and we have pastors and teachers. That's how He speaks
to us. But you know that angels also
attend the preaching of the Gospel. Look over in 1 Peter. Over here
in 1 Peter. Over here in 1 Peter 1. Let's
see if I wrote the right verse down. 1 Peter 1. unto whom it
was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister
the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into." They greatly desire to look into
the things that God has revealed to us through the gospel, and
they rejoice. Great rejoicing around the throne
of God by the angels when one sinner repents. There's great rejoicing. No envy.
No jealousy. Great rejoicing. The angels do
that. And then the angels here, they
counsel these wise men. And they counsel Joseph. They tell him to take the young
child and his mother. You notice here they mention
the young child first. Christ always has the preeminence. He's always first. They said
take the young child and his mother. He always has the preeminence. And flee into Egypt. Flee into
Egypt. Why would he do that? First of
all, to fulfill the scripture, because God said, out of Egypt
have I called my son. And God has called all his sons
out of Egypt, the land of darkness, the land of bondage. God's called
every one of his sons and daughters out of Egypt. He must walk where
I walk. He must live where I live. He
must experience what I experience. We truly, we truly have a high
priest that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
because he's been there. He's been there. He knows. He knows. He can be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities. And notice the command here.
He says to stay there until I bring thee word. You take the young
child as mother and you flee into Egypt. And do what? Stay there. Stay there. That's
hard work, isn't it? Waiting is hard work. The hardest thing for us to do
is to wait. But just remember who you're
waiting on. Now if you're waiting on flesh, you can get anxious. They might not show up. Probably
be late. But we're waiting on God. We're
waiting on the Lord. And He'll do just as He said
He would. So wait! And if we wait until He brings
His Word, everything will be well. Until He guides us. Until I bring thee what? Word.
Oh, His Word. Go right back to His Word, doesn't
it? Just wait until I bring thee Word. This is another prophecy fulfilled
here. And then it says here in verse 14 and 15. When He arose, He didn't question. He didn't
say, why Egypt? Joseph was an obedient man. He
believed God. He believed God. He was obedient.
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night.
He didn't wait for daylight. When he was told to do it, he
did it. And he took them by night and departed into Egypt and 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." Everything that our Lord did was a fulfilling
of Scripture. And it was so plain, so evident,
it was not hid. These were Old Testament Scriptures. It was years and years and years
before this happened. God said this was going to happen.
And it did. You can take God at His word.
It will happen just as He said. It was foretold by God that he
would call his son out of Egypt. The path that Christ traveled
was paved with prophecy, paved with prophecy. Then trouble shows up here. Here's
the reason they've got to flee. Here's the reason Joseph has
to take a young child and his mother and flee is because of
this young child. No one who has Christ will be
without trouble. Persecution is going to follow the gospel.
It's going to follow wherever Christ is, wherever his people
is. Persecution is going to follow. Spurgeon said this, no one can
serve God and expect an easy time of it. It's just not going
to happen. So verse 16, Herod is angry. He's riled. He's very angry because
he thinks he thinks he's been mocked. So here's arrogance. Here's arrogance. Arrogant men
imagine insults that don't exist. He thinks he's been mocked. So
he says, I'm going to take care of this matter. And I want you
to note what his arrogance leads to. He's going to slay, murder. It's hard to say how many infants
were there. This is just unimaginable. This
is unimaginable cruelty. He's going to slay all the children
two years old and under in Bethlehem and the coast round about. He
said, I'm going to make sure. I'm going to make sure I get
him. He's the only one that survived. He's the only one that survived. Protected. God protected him. God's hand was on Him. That's
His Christ. That's our Redeemer. And it's
evident He's the Messiah because all the others were killed in
that area. All the others. How evil, how
wretched, how depraved must the human heart be? Have we ever
really seen... I know we've seen some things that are bad. I don't
think we've really seen the real... Here we have Calvary. We've seen
it. Right there is the worst display
of depravity ever that could have ever been displayed at Calvary. When men by their wicked hands
crucified the Son of God. That's the depth of depravity. But old Herod here, he says,
I'm going to kill this king. He was afraid of losing his crown.
He was afraid of losing his crown to the king, so he sought to
destroy him. I tell you what, we'd be glad
to cast our crowns at his feet, wouldn't we? Because he made
us glad. But old Herod, he said, I'm not
going to cast my crown down at his feet. I'm going to do away
with him. Catch him in his infancy. Catch
him in his infancy. He's going to try to destroy
him. But I tell you what, Herod is nothing more than an example
of man's opposition to Christ. He's just an example of all men
and women who have lost their opposition to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Outside of Christ, men and women
hate God and they hate His Christ. They hate Him by nature. And
Herod is just an example of that. The Lord came to save. I mean,
this king came to save. Men seek to destroy. The Lord
is merciful. Men are merciless. Total opposite. That's why we seek to destroy.
That's why human nature doesn't like God. Human nature is darkness.
God is light. And light reveals what's in the
darkness. And darkness doesn't want that. So it seeks to destroy
it. Now I know one might say, poor
Bethlehem and all the coast round about. My, poor Bethlehem. It would have been better. I know there are many who would
think this. It would have been better if
Christ had not been born there. On the surface it might look
like that. But oh what grace God had on
those children. Two years old. Look what they
didn't have to grow up under. Look at what they did not have
to deal with. The sin they didn't have to taste
of or eat of. They didn't go to be with the
Lord because they were innocent babies. That's not why. Because they were redeemed by
the grace of God the same way we are. Oh, I tell you, what grace God
had on those He took them home. He took them away from such a
terrible place. I know it's heartbreaking. It
would be heartbreaking for us for that to happen. I know that.
I'm not going to be insensitive to that. It would be. It'd be. But my, if you could just see
where they are, if you could just get a glimpse, just a glimpse
of where they are, who the king they worship, and not a Herod. They don't have to sit under
a Herod, just think of that. Never have to sit under a Herod,
but under the King of Kings, right off the bat. But now listen, this does not
lessen the evil that Herod did. This doesn't lessen the evil
at all, or the evil that men do and God brings good out of
that doesn't lessen the evil. Evil is evil, but good is good. God just overturns it. You quoted
it this morning when Joseph said, you meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. God meant it for good. If those
mothers and fathers, if they knew the grace of God, oh, if
they knew the grace of God, they would have found some comfort.
They would have found some comfort in this. The same comfort they
would have found when that child died, between him and Bathsheba. He says, he can't come to me,
but I can go to him. I'll see him again. Now, they
would have found some comfort in that. They could have found
some comfort. But this was another fulfilling
scripture. Out of Egypt have I called my son. And in Ramah,
was there a voice Heard, in verse 18, lamentation and weeping and
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, who would not
be comforted because they are not. That was a fulfilling scripture
over in Jeremiah 31, 5. Years before this happened, God
foretold this was going to happen. Which, you know, this gives me
also great encouragement that all this that God said would
happen concerning Christ has been fulfilled. But His return,
that's going to be fulfilled. All that we are going to enjoy.
You read the last chapter of Revelations. Those last two chapters.
That's going to happen. That's going to happen. Let the
intellectuals of this world laugh at us. They just get to laugh
for a little while. Because it's going to happen.
The fulfilling of prophecy is a great blessing for some, but
for some it's great trouble. Or some it was great trouble.
Those who do not believe will find the good news to be woeful
news in the end. Because the gospel is a savor
of life unto life to some and a savor of death unto death to
some. That's what the word of God says. Notice here how God's providence
overruled Herod's evil intentions. God sent his son away for a while.
God knew the heart of that man. He knows the heart of every man
and woman in this world. He knew the evil intentions of
this man. He knew him. He knew him. So he sent his son
away for a while. Hit him. He hit him from Satan's
rage. You know, he does the same for
us. He does the same for all his children. Your life is hid
with Christ in God. Your life cannot be touched.
It can't be touched. We may have to travel by night
to an unfamiliar place, a place like Egypt, but if God's there,
that's where we want to be. That's where He sends us. This old fallen world is nothing
but a land of darkness. The older I get, the more I realize
What a dark world we live in. What a dark world we live in.
Absolute spiritual darkness this world is. And we need to learn to stay. Just to stay and wait upon Him
to take us home. To learn to stay and wait on
Him to take us out. He said, you stay there. Joseph,
you stay there until I send word and bring you out. You stay there. If I could just remember this,
and we could remember this, we are who we are by the grace of
God. We are where we are by the grace of God. And we have
what we have by the grace of God. So let us learn to be content. Joseph, you go down in Egypt
and you wait on me. And you just be content there.
Because there's some people who want to take your life, or take
my son's life, and they'll take their life if they have to. He
said, you just trust me, go where I tell you to go, and wait till
I send you word. And be content. Just be content.
Until this trouble right here passes. And it will pass. Trouble
will always pass. It doesn't seem like it. But
there's an end to every trial. Herod is dead. They are dead
that sought the young child's life. The one who sought to destroy
the young child is now dead. He's twice dead. He's dead in
sins and trespasses and he's dead in the grave. He did. The grave was a great lever,
isn't it? Death enters the palace as well
as the little cottage. It enters all of them. It brings
them all to dust. And now he's dead. And now this
one who sought to destroy the king of kings is now standing
for the judge of all the earth. Hopeless and helpless. You don't want to stand there
like that. Standing there alone, you don't want to stand there
like that. We stand there in a mediator. We have a mediator. We have a day's man between us.
I don't want to stand before God by myself. Can't do it. Can't do it. We have Christ.
But Herod's dead. Now verse 19 through 20, it says,
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
in a dream to Joseph 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. You notice something jumped out
at me when I was reading this. It says here in verse 19, When
Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph again. God doesn't reveal His eternal
purpose to us all at once, does He? We walk by faith, not by
sight. God does not reveal His eternal
purpose all at once. By faith, we walk in the light
we are given, and He gives us more light. Each step of the
way, God said, Joseph... He sent an angel and said, Joseph,
do this. And He did it. And then He waited.
And the angel of the Lord came again and said, now go here.
And he did. Each time, we walk by faith. He doesn't
reveal. You don't have your whole life
laid out in front of you. I don't know how long I'll live.
I don't know what I'll do or where I'll be a week from now.
I know what I think I might do. I have some things I'm wanting
to do. But what will I do? I don't know. If you couldn't
have convinced me at 23 years of age, I'd have lived in Asheville,
Kentucky. And you sure would not have convinced me I'd be
doing this. The Lord came to him and said,
Joseph, now you go back to the land of Galilee. Go back. Back to the land of
Israel. And of course, on his way back, on his way back, He
finds out that Archelaus, the son of Herod, takes the throne,
and he's not any improvement on his daddy. Apple does not
fall far from the tree. It doesn't. So he has to go over into Galilee,
in the region of Galilee. Here's a lesson. I remember Henry saying this
a long time ago. I don't know how long ago, but several years
ago. Don't drive your tent pegs too
deep. Don't drive them too deep. This
is not home. This is not home. We're going
home. It's a journey. We are on a journey. This is not the end of the journey.
Thank God it's not the end of the journey. This is part of
the journey and everything we experience Everything we experience
in this life is part of the journey home. It's just part of it. So don't drive them too deep. And Joseph here, now listen,
he's an example of faith. He's instructed to go, and he
goes. And something else I noticed
here. I don't mean to jump around, but something else I noticed. After Joseph and Mary came together, who was it that the angel of
the Lord always appeared to? The head of the house, Joseph. After they came together, Joseph
was always instructed where to take his family. We, men, are the head of the home. You
direct your family, you take your family, you set them under
the gospel. You have children, you set them under the gospel.
God holds you responsible for guiding that house. That just
jumped out at me. After they came together, the
angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, Joseph, guide
this house. This is what I'm saying. You
take the family and you go where I tell you to go. He appeared to the head of that
house. That's God's order. God doesn't go around His orders.
He doesn't change them. He appeared to Joseph. And Joseph
did. He guided that house. He took
them where they... He didn't try to explain something
without listening. He said, let's go. Let's go. Pack your bags. We're leaving tonight. She said,
what do you mean, tonight? I'm sure she didn't say that. A lot would. But you may have. They said, we're leaving tonight. They got up at night and went
to Egypt. And they got up when the angel of the Lord appeared
to them again and said, go back. Go back to the land of Israel.
He said, let's go. Let's go. He didn't consult with flesh
and blood. He just did what he was told to do. Okay, now he goes back to, I'll
find this, here in verse 23. And he came and dwelt in the
city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. All this
is fulfilled in Scripture. God made it absolutely evident
this is the Messiah. This is the Messiah. It fulfills
the Scriptures. And He sent Him to Nazareth.
You know, that's one of the most despised places you could have
lived. If you couldn't afford to live
anywhere, you could live in Nazareth. They were the lowest of the low.
But Christ grew up. He grew up in poverty. He grew
up among Gentiles because there was a mixture of Gentiles and
Jews there in Nazareth. He grew up with the common folk. He can identify with us. He can
identify. He grew up with the common folks
and he went to school with the common folks. He went to school with people
like us. You know, we try to keep our
kids away from people like us. Really. You think about it. You're trying to send your kids
to a certain place so you can have better stuff, and you're
really trying to keep people to what you are. That's right. Don't ever think that because
you can't go to a certain school or something, you're not going
to make it. If God be for us, who can be against us? If it's
God's will to put you on a throne, you'll be on the throne. Well, I don't know. You'll be
on the throne if it's God's will. But if it's God's will for us
to live in a very common manner, that's good too, isn't it? Lord,
thy will be done. The race is not to the strong.
It's not to the wise. It's to whomsoever the Lord gives
it. Christ was content to live where
His Father placed Him. You talk about being conformed
to the image of Christ. Well, here it is. Here it is. Content. Content with where he
was placed. Content with the family he was
placed in. Content with what he was given. He was content. Ought we not be the same? One writer said this. Seek not
riches, but righteousness. Seek not money, but mercy. Seek not greatness, but grace. It matters not the earthly possessions
we have, but the heavenly possession of Christ. He who has Christ is the richest of all. I'm looking
at some of the richest people that exist. Believers. You have Christ, you're the richest. You're heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ. What
He has belongs to you. There won't be no fighting over
it. There won't be no fighting. We
have it all. It won't be you can have this
part of the inheritance, you can have this part of the inheritance.
We all have it all. Good night. We have it all. If we have Him, we have it all.