Good morning, everybody. If you'd
like to, turn to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. I'm going
to read the majority of this chapter. I'll just pick from
verse 1 there. 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 of Jerusalem,
saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen
his star in the east, and have 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 all 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, now Bethlehem in the
land of Judah, are 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 privily 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. He's lying. What he wants
to do is kill the Christ. Verse 9, 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 worshipped 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. And when they were departed,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream,
saying, Arise, and take a 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. When they arose,
he took the young child and his mother by night and deported
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. Now today is December 26, 2021.
This is the day directly after Christmas Day. And it is of this time of year
that men are compelled. They are confronted with this
fact, as misguided as it may be, that some 2,000 years ago,
God came in the flesh and He dwelt amongst us. And if men
during this time of year are compelled, they are confronted
with that fact, I think it's an opportune time for us to at
least attempt to tell the truth about His birth. Now, this is
truly a wonderful, mysterious, and awe-inspiring event. Once
again, God was manifest in the flesh, and he dwelt among us. The eternal, infinite vastness
that God is was encapsulated in a human body. He became altogether
God, and altogether man. That's who Jesus Christ is. And to describe that is very,
very hard. If you read the Luke 1 account when the angel Gabriel
is speaking to Mary and he tells her, he goes, you're going to
be a great child and it's going to be the Son of God. He didn't even have a
word for it. He didn't know how to describe
the Christ. He said, that holy thing. That is his exact quote. He couldn't find another phrase.
He couldn't find another word for it. All he could come up with,
I'm not sure exactly what is inside you, but it's that holy
thing. That's what I know. That's the
Christ. Now, Paul gives us some information about his incarnation.
And I think that Paul would do a better job than anybody else
trying to explain this to us. So turn over to Galatians chapter
4, if you would. Galatians chapter 4, Paul is
going to give us five things to consider, considering the
incarnation, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians
4 and look at verse 4. Paul says, but when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law. Now here's the first thing Paul
tells us about the incarnation of the Christ. He came in the
fullness of time. He came exactly when the Father
purposed for him to come, not a second sooner, not a second
later. And I'm thankful for this. That's exactly when everything
else happens as well. Everything else happens in the fullness
of time. Everything happens right on time,
right as God purposed it, exactly when He purposed it, and it plays
out exactly as He purposed it, every single time. Everything
happens in the fullness of time, and the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ is no exception. Happened exactly when it was
supposed to happen. He says in the fullness of time, God sent
His Son. For what purpose? If God sent
him, if God the Father sent him, he must have a purpose in coming. What is that purpose? This is
John 17 verse 1. This is our Lord speaking. He
says, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee. Here's the reason the Father
sent him into this world. It was to glorify the Godhead.
Now if you want to know what God himself is interested in,
what he is consumed by, it's this, it is the glory of his
son Jesus Christ. That's what he's concerned with.
That's it. And all his purposes, everything
is according to his purpose, all those are his purposes and
they all lead up to this one singular purpose, that his son
Jesus Christ would be glorified. that Jesus Christ would reach
the epitome, the mountain peak of glory for the Godhead. How did he accomplish that? Well,
John 17 verse 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. That's how the purpose was accomplished. The father gave his son a people
and he gave him a purpose. You go and you live these people
and you die for these people and you do everything that is
necessary to bring these people back to me without a scratch
on them and he did it. Christ came to this world and
he did not make salvation possible. He did not open the door for
salvation for all those that would choose to believe upon
him. No, that wasn't it at all. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And he did exactly
what he came here to do. And that's how he reached the
epitome of glory for the Godhead. Here's the role of the saints
in heaven. Folks, this is our role. This is the purpose, that
we would stand as trophies of his power, his love, and his
grace. Christ could stand in the halls
of heaven and say, I am so powerful, I am so loving, I am so great,
I was able to save them all by myself. That's what God's interested
in. That's what Christ came for,
his glory. That's it. And I found this interesting.
Look deeper into this. God sent forth his son. Not only did he send him, who
did he send? He sent forth his son. What a
testimony for the love that the father has for his people. Who
did he send? Who is he willing to sacrifice
for the elect? He sent forth his son. Who would
you murder your child for? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. God
so loved his people, he was willing to sacrifice his only begotten
son. Paul says he was made of a woman.
He came in the fullness of time. God sent forth his own son, and
he was made of a woman. And I got stuck on that word,
made. And I thought about this. This is Isaiah 9 and 6. It says,
for unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. Now, he was never made. Christ
has always been, He has always been the eternal God. Ancient
of days, no beginning, no end. He was never made, but there
was a time that He was manifest in the flesh. He's always been
the eternal begotten, only begotten Son of God, and yet there was
a time when He was actually manifest in the flesh. God was actually
born. He actually took on human flesh and He was born into this
world. Now the question is why? Why
did God have to take on human flesh? Why was that necessary?
You remember the kinsman redeemer from the Old Testament? If someone
had lost everything, they had gone into great debt and they
had to sell off everything they had, and they became destitute,
they didn't have anything. If they had a kinsman redeemer,
one that was near of kin, he could come and he could buy back
everything they lost. And he had to make it right.
He had to make it right with the person he was buying it back
from, and he had to make it right with the person he was redeeming.
He had to make everybody right. If he could make it right, if
he had the ability to redeem, and if he was willing to redeem.
See, if you were destitute, you had found yourself in that state,
nobody owed you anything. The kinsman redeemer had to be willing
to redeem. If he had the ability, and he
was willing, there was one more stipulation, it was this. He
had to be your near of kin. He had to be bone of your bone,
he had to be flesh of your flesh, had to be blood of your blood.
Only a man could be the savior of men. That's why Christ had
to come in the flesh. To save his people, he had to
be made us. He had to be made a man. This
is Hebrews 4.15 says, for we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are. with this big difference,
yet without sin. He had to take on human limitation.
He knew what it was like to be cold. He knew what it was like
to be hungry. He knew what it was like to be
weary. He knew what it was like to be betrayed. He knew what
it was like to be lonely. And in all this, taking on all
that human limitation, you know what he never did? He never sinned.
He never stopped believing God. He never stopped doing those
things that always pleased his father. He lived perfectly. But to be the savior of men,
he had to be made a man, a God-man, altogether God and altogether
man. It says here, I'm sorry, sticking
to the same point, also this, he was born of a virgin. Now,
put yourself in Joseph's place for a moment. Mary comes to him. Mary is a spouse to Joseph, which
means roughly they were engaged. And she comes to Joseph and she
says, I'm pregnant. And they had not engaged in sexual
intercourse at this time. She says, I'm pregnant. And an
angel appeared to me, and he says that it is the Son of God.
I'm carrying the Son of God in my womb. Now put yourself in
Joseph's place, right? I'm a big believer in the most
likely explanation for anything is the simplest and most logical.
That is not the simplest and most logical explanation for
that scenario. The most simple and logical explanation would
have been she was unfaithful. And so Joseph's pondering these things.
He's thinking about these things, and he's a just man, doesn't
want to put her away. And the angel appears to him and says,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. See, he was born of a virgin,
made of a woman. And this is very, very, very
important. It's for this reason, the nature.
Now Joseph was his earthly father. The Lord gave him Joseph as his
earthly father, but he didn't come from Joseph, he came from
God. And the issue is the nature. Had he been born of Joseph, he
would have inherited Joseph's nature, that same nature you
and I have, that fallen, dead, evil, wicked nature that flows
through Adam. Adam died, we all died in Adam. If he would have been born of
Joseph, he would have had Joseph's nature, but he wasn't born of
Joseph. His father is God. That's who it is. And that means
he has the nature of God himself. And he has the nature of God
himself because he is God himself. There's one word that can sum
up that nature. One word. You know what it is? Holy. A holy nature. Now, that word
holy, what does that mean? It's a little above my pay grade,
to be quite honest. That's a big word. I'm going to read you this
definition. I thought it was a good one.
A perfection in righteousness, independence, justice, and sovereignty,
and inability to not be these things or to not judge according
to this manner. Immutable. changeless perfection,
and he will accept nothing but perfect changeless righteousness.
That's him. He judges that way every single
time. And it says here, Paul says he
was born or made under the law. We can look at that in two respects.
When the Lord Jesus Christ was incarnated, when he became a
man, a God-man, he was made under the law. He became subject to
the law, God's holy law, and he had to keep it. He had to
keep it internally in his heart. He had to keep it externally
in his actions, in his speech, in his thoughts, and even the
tiny crevices of his heart. He had to keep it every single
time, all the time, because that's exactly what the law demands
of a man. Perfect conformity. And you know what he did? He
did just that. He kept that law every jot and
every tittle, every hour of every day, perfectly, and he's the
only one who ever has. personally, but understand something. His people, his elect, when he
walked those paths of righteousness, you know, we did too, and him.
And that's not, that's not trying to explain away something that
isn't real. That's the truth of the matter.
We were in Christ, and we are in Christ, and when he kept God's
holy law, you know who kept it too? We did. We've actually kept
God's holy law. Are we trying to keep the law?
Nope, I've kept it. I've kept it in Christ every jot and every
tittle, every time. But there's another way we could
look at this. Not only was he made subject to the law, he was
made to be the curse of the law. Now, you're there in Galatians
4. Turn over to Galatians 3 real quick. Look at verse 13. It says, Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is
written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now, what
is the curse of the law? Look up at verse 10. It says,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Now, what does the law demand
of a man? What does the law demand of you
and me? It demands perfect conformity. A continuance in the law, that
means internally, externally, at all times, in every aspect
of our life, all our lives, it demands perfect conformity. And
from this scripture we can deduce this, is that every man born
of Adam is under this curse, this curse of the law, the manifestation
of the justice of God. The law says if you don't keep
me every jot, every tittle, every single time, you must be punished
and you are under this curse. Men are born under this curse. Now for some, for Lord's people,
he intervenes and he takes on the curse and he removes the
curse. But here's a marker to where you can know whether you're
still under this curse. Look back at verse 10 again.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. What does it mean to be of the
works of the law? It means when you look inside
yourself, you see something that God would be pleased with. And
you think you have at least some ability to do that which is pleasing
to God. And you may take a natural man
and he can say, you know what? I've never done that, which is
good. I'm a scoundrel. And he may say that. He may say, I'm
a scoundrel. I've never done that, which is
good. But deep down inside, if God has not done anything for
that man, he at least believes that he has the capability to
get better. He may admit, I've never done
that, which is good. But if I want to, and if I try
hard enough, I at least have the capability to get better.
It's possible I could do something that would please God. That's
the natural man. That's a man who is of the works
of the law. Now, here's my question. Is he
right? Is it possible for a man to get
better? Is it possible if a man wants to, if he tries hard enough,
can he do something that pleases God? Well, look at verse 11.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
I love Paul adds this, it is evident. Everybody knows this.
You cannot be justified by the works of the law. Can man get
better? If he wants to, if he tries hard
enough, can he do something that would please God? Can he make
one step? Can he perform the acts of spiritual
life? It's evident, no. No, he cannot. The just shall
live by faith. There's only one way to escape
the curse, and it's this. It's looking to Christ alone.
You abandon any hope in yourself, and you look to him, lock, stock,
and barrel for every aspect of your salvation. That's it. Let's
ask this question. What about this? A mixture. I
hear a lot of preaching nowadays. A lot of people preaching under
the banner of Christianity. And I don't hear anybody saying
this. Salvation has absolutely nothing to do with the work of
Jesus Christ. It has everything to do with what you do. I don't
hear anybody saying that. You know what I do hear? A mixture.
You have to have the work of Christ, but you have to do something
to make that work effectual for you. You've got to help God out.
You've got to make a decision. You've got to do something. That's
what I hear. Is it a mixture? Is there any mingling of grace
and works? Look at verse 12. And the law
is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in
them. The law is not of faith. The law and faith have absolutely
nothing to do with one another. Grace and works have absolutely
nothing to do with one another. The blood of Christ and the work
of man have absolutely nothing to do with one another. They
are mutually exclusive. You know what that means? If
you come to God on the grounds of your own obedience in any
way, you have made yourself a debtor to do the entire law. The law
demands perfect conformity. It demands you continue in it.
And you know what? If you approach God on the grounds of your own
obedience, that means you are a debtor to do the whole law,
every job, every tittle, all the time, every single day. That's
what you've taken on. And you'll fail. So will I. For
the man who's of faith. The law has absolutely nothing
to say to him because the law is 100% satisfied with him. And here's the reason why. Look
at verse 13 again. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He's made the curse
for somebody who's the us. Who's the us that he was made
the curse for? That's his elect. Those the Father gave him before
time began. He was purposed to save when he came here. That's
who these people are. How can I possibly know if I'm
one of these people? How can you identify the Lord's
people in this world? It's very simple. They are not
of the works of the law. We want absolutely nothing to
do with coming to God on the grounds of our own obedience
in any way. If salvation is in any way conditioned upon me doing
anything, mustering my own faith, bringing myself to repentance,
making the appropriate choice. If it's any way conditioned on
me, I'm going to go to hell. I can't be of the works of the
law because there's nothing God will accept from me. And they
looked at Christ. They're of faith. What does it
mean to be of faith? You just look to Him. You've
got no choice and you want no other choice. He's your only
hope. And I'm not asking you if you think you're elect or
not. It's none of your business, as a matter of fact. The question is this. Do you need him to have done
everything in your salvation? You can't be of the works of
the law. Because that's you. He has to have done it all. That's
it. Understand this. Here's what he did. He was made
your curse. That justice that the law demanded? It was rained
down on Christ. He bore your sins in his body.
He bore the curse of the law in his body. The wrath of God
came down on him. He became your substitute. He
took your place. And he said this as he died. These words are beautiful. He
said, it is finished. That is not a generalized statement.
in that he is speaking to everybody he died for. And he is saying
this, your salvation, it's over. There is literally nothing left
to do. Those of you who are not of the
works of the law, it's over. There's nothing to do. You just
rest. That's it. Now flip back over to Galatians
4. Let's see the outcome of all
this. Look at verse four again. Paul
says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Now for everyone who is not of
the law, I want you to understand something. You're a son. You're
a child of God. And I read that a couple weeks
ago. The best word I can use to explain how I felt was excited.
Excited. We have the very inheritance
of Jesus Christ himself. We are joint heirs with Christ.
That means everything Christ has with his Father presently
right now, you know, we have. He has full access to his Father
at any time. Jesus Christ can come into the
presence of his Father, that one who is holy, and he will
demand and he will accept only that which is perfectly holy.
He can come into the presence of his Father any time he wants,
and he finds complete acceptance, full love, and you know what?
In Christ. We have that same access to grace. The presence
of the Father in Christ. Perfect. Perfect conformity.
Clothed in Christ's righteousness. Couldn't get any more pleasing
to the Father. We have full acceptance. We have
full access to grace. We have true sonship. We have
the ear of the King. When we pray, don't ever disregard
this. When you pray, if you're a believer,
you are speaking to God himself and he hears. He hears for Christ's
sake. Your great high priest takes
that prayer and he makes it acceptable before God and God actually hears
you when you pray. You think of a more awesome thought.
We have true sonship with God. Now let's take the rest of the
time, I wanna just make a few comments about our text. Turn
back to Matthew chapter two. Let's read the first two verses
again. Matthew chapter 2 verse 1 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. Now
this story deals with three people. It's got three characters it's
dealing with. Number one, the king. The king,
the born king, not Herod. That's Christ. And in the story,
yes, he is the young child in the story, but you know, he's
also typified in the story. He has a type. I think it's interesting,
there's a type of Christ in a story about Christ. But there is, it's
this star that these wise men follow. That's a type of Christ
in the story. So you have the king, the born
king. Then you have the would-be king. You know who that is? That's
Herod and everybody in Jerusalem. And their type is this, it's
that of the natural man. And then you have the wise men. They're
a type of God's elect. Type of every single believer.
I just want to make a few comments here. Let's start with Herod
for a second. I'll give you a brief history lesson on Herod. Israel
at this time, Judea, is under Roman occupation, Roman rule.
And so they would put these puppet kings over the land. Herod was a puppet king. So the
word Herod is actually just talking about a line, a royal line of
people. They ruled for about four generations.
And so this Herod right here was a particularly wicked and
evil man. If you read the accounts of him,
he's very jealous and he also felt that he was being plotted
on by people close to him quite often. So much so that he ends
up murdering his wife a little while later. He ends up putting
his two sons on trial and murdering them. And it's interesting, he
has to get permission from Caesar to put his sons on trial, Octavian. And he gets the permission. And
so he puts his sons on trial, and they're executed. And there's
a famous quote by Octavian. He says, it's safer to be Herod's
hog than it is to be Herod's son. And what he was doing was,
Octavian was pointing out the religious hypocrisy of Herod.
Herod was into washing his hands before every meal. He wouldn't
eat the unclean things. He observed the feast days. He's
a Jew. But he didn't think nothing about
murdering his whole family. I told you that because I want you to
understand what type of man we're dealing with here. But you know
who he reminds me of? He reminds me of you and me.
That's who he reminds me of. This is a wicked man. He was an evil
man. And the only difference between
Herod and you and me is this, the restraining grace of God.
Because the capacity is there. Make no mistake. There's no difference
between men. But in any case, these wise men. They come, and
the star appears to them while they're in the east. They're
in the east country. The star appears to them. And so they
follow the star. And the star does not take them to Bethlehem.
It's a common misconception. It doesn't take them to Bethlehem.
It leads them to Jerusalem. It leads them to Herod. And so
these wise men appear before Herod. And they ask this question.
They say, where is he that is born king of the Jews? And for Herod, at least in his
mind, this is a problem, right? Because Herod's king. And with
the one who is born king of the Jews, Herod now perceives a rival.
If there's one born king, that means I'm not king anymore. And
from this point forward, he concocts this scheme. He decides that
he wants to murder. He's going to kill the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's going to wipe out his perceived competition. Now,
this is wicked. This is evil. This is stupid.
And this is misguided. And it's for a couple different
reasons. Number one, the Lord Jesus Christ wanted absolutely
nothing to do with Herod's throne. His office was much, much higher
than Herod's throne. He wasn't interested in Herod's
throne. When Pilate was attempting to interrogate our Lord before
his death, which is a very poor thing to do, is try to interrogate
omniscience. But he asks this very simple question. He says,
art thou the king of the Jews? This is how the Lord responded.
He said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. Now, understand something. The
Lord Jesus Christ rules down here like he rules everywhere
else. Everything that happens down here is just his purpose
and his will carrying out. That's it. But this isn't his
kingdom. because in his kingdom there is perfect peace and there
is perfect rest and there are no tears and there is no pain.
He didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom, he came to set up a
spiritual kingdom and to usher his people into and to deliver
them into that kingdom. That was his purpose in coming.
Also this, this is a very stupid thing to do and I'll tell you
why. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was Herod's Lord and he was Herod's King and there wasn't anything
Herod could do about that. Before he was ever born, Christ
reigned sovereign over Herod. He reigned sovereign over this
story right here, and he will always reign sovereign over him.
This is a very stupid thing to do, because he was locking horns
with absolute sovereignty and omnipotence. And you're not going
to win that battle. But this is how sovereign and omnipotent
our Lord is. These things Herod is doing,
putting together this scheme, purposing to kill the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know why he did that? He did that because he was an
evil and a wicked man. And he did that according to the purpose
and the will of God. All Herod is doing right now is doing God's
will, just like everybody else. Now, Herod is held responsible
for that. He is held accountable for it this day. But you know
what he was doing? He was doing the will of God.
In this story, I'll actually explain why the Lord allowed
him to do this a little later on. But in any case, Herod hears
of this. He speaks to the wise men. They
said, there's one born King of the Jews. And so he pulls his
scribes and his, I guess, academic people together. He says, you
guys know the scriptures, right? Chief priests and such. You guys
know them. You tell me where's he going to be born. Where's
Christ going to be born? They say Bethlehem. That's where he's
going to be born. So he takes the wise men, and he sends them
down to Bethlehem, and before they go, He says, listen, he
goes, I got a question for you. The question is here in Matthew
2, verse 7. It says, then Herod, when he
had privily called the wise men, inquired them diligently what
time the star appeared. So he's trying to do some math,
right? The wise men are coming from the east, takes some travel
time to get to Jerusalem. He's like, you tell me when the
star first appeared. I'll be able to kind of figure out how
old the Lord Jesus Christ would be at this time, right? And the
reason he wants this information, he figures these wise men may
dupe him. They may not come back and tell him where the Christ
is. And so his plan is, if they dupe him, he's just going to
go and he's going to wipe out every male child that is of a
certain age. That's his plan, and that's what he ends up doing
at the end. But in any case, the star leads these wise men
to Christ. These wise men come, they worship, they offer their
gifts, and as they're leaving, they depart. The Lord warns them.
He says, don't go back to Herod. Don't go back that way. He means
ill will for the child. You depart another way. And so
they do. And then the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream. And he
says, you take your wife, and you take that young child, and
you go down to Egypt. Right? And so they have to make this
trip, and they go on down to Egypt. Herod finds out he's been
duped. And two years later, he goes down to Bethlehem, and he
wipes out every single male child that's under the age of two,
two and under. That's how the story ends. Now, here's a good
question. Why? Why does the Lord involve
Herod in all this? It's the star that leads the
wise men to Herod. Why does the Lord bring all this
in? bring in Herod with this scheme to kill the Lord Jesus
Christ. What it actually tells us, look in verse 14. It says,
when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night
and deported into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the Lord by
the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. And that
is a quotation from Hosea 11.1. Why did the Lord involve Herod
in all this? Why did he allow Herod to concoct
this scheme to want to kill the Lord Jesus Christ, where he's
going to have to move people around? It's very simple. Because
the scripture said he had to be called out of Egypt. And so
to Egypt he had to go. That shows us the importance
of these scriptures. Everything in this book, folks, is the truth. And it's true. And it can be
believed. And it must be believed. Because
everything in this book happened. It's over. You want the source
of truth. There is only one source of truth. That's it. It's right
here. That's it. Lord made all this come about
because of this, because the scriptures had to be fulfilled.
It says he gets called out of Egypt, that means we've got to
take him down to Egypt. And here's how we're going to do it. We're
going to use Herod to do it. That's it. I want you to think
of this. So Herod's type is that of the
natural man. And his theme is this. He hates
Christ, and he wants to kill Him. And he hates him, and he
wants to kill him for this reason. It's because Christ is the king. That's it. Now, I want you to
consider for a moment the Jews when they were accusing our Lord
before Pilate. What did they say? This is Luke
23, 1 and 2. It says, and the whole multitude
of them arose and led him unto Pilate. And they began to accuse
him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. They hated him and they wanted
him dead and it was for the exact same reasons because he's a king
and he represents the natural man. The natural man hates God
and he hates Christ and he hates him for this reason. The issue
is sovereignty. Now, this idol Christ that is
preached in this generation, this one who shed his blood for
all men and he wants to save all men, but he just can't unless
men will allow him to save them and things like that. Nobody
is bothered by him. Nobody gets angry at him because
that Christ has no power and he has no control. But if you
preach the Christ of the scriptures to the natural man, The one who
does what he will, as he wills, with whomever he wills, at all
times, you're going to see the enmity come out. This is who
he is. This is what Moses asked. He
said, Lord, show me your glory. Lord said this, and I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. He holds all men in the palm
of his hand, and he can do whatever he wants with them. He can save
or he can damn, and it is completely and utterly up to him. That's
who he is. That's who he is. And if you
confront men with that, with who he really is, he's the one
who makes the decision. Right? He's high. We're low.
You see the enmity come out. You'll see the natural man, that
ugly head, is going to rear itself every single time. But I will
say this. I want to finish this thought on this note. Sovereignty
of God and salvation has never kept any man from Christ, and
it's never kept any man from being saved. In fact, the sovereignty
of God and salvation is the only thing that pulls a man in. The
only thing that'll keep you from Christ is your self-righteousness. That's it. There's never been
one sinner that's come to Christ seeking mercy that he didn't
show to him. The only thing that'll keep you and me from Christ is
my self-righteousness. And the only thing that'll pull
me in is the sovereignty of God in salvation. That's it. Now consider these wise men for
a second. I have some questions about them.
Who are they? Where did they come from? And
how did they know to look for this star? Who are these guys? I've heard a lot of theories
about this over the years. Scripture doesn't say. It doesn't
give an exact answer. But I listened to a message by
Henry Mankin recently, and he made a good guess. I want to
share it with you. Go over to Genesis 25. Now, if I were to ask you how
many sons Abraham's had, what would you say? Most people say,
well, he's got two, right? He's got Ishmael with Hagar,
and he's got Isaac with Sarah. But at some point, Sarah dies,
and he takes another wife, Abraham does, and her name is Ketur.
And he has many, many sons after that. Genesis 25, look at verse
1. It says, then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was
Keturah. And she, Heberim, these are all
sons of Abraham. Zimran, and Jokshin, and Medan,
and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah, those are all sons of Abraham
by Keturah. These are his grandsons and great-grandsons.
Verse 3, and Jokshin begat Sheba. And Dedan, and the sons of Dedan
were Asherim, and Lechim, and Lumum, and the sons of Midian,
Ephah, and Epher, and Hanuk, and Abida, and Eldah. All these
were the children of Keturah. Now I want you to remember something.
In our text, it says these wise men were in the east country
when they saw the star. They were in the east. Keep that
in mind. Look at verse 5. And Abraham gave all that he
had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines
he had even more women he had children with, which Abraham
had. Abraham gave gifts and sent them
away from Isaac his son while he yet lived eastward unto the
east country. The same area where these wise
men would have been when they saw this star. Now, this is just
a theory, but it's quite possible these men were the descendants
of Abraham. That's exactly who they were. About 16 to 17 centuries
removed, as a matter of fact. How would they have known about
this star? Same way everybody else does. Abraham would have
preached to his sons. preached the gospel to them,
told them about the star, and that next generation would have
preached to their sons, and that next generation would have preached
to their sons. Just what the Lord's been doing in this world
from the beginning of time. One generation passing the gospel
down to the next one. And that's quite possible that's
the case. But here's the significance of this thing of them living
in the East. According to Genesis 3, 24, After
Adam's sin, the Lord drove Adam out of the garden. And on the
east of that garden, he placed a cherubim, an angel, with a
flaming sword that twisted every direction to keep the way of
the tree of life. It was placed on the east. The
east has something to do with sin and separation from God. And that's exactly where the
Lord finds his people. This star appeared to them. in the east,
when they were in the east. When Christ comes to a man, you
know where he finds him? He finds him in the east. He finds him
dead in trespasses and sins, separated from God. I'm so thankful
for this. He comes to his people where
we're at. These men didn't travel halfway and then the star appeared
to them. They didn't get out of the east country and then
the star appeared. No, the star appeared to them when they were
in the east country. The Lord always comes to us where
we're at. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. How'd he
find it? When he wasn't looking for it.
Noah was a hell-bound sinner just like every man and he would
have died in that flood if not for the grace of God. He came
to him where he was at. Now, another thing about these
wise men, they worshiped Christ. As soon as they got to him, they
fell down on their face and they worshiped. I was thinking about
this, what does it mean to worship? What does it mean to worship
God? There's a whole lot of examples of that in the scripture. I thought
about a few things. It has something to do with this.
It has something to do with a reverence and a fear of his person. Being overwhelmed with all of
who He is. Know in your rightful place before
Him that He's high and I'm low. And that's the first part of
it. Before anything else gets settled. He's high, I'm low,
and He's worthy of worship. Has something to do with that.
Has something to do with confidence in His ability. I know that.
It has something to do with an understanding that He doesn't
have to do anything for me. that he doesn't owe me anything,
that he can pass me by and write Justin Fair is his name, and
he's still worthy of that worship. And it has something to do with
need. A need of him to do everything for you. That's worship. That's
what these men did. And when the Lord appears to
a man, when he reveals himself to a man, this is the first thing
that gets settled, is worship. You remember the woman from Matthew
15. She came to the Lord begging mercy. She said, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. And you know what? You
know what the Lord confronted her with? His sovereignty. He
says, I'm not sent but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And you know what she did? You know what the very next verse
says? She worshiped. She fell down on her face. Whatever
you do is right. You don't have to do a thing
for me. But she followed it up with these words, Lord, help
me. You're the only one who can do it. You can do it. You don't
have to, but I sure need it. And the Lord commended that woman
for her faith, and he gave it to her just as she had. He delivered
that demon from her daughter. Second thing was this. Go back
to your text and look at verse 9. Let's read this. When they heard the king, they
deported. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before
them till it came and stood over where the young child was." Now,
I love that statement, it went before them. And this is exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. He went before
us. I thought of these scriptures, this is Revelation 13, 8. It
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. For his people, he's always been
the acceptable sacrifice. Before we ever came into this
world and we were incarnated, and before we ever committed
one sin, there was already a sacrifice for those sins. He went before
us. He went before us in the covenant of grace when his father
commanded him. that he would live and die for
his people and take them on. And this is Isaiah 6, 8. This
is how this conversation would have went. It says, also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will
go for us? Who's speaking? God's speaking.
Who's he speaking to? God himself. This is the triune
God convening with himself. Who will go for us? Who am I
going to send? And here's Christ speaking. Then
said I, here I. Send me. Volunteering to be the
savior of his people, volunteering to be the substitute out of love
for his people. He went before us in his ascension
back to glory. This is Romans 8, verse 34, it
says, Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Right now, this is real,
right now there is a man in glory seated at the right hand of God
the Father, and you know what he is doing? He is making intercession
for us. for all his people. And his intercession
sounds like this. He does not beg for forgiveness
for us, and he does not beg for mercy for us, and he does not
beg for grace for us. He begs and demands justice for
us. Justice. You want to know why?
Because it's only just, right, and fair that the Father accept
the Lord's people because he paid the debt. He put the sin
away and he made his people sinless. He established the righteousness
for his people and made them righteous. And now salvation,
it's justice. That's what he pleads for is
justice. Do what is just. Do what is right. Act according to your nature,
what he says to his father. And accept them because I've
made them acceptable. Where this star led? These wise
men, they followed. I'm thankful for this. I'm thankful
for irresistible, invincible grace. When the Lord reveals
himself to a man, he follows. He follows all the way to Christ. And when these fellows got here,
they offered gifts. And I thought this is very interesting.
They offered gold. a precious metal, frankincense
and myrrh. Frankincense and myrrh, that's
actually a tree sap from two particular trees. And it hordens
into a resin and they crush it up to make aromatics, like incense
and perfume. What's this all about? Why would
the story end like this? Them giving these precious gifts.
The theme behind these gifts is this. They are precious and
they are valuable. What is it that God finds precious
and valuable? His son. His son, the blood of
his son, the death of his son, that's what he finds valuable.
But I thought of this scripture. I want you to hear this. Psalm 51, verse 16. For thou
desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering, The sacrifices of God, that which the Lord finds
precious and valuable, are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. What does the Lord find valuable?
What does he find precious? A broken and a contrite spirit
and a broken heart. And make no mistake, folks, when
we come to Christ, that's all we come with. We come with our
brokenness. We come with our sin. We come
with our shame. And that's all we've got. That's
all we have to offer is our sin. That's it. And you know what?
To God, that's precious. That's valuable. To Him, a sinner
is a precious and a valuable thing because a sinner needs
Him. I think there's another reason
for these gifts as well. Right after this, the Lord would
tell Joseph, you've got to flee into Egypt. You take your family
down to a place that you've never been before, likely, where you
don't have a job lined up and you don't have a house. And Joseph's
a young man, a young carpenter, probably doesn't have a big,
fat savings account, and he clearly doesn't have a whole lot of family
that can help him out because he's in his home city of Bethlehem,
and he's having to stay in a manger, in a barn. He didn't have any
family that could put him up when he first got there. So how's
he going to make the trip? How's he going to be able to
provide for his family? How's he going to put a roof over their head? How's
he going to put food on the table? He's going to have to go down
to Egypt. Gold and frankincense and myrrh. All tradable commodities. What does that tell us? The Lord
always provides for his people. He provided everything for sinners. Everything you need to be saved,
it's all done. Everything you're going to need to have in this
life, it's all going to be provided. It's all done. That's the point
of the story. I'm going to leave you there.
I'm going to meet with you this morning.