Well, we turn to Matthew chapter
2 this morning in our series on Matthew. What we see here,
of course, as Peter read the well-known account to us that
religion loves to make such a thing of at Christmas time, we see
political intrigue, we see persecution, we see people fleeing as refugees
for their lives. we see a dreadful account of
genocide, the murder of the infants, and you say, well yes, tragic,
you know, 2018 years ago, what a tragic thing, but are there
not plenty of other news stories that are very similar? You know,
only a few years ago we heard about the dreadful genocide in
Rwanda. We heard about things that people
seem capable of doing to others in order to get their own political
way or their own financial benefit, and we're absolutely shocked
and appalled. Are there not plenty of other stories? You know, religion
all around just takes from this, that persecution is a dreadful
thing and we ought to do all that we can to stop persecution. Why should we take notice of
this account especially, this one that's over 2,000 years old?
Well, the answer's very simple. It's because it concerns the
unique person of the child, the child Jesus. The unique person. You know you can have no degrees
of uniqueness. If you ever say, oh that's quite
unique, sorry, grammatically wrong, it's either unique or
it isn't. There's either only one or there isn't. The unique
person of this child. There is no one remotely like
him. He is the only one, the unique
person of the child. And the other thing is the source
of the opposition to him, for opposition to him there clearly
was. by Herod the King, by the Scribes
and the Pharisees. There was opposition. Why was
there opposition? What's the source of the opposition
to him? Why on earth should there be?
It's almost incomprehensible. In fact, on a human level, it
is utterly incomprehensible. But you know, these things, the
uniqueness of this child, and the source of the opposition
to him, and what it all means, concerns deeply how you and I
relate to this one. And how you and I relate to this
Jesus, this one who in this chapter is a child of two years old,
how you and I relate to him, it defines our eternal condition
in the purposes of God. It's that important. We're not
dealing with trivial little sweet little stories. We're not dealing
with the stuff of nativity plays where, you know, there's a stable
and there's shepherds and there's a manger and there's Mary and
Joseph and there's angels and there's wise men coming in giving
their gifts and all. It's not about that. That's just,
you know, that's just a quaint little presentation. This is
absolutely crucial, vital. stuff that we're dealing with
here. Let's first of all try and understand the account a
bit more clearly. I say it's about two years after
Jesus was born. I know it says in the first verse,
now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it doesn't mean at the same time,
it means when he had been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the
days of Herod the King, that was Herod the Great, there came
what it calls wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Why do I say
it was two years after he was born? Well, you know when Herod
inquired what time the star had appeared, and on the basis of
that information, he issued his wicked edict that all the little
boys, two years old and under, in the area of Bethlehem, which
is just to the south of Jerusalem, a short way to the south of Jerusalem,
that all of the little boys of two years old and under should
be killed. Like Pharaoh did to the young
boys of the Israelites in Egypt thousands of years before this.
kill them, because if you kill them all, you'll kill the one
that I think is threatening my position. You see, they'd come
and said, where is he that is born King of the Jews? And Herod
said, I'm the King of the Jews. Who's this? I can't stand, I
can't tolerate anything, any other subversion. Let's have
them all killed. That's why I think it was about
two years. And not only that, It's perfectly clear. Look at
verse 11. When they finally found them, they came to Bethlehem.
They came into the house, not into the stable. Not in the stable,
because there was no room in the inn. They came to the house
and they saw the young child with Mary, his mother. Joseph
wasn't there. Where was Joseph? He was probably
working. He was out working. He was a carpenter. And what
they'd probably done is they had settled in Bethlehem. It
was a time of great turmoil. Everybody had to go to the town
of his ancestry. And for Joseph and for Mary,
it was the town of Bethlehem in Judea, the city of David. the house of bread, as it is
called. And they'd gone there to be taxed
in the census that Caesar, the Roman emperor, had put out an
edict, all in the plan and purposes of God, to accomplish his purposes. He orders all things according
to the counsel of his own will. And they'd gone there, and Jesus
was born in that stable, but they'd soon found somewhere that
they could rent, that they could stay, a house that they were
in, and here they are, there's Mary, and this little toddler,
who is Jesus, about two years old, give or take, living quietly
in this house, getting on with life, without the view of the
authorities, seeing them and who he is, unknown to the authorities. At about this time there appear
in Jerusalem, because where else would they go? That was the headquarters,
that was where the star had led them towards, there came these
Magi. Tradition says there were three.
Why? Because of the gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. It doesn't
mean that there were three. We're not told how many there
were. And what were they? Wise men, it says. But in actual
fact, the word really should be magi, from which we get magicians. Astrologers, probably. They were
probably clever guys who studied the wisdom of men of the day,
and they'd looked, and viewing the stars, and trying to determine
how that determined what would happen, they'd seen something
unusual. When they were in the East, when
they were in the East, where? I think, I think, probably Iraq,
maybe Iran, somewhere like that. Now, the Jews had been in captivity
there. When had the Jews been in captivity
there? In Babylon. Babylon is in Iraq. When had the Jews been in captivity
there? About 500 years before the birth
of Christ. And you remember they'd gone
into a 70-year exile prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah. And
while they were there, there was Daniel who was raised up
as a prophet of the Lord. And Daniel prophesied concerning
the coming of Messiah. And maybe, maybe, in amongst
the archives, of that culture, the historical record, remember
it's 500 years so it's like looking back from now to 1500, it's a
long time isn't it, you know, but we have historical records
of it, maybe they'd seen the scriptures. Maybe even, I've
put an article in the bulletin in here that you might find interesting,
I don't determinedly say that this is what happened, but it's
speculation that I think is consistent with Scripture, perhaps a prophet
had gone there. Perhaps a preacher had gone there,
and had preached the Messiah. In the sovereign purposes of
God, perhaps a prophet, a preacher, had gone to this area of Babylon,
Medo-Persia, wherever it was, and had preached. from the Scriptures
that they had there, from the book of Daniel, concerning the
coming of the Messiah. And these astrologers, who looked
into these things with their mystical, astrological ways of
doing things, were spoken to by God the Holy Spirit. Why do
I say sent a preacher? It's because of a text in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, is it verse 20 or verse 21? Never mind. It is by
the foolishness of preaching that it pleased God to save those
who believe. God sends the people he determines
to save a prophet, a preacher. to expound His Word, and thereby
God determines to give them wisdom, which makes them wise unto salvation. And in this account, in Daniel,
if you look in chapter 9, but don't look there just now, but
study it for yourself, in Daniel chapter 9, and especially verse
24, we have the prophecy of the weeks. These are not weeks of
seven days, these are weeks of years. There's a little bit of a riddle
in it, if you like, just to make it not so obvious to the sceptical. But it's about 490 years, 500
years. So, what's he preaching to these magi? who are studying and looking,
that it's about now that God would send his Son, the Messiah,
into the world to save his people from their sins. And as they're
looking, they see, miraculously, some object in the sky, we know
not what. God can use anything. We were
looking the other evening at Hebrews chapter one, and thinking
for a moment about miracles. If you believe what it says there
about the Lord Jesus Christ who made all things and who upholds
all things by the word of his power, a miracle is not an incredible
thing, a miracle is something that is under the control of
the one who upholds the normal state of things. And for him,
for his purposes to change the normal, to say something to the
people that he's speaking to, He's perfectly within the ability
and the gift of God. It's His to do with, as He wishes. And He shows them. Yes, it is
now, and look at this, there is a star, there is some heavenly
object, there is some light in the sky, and it's showing you
where Messiah has come. And having heard about Him, and
read about Him, and seen about Him, and had the Spirit speak
to them about Him, they come, they set off on their journey,
no doubt an arduous journey in those days. They didn't just
get on a plane and an hour's flight later they're there. It
was an arduous, dangerous journey. But they came, and they came
to Jerusalem. Where else would you go? You'd
go to where the king is. Who was the king? It was King
Herod, who was a puppet of the Roman Empire. The Romans, though
they'd conquered the whole area, they put in place certain puppet
rulers to kind of appease the people and make them think that
they had their own ruler, but in actual fact they could do
nothing without the authority of the Romans to do it. But Herod
was this king. He wasn't even really entitled
to be the king, for he himself was a foreigner. He was an Edomite,
was Herod. But there he is, he's Herod the
Great, and he's the king in Jerusalem. He is, as he thinks, the king
of the Jews. And these Magi come, however
many there were, and they're seeking the one that is born
King of the Jews. Oh, Herod was troubled. So he
goes and gets his scribes and his Pharisees, his religious
folks. You know, what would happen if
some message came from heaven into Great Britain today? What
would happen? Who would they call for? Who
would the government call for? I'll tell you who they'd call
for. They'd call for the Archbishop of Canterbury, wouldn't they?
Wouldn't they just? They'd call for the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and when they'd listened to his vacuous waffle,
because that's all that they would ever get out of that church
and the bishops in that church, when they'd listened to the vacuous
waffle and been totally unconvinced by it, they'd start looking for
more vibrant religious proponents, and they'd go to the ones with
charismatic enthusiasm, and the ones that have got the people
dancing and clapping, and they'd go anywhere and everywhere they
could. Well, Herod went to his scribes and Pharisees and said,
there's a Messiah coming, isn't there? Where does it say he's
going to be born? And of course, these scribes and Pharisees,
they knew their scriptures, and they knew Micah, the prophet
Micah, chapter 5, verse 2 says, but thou, Bethlehem Ephrata,
in Judah, there's other Bethlehems, but the one that's in Judah,
the one just south of Jerusalem, the city of David. Though you
are least among the thousands of Israel, you're not significant,
you're just a little village really. Out of you shall come
one who shall be ruler to my people Israel. The Messiah is
going to be born in Bethlehem. Did those scribes and Pharisees
go to look for themselves? We read nothing of it. They didn't
pay any attention. They were too comfortable with
their situation. Did Herod go? No, these Magi
can be bothered, so let them go, but come back and tell me,
because I want to get rid of him. No, he didn't say that,
but that's what he meant. And so he sends them off. And
the star goes before them. It can't have been a star like
we see in the sky. We've been having these lovely
clear evenings and if, just after the sun sets, you look over towards
the west, there's an absolutely brilliant Venus, the planet Venus
in the sky, it's nearer to the sun than we are, but it shines
so brightly. Well, it wasn't a star like that,
or one of the constellations, or galaxies, or anything. It
can't have been because it pinpointed the very house where Jesus was. Whatever it was, whatever it
miraculously was, it showed them exactly where to go. God had
spoken to them. These are such unlikely objects
of grace, aren't they? Wouldn't you have thought God
would have gone to the Pharisees and the scribes who knew the
Scriptures? And yet he goes to some Oriental mystics, some Oriental
fortune-tellers, some Oriental astrologers. God chooses unlikely
objects of grace. He really does. Is anybody beyond
the reach of the grace of God? Is anybody? You say, I know some
hard-hearted people who would never ever believe the gospel.
No, no, no. God is stronger than that. These
unlikely objects of God's grace were brought to see the Messiah,
to see the need for the Messiah, to believe the promise of the
Messiah, to determine that they must go to see Him and worship
Him. And do you know why God sent
them there? Do you know why God sent them to Bethlehem, these
wise men? Why do you think? They were a
poor family, Joseph and Mary, who was probably scraping just
about enough together, doing some odd job carpentry. And, you know, they needed to
go to Egypt for their own safety, because Herod was determined
to kill this child if he really was the king of the Jews. If
he really was the Messiah, Herod wanted him dead. Do you know
why God sent the wise men, as they're called, the Magi to him?
Answer, they brought gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Gold to live on. He provided
them with the money that they needed to go, didn't he? Frankincense,
this Jesus is the great high priest of his people and frankincense
speaks of priesthood and the myrrh was for anointing dead
bodies, and he is going to die the death that the justice of
God requires of his people, if they're to be justified. God
drew attention to some astronomical phenomenon, some star, whatever
it was, and it persuaded them, when all around them others remained
blind to it, even the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem remained
blind to it, persuaded them that it signified Messiah's birth,
and that they must come and see Him, and worship Him, and give
Him gifts, and bow down before Him. God who has become man to
qualify his people for heaven. They must come. They've been
persuaded that they'd be amongst those people. Now Herod the Great,
this puppet king, this foreign king, he himself, he wanted nothing
to do with it other than to destroy. Why did he want to destroy? Why
did he want to destroy them? When these heathen magicians
were wanting to go and seek to worship this two-year-old boy.
These who had been given God, given faith. What was the cause of Herod's
hatred towards the child Jesus? What was the cause of it? The
answer is it was Satan. It was Satan and that all that
he was seeking to do to destroy the child before he could redeem
his people from their sins and so Joseph is guided to flee to
Egypt, he has the resources with which to flee to Egypt because
of the gifts of the Magi, he's in possession of the resources,
and it's also necessary, these things are all such an interwoven
web of the purposes of God, that His Son has to come out of Egypt. And because the Scripture says
His Son has to come out of Egypt, they have to go down into Egypt
so that His Son can come out of Egypt, because that's what
the Word says. It says it of Israel, His Son. When they went down into Egypt
so that they might be brought out of Egypt, the prophet Hosea
tells us, my son shall come out of Egypt. But of course, everything
that relates to the people of God also relates exactly to the
Son of God in whom His people are. As I've already said, because
of Herod's hatred, he orders the evil, the wicked murder of
the two-year-old children, the boys and under. And we're all,
all society is utterly shocked and appalled at that account,
aren't they? Just a quick aside, just a very
quick aside. You know, we live in a day when
there's a lot of talk in politics about women's rights, isn't there? Women's rights to decide. Lots
of talk about that. Can you please tell me I don't
know what the statistics are, but the thousands upon thousands
of abortions that take place in this country and the USA every
single year, can you tell me in what way it is different to
what Herod ordered? Just a little aside. You know,
our society that thinks it is so good, and this was such a
wicked society, just pause for a moment and think about that.
Anyway, When they're down in Egypt, they get news that Herod
is dead and to come back and to return and to avoid... the political interest that there
might be in Judea, go and settle in Galilee, up in Nazareth, where
Mary originally had grown up. They're under the radar of the
Judean opposition. That's the account that we have
here. That's the well-known account. But let's think then about this
child and the opposition to him. The uniqueness of this account
concerns the child Jesus and the opposition, the irrational
opposition that there was to Him. Who is this two-year-old
Jesus? Remember, His name means Saviour. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. He's the promised Messiah. the
one that God must send. Indeed, He is God who has come. He's the God-man. He is the promised
seed of the woman who will come to bruise the head of Satan after
the fall. The seed of the woman is the
Messiah of God, the Christ of God. This one, this two-year-old
child, this two-year-old Jesus, is the infinite God, for in that
little boy, as Paul tells us, dwelt the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. In that little child is the infinite
God, who fills the universe, contracted to the span of a two-year-old
child, in flesh and bones and blood, for the purpose for the
purpose to pay his people's penalty to the offended divine justice
of God. This is King David's greater
son. He's descended from David. He's
King David's greater son. He's King David's Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand. The Lord God in heaven said to
my Lord Jesus Christ, sit at my right hand. And to which of
the angels said He at any time, Thy throne, O God? He said to
Jesus, His Son, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. Thy throne,
O God. This is God become man. This is Job's look for Redeemer. What did Job say? I know that
I'm in such a terrible condition in this flesh. Oh, that I could
engrave them that people would see them and believe them. But
I know that my Redeemer liveth. and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth, and though worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God." This is who this one is. If you
would have eternal life, you must know Him. If you would have
your soul satisfied, you must eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, if you have eternal life in you. Turn with
me to Revelation chapter 12. Let me remind you, Just look at the first five verses. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads
and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail
drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them
to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her
child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child
was caught up unto God and to his throne. Now, what's that
telling us? It's telling us that the woman
is the church, is the people of God, is the people of God
from whom that line, from whom, hence we had the genealogy in
Matthew 1 last week, from whom the Messiah would come. The child
of the woman is the Messiah of God, come to save his people
from their sins. And the woman, it was literally
Mary brought forth the child Jesus, but it's from the church,
from the people of God, from the people that God had blessed
with the oracles of God. There comes a child, but look,
all the time there is Satan who had been told that he would have
his head bruised, and in the process he would bruise the heel
of the seed of the woman. He's waiting there, as soon as
the child is delivered, verse 4, to devour her child, to destroy
her child, to prevent her child accomplishing his mission of
redemption of his people from their sins. The reason for the
opposition against Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus is the
devil's hatred of the Christ of God. For if the Christ comes
and accomplishes redemption and pays the price of the justice
of God for the sins of his people, if he does that, then Satan loses
all of those people. They're no longer his. His throne,
his kingdom is taken from him. You see, this child is not just
a frail child, this little two-year-old child, but this is God's king
on his holy hill of Zion. Now, bear in mind it says, he
will rule the nations with a rod of iron, and now turn to Psalm
2. Just turn back to Psalm 2. And
Psalm 2, I would say of all the Psalms, try to understand Psalm... I'm trying to understand them
all, but Psalm 2. There is so much in Psalm 2,
you know, about the heathen. Where's the opposition coming
from? Why do the heathen rage? Why does Herod want to kill?
the child Jesus, God's Messiah. Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? They can never accomplish success.
The kings of the earth set themselves. Herod set himself against him. The rulers take counsel together,
the scribes and the Pharisees, and bring it up to date. They
all take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. His anointed is his Christ, is
the Messiah, saying they want to break the bans, they want
to break the restraint of God upon what they do, but he that
sits in the heavens shall have the victory. He shall laugh,
the Lord shall have them in derision. He shall speak unto them in his
wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. You see, because,
verse 6, God says, I have set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion. Who is that? That is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the King, He is the Ruler,
He is the King of His people, He is the King of Israel. I will
declare the decree. The Lord hath said to me, Thou
art my Son. There He is. He is the Son of
God. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, Son, the Son of God, ask of the Father, and I shall
give thee the heathen, the Gentiles, a people from every tribe and
tongue and kindred, for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. For, look at verse 9, thou shalt
break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. He is the triumphant one. The cause of the opposition is
the rage of Satan, who wants to prevent the Messiah of God
accomplishing his purpose. Herod and the Jewish leaders
were just Satan's instruments in seeking to destroy the Christ,
so that none would be redeemed, and all would be his in opposition
to the justice of God, because that's what Satan wants. A kingdom
where the justice of God is irrelevant, but Satan is limited. I'm always
impressed by how Satan was blinded to the obvious. Why does he have
to get the magi to go and point out where the child is? He seemingly
doesn't know. Surely if Satan had all the right
knowledge, he just could have arranged for some nasty accident
to befall that little house with Mary and the child there. But
he's limited. He's limited because God has
him on a lead of his own choosing, on a chain whose length is of
God's choosing, and he's unable to devour the Christ child. This
child is the all-powerful king, wielding his rod of iron. He
is the one who reigns supreme. If you turn in Revelation just
a couple of chapters on to chapter 14, And lo, I looked, and lo,
a lamb stood on the mount Zion. I have set my king on my holy
hill of Zion, and with him I 144,000. His people in this earth, the
people he has on this earth at any one time are there with him
in his kingdom, but his kingdom here on earth. Do you see that
by God-given faith is the only way you will see, if the Spirit
comes and shows you is the only way you will see, that this two-year-old
Jesus in Bethlehem, 2018 years ago, if our calendars are right,
is the Christ who qualifies his sinful people for God's heaven. The people God gave to him who
are sinners like you and me, he qualifies them. By his death
at Calvary, by his paying the penalties of the law of God,
he qualifies them for heaven. This is what the apostles preached,
that this is the Christ. This Jesus is the Christ. That
is what they preached again and again in the Acts of the Apostles,
that Jesus is the Christ. If you would be For eternity,
in eternal bliss with God, Jesus must have redeemed you from the
curse of the law on Calvary. He must have taken your sins
and paid their debt in your place. You say, I don't understand that.
Neither do I. I just know it's in God's word and I believe him.
You must come to him as the Magi did. You must come, and you must,
as it says at the end of Psalm 2, you must kiss the Son. Verse 12 of Psalm 2, kiss the
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his
wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed. Are they, are all they
that put their trust in Him? God will make you willing when
you're not willing by nature. The scribes and the Pharisees
and Herod were not willing to seek Him. Neither were the majority,
the vast majority were not willing. But He made these Magi willing
in the day of His power to come and seek Him. But they had to
come and you must come as He said. In Matthew 11, verse 28,
Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labour under heavy laden. Not everyone without exception,
but those that are given a burden of sin. You that labour under
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come believing, come
seeking to know him, whom to know, is life eternal. This is it. Follow the star is
my final point. I'll be quick. You see, We must
follow the star, as the Magi followed the star. Christ is
what Revelation 22 verse 16 says, He says it Himself, I Jesus.
He says, I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright
and morning star. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
the bright and morning star. In Him is light and the light
was the life of men and the light shined in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not. Men don't like it in general
because of their deeds that are evil, says John chapter 1. They
don't like the light. but the heart that is moved to
come to Him sees the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. What is a star? We would say
it's a pinpoint of bright light in a dark night sky. He is the
pinpoint of bright light in this dark world. The pinpoint that
as you come closer and closer and closer to Him will fill everywhere
with light. Is He not? He's that pinpoint
of light, the star, the bright and morning star. He's that pinpoint
of light that will fill everywhere with light as you come closer
to Him. And He is the one, now listen,
this is an interesting twist on this. He is the one who has
the seven stars in His hand. In Revelation chapter 1 we see
the risen, glorified Christ and He's there in all of His Indescribable,
but John is given the words to try to describe him, glory. And
in Revelation 1 verse 16, describing him amongst all of his glories,
he said, He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of
his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was
as the sun shineth in his strength. So what does that mean? What
are the seven stars? What are the seven candlesticks
that he's walking amongst, which I didn't read just then, but
it's elsewhere in the same passage. What's the two-edged sword that
comes out of his mouth? Well, it tells us what the mystery
of the stars are in verse 20. The mystery of the seven stars
which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks,
the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Seven, they were seven literal
real churches in about A.D. 95 when John was given the revelation.
But seven is God's perfect number, God's number of perfection. And
it speaks of all of His church in these last days, in the days
in which we're living now, right from then, right up to now, up
to the very end. His perfect number of churches,
His true church, that which is measured in Revelation 11, that
which is His true people. And the seven stars are the angels
to those churches. Don't think of people with wings,
think of what the word angel means, it means messenger. So the letters that come in chapters
2 and 3 of Revelation, to the angel of the church at Ephesus,
to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, angel, the minister,
the pastor, the preacher, the teacher, Those seven stars are
God's preachers who are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're His angels, His messengers, His preachers, stars, seven stars,
the star led the Magi to Bethlehem to find Christ. The preachers
are His stars to point His people who at this stage don't believe
Him, to Christ, to come and behold the Lamb of God, what we're going
to see soon that John the Baptist said to his disciples. John the
Baptist baptizing in Jordan and he sees Christ and he says, behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. There the
stars in the hand of Jesus who confess, everyone, truly, true
preachers, test the spirits, says John, for not all spirits
are from God, but test the spirits. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. What are that? It's
the preachers who declare that the Jesus that was born in Bethlehem,
that was this little child in Matthew chapter 2, that grew
to minister and to die on the cross of Calvary and to ascend
to glory, is the Christ of God. The Christ that the Old Testament
talked about, come to save His people from their sins. Come
to bear the transgression of His people. to make payment for
that transgression of his people, to redeem his people to God,
to justify them before God. These preachers, these stars,
point to Christ. They lead to Christ. To determine,
as Paul did, this was Paul's determination. He says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 2, he said, I determined when I was among
you When I was preaching to you in Corinth, I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do you know that? What did Paul
preach? He preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, there
are those in churches up and down this land who would say,
oh, is that all he preached? That's a bit boring, that's a
bit narrow, isn't it? There's a lot more in the Word of God
to preach than just that. There's all sorts of things,
all sorts of moral lessons we can learn. Now, Paul said to
the elders on the beach at Miletus in Acts chapter 20, he said,
I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of
God. If preachers preach nothing other
than Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they have preached the whole
counsel of God. If I am a preacher to you, and
I'm speaking as any one of the others that we know, and probably
many more that we don't know, in the purposes of God, God knows
them all, but if I am a preacher to you, if I am one, through
whose words in these sermons you hear the voice of the Good
Shepherd, my overriding desire and the overriding desire of
every true preacher of Christ is for you to follow the guiding
star, the star of God's Word. Out of his mouth came a two-edged
sword, a sharp two-edged sword. That's the Word of God. Read
Hebrews 4, it's a sharp two-edged sword is the Word of God, because
it cuts right down, it gets right to the marrow of things. My desire
is that you come, that you're guided. you're guided by the
star of God's Word to come to Jesus, who is God's King on Mount
Sion. And as Psalm 2 verse 12 says,
to kiss Him, kiss the Son. To trust Him is what it means.
To come into the blessing of the salvation, because it says,
blessed Blessed, what does it say? Blessed are all they that
put their trust in Him. To put your trust in Him and
to come into the blessing of the salvation He has accomplished
for His people. Amen.