All right, we're going to take
some time to meditate on the scriptures viewpoint of what
you heard us singing. This is a wonderful time of year.
I state it every year. I'm so thankful for the occasion
where we can consecrate our thoughts on the birth of our savior and
reaffirming our souls that we are not dealing with fables and
storytells and myths. We who believe the gospel believe
everything that the gospel says about Christ, don't we? Yes,
we believe that God was manifest in the flesh. He was preached
to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, seen of the angels,
called up into glory, and is seated at the right hand of God
Almighty. That's the basis of our salvation. What makes Christmas
a joyous occasion for us is that Christ died for our sins, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. I believe
that with all my heart. So for briefly, I want to just
exhort you on a thought in Matthew chapter 2 around the birth of
Christ. We know that December 25th, for
those of you who are sticklers for facts, is not the date of
our master's birth. And I repeat virtually every
year that we do not celebrate his birthday. we celebrate his
birth. I got a sister who's celebrating
her birthday all month. I was meditating on that last
night. I said to myself, what strategy on her part to say I'm
going to celebrate the whole month of January? And then I
thought about it. She's right. I mean, you can
celebrate your day. the day you're born and you can
actually celebrate the month you're born because every year
those two come up but not the year that is the first year in
which she was born that doesn't come up anymore so she takes
advantage of the whole month when we worship our Lord in December
and on December 25th it has absolutely nothing to do with the credible
evidence of scripture around his birth if we were to be serious
about his birth we would actually be dealing somewhere in the regions
of April to September with regards to his birth. Secondly, as we
are debunking myths around the images and pictures that occur
concerning our master's birth, you do know that we do not believe
that there were three wise men who Disperse the blessings upon
Christ. We'll talk about that a little
bit today We don't know the number do we so we don't we don't just
lock them into the I know there were three brothers Who came
and worship the Lord? No, you don't know that you don't
know that the scripture doesn't give us that evidence also the
scripture does not give us specific details as to whether or not
our Lord was laid in a pigsty and Sheepstine or it doesn't
give us those details. It does say a few things of which
I I will call attention to as I address seven points today
surrounding our King. I say all that to say this, germane
to our salvation is the doctrine of the incarnation. Germane to
our salvation is the doctrine of the incarnation. But much
like what the devil does, he shrouds truth with myths and
lies and gets people to believe in the myths and lies surrounding
the true so that they never get to the true. And as Christians,
we have to be careful that we are not embracing both the truth
and the lie as if it was all true. Because to do that would
be to discredit the clarity and distinctiveness of the biblical
text around those matters. What we also know is that when
Jesus Christ came into the world, He didn't acquire to himself,
as it were, all sorts of offices when he was born or when he lived
or when he went about his ministry or when he died and when he rose
again. Do you know that Jesus Christ was Lord at his birth? That's what the hymn writer says.
He was Lord at his birth. And if we were to simply sum
up all of the offices and the titles of Jesus Christ that are
described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, a wonderful study on
its own, you'd find that the Bible calls Jesus several things. He is the Son of God. He's the
consolation of Israel. He is Emmanuel. He's that holy
thing. He's the servant child. He's
the son of David. He is Adonai. He is Jehovah and
many other descripts that are given to Him at His birth. It's a remarkable study because
what it teaches you and me is that there were a good number
of believers at the time of Christ's birth who were deeply committed
to biblical knowledge and understood these things that you and I are
talking about. At his birth he was these things. So today I
just want to call your attention to one aspect of our Savior's
dignity when he came and that is his position as king. Christ was king at his birth.
We didn't make him king. He was already king. That's why
the title of our message is the birth of a king. It should be
the birth of the king. That's right. The king. And if
you will, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter one.
I'm just going to run through seven points on this to contemplate
what that means. Now, those of you who study your
Bibles, you know what we mean when we talk about synopsis,
right? A comparing of several perspectives, optics, Sight sin
means to gather together synoptic means to take several different
views or perspectives on the same topic and get it give a
panoramic on what you see so that Matthew's gospel Slightly
different than Mark's slightly different than Luke's certainly
slightly different than John's gospel But all four of them while
they are coming from a different angle are never contradicting
one another You know, you can have a difference and it not
be a contradiction. I That's very good in marriage,
because often husbands and wives see things a lot differently.
And if we fail to understand that difference does not mean
contradiction, we're good to go. So when you read your Bible,
and in one place it'll talk about one blind man, and in another
place it'll talk about two blind men, don't go to fighting against
God. That's a charley horse in your own brain. Just ask the
Holy Ghost to rub it out. Rub out that charley horse. So
you can wait for the word of God to reveal to you why one
author says one and the other says two. And so I can say that
I have a child named David and then somebody else come to me
and ask me, do you have children? I can say, yes, I have children,
plural, and not be contradicting. Am I telling the truth? That's
what I love about the study of the word of God. It tells you
to slow down. Because what God has to say requires people that
are willing to think and not be reactionary with their prisms
and suppositions of arguments when it comes to what God has
to say. So today we want to just briefly talk about the king. The first point I want to call
your attention to is the birth of the king. The birth of the
king was scriptural. The birth of the king was scriptural.
The way Matthew addresses it is in chapter 2 verse 1 with
these words, When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the
days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the
east to Jerusalem. Now why does Luke make that kind
of expression? Because he is also affirming,
well I mean why does Matthew say that? He is affirming also
what the other writers said. Not only the Old Testament, or
the New Testament rather, but the Old Testament as well. He
is now affirming Micah's gospel in Micah chapter 5 verse 2, where
Micah said, Out of Bethlehem of Judah shall come one who will
bear the scepter of Judah, whose coming is from everlasting to
everlasting. What that means is the one that's
coming already is. He is not is to be, he already
is. It speaks to his eternality. But that he has a scepter means
that he's a king. Jesus is king at his birth. That's
what the scriptures teach And so when we read the old testament
and then we read the new testament, which is what we do in our bible
studies We compare scripture to scripture what the old testament
says about christ is frequently fulfilled in the new testament
And that's why we have it here in our account another place
to look at the way This is structured is in luke's gospel chapter 2
verse 4 and 5 just go there briefly to just listen to the way the
authors Precisely establish the testimony of the Old Testament
scriptures around the Messiah in Particular his offices in
this case. We are contemplating him as the
king and we are told in Luke's gospel chapter 2 verses 1 through
4 these words this will be insightful as well when we get further down
to our other points and it came to pass in those days that There
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should
be taxed. See, ain't nothing new. And this
taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Gives
us another caveat here. If I had time, I'd go into why
Luke is attaching the Syrians here to Jerusalem. But again, there's nothing new.
We're dealing with that today in the Middle East. And all went
to be taxed. Everyone into his own city. Isn't
that something? Everybody had to be taxed Even
the Lord himself had to go and pay taxes in his mother's womb. Everybody got to pay taxes Make
sure you pay your taxes Verse 4 and Joseph also went from Galilee
out of the city of Nazareth into Judea Unto the city of what? Aha, which is called Bethlehem
Because he was of the house and lineage of David So Luke affirms
that both our Lord Jesus' stepfather, Joseph, and his mother, Mary,
were of the house and lineage of David, which makes Jesus of
the house and lineage of what? David. This is why we call him
what? The king. He's the son of David,
the king. to be taxed with Mary, his espoused
wife, being great with child. That's the context. And so Luke
affirms for us that Mary and Joseph were of the lineage of
David and Jesus is of the lineage of David. And we know that David
was given the promise that one of his own loins would sit on
his throne and would govern the universe. And all the prophets
spoke to this, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the minor prophets, the major
prophets, all spoke to the coming king. Is that not right? So when
he came, he came as king. So the scriptures affirm the
coming of Christ as king. Secondly, I want to call your
attention to the fact that this king, unlike today, was honored
This king was honored. This is the beauty of the narrative
around the birth of Christ and the life of Christ. Notice what
we are told here in verse 10 and 11. Let me start back at
verse 1 again. Verses 1 and 2 and then I'll
get to verse 10 and 11. It says in Matthew chapter 2
verse 1, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the
days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the,
what? East to Jerusalem. How many? We don't know. We will never
know. There came wise men, saying,
where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen
a star in the east and are come to worship him. Verse two gives
us some insight into the magi, which is the Greek term, magio.
that these men were wise, and the term magio is both a Greek
term as well as a Chaldean term, and it speaks to men who gave
themselves over to the study of theology, to the study of
philosophy, to the study of sciences. They were not opposed to the
collaboration, all three, as being vehicles by which we comprehend
the nature and glory of God. And we also believe that, do
we not? We believe that science is not,
as it were, a contradictory system when it's properly framed and
used to what God has revealed and made. We believe that science
is a handmaiden to theology when it is properly used. In other
words, as we learned in the Roman study, the creation testifies
clearly to the nature and character of God, doesn't it? So if I use
the methodology and presuppositions of science correctly, guess what
I'm going to come up with? There is a God. He's glorious
as well. And so science affirms this.
And this is what I love about this narrative. These three wise
men were mathematicians. They were scientists. They were
philosophers. But first and foremost, they
were theologians. And what I mean by theologians,
I mean in the highest sense. I'm not talking about academicians. I'm talking about people who
believed God. You can have the highest titles
in the universe. and still be a raving lunatic
when it comes to God. You can be the most hardened
atheist when it comes to God, though your wall is filled with
all of the accomplishments of academia from all those who would
lay their hands on you and approve of your learning, and you can
still be ignorant of God. I've preached on this now for
about 25 years and I love every opportunity to do it. The one
thing I love about the wise men is that they show us something
about true saving faith. Are you ready? They went as far
as they needed to go to find Jesus. Some people won't even
go out their front door to find Jesus. If they can't find him
on the TV channel quick enough, they're going to watch the food
channel or the sports channel. This goes to show you the nature
of saving faith. Guess I'll make a point of application
here as I touch on how they honored him How far will you go to set
your eyes on the Son of God? How far will you go to hear the
gospel of the glory of his saving grace in Jesus Christ? How much
effort will you put in to save your soul? When it comes to seeking
Jesus So we're talking now about the honor of the King Love this
concept. Remember what honor is? Honor,
both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, means to laud.
It means to exalt. It means to bestow weight upon.
It means to yield to that person all of the qualities intrinsic
that they possess and acknowledge that. When you honor someone,
you raise them up. How much honor did these wise
men have towards Jesus? They were willing to hazard their
lives to find him. Now, again, when we talk about
the wise men, people speculate as to where they came from. All
right, let's just make a basic speculation that's rooted out
of our text. Two or three assumptions. The
first is they came from the east. And from Jerusalem, east is as
far as Babylon and Persia. Babylon and Persia. Now historically
that makes all kinds of sense because the biblical narrative
as our ladies are learning in biblical theology and as our
men are learning in biblical theology, we departed from the
Garden of Eden, which in all likelihood was in the area of
Babylon. We went down to Canaan. which
is where all the activity takes place in terms of the covenant
people of God and then from Canaan to the world. So there is always
going to be a relationship between Babylon, Persia and the Palestinian
area. Secondly, one of the ways we
know or assume that these men came from Persia and Babylon
was because of the characteristic nature of their gifts. Look at
what it said here over in verse, Verse 10 and 11. Let's see here.
Where are their gifts? Verse 10 and 11 notice what it
says. Are you there now when they saw the star? They rejoiced
exceed with exceeding great joy and when they were come into
the house That's another point that you have to take into consideration.
What kind of star was this that led them? We talked about this
last year. This is God's GPS system You
put all that in there, and then you have the British girl that
comes up. Not the Italian girl, the British girl. The Brits are
supposed to sound more civil than us Italians and us black
folks. And so please turn right. And you know they get it wrong
sometimes. You know that, right? Do you know they get it wrong? They
sound right, but they still get it wrong. Well, the Lord didn't
depend upon our British brethren to give the directions to the
wise men. He gave them a star. And this
was a miracle. This was not a common star. This was not what we would
call just following the constellations in the skies, which astronomers
can do to locate places. This was a special star. This
star was a work of God's Divine miracle and grace to lead them
and notice what it says. This is so interesting in verse
10 It says and when they saw the star they were Rejoiced with
exceeding great joy. Why because they knew God was
still leading them you know, sometimes we get in trouble in
our life and we get stuck and We go to asking people for help.
And if we ask the wrong people for help, we're gonna get even
more stuck right and And then God has to come rescue us from
the stuckness we got into by asking the wrong people. And
isn't it wonderful when he gets us out of our stuck state and
puts us back on our course and keeps us going? You know what
we say? God's still with me. God's still with me. I was stuck. I had to ask for help. I called
on the flesh. They gave me their information,
but it was wrong and God still came through. He caused this
star to shine in my life got me out of that Misdirection put
me back on the right course and I'm still headed to the Lord
Jesus Christ What I love about them is that they put their faith
to work Which is what true saving faith does and they were not
worried about hazarding their lives. They weren't worried about
anything They knew that they were on a mission to meet the
Lord Jesus now watch this and when they were coming to the
house they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and watch
this, and fell down and worshipped. Worshipped. See what they did? They fell down and worshipped.
They didn't go, oh, look at that cute little baby. He has such puffy cheeks. No,
they fell down and worshipped. Why? Because inwardly they were
constantly enamored with and driven by the dignity of this
child. They truly saw him as a king. They truly saw him as a king.
I wonder, the Lord Jesus is grown now, I wonder would we fall down
and worship him if he showed up right now. Isn't that a good
contemplation? Because we're too buddy-buddy
with Jesus. They worshipped him while he was a little boy, little
baby. Amazing it demonstrated how deeply
committed they were to biblical truth as well And when they saw
him they fell down worshiped him and when they had opened
their treasures here it is They presented him with gifts now. I will I will say if you want
to give me some gifts You you might want to take a lesson from
these wise men I'll uh, I'll take gifts of gold You can leave
the frankincense in the mirror out just I Gold, gold, and gold. But now, you give gold to kings. That's what you do. You give
them as a gift the highest quality you can possibly yield as a demonstration
of honor to him. But the gold came from Babylon. Much of the gold that our world
derives is all over the place. But Babylon was a prominent area
in which gold was derived from the mountains and from the areas
in which the gold of Ophir is one of the terms Isaiah used.
But the gold comes from the Medo-Persian Babylonian area. This is why
they assert that these men must have been from that area. So
is this. frankincense, and myrrh, these
valuable herbs that everybody uses in the Middle East, and
they were given. These are special herbs that were quite odorous,
and they represented honor as well. And so we are talking about
honoring the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Two things I want to
say on that. Their whole efforts indicated that they honored him.
John's gospel chapter 5 verse 23. Here's a word on that just
for us to think about and Again, I've made this statement before
which is something that you and I have to be careful to maintain
God promises child of God that if you honor him He will honor
you Like he did these wise men So Jesus says in the Gospel of
John chapter 5 verse 23, watch this, He's speaking to the equality
of His nature with Him and His Father, possessing some of the
same gifts and attributes, particularly in that quality of being able
to raise men from the dead according to their own will. And Jesus
says in verse 22, For the Father judged no man, but hath committed
all judgment unto the Son. Watch this, that all men should
what? Honor the Son. Even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which sent Him. And certainly those
of us who are called believers ought to honor Him. Is that true?
So here's my last proposition. To seek Him is wisdom. To seek
Jesus is wisdom. And may I make this statement.
Wise men and women are still seeking Jesus today. Still seeking Him today. And
let's go to our third point now. And our third point is the struggle
of the family. This always fascinates me. You're
not going to be an honest communicator of the birth narrative unless
you are willing to admit that the birth narrative has with
it not only struggles, but I mean scandals. I mean problems. I mean difficulties, knots, and
conundrums. I mean challenges to the mind,
which often people will say, now why did God even allow that
to occur? Why didn't God remove every suspicion,
every potential false allegation, every stumbling block that he
could have possibly removed so that Jesus could have come into
the world in a smooth, uneventful way? Let me answer that for you.
Because Christ had to become, in all points, just like us. Now just in case you didn't get
that, what that means is, you and I are scandal-ridden. You
and I are not smooth. Nothing is easy about our life.
Our life is filled with trouble. Our life is filled with challenges.
Our lives are filled with all kinds of problems of which on
a human level, in some cases, we cannot correct. We need the
divine nature to enter into our problem, to deliver us from the
inexorable problem that we have, of which not only we can't solve,
but nobody else can solve it. No one else can solve our problems
but God. This is the beauty of the incarnation.
He came to solve our problems. I'm getting to one of my further
points, but the point is is that when you read the gospel of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, this little family of Joseph and Mary struggle. First of all, notice what the
text says in verse 12 through 15. Matthew 2, verse 12 through
15. The wise men being warned of
god in a dream that they should not return to herod They departed
into their own country another way why? Because herod was out
killing up everybody That's crazy killing up everybody
verse 13 And when they were departed behold the angel of the lord
appeared to joseph in a dream saying Arise and take the young
child and his mother and flee into egypt Jesus had a mother
and a father that had to run for their life all because of
him. And be thou there until I bring
thee word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Now that's what kings do, especially
when they hear that another king is born. And the Magi had told
Herod specifically, your scriptures say this time there will be the
son of David rising up to sit on the throne. That means you're
done, dude. You're done. Now, if you sit here and let
that man grow up, you're a fool. And so he pursues Jesus to kill
him. And we find Mother Mary and Joseph
having to run for their lives. Under this particular contemplation,
the struggle of the king's family, what's fascinating about this
is this forces us to deal again with our own humanity because
Our life is full of struggle. It's a work for them to have
to get on a donkey, take all their goods. Remember they couldn't
get a U-Haul truck. They had to carry it on donkeys
and go all the way down to Egypt. They couldn't, you know, hire
a trucking company. They carrying all their stuff
down to Egypt. Down to Egypt they had to go until the death
of this Herod. That means they struggled and
they toiled like we do. Have you ever been displaced?
I have. And displacement is uncomfortable. And you know, I'm not gonna ask
you to answer this question, but have you ever had the authorities
coming after you? That too puts a little discomfort
on a brother. Now y'all don't have to ask,
a few of us know something about that. And so our Lord was in
that situation because he had to grow up with those experiences
so he can be a sympathetic high priest to real sinners. He has
to know what it's like to be displaced for no fault of his
own. Is that true? And so he can be
able to sympathize with you and me and our families when we get
in the same situations. You know, wars are going on all
around our world and you and I are in this little bubble called
America. And we don't know nothing about
the disruption of our lives in a minute's notice. That's why
we have to work so hard at teaching. I have to work so hard at teaching
to have God to open the text to us so that we can enter into
the narrative because we live in a bubble. Our experiences
don't even remotely compare to what went on in scripture or
what went on, what goes on now in the Middle East and in far
countries where disruption takes place all the time. Hearts would
break if we would take the time to talk about it. Our master
had to go down to Egypt. And that underscores a couple
of things because what's going on here in Jerusalem? Herod is
killing all the men children. He's killing all the men children
to and under. Listen to what it says here over
in verse 3. And when Herod the king had heard
these things, he was troubled and what? All Israel with him. Verse 16. Then Herod, when he
saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceedingly angry
and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem."
Isn't that ridiculous? He slew all the children that
were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years
old and under. According to the time which had
did they had diligently inquire of the wise men now Why did he
do that? He did that because his own throne was threatened
by the presence of Jesus But that he killed all those children
makes us ask the question to God. Why is that true? Why God some of y'all can be
honest in the house. Why would you do such a thing?
Well, I'll give you just a basic theological answer because mom
and daddy messed up at the beginning You guys remember that? Mom,
y'all learned this in biblical theology. God kicked him out
their house, out his house. Remember that? Because Adam and
Eve decided to put their fist in God's face and say, we know
what we're doing. God says, okay, since you ate of that tree, you're
going to be suffering pain and sorrow for the rest of your life.
And that's where humanity is right now. And sometimes the
evil is so rapid and so massive that you and I cannot get our
minds or our emotions around it. It seemed to make no sense
until you understand that there is a demonic world that has been
unleashed into the universe and can enter into the hearts and
minds of men and make them do the most barbaric things to their
own fellow men. Is that true? And they do. And
they do. And this is the world that our
master lived in. This is the world that his family
lived in. In fact, what's taking place here, as Luke now gives
the prophecy, he says over here in verse 16, the latter part,
he says, all the coast thereof, from two years old and under,
according to the time which had been diligently fulfilled by
the wise men, verse 17, then was fulfilled that which was
spoken by what? Jeremiah the prophet. Listen
to it. In Ramah, Was there a voice heard
lamentation and weeping and great mourning? This is Jeremiah 600
years before Jesus. prophesying of these events.
This is one of our arguments when the derelicts in atheism
or agnosticism would challenge the authenticity of scripture.
It's only one of a number of categories that we use to argue.
How can you claim the scriptures not being divine when the prophecies
of which they utter are thousands of years in advance and come
to pass specifically with great detail? How can you argue that
and then because we do study theology deeply we actually know
that scripture gives us multiple prophetic fulfillments Because
while Jeremiah is prophesying about the future Suffering of
Rachel of which we're looking at right now Jeremiah got that
from Rachel herself Remember sister Rachel and Genesis chapter
35 verse 16 listen to that account Genesis chapter 35 verse 16 remember
when she had little Benjamin pregnant with Benjamin and they
journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to come
to Ephrathah There it is Ephrathah the same place Watch this and
Rachel travailed and she had what? Go to verse 17 watch this
now and it came to pass when she was in hard labor Stop right
there. Where does that come from? Genesis
3 16 right Sorrow labor and travail shall
you bring forth children? Isn't that what God said? She
was in hard labor that the midwife said unto her do not fear you
shall have this son also watch verse 18 and It came to pass
as her soul was in departing For she died see it You guys
see it. You see the pain and sorrow mixed
with the joy and the blessing. I These are mixtures. These are ingredients that you
and I have to deal with until we finally get to glory. Understand
this. You will never have pure joy in this life. It will never
be a joy that is not also mingled with some kind of bitterness.
Even when we make desserts, we mix our sugars with our salts
to get it right because we're still in a broken, flawed world.
I tell folks, I tell when it, cause you know, I love eating.
Angelo was talking about, I forgot what part he was talking about
today. And I was saying to myself, brother, don't you know my, my
expectation around Christmas is all the food I get to eat.
I enjoy Christmas because of all of the food I get to eat.
Now, when we're talking about sweets, we're talking about making
sure that our sweets are balanced, both with salts and sugars, right? And that's because of our taste
buds, because you and I are corrupted by nature. There has to be a
balance in our pH in order for us to enjoy food. Here, it's
talking about our sister dying while having her son. She calls him Benonai. Why? Because
she was in sorrow while she had him. But his father, Jacob, called
him what? Benjamin, which means son of
my what? Joy. And this all points to Jesus. This is the first prophetic fulfillment. Jeremiah's text, Jeremiah 32,
is the second fulfillment. And the Matthew text we are in
now is the ultimate fulfillment. This is how you deal with scripture
on a prophetic level. What are my points before we
go to our next points and wrap this up? The struggle of the
king's family is the struggle of your family and mine. If the
royal family struggled, we all got to struggle. You guys got
that? If the royal family, I ain't
talking about President Bush, or I'm not talking about the
guy over there in Europe, President Obama, or the guy over in Europe,
I'm talking about the real royal family. If they struggle, we
gotta struggle. Sometimes we want to ask the
question, why are we struggling so much? What am I doing wrong,
Lord, that all this trouble that has come to our life? Now, we
might be doing something wrong and we certainly want to find
out if we are, isn't that true? But sometimes, do you know, you
don't have to be doing anything wrong for life to be a struggle. I mean, just yesterday, this
is so funny, just yesterday, a brother in the church came
to me, Pastor, the Lord really tried me. And I said, how? Well, I woke up this morning,
this was yesterday, and my car was gone. I said, the Lord sure
never tried you. Because I've been there before.
Aren't you tried when you go outside, you look in that parking
spot, and your car gone. And you know you didn't give
the keys to no one. That's a trial, isn't it? Because
see, now you got to think about the implications of that. And
then you, you know, in about the space of about 10 seconds,
you arguing with God. Yes, you are. God, why did you
let that happen? I mean, all kind of crazy stuff
going on in your brain. As if you don't deserve for somebody
to steal your car when there are cars being stolen every five
seconds in America. Just do the numbers. Your car
and my car coming next, right? So I'm bringing this down to
home so you can appreciate our Savior. See, because if He struggled,
we got to struggle. And my brother said, but you
know, the Lord was good. I remember, Pastor, something
you told me in a sermon a little while back. And once I was able
to wrap my mind around that precept, I went on in the house and went
to sleep. I told him, that's right. This
is what we mean by putting on the full armor of God. I'm segwaying
into another message. But remember, the full armor
of God are the promises of God. They are the bulwark that keep
you in the time of trouble. You put that helmet on, that
breastplate, you shod your feet, you put up your sword, you gird
your loins, and you can take all the hits because the promises
of God are yes and amen to those that believe. That's true. That brother went to sleep. Next
thing he know, his wife done found the car. Providence moved
in, someone sent a car around the corner. They went back and
got it. The only thing they had done was messed up all the CDs
that they had of our preaching here. The guy didn't take them.
They didn't take the CDs. They didn't take the messages.
They should have took the messages. Years ago, years ago, when I
was raising my family and living in the hood, because I've always
grown up in the hood. I love the hood. The hood has character.
It has character. You just have to keep your pistol,
that's all. The hood has character. And everybody knew I was a preacher.
So on Sunday, I'm going to church and they know I'm not going to
be home from 9 o'clock in the morning till about 3 o'clock
in the evening. I'm a sitting duck, right? And
they see the whole Gistan clan jump in the van, go to church.
Man, they can go have lunch, sit down, strategize. take their
time and pick my front door, which is what they did. They'd
go in my house and plunder whatever they wanted to. Okay. So I come
home and the door is open and stuff is taken. And because we
were poor, thankfully, it wasn't a whole lot you could take. There
was stuff we wish they would take, but they didn't take. Right? That's what you do when you're
poor. Why they didn't take this couch? This justify me to get
another couch. You should have took that. But
I got tired of them disquieting my wife and kids. So what I would
do, because I had other plans, I just want you to know. I had
other plans, but I was a Christian, and so those plans wouldn't work.
But I was saying, Lord, now if they ever come in the house while
I'm here, I don't have a other plan. This is the plan I got,
Lord. So don't let them come in the house while I'm here.
So I decided plan two, which the Lord wisely gave me, and
plan two was every window that they disjarred to get into my
house, every door that they twist and broke, sometimes they just
kick the door in. You know how these knuckleheads do. I went
around to every spot where they actually violated my house, and
I put a big old construction paper up, and you guess what
I did? I wrote Bible verses on the construction
paper and put it everywhere. Are you ready? Let him that steal,
steal no more, but let him work with his hands and provide that
which is honest in the sight of God. And I can give you a whole bunch
more verses that I put up on the window. And guess what? It
worked. Hallelujah. Now they probably thought I was
crazy and they really didn't want to test me beyond that,
but it still worked. Why do I say that? Because we
all go through struggles and we have to answer those struggles
biblically. And sometimes the carnal man, the natural man is
not going to understand how you answer them, but God will. See,
God knew my heart. He knew that I didn't want to
have to go 5150 or end up in prison because I had to raise
those babies, but I didn't have no option out other than take
construction paper and write Bible verses. So I reclined to
or declined to simply doing something I thought was ridiculous, but
maybe they would hear it. Guess what? They heard it. They
just left me alone. Never broke into my house again.
I still kept my pistol. Point number four. Point number
four and still due to this point number four the protection of
the king the protection of the king This is an interesting piece
of information and it's worth noting You can stretch this out
and teach a bunch of Bible studies on it Matthew chapter 2 verse
20 says that in verse 19 it says but when Herod was dead behold
an angel of the Lord appeared and 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 the angel now is coming to Mary and Joseph because they
have under the previous instructions hid the Lord Jesus you guys got
that kid the Lord Jesus now this is just important because Christ
is the central theme of all scripture do you believe that Which means
we're going to have what are called principles of recapitulation
running through the historical narrative Particularly when there
are motifs that God wants to teach us and this is called the
motif of being hid This is called the hidden motif Now when a thing
is precious to you And you want to make sure that no one accosts
or takes or steals it. Guess what you do with it. You
hide it So that motif runs all the way through the scriptures.
We can start with Moses. Remember Moses? Did his mother
hide him for several months while the Egyptian king was seeking
to kill all the men child in Egypt? She hid him. He was a
goodly child. And finally she sent him down
the river by faith, right? But that's a motif of hiding
because it speaks to the treasure in the child. in the days of
the king when apostasy was rampant in the church. And this is where
our ladies will be in biblical theology. There was a time when
the kings were killing their own sons in order to maintain
the throne. And do you guys remember the
little boy Joash? of whom Athaliah, whose great-great
grandmother was Jezebel and they had dominated and usurped the
throne and they was killing everything that was the seed royal because
they wanted to run the whole kingdom all by themselves. A
lot of theology in that. But the faithful took Joash and
did what? Hit him! Hit him until he was
old enough to actually occupy the throne with senators to help
him reclaim a biblical kingdom. Why? Because the devil was trying
to kill the seed royal. And do you know you and I are
hid as well? I love this. If you're a child
of the living God, you have been hidden in Christ. That's Colossians
chapter 3 verse 1, 2, and 3. You and I are hidden in Christ
because we are God's treasure. We are the hidden ones hidden
in Christ because there's a day coming when God's gonna manifest
his glory through us with him to the whole universe But right
now we're hidden because there is a contract out on our life
by the devil He would kill you if he could Now now now this
is one of the reasons why you don't actually Do what you would
or even what you could to the level that you would or that
you could You wonder why you don't achieve all the goals that
you really want to achieve for the Lord, for the Lord, for the
Lord. This is all for the Lord, you
say. It's really because you want to shine now. You want to
shine right now. You want to be standing over
against all the folks who has star over the top of their name.
But see, those people who have star over the top of their name
now are not one of God's hidden ones. See, he doesn't view them
as his treasure. His elect are his treasure. You
and I who believe the gospel are his treasure. And you know
what he does with his treasure? He puts it in a safe place. Hides it for a special day to
set it out and honor it. And that day for God's elect
will be the day when Jesus Christ will be manifested to the whole
universe. Until then, as he was here, you and I are here. And
you need to get comfortable with that because that's the reason
why there are limitations on your life. God limits you from
achieving certain goals so that you don't steal his glory and
so that the devil doesn't put a mark on you and kill you. Now
watch this. Because it may be what God will
do is grant you the opportunity to shine. But because of the
hidden motif that we're setting up, you probably better be ready
to die after you shine. Because once you shine, the devil's
going to put his radar on you, get his whole troop after you,
take you out. What is my argument for that?
The death of Christ. The death of Christ. So under
our PowerPoint, not only was he protected, but he died, didn't
he? He died the death. What the king
you see that this is brief. This is easy. This is easy. Do
you know why they killed him? Because it leaked out that he
was the king of Israel That's incredible It leaked out that
he was a king. He was the Messiah. He was God's
Holy Son that would be set on Zion and the rulers did not like
the fact that everyone was starting to believe it and Matthew's Gospel,
Matthew's chapter 21. I'm going to run you through
this briefly and we'll be able to close with our last point.
Why did they kill Jesus? Because he was the king. Why
did they kill him? Because as he went through doing
his ministry, you guys remember the ethic of Christ in his ministry? Christ did not make a bunch of
noise. Christ wasn't a showman. He wasn't out glorifying himself. He didn't go about to get everybody
in the world to go, look at me, look at me. Most of his ministry
was done in quiet. Most of his ministry was done
in secret. Frequently he would say to the people, don't tell
anyone. Do you know why? He would say
it. My time is not yet come. What time? To be killed. Why? Because when once we are
made manifest in the economy down here, you got to go. You
got to go. His time had come. He had shown
marvelously. Everyone in the world was talking
about Jesus. And guess what the leaders were
doing? Preparing to kill him. And so in Matthew's gospel, under
the death of the king, we deal now with some basic verses that
speak to it. In Matthew 21, verse 5, Here's
what it says. He's headed to Jerusalem this
verse 2 saying go into the village over against you and straightway
You shall find an ass tied and a coat with her Loose them and
bring them to me and if any man say anything to you You shall
say the Lord hath need of him and straightway. He will send
him And all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet saying what tell ye the daughter of
zion Here it is. Ladies and gentlemen. Are you
ready? Behold your king what comes unto thee how meek and
sitting upon an ass and a coat of the fold of an ass watch this
And the disciples went and did as jesus had commanded. How is
jesus coming into jerusalem now as a king? What is it going to
do for him kill him? And he knew it He knew it. So
now as we look at this, contemplate with me now verse 11. Look at
verse 11. And the multitude said, this
is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee. And the people now
are starting to make this noise and the rulers in the house are
starting to get a hold of this notion of Jesus coming in. Maybe
he wants to take over the kingdom. Verse 29. Look at verse 29. Here
it is. Matthew chapter. I'm sorry Matthew
chapter 27. We got to go now to the crucifixion
Matthews 27 verse 11 and then 29 Matthews 27 verse 11. What are we talking about the
death of the king? We're saying that part not in whole but part
of the reason for which they want to kill him is because of
his Claim to be the son of david and therefore king in jerusalem
matthews 27 verse 11 watch this is this this is him being accosted
By the rulers verse 9 then was fulfilled that which was spoken
by jeremiah the prophet saying and they took 30 pieces of silver
This is the price of betrayal, right? Of him and valued him
whom they of the children of Israel did value and they gave
them for the potter's field as the Lord had appointed and Jesus
stood before the governor and The governor asked him saying
what who is this pilot art thou what king of the Jews? See it
Jesus said now you say that I am in other words. He didn't deny
it verse 37 notice what it says in verse 37 As they are crucifying him, verse
35, and they crucified him and parted his garments, casting
lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet.
They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they
did cast lots. In other words, by the time Jesus
hung on the cross, ladies and gentlemen, he was naked. Verse
36, and sitting down, they watched him there, sitting there in their
utter insanity, watching him naked, being crucified, verse
37, and they set up over his head, his accusation written. Are you ready? This is Jesus,
the king of the Jews. Got it? Look at verse 42. This
is their mockery of him now. He saved others, himself he cannot
save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. Our master is hanging on the
cross because he called himself the son of God, which makes him
God, equal with God. Our master is hanging on the
cross because he called himself the son of David, which means
he's a king in Israel. But ladies and gentlemen, he
was king at his birth. And my final point is this. This king
is coming back in vengeance. That's Matthew chapter 25. Look
back there at verse 40. Just one verse. This very king
who was born king, who lived king, who died on the cross,
is coming back as a king in vengeance against the whole world. Watch
this. This is the parable he gives
of the sheep and the goats and we read in verse 40 and the king
shall answer Do you see it and say unto them verily? I send
to you in as much as you have done it unto the least of these
my brethren you have done it unto me He describes himself
as he sits on his throne and divides the nations verse 31
when the son of man shall come in his glory and the holy angels
with him then shall he sit on upon the throne of his glory.
We're talking about it earlier in our Sunday school class, the
preposition are on our end and what our elder was affirming
was the absolute unity of the father and the son as they co-regent
on the throne of absolute authority. And Jesus Christ has given authority
to rule over all of humanity. And ladies and gentlemen, he's
coming in vengeance. This is a horrible parable that
underscores eternal damnation, but also He's coming back in
glory. That's our final point. This
is easy. I can let you go on this. We
call him the king of glory, the king of glory. He possesses all
glory. This is the way Paul puts it
in first Timothy chapter six, verse 15, that he dwells in a
light of which no man can approach. He is the only potentate. King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the psalmist puts it this
way in Psalm 24. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, mighty in battle. He's the King of Glory. And know
what he says to you and me? Open up ye gates, ye everlasting
doors. And let the King of Glory come
in. Let the King of Glory come in. Open up ye gates, ye everlasting
doors. In other words, open your hearts.
to the lord jesus the king of glory and let him come in now
by faith trusting him to take over your life as lord bow to
his crown rights acknowledge his accomplishment at calvary
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself worship christ the
newborn king amen amen