If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 2. I've got some things, very few
things to say about the last chapter of Matthew chapter 2. These things are in general just
the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, but they're very
important But I'm going to try to deal this morning with the
very first part of the chapter concerning the wise men and the
star. So let's read through the first
several verses here of this chapter in Matthew. 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. 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 the prophets together, he
demanded of them where Christ should be born. You're going
to have to read some things into this. And the reason I'm saying
that is because you're not going to be able to understand what
he's talking about here purely in the light of this. You're
going to have to have some more understanding. And part of that
is what those Jews considered this Christ to be. He was going
to be an earthly king like David who was going to rise up And
he's going to conquer the nations around him and reestablish Israel. And that's why Herod was upset,
and that's why all Jerusalem was troubled over these things.
It's not just the fact that some prophecy was being fulfilled,
but it was who this man was and who he was understood to be.
And that was the talk of Jerusalem, and it was all stirred up. And
when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of
the prophets together, Verse 4, 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, talking about
Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. And thou, Bethlehem, in the land
of Judah, art 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 privately
called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time
the star appeared. He wanted to know the exact time
and place and all about that star. And he sent them to Bethlehem. And he 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. When
they 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." Now notice, they saw both. They saw Mary and they saw the
young child, but they didn't worship Mary. They fell down
and worshiped the Christ. And when they 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 unto Herod, they departed into
their own country another way. Now let's just stop there in
the chapter, and let me make some comments to you. In the
very last chapter and the very last verse of John's Gospel,
he says, and there are also many other things which Jesus did,
the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose
that even the world itself could not contain the books. There
was a lot of things that Jesus did that are not recorded in
the Bible. I don't know if you've ever even
thought about that or if that question's ever arisen in your
mind. But there's a lot of things concerning
Jesus of Nazareth that's not written in the Bible. And these
four Gospels are not an exhaustive biography of the Lord Jesus Christ
by any means. And they're not to be read that
way. These Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John are the testimony of God through these men of certain
things, and they're recorded to certain ends. They're given
to a certain end. This is not meant to be a biography. And a grand proof of that, I
don't want to chase rabbits too far, is the fact that there's
almost nothing written of his childhood. I don't know if you've
ever even considered that. That's a proof of the divine
inspiration of the scripture that hardly anything, anybody
who writes a biography of a man spends a third of the book talking
about the man's childhood, where he was born, and all about him,
and his upbringing, and where he went to school, and all these
things. When it comes to the Christ, there's hardly anything
said of his childhood. In fact, what we're reading right
here is the moat. John just passes over it. The
word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Starts right off with
his ministry. than he mentioned it. And so
you go through these Gospels and you'll find out that there's
very, very little said about his childhood. But it's impossible to know everything
about the Christ because He's eternal. This is God and man
in one person. And it says, once in the end
of the world hath He appeared. This is not His beginning by
any means. He has no beginning. He said,
I'm Alpha and Omega. And what he told John on the
Isle of Patmos and the last inspired writings of John out on that
island, he appeared before him, and John fell down at his feet
like a dead man. And he said, rise up. He said,
I'm Alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning and the ending.
Well, there could be a lot said about somebody who's the beginning
and the ending. I don't think the world could
hold the books either. But what's written in these things were
written to a certain end. We know only of Christ what God
has been pleased to preserve in the Word of God. And this
is why I tell people all the time, don't get stuck on that
old adage, well, it seems to me, or I think, that's got no
place in the faith of a believer whatsoever. You won't go to this
book. Because everything that we know about Jesus of Nazareth
is recorded in this book. And it's to the end that you
might believe. That's what it's there for. You
don't resort to natural reasoning and all those things. Turn with
me to the book of 1 John. Now, I know maybe all of these
things seem repetitious to you, or basic, or simple, or whatever. But when we're dealing with folks
who don't know anything whatsoever about the gospel, this is where
you have to start. You've got to start at the beginning.
And this is where our faith, it comprehends we've got to have
a beginning. We've got to have a good solid foundation. And
that's what these things are. I want to read a couple of passages
to you here. And remember what we're talking
about. We're talking about the testimony which God preserved
in this book concerning the person and work of His Son. So here in 1 John chapter 5,
look at verse 11, talking about the Word of God.
And this is the record. This is not what men think. It's not even what religious
men stand up and say. This is the record. The only
way that I know that you can tell if the man who stands up
here and teaches you is sin of God is that his message is according
to this book. If it's not according to this
book, then he's not sin of God. It has to be in line and in harmony
with God's testimony concerning his son. And that's what he says
here. If we receive the witness of
men, back up a few verses there, you'll see where he says that.
If we receive the witness of men, the testimony of God is
greater. His witness is greater. It's
greater. And this is the record that God
has given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son.
He that hath the son, that is, as God has set him forth in his
record. Don't take that out of it. Don't
twist this verse around some other way. This is talking about
he that hath the Son, according as God hath set him forth in
his record, he hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God, as God hath set him forth in his record, hath not life. And we know, look down verse
20. that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true and that we're in Him that
is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
in eternal life. Well, how can you know those
things? You can't apart from the record of God. You can't. So the importance of all these
little details concerning Jesus of Nazareth is to prove by the
testimony of God in the Scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ. We're not to speculate, we're
not to guess or imagine who He is, why He's come, what He came
to do, or who He came to do it for. That's what the heathens
do. Isn't it? Isn't that what Paul
said? They walk in the vanity of their
minds. They walk according to those
vain ideas and traditions and whatever it was they were raised
in and however it was they were raised. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul
talks about the risen ascended Lord, that He gave gifts to the
church as benefits of His accomplished work. He gave apostles and prophets. That's the writers of the Scripture.
Those are the men inspired of God who wrote this record of
God. And he gave evangelists and pastors and teachers. Those
are the ones that he inspires and calls and ordains to stand
and declare this gospel of Christ and teach this gospel of Christ.
And he tells us why these things are given. For the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, to bring us into the unity of faith. They're
just one faith. One baptism, one God, one Lord,
just one. They're not 50, not 60. Well, we're just all spokes in
a wheel. No, you're not. No, you're not. God's people all believe the
same thing. They're not divided. And that's why He sent these
gifts, and sent His Spirit, and sent the record, and sent all
these things, till we all come into the unity of the faith.
grounded and established and so on, and bring us into the knowledge
of the Son of God. And he said that he did this,
that we be not tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So he says, I therefore say unto
you that henceforth you walk not as other Gentiles or heathens
walk in the vanity of their mind. Now the whole of the Old Testament
Scriptures says somebody's coming. And it tells you who this somebody
is. It tells you what he's coming
to do. And he pictures him and figures him in the Old Testament
priesthood. He tells you that he's coming.
as a lamb, a lamb slain over and over and over, it tells you
in the New Testament. This is the lamb. Well, what was the
lamb? We're fixing to study that over in the book of Exodus here
real soon. That lamb that was slain, that
lamb who was roasted on the fire, that lamb, that lamb of God.
And John the Baptist said, behold the lamb. Here's the lamb. This
is that lamb of the Old Testament Scripture. He's going to be a
priest. But he's going to be a king priest like Melchizedek,
not just a single priest like Aaron, but a priest like Melchizedek
who's both king and priest. And on and on and on it goes
throughout the Old Testament and all the while saying somebody's
coming, somebody's coming, somebody's coming. And just keeps filling
in the details, the details of his life and where he'll be born
and what he's going to do and all these things. He's going to be like Moses to
deliver, instruct, and honor the law. He's going to be the
seed of the woman. Emmanuel, God with us. But to
identify Him as the Christ, He must fulfill all that's written
in the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Him. And thus you
have these Gospels, and about every three or four sentences
it says that it might be fulfilled which was written of the prophets.
And we'll get into that in the end of this second chapter. But
it's of the utmost importance to establish who Christ is, because
Christ is the Rosetta Stone. You know what that is? That's
that stone that unlocked those ancient hieroglyphics of the
Egyptians, that mysterious writing. Well, he is the Rosetta Stone
of the revelation of God that tells us who God is, and who
man is, and what this whole thing's about. It declares the mystery. And there's only one who can
do it, and that's the Christ, the Christ. And so that becomes
of utmost importance who this man is. And so that's the first
question of the gospel, who is this man? Everybody says, I know
Jesus, I've heard of Jesus, but who is he? Who is he? Why did he come? What did he
do? Those are the things that we
need to be asking. Now, here in Matthew chapter 2, we've got
a wonderful picture of what this coming is all about. These wise
men, it says, came seeking the King of Israel. Now, religion
says that there was three wise men. I can't find that anywhere
in the Scriptures. If it's in there, I've not yet
discovered it. It doesn't say how many wise men. It could have
been six of them, for all I know. It just says wise men. Might
only have been two. Just wise men. But there are several things
that I want you to see that I think are important here about these
wise men. And the first thing is what I've
been working on here all morning. The first thing is that they
all knew who they sought after. They sought after the king. Ain't
that what it says? They sought after the king. And they knew who they were after.
Now, I don't know if this was something they heard or something
they read from the ancient scrolls. I don't know. The Jews pretty
much kept those ancient scrolls in the temple and in various
synagogues where they transcribed them. And I don't know. The Ethiopian
eunuch had some because he unrolled them. And I don't know how he
got them, but he had a hold of some. And maybe that's what these
guys did. Maybe that's what they did. I
don't know. I kind of want to think that
they heard John the Baptist. They knew something was going
on because of his ministry. He went way out there in the
middle of nowhere, and all Judea went out there to hear him. All
Jerusalem went out there to hear him. And so this was an earth-shattering
thing that happened about that time. And everybody went out
there to hear him. And you know that what he preached
was being carried off into distant lands where they did their trading
and so on. In John chapter 3, it said, John
the Baptist said, He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. That's what he preached. He preached
this coming King. Isaiah chapter 40 declares the
voice of Him that cried in the wilderness and of His message
and all those things, if you want to read through that after
a while. But these wise men were made wise, is my point, by the
Word of God. Whether it was preached or whether
it was read, they were made wise unto this day. It's not something
they were born to know. Somebody told them and they believed.
Whether they read it or whether they heard it, And told him where he was going
to be, or the general area. And so they came there. And Herod
was the king there, and he heard of their coming, and he called
them into his audience to find out what it was they sought for. The point is you can't find the
Christ by natural reason and logic. Proverbs chapter 16, verse
25 said, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death. You can't go on what
seems right. And you're not going to find
him by wisdom and philosophy of men. Colossians 2.8 said,
beware lest any man's foal you through philosophy and vain deceit. You're not going to find it that
way. after the tradition of men and after the basic fundamental
principles of the world and not after Christ, you're going to
have to hear Him preached or you're going to have to read
of Him in the Word of God. That's the only way you're going
to learn. The only way you're going to know. Over and over and over, the Lord
says, your thoughts are not My thoughts and your ways are not
My ways. So let's don't follow our thoughts and our ways. Let's
follow His. Let's follow His. Now, turn with me to Romans chapter
16. Before the Scriptures tell us
what they did, there's a word there in Matthew, the word, behold. Now, he never says that unless
he's calling something to your attention. And he said, behold,
wise men came from thee. Now, you stop and consider that.
And the word in the Greek for wise men is magos or magi, if
you want to follow it to its end. And it means an astrologer,
a magician, a scientist. And almost every other place
you find it is in connection with idol worshipers and in a
bad way. That was Pharaoh's magicians. That's what they were, magos.
Astrologers, wise men after the flood. But isn't that what Christ's
coming is all about? Don't He take those who are steeped
in their own wisdom and make them wise unto salvation? He
takes the least likely of men. The very least likely, if you
gathered them all up here in a group and you stood up here
and somebody said, now you go through here and you pick the
most likely to be saved. The least likely you'd ever pick
is these magicians and astrologers. That's the very first ones he
brought. The very first ones he brought. Scripture said, not many wise
men after the flesh. That word is magos. Not many,
but there's some. There's some. Now look here in
Romans 16, verse 25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and
by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith. That's what these Old Testament
scriptures are called. They're to point us to this Christ. What am I saying this morning?
I'm saying that you can believe on Jesus all you want to. And
you can accept Jesus all you want to and it won't avail you
anything until you learn of God and a connection is made between
Him and the very character and purpose of God. It's not going
to do you any good just to believe on a name Jesus with no understanding
of who He was. When it talks about His name,
it's not talking about His name Jesus, it's talking about what
he represents in his character and in his coming. He's talking
about that name of God that's declared in him. Let me read you one more scripture
over here in 2 Peter chapter 1. These wise men saw a star. What was that all about? I dug,
and dug, and dug, and dug, and dug, and there's nothing in the
Old Testament prophecies about this star. But they called it
his star. They saw his star. They knew
it was his star. And they followed that star.
And that star led them to Christ. So what in the world? Right here
at the very beginning, he's a child, he's laying here in the manger,
and God leads these wise men to him. concerning this star,
and half of Matthew chapter 2 is taken up with this star. And
I looked and looked and looked, and there's nothing in there.
There's no prophecies about this star. There's nothing in there
about this star leading anybody anywhere. So I finally, just
out of desperation, I just looked up the word star and started
going everywhere where it was recorded. You know what the star
is? He revealed himself to John in
the book of Revelation, and in his hand he had seven stars.
Is that what he had? What were they? They were preachers. He had seven preachers. Seven
pastors of seven churches. Now those seven churches and
those seven pastors were very significant in the book of Revelation
because this is God's declaration to the world. This is the pillar
and ground of the truth in the church. And those pastors were
preachers of God declaring the gospel to men. In the book of
Jude, just listen to me for a minute. In the book of Jude, the false
prophets are described as shooting stars. Now, what do you call
them? Wandering stars. And they blaze
up in a big, bright blaze of glory, and then they fade off
into a darkness forever, is what it says in the book of Jude. These stars have to do with preachers
and the gospel being proclaimed to the world, but most especially
in this star that I'm picturing to read to you about right here.
And this star, when he talks about the day star, he's talking
about the sun. That's the closest, most brightest,
glorious of all the stars in heaven is the sun. And he likens
Christ unto the Son. Now watch this, 2 Peter 1 verse
19. Now Peter said before this that
he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw the Lord transfigured
before his eyes. He saw Moses and Elijah talk
to him. He saw all these wonderful things.
And you can go on and on and on. I mean, he was taught of
Christ. Walked with Christ for three and a half years. All of
these wonderful things. But he said here in verse 19,
we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do
well that you take heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day star arise in your heart. That day dawn.
That bright light. You see that? Where does the
sun rise? Where did they find the star?
In the east. Where did it lead them? It led
them to Christ. It led them to Christ. And not
only that, but it led them through all those places that they needed
to go in God's providence to learn exactly where He was at.
It led them over here to Jerusalem. And then it led them into Pharaoh's
house. I mean, into Herod's house. And then Herod inquired of the
Jews, and they told him where it was and gave him the Scripture.
They took Micah chapter 5 and followed it right to where the
Son of God lay in a manger. And then throughout the rest
of this chapter, here in Matthew chapter 2, We're going to find
out that Jeremiah 31, 15 was fulfilled. Hosea 11, chapter
1 was fulfilled. And Isaiah chapter 11, they're
all fulfilled right here in Matthew chapter 2. That's what that preaching, that's
what those stars do. Those stars lead men to Christ. They don't do anything else.
That's what they're for. You want to go out here at night
and you look up at those stars in heaven, that's what those
stars represent. That's what those stars represent.
And they saw his star. Now these men were wise men. They were philosophers. They were ungodly men. But these
ungodly men came to see God's star. How do you do that? By
the grace of God. by the grace of God. And that's
the only way you'll ever see it. And when you do see it and
recognize it, what's that story do? It takes you to Christ. You
see what a beautiful picture that is? Right off the hill,
he's still just a baby, John. And God worked all this out and
brought them all right up to him. And when they saw him, what'd
they do? All their treasures, everything
they had, they laid it at his feet.