When Jesus shows his smiling face, there is sunshine in the soul.
There is music in my soul today, a carol to the king.
And Jesus is listening and hearing the songs I cannot sing.
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine, when the peaceful happy moments roll.
When Jesus shows his smiling face, there is sunshine in the soul.
There is springtime in my soul today, for when the Lord is near.
I've got no pieces in my mind.
I've got things I know.
I've got sunshine, blessed sunshine, when the peaceful happy moments roll.
When Jesus shows his smiling face, there is sunshine in the soul.
There is light in my soul today, when the Lord is near.
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine, when the peaceful happy moments roll.
When Jesus shows his smiling face, there is sunshine in the soul.
Let's pray.
In Jesus' name we pray.
All right.
Good morning, everybody.
Welcome to Verity Baptist Church.
Church take out your bulletin here today and happy Independence Day one day early
and of course we do have a so many marathon tomorrow for Independence Day
but let's start by counting up salvation's so in the back section did
anybody have any salvation's to report from this past week to anybody else all
right how about in this section here any salvation's to report anybody that I'm
not aware of and how about in this section any salvation's to anybody else
all right so for salvation's anybody I missed all right and so of course as I
said we have soul winning tomorrow for soul winning marathon for Independence Day at
caisson Memorial Circle obviously weather permitted depending on you know
you never really know this time of year and of course we have soul winning this
afternoon at 1 45 weather permitted as well we'll see what takes place but
anyways next week is Father's Day so we have choir practice today next week the
men's choir will perform for Father's Day and then we have the Father's Day
bowling event so we have the sign up sheet back there for the bowling event
so if you're a man whether you're a father or not and you would like to join
for the bowling event obviously you're welcome to and so in any broken TVs
we're not going to pay for so if you throw the ball in the air and it hits a
TV I know there's a lot of first-time bowlers you know just aim on the ground
last week it was a joke okay just go like that all right but it should be a
lot of fun and then on the 25th this month in two weeks is our monthly prayer
meeting so I believe that's it for announcements while brother after you
lead us in another song
even I feel willing to my way to nip on attium where I think Maroona him now
put the photo is a heme number two zero eight
number two zero
yeah
grace persons are ready saying
yeah
Praise, praise! Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Save me, spear, like a spear!
Please, Lord, give me my soul!
In the name of Jesus!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
In the name of Jesus!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise! Praise, praise!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Praise, praise!
To the Lord our Savior!
Amen.
Amen for scripture reading.
Please open your Bibles to the book of Matthew.
Matthew chapter 2.
First book of the New Testament.
Matthew chapter 2.
And we will only be reading verses 11.
Verse 11 down to verse 23.
Matthew chapter 2.
11 to verse 23.
Please say Amen if you're there.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 2.
11 to verse 23.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 2.
Verse 11.
And when they were coming to the house,
they saw the young child with Mary his mother,
and fell down and rushed of him.
And when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts.
Gold and frankincense and myrrh.
And being warned of God and dreamed that they should not return to Herod,
they departed into their own country another way.
And when they were departed,
behold the angel of the Lord appeared to them,
to Joseph in a dream saying,
Arise and take the young child and his mother,
and flee into Egypt,
and be thou there until I bring thee word,
for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
When he arose,
he took the young child and his mother by night,
and departed into Egypt.
I was there until the death of Herod,
that it might be fulfilled,
which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets saying,
Out of Egypt have I called my son.
When Herod,
when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,
was exceeding wrath,
and sent forth,
and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem,
and of all the coasts thereof,
from two years old and under,
according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Then it was fulfilled that which was spoken
by Jeremy the prophet saying,
In Ramah was there a voice heard,
lamentation and weeping,
and great mourning,
racial weeping for her children,
and would not be comported, because they are not.
But when Herod was dead,
behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
saying,
Arise and take the young child and his mother,
and go into the land of Israel,
for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
And he arose and took the young child and his mother,
and came into the land of Israel.
But when he had heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea
in the room of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go thither.
Notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream,
he turned aside into the parts of Galilee,
and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets,
he shall be called a Nazarene.
Bless the ring of God's word, let us pray.
Lord God in heaven, we thank the Lord for this day given to us.
I pray that you would please bless the Lord for this day.
I pray that you would please give us good weather for our soul,
and our fellowship later on.
And give us good health, O Lord, this day.
And love you in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Alright, we're here in Matthew chapter 2.
Of course we're going verse by verse through the book of Matthew.
And the first sermon was more of like
kind of a hard preaching type sermon.
This is more of just kind of informational
as we go verse by verse through the book of Matthew.
And the name of the sermon is,
Prophecies Fulfilled by the Birth of Jesus Christ.
Now we're in Matthew 2,
and notice what it says in verse 11.
And when they were coming to the house,
they saw the young child with Mary as mother,
and fell down and worshipped him.
And when they had opened their treasures,
they presented on them gifts, gold and frankincense and mirror.
And as we talked about last week,
these wise men, which we don't know how many there were,
they're coming with the purpose to worship Jesus.
These are not astrologers,
they are not zorists,
they are not astrologers,
they are not zorastrian priests or sorcerers
or whatever you see on YouTube.
It says they're coming to worship
because they realize Jesus is God in the flesh.
And they are wise men because
he that win his souls is wise.
These are soul winners, people that love God
that are coming for the birth of Christ.
But in this verse, notice how it says,
and when they were come into the house,
then it says they saw the young child.
And as I briefly said last week,
this is not right after the birth of Jesus
like you see in a nativity scene.
This is not at a manger,
and it's not when he's newly born,
this is actually at a house.
Now to understand this,
we have to compare Matthew 2 and Luke 2.
So go to Luke 2.
Luke 2.
And notice what it says in Luke 2.
And it came to pass in those days
that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed.
This is of course at the time
Rome owns the world, so they decide
let's tax everybody.
Verse 2, and this taxing was first made
when Cyrenius was governor in Syria
and all went to be taxed,
everyone into his own city.
When it says they go into his own city,
it doesn't necessarily say
It doesn't necessarily mean
where they are living.
They have to actually go back where their roots are
and what you're going to see is Joseph and Mary,
they will travel back to Bethlehem
for this to take place,
which is when the birth of Jesus
actually takes place.
They're not living in Bethlehem though.
They are married, they're a spouse,
as the Bible says, spouse, husband and wife.
Jesus has not yet been born.
They're in Nazareth, but they have to go to Bethlehem.
Notice what it says in verse 4.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee
out of the city of Nazareth
into Judea onto the city of David
which is called Bethlehem
because he was the house and lineage of David.
And so they're living in Nazareth,
but they've got to go back to Bethlehem
for the taxing.
And it says here in verse 5,
to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife
being great with child.
And so basically when it says
great with child,
it's saying she's about to give birth.
Now we don't know how far along she is,
but certainly
in the last trimester I would say
if you're saying great with child,
probably at the 8 month mark
at least is what my guess would be.
Anyway, here's the thing.
Traveling in today's world
is not necessarily a smart thing
if a wife is about to give birth.
You know, many times a wife's about to deliver
and you've got to be very careful
because you don't want to provoke pregnancy
or from the birthing process
that's going to take place too early
because the body might not be ready.
So many times ladies will be on bed rest
the last month before they give birth
or even more sometimes.
Well, she is not on bed rest here.
This is right at the end
and she is actually traveling.
Not in a nice air conditioned car.
You know,
it's obviously not that easy to travel
during this time period.
Now they say the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem
is 90 miles
from what I read.
And 90 miles supposedly you could travel
20 miles in one day.
But, I mean,
if a wife is about to give birth
probably divide that by two.
You know, I'm not really sure but I'm guessing
10 miles in a day.
It could be like a 9 day journey
just to pay your taxes.
Now look, none of us like to pay taxes.
It's not fun.
But at least it's not a 9 day event
one direction
And so of course she's great with child
about to give birth
and now you've got to travel in a very difficult way
to pay your taxes.
Verse 6
And so it was that while they were there
the days were accomplished
that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her first born son
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now of course this is not the perfect scenario
because the best scenario
would be to give birth in Nazareth
where you live.
It's not what takes place though.
Now even in something like this you could say
well at least it didn't happen on the journey
because it says once they're actually there in Bethlehem
so at least they got there
when she actually gives birth
but she lays the baby, lays baby Jesus
in a manger because there's no room in the inn.
You know, one of her songs in her hymnal is
no room in the inn.
Right?
And so this is not at the house.
The Bible uses the word manger
and that is different than the house
that the wise men visited.
Verse 21.
And when eight days were accomplished
for the circumcising of the child
his name was called Jesus
which was so named of the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
And then of course Old Testament law
the circumcision for a male child took place at eight days
which from my understanding I think you have
a higher level of vitamin K production
at any point at eight days
and this is what I've heard. I'm not an expert by any means in that.
But eight days was the process.
So of course they're waiting eight days
they're going to do the circumcision.
Verse number 22.
And when the days of her purification
according to the law of Moses were accomplished
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
And so it says here in verse 22
and when the days of her purification
now you've got
Joseph, Jesus, and Mary.
Her is referring to which one?
Obviously Mary.
It doesn't say the days of his purification.
Doesn't say the days of their purification.
Their would imply there's more than one.
The days of her purification.
What's interesting is that's not what it says
in other versions though.
In the ESV it says
and when the time came for their purification
their and her are very different.
In the NLT it says
then it was time for their purification offering.
Once again that's very different than her.
The new hot Bible on the market is the CSB.
That's the new one that's really popular now.
And it says
and when the days of their purification
so all of them are contrary to the King James.
Now of course your question is
well what is it referring to?
What does that mean, her purification?
Well go back to Leviticus chapter 12.
Leviticus chapter 12.
You might say well why does this matter brother Stuckey?
Well we're going to see why it matters.
Leviticus chapter 12.
And the Bible says in Leviticus chapter 12
the third book in your Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.
Leviticus chapter 12.
And by the way this shows that
every book in the Bible is important
because we're looking at Leviticus.
This is not exactly where you'd stop in Leviticus 12
and say oh this is really important.
And yet as we're looking at the New Testament, the book of Matthew
it's like we're going back to Leviticus 12
to see what does it mean, her purification.
Leviticus 12 verse 6.
And when the days of
her purifying are fulfilled.
So once again that's accurate. This is the same thing.
Her purification, her purifying.
Right? Not there, but her.
It says
for a son or for a daughter
she shall bring a lamb
of the first year for a burnt offering
and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering
onto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, onto the priest.
The Bible says when a woman would give birth
she had to have a purification
for herself
because it says there's
a burnt offering and then it says
a sin offering.
And what it's saying is that the woman
who gives birth is a
sinner. And of course
that makes sense if you're not Catholic.
Because everybody's a sinner.
There's none righteous, none
not one. Now of course if you're Catholic
and you worship Mary you've got a bit of a problem.
Why is it Mary
has a purification for sin if she's sinless?
But see obviously
Mary is a sinner just like everybody
else. But here's where it's a problem with the modern versions.
Mary is a sinner.
Guess who's not a sinner?
Jesus.
And when the Bible's saying
their purification, you know what it's
saying in the NLT, ESV, and
CSB? That Jesus
was born with original sin and is
a sinner just like us. Now number one
we're not born with original sin.
What original sin is
is well you're born guilty
so you've got to baptize away those sins.
Well we're not born guilty because babies
go to heaven when they die.
But here's the thing, even outside of that
Jesus never did sin. Because the Bible
says in Him is no sin. And these
modern versions say their purification
they are making Jesus
a sinner when He needed
no purification offering.
It says in the days of
her purifying.
It was her sin.
So what do we see? Well Mary
was a sinner. Jesus
was not a sinner.
And of course as Bible-believing Christians
that makes perfect sense.
But when you change that word
just a little bit and change the pronoun
obviously now you've just changed
the entire meaning.
The Bible says the days of her purifying
and it's a purifying for a sin offering
because Mary was a sinner
just like every man
and every woman outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh
is a sinner. Verse 7
who shall
offer it before the Lord and
make an atonement for her and she shall be
cleansed from the issue of her blood. This
is the law for her that hath borne a male
or a female. And if she
be not able to bring a lamb then she shall
bring two turtles or two young pigeons, the
one for the burnt offering and the
other for a sin offering and the priest shall make an
atonement for her
and she shall be clean. Now the turtle
here is referring to a turtle dove.
Okay. But it says
you bring a lamb.
If you are not able to bring a lamb
you bring two turtle doves
or two young pigeons.
Okay. We'll go back to Luke chapter 2.
Luke 2.
And it says in Luke 23
as it is written in the law of the Lord
every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy
to the Lord and to offer sacrifice
according to that which is said in the law of the Lord
notice this, a pair of two
turtle doves or two young pigeons.
Now when the Bible said she shall not be able to
bring a lamb, what it's saying
is they cannot
afford a lamb
for an offering. That's what it's saying.
It's not saying they can't
bring it because you could buy a lamb
somewhere. It's saying they cannot afford
to offer a lamb. And the fact that
they went to the back up offering
shows us that Joseph and Mary
were not rich.
Right? You know this idea, this health,
wealth and prosperity gospel that if
you're right with God you're going to have great
wealth, great health and everything's
going to be awesome. Really
because the characters in the Bible don't seem
to be wealthy most
of the time. Now of course there's people like
Job who's wealthy and of course
money is not sinful
in and of itself. It's the love of money.
But here's the thing. You can be right with God
and love God and God is blessing your life
and you're not rich.
Money is not a proof of being
right with God by any stretch of the imagination.
And so Joseph and Mary, they're not
rich because they're doing the back up offering.
They cannot afford, they're not
able to bring a lamb for an offering
according to the Word of God.
Go to verse number 39.
Verse 39.
And when they had performed
all things according to the law
of the Lord, so they do the circumcision
and they do the offering, they
get all of this done. We don't necessarily know
how long everything takes, but
if it takes nine days to get
there and you're there for another
three weeks or whatever
and then you go back, it's
like a 40 day vacation
but it's not really like a vacation.
It's like your whole
time period you're just kind of dealing with various
problems or various things you have to do.
And it says in verse 39,
and when they had performed all things according to the
law of the Lord, they returned into
Galilee to their own city, Nazareth.
So why is Nazareth their own
city? Well that's where they were living
before they had to travel
to do the taxes from Bethlehem because
Joseph had the lineage which we saw
from the book of Matthew.
It's his genealogy. He had
that lineage directly from David
and so they had to go back to Bethlehem.
The baby's born
in Bethlehem as is prophesied. We
saw that in the last few weeks. And then they
go back to their own city to
Nazareth. Okay?
Then it says in verse number 12,
actually go back to
Matthew 2 I should say.
Matthew chapter 2.
And it says in
Matthew 2 verse 11, and when they were
come into the house. So once again
this is not at the manger.
All of these things right now, Matthew 2 verse 11,
when the wise men visit Jesus
the circumcision took place,
the purifying for sin
for her, for Mary took place
and now they're going back
and it says, and when they were coming to the house
the wise men, they saw
the young child with
Mary as mother and fell down and worshipped him
because obviously they're coming to
worship Jesus Christ. They understand this is
God in the flesh, the Messiah,
the Christ that's been prophesied.
This is not right after the birth of Jesus
and so obviously news
traveled a little bit more slowly back then
but news has traveled
and they've heard about this and then they go
to visit Jesus Christ and they're going to
Nazareth here where the house is.
Okay? Then it says
in verse number 12,
and being warned of
God in a dream that they should not return to Herod
they departed into their own
country another way. Now when it says
into their own country
that would indicate they lived in
the same country. It doesn't
say into their own country.
It says into their own country, so their
own country. The way I would read that
is they all live in the same country
which would make sense to me because as I said
I believe these are soul winners and they know
each other. So it's kind of like a group of people that
love God saying, hey, let us go to
worship Jesus Christ. Verse number 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 and
be thou there until I bring thee word
for Herod will seek the young child
to destroy him. And
so basically they go to pay the
taxes in Bethlehem.
Jesus is born. They have the
purifying offering. They have the
circumcision. They go back to their
own location. They're in Nazareth
and now they're being warned, you know,
you've got to get out of there. And
so
they say that they're going to seek the young child
to destroy him. When he
rose he took the young child and his mother
by night and departed
into Egypt. Now go to Matthew 24
real quickly. Matthew
24.
Look, obviously this is
very difficult, you know,
giving birth, you're on the road and
traveling and everything. And it's like, man, why does it
seem like there's all these problems? And of course
you know, you're going to a new location
into Egypt. You can't put
your resume online for a new job or
whatever. It's like you're going to Egypt. It's like
where am I going to live?
What am I going to do for work? I mean this
is what's taking place when Jesus
is very, very young. And then
Joseph and Mary, their lives are kind of, you know,
pretty chaotic. It's
pretty difficult at this time. Now I
want to show you one verse
of the difficulty of traveling with young kids.
And notice what it says in Matthew 24 verse 19.
And
woe unto them that are with child and to
them that give suck in those days. With
child would be you're pregnant.
That's the terminology because life
begins at conception. So the life
inside the belly is a human life
with child. And of course
she was traveling as they're going to
pay the taxes to Bethlehem. But
it also says woe to the person that is
giving suck, which would be saying
breastfeeding. That is the terminology.
That would be a very young child,
right? A baby or a very young
child, wherever you'd put the cutoff point
within a couple years. So what the Bible's saying
is it's very hard to travel
if you're pregnant or you have very
young children with you. And if you're
a parent, you can say that is true.
We've got three children
and the oldest is five.
It's difficult. It's hard.
Right? I mean Zeph's at the age he can kind
of just walk himself, but it's still hard.
It's like, you know, Christa Bausch, she
can, but sometimes you've got to carry her.
And Ezra can technically walk,
but it's like obviously it's a lot easier
just kind of scooping him up and going.
And so it's hard to travel with
young children. And what I'm
showing you is that the life
of Joseph and Mary was not easy
when they give birth.
And then after that
their life is a bit chaotic.
Now go to Romans 8.
Romans 8. And you know,
when your life runs into problems,
the natural tendency
might be, well, I
must not be right with God
because I've got problems.
Now that is certainly
possible. Personally,
individually, if you're having problems
in your life, you should look at your life
and ask yourself.
But also, we have characters like
Job. And Job was doing
nothing wrong. Job hadn't
committed major sins. I mean, he's a sinner
just like all of us, but
Job is right with God and he has
problems. And in this room, and we've got a big
attendance here today, I think we have 85,
which I think is the second highest we've
had. We've got a huge attendance. And here's
the thing. Right now there are people in this
church that you're reading the Bible every day,
you're serving God, you love God,
and yet you have problems in your life.
Yet things aren't going perfectly.
You know, when you
started coming to this church, many of you were very
excited for this church, and you might have just naturally
thought, now that I'm at a good church,
all my problems will be gone.
I hate to break it to you,
that's not what the Bible says.
You're going to have problems in your life.
Anyway, here's the thing. You could go to
a bad church and
you're healthy and wealthy and everything
seems great. That doesn't mean that
God's blessing you just because life
is going well for you.
You can't just look at what's going on in
your life to determine if you're right with God.
You say, well, Brother Sucky, how do I
know if I'm right with God? Well,
what's the whole duty of man? Fear
God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
So here's the question. Are you keeping God's
commandments?
Now, of course, none of us are perfect,
but are you doing a good job obeying
what God says?
Now, if you're not, that doesn't mean you're not
saved, but it means you're not right with God.
You can't really say you
love God if you're disobeying
what He says, because if you love Me, keep
My commandments. So here's the thing. If you're not
keeping God's commandments, where's the proof
you love God?
And so the question is, are you obeying
God's commandments? Are you reading the Bible
every day? It's like, well, Brother Sucky,
I don't know where my Bible is.
And then you find it. Man, why is there
all this dust on it?
Got spiders on it and all that.
It's like, yeah, because you don't read it much.
And so here's the thing. If you're not obeying
God's commandments, you're not right with
God. But here's the
thing. Just because you are
obeying God's commandments,
you know, it doesn't mean
everything's going to be perfect.
It's like, man, I started going to church.
I'm reading the Bible, and I haven't gotten a
promotion in six months. I quit church.
Is that why you're at church?
So you can become rich?
Because I think God sees your heart.
Man looketh on the outward appearance.
The Lord looketh on the heart. So God can see
that what's inside of your heart is pretty wicked
if that's your attitude. So
here's what I'm saying. Mary
and Joseph, by all indications,
are right with God.
Mary was a sinner just like
everybody else, but at the same time,
God chose Mary to give
birth to Jesus Christ. There's
a good chance she's the greatest woman that ever
lived, right? She's obviously a very
godly lady. In fact, the angel
says, I've chosen you because you're so
godly, right? There's
no indication that Mary and Joseph,
well, you know, they're having these problems
because they started drinking. There's no indication
of that. They're godly.
They're good people, and yet they have
problems, right? Why?
Because you can have problems even if you're right
with God. Now notice what it says in Romans 8, verse
28. Romans chapter 8,
verse 28.
When you are right with God,
and you're going through problems, this is
an encouraging verse to
remind yourself of.
The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 28,
And
we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to
His purpose. Look, not
everything in your life is going
to be perfect.
Not everything is going to be great.
But if you love God,
you're serving God and doing right,
things work together for good to
them that love God. And so Joseph
and Mary could look at their lives, and it
seems like a mess on the outside,
but
it worked together for good. And what we're
going to see here is going to
see that Egypt actually helped fulfill
prophecy in the Bible.
And they actually took place
of history in the Bible
that was being fulfilled, which is pretty amazing.
And of course, here's the thing,
their life was a struggle, it was
difficult, and yet God provided for them
every step of the way.
Turn your Bible to Matthew 2.
Matthew 2.
Matthew chapter 2.
Now, you hear a lot of weird
things though. I heard something from one of our members
in Pampanga yesterday, and it's like
I never cease to be amazed
at the things that you hear. And like
they had heard from their old preacher that
you know, Jesus was
in Egypt for a really long time
until He was an adult, and the proof of that
is because He's very wise. He must have studied
in Alexandria, Egypt, you know,
at the library that Alexander the Great made.
He had the wisdom of the Greeks that
He learned, and it's like
the Bible says the wisdom of the Greeks
is foolishness!
I'm sorry, but if you read
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
you'd be like, they're fools.
They're wise by the
world's standards,
not by God's standards.
I mean, here's the thing,
you know, you can learn, because you know,
Alexander was supposed to be like the greatest
math city ever, you know, that's what I learned in college
when I got my degree.
It's like, you know what, you can learn how to
add and multiply in another place too.
Right?
It's not like there's this hidden wisdom from the Greeks
or another cute thing you hear
is people say that
Jesus Christ from the age of 12 to 30
He was over in India
studying Hinduism or studying Buddhism.
Both Hinduism and Buddhism claim Jesus.
And they're like, this is the location
and you can see that He was
secretly a Buddha
from 2,000 years ago.
It's like, I'm pretty sure when He said
He's the only way to heaven that kind of gets rid
of your philosophy there of
studying in India from all these
false religions, right?
He's in Egypt and what's taking place is
prophecy gets fulfilled. Notice what it says
in Matthew 2 verse 15.
And was there until
the death of Herod
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet saying,
out of Egypt have I called my son.
Now, we're going to go back to
Matthew 2 in a second, but go to
chapter 11 in your Minor Prophets.
So, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea.
Hosea chapter 11.
Hosea chapter 11 in your Old Testament.
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea.
Hosea chapter 11.
And I want to show you where this is quoted from
and this is really interesting because
if you were to read the book of Hosea
you would never know
that this is going to help fulfill prophecy
in Jesus Christ a long time later.
Because notice what it says in Hosea 11 verse 1.
When Israel was a child
then I loved him
and called my son out of
Egypt.
Now, here's the thing. As you read
Hosea 11 verse 1
what is that making
you think of?
Moses. Right?
You're thinking of Moses.
Because obviously, you know what, Moses led the people
into the Promised Land. Right?
And so here's the thing.
Is Hosea 11 verse 1
talking about Moses?
Well, it actually is.
Because there are verses, especially in prophetic
sins, that have multiple
fulfillments. And so Hosea 11
verse 1 is actually
explaining what took place with
Moses when you get to the book of Exodus.
But it's
also fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus Christ
that out of Egypt have I called
my son. Right?
So you have verses that are like basically a dual
fulfillment of prophecy. And the first one is referencing
back to Moses.
But Hosea 11 verse 1 is also
prophesying about what would take place with Jesus
Christ as well. Go to Matthew chapter 2.
Matthew 2.
And so not only that, but in
Matthew 2 verse 16 we see another example
of prophecy that is
going to be fulfilled. We're in Matthew 2
verses 16 through 18. Verse 16.
Now, here's the thing.
Aborting a baby
is wicked. It's evil.
It's murder. Because the Bible teaches
life begins at conception.
Because when you cross-reference in your
Bible, going from Matthew 1,
it's like, you know, talking about
Mary, a virgin shall be with child
and a virgin shall conceive.
And so when you compare spiritual with spiritual,
life begins at conception.
A virgin shall be with child. A virgin
shall conceive. So at least in your King James, you
can compare those and see, okay,
life begins at conception according to the
Word of God. Well, aborting a baby
is obviously a wicked sin because that's
murder. At the same time,
I mean, how much more
when you can actually see that
baby? Right?
I mean, it's just like to be the person
that would murder a baby
that you can see, it's like,
you know, what kind of person is that?
Well, someone without a conscience.
Someone who's reprobate. Someone who's just evil
and wicked. Right? You can't
really think because a child is the most
innocent thing that you could think of.
And to harm a little
child. And it's not just one child.
It says all of the children,
two years old
and under. Right?
And the idea is, well, he's killing them in Bethlehem.
Why? Well, because what he's heard is
that the child's going to be born in Bethlehem,
which is true. What he doesn't
really realize is they're going to be going back to
Nazareth. But here's the thing. If you're the
king, eventually you're going to find out.
So they kill
all the children in Bethlehem. Eventually
word's going to get out and then they're going to go to
Nazareth and then they're going to find Jesus
and kill him. So that is why
Joseph is warned and Mary's warned
and then they flee into Egypt
and they go there to hide out.
Okay, verse 17.
Then was fulfilled
that which is spoken by Jeremiah the prophet
saying, And Ramah was there
a voice heard, lamentation and weeping
and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children and would not be comforted
because they are not.
So this is actually fulfilling prophecy
in the book of Jeremiah. So go to Jeremiah chapter
31.
Jeremiah chapter 31.
And there's
a lot of quotes from the New Testament
to the Old Testament, especially in the Gospels.
I just want to take the time to show these to you.
Showing you we can trust what the Bible says.
If it says it's written in Jeremiah,
that means it is written in
Jeremiah. Right?
And so here's what it says
in
Jeremiah 31 verse 15.
Thus saith the Lord,
a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation
and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children
refused to be comforted for her children
because they were not.
And look, obviously
if somebody read this during that time period,
they're probably going to be very confused.
Like, what is this talking about?
In fact, some might think to Rachel herself
and saying, you know,
I thought she died, right?
You know, in actual labor, but it's saying
she's weeping for her children.
Like, what is actually taking place here?
And what's taking place is the Bible is prophetically
referring to the birth of Jesus Christ
and then after the birth, you know,
all of these children.
Go back to Matthew 2.
Matthew 2.
So when it comes to Jesus, I mean, here's the thing.
The two big moments that we think of
in human history,
the two holidays that we really celebrate
as Christian holidays
are the birth of Christ
and the resurrection of Christ.
And of course, those are the two
biggest events. If you're going to celebrate
any two days, it's like, we'll celebrate
Independence Day tomorrow by going soul winning
and praise the Lord for that. But when you're thinking
of two spiritual events, the birth of Jesus
and the resurrection of Jesus.
And of course, these things proved
who Jesus was. The Bible says
with His resurrection, there were many
infallible proofs, meaning
that you would be an idiot
and a fool to deny it because
there's proof. I mean,
if 500 people come to you and say,
I saw Jesus resurrected,
you're an idiot if you say, well,
I think you're all lying, right? Because you have
all of these witnesses, right?
Well, the birth of Jesus Christ, we saw last week
and talked about, is the birth was going to
take place where? In
Bethlehem. Now,
Bethlehem, as we sing,
O little town, it's not
a big location. Even
today, the population is pretty small.
And so to be born in
Bethlehem is pretty unique. All of the
modern day messiahs or Christ,
people that claim to be Jesus,
none of them were born in Bethlehem.
And yet the Bible prophesies He's going to be born
in Bethlehem, according to the Book of Micah,
right? But not only that,
it wasn't just the birth of Jesus
even after that.
Jesus is fulfilling prophecy left
and right. And so for people to deny
Jesus Christ, it's like you're
a fool. It's like they're showing
you the verses. I mean, this is fulfilled.
This is what the Bible is saying.
Eventually, when you're wrong about something,
quit being stubborn and realize,
you know what? I was wrong.
I said He wasn't the Messiah.
It's like, you know what? I was wrong.
You were right. It's like,
just admit it and believe on Christ and get saved.
A lot of people today,
they're just being stubborn.
You explain the Gospel to people
that your works will not get you
to heaven. Now, if somebody
listens to the Gospel, it's kind of hard to
deny. You explain salvation
is a gift. It's just by faith.
And of course, they can't really
deny it. But yet many people
are still stubborn, and it's like, well, I still think
my good works are going to get me to heaven.
It's like, well, you're going to die and go to hell
if that's the belief. Well, I was
born a Catholic. I was raised a
Catholic. I'm going to die a Catholic.
Well, you're going to die and go to hell then.
Because the Catholic Church teaches
a work of salvation.
And I'll tell you what. I was raised
in a church that taught a work of salvation.
I was raised Protestant and
taught my good works were going to get me to heaven.
I was baptized as a baby.
I thought you had to live a good life to get
to heaven. And when I heard the Gospel,
I had to make a choice. Am I going to be
stubborn? Or am I just going to admit, you know
what? I was wrong. I was
taught wrong.
And I'll tell you what. Everyone who's saved, that's what you had
to do. Unless you were raised by godly parents
that taught you the Gospel, most people
here are probably raised or born
Catholic or part of a false religion.
And you heard the Gospel. You had to make
a choice. Am I still going to believe what I've been taught
or just admit? You know what?
I saw 50 verses that said,
whosoever believeth, I was wrong.
I believe on Christ and get saved.
Right? Matthew 2, verse 19.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared and had dreamed of 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. Now here they're told
to go to Israel. Not to Nazareth,
but they're going to go to Israel. Then it says
in verse 21, And he arose and took the
young child and his mother and came into the land
of Israel. But
when he heard that Archelaus did reign
in Judea in the room of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go thither,
notwithstanding, being
warned of God in a dream, he turned
aside into the parts of Galilee.
And he came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.
So look, I get that this is
very confusing to people because
Joseph and Mary, they are
married but they have not come together
and of course she is with child
and then they end up being a couple living
together in Nazareth.
They've got to go to Bethlehem for the taxing.
Then all of a sudden they go back
and they're warned that Herod's
going to come after them, so they have to go to
Egypt. Then they're told to go to Israel
and then all of a sudden right when you get there,
Archelaus is reigning.
Maybe this isn't safe. And then they head
to Nazareth to fulfill scripture which says
that he shall be called a
Nazarene. Now a couple things
here.
It says here that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets.
Now the Bible says here
spoken by the prophets,
prophets is
plural. This is
more than one. It is not just
one, it is at least
two. Because it says
prophets. Now to be honest
with you, I don't know
of a clear verse
from the Old Testament where you see
this is being fulfilled.
Now there's a couple ways to look at this.
Now number one is this. It says
it was spoken by the prophets. It doesn't
necessarily mean it was
written down from Genesis to Malachi.
Because the prophets said a lot of
things and they spoke a lot of things
and it could be something that was known
that he shall be called a Nazarene.
But there's not necessarily a verse
that would say that.
The other thing would be if it's
a prophet you might be able to combine
multiple verses
that together would bring that to pass.
And honestly I leave
that up to you to decide which it is.
What it is not is a problem
in the Bible. Because there are no problems
in the Bible. The Bible is very clear spoken
by the prophets. What I would lean toward is
the prophets spoke this quite a bit but it wasn't
necessarily written down.
But if you think it's kind of a synthesis of
multiple verses from different prophets
then that is a possibility as
well. Now go in your Bible
to Numbers 6.
Numbers 6.
And the Bible says
he shall be called a Nazarene.
Okay?
Now
in our modern day
when you see a picture
of Jesus Christ
what does it look like?
It looks like a
girly man
with long hair
that you could easily beat up in a fight.
Right?
Almost every depiction of Jesus
is you've got
a girly looking person
with long hair.
Right? Which is usually
white in complexion like an American or
European Jesus.
Sometimes you go to other countries they have a different
skin tone.
Here's the thing. We don't know exactly
what Jesus looked like. I don't think he looked
like a white American just simply from
you know, his mom
wouldn't have looked like a white American from the part
of the world that they're in. We don't know
an exact depiction but here's the thing.
Even though I don't know exactly
what Jesus looked like, I
can tell you what he did not look like.
He did not look like the most recent
picture you saw of Jesus.
With long hair.
You say why? Because the Bible says
it's a shame for men to have
long hair.
Now here's the thing.
What's interesting about this.
You can go before Jesus Christ
and I can tell you what Julius Caesar
looks like
accurately. There's lots of
statues, remains of what
Julius Caesar looked like. People know.
I mean probably many people here say
yeah, you say Julius Caesar. I've got the picture in my
head of exactly what it looks like
and that is a very accurate representation.
It's interesting. We don't have
one of Jesus. You know why? Because
I don't think that God wanted us to
know what Jesus looked like.
Because if you had a painting of what he
looked like, you know what people are going to do?
It's like they're going to start worshipping the painting.
Right?
They're going to worship the creature
rather than the creator because Jesus made all
things. And that's not what God wants you
to do. But here's the thing.
People say well Jesus had long hair
because he was from Nazareth.
And what they're referring
to is the Nazarite
vow.
Now first off,
not every guy in
Nazareth took the Nazarite vow.
In fact, it would be
a pretty rare thing. It's not
a common thing to take the
Nazarite vow. And so
first thing I would say is well he lived in Nazareth
okay, where does it say he took the
Nazarite vow?
Right? But let me just show you what
the Bible says about the Nazarite vow
where men would have long hair.
Number 6 verse 1,
And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When either man
or woman shall separate themselves to vow
a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves
unto the Lord,
he shall separate himself from wine
and strong drink, and
shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar
of strong drink, neither shall he drink
any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes
or dried. All the days of his separation
shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree
from the kernels even of the husk.
All the days of the vow of separation, there shall
come no razor, there shall no razor
come upon his head, until the days be
fulfilled, in the which he separated himself
unto the Lord, he shall be holy
and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
One part of the
Nazarite vow, which in my opinion
this is not around today, it was
for a small group of people at a specific time,
but here's the thing, one part
of that is not cutting
your hair as a guide.
The other part of that was
not drinking any
alcohol or vinegar
which is like grape juice
double fermented, you know
from taking wine and fermenting it a second
time, nor eating
moist grapes.
The Bible says you can't eat moist
grapes or dried, so that's
the raisins, you can't eat raisins.
Now, when I first got saved in college
I went to a lot of Christian
Bible studies.
And in Christian Bible studies
there are a lot of guys with long
hair. And what they would
say is, I took the Nazarite vow.
And it's like
pretty much all of these
males, men
I don't really want to say men, right
with long hair, these same people
also went drinking on the weekends.
It's like really, what part of the Nazarite vow
did you take? Because if you
drink alcohol, I'm sorry, but
you didn't take the Nazarite vow.
Or you never
eat grapes?
You never eat raisins?
It's like most people have eaten
those things before.
To be honest, because grapes are less expensive
in the US, growing up in the US
my favorite fruit was grapes. I would eat
them all the time.
Right? I mean most people have eaten grapes or raisins
or grape juice or alcohol
I mean people have done these things.
And so here's the thing, it's like
if he took the Nazarite vow
that means
you could never find a verse that would
say Jesus ever drank alcohol
which is true because he never drank alcohol.
When it says, you know, he turned water into wine
and he drank grape juice at the
Last Supper because drinking alcohol
is sin.
The word wine can be used for alcoholic
or non-alcoholic. But when he drank
grape juice
at the Lord's Supper
you know, take, drink, for this is
my blood
which is shed for the remission of sins?
Well here's the thing
if he had long hair and took the Nazarite
vow, then why is he drinking grape juice?
Because then he's violating and he's sinning
and whoops, I can't die for the sins of the world anymore.
Right? I mean that's ridiculous.
There's no indication he took the Nazarite vow
and you can prove he did not
because he drank grape juice.
You say, what are you saying brother Stuckey?
I'm saying a picture
of Jesus is not accurate.
He had
short hair.
He looked like a man and in fact during that
time period most of your
jobs are very heavy intensive
labor and so
being, you know, not very
manly at all is not going to be accurate.
I mean if you're a
hard worker back then it's a tough life
you're probably going to have some muscle from it.
Right? And so
these pictures of Jesus are not accurate
and you know what it's called and look
this is just a fact. I mean
I've been to the most famous
art place in the world, the Louvre
in Paris, France.
I was a teenager at the time. I was on a soccer
trip and it's like, you know what the
Louvre is where the Mona Lisa is and all this stuff?
There's like a bunch of just statues of
naked guys everywhere.
Naked statues and like
pornographic pictures. I mean it's filled
in the Louvre. That's what's
considered art by the world standards.
Right?
Here's the thing. I mean if you look at
these paintings of Jesus they're
usually painted by homosexuals.
It's what takes place. Well let's
just paint them like ourselves.
It's a fact.
I mean those paintings
are not accurate and I can prove it to you with the
Word of God because of the fact He drank grape juice
proving He didn't take the Nazarite
vow so if He did not take the Nazarite vow
it is a shame
for a man to have long hair.
I mean not even nature
teaches that. By nature
naturally you just realize as a guy you're meant
to be a man. And as a woman
you're meant to be feminine. Men are meant to be
masculine. Women are meant to be
feminine. In our world
today they're just
trying to blend it together.
It's like men act like women.
Women act like men. It's like let's have a
distinction. And here's
the thing. People want to fight against this
but it is by nature
people realize this.
They know this. I mean the example I've
given before with my kids is
my wife had bought a Barbie doll
or a little doll for my daughter to
play with and within a couple of days
my son Zeph had torn it apart.
Because men like to fight.
Men like to wrestle.
It's like my son Zeph
likes to wrestle and fight me. Even Ezra
being one year old he wants to wrestle
and fight. I mean that's born into men.
You see that and then it's like with adults
my daughter wants to take care of the doll.
You say why? Because by nature women have
that desire to be a mom.
There is a big difference between men
and women and here's the thing
instead of fighting against that
why don't we all just adopt
the natural roles God gave us?
As a man
I need to act like a man and be a man.
As a woman
act like a woman and be
feminine. Well there's
a feminist movement.
You know what the feminist movement is?
The feminist movement is
offensive to women.
It's trying to say that women have no value
unless they act like a man.
Rather than acting like a woman
like God designed them.
What kind of world tries to turn everybody
into a man? Men and women are different.
There's just a huge difference
between men and women and trying to make
them the same this metro
society is garbage.
And I'll tell you what we are not a church
that is afraid to offend people by
preaching the truth. I'll tell you
what other churches might just say well we've got to
embrace and accept the LGBT
and eventually you're going to say let's accept
the pedophiles and all these. It's like
no you know what we're going to do things God's
way and preach the truth.
And if that offends you
it is what it is.
Right? I mean it's
just like the world we live today you got
Baptist churches they try to act like
the non-denominational churches.
Because they want to grow as a church and yet you know
what's foolish about this is
you look at this room
it's like we're not struggling for church
members. It doesn't matter
that 99% of the world might think I'm
crazy. You're so old fashioned.
That's a compliment to me my friend.
You think
I'm crazy that's fine you know because
there's plenty of people in this room that love God
and serve God and want to obey God and
they want to know the truth.
Right? This world might
be becoming insane but there are still
people that are normal people that just
want the truth.
And you know what?
What am I saying in conclusion? Jesus had short
hair. That's
what I'm saying. Those paintings
of Jesus are garbage. I mean
they're offensive.
That's not what Jesus looked like.
Right? You know I remember one time our son gets in
the gypsy and there's like a painting of Jesus
and Zeph's like that's not Jesus.
It's like you're right son.
Right? Or in the tricycle I should say.
Anyways let's close in with a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see
your word and just learn about Matthew chapter 2
and just all the Bible and help us just to know
our Bible and love our Bible. Help us to fight against the
flesh God. Help us to serve you. We ask you to
continue to bless your church. We also ask you to bless the
weather later for our time
of sowing as well. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Now we do have a baptism here
today and of course you know what?
If you're here you want to get baptized. We already have a
planned baptism. So if you're a lady you can get
ready back there. If you're a guy
that's here that you want to get baptized here today
you know men can change up here but we do have a
baptism coming up after the service.
But anyways I will have brother
Rafi lead us in the last song.
I will put a link together.
Page number 99.
Page number 999.
Each step I take.
First hands up.
First hands are ready.
Sing.
Singing.
Amen.