On higher ground, you'll lift me up, and I will stand.
I'll bring one man in stable land, a higher plane than I am bound.
Oh, when I meet on higher ground, my heart has no desire to stay.
When I'm surprised, it feels dismayed.
Oh, something's well when he's about.
I'm here fighting his higher ground.
You'll lift me up, and then we stand.
I'll bring one man in stable land, a higher plane than I am bound.
Oh, when I meet on higher ground, I'm going to live above the world.
Oh, singing stars, I'll be around.
Nothing has taught us what goes down.
The son that sings of higher ground.
You'll lift me up, and then we stand.
I'll bring one man in stable land, a higher plane than I am bound.
Oh, when I meet on higher ground, I want to scale the endless sky.
You think I should be a glory brier, but still I pray to that I'm bound.
Oh, lift me up to higher ground.
Oh, lift me up, and then we stand.
I'll bring one man in stable land, a higher plane than I am bound.
Oh, when I meet on higher ground.
Happy day, then fix my choice.
I'll be my Savior and my God.
Though he is good, when heart rejoices, when tale is wretched, all are proud.
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus touched my sins of pain.
He taught me how to watch and pray.
And if we joy, sing every day.
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus touched my sins of pain.
Oh, happy bond that seals my vows.
He'll give the fairies all my love, and share the land until he's found.
Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you could all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started.
Once you've found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal.
We've got some nice new ones.
We'll break the seam on those.
We're going to start in song number 210, one of my favorites,
Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
Song 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
Sing it out all together on the first.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin.
How shall my tongue describe it?
Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free.
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame.
Magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost.
By it I have been pardoned, saved to the uttermost.
Chains have been torn asunder, giving me liberty.
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame.
Magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled.
By its transforming power, making him God's dear child.
Purchasing peace in heaven for all eternity.
And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame.
Magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name.
Great singing everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
We thank you for Pastor Shelley and his family.
We thank you for everyone that's gathered here this evening.
We ask, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit.
Help him to preach an edifying sermon unto us,
so we can walk out better Christians.
We came in for your honor and glory.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. For our second song, we're going to do song number 364.
364, Standing on the Promises.
It's another fan favorite.
Song 364. On the first.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let his praises ring,
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing.
Standing on the promises of God,
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God,
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God,
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God,
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to him eternally by love's strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword,
Standing on the promises of God,
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God on the last,
Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
Listening every moment to the Spirit's call,
Resting in my Savior as my all and all,
Standing on the promises of God,
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God.
Great singing.
Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, if you'd like one,
our ushers should have a few more,
so if you could lift up your hand real quick,
one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
We're on a great week, Jonah chapter 2 verse 10,
and then on the inside we have our service and soul winning times.
I'll probably give out the prizes for Jonah,
not this Sunday, but the following Sunday,
so keep that in mind.
Also, please make sure you're turning in your soul winning stats
and numbers to our soul winning group.
That really helps us out.
On the right we have a list of our expecting ladies.
Also, we have our prayer list.
I'm going to take a second and go to the back,
and then we'll come back to our prayer list.
We do have a turkey bowl coming up December 7th.
That's a Saturday from 1 to 3,
and Brother Marcel is helping lead that,
but of course we would love for you to come out
and throw the football around with us.
It'll just be a time of just some fellowship.
He's trying to organize some flag football with the kids,
and I think he's doing pretty much 6 to 12-ish,
and then some of the teenagers and adults will have a game after that as well.
So if you'd like to participate, see Brother Marcel,
and he'd love to give you the details, but we're meeting out there.
Ladies' Christmas party is going to be December 6th, 6 through 9 p.m.
It is a provided dinner, catered dinner.
There is a sign-up sheet out here,
or there is, I think, a way to message with my wife through group chat,
and if you would just please RSVP.
That way we can make sure that we have dinner and everything provided appropriately.
There is a gift exchange.
If you have questions, please ask my wife on that,
and we'd love for everybody to participate in that.
Also, it is a nursing-only event,
and so, you know, us guys, we need to try and help out the ladies,
watch the kids for at least one night, and allow them to have a good time.
Upcoming events.
We have the ordination this Sunday for Brother Oz.
If you are planning on attending or going,
and especially if you're going to be getting there by Saturday,
we could use a little bit of help just taking a few tables and stuff with us,
because we are having a lunch after that service,
and so I think we'd message that in our group chat,
but if you are able to do that, please see Brother Fur after the service.
That way we can help just load up or take a couple extra tables with us.
That would be really a blessing.
Also, we have the Christmas caroling December 9th,
Christmas cookie bake-off December 25th,
January 1st, men's preaching night and pizza,
and then, of course, next year,
we're going to have a lot of different soul-winning events and other stuff,
but we're just going to focus in on the rest of the year.
If we go to our prayer list, we have several prayer requests.
We're praying for several repeated requests here.
We continue to pray for the name's grandmother,
Ms. Carlson's mother as well,
praying for Ms. Miller's mother, her friend's mom, I'm sorry.
Brother Scott, we're praying for his parents' health.
Brother Scott has cancer that he's dealing with,
and so we'd please be a prayer for him, also his mother's pain.
We've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, who's pregnant.
We've been praying for Brother Tony for his health and for his work situation.
We've been praying for Brother Sam's fiancé
and also co-worker, who's still recovering.
Continue to pray for Brother Rich for his back.
That reminds me, also we should be praying for Brother James Perry
for his back as well, and he's planning on going back out to the Philippines,
and the guy's just a machine just doing a lot of soul-winning,
and so pray for him.
Also pray for the Warner's brother who had an injury,
the Hernandez grandmother who's also recovering from surgery.
We're praying for the Goodwin's friend, Ms. Sarah,
who also has surgery to remove a tumor.
Pray for Brother Nick. He has a friend that he's concerned about,
and we're praying for their salvation.
And then I guess also for the Millers,
pray for there was somebody from work whose child was diagnosed with RSV,
and a lot of people are sick.
So we'll just pray for those who were mentioned here.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for Stedfast Baptist Church,
and thank you so much for the blessing of all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you'd please help them during their pregnancies.
Please help them with their deliveries.
I pray that you'd also please be with these prayer requests
that we've been praying for continually,
especially for sickness and illness and for cancer.
I pray that you would just please help them.
If possible, just give them a miracle.
Please give them full recovery.
I pray that no matter what, you'd give them patience,
and you'd give them hope,
and that you'd give them peace during this time of tribulation.
Please be with our other friends and family that are sick
and those that are dealing with temporary illnesses.
I pray that you'd please deliver them.
Please help them to recover quickly.
Please help those that are recovering from surgery.
I pray that you'd help those that are struggling with back pain,
that you'd please help them to have recovery as well.
I pray that you would also bless our friends and family,
that they need a blessing in their work or in their job,
for those that are looking for visas or for traveling.
I pray that you'd please bless them.
And please help us to be a bright and shining light
to those in our lives that need the gospel.
Please soften their hearts and give us a great opportunity,
and please give us the boldness to preach your word.
And I pray that you'd continue to use our church
not only in this ending part of this year,
but also into the next.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week,
and it's Psalm 150.
Psalm 150.
All right, that is Psalm 150.
On the first.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord.
Praise God the Father.
Praise God the Son.
Praise God the Holy Ghost.
Praise God in three persons.
Great singing, everybody.
As the offering plates are going around,
would you please turn your Bibles to Matthew,
chapter number two.
Matthew, chapter number two.
The Bible reads,
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 he was afraid,
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 people together,
he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him,
In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it is written by the prophet,
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 privily called the wise men,
inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem and said,
Go and search diligently for the young child,
and when ye have found him,
bring me word again that I may come
and worship him also.
When they had heard the king,
they departed,
and lo, the star,
which they saw in the east,
went before them,
till it came and stood over where the child was.
When they saw the star,
they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were coming to the house,
they saw the young child with Mary his mother
and fell down,
and worshipped him.
And when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts,
gold and frankincense,
and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream
that they should not return to Herod,
they departed into their own country
another way.
And when they were departed,
behold, the angel of the Lord
appeareth 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,
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.
Then 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 in all the coasts thereof,
from two years old and under,
according to the time
which he had diligently inquired
of the wise men.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken
by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
And Rama was there a voice heard,
lamentation weeping,
and a great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
and would not be comforted,
because they are not.
But when Herod was dead,
behold, an angel of the Lord
appeareth 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 heard
that Archilas 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.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord,
thank you for this chapter of the Bible,
thank you for this church,
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley,
fill him with your Holy Spirit
to preach your word unto us,
help us to receive your word
and apply it to our lives.
Praise in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 2,
the Bible says in verse 1,
Now when Jesus was born
in Bethlehem of Judea
in the days of Herod the king,
the older came wise men
from the east to Jerusalem.
And the Bible gives a lot
of really specific details
about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here it starts out making it clear
that he was born specifically
in Bethlehem of Judea
which is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies
about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
would be born in Bethlehem.
It also makes note of the fact
that it was during the days of Herod the king
which gives us a timeline of events
that we can trace back
even with modern history
and with the marvels of humanity.
We pretty much kind of know
when this was and the general timeline.
In fact, we're celebrating 2,024 years
from the supposed time of Christ's birth.
Now, historians will argue about the exact date.
I believe that there's a pretty good argument
to say that the timing is off
maybe by about five or six years.
That actually he was born
about five or six years prior to
what we actually celebrate
that exact timeline as being.
But we all generally accept
that it's approximately 2,024 years
from the time of Christ.
We can go back and look through history
and look at when kings reigned
and we can notice King Herod
and his timeline.
There's other kings that are mentioned
in these specific timelines
as far as the timing of Christ,
John the Baptist and his ministry.
We understand through antiquity
that these events are events
that we have in recorded history
and we understand them.
I believe that through studying astronomy
looking at the stars and their patterns,
they go back and they believe
that there was a significant star
that appeared around five or six BC,
which is kind of recognized
as potentially being the star of Bethlehem
or the star of Jesus Christ.
And you can assume that that might have been
around the same timeline
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's going to be mentioned here
in the text as far as being very significant
that this particular star had appeared.
Now, the reason why astronomy
is just so accurate
and so easy to kind of wind down
is if you actually believe
that our universe is as giant
as modern science will tell you.
Because of the fact that the stars
being so far away
and where our earth is,
there's not really much of going to be
a difference or a change in their pattern
as far as what we see,
what we observe through the years.
If they're moving and they're moving slightly,
there is a little bit of difference.
But generally speaking,
they follow the same patterns
and the same concepts
and so you can really understand
where the moon is and the sun is
through scientific methods,
through mathematics,
and just kind of plotting these different things.
And of course, God gave us the stars
and gave us these things
for times and seasons
and so that we could actually understand
how things work.
Frankly speaking, our entire calendar
is pretty much based on the solar system
apart from one thing.
Because if you think about it,
a day comes from the rotation of the earth.
One cycle of the earth
is what we know as a day.
It is approximately 24 hours.
Then we have, generally speaking,
the rotation of the moon around the earth
and that kind of gives us the idea of a month.
And then we have the rotation of the earth
around the sun
and that gives us a year.
And really, pretty much the only thing
that we don't get from the solar system itself
is a week,
but we get that from the creation week story
that comes from the Bible
and comes from the Word of God.
Now if you're flat earther,
nothing makes sense, okay?
So that's just to throw it out there.
But you know,
we can't necessarily understand everything
through modern history and modern science,
but when it comes to the timing of Christ
and things that are post-Christ,
we do have some information.
We have a little bit that helps us kind of trace through
and we can understand these things.
And you know what?
The days of Herod is a little bit significant
in the sense that we can trace that through modern history
and understand when Christ came.
Now it also mentions that there's three wise men
that came from the east to Jerusalem.
We understand that wise men of the east
would not be Hebrews.
They would not be specifically of the tribes,
the 12 tribes.
They're not necessarily Jews or anything like that.
And so it kind of is significant also
to note that Matthew,
this is going to be a consistent theme
through the book of Matthew,
is it shows this idea of Gentiles
seeking the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we really,
it's really interesting,
there's so many thousands,
gay millions of people
that live in Jerusalem at this time
and they're not seeking Jesus Christ.
In fact,
we have the famous song
that there's no room in the inn,
meaning that people don't even care
to allow this pregnant woman,
Mary,
who's carrying the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
to stay with them.
They don't have room for them.
They have to go to the manger.
Yet Gentiles are willing to travel the entire country
just to come and see this young child.
And it's trying to show the example of how
when you have Jesus in the midst of you,
you don't want him.
Yet people from afar
are willing to travel and sacrifice everything
to seek unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now the Gentiles,
they sought the Lord Jesus Christ
and they're interested in the things of God,
whereas he came unto his own
and his own received him not,
is what the Bible says.
And so for the vast majority,
most of the people that were of Christ's lineage
as far as physical descendancy,
the Jews,
they rejected him.
They didn't want anything to do with him.
Whereas the Gentiles were much more receptive,
much more willing to hear the gospel message.
That should also resonate with us
that not everybody has the same reaction
to the things of God.
Not everybody has the same level of interest
in the things of God.
Some people would only have to travel a few feet.
They might live next door to Jesus Christ
and they're not interested,
whereas others may have to travel a great distance
just to hear the things of God,
just to visit the Lord Jesus Christ,
just to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
God takes great pleasure in those
who are willing to sacrifice and travel afar
just to visit the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
Praise God.
We have a church that is not filled with people
that are only willing to drive five minutes
to go to church,
but rather people that are willing to travel afar
to actually hear the things of God
and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because you know what's more important to them
is going to a great church
rather than just going
or just doing the bare minimum.
You know, they actually seek the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in fact, many people have even moved
across the country or from a far place
just to go to a good church.
I mean, who's actually moved
to come here and come to a good church?
I mean, look around.
That's a lot of people.
You know, this message should resonate with you.
There's wise men traveling from the east
to hear the Lord Jesus Christ,
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
A lot of people have moved afar
to come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
You should always keep that
on the forefront of your mind.
That the reason why you moved
was not for me or for some other person
or for a building or for money.
You moved to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what makes you a wise person.
You know, that's why people would make
a great sacrifice or be willing to seek
unto the things of the Lord Jesus Christ
that make sense.
If you're seeking for carnal things,
well, it really won't work out for you.
But if you're doing it for Jesus,
well, that can motivate you
to do something really extraordinary
with your life.
It says in verse 2, saying,
Where is he?
This is talking about the wise men
coming unto Herod.
Saying, Where is he
that is born king of the Jews,
who have seen his star in the east
and are come to worship him?
Notice again, their motivation
is to worship Jesus.
Notice that they saw this star
and they want to follow it.
Here's another thing that's interesting.
They're not of the Jews' religion necessarily.
They're not really of the Hebrews.
Yet, they're coming to worship
the king of the Jews.
Notice what it had said.
Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
So they understand this is a king specifically
of the Jews and of the Jews' religion,
yet they want to worship that God.
They want to worship the God of the Jews
because they understand the significance.
There must be a great understanding
that they have of who the king of the Jews is.
Because people aren't just trying to travel
really far to just worship random false gods.
They're doing this because they understand
this is the true God, the true religion,
and they care about the things of God.
They're actually seeking the true Lord
and they want to worship him.
They must believe in Christianity, folks.
Because think about this.
They're not traveling a great distance
to come and kneel down
before some great king
that has all this money
and all of this fame
and all of this fortune.
In fact, they're going to worship a baby.
They're going to worship a child.
You know what that takes?
Faith.
Because not only are they going to worship a child.
They're not going to worship a child of Pharaoh.
They're not going to worship a child of Caesar.
They're not going to worship one that's
already been anointed as priest.
They're going to go into a lowly home
with a young woman and her husband,
Mary and Joseph, who are of modest means,
who aren't necessarily having much fortune,
and they're going to worship a baby.
And what carnal way does that make any sense?
It makes absolutely no sense.
It means everything they're doing is by faith, folks.
It means that they actually understand
this is Jesus, this is God in the flesh,
this is the Lord and Savior,
and we want to come and worship him
because we care about worshipping the true God.
And notice again, people from the East
are coming to worship the true God.
I show this to show the significance of the fact
that many people would suggest,
and I've heard this in my own personal life,
that if you're not of the Hebrews,
you couldn't be saved in the Old Testament.
But wait a minute, look at these guys
coming from the East to worship Jesus.
They had to have faith in Jesus.
They had to understand that he was God.
And of course, you could be saved even if you
weren't of the tribes of Israel in the Old Testament.
Because salvation was always by faith.
It was not by being of a carnal lineage.
It was not by the works of the law.
No, it was by faith in Jesus Christ,
and that's what saved people.
Even Naaman the Syrian.
Naaman the Syrian is one of the greatest pictures
of salvation by faith alone.
Because the guy doesn't join the children of Israel.
He doesn't get circumcised.
He doesn't start doing the Passover.
And in fact, he admits openly,
hey, as soon as I get saved,
I'm going to the Catholic Church and worship false gods.
Sorry, not Catholic Church.
That was my modern explanation.
He's like, hey, I'm going to go back
and I'm still going to kneel to Baal.
I'm still going to kneel to the false gods
whenever my boss tells me to.
Will you please just pardon me?
Will you please ask God to not strike me dead for doing that?
I mean, Naaman the Syrian is basically
your example of someone doing no works,
not serving God, not joining the physical nation,
not getting baptized, not doing any of these,
but saved by faith. Why?
Because, you know what, he believed the word of the prophet
and he was actually not even really excited about it.
Don't you ever once in a while get someone saved
and they're not even that excited about it?
They're kind of almost begrudgingly getting saved.
But you know what?
I still think of the begrudgingly person,
the person that's not that interested,
just like, sure, fine, we'll pray or whatever.
They're still saved, too.
You don't have to be like crying and weeping and just like,
oh, this is the greatest that I've ever heard.
I'm so sorry for all my sins.
I'm sure that person got saved. I hope they did.
But the person that's just kind of like, yeah, let's do it.
Fine. And he does it.
He still gets saved, too.
Because salvation's a free gift.
It was a free gift in the Old Testament.
It's a free gift in the New Testament.
And it wasn't about getting the Passover ritual right.
It wasn't about getting circumcised.
It wasn't about keeping the law.
It's never been that way and it never will be that way.
It's always by faith in Jesus Christ.
And these guys are a great example of faith,
being willing to travel across the country,
following a star, and worshiping a child.
I mean, there's really hardly any example in the Bible
that's much greater faith in this.
Of course, there's a few examples.
You could think of Abraham sacrificing Isaac on the altar.
Of course, I think there's a few examples
of other great pictures of faith.
But I'm just saying, no one told these...
We don't have these guys saying,
an angel showed up and told me to do this.
They had to have read their Bible or studied the Word of God
and just by pure faith traveled this and to find this star.
Now, I have an idea.
Keep your finger. Go to Daniel 9.
I think one... This is just a theory of mine.
I have no idea how these guys figured this out
or what was going through their mind.
But why would you just follow a star?
I mean, I don't know.
But at the end of the day,
there's no real indication anywhere
that these guys specifically are being told by God
or having some angel or something like that.
But they're somehow very knowledgeable.
Now, the Bible calls them wise men.
So it sounds like they probably studied.
They're probably familiar with the text.
I mean, they're calling them king of the Jews.
They want to go worship him. There's a star.
How could anybody figure this out?
But here's one thing I know,
is the Bible gives us a timeline
of when Jesus Christ is going to come.
And it was through the book of Daniel.
Now, Daniel also, while he did get visions
and he did have some special encounters with the Lord,
he also figured some things out on his own.
And the Bible tells us this.
In Daniel chapter 1, what does it say?
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus,
of the seed of the Medes,
which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel,
understood by books the number of the years
whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet,
that he would accomplish seventy years
in the desolation of Jerusalem.
So does the Bible say Daniel,
an angel showed up and just gave him the number?
God came down and visited Daniel
and told him everything is going to work out.
Now, what does the Bible actually say?
It says, I, Daniel, understood by books.
And here's the thing.
I believe a likely explanation
is that the wise men understood these things by books,
that they actually studied the Bible
and studied the word of God.
And you know what chapter they probably studied?
Daniel chapter number 9. Why?
Well, let's keep looking down here. Look at verse 25.
Know therefore and understand,
that from the going forth of the commandment to the store,
and to build Jerusalem,
unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,
and threescore in two weeks,
the street shall be built again
and the wall even in trebleth times.
And after threescore in two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself,
and the people of the Prince shall come and destroy the city
and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with the flood,
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
So the Bible tells us that there's going to be
this specific seven weeks
that we have Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
and then threescore in two weeks.
So we kind of have like, if you understand a week as being seven,
but it's not actually a week,
it's actually a metaphor for years,
seven times seven, you know, we kind of get 49 years.
And then you get this 62 times seven,
and you add it all up, it's like 490.
But they know from the commandment of Cyrus coming
that you're getting pretty close to this 490 years, approximately,
that's been prophesied of a Messiah coming,
so they're kind of in a timeline where they're anticipating.
And so it makes sense, hey, we've been reading the Bible,
we're studying these things,
the Bible says specifically that Christ is going to come in this timeline,
and then we understand that stars are for signs
and for the signs of times,
and so we understand that stars are going to potentially picture
something significant, and these guys study astronomy
because, you know, they're not playing video games all day
and they're not looking at TikTok all day because they don't have it.
So you know what, they're actually reading books
and studying the stars and the sky and all these things, mathematics.
And in fact, when you go back in time, you understand these people are brilliant.
They're way smarter than us because they can't use a computer,
so they actually have to know calculus,
they actually have to know advanced mathematics and science
and all these different things,
and especially the wise people who are writing books about it,
and we're standing on the shoulders of giants in many cases.
So it's very likely that they've been studying these things
and they know, wow, we've been studying the astronomical patterns
and notice there is a giant significant star that came out of nowhere,
and it's only going to appear for a certain amount of time.
And they've been reading, hey, Jesus is going to be showing up around this time,
and we know by reading the Bible that he's going to be in Bethlehem
because that's what it says in Micah chapter 5 verse number 2.
So why do you think they just randomly, hey, there's this star,
it's the right timeline, let's go to Bethlehem
and see if we can find out where this child is.
Let's trace this star down and they go to this star,
they can find it, and they can find the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what? I can't tell you exactly what happened.
That's just a theory of mine, okay? That's just an explanation.
But I think it's pretty reasonable, and this is why it's significant.
It should challenge and motivate us to study the Bible
and to understand things by books
because Jesus told us specifically about the end times
that those who are watching and those who actually understood
and those who are not ignorant and those who are paying attention
are going to understand the times and the seasons of times,
but those that are just asleep and ignorant and not paying attention,
it's going to come upon them like a thief in the night
and they're not going to understand these things.
And so we should be watching, we should be reading our Bible,
we should be studying, we should actually try to pay attention
to what's going on around us.
And you know what? The people that are really smart and really wise,
they're going to probably understand a lot of the end times.
When we get really close and it actually happens
and we're talking about Daniel's 70th week,
I guarantee a lot of those people are going to actually understand what's really going on.
But the people that have been pre-trib and asleep all this time,
it's going to come on them like a ton of bricks.
They're going to be like, they're going to still be like,
I think he's coming.
It's like the Antichrist already implemented the mark, bro.
Like at what point, this is what I think is funny,
like at what point will pre-tribbers finally abandon that doctrine?
You know, I thought it would be funny,
it would be fun to make like a kind of a real-life drama movie of the end times.
And I have this character that I built in my mind
of this guy that's always standing outside like a sign
like Jesus is going to come at any time.
And then like as you keep progressing through the movie,
their group just gets smaller and smaller and smaller until it's just one guy
and it's just like, bro, it's obviously not pre-trib.
You know, like trying to tell this guy, it's like look,
obviously once the Antichrist is in the temple,
and I have a friend of ours that's pre-trib, he's friendly with me,
and I asked him that.
I said, look, at what point will you come on our side?
And he said, when someone's in the temple declaring himself God,
I know that that was basically his point of time
that he would come over to our side or whatever.
But, you know, it's just kind of funny that there's so many Christians
that are kind of asleep on these issues.
We don't want to be like that, we want to be the wise,
we want to understand, we want to know these things are happening,
and I think that the people that are the wisest
will most likely be the ones that get raptured.
They'll probably have a better chance.
And so we should be wise, we should be paying attention.
These guys get to do a special honor because they were listening to the Bible,
they were paying attention, they were studying,
they got to actually visit Jesus Christ.
Think about how many people were alive during the life of Christ
and never saw him, and never visited him, especially of the Gentiles.
I mean, of the Gentiles, I mean, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not.
But there's millions and millions of Gentiles
that just were blissfully living their lives,
ignorant of what's going on around them,
and they missed out on one of the most incredible experiences of their life
to go and visit the Lord Jesus Christ in person
to actually see God manifest in the flesh,
which has to be one of the most incredible experiences of their life.
But you know what? There's a lot of people out there today,
even saved people, that are missing out on the incredible experiences of serving God
because they're just living their life for carnal pleasure,
living a life of vanity, not paying attention,
not reading their Bible, they don't care about the things of God.
But you know what? Nuts to that.
I want to see the miracles of God.
I want to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to see him in my life.
I want to do the things of God.
I want to be like these wise men that say,
hey, wherever we have to go or whatever we have to do,
I'm here to worship Jesus.
I'm not just here to live a life of pleasure and fun and just for myself.
No, I want to be here to worship Jesus Christ.
Don't go to Matthew chapter 2. Go back.
So we have the wise men saying,
where is he that is born King of the Jews?
We have seen his star in the east.
They even are so convinced, they're like, this is his star.
We know it by faith and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king had heard these things,
he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
Now, this is also incredible.
And this is a theme throughout this entire chapter.
No one in this chapter at any point doubts the veracity of these claims.
At no point is anybody thinking like, I don't follow that religion.
I don't believe that.
I don't know about this Jesus.
I mean, Pilate kind of acts like that at one point in the Bible, right?
He's just kind of like, what is truth?
And he's just kind of being kind of weird or whatever.
But Herod is a believer.
Herod is not taking these things lightly.
I mean, think about it. Hey, we're here to worship a baby.
Think about how many most atheists would act like at the door.
They would laugh at you.
You're going to worship a baby that's the king?
What else are you going to do? Ride on a flying spaghetti monster?
You know what I mean?
They'd be so skeptical, they would just not even care.
But you know what? Herod takes this seriously.
And in fact, all Jerusalem, they're all nervous about this.
They're not excited.
The wise men are excited.
Herod and Jerusalem, they're nervous about this.
It says in verse 4,
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together,
he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said to them, In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it is written by the prophet,
And now Bethlehem in the land of Judah
are not the least among the princes of Judah,
for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.
Here's another thing that's interesting.
Just based on the whole context of the New Testament,
it's super clear that the scribes and the Pharisees,
and especially the Sadducees, are not saved.
And they don't get saved.
But when they're asked,
Hey, what is the Old Testament prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ?
They're just spot on.
Bethlehem.
That should tell you something.
Unsaved people can still tell you a lot of things about the Bible.
They can still be very familiar with the text.
And in fact, they could even point to you spiritual prophecies
of the Lord Jesus Christ being unsaved.
But do they understand it all?
No, because if they understood it,
they'd be like, Let's go find him and worship him too.
But they're not interested in that, are they?
Why do they want this information?
To kill him.
To destroy him.
They're using the Bible to actually attack the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is interesting.
Balaam also tried to use the word of God
and tried to curse the children of Israel.
But God would not allow his curse to come upon them.
Because God's not going to allow the Bible to be used against Christians.
God is not going to allow the scripture to be used as a weapon against God's people.
Especially the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the word of God.
Good luck twisting the word of God to your own advantage.
Now, they understand that it's going to be in there.
Verse 6,
And now Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah.
For out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.
Keep your finger here.
Let's go to Micah and just read that quick prophecy.
But that's basically being quoted from the book of Micah.
This is another thing I find interesting about this chapter.
And really just the New Testament in general.
The New Testament would really not be as amazing as it is.
It would not have as much understanding and deep revelation that it does
without the Old Testament.
I mean, you've just been reading this collection of all these stories
and all these prophets and all these random things
and they all kind of seem disconnected.
But then you get to the New Testament
and it's just like this prophecy and this section and this verse
and it's just like all these fulfillments all coming together in one cohesive narrative.
And then you're like, oh, now I understand why I was reading about those people.
Now I understand why I was reading about all those prophecies.
Now I understand why that prophet had to go through this specific suffering
or had to be born in this specific place
or this specific event had to happen
because it was all foreshadowing and picturing the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that's what's so amazing about the New Testament
is it's just pulling out all of these different prophecies
and all these different sections of the Old Testament
and showing you this narrative of Jesus Christ.
It also helps us understand that in the Old Testament
they could have given you a pretty clear narrative
of the New Testament if they had spiritual understanding
because the Old Testament teaches the exact same thing.
The Old Testament has all of these same stories, all these same prophecies.
Now they may have been looking through a glass darkly
and they would have not necessarily understand all the details we have in the New Testament
but they would have had so many details
they could have told you a pretty close narrative to what we have today.
Hey, he's coming from Bethlehem, he's going to save the people from his sins,
he's going to be lifted up upon a tree, he's going to become a curse for all of us.
I mean just all kinds of different things that you can find in the Old Testament specifically.
The book of Romans, chapter number 10, it's almost all just quotes of the Old Testament
all thrown together in one beautiful mosaic.
They can tell you how to call upon the name of the Lord,
they can tell you salvation by faith, they can tell you that God has a son,
they can tell you about the Trinity, they can tell you about all these different things
because the Old Testament contains the New Testament.
I mean it really goes together perfectly because it's the same narrative told in a unique way.
Now Micah chapter 5 verse 2 says this,
But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Again, very important verse, modern versions will change this,
whose origin is from of old, but he doesn't have an origin, he's just from everlasting.
And so we believe in the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he's always existed and that he's always existed as the son.
He didn't become the son in Matthew chapter number 2 when he was born,
he was the son prior to his incarnation.
Now the Bible says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
the Bible says that he humbled himself,
the Bible says that he condescended to men of low estate,
but you know what, he didn't come into existence
and he didn't change his relationship to God by coming down, he was the son.
He is the son and he's always been the son.
Now he was just manifested.
What does manifest mean?
Manifest just simply means to make appear or to become obvious.
So he was obvious to us, he was made clear to us,
but it doesn't mean that he came into existence.
He was just manifested, oh that's who that was, that's who that is.
Now we understand who the son is and we have to believe in him,
that's who we were believing in.
Anyways, go if you would back and look at chapter 2 verse 7.
The Bible says,
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men,
inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
Why would he care if he doesn't believe in this?
It says it's a fairy tale.
He wants to know specifically about this because he believes the prophecy.
He believes what the Bible actually says about this, he wants to know.
And he sent them to Bethlehem and said,
Go and search diligently for the young child
and when you have found them bring me word again
that I may come and worship him also.
He's a lying flatterer.
That's what I notice about evil peoples, they always flatter you.
Now again, how do you know he's flattering?
Because the Bible tells us that was not his goal, his goal is to destroy the child.
Oh, I want to worship him too.
Verse 9,
When they had heard the king, they departed,
and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them,
till it came and stood over where the young child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy,
and when they were come into the house,
they saw the young child of Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him,
and when they had opened their treasures, they presented him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Notice, you know, this is kind of disappointing to some people.
Verse 11,
When they were coming to the house,
we have this picture of the wise men showing up perfectly at the manger story,
but that's not exactly accurate.
The manger story is something that happened at the birth,
and then some period of time passes,
the wise men show up, now they're in the house.
So this is not the birthday.
This would have been some time in the future,
maybe six months, a year, maybe 18 months,
probably not two years,
considering the fact that Herod later in the text is going to kill everybody two years and under.
So obviously Herod would have put kind of a buffer
from what time he probably came,
so that buffer was to include.
So he probably wasn't at the extremity of that particular buffer.
He's probably at least six months or something within that buffer,
so he's most likely two or younger,
and Herod's killing people that are almost three and younger,
and so there's probably that approximately one-year buffer or something
that Herod's throwing in there gratuitously.
He wants to make sure to slay the Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course,
based on the text,
Jesus would have fallen within that window
because he wouldn't have been warned to leave
if he was five,
or if he was seven,
or if he was ten,
or something like that.
Then he wouldn't have to worry about that particular commandment from Herod
because he would have been safe.
He had to have been under that two and year,
but he was obviously not born that particular day either.
There's been a little bit of time that has passed.
That's just to give you a little bit more accuracy.
So you probably have one of these nativity scenes
with the wise men of the manger,
but it's unbiblical.
There you go. I just said it right.
And if it's a graven statue, I think you shouldn't even have it anyways.
That's double unbiblical.
I've been to Baptist churches.
They have these nativity scenes,
and they're graven images,
and I'm like,
I don't really like that.
We have the soft animal kind.
I'm like,
I'll tolerate that,
the soft animal,
but I don't want to have graven images in my church of Jesus.
That's kind of weird.
Now you're becoming Catholic or something like that.
This is the Jesus that I want in my church.
Isn't that funny?
The Catholic church will put a literal graven image Jesus in their church,
not a King James Bible.
And you know what?
We have a King James Bible,
not graven images in our church,
because we care more about the text.
That's the real Jesus,
not some graven device of man's heart and man's imagination,
but rather the true Lord Jesus Christ,
which is here with us in the text.
Now they give these gifts.
Another thing that's not stated in the text at all
is that there's three wise men.
I'm not mad at you if you believe there's three wise men.
There's songs that have three wise men.
But it's kind of, I believe,
just idealized because there's three gifts.
So they just have this idea
that there's one guy with one gift,
one guy with one gift.
It's very, very, very, very unlikely there's three.
Plus, I guarantee they would have had servants
and other people that are traveling with them.
They're probably the ones that were carrying the gifts anyways.
We have no idea how many people were actually coming,
but there was at least two, three wise men that were coming
because it's multiple.
Now they provide these gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
I want to stay on this for a moment and talk about this,
and I want to go to a lot of verses.
Go if you would to Leviticus chapter number two.
Go to Leviticus chapter number two.
I do not believe, and I'm not going to say that
when I talk about gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
that I know everything that these possibly mean.
But I do want to present several things that I think this does mean.
And in fact, I have four different meanings
that I want to describe to you of each as a group.
So it'll be like 12 in meanings,
but four different groups of different possible interpretations
and applications that the gold, frankincense, and myrrh can represent.
First of all, we have gold,
which I'm not going to really necessarily belabor
the point of going to verses for all of these,
but we think of gold.
Gold is obviously the primary picture of money
because it's usually the most valuable.
It's the most significant.
It's considered the most precious, the most rare.
It's kind of the king of money in a sense,
and I think that that in a picture can represent
how the Lord Jesus Christ is the king of kings.
Gold is kind of the king of money
in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the king of kings, and he's represented here by gold.
Frankincense and myrrh are very difficult to delineate
because they're both fragrances.
They're both basically used for perfume
or just kind of smells,
and I don't know that I can necessarily say they smell the same,
but they're basically kind of the same concept.
They're a precious, sweet, perfuming agent that's used.
Frankincense is coming from trees,
and so we kind of have this picture, though, in the Old Testament
where they're used in different ways.
Leviticus, chapter 2, look at verse number 1.
This is where frankincense is used in the Bible.
And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord,
his offering shall be a fine flour,
and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon.
And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests,
and he shall take thereof his handful of the flour thereof,
and of the oil thereof,
with all the frankincense thereof,
and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar
to be an offering made by fire of a sweet Savior and Lord.
Now, we're not going to all the mentions of these words
because they're a lot,
but frankincense is consistently used as
a fragrance put in the bread offerings
or the meat offerings of that sacrifice.
Now, what is the bread picturing consistently through the Bible?
That's the Lord Jesus Christ's body, okay?
So we could say that frankincense is kind of foreshadowing
and picturing the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we have him as the king of kings through the gold.
We have him as a sacrifice through the frankincense.
And then I want to go to Exodus, chapter number 30,
go to Exodus, chapter number 30, and see another use of myrrh.
So the frankincense is put in the bread
that's then offered unto the Lord.
Myrrh is used to anoint,
and usually these things are mixed with oil.
So you take oil, and often oil doesn't have much of a fragrance,
much of a scent by itself,
and so you mix it with other things.
There's famous businesses like this.
It's called Essential Oils.
And there's, like, doTERRA, there's...
Oh, man, what's the really popular...
Is it just called Essential Oils? I don't know.
Someone help me.
What's all the MLMs?
I don't know. I need the ladies' help.
What is it? Country? I don't know.
There's all kinds of Essential Oils out there,
all these MLMs and everything like that.
I feel like there's a popular one that I'm forgetting.
Maybe I'll remember in a minute.
But there's all these different Essential Oil companies
that are out there in the world that people use,
and you could go to the store and get them or whatever,
but they basically take oil, and then they mix it.
Lavender, or they mix it with thyme or something,
or they mix it with...
Thieves is a popular one. I remember.
There's all these weird fragrances and spices
and whatever they mix them with.
So the same was kind of back then,
where you have oil and you mix it with frankincense,
or you have oil and you mix it with myrrh,
and you get a specific scent or a specific thing.
And not only just one,
sometimes they're mixing multiple, right?
They'll mix in frankincense and myrrh with the oil,
and then they use this in various ways.
So they're mixing the frankincense with the oil
and baking the bread.
Then here in Exodus chapter 30,
they're mixing it in a different way.
It says in verse 22,
More of the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Take thou also unto the principal spices of pure myrrh,
five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon, half so much,
even two hundred and fifty shekels,
and of sweet calamus, two hundred and fifty shekels,
and of cassia, five hundred shekels,
after the shekel of the sanctuary,
and of oil, olive, and hen,
and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment,
an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary,
it shall be in holy anointing oil.
So notice they're basically taking oil,
and then they're mixing in all these various fragrances
and spices and stuff to give it a specific scent,
cassia and all these different things they're kind of mixing in.
Now once they have the anointing oil,
it says in verse 26,
and thou shalt anoint the tabernacle,
the congregation they're with,
and the ark of the testimony,
and the table and all his vessels,
and the candlestick and his vessels,
and the altar of incense,
and the altar of burnt offering,
with all his vessels, and the laver in his foot,
and thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy.
Whosoever touches them shall be holy,
and thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons,
and consecrate them,
and they may minister unto me in the priest's office.
So they anoint the sanctuary's like tabernacle and the altar,
but they also anoint the priests themselves.
So you have kind of frankincense being mixed in with the bread,
and then you have the myrrh being mixed in on the priest,
the actual priest himself.
And so you kind of have these three pictures here of gold,
the king of kings is a picture of Jesus Christ,
the bread through the frankincense is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then the myrrh is a picture of the fact that he's the priest,
and how he's going to be a priest that's ministering unto the Lord Jesus Christ,
because the Lord Jesus Christ is the high priest.
So that's one way that I believe that the gold, frankincense, and myrrh
can be pictured here in foreshadowing of Jesus Christ's life.
That is, the king of kings is to offer a sacrifice and be the high priest unto us.
And isn't that exactly what he does?
The king of kings comes in the flesh, he offers himself a sacrifice,
and then as the high priest, he offers his blood upon that altar,
and that gives us the salvation of our sins.
I mean, that's a pretty incredible picture.
Go over to Psalm 45.
That was one, all right?
Let's go to the second one, all right?
Here's the second one that I think we can have pictured.
And again, gold, kind of having the same theme,
all these have the same theme consistently,
but I think there's just other ways that we can look at this.
Since it's the king of kings, what's another way that we word that?
How about God?
And what is Jesus Christ?
He is God manifest in the flesh.
So I believe that the gold can not only signify Jesus being the king of kings,
but also being God and how he was manifested in flesh.
But it wasn't just a man, it was God that was manifested in the flesh.
When we talk about the frankincense and we talk about the bread,
what does bread picture?
It pictures humanity, in a sense.
And so that helps us not only do we have the gold,
we have the gold with the frankincense,
picturing it being God manifest in the flesh.
The humanity aspect and the divinity aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And not only do we have God manifest in the flesh,
but God manifest in the flesh was empowered by the Holy Ghost.
Now it says here in Psalm chapter 45, look in verse number 6,
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hadest wickedness.
Therefore, God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
So the Bible tells us the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed with that oil
and that oil is a picture of the Holy Ghost.
But look at the next verse.
All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia.
So notice again that myrrh being mentioned here,
so we have that gold picturing the divinity being God,
we have that frankincense with the bread picturing his humanity,
God manifest in the flesh,
and then he was poured out that oil of myrrh with the Holy Spirit,
with the Holy Ghost poured upon him.
Go to Hebrews 1, let's read that,
because this is a quote in Hebrews chapter number 1
that we read in Psalm 45 about the Lord Jesus Christ.
So not only have the king of kings is a sacrifice and the priest,
but we have God and his humanity filled with the Holy Ghost
and that's how he did his work.
Hebrews chapter number 1 is going to sound very familiar to what we just read.
Look at verse number 8.
So the Lord Jesus Christ got a special outpouring of the Holy Ghost
above any other person.
And that's what the Bible is making it clear.
And of course there's a great verse on the Trinity,
because we have God, that's Jesus,
even thy God, meaning specifically his God, which is the Father,
and then we have the oil of gladness, which is the Holy Ghost.
So we have the Son, we have the Father,
and we have the Holy Ghost mentioned in just one verse here in the book of Hebrews.
We'll go to Luke chapter number 16.
So that's the second way that I think you can look at this.
We have the king of kings who is a sacrifice and the priest.
We have God manifest in flesh through his humanity
who is filled with the Holy Ghost.
In Luke chapter number 16,
I think this is another thing that we can kind of talk about when we talk about the gold.
And when we talk about gold, there's really nothing,
there's nothing that will picture riches more than gold.
Gold is the most significant.
When we talk about wealth, we talk about money,
we talk about anything as far as the epitome of riches, it is gold.
The Bible talks about how the streets of heaven are going to be streets of gold.
And so it's kind of a significant thing.
When we talk about kings, specifically throughout the Bible,
they have a crown of gold.
Why? Because gold is a significant aspect of riches, of wealth, of money.
And when we look at Luke chapter 16, look at verse number 10,
the Bible says,
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much,
and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,
who will commit to your trust the true riches?
So I think that the gold signifies something.
Gold is the greatest of riches.
It's the truest riches in a carnal sense.
But you know what is the real truest riches? Jesus.
And that gold can signify how Jesus is like the spiritual gold,
how he is the true riches.
And notice the context of this passage is saying,
it's saying if you have been faithful in unrighteous mammon,
then God will give unto you the true riches.
So if you want to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you want to be greatly used by God,
one of the aspects of the Bible says is that you're faithful in money,
that you're good with money.
Because if you're not good with money,
if you're not a good steward,
if you can't even take care of the carnal things that God has given you,
how much more important are the true riches, the things of God?
Why would God want to bless that person when they're not good with money,
when they're not a good steward, when they're not hardworking,
when they can't do the things of God?
And it doesn't mean that you have to have a lot of money.
It's not saying you have to be rich.
It's just saying, hey, what are you doing with what you've given?
We see the poor widow woman having two mites,
but she gave all that she had, and God greatly rewarded her
and praised her for the fact that she was willing to give
of that small amount of money that she had.
But here's a question.
Those who are not faithful with the unrighteous mammon that God has given unto them,
they're not going to be faithful with the things of God
if they were given unto him.
And so one of the litmus tests of how great a Christian you're going to be,
how great you're going to do with the things of God,
is how do you handle money.
That's an important aspect.
Go to John chapter number 6.
That's why I even say sometimes when you go to a neighborhood
and it's not receptive, it's too poor.
It's a little too ghetto.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Yet you go to this neighborhood and you're thinking,
well, if poverty means receptivity,
this is going to be really receptive.
But then it's not receptive at all
because they've gotten so far away from poverty
that they're now just ghetto poor on purpose.
They're basically poor on purpose because they don't even work.
They're just lazy.
So when you go to areas where the government's paying all of their bills,
all their housing, and you know what,
they're just getting their money from drugs and illegal activity,
often they're not very receptive either.
That's not a coincidence, folks,
because you know what, when they can't even be a good manager
of what they've been given the little bit,
well, you know what, why would God even want to give them the gospel?
They're probably not even going to want that.
The working poor is always the most receptive to the gospel.
They're the greatest as the people that actually do good things with what they have.
They're the ones that are very, very receptive.
Now, John chapter 6, look at verse number 32.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, saying to you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my Father gave you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven
and giveth life unto the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
So not only is Jesus Christ pictured through the gold as the true riches,
he's also pictured as the true bread,
as signified by the fact that frankincense is offered in the meat offering,
and he is that true offering, that true bread.
And so he's not only the true riches, he's the true bread,
that bread of life. I am the bread of life.
And we see he is a humble meal.
Jesus Christ is a humble meal that's being offered to us.
Gold is the greatest thing you could get, in a sense.
A simple piece of bread, I mean, that's nothing in comparison.
But you know what? That's what Jesus is.
He is this package of gold wrapped in simple, humble bread.
And you know what? That's what it takes to be saved,
is just the simplicity of the gospel.
Just eating a piece of bread is likened unto the gospel,
and you get that true riches.
And if you go to John chapter 3, go back,
we'll notice something about this particular meal that we're consuming,
and of course those meals are also offered with oil,
and that, you know, this oil of anointing that was put upon them
is used significantly for something.
Now, gold is used for true riches, bread is used for a meal.
What is oil often used for? And that is for light.
You use oil for light, specifically.
Now, in John chapter 3, verse 34, the Bible says,
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God,
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure on him.
Jesus Christ was not withheld, the Holy Ghost, in any way.
He was given all this Holy Ghost. Why?
We'll look at chapter 1 now, and verse number 6.
It says, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh in the world.
So the Lord Jesus Christ is the true riches, he's the true bread,
and he's the true light that lights the world and gives the gospel message to everybody.
What a significance of the Lord Jesus Christ in this picture of the gold, frankincense, and the myrrh.
He is the light of this world through the oil that's been poured upon him.
Why did he get the Holy Ghost? So that he could get people saved,
and that he could be a bright and shining light.
Why do we want the Holy Ghost?
Not so we can live our blessed life now, but so that our light can shine,
and so that our light will keep burning.
That is the point of the Holy Ghost,
and that's why we get filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, is to do the great works.
I want to show you one more. Go to John chapter 19.
Now, I'm not saying that what I'm teaching this evening is a full picture of the gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
because I think there's a lot of pictures here. There's a lot of applications that can be made.
Of course, they all picture riches, and they're worshipping a king.
Kings need riches. That's another application.
The fact that he's going to have to go to Egypt and needs to be able to be provided for,
and God finds a way through miracles to give him the money that he's going to need.
I'm sure that this gold, frankincense, and myrrh were probably sold.
They were probably used as financial means so that they could literally travel.
I would not be surprised if Joseph went to the merchants and went to the traders
and literally sold these items for money and sold them to provide for his family and take care.
This also shows another thing. When you serve God and you're doing what's right,
God will find a way to provide for your needs, and not only just provide, he's giving them gold.
He's giving them the most expensive items that could possibly be given to provide his way
and to be used for them to go to Egypt, which is probably an expensive place.
It's probably an expensive trip to go down into Egypt.
Egypt is still, at this time, an epicenter of world trade, of commerce, an expensive city.
They're going to need money to be able to travel down there,
to be able to provide for their needs, to travel back, so God is providing for them.
Here's a fourth picture that I want to draw from this text.
It says in John 19, verse 19, and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross,
and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
Not only is Jesus Christ the King of Kings, not only is he God, not only are these the true riches,
he is the King of the Jews.
That is a message carried forth through the book of Matthew,
is how Jesus Christ is the rightful King, and he is the King of the Jews specifically.
Now, in this chapter, we also notice, well, keep your finger here, because we're coming right back.
Go to chapter 12 for a second.
So he's King of the Jews, in John chapter number 12, look at verse number 3.
It says, Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly,
and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair,
and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Now, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was specifically anointed with sweet-smelling oil before his death.
To picture, though, the fact that he would die, to picture his coming sacrifice again.
So, this spikenard, now, I want you to go back to John 19 in a minute,
Song of Solomon, chapter 4, I'm going to read a verse, if you want to go there you can,
Song of Solomon, chapter number 4, mentions spikenard, specifically.
And spikenard is not frankincense, it's not myrrh, necessarily.
They are, again, separate things.
But, in the Song of Solomon, chapter 4, it gives a mention in verse number 12.
It says this, I'm going to read this, my pages are ripped, there we go.
A garden encloses my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire with spikenard,
spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all the few spices.
So, you have this kind of loose example in the Song of Solomon of the husband praising his wife,
and the wife is pictured as a garden and this garden has all of the different spices and anointments and fragrances.
And you have spikenard mentioned in the same breath of frankincense.
So, it's like when I smell this person, they smell like spikenard and frankincense.
And it stands to reason there's a good chance, I can't prove this,
there's a good chance that this spikenard or this ointment probably contained other fragrances.
And so, I wouldn't be surprised if you see something like frankincense also in this particular mixture.
Now, that's just my personal opinion, that's not in the text.
But, either way, the frankincense is put in specifically the meat offering.
And then the meat offering is to be sacrificed.
That's consistent theme all through Old Testament.
Then you see this spikenard come out of nowhere and anoint Jesus before he's then offered.
So, it stands to reason when you just kind of look at all of the context clues,
it's probably likely, at least in my opinion, that there was frankincense in that spikenard that he was anointed with,
fulfilling a lot of those Old Testament pictures of how the frankincense was literally mixed in and put into that and it pictures his death.
So, the gold pictures him being the king of the Jews at his death.
The frankincense pictures the sacrifice of his death.
And then if you go back to John chapter 19, look at verse 39.
After his death, look at verse 39.
And there came also Nicodemus which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus and wounded it in the linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
So, they're both fragrances and it seems likely, again this is my personal opinion,
at least for the frankincense, that was probably used before his death.
But then for sure, the Bible says the myrrh was used after his death.
And so you kind of have this picture of him being the king of the Jews at his death.
You have him being anointed as the sacrifice for his death.
And then you have the myrrh picturing the preservation of Jesus through his death.
Because why are you anointing him with all of these things?
Because we got to preserve that flesh because his flesh saw no corruption.
And I believe that it's a picture of not only that Jesus Christ would die, but that he would rise again.
And that myrrh was used to preserve that body and to keep it fresh so that when he returned back to that body,
again like the text says, he saw no corruption.
Whereas with Lazarus, he had died for four days and he says by now he's stinking.
Whereas I don't think Jesus Christ had to come out of the clothes and be like,
Man, where have you been, bro?
Sounds like you've been in the crypt.
No, he still had that sweet smell.
He was wound in these type of spices and it's a picture of the preservation of him through his death.
So those are the four pictures I wanted to share with you.
Go back to Matthew, chapter number two.
Number one, he's the king of kings that was the sacrifice and our priest.
He was God in the flesh and we see his humanity and he was filled with the Holy Ghost.
He was the true riches, the true bread, and the true light.
He is the king of the Jews and it was a picture of his sacrifice of his death
and being preserved in death through the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh.
I think that the Bible is just really, there's no way to say this is written by man.
That's why Herod's not even trying.
So I know these people are trying.
They're just like, yeah, obviously this is the word of God.
Obviously this is the Bible.
But you know, just because it's the Bible, just because it's the word of God,
doesn't mean people accept it.
Some people have a bad reaction.
What is a bad reaction?
Well, look at verse 12.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod,
they departed into their own country another way.
Herod never said that he was going to do something bad.
God finally warns them in a dream.
Now at this point, we know that God's communicating with them.
I don't know that it happened prior to this.
But God's communicating with them.
Herod's bad.
And so they, you know, that would be nice if all the Judases and the flatters in our church,
God would just warn me at night.
Like just give me a list.
Here's the bad person or whatever.
You're like, all right, thanks.
Thank you.
That would be nice.
But this is obviously important.
Verse 13, when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared.
Appeareth 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.
So not everybody has a positive reaction to the Gospel.
Not everybody loves the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some people want to destroy Jesus and all the things of Jesus.
And not only do they hate Jesus that much, they're willing to sacrifice countless innocent people even just to kill Jesus.
Think about this.
He's not just going to slaughter one baby.
He's going to slaughter dozens, hundreds, thousands, I don't know the exact number, a lot of children just to kill Jesus.
And that is what this demonic, satanic group of people are like.
They'll kill babies.
It's the same as the Democrats of the day that love abortion.
It's the same as the spirit that was in Pharaoh that would slaughter the Hebrew children by throwing the males into the river.
It is the same demonic spirit.
It is a similar demonic spirit of the wives of Solomon and of many false religions and false gods that want to slay children and slay innocents.
Because they hate God.
They hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
It is an earmark of a satanic religion when you want to kill babies.
That is Satanism.
This individual Herod is being led by the devil and by demonic forces.
Verse 14,
And all the coast thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently acquired of the wise men,
then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying in Rama,
was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great morning Rachel, weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not.
Well you notice that the mothers obviously have a lot of natural affection because they can't even get over it.
What a grievous evil.
And you know that is the difference between women that have natural affection and women that don't.
Women that don't have natural affection can go just murder their child in an office somewhere and be fine.
Whereas these women are not even capable of being comforted because they have lost their child.
What a horrible evil.
Verse 19,
But when Herod was dead, I don't think that is a coincidence.
The Bible says, hey, he slaughtered these children.
Next breath, Herod dies.
Hey, you want to be like that Herod?
Okay, fine.
God will kill you.
Now, God obviously allowed this evil to take place.
I don't know, you know, I can't necessarily understand all the reasons.
But perhaps one of the reasons is the fact that it would give opportunity for people to gainsay and think,
oh, it can't be from this period of time.
Jesus couldn't have been from Bethlehem because all the babies were killed.
But we know he was really there.
He didn't even live there.
They were just temporarily visiting from that tax season.
So there is probably no record of him ever being there.
So for all the people that just want to believe,
no, this can't be fulfilled prophecy because he is not from Bethlehem.
All the Bethlehem babies were killed.
No one else was there.
And there is not really proof.
There is not really receipt.
And so from a carnal perspective, they have every reason not to believe them.
I'm not saying that, no one ever deserves this.
And I'm not saying someone deserves this.
I'm not trying to, you know, kick someone when they are down.
But here is another thought.
There was a lot of people who did not come to see Jesus.
There is a lot of people who did not offer them room to stay in their house.
I don't know is this a punishment for having not cared about the things of God,
not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ,
not wanting to know the truth that they ended up having this great evil upon them.
I don't know.
Or perhaps they were completely innocent and God-fearing and just,
you know what, sometimes bad things happen.
I think when bad things happen,
we always need to be willing to ask ourselves the question, though, why?
Even if it's uncomfortable.
You've been saying, could I make improvements?
And you know, even if you didn't do anything wrong
and deserve the evil that's come upon you
and you can still make improvements,
that's the attitude we should have is saying, what can I do better anyways?
What can I do to improve?
And I don't know why this happened.
And you know what, sometimes the Bible makes it clear that really great people
have bad things happen to them and it's no fault of their own anyways.
So we can't know, but we should always look inwardly and say,
what can I do to improve in this situation?
It says,
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 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.
So not only is Joseph worried about returning, God kind of tells him, no, go to Nazareth.
And then that fulfills this prophecy, it says,
Now that quote is not something that you can really find in the Old Testament.
But I think that in some cases, people preach things in the Old Testament
that didn't get pinned down in the Old Testament.
So just because you can't find an Old Testament reference
doesn't mean that they didn't say that.
It's contained here. And it's contained in the book of John.
And specifically, Pilate himself writes down,
King of the Jews, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
And so he even says that he's a Nazarene and he's of Nazareth specifically.
And of course, why do they always want to say Nazareth?
Because they want to undermine the fact that it's not Jesus of Bethlehem.
Because boy, that would trigger a lot of people if they had to say Jesus of Bethlehem.
It would have already triggered them that they said King of the Jews.
Because they're like, say that he said that.
And he's like, what I've written, I've written.
I'm not changing what I wrote because of you.
So what are some lessons that we can learn?
I just want to talk about a few quick things.
Go to Matthew 26, and I want to look at one more verse after that.
But number one, some people want to worship Jesus,
other people want to destroy him.
Everybody has the same reaction.
And you have to understand the gospel is a radicalizing effect.
Because either they get saved and they become better,
or oftentimes when they reject, they become worse.
That's what we call reprobation.
And that's a real thing that can happen.
And you'll probably notice that a lot of times reprobates
are coming from areas where the gospel or false religion
is specifically being just pumped out.
So you have Catholic churches just basically as like reprobate factories.
Or you have areas where the gospel is going forth
and it kind of radicalizes some people into becoming reprobates.
And areas where there's not much going on,
there's a lot less likelihood of maybe sometimes that being the case.
You'll notice people that, there's kind of this common phenomenon
of Jews and faggots all being in the same city.
And you kind of like wonder like, why is there a correlation?
It's because some religions are a reprobate factory.
And what is Judaism? It is a rejection of the gospel.
It is the most antithetical religion and world view
than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so of course therefore it produces more reprobates than otherwise.
So you have to understand the gospel has a radicalizing message.
And some people want to destroy the things of God
because they've been radicalized against the gospel.
But you know what? If you want to destroy things,
it will come back to bite you. Matthew 26, looking at verse 52.
Then said Jesus, and put up again thy sword into his place,
for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Peter has two different outlooks, two different paths he can go on in his life.
Peter can just start killing Romans that don't want Jesus,
or he could preach the gospel to the Romans.
And here's the thing, we should not live a life trying to destroy things.
We should not go around fighting and living of the sword
and trying to hurt and destroy and do damage.
Our goal should be to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and to build and to edify and to do that which is good.
Go over to Proverbs 28, that's less whatsoever when you turn.
And the reality is, you cannot stop God's plan.
You don't want to be found happily to fight against God.
If someone is of God, let them alone.
You don't want to fight against God because you will lose, you will fail.
Herod did not win. Herod failed.
Herod is a failure. Herod is a liar.
Herod is a flatterer. Herod is burning in hell right now.
Herod died early. Herod died young.
Herod was a destructive force.
And you know what, we don't want to be destructive forces in this world,
we want to be people that build things.
We want to be a church that's not categorized by just constantly saying,
what can we attack, what can we destroy, what can we hate,
but rather we want to be a church that's constantly thinking about how to build,
how to grow, how to mature, how to do things that are positive and good.
And you know what, there are churches today that are just focused on hate and destroy and death
and just evil and fighting and you know what, that is not the right way to live our lives.
That is not what I want this ministry to be like.
Now is there some times that we need to fight? Yeah.
Will we fight spiritually with the word of God?
Is there some times to withstand things, is there some times to tear things down?
Yeah, but your ministry should be outweighed by the building as opposed to the destruction.
Proverbs 28, look at verse number 19, this is what the Bible says,
He that tilled his land shall have plenty of bread,
but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.
You know what, we should be people that are constantly tilling the land.
Why? Because you reap what you sow.
If you live by the sword there, Herod, guess what, you're going to die by the sword.
He wanted to just kill babies and destroy Jesus, he destroys himself.
Whereas those that are actually going to build things,
they're going to actually sow, they're going to actually preach the gospel,
they're going to do right things, God's going to preserve your life.
And there's so many people, and I'll just be honest, there's so many people that attack soul winning.
And one of the methods that I always hear is they criticize this idea of the fact that
if you're going soul winning regularly and you're preaching the gospel,
that God will be more merciful to you.
And then they twist that and they say like,
what you're teaching is that it's like penance for sins or something.
Like, oh, I can just sin however I want and as long as I go soul winning, God doesn't care.
I've never taught that, I don't believe that for a second.
God will always use the cleanest vessels the most.
You know what, I'd rather be a dirty vessel getting people saved than a clean vessel doing nothing.
What's the point if you're not even being used by God?
And here's the thing, God, I believe when you read the Bible,
is way more likely to preserve your life and to keep you going
when you're trying to build something and do something for him than when you're doing nothing.
I feel more safe being an active soul winner and preaching the gospel
being like a little bit less sinful.
And again, I'm not trying to excuse sin, I'm not trying to say that I'm thinking like,
well, I went soul winning this week so I can do some extra sins this week or something like that.
That's a lie. That's a lie from the pit of hell.
What I am saying is this, that I'm more focused on preaching the gospel
and building and getting people saved than I am checking every one of your little tiny gray area issues.
You want to sit here and talk about anise and cumin and all these different things
that you're so great and so much better than all of us on
and all your little nitpicky doctrines that you think you're so much better.
Well, you know what, I would never sing a Christian song to any kind of music that's not him's.
Well, you're just so much better than me. How many people did you get saved this week?
None, but I criticized you all week. Well, great.
You know what, I don't want to be someone that's just going around criticizing and attacking
and trying to hurt the things of God because I don't want to be like Herod.
I want to be someone that's marked by, you know what, he's constantly building
and reaching people and preaching the gospel and let me tell you something,
2025, we are going to have so much soul winning.
We are going to have so many soul winning marathons and small town soul winning
and missions trips and we're going to be preaching the gospel
and you know what, I'm so excited for that.
You know what, why don't you get plugged into a church that's going to build something,
not tear things down.
I mean, Calvinist churches today, they're all about tearing other people down
and talking about how everybody's not saved and all this weird stuff,
but they don't build anything, they don't do anything.
And you know what, you'll notice churches outside of our movement
and churches outside of this world, they're all dying.
They're not reaching the youth, they're not growing.
Most old IFB churches today, their pastor inherited that church.
Most old IFB churches today are not run by the pastor that started the church.
They are run by someone that inherited that church
and you know what, they're not growing it, they're shrinking it.
And they're not bringing in the youth, they're not reaching people
and you know what, he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread.
We should be going out there and sowing and reaping and breaking up the fallow ground
and reaching new people and if you don't, eventually you'll die.
Eventually you'll perish, eventually you'll dry up and be nothing.
You're either growing or you're dying, you're growing or you're shrinking.
And you know what, there's so many people just following vain men, vain ideas,
like, oh, but I'm doing what this person's doing.
Yeah, but are they successful anyways?
I'm going to be like this one old IFB preacher who's running 12.
What does that accomplish? What is that going to do?
Are you going to just follow vain people?
Are you just going to follow people that are just destroying things and tearing things down?
Or are you going to follow people that are building things and growing things
and actually doing the work of God?
You know, whenever Jesus came on the scene, he didn't destroy things,
more people are following him.
The Apostle Paul isn't destroying churches, the Apostle Paul is building churches,
growing churches, bringing people in.
Diatrophes is kicking people out, destroying things.
False preachers are coming in, kicking people out.
You know what, I want to follow people that are building stuff and growing things
and not get this lesson from Herod and say, like, I want to follow destructive forces.
We know where destructive forces end, destruction.
And you know what, even if they're really smart and cunning,
God will still provide a way for them to go to Egypt and escape and do whatever they need to do
because he can't overthrow the work of God.
We need to be like the wise men that are trying to find a way to worship Jesus
and to build things and to grow things and to bless things
and not be like Herod that's a destructive force trying to tear things down
and hurt people and cause problems.
You know what, that is not the right move, that is not the Spirit of God.
We need to follow the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
You know what, Jesus Christ came here and he grew in wisdom and stature
to become a sacrifice for us.
And we need to also grow in wisdom and we need to do these things and become a living sacrifice.
This is the best time of year to be a soul winner.
But it's getting colder, so people are going to be less likely to go out preaching.
Look, this is Christmas.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
And people are dying and going to hell.
Oh, I care about Christmas. What do you care about?
You care about presents, you care about songs, you care about whatever garbage food that they have.
Sorry, I don't like Christmas food that much.
It's like the ham.
It's like, I don't want a ham, Christmas ham.
Brisket, okay?
Let's make a new tradition, okay?
Or eggnog.
Who drinks that?
I don't know, it's just weird or something.
I'm like, what's wrong with this?
We need to make the Christmas spirit one where we get excited about the soul winning and preaching the gospel and getting people saved.
That's the spirit of Christmas.
We need to bring it back and not destroy things, not care about selfishness, not care about ourselves, but rather care about the things of God.
I'm going to have fun this Christmas season, but I don't want to withdraw from the spiritual aspect of the season either.
Let us do more this season than we've done in the past and let us focus in on the lost.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this great chapter.
Thank you so much for the sacrifice of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for him being willing to humble himself and become a man and to go through like passions and like temptations as we did.
I pray that this Christmas season, this fall season, that we would be thinking about your son and his sacrifice.
That you give us opportunity to reach more people with the gospel.
That you would fill us with your Holy Spirit and that we could preach a boldness.
I pray that we wouldn't seek ways to destroy and to hurt and to harm, but rather we'd seek ways to build and encourage and edify.
I pray that you could use our church greatly for your honor and for your son's glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. Amen. For our last song, we're going to do song number 377, Rescue the Perishing.
It's a great song about soul winning.
377.
Let's use that sermon to build us up and sing unto the Lord.
On the first.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.
We, for the erring ones, lift up the fallen.
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will save.
We're going to hold it out on merciful on the second.
Though they are sliding in, still he is waiting.
Waiting the penitent child to receive.
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently.
He will forgive if they only believe.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will save great.
Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter.
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness.
Courts that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will save.
Rescue the perishing, duty demands it.
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide.
Back to the narrow way, patiently win them.
Tell the poor wanderer, Savior has died.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful.
Jesus will save.
Very good singing.
I can tell this church really loves to soul win.
Amen.
All right.
You are all dismissed.
.