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In the name we pray, amen. Man, Matthew chapter number two here, the Bible reads in verse one. 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. And the title of my sermon tonight is The Devil's Hatred for Christ. The Devil's Hatred for Christ. Now this chapter is often associated with Christmas and we think about it surrounding the birth of Christ because it starts out by saying now when Jesus was born and then we're gonna get into of course the wise men coming from the east, bringing the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But in reality this is actually happening a couple years later because of what we're gonna see in the story here that when the wise men talk to King Herod it becomes apparent that Jesus was already born a couple years ago because he asked them diligently what time the star appeared and then he goes and kills all of the children that are two years old and under, leading us to believe that apparently the star appeared about two years earlier because it said that he killed the children two years and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. So at this time Jesus is actually a little toddler, like a little two year old boy most likely, maybe one and a half but somewhere in that range. So the Bible says that these wise men came from the east to Jerusalem saying where is he that is born king of the Jews for we've seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. Look at verse number three because this is such a strange reaction. It says when Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Now why would this be troubling? You know why doesn't it say hey when they heard this they got excited or they rejoiced. When the wise men saw the star the Bible says they rejoiced. You know when the shepherds heard the news about the birth of Jesus they got excited, they rejoiced. We see in Luke chapter two what we looked at this morning that Simeon and Anna and other people at the temple they rejoiced, they got excited about the birth of Christ. So what's with Herod being troubled at the birth of Christ? Well obviously what's going on here as stupid as this is but Herod is the king so when he hears about some other king of the Jews being born you know that bothers him. That troubles him because he wants to hang on to his position of power. Now think about how stupid this is because of the fact that a little baby that's being born is not gonna reign today or tomorrow. I mean this is someone who would reign decades later. So why would Herod be so threatened by that? Why wouldn't he just think like okay you know I'm king right now, this is a position that I've been given that I'm enjoying and down the road this is the Messiah, the promised Christ of God, you know great. Even from a worldly perspective it's kind of strange to think that he's so threatened by a two year old. Because obviously he's not gonna reign any time soon. But I believe what God is trying to picture for us here is how the devil's minions in this world, it's like they're trying to hang on to something that is temporal, that's not gonna last right? The world today they hang on to the things of this world, they hang on to their money or their possessions or whatever worldly goods or fame or power they have and it's like they're hanging on to it because they think it's gonna last. They think that the party is just never gonna end. But let me tell you something, the party's gonna end no matter what. I mean Herod's not gonna reign forever no matter what whether Jesus is born or not. It's appointed unto men wants to die and after this the judgment. But this is how worldly people are. That all they can see is just the here and now and so they wanna just tighten their grip on everything and hang on to everything when in reality everything's temporary anyway. They're gonna lose everything anyway but they just wanna hang on to it. It reminds me of later on when the Jews are angry at Jesus and Jesus does this miracle where he raises Lazarus from the dead and everybody's amazed by it but then some of them go their way seeking how they might destroy Jesus. What's the rationale for that? Here's what they say the rationale is. They say what are we gonna do if we allow this man to continue thus and I'm paraphrasing, if we allow this man to continue thus then everybody's gonna believe on him and then the Romans are gonna come and take away our nation from us. You know that's what they're hanging on to the nation of Israel, right? You know what the Romans have given them as far as their power or their authority in the nation instead of just realizing hey, something amazing is happening here. The Lord Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead. You know maybe this is the Christ, maybe this is the Messiah, maybe we should believe in him. Instead they're just worried about losing something that they're gonna lose anyway because what happened? Exactly what they're afraid of because in 70 AD what happened? The Romans came and took their nation away from them and they didn't have a nation ever again and know those people over there that's a totally different group of people. That's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But in Matthew chapter two here we see Herod troubled but is he the only one who's troubled? No because the Bible says in verse three he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And so a bunch of other worldly people that surround King Herod in the city, they are so caught up in the here and now and the things of this world that they're bothered too by the prospect of a regime change. You know they're bothered by the fact that Herod may not continue and that there's this other king of the Jews that's been prophesied that's gonna rule and reign. And so the Bible says in verse four 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 verse six and thou 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. Now stop and think about the bizarreness of what's happening here, okay? Because he's bringing in experts on the Bible to look at the Old Testament and tell him where is Christ supposed to be born? And the Bible says it's Bethlehem. And there's the star and the wise man and all these signs. So then he has this idea that he's gonna kill all of the children in Bethlehem from that time period. Now either one of two things is going on in his mind. Either number one, he actually believes that the Bible is true. And if he believes that the Bible is true and that Bethlehem is gonna be the true birthplace and that the star and Bethlehem and it's all coming together, then does he think he's gonna fight against God? Think about how crazy that is. Isn't it kind of crazy to fight against God if you actually think that God is behind this? But if you think about it, that's exactly what Satan is doing and Satan knows that God is real. And yet Satan, not King Herod, but the literal actual Satan, that is what he's doing. And of course in this story, Herod pictures Satan. Or number two, the other thing that could be going through his head is just, well, I don't want this to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You got the star and you've got the scripture about Bethlehem and maybe some kid in that generation could grow up. But that seems really far-fetched, doesn't it? Seems kind of crazy. But maybe that's what he's thinking. But either way, it says in verse number seven, "'Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, "'inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.'" So he's trying to put together the timing and the geography. Verse eight, "'He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "'Go and search diligently for the young child.'" Again, notice it doesn't say baby, right? It says young child, because it's probably about two years later. "'And when you have found him, bring me word again, "'that I may come and worship him also.'" So this is of course a blatant lie. He doesn't want to come worship Jesus. He wants to kill Jesus as we're gonna see in a few moments. And so he says, well, I want to worship Jesus too. And what we can learn from this is that the enemies of Christ today will often pretend to be the followers of Christ. Here's a guy who is an enemy of Christ. He literally wants to kill the baby Jesus, as we're gonna see in a moment. But yet he pretends to be a friend of Christ. He gives lip service to following Christ. Hey, I just want to worship Christ. Isn't that what the reprobates say, the sodomites? Hey, we just want to worship Christ too. No, you don't. You're wicked, you're evil, you hate Christ. But this is what the enemies of the Lord will sometimes do. And so the haters of Christ will often include false religion and will often include fake Christians or people who profess the name of Christ, but they have ulterior motives for why they're going to church or why they're in the business of religion. Because maybe for them, it's just about making money or whatever they're trying to achieve as false Christians, or false prophets. So Herod lies to them and says, well, I want to worship him too. So it says in verse nine, 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. Now I don't want to go into a big dissertation on this or anything, but the thing that's really interesting about this passage, from an astronomy perspective, is that stars are typically moving in the opposite direction from the way that this star is moving in the story. Because of the fact that Bethlehem is to the east of Jerusalem and things in the sky are typically always moving from east to west, but this star is seemingly moving from west to east. So this has led some people to believe that the star that we're talking about is actually one of the planets, because of the fact that the planets are heavenly bodies that actually will move in retrograde, meaning that they will move backward at different times. And so we don't really know exactly what the star of Bethlehem is, and there are all kinds of theories about it. Ever since astronomy in its modern form came about in the 1600s, and the modern science of astronomy has really been interested in this question, what is the star of Bethlehem? Because what's so cool about the universe is that the stars and the heavenly bodies, they're like a clock. In fact, of course, all of our clocks and everything originally are based upon the movements of heavenly bodies. But everything in the sky moves like a clock, so literally with software, you can actually turn back the clock and even just on my laptop, I have a simulation where you can type in any location in the world and any date and it will show you exactly what the sky looked like on that date. And of course, these things have been checked with ancient astronomical records and it's so incredibly accurate to the point where it's more accurate than even your human eye could even detect. It's so accurate. And so people have gone back and recreated the night sky, when Christ would have been born. Of course, we don't really know exactly what year Christ, it's zero, right? But we don't really know exactly because the system of AD and BC didn't come about until hundreds of years later. It wasn't like Jesus died on the cross and they're like, all right, here we go. He rose again, time to get a new calendar. The calendar came about hundreds of years later. So hundreds of years later, they're looking back and they tried to get it as close as they could. So Jesus Christ was born about 2,022 years ago, but it wasn't December 25th, zero, zero, zero, zero, okay? In fact, there is no year zero because it goes from one BC to AD one. There is no zero in our calendar. And so obviously there are a lot of variables, there's a lot of guesswork, but there's a book written by a guy named Michael Molnar where he actually had a theory that I thought was pretty good, where there was this really interesting conjunction of planets with Jupiter and Saturn and all these different things that all lined up on a certain date. And if that's true, then we would know that that was the year that Christ was born. It's a great theory, obviously nothing that you could be sure of or dogmatic about. But the reason that I tend to believe what Michael Molnar was saying in his book is that some people picture just like this really bright, burning object kind of just cruising through the sky and it's just like, oh, you know, it's cruising. But from reading the story here, it seems more like this is something that only these wise men from the East are aware of. So if it was some really cool comet in the sky, first of all, there was no comet at that time, because you can use the computer simulations and everything to know that. But if there were like, say, just a supernatural comet or some kind of just a bright star that just appeared out of nowhere, well, then everybody would be noticing that, everybody would be looking at it. Like in today's world, if some new star popped up, none of us would notice because we don't know enough about astronomy, we don't care enough. But back then, you know, people stared at the sky a lot more when they didn't have a computer and a smartphone. You know, you went outside, you looked at the sky, okay? That was how you got entertained in those days. And so people would have noticed, but it seems like it was some arcane knowledge where only these wise men from the East know what's going on. They show up asking about it because they've been able to understand this special conjunction of planets and constellations and so forth. But anyway, I digress. So the wise men, they tell Herod, you know, what time the star appeared, they head out to go worship him. And when they departed, the star which they saw in the East went before them, even as they head East to Bethlehem, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And then when they were coming to the house, they saw again, not the baby, but the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they'd 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 appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be thou there until I bring the word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Now, this is really ironic in light of the fact that there's another Bible story from 1500 or so years earlier, when baby Moses is born and the same type of thing is happening where all the young babies are being destroyed. But that was actually in Egypt. So think about the irony of fleeing from Israel into Egypt in order to escape a murder of Israelite babies. It's like the exact opposite of what it should be, right? And so I think what God's trying to show us from the get go is the spiritual condition of Israel at this time that Christ is born. Because if you think about it, the four gospels each kind of have their own emphasis, like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. And Matthew is the book that's most geared toward Israel because it has the most Old Testament quotes and it portrays Christ as king of the Jews. That's the theme of the book of Matthew. Whereas people will say, okay, Matthew's written to the Jews, Mark has written to the Romans, Luke has written to the Greeks, John has written to the world. That's typically what people will say about this. And there is a lot of truth in those thematic elements. So if this is the gospel that's kind of geared toward Israel or toward the Jews, it makes sense because Matthew has some of the hardest preaching against the Jews in it and it really has a lot of parables about the kingdom of God being taken away from them. And so right away at the beginning of the book of Matthew, right away, we see the spiritual condition of Israel is so bad that you're fleeing Israel to go to Egypt because of the mass murder that's gonna happen in Israel. Now think about this, King Herod, okay, he represents Satan, he's a wicked person, he wants to kill the baby Jesus. The Bible says that Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. But obviously this isn't just one guy who's personally gonna go do the murdering. It says in verse number 16, 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. So he's not, obviously killing one baby would be super wicked, but he kills all the babies, not only in Bethlehem but in all the coasts thereof, meaning just the whole region surrounding Bethlehem, all children from two years old and under. Is he even just killing the boys? I mean, it says he's just killing all the children. I mean, it's incredible, right? But even if it's just all the boys from two years old and under, how disgusting. I mean, even just think about our little church here, how many boys, what year is a family that has a boy under two years old? You have a boy under two years old. Well, look how many people all over the building. How about just a child under two years old? Yeah, again, I mean, it's a huge number of people. And so this goes to show, you know, Bethlehem, you may think, well, how many kids could there possibly be in Bethlehem? Well, there's probably a lot more people than in the town of Bethlehem than there are in just this church. And so it would be a lot of children being killed. And it says in verse 17, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet saying, in Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not because of course, Rachel is associated with Bethlehem. That's where Rachel is buried and so forth. And so it's horrible, but stop and think about it. Somebody had to carry out that order. So not only do we have this wicked King Herod, but we also have apparently soldiers or followers of Herod that are willing to commit mass murder when Herod just tells them, go murder all these children. They're just like, yes, sir. It's incredible, isn't it? And this just goes to show the devil's hatred for Jesus Christ. The devil hates Jesus so much, he's willing to kill and hurt anyone with no conscience in order to stop Christ in this story. And it shows the spiritual condition of Israel. Looking back to Isaiah 53, you don't have to turn there, but the famous passage prophesying of the coming of Christ. And it says, he shall grow up before him, referring to Christ as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. You know, so Jesus Christ was like a tender plant that grew up out of a dry ground. And one way that you can interpret that is that Israel's pretty dry spiritually. You know, it's a nation that has gotten away from God. And it's to the point where the devil's in charge and Herod is in charge, and his followers are willing to commit all kinds of atrocities. And so they have to flee into Egypt because Egypt is better than Israel for the baby Jesus at this time. So Jesus, of course, starts out in Egypt. And then after a while, the Bible says in verse 19, 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're dead, which sought the young child's life. Now here's the thing about that, is that Jesus is still a young child when he comes back from Egypt. So he wasn't in Egypt for 10 years or 15 years, right? Because when he comes back, he's still called a young child. When he's two years old, he's a young child. He's still a young child. So how old is he? Three, four, five, six, we don't know. But we know when he's 12 years old, he's already been back in Israel and he's going to the feast with his parents and so forth. And so it's just a short few years before Herod's dead. And again, this goes to show you how futile it is for the devil or the devil's crowd to try to hang on to the things of this world. And he's just trying to hang on to his kingdom. I mean, here's the thing. If Herod would have just sat back and done nothing, you know, would that have really changed anything for Herod? Like, oh, I gotta stop Jesus because he's gonna take my spot as king. You're gonna be dead in a few years anyway, you idiot. And here's the thing. Everybody's gonna be dead in a few years in the scheme of things. And life is short. Life is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. And so don't try to hang on to everything in this life so dearly because it's all gonna slip away anyway. Only the things of God matter eternally. And so he ends up dying anyway just a few short years later. And so then, of course, Joseph brings Mary and baby Jesus back into the land of Israel. But when they get there and they find out that the new boss looks a lot like the old boss, they decide that instead of going back to Bethlehem, they're gonna go to the land of Galilee instead. So Jesus ends up growing up in Galilee, growing up in Nazareth, and being referred to as a Nazarene. And then this confuses people later because they're like, wait, isn't Christ supposed to be from Bethlehem? And they're wondering why Jesus is from Nazareth. Why is Jesus from Galilee? And they try to use that to discredit Jesus. Now flip over if you would to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 alludes to this same story about Herod wanting to kill baby Jesus. The Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 12 verse one, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. So of course this is very symbolic. You know, you got the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet. Obviously this isn't literal. But we've got the woman and she's about to give birth. And then you've got this great red dragon, Satan, that's just ready to eat this child as soon as it's born, right? And he's just waiting for the baby to be born so he can devour it. Verse five, she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up in the God into his throne. That's of course Jesus Christ. And so the dragon failed to devour the child as soon as it was born. That was his goal. But what ended up happening? He ended up being warned in the middle of the night. They took him down to Egypt as we saw in Matthew chapter two. And then it says in verse number six, the woman fled into the wilderness where she had the place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1,203 score days. So it's possible that as part of the symbolism, maybe they were down in Egypt for three and a half years also, we don't really know, but that would kind of jive with the young child timeline. But again, that's just speculation. And there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives under the death. Now watch closely in verse 12. Therefore, rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And of course the dragon persecutes the woman and so forth. And then at the end in verse 17, it says the dragon was wroth. Wroth means filled with wrath, angry. The dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnants of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So who is it that Satan is mad at? He's mad at us, right? So the devil's goal was to devour the child as soon as he was born. The devil hates Christ and wanted to destroy Christ, but he failed to do that. And so he's still mad. Why is he mad? The Bible says he's mad because he knows that he has a short time. Now, obviously this is in the end times when he has a really short time, but even today in the scheme of things, he has a short time. Obviously the devil is not confused right now about his ultimate destiny. I don't think the devil is still thinking in 2022, hey, I think I've got a shot at this. I think I can win. No, obviously the devil knows who he is. He knows who God is. He knows what's going on. And he knows that he only has a short time. Even now he has a relatively short time in the scheme of things. And so he's angry. He's filled with wrath and rage. What is it that motivates the devil's hatred for Christ? And what is it that motivates his hatred for us? Because when he can't get Christ, when Christ ascends up to heaven to the right hand of the throne of God, it seems at that point that there's nothing the devil can do in order to defeat Christ at that point. It's like Christ is done. He came to this earth. He fulfilled the mission. Because think about it. First the devil tried to murder him when he was a baby. Then what does the devil do after Jesus gets baptized? After Jesus gets baptized, he tries to tempt Jesus. Because if he can get Jesus to sin, then he can mess things up for Jesus that way. And of course he fails at the three temptations that he hits Jesus with. And then ultimately Jesus dies on the cross. He's buried and he rises again. And once Jesus rises again and sends out the apostles and ascends up to heaven, you know, he's done. He succeeded. Mission accomplished. So now where does the devil direct all of his wrath, all of his anger? It's directed toward us. Those who are the remnants of the woman's seed, which keep the commandments of God, we're human, we're of the woman's seed, and we keep the commandments of God and have a testimony of Jesus Christ. And so we're the ones that he hates. So what motivates the devil's hatred for Christ? Well, first of all, envy. Because the devil wants to be like the most high. And so he envies the Lord Jesus Christ. Also just pure malice. You know, he just wants to destroy. He's a murderer from the beginning, the Bible says. And so he just comes to kill and to destroy and to do harm. He does harm for the sake of doing harm because he's just evil, you know? And so don't be confused about this, that pure evil actually does exist. Don't have this attitude, well, I think there's just good in everyone. No, some people are just trash. Some people are just pure evil. And you know, that's how the devil is. And so envy, malice, just pure and simple, just wanting to hurt people. And then of course, pride. You know, the devil's characterized by pride. And so he's lifted up in pride. So he doesn't want to play second fiddle unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't want to worship Christ. You know, the Bible commanded that all the angels of God worship Christ. And he doesn't want to worship Christ. He and his followers hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And so now we are the objects of his wrath. Go if you would to John chapter 15, last place we'll turn, John chapter 15. And so you've got this clash where you've got Satan hating Christ, wanting to destroy Christ, but when he can't destroy Christ, then that hatred gets transferred onto us as Christians, as followers of Christ. But not only is Satan this way, but Satan has plenty of followers that are the same way. Just like Herod had his followers that would do his bidding and that would commit atrocities in his name. The devil's the same way. There are people on this earth today that are the children of the devil, the sons of Belial, right? And they hate Christians, just like the devil hates Christians. And so the Bible tells us in John chapter 15, beginning in verse number 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my father also. Now that's a key verse right there. We'll come right back to that. If I had not done among them the works, which none other man did, they had not had sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my father, but this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. And so today we have a segment of the population that are followers of Satan, they're followers of King Herod. They hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And anyone who hates the Lord Jesus Christ hates God. That's what the Bible says, doesn't it? Because it says in verse 23, he that hateth me hated my father also. So if the Jews hate Jesus, they hate God. It's not like, well, they love God. They love that God of the Old Testament. No, they hate him too. Unless you don't believe the Bible. And I'm sure you believe the Bible. That means you'd have to acknowledge that anyone who is negative toward Jesus is being negative toward the father as well. If you hate Jesus, you hate the father, okay? And Jesus said that if you don't have the son, you don't have the father. That's what it says in the Epistle of 1 John as well. But he that acknowledge that the son has the father also. So these two go together, they cannot be separated. So if you love Christ, you love God. If you don't love Christ, you don't love God. And so all throughout this world today, there are people that, it's not that they just don't believe in Christ, it's that they're actually offended by Christ, aren't they? I mean, think about even just the atheists and agnostics of America today in 2022. Are they all just like, hey, if you wanna be a Christian, that's no problem. You know, we respect the Bible, we respect Christianity, we respect your religion. No, it seems like they respect every religion except for Christianity. You know, the Native Americans have got their traditions and they've got their pagan beliefs and pagan deities. And the liberals are just like, oh, it's so wonderful. Right? They love it. They don't call it superstitious, which is what it is, by the way, a bunch of superstitious mumbo jumbo. But they say like, oh, it's so wonderful, it's so beautiful. It's culture, right? Isn't that what they say? And then they even look at Islam. Oh, Islam is so beautiful. No, it's not. Islam is garbage. Amen. Okay, Islam is trash. Were you here last Sunday night? Okay, Islam is total trash. But yet, unto the liberals of this world, Islam is wonderful, pagan Native American religions are wonderful. And I mean, the liberals foam at the mouth when they hear about us going soul winning on an Indian reservation. Oh, you know, you're trying to bring white oppression and you're trying to colonize them. And you know, it's Christopher Columbus all over again and you know, and they freak out. They get so mad to see us just go up there. We're not colonizing anybody. You know, all we do is just go up there and just preach Jesus Christ and people can take it or leave it. You know, we're just speaking the word of God and letting people who have an ear, hear. But man, they flip out. And here's what they say. Those people already have a religion. Don't mess with their religion. Let them believe their, don't mess with that. You know, let they have their religion. Why don't they say like, hey, why didn't you teach them about science? They don't care. They don't care if the Indians become atheists and ethnostics. You know, they're fine with the Indians just, you know, doing a bunch of peyote in the sweat lodge and communing with great, great grandfather, right? Why is that fine with them? Because here's the thing, the devil doesn't care whether you're an atheist or an agnostic or a Muslim or a Jew or a Hindu just so long as you're not a Christian. See the devil doesn't care whether you go to hell number one or hell number two. He just wants you to go to hell. It doesn't matter to him which way you go to get there. He just wants you to go there. And that's why today there are so many people who are so negative toward Christianity, but they'll be, they love Buddhism. You know, they would never dream of criticizing Hinduism or Native Americans or whatever. It's, you know, it seems hypocritical. It seems like it doesn't make any sense. But it does make sense when you realize that the devil hates Christ and that the people who are children of the devil, they hate Christians, they hate Christ. The reason that they don't hate Muslims is because Muslims are of this world. You know, Muslims are on the same team as them ultimately, the devil's team, team Satan, okay? And so we see that anyone who hates Christ hates God. The haters of God are the haters of Christianity, the haters of Christ. And they hate the followers of Christ. You know, a lot of times people will hide behind this thing of like, well, you know, I'd be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. Like they just, it's not that they hate Christ. We just hate Christians. You know, it's just Christianity. It's just evangelical Christians that they really hate. You know, they don't have a problem with the lesbian Methodist pastor down the street, but basically, you know, they hate evangelical Christians, right? It's as darn evangelicals. And oh, I would be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. You Christians are nothing like your Christ. Bologna, we Christians are nothing like the Christ that you made up in your mind who's like a dope smoking hippie who just goes around telling everybody to love one another. You made up your own Christ and then you're like, oh, you Christians are nothing like your Christ. No, we're like our Christ. We strive every day to be like our Christ. Obviously we come short of the glory of God, but you know, the stuff that we say though, we got it from him. You know, obviously the sins that we do, those aren't like Christ, but the stuff that we say, the stuff that they're mad about, they're not mad about us committing sins, folks. They're mad about the word of God that we speak. And guess what? We sound a lot like Jesus, our Jesus. Now we're nothing like their Jesus because their Jesus doesn't exist. He's a figment of their imagination. He's a made up guy. Whereas the Jesus of the Bible is the object of their hatred. And so here's the thing, when you see people hating Christians, who do they really hate? Christ. Somebody who hates Christians, it's not that they just have a problem with us personally, they actually hate Christ. And if they hate Christ, who do they really hate? So you see how this goes. They hated me, so now they're gonna hate you, Jesus said. The devil went from attacking Jesus to attacking the followers of Jesus. And so when you see people hating and attacking the followers of Jesus, it's typically because their real beef is with Christ. And if they have a beef with Christ, then their real beef is with even God the Father. And so don't be fooled by this attitude that says, well, you owe Lord Jesus, save us from your followers or you know, all this baloney. Okay, these people never read the Bible. And if they did read the Bible, they ignored everything it said, because the Bible is very clear about their ilk. The Bible's very negative about the sinful things that they teach and espouse. And so the Bible says in verse 23, he that hateth me hated my father also. If I had not done among them the works, which none other man did, they had not had sin, but now they both seen and hated both me and my father. But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. And so the last point I wanna make from this passage is that even if you do everything right, quote unquote, the world is still gonna hate you as a Christian. You might think like, man, if I'm just a really good Christian and I'm just super nice to everybody, then maybe the world will be pleased with me, although I'm a Christian. But the devil's crowd is always gonna hate you no matter how good you are, no matter how kind you are to them, because what does the Bible say? They hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. You don't have to give them a reason. They hate you without a cause because you are in Christ and they hated Christ without a cause. So don't forget that. No one's immune from this. And that's why he said in verse 20, the servant's not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. Who's the nicest of them all? Jesus is nicer than we are. Jesus is more loving than we are. Jesus is a better diplomat than we are. He's more of a peacemaker than we are. If he couldn't get along with the reprobates of this world, neither will we. So in conclusion, realize that the devil hates Christ. Even on the very birth of Christ, the devil was trying to literally murder him and was just willing to commit mass murder of innocent children just in his rage to get after Christ. The devil hates Christ. The devil hates Christians. The devil has his minions that will participate with him in that persecution of Christians, just as Herod had his armies that would follow him and do these atrocities in his name. And so we as Christians just need to realize that and decide that we are gonna stay faithful no matter what and not be offended when persecution comes, not be surprised when the world hates it. The Bible says, marvel not my brother and if the world hates you. Don't get all surprised. Don't, whoa, what's going on? No, this is what we should expect to happen, that even if we do everything right, that they hated Christ without a cause and we will be no different. And so we need to decide right now that even in the face of the envy and malice of the devil and his crowd, we will stay faithful and stay true no matter what. And we're going into a brand new year here, starting on Sunday, January 1st. I hope you're all gonna be here on Sunday morning to seek first the kingdom of God in the year of 2023. And we're going into a new year of serving God and nothing's changed. You know, God's people are God's people. The devil's crowd is the devil's crowd that are out to kill and destroy and persecute and hate. And then you've got the Lord's people that are out to save, seeking to save that which is lost, following Christ's example, right? Of pulling them out of the fire and preaching the gospel to every creature. Because let's face it, the majority of people in this world are neither children of God nor children of the devil. The vast majority of people in this world are neither saved Christians nor are they God-hating reprobates like Herod. Most people are still in the balance, right? And they can still go either way. And we wanna reach as many people with the gospel as we can before it's eternally too late. That's why we need to stay faithful. That's why we need to keep on moving forward in spite of whatever opposition that the devil throws us. Because you know what, the devil's time is short. It's limited. The devil's crowd, the evil, they're but for a moment. And they're gonna be cut down. Just like Herod, you know, he's gonna kill everybody. Well, a couple years later, he's dead himself. You know, and then we have rest. That's the way it's gonna be, my friend, because this life is short. The devil's time is short. That's what makes him so mad. He envies Christ, but he probably envies us too because we have eternal life and he doesn't. We're gonna live forever, he's not. He's going straight to hell at the second coming. Let's borrow this enough word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for what you've warned us and told us that look, there are people out there that have hated you and they're gonna hate us, Lord. But help us to keep on moving forward in spite of whatever opposition we face, Lord. Help us to endure affliction, endure persecution, and keep on preaching the gospel. And Lord, I pray that you would bless our church. We've had 17 years, Lord, of serving you, and we just pray that you give us many more years of pulling people out of the fire, Lord, and just getting as many people saved as we possibly can. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.