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and three for reverently upon their knee and offered there in his presence their gold and myrrh and frankincense Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel Alright great singing just a few announcements before we sing our next song which will be 429 Hark the Herald Angel sings song number 429. Of course our Saturday morning service is at 1030 we typically have it at 5pm but of course today for Christmas we're having a little earlier at 1pm and so we'll do a little bit of fellowshipping afterwards and you know you don't don't feel like you need to just shoot out we're going to close down right away or anything like that we're going to be fellowshipping for quite some time if you'd like to and then of course our Thursday service is at 7pm you see the so many times in teams the list of expecting mothers everything that I basically just announced like a couple hours ago an hour and a half or so just um if you could remember all that new year's eve service is our new year's service is on january 1st of course our Barso soul winning resumes on monday january 2nd you can see brother Ulises Hernandez for more details about that we'll meet here at the building at 1130 for lunch then we'll head out and have dinner there as well if you want to participate you can see him for more details men's prayer night is coming up on friday january 6th and of course you see the regular reminders there please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service and that is it let's go ahead and sing our next song 429 hark the herald angels sing sign number 429 mark the herald angels sing sign number 429 sing it on that first verse hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled joyful all ye nations cries join the triumph of the skies with angelic host proclaim price is born in bethland hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king christ by highest heaven adored christ the everlasting lord late in time behold him come offspring of a virgin and veiled in flesh the godhead see hail the incarnate deity pleased as men with men to dwell jesus our immanuel hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king hell the heaven prince of peace hail the son of righteousness light and light through all he brings bliss with healing in his wings now he lays his glory by born that man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth hark the herald angels see glory to the newborn king come desire of nations come thanks in us rise a woman's concrete seed bruise in us the serpent's head Adam's likeness now we're faced stand fine image in its place second Adam from above re-enstate us in thy love hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king amen wonderful singing at this time our ushers will be receiving the offering please turn your bibles to matthew chapter two so so we're in matthew chapter two we're in matthew chapter two matthew chapter two in the bible reads now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea in the days of harrod the king behold there came wiseman from the east to jerusalem saying where is he that is born king of the jews for you have seen his star from in the east and are come to worship him when king harrod when harrod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all jerusalem with him 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 are not the least among the princes of judah for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people israel then harrod when he had privately called the wiseman 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 young 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 maria's mother and fell down and worshiped him and when they had opened their gifts they presented unto him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh and being warned of god in a dream that they should not return to harrod 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 thee word for harrod 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 it was there until the death of harrod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet saying are out of egypt have i called my son then harrod 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 all the coasts 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 mourning rachel weeping for her children it would not be comforted because they are not but when harrod 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 achaelius had did reign in judea in the room of his father harrod 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 an azarene let's pray do lord god thank you uh first and foremost for sending your son jesus to be born of a virgin and to live a perfect life uh and die on the cross for all of our sins lord and we thank you for salvation you've given us through jesus lord and uh we thank you for this church and we thank you for pastor we pray that you bless him right now and fill him with the holy spirit as he preaches your word and that we're edified by the preaching lord and so just bless the service in every aspect we pray this in jesus name amen amen okay we're in matthew chapter two this afternoon and i do realize that all of our stomachs are filled with food and so all the blood from our head is going to our stomachs to digest the food which means that um you know people are going to be you know kind of like doing one of these numbers you know what i mean and so um but it's funny people do that with or without the food sometimes it's kind of weird i'm just joking so i i'm not going to be long-winded tonight or this afternoon we're going to share a couple truths from the book of matthew chapter number two in regards of course to the christmas story and we just want to exalt once again and talk about the birth of christ and what the bible says about it here in these particular two chapters this this morning we went over luke chapter two and and really talked about his his birth and with the shepherds him going to bethlehem and the fulfillment of that prophecy and matthew chapter two is often used also in conjunction with the birth of jesus christ with christmas and but the only difference is is that much of it actually takes place long after he was born okay and this is what's wrong with the manger scene aside from the fact that many of the times when people uh do a manger scene you know it's idolatry according to the bible but it's actually inaccurate okay because you have the manger scene and you have the baby jesus right in the middle you have the shepherds there you have mary and joseph but you also have the three wise men they're peering into the manger when that actually did not happen okay according to matthew chapter two and obviously this is conjecture as far as the time is concerned it was about two years after his birth okay and so he was approximately two years old maybe a little younger than that and the reason we know that is because when harrod has uh his men go and kill the children he seeks to destroy the children from two years and under okay with the intent to kill jesus christ which would indicate that he is at least two years old at this point okay now the reason this is important the reason it's part of the christmas story is because in chapter one of course you have the birth of jesus christ towards the latter end and in his name being declared as being jesus but also because of the fact that you know there's a lot of uh symbolism that we see here in chapter two that deals with his birth as well as his death so we're going to go over that in just a bit look at verse number one of matthew chapter two it says now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judaea in the days of harrod 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 a star in the east and are come to worship him i'm going to go over just uh first and foremost by way of introduction regarding the wise men who they are what is the star of bethlehem and then i have three points tonight using the gifts that they bring to jesus okay so once you start seeing me give the points about the gifts and you're like okay we're almost nearing the end all right so i'm giving you this in advance so you can you know you have light at the end of the tunnel okay all right so let's talk about the wise men because here it says that wise men from the east they see his star okay referring to jesus's star in the east and and they're come to worship jesus christ now a couple things i want to mention regarding the wise men now first and foremost is that we often think that the wise men were actually kings and i'm not necessarily against that interpretation we don't necessarily know 100 sure and really the only reason we think that is because of the song that we sing right which shows you how much influence music can have on christian doctrine to the point we literally think it says the three kings but it doesn't now i love that song i think it's a great song we three kings of ori and tar you guys heard me sing that right you know me cody and john uh we recently just um released an album if you guys want autographs afterwards we're available but it's a great song and it talks about the kings and obviously you can conjecture maybe they're referred to as kings in that song or the writer that song thought that there were kings because of the fact of how expensive the gifts were that they brought right maybe it was because of the fact that it really kind of drives home the point that kings from afar come to seek jesus christ just as the queen of sheba right came to solomon in times past okay maybe they're referred to as kings in that song because at the end of the day believers are referred to as spiritual kings right but at the end of the day it doesn't say they're kings okay it really calls them wise men now another thing that i want to mention regarding the wise men is that you know the wise men are often described as being kings but they're also described as being like astronomers okay you know that they're that's why they're able to see the star and because of the fact that they studied astronomy they know the heavenly bodies and based upon you know that the heavenly bodies and where they were because of their study of that they were able to to find where jesus christ was being born now i'm not necessarily of that camp i don't believe that and i'm going to explain to you in this introduction as to why i don't believe that the bible is referring to them as being wise because of their worldly wisdom because that would be considered worldly wisdom right you know the ability to know astronomy i believe that they're wise because of what the bible says what wisdom is okay they're wise men first and foremost because they're seeking after jesus christ that's number one but number two i also believe go to matthew chapter 23 by the way put your place there in matthew chapter 2 i believe that these wise men were potentially just preachers of the gospel they're preachers of god's word which is why they know god's word they know what the prophecy says you say well yeah but they're coming all the way from like persia though well folks you know daniel was in persia at one point and i'm sure converted converted a lot of people and i would even go as far as to say that these wise men are spiritual descendants of daniel and they've heard the word of god and in fact you know daniel had many prophecies of the birth of christ in his writings and in his prophecies so this is obviously you know carried down and learned by individuals but not only that you know the bible tells us in proverbs 11 verse 30 the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win his souls is wise so the bible doesn't call necessarily god doesn't refer to someone who is knowledgeable about worldly wisdom as being wise he refers to those who are at in spiritual things as being wise someone who wins souls to christ is being wise like well that's kind of a stretch you know what i mean calling the wise men saying that they're soul winners you know isn't that something that's only forward like the new testament no because the book of proverbs is in the old testament so there are soul winners back then and they were referred to as the people who are winning souls who are preaching the word of god but let me show you further proof matthew chapter 23 verse 24 says wherefore behold i send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them he shall kill and crucify and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city so we see here that god sends prophets he sends scribes and he sends wise men why are they wise because they know the bible i don't believe these wise men were able to uh pinpoint where jesus christ was based upon their worldly wisdom but based but rather based upon their knowledge of god's word they knew that the christ was going to be born and where the christ was going to come out of and you know there's there's speculation that you know it could have been by the prophecy of balaam who's a false prophet but when the dumbass spake with man's voice according to second peter chapter 2 says you know when when balaam actually prophesied he actually talked about the star coming out of uh out of juda out of juda and so that might have been a passage of scripture that they knew about that would lead them to believe but i would actually actually say that it's probably from haggai chapter 2 verse number 14 where they got that prophecy that he was going to come forth out of bethlehem out of judaea and so that's why i believe they're wise and you know this is a an application for us that although it's important to get worldly wisdom in the sense of you know getting knowledge and understanding how life works and the things of this world it's far more important to be wise concerning the things of god right it's far more important for you to be wise about the word of god wise because you win souls to christ wise because you are building your life upon the rock okay and in fact go to matthew chapter 7 if you would i'm going to read you from first corinthians chapter 3 verse number 10 it says according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation another build that they're on but let every man take heed how he buildeth their on not only that but you know when the apostle paul is writing to his son in the faith timothy he tells him and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation right through faith which is in christ jesus so i believe these wise men knew what the word of god said they studied god's word they were essentially prophets people who proclaimed god's word and they were given the privilege of knowing you know that that was the moment where jesus christ in that timeline in history was going to be born look at matthew 7 and verse 24 it says therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock so wisdom according to the bible is not someone who has a phd although that's not bad it's not someone who just has a lot of street knowledge although that's not necessarily bad it's someone who actually builds their life upon the rock and that rock of course is jesus christ it's someone who lives his life according to the dictates of god's word they're a safe person they know what the bible says they know what god requires of them they understand the precepts and statutes of the lord they have a fear of god in their life that's someone who the bible says is wise that's the person who's building his house upon a rock it says in verse 25 and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock the bible says now you say well how do you know they weren't astronomers though you know how do you know they weren't studying the stars and the alignment of the planets well because of the fact that the bible says that the heathen you know are dismayed at the signs of heaven you know it's the heathen who constantly look to the alignment of the planets the alignment of the stars in order to determine what's taking place and the bible says but you shouldn't be dismayed at that you shouldn't be led by the stars of of the planets and everything that's taking place in in the celestial and the celestial bodies but think about this you know in the book of daniel when Nebuchadnezzar was trying to find someone to interpret his dream he gathered all the wise men and all the astronomers and they couldn't tell him those things they couldn't interpret his dream because it was a spiritual matter they got all the astronomers all of the wise men all of the diviners and all these smart people from babylon to try to interpret the dream but they could not do it and so they got a real wise man by the name of daniel to come and interpret the dream okay go to actually go to daniel chapter two if you would daniel chapter number two and then we're going to go to chapter five so i think that these wise men who were coming to jesus they were essentially just men of god men who esteemed the word of god men who studied the bible and got honored their knowledge of god's word their fear of god by letting them know when the birth of christ was going to take place okay and let me look at daniel chapter two by the way let me make this other point here is that you know people often say we don't know if those three though it could have been more right because you know we again the song says we three kings of orient are and so automatically think that there's three some people say well how do we know there wasn't just like a lot of them you know and sometimes it's just like oh well the bible does say that there's three gifts and so it might have been three wise men and here's the thing i think i believe it was probably only three you say why is that well because of the fact that straight as the gate narrows away and few there be that find it you didn't have the mul the multitudes don't come to seek after jesus it's always only a select few only a few shepherds in the field only a few wise men from the from from from uh the east are coming to seek after jesus and i think it just signifies that the reality is this is that the multitudes don't want to necessarily come to jesus okay and if the multitudes do come to jesus it's only to be fed of jesus with physical food right but eventually they all leave because they're offended at his message and then jesus turns to the 12 and says will you also go away and then you have a select few that say to whom shall it go thou has the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the christ the son of the living god so at the end of the day we see that jesus ministry is filled with people who it's not necessarily a great multitude of people it's only a few that often will seek after him and think about you know these three wise men you know it might have taken them like two years to get to where jesus was okay so they searched far and wide for this and you know not many people would be willing to make that make that trip to seek after jesus christ you know and and and actually be there uh for his birth to see that but i don't want to get ahead of myself because it's one of my other points look at daniel chapter 2 and verse 27 says daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the seeker which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men the astrologers the magicians the soothsayers you know the the the doctors the university graduates the uh the theologians none of them can interpret it right they couldn't show them to the king verse 28 but there is a god in heaven that reveal its secrets and maketh known to king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days thy dreams and visions upon the of thy head or upon thy bed are these look at chapter five if you would chapter five so all these guys who had all this book knowledge book knowledge isn't bad but you know they had all this book knowledge they knew about astronomy they were magicians they're false prophets but they couldn't figure it out look at verse 13 then was daniel brought in before the king and the king spake and said unto daniel without that daniel which are the children of the captivity of judah whom the king my father brought out of jewelry i have even heard of thee that the spirit of the gods is in thee and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee and now the wise men the astrologers have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known unto me the interpretation thereof but they could not show the interpretation of the thing and i have heard of thee that thou canst make interpretations listen to this and dissolve doubts now if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof thou shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom the bible says so we see that daniel is esteemed because he can interpret it and he can just dissolve all doubts and isn't that our responsibility when we go out there and preach the gospel you know we are essentially like the wise men going out preaching the word of god and dissolving the doubt can you lose your salvation right the dissolving the doubt is the bible the word of god dissolving the doubt does god really exist i mean we answer with authority we are assertive we are aggressive in our soul winning and we look them straight in the eyes and say believe on the lord jesus christ and now shall be saved in thy house you know we dissolve those doubts and we interpret that not because we're scholars but because we're wise men you understand and you know the bible tells us that the the wisdom of this world is foolishness with god you know there are those who profess themselves to be wise but they became fools the bible says because in their foolish heart was darkened whereas the bible expects for us to have the wisdom of god through his word now so they come and you know they're preaching as we go back to matthew chapter 2 if you would matthew chapter 2 so the three wise men they come and you know they go to harrod because they expect harrod who's the ruler of jerusalem to know where jesus christ should be i mean that that should be harrod's job right he has uh all these wise men and scribes people who know the bible at his disposal you would think that he would make this a priority to know hey your job as scribes and wise men is to be alert be vigilant pray read the word of god because i want to know when christ comes okay so i can honor him but obviously harrod is a wicked king he doesn't care for those things and it says in verse number three when harrod heard when harrod the king had heard these things he was troubled now why is he troubled you know what what's what's so scary about christ being born i mean this is what your country is based off of you know the the land of your of your birth is like all about jesus christ only reason you're even a country it's because of jesus your country should revolve around jesus christ okay only reason your ancestors are even a thing is because of jesus christ okay but yet he's troubled now why is he troubled because he sees that jesus christ might be a threat to him because he's a king and harrod's a king he's just like oh no this guy's coming to take my place yeah he's coming to take your place he's coming to take everyone's place because he's the king of kings and the lord of lords okay but here's the problem he says he was troubled and all jerusalem with him what in the world so here are these gentiles these persians these men from the east who are excited they made this this incredible journey to see the christ with their own eyes and then you have harrod the king of jerusalem and jerusalem itself troubled by it they're just like oh no you know what's going to happen why is this happening is this they're going to be a new king or something like that you know it's kind of sad that you know when you talk about jesus in a place that should know about jesus that the people there are troubled okay it's like if you go to a church or something and then you start talking about doctrine and they're just like all weird about it you're just like oh man you talk about the bible yeah and church i mean we should talk about the bible in church right like we start talking about jesus in church you ask someone in church are you 100 sure that if you die today you go to heaven they're just like why would you ask me that you know i was born a christian or you know those things you know it should be the in the house of god we should be able to talk about these things freely and it should be expected that in the house of god talking about doctrine jesus christ his birth is just a normal thing it's just another day in the office for us as christians but you know i guarantee you there are churches out there where you can't do that you'll be seen as a radical you know you guys seen that meme it's like pastor quotes the the bible and progressive christians well that's a little you know over the top or whatever that's a little radical or something you know a lot of christians are like that though it's just like as soon as you start talking about the bible as soon as you want to get into a conversation with someone regarding the word of god and speak of the wisdom of god you're just like troubled by it like oh what are you trying to do you trying to radicalize me it's like no just you know the bible tells us if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god and so god expects for our speech to be seasoned with grace that the word of god will proceed forth out of our mouths and then we would exalt the lord together by speaking of doctrine not to say we can't talk about lechon and you know food and you know what gifts we got or whatever but you know it should be that here it shouldn't be weird that we talk about the bible though right well it shouldn't be weird that you know harry should be like hey yeah this is where he's going to be born welcome you know this is jerusalem which you guys have heard of right like yeah i got some guys working on it right now we're trying to figure out where he's at and but no they're they're afraid they're troubled it says in verse number four 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 sent him in bethlem of judea for thus it is written by the prophet o thou bethlem in the land of judah are not the are not the least among the princes of judah for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people israel so then he goes to the the wise man he says this is where he's at go and search for him diligently they go they find jesus christ they bring him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh and then because they're warned of god they basically return another way because harry wanted them to report back once he found him because he's like oh yeah i want to worship him too like once you tell him once you find where he's at let me know i want to worship him too but he's obviously being deceitful that sleight of hand he wants to know the location of the christ so he can kill him later on we see that he's mocked of the wise men because he's like they didn't tell me where he was and now they left already like the flight has already left you know they took the morning flight out of out of jerusalem they went back home so he sees that he's mocked of the wise men so in turn what he what he does is he kills every child from two years old and under and in hopes that he would essentially be able to you know kill off jesus christ okay but obviously it doesn't work okay so let me give you a couple things here regarding the gifts and actually before i get into that let me talk about the star of bethlehem now this is actually something that brother chris brought to my attention a couple years ago and brother chris carrey and uh and i thought wow this is pretty interesting that you know a lot of times we think of the star of bethlehem as being an actual star right and here's what i love about our church is that i preach a message and i study and i get all these cool truths but then after church a bunch of people in the congregation can come up to me and give me a bunch of truths too and i always get upset because i'm just like where were you before my sermon you know like for example i'll give you an example this morning they're preaching about you know luke chapter two and then brother hike comes up to me and he's like it's interesting you know you're talking about the fact that jesus christ is like that manger that the animals come to eat out of and you know the bible says that we eat of his flesh but the bible also says in roman chapter 10 that you know the word is nive even in thy mouth which is the word of faith you know and i'll just say hey that's a really good connection there because you know like we're eating of jesus christ but we do it by confessing that jesus christ you know the uh the uh jesus christ the lord and believing on him for salvation we do it with our mouths right and then brother mori came up and he was just like hey it's cool that you said he's like the manger and that he was rejected by the inn the inn basically represents like israel right and the manger is a feeding trough for like animals such as like the unclean animals like the gentiles you understand either the gentiles come to eat out of jesus christ because they're the ones who were really receptive towards the gospel yet the inn chose not to receive him and i'm just like why didn't you guys mention this like before you know but you know i had a moment like that with brother chris a couple years ago and he was he was you know and brother chris is he said he's a man a few words my friend as few as the as few wise men as there were that's like brother chris you know he's just like he's just like yeah i got this thought and he shared this thought that you know the star of bethlehem is not referring to an actual star but an angel okay and it kind of clicked after that because if you think about it many times in the bible angels are often described as stars for example when satan removes the third of the stars of heaven he's referring to the demons referring to those angels okay apollyon in revelation chapter nine is described as a star you know um what's the wormwood is also described as a star and that's an angel many times in the bible they're used interchangeably wandering stars right referring to fallen angels etc and so that would add credence to the fact that this is actually referring to an angel that is leading the wise men not only because of the fact that all the other evidences in the bible that point to stars being angels but also because of the fact that it's moving you know what i mean so if it's moving and then it actually moves and it and it stands over the child jesus christ okay and then he also showed me that you know even the song that we sang today uh the first noel let me pull it out real quick what page is that 421 go ahead and pull out your song books someone just woke up and they're like oh man the service is already over all right i'm gonna start singing but look at the first verse it says the first noel the angel did say what's the certain poor shepherds and fields where they lay now look at verse two and by the light of that same star so obviously the writer of uh the first noel believed that that angel was also referring to a star and so i think that holds a lot of water i think that that is a true statement which would even further add credence to the fact that these guys were not astronomers okay you know they're being led by an angel to where the the place of the birth of christ is but how about this you know the christmas story is essentially about these celestial beings known as angels declaring unto man the birth of christ because you have that being said you know you have gabriel and then you have also the the heavily host talking to the shepherds in luke chapter two well you know we could easily see that it's also referring to that here in matthew chapter two as well okay and so i thought that was pretty neat the fact that it's potentially referring to an actual star and it always kind of troubled me not the way jerusalem was troubled but it always kind of troubled me like why is this star moving you know what i mean it's just like how is that and then it stands over the child you know i'm not against you know we even we got a little star right there but you know i'm not but you know i think it's it's it's definitely possible it's definitely true there's many other scriptures we can go to to prove that those are used interchangeably as well but let's talk about the gifts that the three wise men bring okay and look at verse number actually we are uh matthew 2 verse number 9 i'm sorry verse number 11 it says and when they were come into 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 him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh now when i think of this story i'm like wow i mean it's like almost my daughter's age you know helen she's like almost two she's about one and a half or something like that she's you know you walk in it's just like this is jesus this is the messiah this is the christ you know this is the one who's going to save me and pretty much anybody who believes on him for salvation so it's a pretty awesome thought if you think about it okay because he had to grow and acquire knowledge and kind of uh and you kind of wonder like when did he come to the realization that he was the christ because the bible doesn't really indicate when that took place if we were to surmise it'll be like maybe when he was 12 or something when he's kind of going back and forth with the scribes and the priests there in in in the in the uh in the synagogues but you know you kind of wonder when is it that took place but it's just amazing to think that these men came and it's just like this is him like this is prophecy being fulfilled so the first thing that they bring uh the one of the first gift is is gold okay and you know i think of the song of course we three kings it says born a king on bethlehem's plane gold i bring to crown him again king forever ceasing never over us all to reign now of course of course gold you know if you think about it obviously is associated with royalty right uh but you know it also has a color and luster that is very attractive and it's resistant to oxidation and tarnishing okay and jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forevermore amen he he is the lord and he doesn't change he's from everlasting the bible says he just lasts forever because he is eternal okay and it's also uh used for jewelry and and ornaments and you know what when we put on the lord jesus christ we become more spiritually beautiful so to speak right the bible talks about adorning ourselves adorning the inner man right with meekness and gold also in the bible is compared to acquiring knowledge wisdom and just understanding of god's word now go to go with me if you would to psalm 19 hold your place there go to psalm 19 if you would and i think there's a couple different meanings behind the gold that's being offered i think the the most obvious one would be the fact that he's bringing that to him because he's a king so he wants to associate with royalty like this this is jesus christ he's the king he deserves this but also because of the fact that gold is associated with knowledge and wisdom and jesus christ is the source of all knowledge and wisdom right and just as the three wise men travel far and wide to acquire the the seen jesus christ in like in like manner the bible says that we should you know seek far and wide to acquire knowledge we should try hard to study god's word and dig through the bible to acquire the wisdom of god's word look at psalm 19 and verse number seven it says the law of the lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the lord is sure making wise is simple the statutes of the lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the lord is pure enlightening the eyes the fear of the lord is clean enduring forever the judgments of the lord and true and righteous altogether listen to this more to be desired are they than gold yet in much fine gold sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb so as valuable as real gold is the bible says we should desire wisdom and the statutes of god more than fine gold right and the bible tells us that jesus christ is the desire of all nations and that we should desire the wisdom of god far greater than anything else far above rubies and pearls and gold and silver we should seek after the wisdom of god in his word right think about this the bible says that he is the desire of all nations because of the fact that he is what the nations need as i mentioned this morning and you know the bible says in proverbs 13 verse 12 hope deferred maketh the heart sick but when the desire cometh listen to this it is a what a tree of life and jesus christ is a tree of life okay the bible says in psalm 119 verse 72 go to proverbs chapter 2 if you would proverbs chapter 2 someone's psalm 119 verse 72 says the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver look at proverbs chapter 2 and verse number one it says here my son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear into wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding yea if thou Christ after knowledge and lift this up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasures then thou shall understand the fear of the lord and find the knowledge of god for the lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding the bible says so what does the bible tell us you know well think about this unsaved people obviously they can't get themselves saved right they can't get themselves saved it's not that they could just read the gospel and just get saved like that they need someone to show them what they need someone who's saved to show them what the bible says in order for them to be saved however you know they can situate themselves spiritually so that god can send someone to give them the gospel and when god sees that someone is just diligently looking for the truth he's going to make himself found you see no one in hell is in hell is just like oh man you know i look for the truth so hard and why you know no that's not true because any person who responds to the light that god gives them by seeking after the truth will find the truth because he will make himself found for you and the bible actually says search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are which testify of me the bible says okay so obviously as unsaved people all of us here to a certain extent we sought after the truth we didn't get ourselves saved but you know to a certain extent we sought the truth we responded to the light that god gave us we listened to preaching maybe we opened the bible and read it because we thought we can find uh you know eternal life but you know that obviously wasn't going to save us but it opened the door so that god can send someone to us to show us what the bible actually says so that we can be saved okay but you know here's an interesting thing is that back in matthew chapter two the wise men come to the king and you know they say you know we're looking we saw the star in the east we're come to worship to christ harrod's response if he was just ignorant of this would have been like what well let me go with you let me seek after this king too like hey hold my phone calls all my appointments you know what i mean let's we're not having that banquet everything stops right now because these guys said they saw the star in the east and they're coming to find the christ and i'm gonna go with them right but instead what does he do he goes to his scribes and then the scribes know where he's supposed to be born yeah the scribes are like in bethlehem and then what does he do does he say okay wise man i got it he's in bethlehem here's a map i got some horses i'm the king like you know it's like i got some chariots we'll get there really quick you know what i mean this is where we're doing a marathon okay to to bethlehem to find the christ right no what does he do he says go down and see diligently the son now what is the what what can we learn from that well what we can learn from that is that you can't send someone to search for you right first of all you can't send someone to search for salvation for you you have to seek it yourself right i mean i think of the story in john chapter 4 where the woman at the well gets saved and then she goes back to the men in her city and then what do they do they come out and then they say now he says in john chapter 4 verse 42 now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the christ the savior of the world you know she did her part by going and preaching the gospel but you know what they had to go themselves to actually hear them himself themselves and get saved amen and you know at the end of the day we can't force people to be saved we can't force people to look for the truth all we can do is give them the gospel but they have to search it themselves they have to believe it themselves right but even aside from that after salvation you know we have god's word and we're saved you know you can't try to just learn the bible just through someone else right you know obviously we know the bible says that he gives some apostles some prophets some evangelists some teachers for the edifying of the body of christ for the perfecting of the saints you know and it says that to you know that uh we've been on more children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine but at the end of the day you're supposed to be looking for the truth and did you know that no matter how much bible truth you get from the pulpit if you don't apply it you're not going to learn anything did you know no it doesn't matter how many times you come to church and sit here and listen to the preaching of god's word and get all the content and hold your king james bible if you're not a doer of the word and you're a hero only you're deceiving your own selves because as a mirror you walk away you forget a little manner of man you were okay you know the bible tells us and teaches us explicitly that we can't send someone else to do the job that we're supposed to do okay you can't run to a devotional book to learn the bible my friends you can't go to you definitely can't go to some jewish encyclopedia you can't go to some commentary you can't go to some book you need to seek the truth yourself you need to read the word of god yourself harrod will you be diligent about it and you seek right that's what he's saying go thou and inquire and seek diligently but you're in israel my friend you're in jerusalem you have all these scholars with you why don't you seek it out okay and so that's a great lesson for us to learn that you know when it comes to salvation we need to seek it out and when we seek it out he will be found there's no one who's seeking the truth that truly seeking the truth that will not get saved that's why you know the truther movement is a complete fluke if they don't get saved if someone says they're a truther and they're just like oh you know we love the truth and we're truthers but they don't believe in salvation by grace through faith they're lying to you and they are what the bible says that they're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because every person who seeks the truth who is searching diligently who is actually you know trying to acquire the knowledge of salvation you know it'll bring them to the foot of the cross my friends it'll bring them to jesus christ and here's the thing if someone you know says that they're seeking the truth and they're not saved you know either one you need to give them the gospel and see how they respond to that or two they've been given the gospel and they rejected it and at that point they don't love the truth because jesus christ is the source of all truth he is the gold that they've been seeking for jesus christ is that gold he is that one they were seeking for and you know what this shows us as christians as well that we should not take our bible reading lightly amen but i was just studying to show thyself approve them to god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth we are to open the word of god meditate upon it think about it and really and you say well you know it's just it gets kind of boring though you know it's kind of hard folks if i told you that there's like a hundred dollar bill in one of your in one of the pages in your bible oh man you'd be scouring that thing you'd be like like where's it at you know you guys ever seen that video of the fastest reader in the world this guy he claims to be the fastest reader in the world and they're like all right dude and he's like and that's all that's literally what he does and people are like what did you learn though you didn't learn anything you didn't read that you know what in the world you know there's people who read the bible like that though okay but i'm saying you know if there's like a hundred dollar bill if i took if i said to you at this moment hey here's a surprise for christmas one of you has a hundred dollar bill in one of the pages of your bible first of all everyone would wake up everyone would be like where's my where's my some of you be like you know and then some of you like go through some of the pages and like leviticus will be like peeling off because you see value you're like oh man there's a hundred dollar bill but let me say this there's something way more valuable than a hundred dollar bill in the pages of your bible though there's gold in your bible that no money in the world could ever buy and it's the knowledge of god and god says seek after that diligently inquire of the lord seek after it ask for hid treasures dig for it just read god's word and treat it as though it's more valuable than physical gold because it is okay it's better than gold and so you know you can't send someone to search for you don't be like harrod not only that go go to uh go with me if you would to let's see go to ephesians chapter number five if you would ephesians chapter number five let me read to you from first peter chapter one verse number nine says receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you searching what or a manner of time the spirit of christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of christ and the glory that should follow and so you know we see with the birth of christ that even from the very beginning and this is something you see throughout his ministry that israel just has always rejected jesus christ there's just never they're always been apathetic towards the things of god they didn't really care for his birth i mean they're there whereas these wise men are coming from afar you know morn mountain they're crossing they're just traveling afar for the christ just like the queen of sheba who also traveled far and wide to hear of the wisdom and solomon jesus said there's a greater than solomon here and so they bring them that goal to signify that but then they also bring frankincense and frankincense signifies the offering for our sin okay because in the book of leviticus when certain offerings were made they would be made alongside with frankincense they would add that incense there alongside of it and it would it would be a sweet smelling savor okay and so look at ephsians chapter five and look at verse number one it says be therefore followers of god as dear children and walk in love as christ also hath loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling savor go to second corinthians chapter two second corinthians chapter two i told you it was going to be brief so i'm just going to go over these last two points and then you guys uh we can go eat some more pig if there's any more or something i like how jose you know typically people they cut the meat they have the knife he's just like grabbing it and he's like he's just like it's so tender though the meat was so tender oh thank you to brother chevy he's the one who purchased that second corinthians 2 14 says now thanks be unto god which always causeth us to triumph in christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place for we are unto god a sweet savor of christ for we are unto god a sweet savor of christ in them that are saved and in them that perish to the one we are the savor of death unto death and together the savor of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things you know the death of an animal wasn't necessary something that was pleasant there's blood there's all types of it's just like a big mess right but when you add the frankincense it's tolerable right it's like you can smell it's a sweet smelling savor well in like manner you know when the death of christ really doesn't mean anything to the world and unless they realize that that he died for their sins and for us as christians it became a sweet smelling savor you know we essentially we love talking about the death of jesus christ and his resurrection because of what it means because of the scent that we get from that specific event and what he did for us and so that that's what the frankincense pictures now let me talk about the mirb and go to go with me if you would to hebrews chapter one hebrews chapter one and then we'll go to john chapter 12 hebrews one and then john chapter 12 and here's my last point now in the song we three kings when talking about the muror brother cody's part okay it says muror is mine it's bitter perfume breathes of light breathes a life of gathering gloom actually cody why don't you come over here and sing it now i'm just kidding breathes a life of gathering gloom sorrowing sign bleeding dying sealed in a stone cold tomb now this is pretty interesting you know and obviously you know hymns are not scripture okay so don't get all mad and stuff when when it doesn't when we don't sing it the way you want to sing it or it says a certain thing you know what i mean obviously there's hymns that we should not be singing at all like you know you have like victory in jesus which is a workspace salvation hymn but you know some of these things these things can change okay they're not scripture and i'm not necessarily trying to defend the song but i was trying to figure out why is this person saying that muror is bitter perfume because muror is actually not bitter it's not you know it's not a bitter perfume it actually smells great i used to have beard oil that was frankincense and muror i mean i get biblical with it i tried you know i had frank and it smelled great it was like my favorite one okay so it smelled good so it's like why is it bitter perfume and then he follows up by saying breathes the life of gathering gloom sorrowing sighing bleeding dying sealed in a stone cold tomb now obviously we can see that this would signify the anointing oil right there's plenty of scriptures that we can go to that uh would indicate that this is referring to the fact that god has anointed jesus christ and in fact christ messiah means the anointed one so jesus is the anointed one okay look at hebrews one verse number eight says but unto the sun he saith thy throne oh god is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore god even thy god hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows but it's not only representing a representation of the anointing oil but i believe it also represents death okay so the reason mur was given to jesus christ was because the wise men knew you're gonna die you know he was born to die that's the purpose of his of his coming is to die for us to suffer a horrible death you know on the cross and mur i believe represents that you say well why is that well first and foremost look at john chapter 12 you know mur is often used in conjunction with frankincense cinnamon calamus saffron and even spikenard okay these are all different aloes that they would use to create a just a pleasant scent okay you say what does that have to do with death well that's what they would use for a dead body okay because you know corpses they have a tendency to smell after a while you know when when it begins to decompose and so a common a practice that they had with dead people is that they would they would you know give them put all these oils on them to help them to smell pleasant for a time okay and look at john chapter 12 verse 1 then jesus six days before the passover came to bethany where lazarus was which had been dead whom he raised from the dead there they made him a supper and martha served but lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him 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 then said one of the disciples judas iscariot simon's son which should betray him why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor this he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put there in so by the way you know judas is scared of being a holier than thou over here like oh wow why are we having another service why can't we just go sewing for four hours or something like that okay oh why why are we killing this pig we could just chop it up and give it to the poor on christmas or something you know this is kind of the statements that holier than thou's make they try to overcompensate to try to deter your attention that they're a wicked person and judas is scary he's a false prophet and he's just like oh man i could have gotten so much money for that like why are we doing this for his feet you know he doesn't love the lord jesus christ he doesn't even love the poor he's doing it because he's a thief and he lost out on opportunity basically okay says in verse number six then he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear and bear what was put there in verse seven then said jesus let her alone against the day of my burying hath she kept this for the poor always he have with you but me have not always so mary understood that jesus was going to die and so in light of that she brought the uh the spikenard to pour over him to kind of say like this is why you're coming you're coming to die for me you know and it's very just a very touching gesture that she did towards her savior just to kind of put in her mind like i know he's going to die one day he's not always going to be here okay now go with me if you would to john chapter 19 john chapter 19 and look at verse number 38 so that still doesn't really answer why the song would say bitter perfume okay i'm gonna that'll be my last part point of this of this point and then we're done look at john 19 verse 38 and after this joseph of arimathea being a disciple of jesus but secretly for the fear of the jews we saw pilot that he might take away the body of jesus and pilot gave him leave he came therefore and took the body of jesus and there came also an academus which at the first came to jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pound weight and they took excuse me then took they the body of jesus and wound it up in linen cloths with the spices as the manner of the jews is to bury so we see that that's what they did there now go to hebrew chapter two hebrew chapter number two okay so this is my theory as to why the song would say that okay myrrh is mine it's bitter perfume because myrrh as i mentioned smells wonderful but let me say this it tastes terrible and in fact it's compared to being to having to taste like a bitter taste you understand so it smells great but it tastes horrible now look at hebrews two verse number nine but we see jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of god should taste death for every man so jesus christ tasted the myrrh while we enjoyed the scent of the myrrh so because we believed on jesus christ by faith we get to enjoy the joy of being saved by his death we get to enjoy and and rejoice in his death while while he tasted death for every man okay he says for it became him whom for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through their suffering now here's another interesting thing is that in mark chapter 15 when he's hanging on the cross someone came and gave him wine mingled with myrrh you guys remember that but he received it not so he didn't take it you say why well because it signifies that he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin so although he tasted death for every man he wasn't suffering for his sin because he had no sin he was suffering for the sins of the world and he became sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him the bible says and so i think that's the reason why the wise man brought a myrrh and i think that's why the song says that you know myrrh is mine it's bitter perfume not necessarily because of the fact that it smells terrible because it smells great it's because the the the the taste of death which he took for us on the cross that's what it would signify there and so i hope that helps and merry christmas to you all i'm thankful for um for christmas just because this is something that if we're not careful as christians we can't take for granted you know just the birth of jesus christ and the fact that the word of god was made flesh the doctrine of incarnation but it's such an important doctrine and there's so many special meanings and underlying symbolism behind what we're reading the story i hope you take time today and and you know and at home you know pray unto the lord and exalt him magnify him in your heart and just say lord thank you so much for for just you know coming to be made flesh for me like we don't deserve it you know the world didn't deserve it you chose to come you came you're born in a manger you're rejected of men you're wrapped in swaddling clothes all for the purpose of dying a horrible death to save me you know it's a beautiful story and let's pray and thank the lord for it lord thank you so much for the birth of jesus christ once again and what it means to us lord as christians we're so thankful that um you are our gold you are the sweet odor of frankincense and you taste the the bitter taste of myrrh for us of death and i pray lord that you'd help us to think upon those things and meditate upon that may may we may our hearts swell with with gratitude and joy over over the birth of christ and of course uh the death of jesus christ and ultimately his resurrection and i pray lord that you'd help us to be wise men and be willing to to cross far and wide to seek after the truth in god's word and luckily we don't have to make a pilgrimage to jerusalem and we don't have to make a pilgrimage to to to bethlehem the word is nigh us even in our mouth we can just go to the bible and just learn it ourselves we have the truth abiding in us we have the holy spirit uh dwelling within us lord and i pray that we just seek after you in prayer and may you open the the our eyes and the understanding of our eyes and allow us to behold wondrous things out of thy law thank you for the birth of christ bless all there is in jesus name we pray amen song number 427 we three kings of orient are song number 427 song number 427 seen on that first verse we three kings of glory and are bearing gifts made trappers afar building fountain more and mountain following yonder star star of wonder star of night star with royal beauty bright west worthy still proceeding guide us to thy perfect line born a king on bethlehem's gold i bring to crown him again king forever ceasing never over us all to rain star of wonder star of night star with royal beauty bright west worthy still proceeding guide us to thy perfect line frankincense on offer have i incense owns a deity night prayer and raising calm and raising worship him god on high star of wonder star of night west we're leading still proceeding guide us to thy perfect line muris mine it's better perfume brings a life of gathering blue sorrowing sighing bleeding dying sealed in the stone gold star of one star of night star with royal beauty bright westward leading still proceeding guide us to thy perfect line glorious now behold him arise king and god in sacrifice hallelujah hallelujah peels through the earth and skies star of one star of night star with royal beauty bright west worthy still proceeding guide us to thy perfect line amen wonderful scene you are dismissed