(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So Matthew chapter 2, right at the early stages of Matthew, it's going to be a good 28 weeks plus of this and yeah I really enjoyed chapter 1 last week and hopefully yeah we're just going to keep going through all the great truths in this Gospel and we're in Matthew chapter 2 which starts in verse 1 with this, 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 have come to worship him. I'd like to also go to the Lord in the word of prayer before I start preaching this, so Father thank you for this great chapter, please just fill me with your spirit now, help me to preach boldly, accurately, clearly, help those here just to have open ears, to have open hearts, to want to hear what your word's got to say, to want to put things they've heard today and to practice going forward in their lives and I just pray that you just help me to just preach, preach clearly and boldly now in Jesus' name we pray all of this, Amen. Amen. Excuse me, okay so this is the first mention of the name Herod in the Bible and in case anyone is wondering there's more than one Herod so if you've ever read through the Bible and wondered this Herod seems to be going on a long time, well wow he's just up to more wickedness, well there's more than one Herod, this first one here is known as Herod the Great who according to the history books was appointed King of Judea by the Roman Senate, he was a son of someone called Antipater who was an Idumean which is an Edomite, so again this is according to the history books which basically is, when it says Idumean that is an Edomite, okay now this is a nation that came from Esau, a nation that God states that he hates, in Romans 9 13 it says as it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated, which kind of makes sense that Herod was an Edomite because we're going to see in a minute how wicked Herod actually is and well Jesus was born in the days of this first Herod and these wise men came to worship him, now who are they, who are these guys because we've heard many different things haven't we, three kings aren't they, three kings of Orient are, they must have come from the Orient because the song says it doesn't it, well whether even three of them, does it say anywhere that there were three of them, it says they came from the east but does that mean they're from the Orient, well we don't know, we don't actually know any of that, what we do know is that there were some wise men plural, there could have been two, there could have been 20 of them, I don't know, maybe there were three, there were three gifts but maybe one of them had all three gifts, I don't know, so again lots of stuff gets put into this and of course look okay that's one hymn and you know people can take some artistic sort of license with hymns but or artistic liberties maybe is the word for it but look all those nativity scenes and all of that stuff as we're going to see in a minute is a load of nonsense okay and because we're going to see as well that those, well we'll see in a minute, we'll see in a minute but anyway let's keep going so okay so like I said who are they, well I believe that they are saved men somewhere from the east of Jerusalem okay so there's somewhere from the east and it could have been a long way east and it could have been a long way sort of north-east-ish or south-east-ish as well because east can cover a lot of areas and they were somewhere east of Jerusalem they could have been pretty close but I believe they're saved because you don't have to turn there but Proverbs 9 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding and they definitely have some understanding these guys to have known he's there by a start now turn to Isaiah chapter 60 the seed of David is referred to a few times in the Bible as a light well you turn to Isaiah 60 I'm going to read 2 Kings 8 19 which says yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake as he promised him to give him all way a light and to his children now Jesus describes him himself as a light in many many places in the Bible such as John 12 46 which says I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness Isaiah 60 where you've turned reads from verse 1 arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee for behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee and the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising now that might be why people call the wise men kings maybe they were I believe that is a prophecy of you know Jesus Christ coming and and that light but somewhere between verses like this and an understanding that the king of the Jews was coming as promised resulted in these wise men turning up to Jerusalem to worship him oh they've got some wisdom or maybe just this star was just irresistible I don't know but what it is because they did say they've come to worship him it's a good reminder of one of the one of the things that Jesus Christ warrants and that's worship yeah Jesus Christ warrants worship and on a Wednesday evening when the church is a bit of a way to come ultimately we come here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ don't we and that's why we want to make that effort maybe you're tired from work the kids are tired too but we're here to worship aren't we yeah that's really why we come to church and look we we should and we do get edified by church we should and we do enjoy the fellowship we shouldn't we do enjoy the singing we shouldn't and we should and we do hopefully enjoy some of the preaching but ultimately we're here to worship the Lord aren't we okay and that's why we come here we worship him in song we worship him in prayer we worship him when we preach and dwell on his word as well don't we okay and that's why we're in church well it says in verse three when Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him okay why was he troubled and trouble means disturbed agitated annoyed because these wise men have turned up to worship Jesus king of the Jews is what they said yeah but now some people would say well he just doesn't like the idea of this guy being king but I think he's aware of who this is because we see in the next verse that we see in verse four it says and when he gathered all the chief three squads of people together he demanded them where Christ should be born but notice before we go there how all of Jerusalem was troubled too yeah it says here when Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him so why was the whole of Jerusalem all of Jerusalem troubled as well well that's the effect of Christ isn't it see you can appear to be as holy as you like you could be Jerusalem you know the the the city of David you know what a place all these religious people that they have the scriptures and everything else but whether that many safe people there I don't think so and the Lord Jesus Christ troubles religious people doesn't he the real Lord Jesus Christ troubles that he he disturbs them he agitates me annoys them because they kind of liked it as it was I believe Herod like things as it was the the religious leaders like things as they were at that time and they were troubled he was troubled and all Jerusalem with with them with him sorry so these men have definitely caused a stir and look Jesus Christ he disturbs the religious types as much as a non-religious doesn't he but we see it obviously when we you know you knock on an atheist door you try and talk to an atheist about the Lord Jesus Christ some of them it really gets their blood boiling doesn't it but doesn't it really when it's the religion once they realize that you're preaching to them the real Jesus doesn't it get exactly the same result if not worse by those that claim to be religious those that claim to be believers those that claim to have God how angry are they when you try and open up the Bible to them when you try and show them the real Lord Jesus Christ well they hate it don't they and they get troubled well verse four says and when he gathered all the chief priests and scribes sorry and scribes of the people together he demanded of them where Christ should be born so he's aware that this is a Christ yeah meaning anointed or Messiah okay now you could say what did he say Christ well maybe but either way the chief priests and scribes clearly know what the question is don't they okay so he's asked them where Christ should be born so he had some awareness here and they clearly show that he had some awareness because their answer in verse five is and they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet and now Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel okay so they clearly know what the question is don't they we're going to be coming back to this in a minute but turn to Micah five which is being quoted here because there's a key part that they don't quote he's not just some governor like Pontius Pilate was described as later on in the Gospels Micah chapter five and verse two reads this Micah five two says but thou Bethlehem of freighter though thou be little among the thousands of Judah this is Micah five two yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting and of course the modern Bible perversions like to change that but no he is from everlasting he's from everlasting because he's God in the flesh because he's God in the flesh and and it's funny I don't know I find it interesting that they quote they said for thus it is written by the prophet but they kind of leave out that bit I don't know why maybe I've got a few ideas why they might have done but either way they're accepting that he's a Christ and they're talking about the prophecy there his goings forth have been from old from everlasting that's the Lord Jesus Christ God in the flesh now go back to verse seven there of Matthew chapter two it says then Herod when he had privately called the wise men inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared so he privately or secretly gets these wise men in maybe he doesn't want everyone else to see that he's talked to them maybe just wants to talk to them on his own and then he diligently inquired of them okay so that means that he puts some work into this that he did a you know the best job he could to inquire of them he was diligent in this and he's asking them what time the star appeared now we're going to go back to this but again even at this point before the wise men disobey him Herod is clearly already plotting and planning isn't he okay he's diligently inquiring he's clearly got something on his mind verse eight and he sent him to Bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you have found him bring me word again that I may come and worship him also so Herod is pretending that he wants to worship him and again like I said we were we are going to come back to these verses but I just want to go forward a bit first verse nine says 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 obviously an amazing start this isn't it not the sort of thing that you see every night in the sky when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and understandably it's sitting above the house they know that he's there that's why they're rejoicing verse 11 and when they were come into the house they saw the young child with maria's mother and fell down and worshipped him worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh okay so when they were come into the house it's not a stable anymore is it notice that not a stable they come into the house notice that he's a young child as well yeah he's not a baby in a manger so like I said I'd be talking about this again all those nativity scenes with three wise men magi or whatever they like to call them in all these other versions and you know and these three kings and everything else and they try and they try and make them look as oriental as possible don't they as well in these things well well it's most of that's just fiction isn't it most of that speculation because and I'll tell you what some of that's out and out wrong because clearly here he's a young child and they're in a house now in Bethlehem they're not in a in a stable okay and the baby's not in a manger here either so those lined up you know where they got one gift each in these kind of graven images let's be honest um a lot of these are you know they're just completely false aren't they because this is clearly further down the line so what's the point in the gold frankincense and myrrh then now there are many theories out there on this so after I kind of wrote this out I thought I wonder what other people say and there's just like this collection of all sorts out there okay and and you know from the gold signifies this to myrrh this to frankincenses now the bible doesn't make it clear but I had a little look at this and just came up with some of my own thoughts on this and turn to exodus chapter 29 and in excess 29 god has been commanding moses exactly how to do the sacrifices all the fine details of the various ordinances and when you turn while you turn now I'm just going to read what frankincense and myrrh are I think everyone knows what gold is frankincense is a dry resinous substance in pieces or drops of a pale yellowish white color of a bitterish acrid taste and very inflammable uses a perfume and myrrh is a gum resin that comes in the form of drops or globules of various colors and sizes of a pretty strong but agreeable smell and of a bitter taste it is imported from egypt but chiefly from the southern or eastern parts of arabia from what species of tree or plant it is procured is unknown as a medicine it is a good stomachic anti-spasmodic and cordial okay again I don't know if you find that interesting I find that quite interesting so he says this in excess 29 so look at verse 42 excess 29 42 and this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the lord where I will meet you okay so that's the tabernacle of congregation where he's going to meet them to speak there unto thee well that's moses and there I will meet with the children of israel so that's meeting with with all the people there and the tabernacle should be sanctified by my glory and I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation the altar I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest office and I will dwell among the children of israel and will be their god and they shall know that I am the lord their god that brought them forth out of the land of egypt that I may dwell among them I am the lord their god okay so that's the tabernacle of congregation right okay so the tabernacle of congregation is where he meets with moses and the children of israel to dwell among them now go forward to chapter 30 in verse 1 he says this talking about the tabernacle of congregation and thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon a shitting wood shalt thou make it a cubit shall be the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof four squares shall it be and two cubits shall be the height thereof the horns thereof shall be of the same thou shalt overlay it with pure gold the top thereof and the sides of round about the horns of and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold roundabout and two golden rings shalt thou make it to it under the crown of it by the two corners thereof upon the two sides of it shall they make it and they shall be with they shall be four place sorry they should be for places for the staves to bear it with all and thou shalt make the staves of shitting wood and overlay them with gold and thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony before the mercy seat that is over the testimony where I will meet with thee now jump forward to verse 23 then so we see obviously the importance of the gold there in the tabernacle of the congregation where he's meeting with them verse 23 says take thou also unto the principal spices of pure myrrh 500 shekels and a sweet cinnamon half so much even 250 shekels and sweet calamus 250 shekels and of cassia 500 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary and of an and of oil olive and a hen now shalt make it an oil of holy ointment an anoint an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary it shall be an holy anointing oil and thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation there with in the ark of the testimony and the table and all his vessels and the candlestick and his vessels and the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels and the lava and his foot and thou shalt sanctify them and they shall be most holy whatsoever touch with them shall be holy and thou shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them and they that they may minister unto me in the priest's office and thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying this shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations upon man's flesh shall it not be poured neither shall you make any other like it after the composition of it it is holy and it should be holy unto you whosoever compoundeth any like it or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger shall even be cut off from his people right and the lord said unto moses take up these sweet spices stack tea and oniko and galbanum these sweet spices with pure frankincense of each shall there be a like weight now shalt make it a perfume a confection after the art of the apothecary temper together pure and holy thou shalt beat some of it very small and put it before the testament in the tabernacle of the congregation where i will meet with thee it shall be unto you most holy and as for the perfume which thou shalt make you shall not make yourselves according to the composition thereof should be unto thee holy for the lord whosoever shall make like unto that smell there too shall even be cut off from his people now i know that's a lot of a lot of long reading there but for me it's interesting that all three of these gifts are key parts of the tabernacle of congregation where god met with the children of Israel among them i've just found that interesting i thought to see all three in that passage and quite key and probably the priciest parts of that as well the frankincense was known to be very expensive so it so was a mur and they were in large amounts as well for me they're key parts of the tabernacle of the congregation where he was meeting with them turn back to Isaiah 60 again though and while you're turning i'm going to read Song of Solomon 3 6 which is describing Solomon a picture of Christ who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense with all powders of the merchant remember Solomon's regularly depicts as a picture of Christ coming out of the wilderness in Isaiah 60 we we read earlier verse 1 to 3 the prophecy of the gentiles and kings coming to his light then verse 6 says Isaiah 60 verse 6 the multitude of camels shall cover thee the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah and they all they from Sheba shall come they shall bring gold and incense and they shall show forth the praises of the lord so whether or not there's also a connection to the tabernacle of congregation where the lord met his people just something that i was interested in i found it really interesting that i think it's the first mention of frankincense there as well it was clearly prophesied that they would come bearing these gifts which are clearly gifts fit for a king so if you're like well i don't know your grass-fit straws there they just happen to all three be mentioned with the tabernacle of the congregation where the lord was to dwell among his people and we've got the lord coming to dwell among his people well even if you think no that's a stretch well at the least they came bearing gifts which are fit for a king okay it says it says there and they shall show forth the praises of the lord and i think that's connected to bringing gold and incense okay and they know clearly who he is aren't don't they and they're not coming just bringing a little bit they're coming bringing clear gifts fit for a king and they're coming to worship him go back to matthew chapter two there it says it said and when they were coming to the house they saw the young child with mary's mother and fell down okay they didn't just go oh yeah okay praise god no they fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned of god and the dream that they should not return to herod they departed into their own country another way so just bear in mind there look at that verse what were they going to do before this dream return to herrod yeah they were going to return to herrod but god warns them not to i want you to bear that in mind too because we're going to be going back there as well verse 13 when they were departed behold the angel of the lord appears 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 herrod will seek the young child to destroy him when he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into egypt and was there until the death of herrod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet saying out of egypt have i called my son you don't have to turn it but it's from hosea 11 1 which reads when israel was a child then i loved him and called my son out of egypt and i for me that's a picture of us being called out of egypt as well so the lord jesus christ is picturing us also egypt is a picture basically of coming out of the world coming out of sin the bondage of sin of course jesus christ committed no sin but that's the picture he's coming out of egypt something we have to do to follow and be in christ yeah verse 16 says then herrod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceeding roth and sent forth and slew all the children that were in bethlehem and in all the coast thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men right so we're in the second chapter of the new testament the second chapter of the gospel of matthew and it's now mass murder this is mass murder that's pretty grim reading isn't it yeah mass murder he's just slain he slew all the children that were in bethlehem and in the coast all the coast thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he diligently inquired of the wise men now there are differing estimates for the size of bethlehem one respected archaeologist and a lot of the time when they're respected doesn't mean anything but wf albright says the population was around 300 now whether or not he's playing that down it doesn't really matter because it also said in in all the coasts thereof and coast isn't talking about people down at the beach okay by the way it was inland as well it's talking about basically all the bordering towns as well all the bordering towns cities so anywhere basically near bethlehem and bethlehem itself herrod murdered all the children that are in that area all children under two in bethlehem and its neighboring town so we're talking about scores and scores and scores of children how wicked is that that's amazing isn't it and you know people open up the bible and just expect to see all this you know just pretty stuff and you know the beauty of the lord and love and everything look and straight away chapter two you're seeing mass murder mass murder in the gospel story this was some sick deranged psychopath wasn't it yeah how sick and twisted is that to just go out and murder all these children and many picturing herrod would probably picture a guy frothing at the mouth wouldn't they or maybe picture a bond type villain you know sitting there maybe striking a cat no offense cat lovers here and you know or something else and and you know and there would be you know people would see that and think you know this guy must have just been this complete raving lunatic everyone's scared of him and everything else so now i want to bring you back to those previous verses that we talked about look at verse seven then herrod when he had privately called the wise men inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared okay so herrod herrod has a private meeting with what are they the wise men yeah they're wise men he's questioning them very specifically about when the star appeared yeah these are wise men yeah they're clearly depicted as wise men yeah i mean you can't get away from that they must have smelled a rat didn't they surely they smelt a rat they're wise men and this guy's must be just some absolute lunatic yeah isn't he well verse eight says and he sent them to bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you have found him bring me word again that i may come and worship him also he claims that he wants to worship him surely these wise men didn't fall for that old chestnut did they yeah i want to come and worship they didn't fall for it did they they were wise they were wise men no they weren't necessarily kings maybe they were magi what is it it isn't magi anyone heard this sort of stuff i think it's new modern bibles like to call now well they were clearly wise men though verse 12 look at verse 12 and being warned of god in a dream that they should not return to herod they departed into their own country another way another way so these wise men still needed god to warn them in a dream didn't it didn't they yeah yeah okay they didn't just go yeah no chance coming back to her see you sucker no they were going to come back they needed god to come to them in a dream but these were wise men they would have returned to heron that's crazy when you look at it like that don't you so why is that why is that what's my point the evil one of the most sick and twisted mass murderers in history and this is history by the way if you were in you i've heard people try and talk about the bible before and i don't know they're just copying what other people say they say they go oh this one actually happened this this bit look it all happened every single word of god is pure and true preserved inspired there's not one error in the king james bible so this is like every other part of the bible this is clear history and i have i've seen guys behind the pulpit go well this actual story did happen because the historians i don't care whether historians record record it or not okay the whole historians line up with the bible well done they got that right if they don't they got it wrong okay but my point is that this sick and twisted mass murderer pulled the wool over the eyes of god's people didn't he he pulled the wool over three of god's people described oh sorry i don't know if it's three some of god's people described as the wise men let's see even gets into you three three kings i just had it going around my head since i'm going through this okay these wise men probably two of them 20 50 i don't know i don't think there were i don't think there's that many wise people out there but they were so wise but they still got got they got scammed by him didn't they okay wise men that knew what the star meant yeah because there weren't i don't think there were teams of people coming from all over there were this this these wise lot this wise team yeah or two all right they knew it was a king of the jews didn't they they came and said where's king of the jews they they they brought gifts to show exactly who he was these were wise people right and they would have returned to herrod and sung like canaries that's what they would have done they would have returned to herrod and sung like canaries why why maybe it was a private meeting in verse seven yeah verse seven said then herrod when he had privately called the wise men inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared maybe he charmed them i just want to talk to you privately because you're you know you you're a really wise guy you three are really wise yeah maybe it was that maybe maybe flattered them maybe said oh we get on so well together i'd love to come with you guys but you go ahead and come back and bring me word maybe it was something in that private meeting maybe it was his feigned religious act in verse eight what did verse eight say it said and he sent him to bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you have found him bring me word again that i may come and worship him also maybe it was that he wants to worship him too yeah so it doesn't are they're obviously not seeing him as this deranged psycho that i think most people would have thought yeah he wants to worship he wants to worship he wants to worship the lord jesus christ but surely herrod had a history you would have thought he had a history wouldn't you is this the first time he did anything like this well was this the first time he showed his wickedness but that's the thing with us christians and i look for me they're wise they're saved these guys yeah we want to see the best in people don't we we want to see and look we should want to see the best in people i'm not trying to knock anyone here we should and we often ignore red flag after red flag with people with preachers with all this sort of thing warning signs crazy behavior from people just time and time and time again you're just thinking and we ignore it and then we give them the benefit of the doubt and look they've just met herrod who ends up being one of the most famous mass murderers in history and they're about to come back and tell him exactly where the lord jesus christ is and look sometimes you've just got to call a spade a spade don't you and in this case a murderous psychopath a murderous psychopath yeah sometimes you just got to say it and just to make it clear it wasn't that he just didn't like babies okay it wasn't that herrod was just a bit anti-babies he felt threatened by jesus title didn't he yeah he felt threatened by jesus tight title but it was more than that because it says here and when he had gathered all the chief priests and squires people together he demanded of them where christ should be born where christ should be born they then quote him scripture yeah he knew who he was trying to destroy didn't he yeah yeah he knew who it was yeah he didn't know he didn't have a personal relationship with him but he knew who he was trying to destroy yeah because he's a god-hating reprobate because he's a child of the devil he knew exactly what he was doing and these people are out there and look it look the bible just says it time and time again you get into chapter two the second chapter of the new testament and you've got a murderous psychopath feigning to be a religious man yeah and that's what a lot of people miss that when you look at this you look at this and you think you know you look through oh yeah well it's just like king heredes decides one of these usual power hungry megalomaniac kings no he was failing to be religious and look there are so many out there that according to here and many other places they're cold and calculating verse 16 says then hered 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 from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men he diligently inquired so they probably they must have thought that he was amazed maybe just trying to piece together the information to get to the bottom of it but he was already formulating plans yeah now that's not to say that he was calm and collected the whole time what tipped him over the edge at the end what tipped him over the edge being mocked of the wise men it was his pride and look when i read this stuff it just it can't help but make me think of of people that already in the past people that other people in the past it's the pride that gets them in the end um remember that guy that we kicked out of here i think the first the first kick out guy and it was his pride he he came he he was at he you know what he was so angry about and this look that guy he he had so many he ticked all the boxes yeah but what he was so angry about was that he wasn't given the the uh the credit yeah thank you i was looking for the word he wasn't given the credit for how they took down salaam kamala themselves yeah and if someone sitting here going what is this going on about it's a long story yeah but anyway we just had this guy that came in wanted to act like he was part of the church and within a month his pride just went up he suddenly just completely turned and because i didn't make some public apology that in fact he had taken down this guy himself he just went nuts started telling us he'd always hated all of us he hated our pastor he hated our pastor's friends he hated all of us we're all completely you know whatever it is tried to pull people out the church trying to ring people trying to message people you know long long midnight you know sort of long essays trying to tell everyone why we're all actually so evil and everything else but it was a pride it was a pride that got him and we had a guy in here and and just because he hasn't been officially kicked out but i've never seen him since it was the same thing the guy straight away first time i saw him you know red flags went up hairs went up on the back of my neck and and he started trying to tell me that he wanted to preach his testimony and he wanted to do this and he wanted to you know and all of this and when i was pointing out to him yeah but you're not saved you know and i did it in a polite way and tried to be nice and just told him no i'm not willing to let you get behind our pulpit and start addressing our whole again the pride just furious then he's swearing you know while we're talking but you know in the church by you know it's not that i'm trying to say it's a holy pulpit but that's bizarre to come to church start swearing at the leader of the church again pride it was pride that then he just bared his teeth straight away you know it's like suddenly you just saw the devil come out of him same with same with um same with that idiot that we had uh on on our whatsapp group as well and you know you know what it was is obviously he you know he suddenly just came out of nowhere with an attack but it was once i he then got kicked off he got kicked off i kicked him off the uk soul winning group because i just thought he's just going to be on all sorts of these essay attacks same thing what happened just attack videos on youtube and all the same and he's just so angry and furious it had been kicked off our chat there you know that our pastor wasn't willing to debate with him on our on the middle of our chat group in front of 50 odd church members about you know why calling on the name the lord is is is part of putting your faith in jesus christ yeah so anyway point being it's pride now you look at this and you're saying to me but you're giving examples of church nut jobs brother ian harrod was a king harrod was a king yes but harrod is the first example in the new testament like i said of a fake religious psycho he's a first example isn't he straight away second chapter the new testament fake religious psycho yeah he was a king yeah he had some power yeah he probably had some some credibility and other things and he had but he's still fake religious verse four said and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of people together he demanded then where christ should be born so he's with all the chief priests and scribes wanting to learn of christ yeah oh he's with all the holy men of god he's such a holy guy yeah he wants to know about the lord jesus christ yeah verse eight and he sent them to bethany em and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you have found him bring me word again that i may come and worship him also he's claiming to want to worship him he's claiming to be saved isn't he that's what he's claiming to be saved he's another fake saved guy like all the many false prophets out there they hate the real christ that's what it really came down to oh he didn't want his position he said he hates the lord jesus christ he hates the lord jesus christ and you go well what does he hate about him it's just a little baby do you know what he hated he either hated grace through faith he either hated grace through faith or he hated eternal security or he hated the trinity or he hated the virgin birth or he hated the doctrine of hell he hated something yeah he hated something about the real lord jesus christ didn't he and many convinced themselves that they're right because i've often wondered about this and obviously we're starting to deal with it you know at this church it was going to happen it will continue to happen like and i think they convince themselves they're right these guys yeah i don't think they always just just convince you know i don't think they admit that they're just basically a a child abelial god-hating reprobate that their damnable heresies aren't damnable heresies they keep them quiet which is a bit bizarre isn't it keep them quiet until eventually they come out with them and they claim to want to come and worship the lord too don't they they claim to want to come and worship the lord but really what do they really believe and there's something they really believe deep down that they keep quiet they keep quiet until it eventually comes out eventually comes out it could be a long time till that comes out but like Herod they'll happily destroy countless of people even children because they hate the truth because they hate the truth and look there are big time false prophets out there preaching people to hell aren't there aren't there there are big time false prophets out there preaching millions of people down to hell and and people hate this sort of preaching the false prophets hate this sort of preaching that the you know god is love and you know we just want to hear all like all the fluffy stuff hate this sort of preaching but the bible calls for this sort of preaching the second chapter of matthew calls for this sort of preaching because these people are wicked because they're evil because really they're damning people to hell and they are out there and there are there you can think of all the big name preachers what are they all every single one of them aren't they every one i i was um i was well i'm gonna i'm gonna talk about this in a minute but before i do let me just make a couple of other points because now of course those babies in young children that Herod killed went straight to heaven okay in case anyone's wondering here okay well look those they went straight to heaven every child to and under no no no knowledge of of good and evil now i'm not talking about knowledge of whether or not your parents tell you off if you do something you could train a child pretty young with that but they don't have a knowledge of good and evil they just have a knowledge of what gets them whatever the punishment is and what gets them praise okay okay so those babies went straight to heaven but if they can't destroy your eternal soul they want to at least destroy your physical life so if you're either saved or you're too young and i this is what i was thinking about is anyone see that uh the the recent past mihir debates on on alcohol with this absolute clown online yeah okay one over there a couple so it's quite interesting there's this guy who who you know look you don't want to just say it but i'm just going to say it anyway for me i'd be amazed if he was saved yeah in fact even more than that i'm just going to go out on the limb and go this guy's an unsaved heretic yeah and he's uh one of these big youtube names that's trying to debate why why alcohol is okay while he's sitting there drinking a beer on camera mocking going nothing wrong with this yeah oh but but you know maybe he's just got a different opinion on this he he's he's trying to basically tear down a video he saw past mihirs showing clearly from the bible that wine can either be unfermented or fermented yeah and this guy he's then done a video past mihirs and refuted that that video just thought he might as well this guy's got a huge following all these kind of just just boozing you know so-called christians out there and some of them look i i would i would tell you that some of those are saved yeah this guy isn't okay he's preaching and promoting alcohol and look some some safe safe might do that but this guy isn't i i have no doubt but how how wicked is it really and he's trying his best he's mocking past mihir mocking the stance that's so clear there but while using his false bible versions obviously as well trying to show that apparently according to this guy that it ferments basically straight away in a hot climate but basically the minute you started squeezing it within a day it's just going to be you know booze yeah like just just nonsense yeah this guy but anyway the the this guy though can you imagine how much damage he's really doing well he's sitting on camera claiming to be the inspired philosopher or whatever he calls himself guzzling booze guzzling beer drinking drinking whiskies or whatever it is on camera thinking it's so cool go and enjoy it and everything else and how many safe people will look at that and justify their sin how many will look at that and go yeah no no he makes it because they want to see that don't they they'll sit and just want to somehow justify get drinking alcohol and he's not the only one how many how many preachers out there borderline promote fornication in their churches no problem at all yeah well you know if they turn if they're living together shacked up together doesn't matter but what a wicked sin that is and what sin that god hates and what sin that the bible says to kick people out the church for and for good reason because it ruins lives because it creates all sorts of problems in people's lives because because it's such a it's such an it's such a spiritual thing isn't it coming together like that which is reserved for man and wife and it creates issues and memories and problems and mental issues that last a whole lifetime you have preachers that basically promote it you have false prophets promoting divorce remarriage adultery in case you're sitting here going yeah well i'm divorced look that's not what we preach about we preach about people promoting to people that should now know better and telling them no it's okay no it's okay to go and remarry even though the bible says that you're causing to commit adultery by remarrying telling people that you know that that divorce is okay when the bible says clearly that other than the case of fornication and that's before marriage that there are no grounds for divorce because again it look again i'm not preaching anyone that's that's been divorced i'm preaching to all the kids here never to never to even contemplate it but how many churches don't preach that and and and to never contemplate fornication and to never once look once and once you're getting to that point where you think this person might be for me to realize it's for life yeah marriage is for life and it's so important about how many false prophets yeah look they might not be able to send you to hell you might be saved but i'll tell you what they'll ruin your life they'll destroy your life promoting birth control with its abortion side effects basically backup mechanisms promoting abortion promoting the murder of babies what a culture we live in what a culture we live in and there are there are pastors out there false prophets who will preach to people and be very murky on the gospel or at least won't preach against it so people are kind of wondering going well maybe it's okay because pastor whatever never preaches about that he just always preaches about the preacher of rapture every every week it's preaches about zionism every week so i can't see it's a problem sometimes they'll even preach it's okay sometimes they'll preach about you know reduce oh don't want to have too many oh well you know is that sensible to have a to have a baby maybe you should think about what precautions you can take and what's that insinuating what about ones that promote covetousness promoting covetousness and by the way all this stuff can be promoted in churches as well can be promoted by wicked people in churches but promoting covetousness and covetousness ruins lives doesn't it covetousness ruins christian's lives that instead of focusing on the things of god they're focusing on money they're focusing on getting rich they're focusing on ways to get rich to get easy money and how many preachers will maybe promote it to some degree or how many how many people in churches will promote their get rich quick schemes will promote their fast cash will promote their ways of getting money will promote their covetous ways and destroy people's lives destroy children's lives who are seeing that week in week out and how many will just try and pull people out of church or whether that's a false prophet preaching that the church which preaches the whole word of god is a hate hate preaching because you're preaching what the word of god says or you know what sort of a church what sort of a church tries to encourage people to you know to dress properly or to and again it's encouraged we don't have a ban on apart from ridiculous outfits yeah in case you're wondering don't push it yeah but but but how many people will try and how many false prophets will try and find reasons to pull you out of a church king james only must be a cult must be a cult because they believe that the bible's preserved like god promised he'd preserve it must be a cult because they believed because they believe that every word of god is pure like god said it was yeah and how about and the ones that come into churches they want to pull people out of church what they're really trying to do destroy lives and it's not much different to king harrod there yeah they might not be mass murderers maybe they're capable of it maybe these false prophets are but they do they do have something called self-preservation as well and they probably know they're going to be banged up king harrod didn't get banged up but people are trying to ruin lives yeah false prophets out there trying to ruin lives that's why the bible says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravening wolves and they're plurals they're plurals not that one false prophet you might come against the one you might see on youtube no false prophets plural which come to you in sheep's clothing and some of them the sheep's clothing is really impressive but inwardly they are ravening wolves let's go back to matthew 2 and verse 17 where it says then was fulfilled that which was spoken by jeremy the prophet saying and by the way this is jeremiah and ramah or ramah was a voice heard lamentation and weeping a great mourning rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted because they are not so now ramah is the name of a few places but here this particular one is a city near bethlehem now remember we saw earlier it was all the coasts thereof so all the neighboring towns and cities jeremiah 31 15 is what it's quoting here which says thus saith the lord a voice was heard in ramah lamentation and bitter weeping rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not now rachel i believe is both referring to jacob's wife who died yeah the famous rachel from the bible who died by the way whilst giving birth to benjamin yeah and here the many future mothers of the benjaminites okay so it's kind of a jewel there and being that she she died giving birth to benjamin but there's kind of a reverse here where she's weeping for her children refused to be comforted for children because they're not and ram was one of the cities of the benjaminites okay so they're kind of the descendants of benjamin and regardless of them being in heaven you can imagine how these mothers felt yeah so regardless because you've got the the kind of the callous types are like well you know gone to heaven what's the problem well what's the problem they've literally just had their their babies murdered i mean can you imagine that absolutely horrific lamentation is expression of sorrow cries of grief the act of bewailing which is bitter weeping refusing to be comforted now that's pretty normal for poor mothers that have lost their babies isn't it let alone murdered by this wicked psychopath okay that's normal behavior that's a normal response expression of sorrow cries of grief the act of bewailing verse 19 says but when herrod was dead behold an angel of the lord appearth 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 now did herrod get away with this do you think well firstly he's in the lowest depths of hell okay king herrod is burning in hell for eternity and is anyone here sitting there going well poor thing if only we could have saved him at the end because the liberals would claim that wouldn't they the the the fake loving church would claim ah just unfortunate that someone didn't reach herrod with the gospel at the end of his life on his deathbed if only they could have got him saved because that's that's that's what the world tells us christians should think shouldn't they yeah that's how we should think shouldn't we because the world tells us who have never even read the bible that's how we should think so then you get a christian like and i've preached about this a few times it just really winds me up because even just looking through some of the comments on these debates that i just that i saw a few of these videos recently and you just saw all these fake christians coming on going not very christ-like to be rebuking someone you know things like this you're like what is wrong with you these people and it's this fake christianity yeah and it's false and then people real christians sitting there going oh man am i just not very you know am i not a good christian because i don't have a problem with herrod burning in hell for eternity but for sure you shouldn't have a problem with her burning in hell for eternity because that was a wicked wicked guy wasn't he and hell couldn't be hot enough for a guy like that and look just to make it clear we want to get people saved that's why when we're one of the only churches in this country that goes out and tries to get people saved okay we want to see people saved but people like that the bible says look he hates the lord do not i hate them that hate thee yeah the bible's clear about that now interestingly the historians say this by the way and i don't know how accurate this is but after a troubled reign of 37 years he died at jericho amid great agonies both of body and mind so it's not just the hell but uh it seems that the herrod the great here died amid great agonies both the body and mind anyone upset about that no yeah are we bad christians because we're pleased about that no no we're not and the bible the bible makes it clear you know to to abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good we hate evil and that guy is evil personified isn't he he's trying to murder the lord jesus christ and in the process goes around murdering scores and scores of innocent children and destroying all of those parents lives and that's the sort of thing now they they will never get over okay they will never get over that and that is absolutely horrific he's just destroyed their physical lives as well now just interestingly here the argument is that jesus was born between six and four bc so in case you're looking at you know you've looked at thinking okay it must be zero well you know there's a bit of discrepancy here which would probably make sense considering he ordered the death of all children under two and he died in 4 bc yeah so but with that in mind therefore it seems that they weren't in egypt a long time it says here this is another quote from a from a historian i think this is smith here says after his death his kingdom was divided among three of his sons of these philip had the land east of jordan between caesarea philippi and bethabara antipath had galileo and perea while archaelius had judea and samaria so just just bear that in mind because then they go on to be called heron now back where we were though in i think it's verse 20 it says for they are dead which sought the young child's life so who's the they notice it's they are dead now obviously he sent forth people to kill them yeah okay but these weren't just these poor guys it just had to do as they're told and whoever was in his inner circle there's some other wicked people around him it wasn't just herrod on his wine because these christ haters are not only numerous and first john 4 1 says beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits where they are got there of god because many false prophets have gone out into the world many many and and again it can't be preached enough from a pulpit because we as christians we don't want to believe that we want to not believe that we want to believe that you know that guy who's preacher appended your sins he's just a bit confused that guy who's preaching you know and promoting alcohol he just needs someone to really show him clearly from the bible and not try and destroy his hundreds of thousands of followers lives that guy preaching you name it oh yeah you know they're not that bad are they they are dead it said because there are many false prophets and look there are many plural and often they work together okay they work together now if you think about it a lot of those false prophets you'll see out there on the tv on youtube or everywhere else a lot of them yoke up together don't they yeah they're happy they'll they'll help each other they preach for each other they're all buddies they've got no problem in fact they don't seem to have a problem with and when we're talking false prophets we're going across the board here the catholic priest doesn't have a problem with the anglican priest but but i thought you know i've thought protestantism was coming out from the catholic church no they're all of the same they're all of the same cut from the same cloth aren't they they are aren't they and i know that's a bit of a pun there because you know they're all men of the cloth aren't they okay but they are cut from the same cloth but they don't have a problem with the with with the rabbi they don't have a problem with the imam they don't have a problem with any of that because they're all false prophets and birds of a feather flock together but sadly you do see that as well when it comes to people that try and destroy churches from the inside and that's something we'll have to watch out for is that you'll get groups you'll get multiples of people sometimes trying to destroy a church he said many false prophets have gone out into the world jesus said false prophets didn't he beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves and that's wolf's blue because wolves come in packs don't they they come in packs something to bear in mind verse 21 says and he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of israel but when he heard that our chileus did reign in judaea in the room of his father herod he was afraid to go thither notwithstanding being warned of god in a dream he turned aside into the parts of galilee so he avoided herrod's son our chileus but ended up where his son antipas reigned which kind of makes sense there where it says he heard that he did reign there and he was afraid to go notwithstanding being warned of god in a dream he turned aside in the parts of galilee so he's warned of that and he ends up in the parts of galilee and he came and dwelt in a city called nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets he shall be called a nazarene now by the way that's not a nazarite okay he didn't take a nazarite vow okay that's not a nazarite people get confused with that okay this is just someone from nazareth and remember though that this is where joseph and mary were actually from yeah if you look at the the gospel account in in luke and obviously further one in matthew when he talks about being in his hometown they'd only traveled due to the decree to be taxed didn't they so this is where they're from they went basically they went back to their hometown okay they went back to the hometown having been warned you know not to not to go back to judia oh i don't know why maybe they would have gone back to that part i'm not sure but so which prophet said he shall be called a nazarene anyone know because there don't seem there doesn't seem to be a clear case of who it is you can't find that in the old testament but there's a couple of things to point out here firstly it said it was spoken by the prophets okay it didn't say written by the prophets did it now often when it's spoken by the prophets it's also written by the prophets but here it did say spoken so we don't have to add into that right it must be written down then okay there i'm sure the prophet spoke many things yeah but but with that in mind as well there is a connotation here of being called a nazarene i believe in the bible and some people debate this i believe there is turn to john chapter one where jesus first meets philip so john the gospel of john in chapter one and from verse 43 we're going to look at john 143 where the bible reads the day following jesus would go forth into galilee and findeth philip and saith unto him follow me now philip was of beth beth sayida the city of andrew and peter philip findeth nathaniel and saith unto him we have found him of whom moses in the law and the prophets did write jesus of nazareth the son of joseph and nathaniel said unto him can there any good thing come out of nazareth philips earth unto him come and see now this is clearly disdaining of nazareth isn't it i don't see that as anything else but oh well he's not coming from bethany no i think he's clearly disdaining nazareth he didn't say can any good thing come out of anywhere apart from from you know bethlehem because of the prophecy and mica no he said can there any good thing come out of nazareth and we also see you don't have to turn there but this this sort of attitude in the book of acts where they're complaining about paul and they say for we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the nazarenes and again i think it's a disdainful view of people from nazareth because look they weren't just a sect of the nazarenes were they and this was they were trying to persuade the governor there weren't they that he was wicked and that he deserved to be put to death so why why was nazareth some sort of disdainful sort of insult to be from nazareth well it's not mentioned in the old testament at all by the way so seemed to be a newer town and again i think you could probably see some spiritual messages in that as well but for sake of time and just something i haven't really gone into in depth we're not going to go into that but it was likely more mixed with the gentiles okay far from jerusalem as well and there's some historical accounts that they were maybe their speech was a bit different or you know and again we don't know for sure any of that stuff but if i'm right and being called a nazarene is an insult then prophets like isaiah in isaiah 53 3 and you don't have to turn there most people know these verses when they said he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were a face from him he was despised and we esteemed him not they may be saying that maybe they're basically saying you know he shall be called a nazarene he shall be called despised he shall be disdained he shall be rejected of men he was despised and we esteemed him not and he fulfilled being despised didn't he jesus christ was despised he described by his despised by his own people in nazareth as well and he was despised by the jews he was despised by everyone and sadly christian here you're going to get despised if you live for god the world does despise you when you start to get your your views and you start to get your behavior more and more in line with how god wants you to live and think and talk and act the world despises you the world starts to hate you more and more but is that a bad thing not really is our life trying to get popular with the world the world seems to have its whole life trying to be popular with the rest of the world doesn't it i mean that seems to be a level of of achievement in life nowadays how popular you are on social media how popular you how many friends you got how many you know likes you get on whatever stupid photo you put up of yourself with some silly duck face or something else that that seems to be life doesn't it but do we care about that stuff we don't care about that stuff do we yeah the more you're despised for jesus christ ain't not for being an obnoxious arrogant christian but the more you're despised for just trying to be more christ like the more look the more blessed we're going to be for it aren't we and he was despised and rejected of men and we're trying to take up our cross and follow him aren't we now he fulfilled being despised i believe that's what it's talking about but there's also some other fulfillment in that chapter wasn't there jeremiah's prophecy a great weeping morning was fulfilled yeah him being called out of egypt was fulfilled and he fulfilled the prophecy of being born in bethlehem didn't he that's a lot of prophecy fulfillment in one chapter isn't it amongst the many other hard truths yeah and that's a lot of prophecy fulfillment all in just one chapter of the bible and again just from the beginning where we saw clearly just just how he qualified had he come from that line of joseph he would have qualified as a king but in chapter two we're seeing that he qualifies as the lord jesus christ christ he anointed the messiah through all those prophecies just fulfilling fulfilling fulfilling and um yeah what great chapter of the bible some hard hard stuff in that chapter isn't there and some hard truths in that chapter but hopefully you know truths that will edify us it will strengthen us that we can learn from as well now on that let's go to the lord word of prayer to finish off father thank you um thank you for you know what a great strong chapter of the bible there and the the lessons that we can learn from it the you know the lessons that we can learn thinking that with these wise christians that can just see everything that that even the wise men didn't see what herod was and you know they needed you to warn them and hopefully your warning today has gone out to to those in our church should just just be aware that that you know they come they come you know in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravening wolves and herod i don't think his sheep's clothing was that good but he still managed to fool the wise men and we we need to just be aware of that we have the the complete word of god so to whom much is given much should be required we should be aware we should be vigilant we should keep our children away from false prophets that are out there trying to trying to just just poison us if they can't send us to hell they're going to just just try and destroy our physical lives like herod did with those poor children and we pray for you know for everyone that that you know that they're they're wise they're vigilant that we pray for this week going forward or the rest of the week sorry that that you know man should get out soul winning those who can make saturday that that we're able to return here sunday for for you know another day here to be able to get out preach to gospel we pray for all those that had the gospel preached them today that not only you know those that get saved that that they'll go on to want to live for you but also that they want to come to come to this church and want to want to be part of a church which goes out and tries to do things for god and we pray all of these things in jesus christ's name