Eric Walsh - Wise Men Still Seek Him (Sabbath Service 12/12/2020)

nervous just happy sabbath we're always grateful and blessed for the opportunity to be closer to the lord especially on his holy day so for his honor and glory o holy night [Music] the stars are brightly shining it is [Music] it's rejoices oh he the angel voices [Music] was [Music] so truly he taught us to love one another his lies his love and his gospel is peace change shall he break for the save is shall cease [Music] in us praise [Music] we [Music] [Applause] [Music] nowhere nowhere [Music] money i beside with everyone uh good to be here with you all today and um great to be in the holiday season it's a kind of weird holiday season um with all of the restrictions on gatherings and things but um there's a reason for the season and um at all times you have to remember that christ is the reason for this season if you remember that the season as far as i'm concerned is always more joyous if you start thinking about presence uh and the expenses of the holiday it can quite actually get quite depressing so we are going to focus on why uh we celebrate this um holiday there are many who um you know as adventist state they kind of worry about christmas because uh factually it probably it's unlikely that christ was born in december the shepherds would not have been out in the field they would that would probably have happened more in the spring it is true that many pagan artifacts and issues have been attached to the holiday but i would be you it would not be wise to ignore the significance of the birth of christ especially at a time when the entire world focuses on it this is one time of the year when secular artists who sing the devil's music all year will actually sing a hymn that praises the lord jesus christ and if you think of it that way this is the time of the year when evangelism is um probably it's at its easiest point someone at work asked this week we were debating whether we should send all of our clinics thanksgiving and someone said no christmas is a catholic holiday so we can't do it because everyone who works is here is not catholic i said no actually christmas is a christian holiday many people have pretty much all denominations uh uh celebrate christmas in some form or the other i say but in america even people who don't believe in god celebrate christmas nobody wants to give up on getting gifts and stuff so uh it is an opportunity to share the gospel of jesus christ and to speak truth in a time when people need hope hopelessness is at a high right now church people are very frustrated the the pandemic fatigue is truly setting in one of the reasons you see the numbers spiking across the country there are a lot of reasons one of them is people have just kind of given up and they're going back to what keeps them comfortable and happy the church must always have an answer in these times of difficulty our answer is christ jesus himself we must never forget that a scripture reading today comes from matthew chapter 2. i want to read the first two verses and we're going to go through a bit of a a contextualization of the first advent and look at how that relates to the second advent in a sense by the time this is all over um and hopefully gain relevance around this holiday and this season matthew chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 says now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea the days of herod the king behold there came wise men from the east to jerusalem saying where is he that is born king of the jews for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him our message this sabbath is entitled now behold the child now behold the child wise men still seek him let us pray father god we thank you for this opportunity to study your word to study the history and the truth of the first advent of jesus christ lord i pray that the holy spirit will just now lead pour out your holy ghost in double and triple portion have the person of the holy spirit be with us now lord once again i ask that you just make me a nail upon the wall a rusty sorry nail lord but upon that nail i ask that you hang a portrait of jesus christ let eric walsh not be seen or heard now father instead father let us hear a word from the throne room of grace this is our prayer in jesus precious and holy name amen so let's get into some history this is what rome the empire of rome looked like at the time of jesus so there are two maps overlaid one on top of the other you can see all the way out here to britannica the purple the roman empire eventually included even rome armenia um and beyond uh you you will notice that all of spain uh galilea is france and of course all of italy were all a part of the roman empire there were many battles with um well at the time were called um the german um uh the german um uh they not the vandals the vandals actually one of the tribes uh but they they call them brutes and all kinds of things but they they fought with the germans a lot the roman empire did um and you can see that it stretched into africa and all over the world when christ was born he was born into a very very powerful empire he was born under a time when they ruled with an iron fist were cr quite oppressive daniel in his vision when he saw the statue the part of the of the body that nebuchadnezzar saw that represented the roman empire was the legs of iron and if you think about it there are two things about that truth one of them is iron is the strongest metal in the statue and the legs are the strongest muscles in the body the largest i should say collection so collectively the strongest muscles in the body when you think about it prophetically what daniel was telling us christ would be born into which is then reflected in revelation chapter 12 is that christ would be born into a kingdom that was more powerful and oppressive than babylon medo-persia or greece when jesus was born the world was plunged into spiritual darkness the pagan ways of the romans had followed the pagan ways of all the other previous empires the world was full of superstition in fact the gods of the time jupiter and and neptune and and venus and all of the rest of them were literally uh people with the with the attributes and faults of people given uh the status of gods in other words when men looked to these deities uh for direction what they found were lying conniving a cheating stealing beings to look up to so the image of god from that had been brought low but on the other hand those who are supposed to have the truth the jews who had now not heard from a prophet in over 400 years from the end of the book of malachi to the birth of christ over 400 years there was silence not a prophet was heard they had killed the prophets of old men like isaiah and jeremiah had gone through persecution and so there was a silence of the word of god for over 400 years and in that time the one group of people on the planet with the truth had lowered god to being a maniacal tyrannical obsessive and hard god that you should fear and tremble and obey because you wanted to avoid punishment as you looked at the whole thing it was terrible as idolatry and revelry took over the world was looking simply for wealth and an excuse to party at this time darkness covered the world it was a time of great depression and only a select few actually lived decent lives under the harrowing power of the romans in fact some argue that the families of the senates of rome were literally only three to 600 families in all of this vast empire who had a good life the spirit of prophecy in the book of the desire of ages and page 36 says this the deception of sin had reached its height this is at the time of christ's birth all the agencies for depraving the souls of men had been put in operation the son of god looking upon the world beheld suffering and misery with pity he saw how men had become victims of satanic cruelty he looked with compassion upon those who were being corrupted murdered and lost satanic agencies were incorporated with men the bodies of human beings made for the dwelling place of god had become the habitation of demons the senses the nerves the passions the organs of men were worked by supernatural agencies in the indulgence of the violence lust the very stamp of demons was impressed upon the countenances of men human faces reflected the expression of the legions of evil with which they were possessed such was the prospect look at this such was the prospect upon which the world's redeemer looked what a spectacle for infinite purity to behold before christ came to earth he sat in the heavenly realm looking down on a planet so debased in fact the spirit of prophecy tells us that it had been 2 000 years since the world was in such condition what i want you to get from what i'm telling you is when you when you hear the story of the birth of christ do not think that jesus just randomly decided to plop down on earth at a certain time it was prophetic and it was intentional christ saw that he had brought time to go in and save the world before like the end to the luvians it reached a point of no return in this time man had achieved so much the roman empire was such a beautiful brilliant place i've been to rome and i have to say that when i when i visit rome i am still in awe of the architecture and complexity of what they designed and built the coliseum um the palaces the temples it was a phenomenal and amazing empire when you think of its achievements on those levels but of course it was also very spiritually dark for the first several hundred years the roman empire was a republic and it's interesting that just before the time of christ's birth is when finally it switches from a republic where the senate really ruled and it was more of a representative government like the one we have basically uh taken from the romans uh to run our republic here in the united states and it became an empire there were civil wars there was lots of fighting and infighting there was conquering but but um but there was one great emperor emperor who had come to the throne and had not fully taken control from the senate his name was julius caesar have you heard of him it's one of my favorite plays by shakespeare julius caesar and what interestingly happens is that he is murdered and then he is assigned don't miss this he is assigned divinity after his death julius caesar is made a god so that his son would be the son of god the son of a god enter caesar augustus he is the earliest roman figure mentioned in the new testament he was the emperor during the time of the birth of christ he came to power in 63 bc uh he was born in 63 bc sorry but he came to power in 31 bc after a period of political unrest he was such a successful emperor in bringing rome together that in fact they gave him divinity while he was still alive and you can see here this is a an actual coin this is caesar augustus of course this is the uh july is how we get we get from julius caesar is named after the month of july and the month of august is named after augustus caesar so to this day he's still recognized this is who was in power when christ was born and you can see on the other side where it says uh divis ilius or divine julius still speaking to the divinity of his father with the solar flare there what is interesting is that augustus was very very successful i want you to get this because satan tries to contrast the success of this political ruler with the satan understood the prophecy better than any so i'm sure he knew christ was soon to be born and satan was trying to set up a world that would be um impervious to the mission of christ if you darken the world enough if you give them enough gods if you give them a savior before christ is born maybe when the real savior is born people won't see him they won't recognize him they won't need him so augusta deceiver is the language that they would use to to describe him as a savior the language used to describe him was here good news or gospel in fact it comes from the greek word uh you you and jillian which is where we get the word evangelism from he had the gospel the good news of augustus caesar who instituted the pax romana the peace of rome augustus after defeating the enemies of rome was celebrated as a great savior to the people uh roman imperial theology advertising poems and inscriptions and coins as we just saw images altars statues and structures he was made god while he was a god while he was still alive so in our in 27 bc he became augustus the senate gave him this title because it in short it meant he was worthy of worship it was not just the name they felt he was truly divine this is one uh tacitus says this in the framework the great roman historian he says in the framework of ancient liturgy he was invoked like one of the ancient national gods of rome and he was surrounded with such an abundance of religious honor that many people thought there was nothing left for the worship of the heavenly gods when christ was born rome's civil war had ended power was restored to the senate there was an emperor they were taking care of the citizens in a sense and they're soldiers and it seemed as if there would be no need for anything better the poet horus noted that while all previous deifications had occurred only after death upon you augustus however while still among us we already bestow honors set up altars to swear by in our name and confess listen to this that nothing like you will arise hereafter or has ever arisen before now satan had set up the world so that when jesus was born it would be a recalcitrant world to the idea of a savior the roman empire at its height tacitus goes on and says the most divine caesar who should consider equal to the beginning of all things listen to words they use for when everything was failing and falling into disorder and tending toward dissolution he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura caesar the common good fortune of all the beginning of life and vitality in all the cities unanimously they adopt the birthday of the divine caesar as the new beginning of the year whereas providence which has regulated our whole existence has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us the emperor augustus whom in whom in providence filled with strength for the welfare of men and who being sent to us and our descendants as savior has put an end to war and has set all things in order and whereas having become god manifest he says caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times in surpassing all the benefactors who preceded him whereas finally the birthday of god augustus caesar has been the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him therefore let a new era begin from his birth i want you to notice that a few things happen so augustus caesar's claims they call him savior they say he is the good news the gospel itself they say that the new era should start with his birth they say that he has brought peace to the world and they say that this would happen in perpetuity that their offspring also would would benefit from what he had done it was a setup church then they put in power this guy herod the great julius caesar put him in first he put in a huge building program of course and set up sacrifices to augustus and he was made the king of the jews i want you to get that when jesus was born there was no room for him we think there was no room for him in the inn i want you to understand that politically socially and religiously satan had worked tirelessly to make it so there was no room for christ not only in the halls of power but in the hearts of men when jesus was born it was miraculous it was powerful satan was at his height the empire of rome was at his height revelation chapter 12 tells us that this beast of rome would come after the child that the woman bore christ was hunted by the government just as isaiah says that the government would be upon his shoulder jesus was born into the most hostile conditions sacrifice that it took for the perfect god of the universe jesus who spoke and the world came into existence he who had formed man with his own hands from the dust of the ground it was jesus who did those things can you imagine as he looks down at the depravity of the world and he does not decide to wipe man out he does not destroy augustus caesar for being vaunted to godhood instead jesus decides i will come to earth wrapped in the flesh of a little baby i will come and deliver man not on a high horse not with great armies but i am going to come to earth and deliver men through love no weapon did jesus ever carry the bible describes no fistfight that he got into yet he liberated the world from the tyranny of what was paganism and spiritual darkness by the power of the words he spoke the miracles he worked and by the relationships he formed this holiday as you think about the first advent the first time christ came in fullness to this earth i want you to understand it was not just some simple story that can be summed up in a manger setting on your neighbor's front yard uh this thing is deeper it is one of the uh most important aspects of the great controversy to understand what it really meant for christ to leave of the perfection of heaven to come to this destitute earth in fact the bible says it like this in galatians 4 and verse 4 the bible says but when the fullness of the time was come god sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law i want you to get this time itself ripens prophetically fullness comes to time there's a time that eventually you get to a point in time when god says enough is enough time itself ripens it was full like a woman who's carrying a child there's a time that comes when the pregnancy can go no further and labor begins what the scripture is describing is that the world was in the kind of condition where it reached a point where it could go no further into darkness the bible says that when the fullness of time was come now let me just give you a spoiler alert church i believe we are at the fullness of time again i believe we are at a time when eventually god is going to have to step in the wickedness and depravity of this world the elevation of political figures to godness all around the globe the corruption of political systems the poverty the famine the disease all of the things that are happening the murders the crime all of this points to the fact that once again christ is in heaven looking down at earth two thousand years before his first advent he there was a big event in the flood and two thousand years after that event we are now at around that time and i want to submit to you that the fullness of time has come again the scripture said he was made of a woman god had to carefully choose christ's parents his earthly parents can you imagine what it would have been like you know one of the most uncelebrated people in the bible has to be joseph joseph really gets a bad deal if you think about it i mean not a bad deal in that he serves god but i mean a bad deal in how we look at him joseph had to live his whole life with people whispering that that wasn't even his kid joseph had to deal with the spiritual onslaught of the enemy it was joseph that the angel gabriel appeared to joseph was warned to go to egypt joseph had to figure all of these things out mary of course didn't have it easy either no one would believe her story and yet they had to raise a child in the most difficult conditions let me tell you something church if you're a parent right now you are also raising a child in the time of fullness and the very way that joseph and mary were chosen to raise the baby jesus you have been chosen to raise your children and this is a very serious thing if if we are facing the fullness of time once again it is all the more important that we take seriously our role as parents but of course how did these how did the wise men even know to come well remember daniel had spent all that time in babylon and middle persia and and nebuchadnezzar had become a believer in the one true god that means that these prophecies of daniel were written and many of the people who were not of of the descent of the jews had understood this truth people of of persian descent and uh and armenian descent people from that side of the world had a great deep understanding of truth daniel says 70 weeks are determined upon the people upon the holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and seal up the vision and prophecy and to and to anoint the most holy this tells you of his baptism in that prophecy in daniel 9 25 now therefore know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to to build jerusalem unto the messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks the street shall be built again on the wall even in troubleless times prophesying nehemiah and ezra's rebuilding of jerusalem in the short run but then projecting all the way out to the baptism and the beginning of the ministry of christ we talked about this in a sermon we recorded earlier this week so we so they knew can you imagine it you know the prophecy tells us that messiah would be cut off in the middle of that last week those wise men studied it and probably 50 60 70 years before that time would come they began to look for christ so when you read these prophecies numbers 23 21 he hath not beheld iniquity in jacob neither have he seen perverseness in israel the lord his god is with him and the shout of a king is among them they knew a king was coming based on these prophecies numbers 24 17 i shall see him but not now i shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a star they knew to look for a star a star out of jacob and a scepter shall rise out of israel and shall smite the corners of moab and destroy the children of of chef and of course this fit david somewhat but those who understood the prophecies understood to apply it further out they knew christ was coming the first time so matthew chapter 2 verse 1 says now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea the days of herod the king behold there came wise men from the east to jerusalem saying where is he that is born the king of the jews for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him they saw the prophecies fulfilled they made the difficult journey to jerusalem and i want you to get something important here because there are those who would try and teach you that jesus is not god but i want you to recognize in matthew chapter 2 and verse 2 it says that they didn't come to meet him they didn't come to just give him gifts my bible tells me that they came to worship him now here's where it gets interesting so i want to take you to the to the room where mary has him this is probably not still the manger but but let's just say it is because that's let's just say it is can you imagine when the people when he was visited even in the manger that they would fall and worship jesus surrounded by the stench of the animals the bleating of the sheep the mooing of the cows can you imagine that when they came in there was no royal procession there were no a fancy silk drapes or golden uh images or or statues when they walked in to see jesus it was a a foul-smelling dingy corner of the universe and yet even in that they could recognize christ was worthy of worship in fact the spirit of prophecy tells us that when lucifer satan himself saw jesus in the manger when the devil looked upon him in the condition of his birth when satan stepped into that room he followed jesus his entire life when he looked at the condition jesus was born into even satan marveled that one in christ who was once so elevated in heaven jesus where angels would worship him and cry holy holy worthy worthy lucifer satan when he saw him even he marveled that christ would leave from such a high position and come to such a low one you see because what the devil wanted was to exalt his throne and seat above the throne of the most high god satan only knew one direction and that was up to see jesus in this condition baffled satan verse 3 when herod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all jerusalem with him this tells us that they weren't expecting a messiah to come they didn't understand the prophecies it was people outside of the church who understood the prophecies the church missed it when the those they would call heathen had gotten it and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he demanded of them where christ should be born and they said unto him in bethlehem of judea for thus it is written by the prophet and thou bethleh bethlehem and 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 herod when he had privily or privately called the wise men he 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 you have found him bring me word again that i may come and do what was herod going to worship him herod was going to execute him in fact he tries to execute matthew 1 21 and she shall bring forth the son and thou shalt call his name jesus for he shall save his people from their sins his name in the hebrew is yeshua which is joshua which means jehovah is salvation augustus caesar wanted to be savior but a real savior was born on his watch instead he wanted to augustus caesar wanted to be god with with mankind he wanted to be elevated to that position my bible tells me in matthew 1 and verse 23 behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name emmanuel which being interpreted is god with us no augustus caesar never becomes god he doesn't even come close to becoming god in fact he dies not long after christ is born it was satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between god and men but in christ we become more closely united to god than if we had never fallen by taking on our nature the savior has bound himself to humanity with a tie that can never be broken did you hear that church i want you to get that when we get to heaven we will still be able to touch the nail prints in his hand christ will remain in human form we will be more closely bonded to christ than if we had never than if mankind had never sinned all of the universe will marvel as we on in the new heavens and the new earth walk with christ and he is in our form and he and we in his forever that close to christ he will forever be emmanuel god with us and he is the word augustus caesar wanted his word his law to last but my bible tells me in john 1 uh one through three and and verse 14 it tells me in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was a god the same was in the beginning with god it speaks to his creative power all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made and verse 14 says and the word was what made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth augustus caesar's birthday was supposed to be the one that they remembered and now yeah they got december 25th wrong but nobody remembers when augustus caesar was born he was born on september 23rd everyone tries you know again i don't believe december 25th is jesus birthday but his birth his birth is the one that's remembered augustus sees it was supposed to have be the start of a new era but it wasn't bc and 80 are based on the birth of christ not on the birth of augustus he was supposed to perpetually be remembered by all the world yeah we still named a month after him but i'll tell you the very calendar is timed after christ jesus did all that and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh gold because he was a king frankincense as a symbol of worship and myrrh a symbol of what would uh what they often used in a burial ritual it was as if each one of these three things was given to him symbolically to lay out his life and i would argue that when they had to flee to egypt these gifts were very important for joseph to be able to afford the trip and stay in egypt while he waited for it to be safe to come back to jerusalem and to israel the question i have for you today is this what will you give jesus he's worthy more now than ever of worship the fullness of time is come and he is soon to return what will you give jesus yeah you can give tithes and offerings and we should we must in a sense but i want to submit to you this holiday season this christmas season if you have not given christ your heart you're failing this holiday season it doesn't matter what else you give away make sure you give the lord your full being this holiday season give your mind over to him give your netflix account over to him give your playlist on your phone oh come on church every aspect of your life now must be given to him we must turn it over to him because he is the one worthy of worship this holiday season don't hold anything back from the lord jesus christ these men traveled far gave all risked their lives if herod had found them they would have been killed what have you done for your lord jesus christ in closing is a great christmas story i love happened during world war one of course world war one was a time of what we call trench warfare british troops were in one trench troops were on the other side in a trench the german troops had taken some terrible losses as had the british side the winter in europe had kicked in it was now december men longed for home as the holiday season rolled in wishing they could be with their families this christmas rather than with their fellow soldiers facing an enemy the stories of their childhood christmases began to be told on both sides of the of the of the line in both trenches and on christmas eve the german soldiers decided that it was time to sing they called a truce from christmas eve to christmas night so in the space of that peace the german soldiers began to sing a christmas hymn the british soldiers couldn't believe it here they were singing hymns on a battlefield one british soldier says it like this they finished their carol and we thought that we ought to retaliate in some way so we sang the first noel and when we finished they all began clapping and then they struck up another favorite of theirs oh tannenbaum and so it went on first the germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours until when we started o come all ye faithful the germans immediately joined in the singing the same hymn to the latin words adeste fidelis this soldier recounts he says and i thought well this was really a most extraordinary thing two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war church this holiday season the world seems to be at war our country has never been more divided or maybe not since the civil war but i want to submit to you that this means just as these soldiers were able to do in the short bit of peace they had they made their focus and attention on worshiping christ i want to submit to you this holiday season and all of the hopelessness in all of the stress that you are feeling that there is never been a better time to praise the lord this season take your family together open up the hymnals and begin to sing songs of praises to our god nothing will make this holiday season more joyful with all of its uncertainties that if you lift up the name of jesus the shepherds the wise men they came and looked for him and they understood that he was the symbol of a lasting peace not just for an empire but for the universe i submit to you no matter how difficult your life is right now if you can lift him up and worship him this holiday season my bible tells me that god inhabits the praises of his people invite jesus in to your home this christmas invite jesus into your heart this christmas give him the gift of you let's pray father god we thank you for this opportunity to study a word and to better understand the story of the first advent lord many of us are holding back from giving you all that is due you lord we will go out of our way to find the best gifts for our children and for our loved ones and for our our our significant others lord we will we will pave the the the world and search the internet lord you ask for none of that you only ask that we give you ourselves our hearts and our minds and this holiday season father i pray that we would be faithful in receiving the gift of life from you lord and giving you the gift of our own lives this is our prayer in jesus precious and holy name amen closing him this morning is him number 125. joy to the world when we ask that you please stand [Music] the lord is and heaven and nature joy [Music] no he comes to make his blessings [Music] rules with truth and grace [Music] by your head sort of benediction lord god we know that once again this world is in a state of darkness and lord each of us from day to day feels the pressures and the weight of this fallen world but just as the wise men had hope that a star would appear and christ would be born the first time lord let us leave this place today remembering that we have a hope and this time it just won't be a star but lord help us to put our trust in the fact that you love us and are coming to get us help us lord to remember in all things you were born first just a little baby let us remember now that you come as king of kings and lord of lords and lord help us to be ready for your soon return this is our prayer in jesus precious and holy name amen [Music] you

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Length: 52min 10sec (3130 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020