0:08 The last two studies we had, we were considering those who were made aware by God of the first coming of Christ when he was born. Even though it was prophesied in the Bible 0:26 that he would be born in the book of Micah. And even the time of his death was mentioned in the book of Daniel. So, people could have had a rough idea 0:45 of even when he would have been born. Yet, the vast majority of people in Israel were not ready. They read the scriptures, they studied the Bible, but they didn't even know when Christ came and was born. In fact, 1:04 most people didn't know it for over 30 years. And in that we have a a warning that it's possible for Christians today to read the Bible, study, go to meetings, etc. 1:23 and not be ready when Christ comes again. And do you think any of those people in Israel felt that they were not ready? They all thought they would know when the Messiah came and they didn't. And it I find that many who are born again 1:42 Christians also imagine that they're ready for Christ's second coming, but they many of them are in for a big surprise. So, in this church we seek to save people from surprises in the day of 2:00 Christ's return. And save people from surprises in the day of judgment. So that we have no surprises at all. I don't want any surprises in my life. I've told the Lord many times that 2:18 if there is one small little thing in my life that's not right something I've not settled with God, something I've not settled with man I don't want to get any surprises in the day of judgment. I don't want the Lord to point out to me in the day of 2:37 judgment even one thing however small it may be which I needed to set right. I said, "Lord, I'm I'm serious. I'm willing to pay any price, but I want my score card in the day of 2:56 judgment to be 100 out of 100. Everything set right." You know, that can be for you, too. The Bible says, "If we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged." 1 Corinthians 11. And if we 3:14 obey that verse, the promise of God is we will not be judged. What a promise that is. I won't be judged. If we judge ourselves rightly now. So if you're serious about being ready for Christ's coming 3:33 it's good to think of these examples. Everything written in scriptures for a warning and an example for us. We saw the examples of young people like Joseph and Mary who were made aware of Christ's coming. Older much older people like Zacharias 3:47 and Elizabeth who were made aware of Christ's We saw simple, illiterate people like shepherds who were not Bible scholars who were made aware of Christ's coming. We saw 4:05 godly older men and women who were in their 80s but who had the Holy Spirit upon them, Simeon and Anna who were also um made aware of Christ's coming. So, today we want to turn to Matthew chapter 2. And 4:25 here we read of people who were not Jewish people at all who were made aware of Christ's coming. They were not in today's terms, we would say people who are not Christians. 4:47 Do you think that they could be God-fearing people among those who are not Christians? Many Christians say impossible. It's true that the Bible says in Romans 3, "There is no fear of God among them." 5:07 That's generally speaking true of all the world. All seek their own. And yet throughout history we have to acknowledge that here and there there have been sincere people 5:26 who sought after God and who didn't know anything about the Bible who didn't know anything about Jesus Christ or the truth whom God loved cuz he created all men. And who in the days of the Jews were a 5:45 thousand times better than the who read the Bible and went to the synagogue and who in our day non-Christians who are a thousand times better than so-called born-again Christians who 6:05 fight with others, who love money, who watch internet pornography and who come to church and read the Bible and act very holy and know all the language, very gifted. We will get some real surprises when Christ comes again. 6:21 And that's what I learned from the story of the wise men. They didn't have the Old Testament. They didn't have a Bible. They were not descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But God revealed to them Jesus. 6:44 In the New Testament we have an example of a Roman Centurion who came to Jesus once and asked him, "Can you please come home?" His home was many miles away. And please pray for my servant who is 7:03 sick. Imagine a a master who will travel so many miles to get his servant medically treated. Would you do it? For a servant in your home? Or would you tell him or her, "Go to the 7:21 hospital, get treated." Here's a military man who would go all the way to get his servant who is sick treated. Some of these people are 10,000 times better than many who call themselves believers 7:38 because they are kind to the poor and the weak. The way you treat people inferior to you is a pretty good test of whether you're even a believer. In the Proverbs, it says 7:57 that the righteous man is kind even to his animals. Whereas, a wicked man even his mercies are cruel. So, this centurion came to Jesus. And Jesus said, "Yeah, I'll come and heal him." 8:17 And Jesus said, he said, "Oh, no, Lord. I'm not worthy that you should come to my house. I'm not I'm I'm a nobody." Um There are many believers who think, of course, I'm worthy to receive Jesus. I'm 8:35 not a nobody. But, the Roman centurion said he was a nobody. And I believe that if you speak the word right here many miles away my servant will be healed. It's humble people who have the greatest 8:57 faith. It's those who realize that they're nobodies who have the greatest faith. And maybe this is the reason why you don't have more faith. And when Jesus heard this he said something which is amazing. I want you to look at that. 9:16 Because here was another man like these wise men who came from the east. You read it in Matthew chapter 8. He You know, the centurion had come and asked him saying uh verse 9:35 8 "Lord, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just say the word and I know my servant will be healed right now. And um a man because I know that when I when I speak my soldiers obey me and if you speak sickness will obey you. 9:52 Can you imagine faith like that? In the military when a military officer tells a soldier, "Go." He doesn't wait 1 second. He goes. It's like these military parades you've seen, "About turn." Turn about. 10:11 And he knew that that Jesus had such power that if he spoke a word that sickness would not stay for 1 moment. There's a principle in God's dealings with us. According to your faith be it unto you. 10:29 It's according to not our desire. Our desire may be immense, but our faith may be zero. God greatly desires to bless us, but it's a principle he has established that everything he does is by grace through faith. 10:49 Grace is God's hand reaching down offering us every blessing in the heavenly places. Faith is not saying, "Lord, I believe." Faith is our hand reaching up and taking from God's hand what he offers. If I don't take it, I don't get it. 11:08 This centurion took it. He said, "Lord, you speak the word and I know it'll be exactly like when I tell my soldiers, 'Go.'" It'll go immediately. And Jesus, when he heard this, verse 10, there are only two places in scripture 11:24 in the New Testament where it says Jesus was surprised. Jesus marveled. Only two places. Here is one of them. Can you do something that makes Jesus marvel? Can you say something to the Lord 11:46 that will make even Jesus surprised? Boy, you have such faith in me? You know, we should be like that. We've got to learn things from non-Christians. We have to learn things from this 12:07 Roman Centurion. He was He marveled in the other place where I don't have time to show it to you. The other place where Jesus says Jesus marveled was when he saw the unbelief of certain people. He marveled at their unbelief. I think it's 12:23 in Mark 6. He marveled at their unbelief. And here it says he marveled at their faith. The only two things that Jesus ever was surprised by. When he saw fantastic faith and when he saw, boy, look at the unbelief of these people. They don't 12:40 trust me. After all that they've seen, after all that I've done, still don't trust me. Even today he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He marvels at the unbelief of so many so-called believers who get into a panic when they have face 12:55 some problem. He marvels at their unbelief. When they get into some sickness, some trial, something, they say, "Oh God, have you forsaken me?" He marvels at their unbelief. And this is not some person who doesn't know the Bible. These are people who 13:12 come for years to church listening to God's word. They don't believe. They sing well. They know a lot of the scriptures, but most important thing they don't have, faith. It's you know, I often think it's like having a lot of gadgets in your house, 13:31 but you don't have electricity. What's use of all that information and all that knowledge, dear brothers, sisters, don't keep accumulating electronic gadgets. Get a little electricity. Faith. And then Jesus said, "I have never found 13:51 such great faith with anyone among all these Bible believing, Bible thumping, synagogue going, religious Israelites." Do you think Jesus would say today, "Among all these believers who look so 14:11 holy and sing so well and read the Bible and go to meetings every day, I have never found such faith as I found in this non-Christian." You think it's possible? I believe it's possible. You think such Roman centurions come 14:26 only once in 6,000 years? There could be people like that today. Not knowing anything about the Bible. But the little they know about Jesus, they trust him. Now, don't misunderstand me. 14:46 There's no salvation outside of Christ. Nobody died for the sins of the world except Jesus Christ. Nobody rose up from the dead never to die again in the history of mankind except Christ. 15:04 Those are the two things that make the Christian faith absolutely unique. And that's what I why I believe what Jesus said that I am the way no one comes to the Father but by me. And everyone who enters the kingdom of 15:23 God, even in the Old Testament times, even before the law was given, Enoch, Abel, they're in heaven today, but how did they get there? Through Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection. But Abel and Enoch knew nothing about 15:41 Christ. They didn't know the word of God. There was no word of God in those days. And it's like that today. God is no respecter of persons. And there is a verse 15:59 in Romans which says, I want to show you this. Um 16:20 Romans chapter 10, sorry. It's a very interesting verse. Romans chapter 10. It says here in verse 18, surely 16:41 they've never heard, have they? Indeed they have. Their voice has gone out into all the world, their words to the ends of the earth. It's a quotation from the Old Testament. But I say, surely Israel did not know. First Moses says, God this is the Lord 16:56 telling Israel, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. Or as the Message Bible says, when you see God reach out to those whom you consider as 17:15 inferiors or outsiders, you'll become insanely jealous. How in the world can God reach those people? We are the Christians. Well, you don't behave like Christians. You're not passionately seeking after God. And when you see God 17:36 I'm reading from the message translation verse 19. When you see God reach out to people who you think are religiously wrong and stupid, you will throw temper tantrums. How in the world can God go to them? But Isaiah dares to speak verse 20 17:56 these words of God. People who never looked for me found and welcomed me. And I found and welcomed people who had never even asked about me. That means they didn't know Jesus, but they were seeking after God. 18:14 But as far as Christians are concerned, he caps it all with a damning indictment. Day after day after day after day, and we can say week after week, I beckoned these people who call themselves my people with open arms. And I got nothing for my trouble but 18:32 cold shoulders and icy stares. I tell you, I believe with all my heart many who are last will be first. Many who are first will be last. And many who think themselves very 18:51 spiritual will not even be in God's kingdom. And you'll be surprised at some of these people who will be there, redeemed by the blood of Christ, the Christ whom they didn't know. How do you think babies go to heaven? Babies go to heaven 19:09 redeemed by the blood of a Christ they didn't know. Whom they never knew anything about. Look at all the millions of abortions that take place in the world today. They're all living souls. And those living souls have all gone to 19:27 heaven. All the with the high rate of infant mortality in many parts of the world. People who don't know, babies. They're going to be in heaven. So, God is God's heart is larger than 19:46 ours. Many Christians, particularly the legalistically minded ones, are so narrow-minded in their thinking. God is not. God's got a large heart because he created them. You may be narrow towards them because you didn't create them. 20:05 Think how you look at your little children who came out of your womb, mothers. Every human being was created by God. And God looks at them in an entirely different way than we do. And wherever on earth he sees 20:23 someone even having a little desire after him, he responds. It's what Jesus said when the prodigal son's father saw that boy coming at a distance, he ran. It's the only place in the Bible where we read God running 20:42 to welcome someone who was seeking after him. And that's what we see in Matthew chapter 2. These wise men from the east, I don't know where they came from, maybe Iran, Persia. Why did God reveal himself to them? 21:02 Why he doesn't just pick names out of a hat and say, "Okay, I'm going to choose them. No. He's always been a rewarder, Hebrews 11:6, of those who seek him diligently. That's the truth about God. The other truth about God you need to know is it 21:19 says in Romans chapter 2, there is no partiality with God. God doesn't look at anybody's face and God doesn't condemn a man because he was born in some jungle where he could never hear about Christ. No. God doesn't condemn a man because he was 21:35 born in some religion and grew up without any knowledge of Christ. And God's not going to accept you because you were born in a believer's family and you knew all about Christ. He sees the heart. Now, I tell you 21:53 he sees uh many things that we don't see. And that's why many who are very prominent in many churches because they are gifted. Maybe in preaching, maybe in singing, maybe who are the ones who stand up in front in all churches. People can preach 22:11 or sing or um good organizer, good master of ceremonies. These are the people who are prominent in almost all churches in the world. But they may not be the most prominent in that church in God's eyes. Cuz God sees the heart. 22:27 And what he looks for this is where we're all equal. He doesn't He He doesn't look at your gift cuz gift he gives. None of us can take credit for it. But the hunger of the heart after him. I think of one whom I considered to be 22:46 the greatest saint that India ever saw. And that's Sadhu When he was about I mean his mother used to take him to different Hindu and Sikh gurus out in the forest to hermits and 23:06 whatever whatever knowledge he had about She had no knowledge about Christ, but that there was a God, a creator, tried to instill in him a certain reverence for God. He never cared for Christians. He tore the Bible and things like that. He's 23:19 anti-Christian. When he was 14 year and his mother died and he's 14 years old, imagine a boy 14 years old. Have you seen a 14-year-old boy around here? And imagine a 14-year-old boy like that kneeling down before God early in the 23:35 morning saying, "Oh God, I cannot live without you." Where 14-year Where the 40-year-olds who pray like that? Where are the 60-year-olds who pray like that? "God, I cannot live one day without you. I need to know you. I need to know who 23:50 you are." There's a Sikh who hates the Bible and Christians, but who wants God, wants to know God and assumes that God is in maybe his religion or some religion, but definitely not in the Bible. 24:09 He seeks God and he's so desperate after some time that one day he says, "If I don't find you, it's not worth living on this earth." Now, he wasn't saying empty words. He meant it. "There's a train that goes by here every morning around 5:00. I'm going to 24:27 put my head on the tracks and kill myself. What's you living if I don't have you?" I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, some of you have heard the most wonderful truths that's proclaimed in this country through many, many years of your sitting 24:43 here. Do you have such a desperate hunger after God where you say, "God, I can't Life is not worth living if I don't have you. If I don't know you, if I can't live close with you, it's not worth living." I mean, according to his understanding, 24:59 suicide was the only alternative. We know that's not a wise alternative. But, he was so desperate. And suddenly, he sees a vision. He expects to see a vision of some other god, but he sees a vision of Jesus. I'm not surprised. 25:16 I'm not one bit surprised. And his whole life is changed. His whole life is changed for the next 28 28 years. What a life he lived. 25:32 There's never been a man in this country who lived like him. Christ radiated through his life. He was never once interested in money or the honor of men or any such thing. But, the terrific passion that 25:49 never died out in 28 years to share this wonderful message of the gospel with others, even though he was poisoned by his own parents. God took care of that and healed him. Lives like these have been a challenge to me and should be a challenge to you. 26:08 Non-Christians who found Christ. In the year that he died in 1929, there was another Sikh who also tore the Bible, was converted, and that was his name was Buck Singh. And 26:30 I consider him to be the greatest man of God I ever met in this country till today. Not necessarily the greatest preacher. The greatest preachers are not necessarily the greatest men of God. But, a man who knew God. 26:48 A man who never feared any man. I learned a lot from him in my younger days. Man who never cared for money. Came from a non-Christian religion. Where what about all these people who 27:07 are taught the Bible from childhood? What are they doing? We'll get a lot of surprises in the day of judgement. It's not doctrine that's going to take us into God's kingdom. The Pharisees had all the right doctrines. 27:26 But Jesus said, you know, we know they had the right doctrines because Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 23:2-3, "Whatever the Pharisees say to you, do because they are saying the right thing. The only thing is they don't do it themselves." 27:39 Jesus himself gave a certificate there that the doctrine of the Pharisees is 100% right. Later on in the same chapter, he told the Pharisees, "How will you escape the damnation of hell?" Can people who have all their doctrines 27:52 right, like all of us sitting here, end up in hell? I really believe that. It's possible. I I I I don't like to say this, but I have to be faithful as a servant of the Lord to tell you that some of you who sat here for years 28:11 may end up in hell. Now, what delight can that bring me to see you in hell? But I have to warn you. Because you play the fool with God in your daily life. You take sin lightly. 28:30 And you think because you come to CFC, you'll be all right. I'll tell you something. When you stand before the Lord, he's not going to ask you, "Which church did you go to?" You'll find Roman Catholics who had a lot of their doctrines wrong, 28:46 like Mother Teresa and others, way ahead of you in God's kingdom. Is doctrine important? Sure, it is. Because it's only through dark correct doctrine that we can bring many others into the truth, into salvation, into victory over sin, to building the church 29:03 as a pure testimony for Christ. All that is important, but for the individual person, for the church, doctrine is more important than life, but for the individual person, life is more important than doctrine. Your hunger for God. It's what we see in 29:23 the Roman Centurion. You later on you see in um Acts chapter 10 of another Roman Centurion, another guy who killed lots of people in battle. I want you to see his example. See, these are all people who followed in the footsteps of these wise men 29:40 from the East, and that's why I mentioned them. Acts chapter 10 we read about a a Centurion, a captain of the Italian guard, a very devout man. Boy, 30:01 he doesn't know a thing about the Bible. He doesn't know anything about the Old Testament. He doesn't know about Jehovah or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or he's living after Jesus died and rose again. He doesn't know anything about 30:13 Jesus. This is years after Pentecost. Probably 10 years after the day of Pentecost. We read this. He led everyone in his house to live worshipfully before God. He led everyone in his house 30:39 to live worshipfully before God. Boy, I know a lot of Christians who don't do that. And he was always helping poor people who were in need. And he had the habit of prayer. 30:58 He prayed to God continually. Did he pray in the name of Jesus? No. He didn't know about Jesus. Did he know about Jehovah? No. Did he read the Old Testament? He didn't know anything about the Old Testament. 31:17 He was a Roman. He knew there's a supreme being who runs this universe. He didn't know who he was. But whoever it is, oh God, I want all of your children 31:35 to worship this God, be kind to poor people. I wish we had more believers like Cornelius. I tell you, the church would be a better place. I don't believe Cornelius was a gossip. 31:54 Going around speaking all types of nonsense like a lot of believers speak about each other. He can't be a worshiper of God if he does things like that. He wasn't just doing nominally for name's sake. Go and pray on a Sunday or a Saturday 32:13 and then do his own thing the rest of the week. He was not the type of person who'd say, "Oh, I'm a bit busy today on Wednesday. I don't have time to go for the meeting." I'll tell you something. I believe if Cornelius were here, 32:26 non-Christian, he would have come here on Sunday morning at 9:30. He wouldn't have been late. Cuz these non-Christians have a tremendous reverence for God which Christians don't have. 32:45 I found everywhere. When Christians go late, now I can understand if you got a flat tire or the baby needed to go to the toilet or something like that. All types of circumstances which delay us, but I'm not talking about that. 32:58 I'm talking about just plain laziness. Where if I were to ask people "How many days were you late for work? How many days did you punch in late at the factory in the whole year?" The answer is probably zero. Cuz that means money. 33:17 Okay, then then the people say we have children. Okay, you got children. How many days were your children do you take your children late to school in the whole year? And school is at 8:30, not 9:30. How many days did you take your children 33:31 late to school? The answer is zero. Cuz you're afraid of the principal. How many days were you late for church? Oh, most Sundays. Ah, because that's only God, you see. These are Christians. Don't be surprised. Don't say, "Hey, 33:51 isn't it Jesus the only way?" But not the type of Jesus you believe in. Not the type of Jesus who doesn't give you any respect for God. That's another Jesus. I wonder sometimes whether many people who claim to be believers are 34:06 even born again. There's no reverence for God. There's no respect for God. There's respect for the boss in the office, respect for the principal in the school, but no respect for almighty God. I will be the first to vote, Lord, take 34:24 the Corneliuses into your kingdom and put these wretched believers, send them to hell. Because there's no partiality with you. God's not going to accept you just because you had the good fortune to be born into a Christian family. 34:39 Or you had the good fortune to be born to parents who brought you to this church. Or you had the good fortune to be married to a husband who brought you to this church. Or your brother came here or your sister came here. It means nothing to God. 34:53 My own children can't get into God's kingdom saying, "Lord, my dad served you." So what? The Lord will say to them, "So what if your dad served me? That's between him and me. But you got to have a relationship with me." 35:09 I wonder what you glory in. The The Jews in John the Baptist's day said, "We have Abraham for our father. Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll get into God's kingdom." And the Lord John the Baptist said, "Leave alone the non-Christians. 35:26 Leave alone the non-Jewish people. These stones stones can get into God's kingdom before you." That's what he said, you know. God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones. Don't you think some of those 35:45 non-Christians are better at least than the stones on the ground? John the Baptist was a prophet who knew God. And I would say to you, don't take God for granted. You may get a lot of surprises when you stand in the final days. We all have to 36:02 stand before him. We need to have a lot more reverence, and that's what these I believe it was the reverence that these wise men had. Let's turn now to Matthew chapter 2. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, certain 36:20 wise men We don't know exactly what that word means. Scholars or you know, people who specialize in astronomy and scientists, people who study the stars. I mean, brilliant brilliant men. These 36:42 were not like the dumb shepherds. These were people who were PhDs. Can PhDs find Christ? Why not? Illiterate shepherds and PhDs. 37:00 Both are there in God's kingdom. That's another thing I found with some Christians. Because they themselves are not very clever, they think clever people can't be in God's kingdom. It's not true. Some clever people are more God-fearing 37:18 than some dumb Christians. Because with God, color of skin doesn't matter. Intelligence level doesn't matter. Nationality doesn't matter. Nothing matters. But you look into your mind. I think many of us may think 37:37 rich people cannot be spiritual. Jesus said it's very difficult for a rich man to get enter into God's kingdom. He said it's impossible without God's help. But if he did manage it, 37:55 boy, he must be quite an overcomer. More than the poor man who just got gotten to God's kingdom because he was so needy. The Bible says God has hidden the truths from the wise and the clever, revealed them to babes. 38:12 So, for a wise and a clever man to understand, get revelation from God, he must have overcome something which someone who's dumb and stupid didn't have to overcome. We got to get a lot of prejudices out of our mind. Many people despise 38:31 you know, the white people in the US 2-300 years ago who used to look down on the blacks and make them slaves. But it's possible that some of you may have the same attitude. You know, if you're poor, you may say God accepts me, but he oh, he doesn't 38:45 care for the rich. Or you're not so clever, you say, you go, "I'm not so clever, I'm spiritual, but that fellow is so clever, he can't be spiritual." Where do you get that idea from? Any type of prejudice, you know, where rich look down on the 39:00 poor or the poor look down on the rich, or the clever look down on the stupid or the stupid look down on the clever, is all ungodly. And I found a lot of it among Christians. I've seen, you know, unfortunately, we have the caste system in Hinduism in 39:17 this country. And so there are many who are in the lower caste, who are very dark and not very um educated because of circumstances, but they're all equally precious to God. But I found some Christians, when they come up from that those uh lower rungs 39:35 of poverty and from the despised levels of society, and they become Christians, they look down on the people who are in the upper classes. It's a reverse phenomenon. They don't understand that that is as 39:54 much stupidity as those upper class people looking down on the lower ones. No, don't despise anyone. These men were great scholars, much cleverer than you and me, if they 40:14 knew about astronomy 2,000 years ago. And they sought God. And God revealed to them that a king of the Jews was born in the East. Now, you see Jew the Jewish nation at 40:32 that time was one of the despised defeated nations. Once upon a time Persia had ruled the Jewish people. After Babylon ruled the Jews, Persia ruled the Jews. King Cyrus, you read about it in the time of Nehemiah. So, these people were from a 40:48 country that had ruled another nation. And God shows them there's a king born in that nation which you despise. You may be a very powerful nation. That may be a very weak one, but there's a king born there. 41:06 You need to go and see him. These people, though they were PhDs, must have been extremely humble. I love to see a PhD who is humble. That's greater 41:25 than an ordinary laborer who is humble. Because a laborer has nothing to glory about. So, if he's humble, that's not a great thing. It's good, but it's not a great thing. But when a PhD who has accomplished something in life, when he's humble, 41:38 that's an accomplishment because he has a lot of things to glory about. When I see a young believer humble, newly converted, that's good. But it's not a great thing. He's not done much in the Christian life. But it's very rare to see a man 41:55 I mean, I've mixed with so many of the so-called great preachers. But I'll tell you one thing. It's very rare, very rare to meet any of them who are humble, who are ordinary men. They've become big in their own eyes. These men, they were so scholarly, they 42:17 were esteemed, I'm sure, in their country very highly. But it never went to their heads because if it did, God would have revealed nothing to them. And they would not have been willing to make that long journey to go and see 42:32 the king of a despised nation born. So I see something that God reveals himself to people who don't know him because he sees in their heart a hunger and a humility. A recognition of the fact that though 42:51 they are so scholarly and educated, it's all from God. You know, I'm sure these wise men understood what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5, "What have you verse 6 or 7, it says there, "What have you that you did not receive?" 43:11 Think about it. If you received it, how can you be proud of it? Your knowledge, your ability, you received it. Don't ever be proud of it. Whenever you're proud of anything in your life, you act as though you didn't receive it, as though you made it 43:30 yourself. Did you make your pretty face? You tried to make it prettier, but God who gave you the features. Did you create your own intelligence? No. You could have got education, but your 43:48 intelligence was given by God. It's good to humble ourselves always. And I want to say this, not just for one day after you hear this message, but I pray that these truths will make such 44:06 a deep impression on us that is not a momentary humility. I mean, right now when you hear all this, you all pretty feel pretty humble, right? But, how long will it last? That's the question. Will it last till tomorrow? This is the first time you've heard a 44:25 message on challenges you, exposes your pride. Well, I want to say, these are the people who are ready for Christ's coming. The first time and it's going to be such people are going to be ready for Christ's second coming. 44:40 And it says here, they came to Jerusalem and they you know, they heard it was a king. And here we learn that even wise men can sometimes do something stupid. They followed the star, I don't know for 44:58 how many hundreds of miles, probably a thousand, 2,000 km all the way from Persia to Jerusalem on a camel. I don't know how many days it took. How much of money they spent to find God. 45:19 How far will you travel? Will you travel 2,000 km to find God? A lot of people uh I ask them they tell me which church they go to. I ask them, "Why do you go to that church?" "Well, it's right around the corner. It's convenient." 45:38 You think such people have any interest in God? They've only got an interest in their convenience. Not because that's a place where I hear God. That's a place where I hear the truth of God. You can't class such people with these 45:52 people who traveled 2,000 km to find God. There are many people who travel long great distances. Jesus once said to the people in his time, "The Queen of Sheba traveled many hundreds of kilometers to listen to Solomon's wisdom." 46:12 And here, in your midst, you have That was Jesus, someone greater than Solomon. Right in your midst. And you you won't even cross the street to listen to him. The Queen of Sheba will rise up in judgment against you. There are many non-Christians who will 46:31 rise up in judgment against believers in the final day. Say, "Lord, how can you take these people into your kingdom when they didn't have half the desire for God that we had? Maybe they had more knowledge and correct information 46:48 because they were born in Christian homes. We didn't have that good fortune. We were born into some other type of non-Christian home or we grew up in a jungle where we were barbarians. But now that we know the whole truth, how can 46:59 you let these fellows going? They didn't have a hunger after God. They were just religious. And even when they heard so much, it didn't bring in them a humility and a reverence for God that we had. We're non-Christians without all that information. 47:19 We never went to Sunday service in CFC. But we had a reverence for God. In the Old Testament, the Lord said to his people, "One of the ways you show your respect for me This is in Leviticus 19. 47:37 is when you respect older people." Now, I've seen something through the years. When people lose their respect for older people, it's a pretty good indication they've lost their respect for God. And shall I tell you something? 47:53 I have seen more respect for older people among Hindus than among Christians. I've seen more respect for older people among Hindus than even in CFC. The Lord has taught me to respect older 48:14 people even if they are two or three years older than me, even if they are beggars. They are older. They may not be believers. You know why? Cuz I respect God. Now, you can start respecting older 48:34 people from today after hearing this message. It doesn't prove you respect God. That's just because you heard a message. Your respect for older people must come from your respect for God. Not because you heard a message, respect 48:47 older people. So, I'm just mentioning these things. These men made a mistake. When they came to Jerusalem, they thought, "Ah, king must be born in the palace. Let's go and ask Herod." That's the mistake they made. They 49:06 followed the star all those thousands of kilometers. And then, at one point, they thought, "Now, I don't need to follow the star. Now I know. King of the Jews, where else will he born? Palace is in Jerusalem. Let's go." 49:20 Now, that's a picture of many people who follow the word of God, follow the word of God, and at some point, they say, "Well, I don't need to follow God's word there. I know what to do. I've got intelligence." And that's the point they go astray. 49:32 When you think you know better than God's word, Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean to your own understanding." I'm reminded of that little two little boys standing in a garden when the older 49:48 boy, 10 years old, was telling his 6-year-old brother, "See the sun? It moved. It was in the east. Now it's in the west. The sun has moved." And the 6-year-old boy said, "No, you remember what daddy told us that the sun 50:00 doesn't move, it's the earth rotating under our feet and giving the impression that the sun moves." And the older boy said, "No, I believe what I see. I saw the sun move." The younger boy said, "I believe daddy." 50:19 You'll find finally that the daddy is right. Particularly our heavenly father. And all the clever people will go astray leaning on their cleverness. You'll find ultimately that God's word in the Bible is the truth. Even though some people try to nitpick 50:37 and find some fault here or some fault there, you'll discover in the final day that the man who lived his life trusting God's word was the wisest man in the world. That's the mistake these people went They made went to Herod and Herod didn't 50:51 have a clue where the king of the Jews was born. So he was troubled. Hey, somebody's threatening my throne? That's all he's troubled about. Worldly people are only concerned about, "Will that disturb me? Will that shake me?" 51:04 Then they're disturbed. He was troubled, it says, and all Jerusalem was troubled. Hey, what's this? Some king born with him, verse three. Born here and we don't know about it. So he called the chief priests and the scribes, people who had studied the 51:17 scriptures for years. Said, "Where is this Messiah supposed to be born?" They knew the scriptures. They said, "It says in the book of Micah that he he must be born in Bethlehem, verse five." They even quoted the verse, they knew the verse immediately. A lot 51:33 of people who know the scriptures very well who don't seek after God. In Bethlehem, the land of Judea. Somebody comes and says, "Hey, we heard that the son of the king is born." And these scholars, Do know Bethlehem was only 51:50 10 km from Jerusalem? 10 km. How long does it take you? Even if you walk, you can get there in 3 hours. 10 km. They wouldn't go that distance 52:09 to find the king. But they knew the scriptures. Even somebody says, "Hey, we heard the king is born. Where is he?" "Yeah, it's here. Go and look for him. Find him." God never rewards lazy people. I'll tell you that. Here were people who had traveled 2,000 52:28 km, and here were scholars who knew the Bible who wouldn't go 10 km to see the king. And Herod, he called these wise men secretly. And he wanted to He was concerned about his throne. 52:46 And uh he said, "When exactly was this star appear?" He discovered it was a little over a year and a year and a half ago cuz they took a long distance travel. It took a long time traveling. And it says here, "Please go search 53:01 carefully for this child. When you find him, report to me because I also want to worship him." You know, some people look so pious. "I want to worship him." He didn't want to worship him. He wanted to kill him. Don't believe 53:20 everybody who says, "We want to worship." There are many people nowadays in the time in which we live who will secretly pretend to be Christians and profess to have an interest in becoming Christians. 53:40 They only want to get you into trouble. Be careful. We have to be wise. And if you listen to God, we'll be wise because later on it says the wise men were told verse 12 in a dream by God, "Don't go back to Herod." 54:00 God will give us discernment about the people who try to trap us. "Don't go back to them. Go another way." And they went another way. They were not afraid of Herod. But we read here that the these wise men 54:17 finally they realized that these scholars can't help them. And when they came out, it says here they saw the star again verse 9 and they were delighted. Great. When we finished with the foolish advice of men, we come back to God's word. That 54:37 star is a picture of God's word. Now, I'll tell you something. You follow the star, word of God, it will always lead you to Jesus. Always. If you read the scriptures and it doesn't lead you to Jesus, it leads you 54:54 to some law or rule or legalism, you have missed the road. Those other guys were like that. They studied it and some rules and all that they got out of it. But if you really follow the star, it'll lead you to Jesus. It'll lead you to the 55:10 exact spot. I found that through the years I found Jesus in the whole Bible. And it says here that they came and you know they came to Jerusalem and they saw this little house. He was not in a stable now. He was not in the cowshed because all 55:27 the people who had come for their census had gone back. Now rooms are available and Mary was too weak to travel, so Joseph was considerate and kept her there for some time. They rented a little house, small little house. They couldn't They were poor 55:40 people. It was probably a small little one-room house. And these wise, rich men were not stumbled. This doesn't look like the house of a king. The star is here, so I suppose this is 55:58 it. It's good to recognize that Jesus is found in the most unlikely places. Today, Jesus is in the midst of his church. And the church is not the grand cathedrals and the place where 30,000 people 56:17 gather. May be a small one-room place where a few people who love Jesus come together to meet him. And you're a wise man, wise woman, if you can see that Jesus is there. That's how we started 33 years ago. 56:37 Very few people recognized it then. But these people recognized Jesus is here. And they went in. And it says here, this baby looked like any other baby. No, nothing special, no halo around his head. 56:55 A poor, poor, humble couple with a little baby. But the star had led them. They knew this was God. And it says here, they came into the house. They saw two people, the child and Mary. And they fell to the ground. And listen 57:15 carefully. They did not worship Mary. They worshipped Jesus. It's written right in the beginning of the Gospels. They were wise. Mary was a very godly woman. We don't worship her. 57:35 We don't worship any man. They worship Jesus. And they gave him that treasures. That's the other thing. When we really find Jesus, we give him our treasures. 57:54 It says here, they opened their treasures. Presented it to him. You have treasures. And I don't mean only of money. Time, energy, 58:12 a house. Have you opened it and given it to Jesus? Or you stock it all up yourself. That's the difference between the wise men and the foolish. And they presented him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Well, those have symbolism. They were 58:34 prophetic in the sense that the myrrh symbolized the suffering on the cross. We could say that the gold and frankincense recognized him as God and king. You offer incense to God. Gold you offer to He was a king. He was God. And he was 58:53 going to suffer. There was something prophetic about the gifts they asked God to give them wisdom to buy before they started on their journey many months earlier. What wonderful men. God could find them in them. Those who were fit to see Jesus and be 59:12 ready for his coming. And I believe they're going to be people like that in the last days. Who are ready for Christ's coming more than many who call themselves believers. That's what we learn from that story. They and how wonderful it is when we allow God to 59:32 lead us to give something to someone because that was exactly what Joseph and Mary needed when they went off to Egypt immediately after that. They had no money in Egypt. They had to stay there in Egypt for some years. How God gave them money in 59:49 advance. God always does that. He always provides his need, not from heaven, but through men, but not by begging and asking. God provides our need if we honor him. He sees dangers ahead. He sees needs ahead. There's persecution ahead. The 1:00:06 children are going to be killed, etc. God sees it all and he provides our need. What a wonderful God we serve. Let's pray. While our heads are bowed let's respond to the Lord and say Lord, I want to 1:00:28 be ready for your coming. Help me to see if I'm ready. Help me to be ready. Help me never to despise anyone 1:00:47 whoever they are. Teach me to reverence God in my own life. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.
