A New Leaf for the New Year
(No. 2497)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 27, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 27, 1864.
"And they said one to another, We are truly guilty concerning our
brother." Genesis 42:21.
YOU know the story from which our text is taken, how Joseph's brothers,
being envious of him, sold him for a slave, deceived his aged father
concerning him and then endeavored to forget the deed. They appear to
have gone on with sad consciences for a number of years, but,
by-and-by, there was a sore famine in all lands and from all countries
people went into Egypt to buy corn. So old Jacob told his sons that
they must go down into Egypt to buy from the stores there laid up for
the time of famine. And they went, not knowing that Joseph was there in
great power. He knew them and, at first treated them very roughly,
charged them with being spies, and put them in prison for three days.
Afterwards he said to them, "If you are true men, let one of your
brothers be bound in the house of your prison: go you, carry corn for
the famine of your houses: but bring your youngest brother to me; so
shall your words be verified, and you shall not die." Then it was, but
not till then, that they said, one to another, "We are truly guilty
concerning our brother."
See, from this narrative, how, sometimes, trouble and sorrow bring men
to repentance. Personal affliction or bereavement, or trial of one kind
or another may be most useful to us by making us think about our own
condition in the sight of God, and our actions toward Him as well as
with regard to our fellow men. There may be someone in this
congregation who has had sore troubles, wave upon wave, affliction upon
affliction. It will be a source of eternal gratitude to you, my dear
Friend, if your afflictions should make you think of your conduct
towards Christ, so that you should be moved to say, "I have been truly
guilty concerning my Savior, concerning Him who took upon Himself the
form of a Man, that He might be my Brother and might redeem me from
going down into the pit."
I shall limit my discourse to this one topic–in our treatment of
Christ, we have all been guilty. And I shall try to press this Truth of
God home with a demand, in God's name, for repentance on account of the
way in which we have dealt with His Son, Jesus Christ, our greater
Joseph. I shall be happy if any have come here in trouble, if that
trouble should work with my rebuke to stir up their hearts and move
them to repentance before God. When a certain man lost his eyesight,
that sight being gone deprived him of the power to join in many a merry
party and to go on in his former sin. He then began to attend the House
of God and there he found the Savior. And he was in the habit,
afterwards, of saying that he was always blind while he could see, but
after he had lost his sight, then it was that he truly began to see!
There may be some here who are afflicted, perhaps not exactly as that
man was, but in some other way. If so, I hope that they, too, will soon
be able to say with the Psalmist, "Before I was afflicted I went
astray: but now have I kept Your Word." It will be a good beginning
towards such a blessed consummation if they should now confess that
they have been guilty concerning Christ.
I will try to handle my subject in this way. First, let us consider our
treatment of Christ. Secondly, let us think of Christ's treatment of
us. And thirdly, let us ask the question, What then? I. First, let us
consider OUR TREATMENT OF CHRIST.
Let us begin by taking ourselves in the mass, without any division of
character. How have we and the whole human race treated the Lord Jesus
Christ? He came to this earth with love in His heart, with love in His
eyes, with love in His hands, with love on His lips, He was altogether
Love Incarnate and when He made His appearance, what was the reception
He met with? You kings, have you not a palace for Him who is the King
of Kings? Let the purples of Thyatira, let all the dainty damasks of
the East be brought forth to wrap the Holy Child Jesus! No, alas, it is
not so! There is no palace,
nor even a private house that will receive Him as a guest, and even of
the place where others might lodge it is written, "there was no room
for Him in the inn." He lies in the manger of a stable because there is
no room for Him in any better place! He grows up, but who are His
associates? Is He surrounded by the wise? No, they cavil at Him! Do the
righteous, or those who pretend to be so, become His disciples? No,
these hypocrites are His worst enemies. He finds no associates who love
Him except a few poor and humble fishermen–and these have had to have
new hearts before they could see any beauty in Him. "He is despised and
rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief."
The world has plenty of music for its greatest murderers–
"Look, the conquering hero comes, Sound the trumpets, beat the drums,"
sings the world when it sees the warrior come home with his garments
red with the gore of his fellow men! Let him ride through the street in
pomp and splendor! Run to your windows, climb to your chimney tops and
look down upon the gigantic murderer as he goes along the streets in
triumph. But the world has no songs for the Savior, no pomp, no praise,
no acclamations for Him! A few peasants and children once cry,
"Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!" But in a
day or two that note is changed and, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" is the
world's cry concerning the only Redeemer the world will ever see!
If He had been only treated thus–with derision and shame–it were
enough, one would think, to provoke God to dash the world in pieces.
But this, alas, was not all. We took the Prince of Glory–yes, we did
it, for had we been there we would have done the same as they did, and
we really have done the same in spirit if not in act–we took the
Prince of Glory, we scourged Him at the whipping post, we hounded Him
through the streets, having no compassion upon Him. We took our sins
and drove them like nails through His hands and feet. We lifted Him
high up on the Cross of our transgressions and then we pierced His
heart through with the spear of our unbelief! This is the treatment
that we, Brothers and Sisters, have given to Jesus! Surely, we did well
to sing, just now, if the words really came from our hearts as well as
from our lips–
"Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing
pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree."
You cannot stand, even in imagination, by the Cross of Calvary, and see
the writhing body of your Redeemer nailed to the accursed tree, without
saying, as you wring your hands in a very agony of sorrow, "Yes, we are
truly guilty concerning the Lover of our soul, Christ Jesus, the Friend
that sticks closer than a brother."
But now we will divide the house and pick out the Christians, those who
know and love the Savior. May I speak for you, dear Friends? I am sure
I can say for myself and, I suppose I can also say for you, that we
Christians are truly guilty concerning Christ, our Brother. We do love
Him. If He should ask each one of us, as He asked Simon Peter, "Do you
love Me?" We could, every one of us say, even though it brought tears
into our eyes, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You."–
"Do not I love You, O my Lord? Behold my heart and see! And turn each
odious idol out That dares to rival Thee."
Yet we are truly guilty concerning our Lord, first, because we have
exhibited such little faith in Him. Beloved, we must never put our
unbelief of Christ among our little sins, for it is one of the greatest
that we can possibly commit! When Mr. Marshall, who wrote a famous
treatise on Sanctification, had been, for some years, in great distress
of mind, he went to converse with that eminent Divine, Dr. Thomas
Goodwin. After he had mentioned a great many of his sins, Goodwin very
pertinently observed, "But, friend Marshall, you have left out the
greatest sin of all." "And what is that, Doctor?" he enquired. "Why,"
said the Doctor, "you have left out the great sin of doubting the power
of Christ to forgive you all your sins!" Surely, this is a sin of no
mean sort, yet these doubts concerning our Savior are very common to us
and I am sure He does not deserve them! Is there anything that vexes
you more in a friend than for that friend to mistrust you? I must
confess that although I can bear many things, this is one of the points
upon which I feel very tender. And for me to live with a person who
habitually mistrusted me would, I think, be like living in the midst of
a Hell upon earth! Yet we treat our Lord Jesus thus! Some of us
habitually mistrust Him and the best of us too frequently fall into
doubts and fears.
I think I may also speak for you, my Brothers and Sisters, when I say
that even concerning temporal affairs we are truly guilty with regard
to our Lord. We often get to fretting and worrying when, if we were but
just to our Divine Friend, we would be in peace of mind, leaving all
our cares with Him. When Cromwell sent Mr. Bulstrode Whitelocke across
to Sweden as his ambassador, he took ship and, the night coming on to
be stormy, he sat up in great uneasiness of mind, fretting about the
unsettled state of the nation, and thinking that he was living in the
worst and most perilous times that men had ever known. But he had a
godly valet, and his servant said to him, "Mr. Whitelocke, how did God
govern the world before you were born? Did He manage it all right?"
"Oh, yes," promptly answered Whitelocke, "He managed the world with
wisdom." "And when you are dead, Sir," asked the valet, "will God be
able to manage the world without you?" "Oh, certainly!" replied
Whitelocke, "He does not need me." "Well, then," said the sensible
servant, "don't you think, Sir, that He is able to manage the affairs
of the world with you just as well as He could without you, and would
it not be better for you to go to bed and get some sleep? And then, if
God spares your life, you may wake up in the morning and do your best,
rather than sit here in this state of anxiety and fretfulness." There
was great wisdom in what that man said and many of us need just the
lesson that Mr. Whitelocke had to learn. When I think of the way in
which we have been running here and there, and forgetting the
exceedingly great and precious promises of our ever-glorious Lord, I
must again say that we are truly guilty concerning our Brother.
And, dear Friends, how guilty we have been in the matter of our love to
Jesus! Another year is almost gone, let us review it. Have we loved
Christ this year as we should have done? Our love, perhaps, can be
measured as well by our conversation as by anything. Have we talked
much about Jesus Christ? Have we said a good word concerning Him in all
company into which we have been drawn? When Mr. John Locke was brought
into the company of two noted philoso-phers–I believe Buccleuch and
Halifax–they began talking a great deal of nonsense and Mr. Locke took
out his pencil and pocketbook and commenced to write. One of them asked
him what he was doing. "Well," he replied, "I have been for years
desiring to be introduced into the company of such distinguished
philosophers as you are, and now that I have that honor I should like
to take down all that you say." This was a well-deserved rebuke and, of
course, they then began to speak upon some other topic which might
minister to their companion's edification.
Now, Beloved, have we, when we have been in company, always talked as
Christians should talk? The philosopher should speak like a
philosopher. Have we, as Christians, spoken like Christians? When Hugh
Latimer was being examined as to his faith, he said that he began to
speak without any very great care, but presently he heard a pen
scratching on some paper and then he knew that, behind the arras, the
hangings of the room, there was sitting a man who was taking down all
that he said. "Then," said Latimer, "I endeavored to speak with
discretion." So, dear Friends, we know that there is a God who is
preserving every word we have uttered. If the record of the past year
could be read out to us just now, would it show that we have talked
much of Jesus? I fear that, in many cases, it would rather compel us to
say that we have been truly guilty concerning our Brother.
We may measure our love to Him, too, by our service for Him and our
sympathy with Him. What have we done for Jesus this year? What have
some of you given to Him? Take stock of your gifts to the cause of
Christ. I know that some of you have given even beyond your means and
my Master will amply reward your liberality. But I know, also, that
there are some who can talk loudly concerning the things of God, but
who never seem to have had enough religion for it to have much effect
upon their pockets! I will give but little for your love to Christ if
you bring Him no offering as a token of your affection.
Then, have you faithfully served Christ in the matter of soul-winning?
The greatest wish of Christ's heart is to win the souls of men. Has
that been yourhighest wish? Has your soul ever longed and panted to be
useful to your Lord? Have you ever really felt the weight of men's
souls upon your heart and conscience? Did you ever fully comprehend
these two words–perishing souls Did you ever get to the essence of
that word perishing? Have you ever understood the meaning of that word,
soul, and have you ever been awakened by it to a holy ardor which has
expended itself, first, in agonizing prayer, and next in earnest,
self-sacrificing effort that you might win the souls of your fellow
creatures? In reviewing my own ministry in this place, with the vast
opportunities which God has given me, I stand here to confess that I am
truly guilty concerning my Brother. Oh, that I had wept more over you
dying men! Oh, that I had pleaded with you more passionately! Oh, that
I had more fervently persuaded you, as though God did beseech you by
me, to be reconciled to God in Christ Jesus and to lay hold of eternal
life! The past is gone beyond recall, but we must confess the sin of it
and you, too, dear Friends, must surely make the same confession that I
have done. Have you served Christ as you could have desired? Will you
not join with me in the humiliating admission, "O Lord, we are truly
guilty concerning our Brother"?
Now think, for a minute or two, of anything else in which you have had
to do with Christ. Consider, fellow Christians, with regard to
communion with your Lord. Have you been as much in fellowship with
Christ as you could have wished to be? Have you been often enough under
the apple tree in the midst of the woods? Have you eaten all you could
of His pleasant fruits? Have you been sitting as much as you might in
His banqueting house, under the banner of His love? How stands the
record as to your private prayer? Have you wrestled with the Angel of
God as you could have wished to do? Have you brought back with you an
abundance of treasure from God's great storehouse, of which He has
given you the key? If not, confess that you are truly guilty concerning
your Brother! And how about your outward life? Has that been according
to the example of Christ? Have your common, everyday actions all been
sanctified with the Word of God and prayer? Has your business been done
as in the sight of God? Has there been, about the whole of your life, a
clear ring, an unmistakable sound, so that you can say, "To me to live
is Christ. I have set the Lord always before me. I honestly endeavor to
magnify Him in all my acts"? I am afraid, Brothers and Sisters, that in
this matter, also, we shall again have to confess that we are truly
guilty concerning our Brother.
Now let us deal for a little while with another class of persons. There
are some here, I trust, who have lately been brought to know the
Savior. Perhaps it was this morning, or some day last week, when you
first saw the Lord. Beloved Friends, you who are beginners in the
Divine Life, shall I go back with you in thought and help you to
confess your guiltiness towards Christ? I will confess it on my own
account. I remember well when I first found Him and I remember, too,
the grief I felt that I should ever have treated Him so ill. He loved
me and yet I had despised Him. He was always looking upon me, yet I
would not look to Him. He was the true Lover of my soul and yet His
name had no music in it for me–and His Person had no beauty to my
eyes. He was preached to me, yet I did not trust Him. Dear friends
pleaded with me to give my heart to Him, yet I chose the world's
pleasures and vanities, and would not seek after Him. He came to me, He
knocked at the door of my heart, but I said to Him, "Get You gone." He
knocked again, and yet again, and sometimes I thought of opening my
heart to Him, but instead of doing so I barred the door against Him and
said, "I will not have this Man to reign over me."
It was never my sin to curse Him to His face, but that may, perhaps,
have been the sin of some of you. You may, possibly, have persecuted
His people, despised His Sabbaths, spoken ill of His ministers, left
His Word unread, and His Throne of Grace unvisited. Yet all this while
He had loved you with an everlasting love, He had bought you with His
precious blood, He had determined to make you His Brothers and Sisters
and to bring you to His own right hand in Glory, though you had no
respect or regard for Him. O dear Friends, as you review the past, I am
sure you will need no pressing on my part to make each one of you say,
"Ah, indeed, I am truly guilty concerning my Brother." Our unkind-ness
to Christ is one of the things we ought to confess as soon as ever He
brings us to His dear feet. He has forgiven it all! He never harbors
even half of a hard thought concerning us–and this makes it all the
more bitter for us to reflect that we should ever have treated such a
Friend so badly. The fact that He has been so kind and generous to us,
although so long neglected and despised by us, ought only to deepen the
sense of our guilt concerning our Lord.
There are some belonging to another class, here, and they are truly
guilty concerning Christ, yet it is of little use for me to talk to
them, for Christ, Himself, is nothing to them. There are those even
here, I am afraid, to whom the story of a dying Savior is only like an
idle tale. Ah, Sinner, if you do not change your note in this life, you
will sing another tune, by-and-by! I know you say that you do not owe
Christ anything and that you will not give Him your heart. Ah, Soul,
unless Divine Grace shall renew you and give you another mind, your
portion will be where the wicked lie–forever banished from all hope.
"Well," said an anxious wife to the physician after he had seen her
husband, "what do you think of him?" "Well, Madam," he answered, "he
certainly is a little better today, but I must not deceive you. He will
die, it is only a question of time." That will be true of us all,
unless Christ comes again soon.
Sinner, you may never be as strong and healthy as you are today. You
may have said to yourself, "I shall not need to think of dying yet."
But it is only a question of time and oh, how short that time may be!
And then it will be said concerning you, "Yes, he is gone," and we
shall ask, "But where is he gone?" And the answer will be, "He is gone
where those must go who are guilty concerning Christ, but who will not
confess their guilt, who will not believe in Him, who will not trust
Him, but who choose to keep their sins and to rely on their own
righteousness and prefer the pleasures of this world to all Christ's
love and Grace. He despised the Savior's power to save and so, because
he would not come to Christ that he might have eternal life, he is
gone, not to his rest, but to share the portion of the ungodly in Hell
forever and ever." The Lord have mercy upon you, dear Friends, if you
are in danger of such a doom, and renew your hearts by His Holy Spirit,
for His name's sake!
Thus have I, as it were, brought before you the Truth of the text as it
may be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ–and left it to every man and
woman's conscience to decide whether they ought not to join us in
saying, "We are truly guilty concerning our Brother."
II. Now, in the second place, we will, with great brevity, consider
CHRIST'S TREATMENT OF US.
Oh, for an angel's tongue with which to tell this wondrous tale! There
is Christ looking down from Heaven and marking all our sin and ill
behavior towards Him. He is not weak, for He is very God of very God!
He is able to avenge the insults to His name, to cast us off for all
our shameful treatment of Him and to make us smart forever under the
Divine lash of infinite and inflexible Justice. But how has He treated
us?
Ah, Sirs, He has not given us one ill word!Some of us have been for
many years living in sin, yet has the Lord Jesus Christ said one ill
word to us, or against us? No, instead of that, Jesus has put in many a
good word for us. The barren tree would have been cut down long ago as
a cumberer of the ground, but Jesus pleaded, "Spare it yet another
year." That gray-headed sinner would not have been here, now, but that
Jesus, that very Jesus whom he despised, has stood between him and the
destroying angel, and so he is still allowed to live. Oh, that the
goodness of God might lead him to repentance! Our Lord has not
pronounced one curse upon us! He has not said one harsh word to us,
but, on the contrary, He has pleaded for us again and again.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you and I have vexed our Master much
and grieved Him sorely, yet He has never broken any of His promises to
us. Has He ever once failed us in our times of need? Has He ever said,
"Get you gone; you are an unprofitable servant and an unfaithful
friend"? Oh, no! We have not had a frown from Him, nor a hard word–
nothing but love! If He has sometimes chastened us, it has been in love
to our souls, that He might unite us more closely to Himself. I am sure
that you have no fault to find with your Lord. I marvel at His patience
with me. I do not know anything that astonishes me more, next to His
redemption of my soul by blood, than this–that He should bear with
such a poor unworthy sinner as I am! It astonishes me that He should
still go on sanding down such a knotty piece of timber as I am and that
He should persevere in making such common clay as I am into a vessel
meet for His own royal use! You see, Brothers and Sisters, He has begun
with us, and He will not leave off until He has perfected us! He has
loved us from eternity and He will not cease to love us through the
eternal ages of the future! There have been ten thousand times ten
thousand reasons why He might have given us up and cast us away, like
broken vessels, yet we know, Beloved, that He will never give us up,
but that He will bring us safely Home to be forever with Him in His
Glory!
You and I have had nothing but kindness at Christ's hands all these
years. O you venerable sires, with your hoary heads, who have known the
Lord for forty, fifty, or even 60 years, speak if you know anything
against Him! And you young men in your prime–and you who are serving
your Savior in the burden and heat of the day–speak if you know
anything against Him! And you matrons and maidens who love Him and seek
His company in secret, if He has ever done you an ill turn, or turned
His back on you, speak if you know anything against Him! You cannot,
for His treatment has been all love and nothing but love! Jesus died
and oh, where are the words that can fitly tell this story? Behold,
what manner of love is this! "Greater love has no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends." Jesus rises again, but He rises
with the same love in His heart! He ascends to Heaven, but He still
pursues the same mighty work that He began while He was here! Up there
He is pleading for us, and preparing a heavenly mansion for us, and
never ceasing from doing us good with both His hands! Now, surely, when
we think of this generous conduct of His towards such undeserving worms
as we are, we may well put a deeper emphasis into our confession, "Yes,
Lord, yes! We are truly guilty concerning our Brother!"
III. Time flies, or I would have dwelt at greater length upon our
Lord's treatment of us. I have merely mentioned it to you in a hurried
manner, and now we are to conclude with this question–WHAT THEN?
Thinking first of our treatment of Christ and next of His treatment of
us, what then?
As we are so near to another new year, one of the first things for us
to do is this–let us who are Christians turn over a new leaf If we
have been guilty concerning our Brother, let us not go on adding sin to
sin, but let us endeavor to amend our ways in the sight of God and not
be so guilty concerning Christ as we have been. We ought to be humbled
in the recollection of our past sin. There was a little boy whose
father, to teach him a lesson, told him that every time he did a
certain thing that was wrong, a nail should be driven into a post, but
that, on every occasion when he did anything that was right and kind,
one of those nails should be pulled out. Master Benjamin became
exceedingly careful when the post had got well studded with nails and,
after a while, they were drawn out, one after another, and soon his
father had the pleasure of extracting the last one. He expected to see
the lad begin jumping for joy, but, instead of that, the boy stood
weeping and his father said to him, "Well, Benny, my boy, you see that
all the nails are pulled out now." "Yes, father," he sadly answered,
"but the holes are left."
So now, suppose that next year we should, by the effectual working of
the Spirit of God, be so sanctified in our walk and conversation that
our besetting sins should be destroyed and that we should be delivered
from these sins that we have been confessing, yet, still, the holes of
the past evils would be left–and it is only our Lord Jesus Christ who
can fill those holes. It is only His perfect righteousness that can
take away every trace of sin and put it out of sight forever. Let those
holes, while we look at them and repent over them, spur us forward for
the future, but let us not drive the nails in again, let us not crucify
the Lord afresh and put Him to an open shame. Beloved, let next year's
record, through the Grace of the Holy Spirit, be of a higher and nobler
kind than that of any year we have ever lived! Rise, you who have but
skimmed the surface of the sea of life, and with eagle wings mount
upwards towards the sun! Up there is the true atmosphere for a child of
God to breathe! Rise, you who, like the owl and the bat, have dwelt in
darkness, and ask of your Lord the eagle eye that can face the sun, for
the Christian's dwelling place is in the light! You who have crouched
down, like a strong mule between two burdens, rise and speed onward
like a war-horse prepared to carry his master into the thick of the
fight! "Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem! Shake yourself from the dust; arise,
and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion!"
So Beloved, let next year see how God can glorify Himself in the hearts
of feeble men and women. This, then, is the message for us
Christians–let us turn over a new leaf.
But what about those who are not believers in Jesus? We may say to them
that they, also, have been guilty concerning Christ, so, even before
the New Year comes, they, also, should turn over a new leaf, only, in
their case, there is needed a new book altogether, for if they merely
turn over a new leaf in the old book, it will be quite as blotted as
the past leaves have been! O Lord, give them a new book and take away
the old one! And then they will be able to turn over a new leaf,
indeed! It is no use trying to get your old stony heart patched up and
repaired–you must have a new one altogether! May the Lord give you a
new heart and a right spirit with which to begin the New Year so soon
to dawn!
Further, to those who have been guilty concerning Christ, but who have
not repented and trusted Him, and who have not been led to tremble with
regard to their condition before Him, let us tell them how terrible is
their danger, and how great will be their ruin before long. This next
year some of you will die. I am not speaking at haphazard of such a
vast congregation as this, for out of the six or seven thousand persons
present it is absolutely certain that within 12 months many will die! I
suppose, not less than a hundred. By the natural laws which limit the
duration of a generation, in this next year many of us must die. Well,
then, if you are not converted. If you have no Savior, it follows as a
matter of certainty that within the next year some of you will be in
Hell. This is not a matter of question or of chance, but if you do not,
by faith, look to the Lord Jesus Christ and lay hold on Him, it is
absolutely certain that, before another 12 months shall have gone, and
another last Sabbath-night in the year shall have come, you will be in
Hell–with no possibility of escape, shut out forever from the mercy of
God, shut in forever with the devil and his angels–and weeping bitter
tears which cannot quench the eternal flames of God's just vengeance
against sin.
May the Lord sanctify to you these solemn meditations and give you
Grace to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, that you may be saved! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 2.
Verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of
Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to
Jerusalem.–Probably from that Assyria which is joined with Israel and
Egypt in the remarkable prophecy in Isaiah 19:24, 25–"In that day
shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing
in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt, My people, and Assyria, the work of My hands, and
Israel, My inheritance. "Behold, there came wise men from the East to
Jerusalem."–
2-3. Saying, Where is He that is born King ofthe Jews for we have seen
His starin the east, andare come to worship Him. When Herod the king
had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. He
was troubled about the kingship which he had no right to possess, for
he thought that, if the "King of the Jews" was really coming, he would
be dethroned. And all Jerusalem was troubled with him, for the people
over whom he reigned never knew what mischief he might do when once his
suspicions were excited, for he was a cruel, blood-thirsty tyrant.
4-6. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes ofthe
people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And
they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the
Prophet, And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea, are not the least
among the princes of Judaea: for out of you shall come a Governor, that
shall rule My people Israel I t was something to get a distinct
declaration from the Jewish rulers that the Christ was to be born at
Bethlehem, for Jesus was born there! Afterwards, they called Him,
"Jesus of Nazareth." Nazareth was the place where He was brought up,
but Bethlehem was the place of His birth, in fulfillment of the
prophecy given hundreds of years before the event!
7, 8. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, enquired
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
worship Him also. Pretty "worship" was that which he would render to
the Infant King! He intended to murderHim and, in like manner, how
often, under the pretense of worshipping Christ, has the very Truth of
Christ been murdered! Men invent new sacraments, new doctrines, new
forms and ceremonies, all avowedly for the edification of the Church
and for the glory of Jesus–but really that they may stab at the very
heart of God's Gospel and put to death the living Truth of God.
9. When theyhadheard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which
theysawin the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where
the young Child was. Yet it was not a wandering star, nor a shooting
star; but a traveling star such as they had never seen before!
10-12. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great
joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young Child
with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they
had opened their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they
should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country
another way. Very Providentially, the magi had brought the gold with
which Joseph would be able to pay the expenses incurred in journeying
to the land of Egypt, and in supporting his family there till he could
return to his home and his business. God always takes care of His own
children and specially did He provide for His first-born and
only-begotten Son!
13, 14. And when they were departed, behold, the angel ofthe Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young Child
and His mother and flee into Egypt, and be you there until I bring you
word: for Herod 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 How obedient Joseph was! He was a man of a docile spirit,
who willingly did as God bade him. He has, perhaps, never had his
character sufficiently well set forth in the Church of God, for he was
eminently honored by being the guardian of the young Child and His
mother. And he discharged his duty with singular humility and
gentleness.
15. And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken ofthe Lord by the Prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I
called My Son. Which was true, first, of Israel, the nation, as God's
own, and now again true of Jesus, the great Son of God. It is also true
of all sons of God–we have to be called out of Egypt. By the blood of
the Paschal Lamb we, too, are saved, and we are brought out of Egypt
with a high hand and an outstretched arm in the day when God delivers
us from our sin.
16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked ofthe wise men, was
exceedingly angry, andsent out andslew all the children that were in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under,
according to the time which he had diligently enquired ofthe wise men.
That was the light he put upon it, "that he was mocked of the wise
men." He was exceedingly angry and when he was angry, his anger was
terrible. Augustus said of him that it would be better to be Herod's
sow than Herod's son, which was true, for he would not kill a sow, as
he held to the Jewish faith. He did not kill swine, but he would not
mind killing any human in his anger. "He was exceedingly angry, and
sent out and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all
the coasts thereof, from two years old and under according to the time
which he had diligently enquired of the wise men." He took a wide range
in order, so he thought, to make quite sure that he would kill the
Child King whom he especially hated.
17, 18. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the
Prophet, Saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and
weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would
not be comforted, because they are not. It must have been a very
sorrowful day in Bethlehem. You can imagine the grief that filled the
hearts of the mothers there. There is Herod, who acts the hypocrite and
tries to slay Christ at the first. And there is Judas at the end,
acting the hypocrite, too, and betrays his Lord. Thus is the life of
Christ begun and ended in sorrow.
19-22. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying Arise, and take the young Child
and His mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which
sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took the young Child
and His mother and came into the land oflsrael. But when He heard that
Archelaus reigned in Judaea in the place of his father Herod, he was
afraid to go there. Archelaus was another chip off the old block, and a
chip of very hard wood, too–equally cruel, but without his father's
greatness of mind. He had all Herod's vices without his mental vigor.
22. Notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside
into the parts of Galilee. He did not follow his own judgment. This
man, thoroughly a servant of God, waits for orders. He has his fears,
but he will not even act upon them. He waits till he is warned of God
in a dream and then he turns aside into the parts of Galilee.
23. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. Galilee was
despised, but Nazareth was thought to be the worst part of Galilee!
Netzar is a word in the Hebrew signifying a sprout or branch and
Nazareth apparently comes from the same root.
23. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets, He
shall be called a Nazarene. This is the name commonly given to our Lord
in the Old Testament. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Jesus was the
sprout, or the shoot out of the withered stem of Jesse. When the
dynasty of David was like the tree cut down and only the stem of it
left, there sprang up out of it the Netzar, the Nazarene. So He is
found dwelling in a city that is called by that name and He is also
called a Nazarene. And the name clings to Him to this day! There are
those who will call Him by no name but, "the Nazarene." There was one
who threatened to crush the Nazarene, but when he was dying, he had to
cry, "O Nazarene, You have triumphed!" And the Nazarene will always do
so. He shall be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He shall
reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!