First few chapters in Matthew.

The Gospels

Matthew:

Chapter 1: Matthew proves from the genealogies that Jesus is the rightful king of Israel, verses 1-16. Then in verse 17 Matthew points something else out that seems to indicate that he is pointing towards a fulfilled prophecy, for some reason Matthew points out the number of genealogies there were from Abraham to David, David to the deportation to Babylon, the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, which is fourteen generations each.

The rest of the chapter is the record of Jesus' conception. Mary conceived Jesus and God named Him specifically.

Chapter 2: Matthew records the visit from the Magi to Jesus. When the Magi comes to Israel looking for the King, they went to Herod first. Why did they do that? Actually they did not go to Herod they went to Jerusalem, questioning everyone about the King that was born, probably expecting everyone to know. Herod hears that some important foreign leaders have come asking about a King that has been born. Herod knows that it was not someone in his family. Herod was troubled about losing his throne, and all of Jerusalem was also troubled. Herod knew exactly what they meant, they were looking for the Messiah. Herod called the religious elite of the day to ask them when and where the Messiah would be born. Herod had no doubt that the Messiah had been born. Herod had more faith than a lot of Christians today, in the Word of God. Herod believed what the scribes and chief priests read about the Messiah. If Herod knew that this Child that was born was the Messiah, why did he seek to kill Him? An answer would to say he was Satanically induced. Herod knew the Scriptures were true and that Jesus was in fact God and that Jesus would rule, so he sought to murder Jesus. Now why did Herod care if Jesus would rule the earth? Well obviously because Herod wanted to secure his power, did Herod know that the Christ wasn't going to rule until many thousands of years after the Roman Empire collapsed? Who else's power was at stake with the birth of Jesus? Genesis 3:15

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

Romans 16:20

“The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

Revelation 12:10-11

“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “ Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

Christ threatened the rulership of Satan. Through Herod, Satan is trying to destroy Christ, so that God's plan will be thwarted.

Herod asks the religious leaders where the Baby would be born and the religious leaders tell him the verse Micah 5:2, which says Bethlehem will be the birth place of the King that will rule over Israel.

Herod secretly called for the Magi and asked them when the star appeared. Why do you think Herod did that? Herod wanted to know when the star appeared so that he could know when the King was born. He wanted to know that so that he could know how old the Child is. Based on that information could you guess why he wanted to know all of that? He was gathering information about the Child so that he can use that information to kill Him. I don't know if Herod had been planning top kill of the children under two yet, because he asked the Magi to bring the Child to him if they find Him, but he was preparing. How do you think that Herod knew to kill all the children under two in verse 16, because of the information he got from the Magi.

When the Magi left Jerusalem they spotted the star again. They probably stopped following the star when they got to Jerusalem because they assumed that the King would be born there or the star disappeared. Because of the star hovering over where the Child was it was unnecessary for the Magi to inquire the whereabouts of the King in Jerusalem, but they had to do that to accomplish God's plan to fulfill prophecy, which was for His Son to go to Egypt. If the Magi did not stop at Jerusalem then Herod would have never heard that the Messiah was born, if Herod never heard that the Messiah was born then he would have never attempted to kill Him, and if Herod would have not attempted to kill the Messiah then the prophecy that Jesus would come out of Egypt in Hosea 11:1. Also if Herod would have not attempted to kill the Messiah then another prophecy would not have been fulfilled,

A voice was heard in Ramah

Weeping and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be comforted,

Because they are no more.

Jeremiah 31:15

Though Satan was working hard to thwart God's plan, he established it rather than destroyed it.

Satan has done that so many times in Scripture, for example when he tempted Adam and Eve, he fulfilled God's eternal plan and set it in motion, and when he entered into Judas to betray Jesus that was clearly fulfilling God's plan for salvation from the domain of darkness. Satan must do evil when given opportunity and Satan must act according to the plan of God, even when it is self destructive. The devil is God's devil. Think about it, Satan is a slave of God. Even in rebellion Satan serves his master.

The magi came to the house and worshiped the Child. They fully comprehended that this Child is God. They gave Jesus gifts of great value, gold (we all know how valuable gold is), frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts fulfill prophecy about gifts being given to the Messiah.

After the magi worshiped Christ they were warned by God not return to Herod so that Herod would not know where young King is. Right after the magi left, before Herod realized that the magi were not going to come back, Joseph is warned that he and his family need to flee to Egypt. That night Joseph fled.

It was good that the magi didn't go to Herod to tell him where Jesus was even though Joseph fled the next night anyways (it seems to me that the magi were warned the night before they left) because then Herod would know that Jesus was not killed and still search for Him. If Herod instead did not know where Jesus lived with His parents, and he killed all the children the vicinity of Bethlehem, then he would stop searching for Christ, because he thought that he was dead. If Herod knew that He was not dead then he would search more, kill more children, and might even get smart and look in the Old Testaments for more prophecies about where the Messiah would come.

Once Herod died, Joseph was told and he returned to Israel. He was going to return to Judea, probably in Bethlehem, but the son of Herod reigned in the place of Herod, and was just as bad. Joseph was afraid to go there, but he probably would have gone there any ways because he was told in a dream to return, so God came to him a dream to go to Galilee, where heir of Herod did not rule, to be safe and that is where they stayed until Jesus started His ministry. They stayed in Nazareth, which once again was to fulfill prophecy.

Spurgeon's view on contemporary relevance

    How practical is this to today's Christianity or is this out dated too?


      People talk nowadays about Zeitgeist, a German expression which need frighten nobody; and one of the papers says, "Spurgeon does not know whether there is such a thing."

Well, whether he knows anything about Zeitgeist or not, he is not to serve this generation by yielding to any of its notions or ideas which are contrary to the Word of the Lord.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for one generation, it is for all generations. It is the faith which needed to be only "once for all delivered to the saints"; it was given stereotyped as it always is to be. It cannot change because it has been given of God, and is therefore perfect; to change it would be to make it imperfect. It cannot change because it has been given to answer for ever the same purpose, namely, to save sinners from going down to the pit, and to fit them for going to heaven.

That man serves his generation best who is not caught by every new current of opinion, but stands firmly by the truth of God, which is a solid, immovable rock.

But to serve our own generation in the sense of being a slave to it, its vassal, and its valet—let those who care to do so go into such bondage and slavery if they will.

Do you know what such a course involves? If any young man here shall begin to preach the doctrine and the thought of the age, within the next ten years, perhaps within the next ten months, he will have to eat his own words, and begin his work all over again. When he has got into the new style, and is beginning to serve the present world, he will within a short time have to contradict himself again, for this age, like every other, is "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

But if you begin with God’s Word, and pray God the Holy Ghost to reveal it to you till you really know it, then, if you are spared to teach for the next fifty years, your testimony at the close will not contradict your testimony at the beginning. You will ripen in experience; you will expand in your apprehension of the truth; you will become more clear in your utterance; but it will be the same truth all along.

Is it not a grand thing to build up, from the beginning of life to the end of it, the same gospel? But to set up opinions to knock them down again, as though they were ninepins, is a poor business for any servant of Christ.

David did not, in that way serve his own generation; he was the master of his age, and not its slave. I would urge every Christian man to rise to his true dignity, and be a blessing to those amongst whom he lives, as David was. Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God his Father"; it is not meet that we should cringe before the spirit of the age, or lick the dust whereon "advanced thinkers" have chosen to tread.

Beloved, see to this; and learn the distinction between serving your own generation and being a slave to it.

Man’s Sin and Christ’s Holy Death.

In some ways, I am not the person to write out profound truth about the Bible. I do not know the Bible like I should; I don’t do the Bible like I should; I am not the most upright of people. True I am better than most. To say other wise would be just as much of a lie as saying that I was perfect. There is always someone worse than you, and there are a lot of people worse than me. I know the Bible more than most, and I don’t indulge my flesh the same way as everyone else (though my flesh is well indulged). It is a good thing that everyone else is not the standard. Why does everyone compare one another with one another? You can’t measure one failure with another failure and say that one failure is better than the other failure. Rather, compare yourself to perfection, compare yourself to what is not a failure. We are all fallen, every one of us are. We can not do good, imagine that. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned—”. Emphasis mine. 

    There is a simple truth that is profound. Christ is perfect and He was perfect. You just read from the above verse that it was through sin that death entered the world. The reason why anyone dies is because they have sinned once in their lifetime. God kills those who sin, He said to Adam that if Adam eats of the tree that God forbade, then Adam would die. Adam wouldn’t just die, just because. Satan wouldn’t kill him, otherwise Satan would have, instantly. God would have killed Adam, like He killed Uzzah when he touched the ark, and the same way that He killed Aaron’s sons when they offered strange fire to God.  It was a good thing that God was in control of when Adam would die, because God allowed to over look Adam’s promised death. Instead God put Adam’s sin and all those that He predestined’s sin (thus their death), on His son. Christ died so that we could live, He died our death. Just like through one man’s sin death entered the world, through one Man’s death life entered the world. Romans 5:18-19 “ Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as one as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Now that Christ died we can do right , we no longer are failures. Compare yourself to Christ.

Salvation

As an inauguration of this blog that I have started, I would like to share a quote from A.W Pink "We will endeavor to point out some of the particulars in which a non-saving faith is defective, and how it comes short of a faith which does save. First, with many it is because they are willing for Christ to save them from hell, but are not willing for Him to save them from self. They want to be delivered from the wrath to come, but they wish to retain their self-will and self-pleasing. But He will not be dictated to: you must be saved on His terms, or not at all. When Christ saves, He saves from sin - from its power and pollution, and therefore from its guilt. And the very essence of sin is the determination to have my own way (Isaiah 53:6). Where Christ saves, He subdues this spirit of self-will and implants a genuine, a powerful, a lasting, desire and determination to please Him. Again, many are never saved because they wish to divide Christ; they want to take Him as Saviour, but are unwilling to subject themselves unto Him as their Lord. Or if they are prepared to own Him as Lord, it is not as an absolute Lord. But this cannot be: Christ will either be Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. But the vast majority of professing Christians would have Christ’s sovereignty limited at certain points; it must not encroach too far upon the liberty which some worldly lust or carnal interest demands. His peace they covet, but His "yoke" is unwelcome. Of all such Christ will yet say, "But these Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before Me" (Luke 19:27). Also, there are multitudes who are quite ready for Christ to justify them, but not to sanctify. Some kind, some degree, of sanctification they will tolerate, but to be sanctified wholly, their "whole spirit and soul and body" (1 Thessalonians 5:23), they have no desire for. For their hearts to be sanctified, for pride and covetousness to be subdued, would be too much like the plucking out of a right eye. For the constant mortification of all their members they have no taste. For Christ to come to them as Refiner, to burn up their lusts, consume their dross, to dissolve utterly their old frame of nature, to melt their souls, so as to make them run in a new mould, they refuse. To deny self utterly, and take up their cross daily, is a task from which they shrink with abhorrence." The most satanic lie is the one that is the closest to the truth. The gospel is the reconciliation between God and sinners, through Christ's atoning work on the cross. God is in complete control over a person's salvation, and the regenerate must yield his will to that of God's. That yielding of the will is only possible if God allows it. Know though that a saved individual can still commit sin because he is still lives in his fallen flesh BUT a true believer either repents or if they don't God punishes them in this life, death is a possibility, BUT a believer can not lose his salvation.