I want to read one more text for you. It's from Matthew 2. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, Maggie from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who's been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet, and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. And when you've found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him. After hearing the king, they went their way, and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magee left for their own country by another way. Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and he left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt I called my son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magee, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magee. And what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning for Rachel, weeping for her children. And she refused to be comforted because they were no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up and take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead. It wasn't the 1.2 million babies that are aborted every year that caused this nation to weep nine days ago. It wasn't the 311 little children who die by drunk drivers that caused this nation to weep nine days ago. It wasn't the 30 children who died from poison this year that caused this nation to weep nine days ago. The people of this country wept over 20 innocent children plus six adults who were methodically executed last week in Connecticut. When a deranged, evil, and insane killer broke into the school and killed 20 innocent children, it caused an emotional outcry all through the United States from sea to shining sea. When little children who are innocent are killed, it is cause for great national mourning. After all, it occurred just 11 days before Christmas. It was horrific. But the killing of 20 innocent children in mass execution style is not new to 2012. And it's not new to the United States. I want to take you back in time to history to another Christmastime tragedy. in which there was great weeping over the murder of about 20 to 30 little children. This killing was sanctioned by the Roman government. The political and religious government had become so corrupt that it actually carried out a methodical execution of all male children in Bethlehem that were two years of age and younger. These children actually became the first martyrs for Jesus Christ. They may have been taken from their parents' arms early in life, but they went into the arms of a loving God as heroes for God. As you can imagine, when that happened, that caused a great national outcry in the land of Israel. There was great weeping, there was great mourning, just like we experienced in the United States. But that mourning was prophetically predicted to occur by the prophet Jeremiah 600 years before it happened, and that story is recorded right here in Matthew chapter 2. There's no need to look for answers as to the psychological motive for the deranged killing of little children. The motive for the killing was the hatred of Jesus Christ. Herod was so jealous and so hateful of the fact that the real king of kings was here on earth that he ordered all babies from Bethlehem and the surrounding areas to be killed. His goal, of course, was to destroy Jesus Christ. That's what Satan wanted. Satan wanted to kill Jesus Christ before he could get to that cross. But before he was able to accomplish the goal, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew chapter 2 and verse 13, was moved from Bethlehem to Egypt. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him to take Jesus and Mary and go to Egypt because Herod is going to search the child out to destroy him. According to Hosea chapter 11, it was important that Joseph go to Egypt because this too would actually be a fulfillment of prophecy. It's true that Micah predicted that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, but Hosea predicted that he would come out of Egypt. So long before those events occurred, God knew exactly what was going to happen in Bethlehem. He knew those innocent children were going to be killed by a madman whose name was Herod. The very presence of Jesus Christ in the world as a baby caused a huge conflict with the political and religious world. It would cause real conflict in a person as paranoid and as evil as Herod. Herod was a ruthless man who would kill anyone who got in his way. According to Josephus, when Herod's younger brother-in-law was becoming popular with people, he had what was called in history a strange drowning accident. Archaeology discovered that there was a shallow pool where supposedly in some mysterious way he drowned. When Herod thought his two own sons were plotting against him, he had them strangled. He falsely accused his wife and strangled her. He burned religious leaders for tampering with his pet eagle. And there's a statement in history given by Caesar Augustus when he was actually considering what happened in Bethlehem. He said it's better to be Herod's pig than his son. Now Matthew in the context of telling the story of what happened says, that Herod tried to convince the wise men or the Magee to go to Bethlehem and find Jesus and come back and tell him where he was so that he could go and worship him. When the wise men got to Bethlehem, that star that they had first seen that led them to that area stood right over the home where Christ was staying and they fell down and they worshiped him. But God warned those wise men, don't go back and report to Herod, go another way, get out of here. And when Herod heard he'd been tricked, The text says he became enraged. He sent a contingency of armed soldiers to kill male babies two years of age and younger in the Bethlehem and surrounding areas. The estimates are between 20 and 30 little innocent children who die in a massacre, not by bullets, but by swords. But then Matthew quotes this odd text from Jeremiah. And he says there was a voice heard in Ramah weeping and great mourning. So he basically says all of this that was happening to the Lord was in all reality fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And if you go back to that passage in Jeremiah, the immediate context was talking about Israeli mothers who were weeping over the fact that their children had been taken away by the Babylonians. They thought they would never see their children again. And Jeremiah in that context where he says, a voice was heard of great mourning says, God will stop the weeping because he will send his son and his son is going to reunite you with your little children again. And you're going to be able to spend all eternity with them. So Jeremiah's point is the thing that stops the weeping when you lose a child or loved one is the realization that the Savior has come. It's the realization that the Savior one day will make things right. And the Savior one day will reunite you with your loved ones. And in Matthew, Jesus the Messiah and Savior had been born. He was the one person who could give Israel hope. He was the one person who could give these mothers and fathers hope, who had lost their little children, realizing that our Savior has been born. He is here, and He will make things right, and we'll see our little children again. At the time of the Bethlehem Massacre, Jesus was physically alive and on earth. He was obviously less than two years old. Herod did the math on that, and that's why he had all the male children two years and younger killed. Although Christ would not publicly show up for about 30 years, this massacre made a very important statement. Jesus Christ is on the scene, and he will eventually right the wrongs. And when you see things reach such a diabolical level that little children are killed, it certainly tells us we have a need for Jesus Christ to take over the world. And just as 20 or 30 children were executed in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, 20 little children were executed in Connecticut nine days ago. And just as the prophet Jeremiah made a prediction one day, that'll all be made right because Jesus Christ would come into the world we believe the same thing is about to happen. One day, Jesus Christ will make it right because he'll come back to the world. And we believe that moment is very, very soon. There's no question when you look at the world in which you and I live that the common denominator that existed during the days of Herod still exists in our world because our world still hates Jesus Christ. Our world hates Christ so much that many people even refuse to say the noun Christmas because it has the name Christ in it. And in the days of the book of Matthew, this particular text was written when Christ had been born. In our time, Christ has already been here. We're looking for him to come back. About 33 years after this event in the book of Matthew, Jesus Christ was killed. In fact, Satan used the political and religious leaders to nail him to a cross. But that too was a fulfillment of prophecy according to Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, but was also predicted about him is that he would die, but he wouldn't stay dead. The text said, no, the Savior, the one who can right the wrongs, the one who can actually save sinners, he'll be buried all right, but his body will not seed decay. He'll come out of that tomb alive. He'll be raised from the dead. The hope that Israel had when those children were killed is that one day our Messiah will show up and make things right. And the hope that we have is that very soon Jesus Christ will come back and make things right. The most important question you can ask and answer for yourself tonight is this, are you prepared to meet him? Because all indications when we look at the world is he's soon to return. Have you personally placed your faith in him? Have you trusted Him as your Savior? May we pray. What a wonderful night it would be for you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've never done that, listen, let's just be real clear here. We're all sinners. That's a fact. And Christ came into this world to die for sinners. And if you'll believe on Him, invite Him into your life to be your Savior, He'll forgive you of all of your sins. He'll cleanse you right now, this moment. If you've never done that right where you sit, you can do that. Just acknowledge to God you're a sinner and invite Christ into your life to be your Savior. Our Father, we have listened tonight to majestic music. Music that has caused our minds and hearts to think very seriously about the wonderful, spectacular miracle in which you allowed a virgin to give birth to your precious son, the Messiah, the Savior, the God-man. It is a mystery beyond mysteries. But on this special night, we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the fact that you permitted him to come into this sick and deranged world, to die on that cross for sinners like us. And we're so grateful that when we believe on him, we may have everlasting life. For what you've done here tonight, Lord, we thank you and praise you. What a privilege it's been to sit here and listen to these great songs. And we can't wait for the day when Christ takes us up into the air so that we can celebrate in the wonderful worship services that we will enjoy in the bliss and splendor of heaven. And I pray, Lord, that you would come quickly and let that happen. In Jesus' name, amen.