and go with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter number two. Go ahead and be determined there. Thank you, Preacher Jason, for the opportunity to preach, and I appreciate it, and I look forward to what we're gonna do, and just thank the Lord for his grace. I'm glad to be saved, and that on our worst of days, no matter what suffering we may be going through, at the worst of times, we can say that we're blessed because we're saved. Child of the King, and I thank God for that. And I hadn't told Lauren what I was going to preach, but she was talking about some songs to sing. Those really went right along with what the Lord had in my heart for tonight, and so the Lord does all that. The gospel of Matthew, chapter number two, I'm gonna keep you along tonight. I'm gonna give you the thought that's on my heart, and I trust the Lord will help us for a little while tonight. Matthew, chapter number two, and verse 11, this is a very familiar scripture. It may be odd, it's not Christmas time, but it'll make sense later here in a little while. Matthew, chapter two, we'll begin reading in verse number 11. If you find your place, say amen. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God and dreamed that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. Be thou there until I bring thee word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Let us pray tonight. My heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege to preach your word. God, thank you for salvation. Father, thank you for who you are tonight. God, I pray that you bless the scripture. God, bless the reading of it. God, help me to be your servant tonight. God, take my lips of clay. God, make them as your very own. God, let me be your mouthpiece for just a little while. God, may there be somebody that's lost tonight. God, may you reveal their need to you. God, I pray that you'd save them tonight. Get glory out of everything that's said and done. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. We find here in the text, like I said, very familiar. We know that Jesus There's a lot of characters that we can look at in this text, but I'm interested in the character of Joseph tonight. We realize that Joseph the carpenter had no physical relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not related to him. He had no reason, he had no part in the reasoning of Jesus now being on the earth. nothing to do with it. He had never been with Mary. We know what that means, but we understand that he had no relation physically to the Lord Jesus Christ, but yet he got to have a part in the receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like to think of Joseph as you and I tonight, as a great picture of the believer. We are none of us tonight, but As far as I know, I have any relation to royalty. I'm not akin to a royal bloodline. I have no kings in my family. I have no queens in my family. But I'm glad that though I have no relation to the royalty of Jesus Christ, we can have a part in the receiving of Jesus Christ. Whether you were like me and you were raised in church all your life and you had a super religion and you needed the Holy Spirit to show you how how lost you were. I'm glad that God showed me how lost I was. I'm glad that Jesus saved my soul and I had no royal bloodline. Maybe you're here tonight and you're in the deepest, darkest pits of sin. You deserve to be in hell just like the rest of us. and you were in the deepest place you could possibly go and God brought you out of there and he saved you in his grace and in his mercy and he cleansed you and he cleansed you for all of eternity. What am I saying tonight? Though we have no relation to his royalty, I'm glad we can say. we're gonna have a part in his receiving tonight. What a blessing that is that none of us deserve the grace of God, but I'm glad that he gave it to us anyway tonight. And Joseph being that picture that Joseph did not have to work for it, Joseph did not have to work for Jesus to come, and it's just like you and I, I didn't have to work for it, I didn't have to build up for it, but I'm glad that wherever I was, Jesus saved me in that way. Joseph didn't have to work for it. All he had to do was accept it. You understand that Joseph still had a decision to make. Here the Holy Spirit through the angel of the Lord has spoken to Joseph and he's saying that Mary is with child and he's telling him that she is conceived by the Holy Ghost. Now you can imagine Joseph still has to make a decision whether he's going to believe that and whether he's going to stay with Mary or he's gonna take his life and go elsewhere. He had to make that decision that he was going to go with God's plan. And that's a great picture physically of what we have spiritually. All we had to do is accept it when the Holy Spirit was convicting our heart and the Holy Ghost showed us our need for Jesus Christ. I'm glad that I did not have to work for it, but I just had to accept it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's the greatest gift that has ever been given. You understand that Joseph, what a privilege it was that he got to have a part in this, that the gift of Jesus Christ, the God man, has just been brought to the world, and he gets to have a part in it. He's nothing but a dirty carpenter. He doesn't deserve this, but God's grace allowed Joseph to have a part in the receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ the God. It's a great gift that has been given. Can I say that? We have the greatest gift. If you were born again tonight, if you're saved, buddy, we have the greatest gift that could ever be received. It is the gift of salvation. I'm glad tonight that God looked beyond my sin, and he looked beyond my shame, and he took it for me, and he bore it on the cross. But what am I saying? It's like a gift that's been paid for. It has been given, Brother Phil. I don't have to go back and pay for it later. I don't have to take it back and return it. I'm glad that the gift of salvation is unreturnable. I'm glad that I cannot lose it. I'm glad I cannot bump it. I'm glad I can't throw it away. I'm glad the hand of God is holding me until the day of redemption is here. The gift is unreturnable. Paul said it like this. It is an unspeakable gift. The gift of salvation. But we find here in the text that after Jesus Christ has been born, Joseph is called to do something with the Lord Jesus. He is called here in the text to do something with. So my question tonight, church, is this. If you are saved and you know you're born again, I wonder what are you doing with the gift of salvation? What are you doing with the unspeakable gift? Joseph is now called on to be guided by this glorious gift. It's the gift of salvation. I want to preach for a little while to find on that being guided by the gift. being guided by the gift, looking at some things in Joseph's life. Number one, I see his holy responsibility. Now that Jesus Christ has been received into the world, Joseph has got to have a small part in the receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world, and now he must do something with whom he has been given. Notice in the text in verse number 13, let's read it again. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise. Take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Now that Jesus has been born, another character is inserted, and it is the King Herod. Herod is a picture of the flesh. Herod is someone who is trying to eliminate the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he realizes that Jesus has been born and he realizes he is threatened by the kingship of this man named Jesus, and now that he has come in, prepared and seeking to drive him out. And what our flesh will do from the moment we get saved, our flesh is invaded by the Holy Ghost of God. And it's threatened by the kingship of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And every single day, the flesh will war against the Spirit, trying to keep our spirituality low and keep us shallow. And he will try and bring us down into our old and past sins every day of our life. As believers, we have a holy responsibility. Testimony that we have but to protect the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to life. That's why God is told Joseph He is called to protect and to leave and flee towards Egypt. Brother Tyler, I feel like David when he wrote in Psalm 12, help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful fell among the children of men. Everywhere I look, there's more scandals than there's ever been. There's more men of God that are throwing everything they've ever built away, and they're throwing the ministry down the drain. But I'll go a step further. It's not just preachers. It's not just people in the ministry. but church members, maybe family, sir or ma'am, maybe parents I know of in my mind that I think of now, that were once raising their children in the house of God, they were raising their family right, they were taking to church, they were investing in their life, but one sliver of sin got in their life, and they gave into it, and the flesh and hair creeped up, and all of a sudden they stopped taking care of what the Lord had given them. They stopped building up themselves spiritually, and stopped proclaiming, and stopped searching the scripture, and before they knew it, their life was a wreck. Families, I'm talking about the title, the projection they called them to church, they raised them in church, and now I'm telling you, they have nothing to do with the house of God anymore. You say, well, that could never happen to my family. They said the same exact thing. My dad's pastored for 30 years nearly, and I've been there at that same church all my life, and I've seen families come and go, where they raised their family right, but if they were as strong for God as anybody could be, happened. They did not take care of what God has given them. They were not guided by the gift of salvation. See, what we have is the comforter. We have the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, we get the package deal. We get God the Holy Ghost, and we get Jesus Christ living on the inside through the Holy Spirit, and we get it all. But we are called to be guided by the gift of salvation. I've seen all around us, you know, it's understandable for lost people to easily give in to sin, that's all they know. How can we expect lost people to act like saved people if saved people aren't even acting like saved people? So many times we expect saved people to not act like, or lost people to not act like they're lost. But we are saved if you're a child of God, then that means that we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside. Salvation induces discernment, and spirituality will enhance our discernment. Can I say that parents, we cannot, you cannot expect your children to prevail as a Christian if they're watching your life and all they've ever seen you do is fall and fail to your stand. I can say firsthand that friends of mine growing up, I'm 20 years old now, friends that I grew up going to youth camp with, they would tell me at church, they would say, Isaiah, they would say, my family is a completely different family at home than they are at church. and they're seeing a completely alternative lifestyle where they'll come to church and they're nice to everybody, but they go to the house and they act like they hate their family. And they'll go to the house of God, and they have nothing to do with spirituality. They don't want anything to do with God, and they turn it off and on when they go to the house of God. You're doing more damage to your children by being that. You're better off to just be cold. You're better off to just act like you really are. You're doing damage to your family to act one way at the house of God and act a different way at your house. If you cannot walk in sin, if you are walking in the spirit, But you can also, you can't walk in the spirit if you're walking in sin. Amen. A lot of times in Baptist churches when holiness is mentioned, buddy, we tense up. We get nervous. But can I say that holiness is not perfection, it is protection. Holiness is to protect ourselves from our sin. My greatest enemy is myself. My greatest enemy is my flesh. We put a lot of blame on the devil a lot of times, and there's no doubt there's warfare, there's battles. But a lot of times, my biggest battle is not giving in to my flesh. A lot of times, it is the issue of me and my old man, that Herod that is rising up in my life, trying to snuff my spirituality out. And when we do not practice holiness, biblical holiness, then we have no protection in our lives. I've told this story a few times, but I took up snowboarding in the beginning of last year when season started. I'd never done it before, and so I started doing some snowboarding, and I was enjoying it since my friends wanted to take me. And Tyler, when I got into it, I was very cautious. I didn't know what I was doing. I was very careful. And so I started to get the hang of it those first couple times, but I wasn't trying much. I was very cautious. And really, I didn't have any bad bypass. I thought, man, I'm really getting good at this. I'm really getting good at this. About that third or fourth time I went, I got tired of paying the rental for a helmet. It's expensive to go snowboarding. So I got tired of paying the rental. So I said, you know what? I've not fallen. I've not needed my helmet. So I'm not going to rent a helmet today. And I got more comfortable with it. I got better at it. And I got to going down the mountain. I was going to take on this mountain. I was ready to go. I went to carve, and I caught that front edge. but I was seeing doubles of everything. I was seeing 40 chairlifts when there was only one chairlift. I got the worst headache you've ever seen from that. What happened? I got better at snowboarding, so I thought I needed less protection. A lot of times what I've seen is how it's amazing how men of God, preachers, maybe just faithful amen, women in the church, as they get older and as they get farther in their walk with God, it's like this idea comes in our mind that we don't need as much holiness and protection in our lives. But we understand that it's the opposite, that the closer we get to God, the more the devil's gonna fight. The more that we get closer and more in tune with God, the more the devil's gonna try to mess us up and knock us out. And the moment we begin to drop our standards, the moment we begin to drop what we have always kept up, that is when the devil will attack us to heart. It's not for perfection, but can I say, it's also not for performance. My holiness is not to please men, it is to please the Father. It is not to impress a body of people, it is not to impress people, it is to please the Lord Jesus Christ who died for my sin. If Jesus was required to be holy to die for our sin, we must be holy to live for him. Christ could not have died if he was not holy. How are we gonna live for him if we are not holy? It's not perfection, but it is protest. God said that not a single one of us in this building are above all. Not a single one of them. There are men of God that are greater than I will ever be that serve God faithfully and have the touch of God in their life that fail. For everything they've ever known away because they gave in to their sin at one time. The Bible says in the Psalms, except the Lord build the house, they live in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman away from flooding vain. David would go on to say after he said in Psalm 2, help Lord for the God of men's sins and the faithful, fill them up. He said in Psalm 62 in verse 5, my soul is now only upon God for my expectation is from him. I'm thankful for heroes of the faith. I'm thankful for men of God that I can look to, and I can thank God for them. I can get wisdom from them, and men of God who serve faithfully, and I thank God for that. But my expectation cannot be in man, because if a man falls like they can, every man is blessed. We are all subject to fall and to fail and to sin. If a man fails and that all my expectation is in him, then when he falls, I have nothing to live on. But my expectation, our expectation should never be in a man, but it should be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? The Lord Jesus has never failed me. He's never once let me down. And there is no reason that he ever would. My expectation is not in man, it should be in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way we can make it in this sin-cursed world, in our sin-cursed bodies, is if we wait upon God and make Him our expectation of man. We find that Joseph now is confronted by this question of what he's going to do with the gift that he's been given. Now that Jesus has been born and Joseph has a direct responsibility to care for what God has given him. Herod, as I mentioned, is a picture of the flesh. And Herod is warring against his presence of the Lord Jesus Christ because he's threatened by his kingship. And God has now commanded Joseph to arise and depart from Bethlehem to go into Egypt. Can I say that the devil will find us no matter where we go? As I mentioned, we can go farther with God, get closer to God, but the devil's still gonna find us. But there are reasons why we don't go around to the people that we used to go. You know more than anybody, when you were lost, there were certain kinds you used to hang out with. There were certain things you would use to say, some jokes you would make, some people you'd hang out, you'd go around, some things you used to do that God brought you out of, God saved you from. And the whole point of that holiness and that separation is not to be mean, not to be crude and a jerk, but we understand that God knows what we can handle and what we cannot. And there will be times where God will tell us to arise and depart from a situation because He knows it jeopardizes our spirituality. He knows that if we do not heed to the warning that he gives us, when God will tell us to get away from that person, they're gonna bring you down, you're not gonna bring them up. He tells us to get away from that situation, they're gonna bring you down. It's important and it is imperative how we respond to that. Because the devil knows what our besetting is in for. And there will be times where God will tell us to do things, maybe remove ourselves from some situations, some places, may it be a person, because it would squander our walk with the Lord spiritually. We see not only his holy responsibility, but secondly, we see his humble response. We see that God has commanded Joseph to arise. Now look in verse number 14. Here's his response. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. There is no questioning of God in the text. There is no Joseph saying, Lord, we just had to come all this way for the taxes. Mary had to ride on that mule all this way. She's tired. She's just given birth to Jesus Christ in a stable. No doubt they're exhausted, they are tired, they are weary, and now God is telling him to arise and to depart. But you don't find that Joseph is questioning God. He's not questioning the will of the Father. He knows that God knows what is best, and he must heed to the warning. He has a humble response. It says, and when he arose, That should be the case in our lives when God pricks our heart about a certain thing we used to do. Maybe we're getting back to back. We're getting closer to our sin. Maybe we're not living in sin, but we're right on the edge. We're right on the doorstep of getting into some sin that we used to be into before God brought us out of there, and we're right on the edge, and God will tell us to arise and depart. It's important how we respond. God may ask you to do some things that are uncomfortable and don't make sense. but it is important how you respond in the Holy Spirit. In the principle of first mention, the word arises, first mention, in Genesis chapter number 13, I won't make it turn today. This is where Abram, later Abraham, is in a conflict with Lot, where they're standing before the well-watered plains of Jordan, and obviously we know that Lot really should have deferred to Abram, the older man, the man of God, but Lot saw the well-watered plains of Jordan, and he did not think about Abram, but he took it, and now Abram is called on to arise. I'll read it to you, in verse number 17, God told him to arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. This is just after Abraham has humbly responded and said, Lot, you can have the well watered plains of Jordan. And now God has told him to arise and walk to the length of it and the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee. In other words, because Abraham responded humbly and removed his sin and went to the place that was not desirable to him, he got to live in the exceeding abundantly of the work of God. because he responded properly and humbly when God told him to arise. The second time the word arise is mentioned is in chapter number 19 of the book of Genesis. Now it has fallen on Lot to respond when God has told him to arise. I'll read it to you, verse number 15 of chapter 19. When the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest I be consumed in the iniquity of the city. While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters. Lord being merciful unto him, they brought him forth and set him without pursuit. It came to pass that they had brought him forth abroad, but he said, escape for thy life. Look not behind thee, neither stray thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed. Here's Lot's response to when God called him to arise. And Lot said unto them, O not so, my lord. Can you imagine how Joseph responded to the Lord like Lot responded to the Lord? Can you imagine when the angel of the Lord stands before Joseph and he says to arise and to depart into Egypt because the jeopardy that is at hand because of the spirit of Herod being around trying to snuff out the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. What if Joseph would have said, no, Lord, I found grace in the eyes of Herod. No, Lord, we're cool. We're in good terms. We've worked it out. Could it be, we know that Herod tried to trick the wise men into saying, come back to me and tell me when the king has been born. I want to worship him. We know that's not what Herod wanted to do. He wanted to take the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But because Joseph responded humbly and correctly, we have the gospel of Jesus Christ today. And when God tells you to arise and get away from a situation that's going to give your flesh an advantage over you, you can be like Lot and say, Lord, I've got it figured out, I've got it under control, and I've got it handled. But by giving place to the flesh and the devil, you'll miss out on some of God's greatest opportunities that God's ever had. I'm glad God restored it. I'm glad we fall and we mess up on God. I'm glad he restored us in love. But there are times, let's honor that if we do not respond to the voice of God correctly, we may fall into sin that will affect us for the rest of our lives. Where God will help us and God will allow us to move on and God will give us grace in that time that we need it. But maybe what God had in store and had in plan will never be what we had in plan. Because we miss out on some of the greatest opportunities by not heeding to the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can respond humbly like Hagar, and God will give you the increase. Not only do we have here in the text looking in the life of Joseph, we have his holy responsibility. We have his humble response, the third and the final point. We have his humble recession. You'll find in the Gospels that there's not very much scripture mentioning the life of Joseph. In fact, a preacher stuck it out to me just recently how really Joseph only says one word, and it's when he proclaims that the name of the baby will be named Jesus. In the last verse of 24, verse number 25, you can look at chapter number one, and knew or not, till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he, being Joseph, called his name Jesus. That's the only time that Joseph speaks in the entirety of the gospel. The rest is just giving record of his life. But here we find that in chapter number two, chapters one and two is the only thing that ever mentions the life of Joseph. In fact, the last time he's mentioned, look with me in chapter number two in verse number 19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise. Take the young child and his mother, go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, but salt the young child's life. Here, God again is telling Joseph to arise. Here is his response in verse 21. And he arose and took the young child in his mother, and came to the land of Israel. Here we find that once again Joseph is not questioning God. Now that God, after Joseph has departed to Egypt, God is telling Joseph to return back to Israel and this time go to Nazareth. Why? To fulfill the prophecy of God's inherent and infallible Word. that the Son of God, that the Kinsman Redeemer, that the Messiah, that our Savior would be born in that. So it's taken place. So it is important, once again, that Joseph responds humbly and responds correctly to what the Holy Spirit has told him to do, what God has told him to do. And we find that he is responding humbly to the Lord. But I find it amazing that this man, Joseph, this is all he's ever mentioned is in chapter one and chapter number two. Why is that? Because after chapter number two of the book of Matthew closes out, the jail from chapter three through the entirety of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ is the forefront. Shouldn't that be the testimony of the believer that after we've received Christ and we did not have an oil flood plan? but we got to have a part in the receiving of the spirit of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Should not that be the testimony that Jesus Christ should be the forefront of our lives and we should recede to the background, that there should be a humble recession, that we fade away and Christ should become the forefront. So much as church and so much as ministry has become about the spotlight and how we can have the platform, how we can be seen, how we can have our network, how we can be recognized, but really in all reality, if we're living and we're really where we should be with the Lord. We should be in the background and Jesus should be the forefront of our life. We should receive the background so that Jesus could be the forefront. Many times the unspeakable gift in many Christians' lives has just become the unspoken of gift. I wonder, do we tell people about our Savior more than we do not even bad things but just our day to day life? I wonder, do we walk in the church on the Thursday night service, the New Week service, and we've talked about our day, we've talked about our work. None of those things are wrong. But do we talk about our lives more than we do about the Savior? Do we go to the workplace where there's lost people, the school where there's lost people, and we talk about our lives and the things that aren't even bad. Do we talk about those more than we do our Savior? You see, if we've been born again, if you've been saved, if you've received the greatest gift that's ever been given, how could it be that the unspeakable gift becomes the unspoken un-gift in our lives? Amen. Why is that? Because Christ has shifted the background, and we have become the forefront of our lives. That newness wears off, that after we've been born again, we're desiring an insincere meal. But we don't grow. We don't grow in the Lord. We never get off the mill. and we let Jesus fail from the background in our life, with our business and our schedules and everything we've got going on, becomes the priority in our life. He must increase, but I must decrease, John 3.30. You know what Joseph was doing the last time that he's ever missed the ministry? He was being obedient to God when he told him to arise. God told him once again, one final time, to arise and go back to the ministry. I find it amazing here, we'll close with this. Lauren, if you'll come, play some song from verse 19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. There's no record of the angel of the Lord speaking to Joseph again until Herod had died. This picture of when we will die to our flesh. I believe it more advanced than most of y'all can. What a sobering reminder that that is. The flesh never stops. The flesh never gives up. It doesn't matter how close we get to God, how far we get to God, the flesh will never stop trying to drive our spirituality out. And before we know it, we've been compromised by our flesh. May it be the testimony of our lives that the closer we get in our walk with the Lord, that God is the forefront and we are the backbone. God, I don't trust myself. I don't trust my friends. Won't you give me the gift of salvation? Help me, Lord. Respond. I'll pray for you directly. In the name of Jesus, God. In the name of Jesus, God. If you ain't fightin' your flesh all day long, send God helpin' you. God helpin' you. It's a hard life. It's a hard life. Just happen to go with a faithful spirit of God, which we've been tryin' to preach on, and a spirit of flesh. Once you come get up, you won't be bein' in a battle tonight. Just ask the Lord to help you. Come on, let's go this way.