All right, we did not get all the way through or even very far through Matthew chapter 2 last week, but we were there. I would read with you from the beginning just to catch us up to where we were. And then it says in Matthew 2, now when Jesus, I'm sorry, I got to turn the projector back on so these people can see it in the auditorium if they want to. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. That's gonna be important in a few minutes. 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. When they'd heard the king, they departed and lo, look, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. We'll pick it up right here, I think, for today. Herod's lying when he says he wants to come and worship him. Herod and the whole city were troubled because they already had a king, Herod, and he wasn't real excited to hear, we got the next king already born. So the wise men, when they departed after the king's command to them to Bethlehem, that was where the son would be born, something amazing happened. They had seen, I think two years earlier, that's what it says, the time he inquired of them, this heavenly burst of light, this star in the east, that they took as a sign that the king of the Jews was born, reading from the prophecies they had. They didn't know where, they didn't have Micah for some reason, but they had the prophecy about the star proclaiming the king, And when they left Jerusalem to go to Bethlehem, boom, they saw it again. They didn't follow it from the east. We got a song in our hymn book that goes, following yonders. They didn't do that. They only followed it a little bit. They saw it again here. And they did follow it to the very place in Bethlehem where the young child was. The star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. Now, we call stars some things that this couldn't be. It's called a star, but it's just the use of a word that's as close as we can get. Some brilliant light thing that they could tell was over this particular house. led them to the house where the young child was. When we read in Luke's gospel, we read about the birth of a baby, and he was laid in a manger, a place where animals were fed, and shepherds found him there. That wasn't this. That was not this. This is later. How long later? I don't know. Herod, when he found out they'd found him, sent soldiers and killed all the boys two years old and younger. It took him a while from the time the star appeared announcing his birth to get to Jerusalem, maybe two years. I have this necktie that shows three wise guys, three kings, and a star. And I usually wear it around Christmas time because that's the tradition. We're not against tradition, but we don't care as much for making tradition the ruler of what we believe. Traditions are good and fun and all right, but not always right. So when you see a manger scene and the shepherds and the animals, the three kings ought to be about two years away, but that's all right. We just set our little manger scene and the king's part of it away from them somewhere. I'm not against you having the kings there. That's all right. They saw the star, they rejoiced. Why did they rejoice? They hadn't seen it for a couple of years. And there it is again, confirming their faith. They made a great journey, and they got really happy. They rejoiced with exceeding great joy. We read those words every Christmas and get kind of mundane to us. Rejoiced with exceeding great joy is big stuff. They were really happy. And when they were come into the manger, doesn't say that, when they were come into the house, they saw the little baby, no, they saw the young child with Mary his mother. Matthew was very careful, he calls Mary his mother, he does not call Joseph his father. When he talks to Joseph, talks about Joseph, the angel tells Joseph, take the child and Mary his mother. Doesn't say your child, the child and Mary, his mother. But when they saw the child, and there's Mary too, they fell down and worshipped. I'm going to read it wrong. Listen. They worshipped them. Is that what it says? No, it doesn't say worship them. Mary was a person like we are that needed a savior, and she brought the savior into the world. And when the wise people came, they worshiped him. When they opened their treasures, they presented unto him, not them, him, gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. That last phrase in that verse 11 is the only reason that we talk about three wise men or three kings. They had three different kinds of gifts. Could have been two kings. Could have been 14 kings. They brought those three gifts. So, gold is a royal gift. Frankincense and myrrh are spices. Very expensive. Myrrh is usually the one that's such a strong smell that they use it to mask the scent of human decomposition. They bury people with myrrh. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, indication of the impending death. Verse 12, the last instruction these had from the King Herod was, bring me word again. But God said, in a dream to the wise men, being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they should not return to Herod. Don't do it. Don't go back to Jerusalem. They departed into their own country. Another way, they took the bypass around Jerusalem. I don't know what that meant. Maybe they went down to Jericho and out the other side. So, there we are, having caught up to where we were last week pretty well. In the notes on page four of chapter two's notes, at the top of the page it says, he demanded, he asked them with authority, And the wise prophet, scribes, chief priests of Jerusalem said, well, it's Micah 5 too, Bethlehem. Verse seven, he calls the wise men back to him privately. He doesn't have a big state scene. He says, when, when, when was it that you saw that star? And then he says in verse eight, bring me word again that I can come and worship him. He's lying, but in verse 12, God intervenes. The star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. Somehow the very same celestial light led them to the very house in which he was." On page five of the notes, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. God's confirmation then, very, very superlative. They came into the house, they saw the young child, they fell down and worshiped him. Gold was because he was king. Frankincense, because he's divine. It's a kind of an incense used in worshiping God. And myrrh, in token of his sufferings and death. The note by verse 12 says, can God communicate with men through dreams? Can we answer that? Yes, he can. He did right here. Does God still communicate with men through dreams? I'm going to guess this is my opinion, probably not. Probably not very often, but he could. He doesn't say, I no longer communicate. It doesn't say that in the Bible anymore. But how does God usually communicate with men now? How does he do it? This book, this book, this book tells the story of the greatest communication of God in heaven to earth, and that greatest communication was his son. God became a man so that he could communicate with men. There's a story told about a golfer that got into a bunker, a sand trap. And in the bottom of the sand trap, where his ball was, there was a pretty good-sized anthill. And the golfer gets down there, he's not a very good golfer, and he takes a mighty swing, and boom! A thousand ants are killed. And the ball's still right there. Well, he tries again, and boom! Another thousand ants are killed, and the ball is still there. He's getting down to the bottom of the anthill, and at this point, one of those little ants got next to the other little ant. They got together, and he said, you know, guy, if we want to get out of here alive, we need to get on the ball. There's the first of the animal jokes today. One more. There were two cows out in a field having a conversation. Cows can do that with each other, I guess. And one of them said to the other one, said, did you hear about this awful mad cow disease that's going around? And the other one said, yes, it just makes me so glad I'm a penguin. You have to think about that one for a little while. Mad cow disease. Verse 13, there's a heading in my text that's showing on the screens here, says the flight into Egypt. There was a time when the children's Sunday school class were given pages and crayons to color pictures around Christmas time, and the teacher was looking at them and approving of what they'd drawn, and one little child had drawn the manger scene, And you could make out the animals and Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, but there was a big, large man in the back. And she said, little Johnny, who's that back there? And he said, that's round John Virgin. Round John Virgin, okay. Well, the next week they came back and again, they're going through the Christmas story and they give him pages to color and little Johnny gets his page and he draws an airplane. And in the back of the airplane, there's Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. And up in the front of the airplane, there's a really large person. And she says, little Johnny, what are you drawing? He said, the flight into Egypt. Okay, okay, I see Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. Who's this over here? He says, that's Pontius the Pilot. And that's enough of pretend humor for today. When they, the wise men, were departed, verse 13, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother. See how he talks to Joseph? Doesn't say take your child and marry your wife. He says take the young child and his mother. and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word." The angel, and God through the angel, is going to communicate, not with Jesus, he's a baby or a two-year-old, and not with Mary, but with the husband. Joseph is responsible. He took him to him, Mary, and she gave birth to her child, Jesus. And yet the angel communicates with Joseph and says, you take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and stay there until I bring the word again, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Joseph got up, woke, get up, Mary, get up, boy. and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying out of Egypt have I called my son." That is quoting from the Hebrew part of Hosea 11.1. Hosea 11.1 is in the Minor Prophets. Hosea chapter 11 says, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. There was by this time a Greek translation of the Old Testament that some people think ought to be paid attention to instead of the old Hebrew. But when Matthew wrote his gospel, he didn't quote the Greek, the existing version of the Greek Old Testament that we have doesn't read like this. It makes it obviously talking about calling the nation of Israel out of Egypt, which God also did. But the Hebrew is singular. I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. So my notes mention quoting from the Hebrew of Hosea 11.1, not allowing the Greek translation of the Old Testament to be read. From Egypt have I recalled his children. That's the Greek Old Testament. We don't need that. But we have our Gospel of Matthew written in Greek. He takes the Hebrew language and puts it into Greek as he writes his gospel down, but he quotes directly from the Hebrew Old Testament, just translating it into Greek for himself. Out of Egypt have I called my son. So we go back to where we were in Matthew. Herod, in verse 16, does an ugly thing here. Verse 16, And Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, they didn't do what he said, was exceeding wrath. Earlier in the chapter, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. Now he is exceeding angry, wrath, wrathful. And sent forth, he didn't go himself, but he sent his soldiers. He had soldiers. He was king because Rome let him be king. And slew, killed, murdered. all the children that were in Bethlehem, and all the coasts thereof, all the regions round about, from two years old and under. How did he choose that time? According to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." Took out two years' worth of children, of boy children. It doesn't even say all the boys. It says all the children. You wonder if he killed the girls too. It doesn't read that he didn't. Verse 17 says, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet. We call him Jeremiah, Jeremy the prophet. And they quote it here this way. 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. Jeremiah 31, 15 says it this way, "'Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, harachol, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children because they were not.'" If you want to read Hebrew, you have to be able to… in your throat. It's just a strange language. So that death of the innocent children was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah and fulfilled. According to Matthew, well after the fact, he wrote it down. He said, you know, that fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. And we go on to verse 19. When Herod was dead, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. Got to communicate again. He doesn't have the Bible except the Old Testament. So God's still using dreams. And he doesn't go to Mary or Jesus. He goes to Joseph and says, Arise, 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. OK, time to go back. He got up, he did what he was told. He arose and took the young child and his mother and came back from Egypt into the land of Israel. But when he gets back, when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, when Herod died they made one of his sons king, he was afraid to go thither, back to Bethlehem, down to Judea. Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, another dream, we don't have the context, the text of it, but we know the effect of it. He turned aside into the parts of Galilee. We know that from Luke's gospel, that's where he had been before he went down to Bethlehem for Mary to give birth. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. In your notes, you notice I reference Luke 1, 26 and 27. The angel Gabriel came from God to the city of Nazareth in Galilee to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. Her name was Mary. They lived in Nazareth when they were espoused, but not yet married. And that's where the angel gave his instructions to Mary and to Joseph about the birth. They were Nazarenes already. But when the order for the census came around from the Caesar, Joseph had to take them down to Bethlehem because he was the son of David. He was a child of Bethlehem. So it's fulfilled, it says there in verse 23, which was spoken by the prophets He shall be called a Nazarene. You struggle with this one sometimes. If you search through your Old Testament, you look in your concordance and you're trying to find where this is a prophecy that's been fulfilled. You're not going to find the phrase in the Old Testament about the Christ. He shall be called a Nazarene. You're just not going to find it. And yet it says that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. I would give you a little help. I'm not sure you want to lean heavy on this, but it doesn't say which is written in the Prophets. It says which is spoken by the Prophets. It's possible the Jews knew more of the Prophets than what got written down in our Bible. It doesn't say written, it says spoken. That's one thing you could read about it. Most commentators will refer you for this prophecy to Isaiah 11, 1, which does not say, he shall be called a Nazarene. But it does refer to the Messiah. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. You say, what's that got to do with Nazareth? Well, I'm going to stick the dictionary up here so you can see it. If we switch from the King James to the King James Plus, then it gives us the Strong's Concordance number of each word as we go through here. And you see the word rod and they all have numbers after them. When you get down to the word branch, it says Hebrew 5342. Here's the Hebrew dictionary in the Strong's Concordance. That word, that's an N, that's a noon, and a tzadi, and a resh. That would be pronounced netzer, netzer, N-E-T-Z-E-R, netzer. There it is, N-E-T-S-E-R. And it means branch, in the sense of greenness as a striking color, a shoot, figuratively a descendant, an offshoot of the main trunk. But it's pronounced netzer, and it's in a prophecy about the Messiah coming out of Jesse, the son of, who is the son of Jesse? David was the son of Jesse, and his son Solomon and so on down to Joseph. out of the stem of Jesse and this netzer shall grow out of his roots. And that's all you get for this prophecy. If I put the commentaries up here and look at what they say, some of them are helpful. I'll just peek at it for a minute. Give me a second. Let's get down to branch here. Branch, branch, branch, branch, branch. The roots of Jesse out of his family compared to the stump of a tree. The branch is a well-known name for the Messiah. See this commentator Gil on Isaiah 4 too. The word Netzar used here is the name of the city of Nazareth, which perhaps was so-called from the trees, plants, and grass which grew in Nazareth. So our Lord's dwelling here fulfilled a prophecy that he should be called a Nazarene, an inhabitant of Netzar. The Jews speak of Ben Netzer. They said he was a robber and took cities and reigned over them and became a head of robbers and make him to be the little horn of Daniel 7 and maliciously and wickedly say he was Jesus. Yet under all this wickedness, they tacitly own that Jesus of Nazareth is the Netzer this prophecy speaks of. The design of which it is to show the meanness of Christ's descent as man that he should be as a root out of a dry ground, like it says in Isaiah 53, true, rather than as a rod and a branch out of a dry ground. He's the netzer. By Jesus' time, in the notes going on, Nazarene had become a term of contempt. I'll get back over to my text here. Here's John. I'm going to let the commentary go and let the dictionary go. The prophets did right. Jesus, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? He called him Jesus of Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip didn't argue with him. He just said, come and see. Come and see. In John 7. Verse 52, the Pharisees are mad and trying to drag Jesus into court and jail. And Nicodemus speaks up and says, Nicodemus says, does our law judge any man before I hear him and know what he doth? And they answered and said, art thou also from Galilee? They didn't think much of the Galileans down there in Jerusalem. Search and look, out of Galilee arises no prophet. You know, that's not true. Most of the prophets were from the south. But you perhaps have heard of Jonah. Jonah the prophet was from Gath-Hephir, which if you look it up on a map, is in Galilee. These Pharisees not only were yelling at the wrong guy, he's one of them, Nicodemus, He's quoting the law correctly, but they're just making fun of him and said, you're from Galilee too? Nobody good come from Galilee. Nazareth and Galilee would be contemptuous terms in Jesus's day. And it was, as the commentator had mentioned, it was prophesied that the Messiah would be an object of contempt. Here's Isaiah chapter 53. If we look at the last couple of verses of chapter 52, we see the beginning of this marvelous passage. It says, "'Behold my servant,' verse 13 of 52, "'Behold My servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high." That's how it's going to end up. But before that, many were astonished at the... His visage, that's his face, was so marred more than any man. And his form, his whole body, marred more than the sons of men. What did he receive at the hands of those soldiers when Pilate was trying to get sympathy for him from the crowd? why he was beaten and bruised and battered. But verse 15, the last verse of chapter 52 says, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Sprinkling is a word used in the Jewish law for what they did on the day of atonement with the blood of the sacrifice at the mercy seat of God in the holiest place of all. They sprinkled the blood, making a covering for sins for the Jewish people for one year. The book of Hebrews says, this man made one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 52.15 prophetically says, so shall he sprinkle many nations. And then we go on to chapter 53, and it says nobody's going to, who's going to believe our report? To whom is the, there's a title of the Messiah, the arm of the Lord. the Messiah. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, not a big strong man, not like Samson, and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Some artists have taken it upon themselves to portray Jesus without the use of a Polaroid or a picture taken at the time, and usually the pictures of Jesus are quite attractive. Beautiful. That is not according to the Scripture. He has no form nor comeliness. When we see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. If you saw Jesus during His earthly ministry, He would not be attractive. He's just No pretty, no pretty boy. Verse 3, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The husband of his mother, Joseph, died sometime before his ministry began. He was the man of the house. There's a sorrow there. Mary is a widow. He's a man of sorrows, his brothers. that he had didn't believe in him when he started his ministry. Acquainted with grief and then for Israel it says, we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. And then it starts to describe the cross. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. The Jews to whom he should have been, they should have rejoiced. The Redeemer, the Messiah, the promised one has come and they did a week earlier, but now on the day of the cross, we esteemed him smitten of God and afflicted. They mocked him on the cross, said, come down if you be the son of God. Verse five, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. And this illustration we so often use, I use my right hand for us and the sin is on my right hand. This is what it was like until Jesus came. And then the book of God says he, if this could represent Jesus our Savior, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised on that cross for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. With his stripes, we are healed. Verse six goes on and says, Oh, we were like sheep. We've gone astray. There's nobody that doesn't have this sin problem. We have turned everyone to his own way. And that way leads to hell. The Lord God himself took the sin, the penalty for sin that we owed and laid it on him. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity. of us all over and over again through this chapter in Isaiah. Him for me, him for me, him for me. He was oppressed, he was afflicted. He opened not his mouth, he's brought as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Taken from prison and from judgment, they did arrest him. Who shall declare his generation? Jesus never had children. He never married. Contrary to the fiction writers, he was cut off out of the land of the living. And there it is again, him for me, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And then prophetically looking forward to the thieves on one side and the other, and then the gift of Joseph of Arimathea, he made his grave with the wicked. That's where he died, between two murderous thieves. And with the rich in his death, he was placed in a rich man's tomb, a new tomb. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. There never was an accusation against him that would stick. Verse 10 again, him for me, it pleased God in heaven, it pleased Jehovah, Yahweh Himself, to bruise him. He put him to grief. And then it speaks to the people, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, when you see what he did, well then he will see his seed. What? He's died without children, he's never married, how will he see his seed? He will see his spiritual seed, he will see his children, the believers. And as we live, he shall live in us. He shall prolong his days. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. God in heaven sees the suffering of his soul under my sin and is satisfied. It's no longer a barrier between man and God. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. He for me, he shall bear their iniquities. What a powerful chapter. He poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bare the sin of many. He made intercession for the transgressors. There's the gospel 700 years before it happened. He for me. He for me. He for me. You know, I love to repeat that truth that He died for all sins. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, toward the end of the chapter, we have this explanation. All things are of God, verse 18, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation." What is this ministry of reconciliation? Reconciliation is where whatever barrier there was between two is taken out of the way. We use the word to talk about couples therapy, where there's a couple that are not together, but if they are reconciled, what stood between them is taken out of the way. And this is God reconciling us to himself by Jesus Christ. And then he's given to us who believe the ministry, the service of reconciliation. To wit means, let me explain to you what the ministry of reconciliation is. God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. He took the sin out of the way, not imputing their trespasses unto them. No, no. He's taken it out of the way and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech the unbelieving world, beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. But you see in verse 19 it says he's already reconciled the world to himself and here in verse 20 he says we need to serve that up. There's a truth that God has already taken the sin away. And then there's the truth that we need to tell them. We need to beg them. We need to beseech them. We need to pray them. In stead of Christ, in Christ's stead, here's the message. Be reconciled to God. He took the sin out of the way. Believe in Jesus. Verse 21 sums it up again. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the very righteousness of God in him. One other passage that is so rich about this truth, just one verse in 1 John chapter 2, maybe two verses. 1 John chapter 2, John starts out writing. He says, these things I write unto you that you sin not. Why is he writing? He doesn't want us to sin. Duh. Don't sin. James, I write this to you that you sin not. Don't do it. And if any man sin, James, no, Bob, we have an advocate with the Father. What's that? A comforter, a paraclete, a go-between, a helper, a lawyer, an attorney, a representative. The one that'll stand there and answer the judge when he asks the question that we shouldn't answer for ourselves. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins. What does that mean? It has three shades of meaning. It means sacrifice. It means substitute. I escaped a sacrificial substitute. Satisfaction, mainly satisfaction. He is the satisfaction for our sins. It was a substitutionary sacrifice that was satisfying to the Father. He shall look upon the travail of his soul and be satisfied, it said in Isaiah 53. He is, John says, writes, the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins, not for ours only, believers, but also for the sins of the whole world. And Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, so he's committed unto us the word of reconciliation. I think that is rich and wonderful, and we should take heart to that. All right, we're going to go on. If you have a Bible page to turn, go on to chapter 3, to chapter 3 of Matthew. just to go on here a little bit. We're not going to go deep into this in four minutes, but I just want to not waste the time. Matthew chapter 3, the message and the ministry of the forerunner is what it says at the top of the notes, verses 1 through 12. And the phrase begins with this, in those days, I pointed out before that Matthew uses time words because he's telling a story. Most of the time, he's telling a story. So he's just, okay, come to this next thing here. In those days, came John the Baptist. came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. If you've read Luke's gospel, we know a little bit about John the Baptist. We know his father was Zechariah, and his mother was Elizabeth, and they were Levites, and he was a priest in the temple. And she has old, old, old, and so was his father. And yet, miraculously, they conceive a son, and prophetically, the son is said to be the one that will proclaim the Messiah, the Messiah. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. It's a narrative. And came John the Baptist, the son of a priest who'd served in Jerusalem, was the eighth of the 24 orders of priests as they were divided in David's day. And there's a reference in Chronicles for you. They served from a Sabbath through a Sabbath for a week plus a day, twice a year. That's why they had 24 orders. They could get through a year that way. And then I made a mistake in my notes. Likely, I said, his mother hid herself away from Jerusalem, likely returned to bring himself up in Jerusalem. And when his ministry began in the wilderness of Judea, he came out there and stayed. I was wrong. I read during the week after I did these notes that he was in the wilderness until the day of his showing to Israel. I think that's in Luke. a little further along than I happened to look when I wrote these notes. So John the Baptist didn't grow up in Jerusalem. He grew up in the wilderness. They stayed in the wilderness with him there. By the way, there were so many priests in those orders that his father Zacharias was in that he probably only had the duty in the temple once in his lifetime. This was a big deal when he got to go into the temple. What does it say John the Baptist did? Well, first he came, and then he came preaching, and he was saying, and we get a little content of it. Why was he called the Baptist? Because he wasn't a Presbyterian. No, that's not it. What they did in verse 6 is they were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins. He's called the Baptist because he was baptizing. That's what he did. Who got baptized? Generally, before John the Baptist came, baptism was a thing that Judaism used to let Gentiles into Judaism. It was easier to persuade them to be baptized than it was to be circumcised, I suppose. In any case, he came preaching and he was also baptizing. His message in verse 2 says, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And we'll just briefly touch this and we'll cover it better next Sunday. The word repent in English means something different than what the New Testament word repent means. The English word repent, if you look it up in a dictionary, means something about being sorry, especially being sorry for sin or even turning from sin. That's what the English word repent has come to mean. It came from a Latin word that had to do with penitence. That's not a good translation of the New Testament Greek word. The New Testament Greek word is metanoia, which means to have another mind or to think differently afterwards. And just understand that when you read repent in the New Testament in a King James Bible, It does not serve to look it up in an English dictionary. You have to look it up in a Greek dictionary to get the idea of the meaning. And as I said, we're out of time. We'll not go there, but that's where we'll start next Sunday morning, if you'll join me then and there. Father in heaven, thank you for the time we've had to spend together looking at and thinking through Matthew's gospel message and also Isaiah's wonderful gospel message and Paul and John. We pray if anybody's listening that has not realized that the sin problem has been solved and all that's left for them to do is believe in Jesus, we beseech them, we beg them in Christ's stead that they would be reconciled to God and even now believe in Jesus. He died for them. He rose again. He's coming back for his own. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless. We'll have church here in a few minutes and look forward to hearing our special speaker today, Gary Stephan.