Matthew's Gospel chapter 2. We don't have a specific text in view this evening, but dealing with the narrative that we have read together, we want to consider verse 14. When he arose, he 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. Amen. And may the Lord bless the reading of his word this evening. Our studies in the book of Matthew recently have also tied in seasonally. But now we move forward in Matthew's Gospel 2 to perhaps a section not as well known as those sections of this book that concern the wondrous incarnation of the Savior. We may very well be aware of what is taking place here. The fact that Joseph took the Savior to Egypt and after a period of time, brought him back again for his protection. The whole closing section of chapter 2 is focused upon the consequences of Herod's wickedness as we see in verse 16. We read there, then, Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem. And in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." We find that Herod slew all those in Bethlehem who perhaps could have been the promised Messiah. And we can think of that cruelty and that sin. It reminds us of the wickedness of man. It reminds us of man's rage against Christ and against the commandments of God. And we see that even around us today. There is a rage within man against the truth of God. But we find Herod was filled with pride. We find many kings in these older days, these ancient days, who were concerned about their kingdom, concerned about their power, trying to keep their kingdom together, trying to keep a hand upon the power that they had. Roman emperors would execute many members of their family, Great parts of the family. Why? To consolidate their position as emperor because their family were a threat. And Herod here did the same thing, but with those who potentially could have been the promised Messiah. He did not want to give up his kingdom. He did not want to give his power to one who would be King of the Jews, but yet we know that the promised Messiah would be a spiritual Savior, not the physical deliverer of the nation of Israel. But we see here a great spiritual warfare that is raging. It was not Herod who was behind this, but rather behind Herod was the devil himself. And that warfare is raging today between Christ, between His church, and between the devil. Here in Matthew 2, we see that in the aftermath of the incarnation. God in power, supernatural power, steps into mankind, steps into human history, and sends forth His Son to be our Savior born of a woman, and there is then an attempted attack upon the life of the Savior. Whoever does not know who this Child is, or where this Child is, He does not have His address, But he knows that in the vicinity of Bethlehem, there is one who was born king. He knows that in a certain period of time, this child was born. And therefore, in that area, and those who were around two years of age and younger, well, that fits the description that he had. And so out of rage and jealousy, he kills all around him. Let us pause for a moment to consider this horrific act of wickedness by Herod. This is what hatred and jealousy accomplish. Sin and death. And the child of God is to avoid such a heart and such rage. It is not becoming one who knows and loves the Savior to act in such a way. It is the attitude of the world. And you may say, well, I've never even thought remotely of doing something like Herod. I detest that. I despise what he did. But he did it out of a jealous heart, a deceitful heart. A heart that is wicked and against God. A heart that is filled with pride. The very same heart with all those affections of pride and rage that we have. A wicked heart, a heart that is deceitful. And so let us be careful of our jealousy. Let us be careful of our hatred. Let us be careful of our rage and by the power of the Spirit, mortify, put to death those things that we would have hearts that are right with our Savior. And this passage brings us in to consider spiritual warfare. I want you to turn to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, perhaps that primary text concerning spiritual warfare. It instructs us to the reality. of spiritual warfare. And Paul in Ephesians 6 says, finally, my brethren, coming to the conclusion of this epistle, he says, finally, be strong in the Lord, a final exhortation. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God. Why? that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand." There is a battle. There is a spiritual warfare, not against flesh and blood, but against Satan and against the rulers of darkness within this world. And the child of God is to have that whole armor of God to stand in this fight and stand in this battle. But there is a warfare. This is what Paul is saying. There is a reality of a war here. The truth and those who have the truth of God are not at peace with this world. We do not have, as it were, that peace agreement where we all live happily ever after. There is a war that is taking place. We need to remind ourselves about that constantly, do we not? Lest we become those who are at peace in this world. We considered John Owen this morning at the adult Bible class, the mortification of sin, and he gave some reasons as to why he wrote a book on mortifying sin, putting to death that sin that can beset us so easily. And he emphasized that he was concerned for the present state, the current state of believers. Of course, he's speaking about the 1650s. He's not speaking about the 2020s. But his words and his thinking and his concern can so easily, as it were, come into the present day. The exact same concerns. And what does he say? He's concerned about the present state of believers and in dealing with mortifying sin. Why? Because they're at peace with the world. There's no battle going on. There's no conflict. They're not concerned about the great battle between God and between the devil. They're not concerned about sin. They don't see sin as the work of the enemy. And dear believer, you and I should always see sin as the work of the enemy. We should always understand and realize that from the beginning, Satan waged war against God. He tempted our first parents in the Garden of Eden. the history of the church of Christ. He has waged war against that church. He has waged war against the line that one day would give birth to the Messiah, who would redeem His people from their sins. And when we think of this great battle, we see it in Genesis 3, in the serpent. But when we think of this conflict, a side must be taken. We could leave our building tonight, and we could go into the parking lot, and we could find two of you fighting, maybe with just words, but fighting nonetheless. Something has happened. Maybe somebody forgot how to drive, or you tried to race each other and something went wrong. Whatever it was, there's an argument. We didn't see it. We don't know what's going on. We don't know who's right. You're blaming this person and this person's blaming you. And what some people will do, most likely, is they won't take sides. They'll be neutral. We don't know what's going on here. Maybe it'll be up to the pastor to sort it out and he'll have to take a side. He might try and plead neutrality. But something will have to be sorted out. But there will be those, and you didn't see it. You don't know what's happening. You like both individuals. Well, you're going to try not to offend them. You're going to try and be neutral. I didn't see it. I don't know what's going on. You're not going to take sides. But when we think of this conflict between God and Satan, this spiritual conflict, You can't do that. You might think you can do that. Well, I'm not going to take a side. But the reality is we were born into a side. We were born in sin. We were shapened in iniquity. We're on the side of the evil one. We're on the side that is against God. And that has changed for some when they trusted Christ as Savior. When they bowed the knee and repented from sin and believed in Him as their own impersonal Savior. Now they're in the army of Christ. They're in the army of God. They're standing against sin. They're standing against the devil. They're serving Christ. Holding high the banner of the cross. There are two sides. And we're either on the side of the enemy of God or the side of Christ. The side of the Gospel. The side of truth. There is no in-between. There is no neutrality. Yes, you can be a lazy soldier. Yes, you can be a soldier that wants to, as it were, not get involved in the conflict. You can be a soldier who is a coward. But you're still on a side. You still have a side. Oh, that we would understand that there is a side. And in this raging warfare, There is much encouragement for us. We find encouragement here in Matthew 2. You may say, Matthew 2? How is there encouragement here? Christ has been born. It's more of an incarnation theme. It's closing up that incarnation account. Where is there encouragement in the great spiritual conflict? Well, we find God giving direction in the protection of the Savior of the world. There is encouragement here in spiritual warfare. And that's where I want us to go tonight. Looking at this passage, taking out those encouragements as we seek to stand for the Lord and reminding ourselves that whatever happens in this world, whatever the enemy may try to do or seek to do, God is in control. God is in control. This is what this passage teaches us. God is in control and no man Nor the devil will stand in his way. Encouragement in spiritual warfare. Firstly, I want you to see that God fulfills prophecies concerning the war with Satan. God fulfills prophecies concerning the war with Satan. There is a reminder here, perhaps a most necessary reminder, that the Lord is upon the throne. That He is in control of this world. Turn with me to Matthew 1. Just back a passage, we see verse 23. That which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Isaiah 7.14. This prophecy. God with us. And what do we see in Matthew's Gospel? A reference to that prophecy. but the fulfillment of it. You see, this spiritual warfare started Genesis chapter 3, whenever the Savior was promised the seed that would bruise the head of the serpent. And now in Matthew's Gospel, one of those prophecies is being quoted, the virgin conceiving, bringing forth the Son, God with us, And here it is taking place. It is being accomplished. It is being accomplished. Our God is a God who keeps His promises. And at the very commencement of the New Testament in Matthew's Gospel, that is what we see. A promise-keeping God. A God who has the power to keep His promises. How many promises have we broken? How many promises have we forgotten about? How many times have we said we will do something, or we will meet somebody, and we've forgotten? It constantly happens. How many times do we promise to do something and realize we cannot accomplish that promise? We don't have the strength. We don't have the means. We cannot do what we said we would do. We fall short. Yet when God promises, He does not fall short. When God promises through His inipitence, His infinite power, that promise is true. That promise. comes true. Our God keeps His promises. And His promises concerning salvation are promises that build our faith. Promises that strengthen our faith. We're resting tonight upon the promise of God. None of us were there at the cross when Christ died for our sins. None of us were there in Bethlehem when Christ was born. None of us were there to see the day of Pentecost. You can take that as a compliment tonight because I'm saying that nobody here is a thousand odd years old. We weren't there. It's simple. We were not born. We could not witness it with our eyes. We will never witness it with our eyes. We cannot go back in time and see the great working of God that we've been reading about in Matthew 1 and Matthew 2. But we trust and rest upon the promises of God and we rest upon His Word. We believe it is true. We believe in what God has given us. And here we find that There were prophecies fulfilled concerning the war with Satan. That encourages us. That encourages us to keep on going. That encourages us because in this great war coming from Genesis right through to the end of this world, there is that journey, there is, as it were, that battle raging from Genesis to Matthew. We can see that moving into Revelation. We jump ahead and have a glimpse of the future. And what happens? What happens at the end? We know what happens. Christ has given us the victory that overcomes the world. The Savior has the victory. God has the victory. The devil is a foe that is defeated. Our God, our Savior will not be defeated. And why is that? Well, because of who He is. Because of His power. But because of those prophecies in Scripture, those prophecies don't stop at the birth of Christ. They speak about His death. They speak about His resurrection. They speak about His coming again. They speak about the people of God being with Him. The people that He bought with a price being with Him in heaven for all eternity. All these promises, prophecies. And they're all true. Every single one of them will come true in the plan and the power of God. And here in Matthew's gospel, we see already that some of these promises have come true. Moving to our period of time, we see that some of those promises, more of them have come true. As time goes on, we will see that more and more until the day we see our Savior face to face. We can rest upon the promises of God. And as we fight in this battle, there is that encouragement that we fight upon the promises of God. We're not on the losing side. We're not on the losing side. Some of us maybe don't like to lose. If we're losing a game, or our team is losing, Off goes the television. You see it in sports. There's a team losing. It's not going so well. And with a few minutes left, everybody, as it were, leaves. It's over. It's a disaster. And then their team comes back and wins. And they're embarrassed because they missed this great event. But often, we don't like to lose. We have an attitude. Maybe you flip the board game table up in the air because you're losing and you're being annoyed. Maybe you have that anger within you because you don't like defeat. When it comes to this spiritual warfare, dear believer, those who love the Lord are on the side that will never taste defeat. There is this great victory and it's built upon these promises. I want you to consider very quickly these promises. We find in verse 15, that the Savior was in Egypt until the death of her, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Going back to Hosea 11 verse 1, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. And Egypt is seen here as a place of refuge. It provided relief from famine for Jacob and his sons. It provided Joseph and his family here in chapter 2 protection from the plans of murder by Herod. It provided a place of refuge. We're reminded of the children of Israel as they fled to Egypt for refuge from the famine. They were there 400 years in a foreign land. We're reminded there of the lamb that we mentioned this morning. The Passover lamb that was slain as they left Egypt. They came up again out of Egypt. And so, as the Old Testament prophecy is, out of Egypt have I called my Son. The Savior went up out of Egypt when Herod was dead. Christ came forth into the land of Israel once again to be the Savior. When we think of Egypt, we do think of the captivity. We do think of the redemption of the Lord's people. And tonight, When we think of the Savior, there is redemption. When we think of His table before us, there is redemption. That is why we have that table here. It is a reminder to the people of God there is salvation. And the Savior coming out of Egypt, coming out of that land that God redeemed His people out of, that land that often reminds us in Scripture of the world and sin, And the people of God have been called up out of that land. Have you been called out of the spiritual Egypt? That spiritual place of sin and wickedness. Called out as the people of God redeemed and set free. The Savior came out. This promise was fulfilled. But notice again, we've seen the providence of God. An Old Testament prophecy coming true here again. Verse 17, Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah 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. There was a prophecy here. There was a voice heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Jeremiah 31 verse 15, weeping for children. The refusal to be comforted because they were not. There's great lamentation, great sorrow. Again, the prophecy of the Old Testament coming true. Some may say, well, how can Christ be the Savior? There's lamentation, there's sorrow. In Luke chapter 2, there was joy. When the wise men came, there was joy. There was worship. When the angels sang, there was jubilation. There was much rejoicing. And now there's sorrow. How can that be? Christ brings joy, not sorrow. It's a sad providence here. The one who was the consolation of Israel. Savior. But yet the wickedness of her had brought this sorrow. If we look into the prophecy, Jeremiah chapter 31, we will see that despite that weeping and that bitter weeping, there was joy that would come. Verse 16, thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. There was sorrow and lamentation, but there is joy. And ultimately, Christ brings joy. Christ brings joy. There's a promise here at the end in verse 23 concerning the Savior. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. This was a stumbling block to the Jews because it was asked, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Yet, the Savior did. The Savior did. The one who was the branch that came forth. That word in the Old Testament that refers to branch. The Savior being that branch. The Hebrew word there is a word that can signify or a word from which the name comes from. Nazareth. Nazareth. The Savior is that branch. And without going into greater detail regarding these prophecies, the prophecies of Scripture, they strengthen our faith. They strengthen our faith. God's promises come true. And as we face spiritual warfare, we're not on our own. Let us immerse ourselves in the promises of God. Let us stand firm upon what God has said in his word. If you were a soldier in a conflict and you had to understand your role, in that conflict. Maybe it was manning a gun. Maybe it was some sort of equipment that you had to maintain. What would you do? You would make sure you knew how to use that equipment. There would be training. There would be manuals. There would be experience. And all these things are true in the conflict we face with the enemy. That spiritual conflict. God's Word is our manual. And as we live for Him and as we serve Him, there is that experience, that learning, that teaching, all built upon the promise of God in Scripture. But secondly, I want you to see that God knows the attempted wickedness against His church. God knows the attempted wickedness against His church. We can think of Psalm 2. How the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. And it says in v. 4, He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. And this prophecy within this Psalm Does it not point to those that oppose the Savior? And those who oppose the plan of God for our salvation? They have their ideas and their agendas, and they have what they desire to do, but the One in the heavens will have them in derision. He will laugh because He is in control. We see the signs of wickedness throughout the Old Testament. Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, We can think of the judges and David and Goliath. We can think of Esther being used to preserve the Jewish people during the wicked actions of Haman. We can think of Revelation 2, the church at Smyrna, how they faced spiritual warfare and persecution, and the Lord cared for them and strengthened them. And dear believer, we are reminded in Scripture that God knows the attempted wickedness against the church and His people. We're reminded in Romans 8 verse 28 that all things work together for good. How blessed that verse, that promise is. And when we come to Matthew 2 and consider the wickedness of Herod against Christ, the Lord knows this will happen. In His sovereign will, He knows this will happen. Let us encourage ourselves that the Lord knows the trials and the difficulties. are faced by his church. We find in verse number 12, of course, Herod is in view. He wanted to know when the star appeared. He has that agenda already. Verse 12, I'm being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod. They departed into their own country another way. And verse 13, we find that the Lord appeared to Joseph again. He appeared to him in a dream, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be thou there till I bring thee word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. The Lord knew this would happen and he stepped in and there was this protection upon the Savior. The Lord knows what will happen. He knows the rage of the enemy. He knows the wickedness and the evil of men. He knows, for He wrote in His Word, in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Let us remember the deceitful and wicked heart, that a poverty of man's heart, being in the depths of sin. And this is the natural state of your heart. Deceitful and desperately wicked. A heart that needs the Savior. Is that your state tonight? Desperately wicked. Deceitful. A heart that is far from God. Oh, that you would trust the Savior. You would see these promises unfold. You would see the hand of God in sending forth His Son into the world. And you would believe upon Him. God sees this wickedness. God knows. God knows. Dear believer, is that not an encouragement for us? Is that not an encouragement for you as you face the foe, as you stand for Christ? You may be marked, you may be scorned, you may face opposition in family and home for what you believe and the faith that you have, but God knows. God sees it. God knows it's going to happen. The trials we will face this year, God knows. God sees that. God in His sovereign will has ordained these things. Let us comfort ourselves that we have a Savior who knows the wickedness of men, who knows the trials that we face. Thirdly and finally, I want you to see that God directs for the preservation of His church. God directs for the preservation of His church. We see this time and time again We see it in Israel and Egypt. Israel being delivered out of bondage into the promised land. We see them time and time again being delivered from the invader, the enemy, the persecutor. We see the church being delivered through the book of Acts. We see the preservation of those who would preach the Word of God. And we see how God moves and protects for the preservation of His church. When the gospel light had went out, But whenever the gospel was twisted and corrupted and no longer preached, whenever the truth of the gospel and those who preached it were silenced, God rose up men, Luther, Calvin, others, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ and to preserve His church, to preach His gospel. And here the Lord moves by dreams and visions. He moves through His Word today, directing through the Scriptures. And we are to hear and obey the voice of God in His Word. God directs for the preservation of His church. Notice that we see a number of things here. God directs through the listening ear of His servants. God preserves His church, but God directs through the listening ear of His servants. Notice what we see in verse 13. There was an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Arise and take the young child and his mother. The reason is given. We've read it already. For her it will seek the young child to destroy him. God directs through the listening ear of His servant. Dear believer, how vital it is for you to have a listening ear. When hardships come in spiritual conflict, hardships come in life, oh, that you would have a listening ear toward Christ and His Word, to be directed by Christ, to be directed by the Lord. When we face the enemy, when we face the foe, we need a listening ear to the Word of God. God directs. through the trusting heart of His servants. Joseph's trust here is in God. All the promises of God regarding the Messiah build up to this, and Joseph is resting on every one. The promise regarding Bethlehem. The promise regarding the Virgin. The promise regarding the coming of Christ Himself. Joseph is resting upon all of these promises, believing, trusting the Lord. God directs through the trusting heart of His servants. Dear believer, whatever hardships we face in life, listen to the Lord. Trust in Him. Trust in the One who is omnipotent. Trust in the One who is in control. And thirdly, God directs through the obeying desire of His servants. Joseph desired to obey the Lord. He listened. We can listen. We can listen and we hear. But do we obey? Just like the child who was told to do something, they hear, they might say that they don't hear, but they hear. We can often be told things and we hear, but we don't obey. We don't obey. And God directs not only through the listening ear and the trusting heart, but through obedience. listening to His Word and doing it. Doing it. You see, there are many trials that we can face in life. There are many hardships that come upon us. We think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus who were discouraged and downcast. Why were they discouraged and downcast? Because they did not fully listen, understand, believe, trust in Christ and in His message. We can be downcast at circumstances in life. We can go through difficult times. We can face hardships, and they press heavy upon us. And perhaps a reason for that is that we do not listen, we do not trust, we do not obey God in the way that we ought to. That might be a reason. Surely we have to examine ourselves and think, is that a right reason? Is that reason accurate? That we do not listen, trust, and obey the way that we should? What would have happened if Joseph had listened, but never trusted and never obeyed? Herod and his forces came through Bethlehem. And they didn't just stop at Bethlehem, they went through the coasts of Bethlehem. Bethlehem's not near the coast. A little bit from the coast, that means simply the surrounding area. It wasn't just the little town itself, it was the area around about it. And Herod came in and there was a slaughter. And if Joseph didn't listen, didn't obey, from the human perspective, things would have been very different. But he was a man who listened. A man who trusted, a man who obeyed. There's a lesson there for you and I. That as we seek to stand for Christ, as we seek to serve Him in spiritual warfare, that He would preserve us. And how does that happen? We listen, we trust, we obey. Dear believer, tonight, may you listen and trust and obey the Savior. We see that example here. We see that encouragement for us. that we would hold fast to His Word, never let it go, and have that listening ear, that open heart to the Savior. When we think of the spiritual warfare, when we think of the sinner, those outside of Christ, how can you be saved? Well, you have to have a listening ear. You have to trust. You have to obey the call of the gospel. to turn from sin and trust the Savior. Oh, how many ways we have to have a listening ear, a trusting heart and obedience to our Savior. May the Lord bless his word tonight for his name's