Wisdom in worshipping the King (Quality: Average)

[0:00] The End The End The End

[1:02] My text is found in the 72nd Psalm.

[1:20] And words that are out in the 10th and 11th verses. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents.

[1:40] The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him.

[1:55] All nations shall serve him. This is regarded as being a prophecy that is related to the great event of all time.

[2:23] The coming of the dear Son of God to this earth. It is true that the psalm is, by its title, dedicated to Solomon.

[2:45] Solomon, that great king of Israel, who was outstanding in many ways. Yes, chiefly because of his wisdom, which God gave unto him.

[3:02] But when we come to the New Testament and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to a time when he is speaking to a great multitude of people.

[3:25] And he calls their attention to certain historical facts. One of the great ones, one of the great ones.

[3:36] One of which was the great appearance of the Queen of Sheba, who came from her land of Ethiopia to learn of the wisdom of Solomon.

[4:00] And also the Lord Jesus refers to another great historic fact. And that was the case of Jonah, who went to Nineveh, a great city, and by the instrumentality of his preaching, aroused that city as one man, and caused that city, that great city of Nineveh, to repent in sackcloth and in ashes.

[4:45] Now, Jesus takes those two great events in history to bring before the minds of those multitude of people that he was addressing at the time.

[5:02] One great outstanding fact, and it was this. He says the Queen of Sheba came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

[5:22] And a greater than Solomon is here. And again he says the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.

[5:37] And a greater than Jonah is here. We can well say in regard to this song, which was written by a king, dedicated to a king, and was all about a king.

[6:07] We can say this, a greater than Solomon is here. For the whole song is a tribute to the glory, power of the Son of God, the King of Kings.

[6:28] I would just point out to you the striking feature about the psalm is the use of the word shall.

[6:43] If you look at it throughout the psalm, you'll find that it is repeated again and again. He shall. He shall judge thy people.

[6:58] He shall judge the poor. He shall save the children of the needy. He shall break in pieces the oppressor.

[7:10] He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass. And coupled with these many instances of the use of that word, you'll find also another use of it.

[7:25] In this way, they shall. They shall dwell in the wilderness. They shall bow before him.

[7:38] And when we come to our text, we find that these prominent personages, whoever they may indicate, they shall bring their presence to this glorious King and shall offer their gifts unto him.

[8:01] It reminds us perhaps of the 55th chapter of Isaiah where we again find the wonderful use of this word shall.

[8:15] My word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that which I please.

[8:27] It shall bring forth that which is pleasing to me. The mountains shall break forth before you into singing.

[8:40] And all the hills shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree.

[8:50] And this shall be for a name and an everlasting son that shall not be cut off.

[9:02] These truths bring our minds to realize the great power and the omnipotence of our God.

[9:13] And that is one thing I want us to concentrate our minds upon this morning as we think of these events, this event that this time of the year brings very forcefully to our minds is that word shall.

[9:41] God fulfilled his promise which he had promised right at the very beginning of history that his son should come forth and be the savior of his people.

[10:05] I think if we find our hearts and minds at this time of the year fixing upon the shelves of our God there can be no doubt whatsoever that we shall in some measure at least find the blessedness and get to the very heart of this great truth and great matter the coming of the son of God.

[10:48] Now to come to our text a little this morning it says yea all kings shall fall down before him and all nations shall serve him.

[11:07] These are things that God has proclaimed and he has declared in his word.

[11:17] and to come to our first part of our text kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

[11:40] I want us to concentrate our thoughts upon what is believed to be the reference here in this part of God's word and it is regarded as being a prophecy of that striking event which took place at the birth of Christ when those wise men came to pay their homage and worship unto the son of God.

[12:34] I think if we fix our thoughts a little this morning upon that circumstance we may well find a great deal to encourage and to instruct our hearts on some very precious and important things.

[13:00] things. I've often wondered and thought about those wise men.

[13:11] Tradition calls them three wise men but the word of God never tells us how many there were. The word tells us that they brought three kinds of gifts.

[13:25] gifts. It's not necessary for three people to bring three kinds of gifts. A dozen or more might well bring still three kinds of gifts.

[13:42] It's not so much how many there were it is the fact that they came. And it is the sublime purpose in their coming.

[13:59] And it is the overshadowing direction God imposed and applied to their coming right from the very far distant place in the earth to come to where the Son of God was secluded where he was virtually hidden unknown to the great majority of human race that these men were brought and guided by God to the very place where he was.

[14:44] Now there's a great deal for us to learn and to dwell upon and meditate upon in these things. They are called wise men and they were wise in many respects.

[15:01] They were wise because they could understand things that the great majority of their fellow men failed utterly to see, to recognize.

[15:13] wise. They were wise because they not only had seen a star but they recognized that that star had a message.

[15:29] It had a meaning. It was a visible representation of something of great importance.

[15:44] It may be that these men were familiar with the Old Testament scriptures. Christians. If so, it may well have been that they had noticed the word of Balaam, that false prophet, although he was false, God put into his lips some very profound and wonderful truths.

[16:14] And among those things that Balaam uttered in his day right back in the time of Moses, was this, there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

[16:35] That was the prophecy. Could it have been possible that these men had fastened their minds upon that prophecy and when they had seen the star, they instantly concluded that this was the fulfillment of that promise made many, many centuries before, even though it be by the lips of a false prophet.

[17:10] It was the word of God. A star shall arise out of Jacob. But however, however, whatever it was that convinced these men that this was a time of great significance, they started, this is the great second thing I want you to notice, they not only saw the star, but they recognized the significance of it.

[17:53] And also they started to discover the purposes, the messages, the purport of God sending this star at this time.

[18:11] they began their journey. Now, it seems very clear from the scriptures that their journey was of such length that it took two years to complete.

[18:32] There's no small thing that these men undertook. tradition calls them kings.

[18:46] I think that tradition very largely mutilates the beauty of the story of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to eliminate from our minds a great deal of tradition at this time of the year.

[19:03] It's far, far better if we come to the simple truth of God's word. And follow that, and follow that only. They call them kings.

[19:16] Well, there is some credence to that because our text, if it is a prophecy of this time, our text calls them kings.

[19:29] And indeed they were kings in this respect. They were wise men. men. And they were men of purpose. And they were men of courage.

[19:44] There were three qualities about these men who, however many there were, there were three qualities that were supreme. They were full of wisdom, heavenly wisdom.

[19:59] and they were possessed with real courage. And also they were prepared to put into practice what they believed.

[20:20] And therefore we can do them homage as kings among men. When our leaders looked at their journey and their purpose, we find that they came to Jerusalem expecting no doubt to find this king who was born the king of the Jews, this one who the star had foretold, they expected to find him in the very seat of authority, which would be Jerusalem.

[21:05] And you may well enter into the surprise that must have filled their minds when they came to Jerusalem and found no one there had ever heard of the king.

[21:20] no one could tell them whether he even existed and no one could tell them where he was.

[21:34] What an astonishing thing. Had they come all this way in vain? the king of the king of the king of kings, the king of the king of kings, the king of kings, whom they had perceived, whom they had recognized, and whom they had put themselves out to such a degree as to come journeying for two long years.

[22:15] And they come to Herod, the king. This somewhat lends itself to the fact that they were themselves kings because they came to pay homage to the king, Herod, in Jerusalem.

[22:33] and when they had paid their respects to him, they asked him where the king of the Jews was born.

[22:48] And he was disturbed. He could see the likelihood of his throne being pulled down and another taking his place.

[23:03] no man wishes to be usurped by another. And therefore Herod's mind was full of disturbance.

[23:17] He calls the wise men of Jerusalem, the Pharisees and the scribes, the lawyers and the doctors, he calls them all together and he says, now tell me, where is this king to be born?

[23:34] If there is a king, where is he to be born? Surely your scriptures will tell you something about it.

[23:45] And of course they knew, they knew everything that was to be done. And yet here was the great difference between these men in Jerusalem who were professedly the very epitome of all knowledge and religious understanding.

[24:06] Here's the difference. They knew the letter of God's word. They knew what the word of God said about the birth of the king.

[24:21] but they had done nothing whatsoever to apply themselves to it. Two long years they had been in Jerusalem knowing the facts and not putting a single finger to discover the reality.

[24:44] what a solemn indictment the rival of these men from the east brought about in Jerusalem.

[24:59] I say these things have a great deal of bearing upon our own times and our own lives and our own days. There are people about today who know all the things about the truth outwardly but never move in one single instance to lay hold of it, to discover the realities of it.

[25:29] They leave that for others. Like these doctors and lawyers in Jerusalem. They knew just where Jesus would be born but they'd never been the six miles to Bethel.

[25:43] to see whether he had been. Well now after therefore discovering to their great dismay no doubt the total disregard in Jerusalem they set out on their final journey.

[26:08] they understood that he was to be born of Bethlehem six miles from Jerusalem. And yet notice this they would not need a star to lead them to Bethlehem.

[26:25] It was almost within sight of Jerusalem them. But they were glad and rejoiced when after leaving Jerusalem the star went to guide them.

[26:41] I've often wondered where Jesus was. Whether the Mary and the father the Mary and Joseph had returned to Nazareth.

[26:56] You know how when the Lord was born at Bethlehem it was because they were there because of being taxed because the decree of Augustus had gone out that all the world should be taxed.

[27:14] They did not live at Bethlehem they lived at Nazareth but they had for force to be at Bethlehem at that mighty moment when the son of God would come but it does not mean to say that they would remain there.

[27:35] But one thing we are clear and very sure about and that was this the star knew the star guided were to those these wise men to the very place where he was.

[27:50] It went before them until he came to the place where he was. Now that's an important thing.

[28:03] You see they did not rely upon the directions of these men in Jerusalem. These formalists religious people that knew so much and yet did nothing whatsoever.

[28:25] They did not rely upon their word. They did not simply go blindly to Bethlehem. No, they waited for the guiding light.

[28:36] they waited upon God to give them leading and to bring them to the rightful place.

[28:47] They had come so far they did not desire now to be thwarted or deprived of their great purpose and that was to worship the king.

[29:05] Kings of Tarshish shall fall before him and shall bring presents.

[29:18] And we read how we read this morning how they came to where the young child was. And when they had opened their presents our text speaks of the presents that these kings brought before the king.

[29:41] When they had opened their presents they they offered the Lord three things gold frankincense and myrrh.

[29:57] They were no doubt choice gifts they had been brought from a great distance they represented great value but it was not the gifts themselves that counted it was the fact that they had counted with one great thing in their hearts and that was to worship they worshipped god they worshipped christ the king and i think that gold represented and does represent real worship the very best that we can render to the lord jesus christ is our worship there's nothing else really if there's not worship and worship is such a comprehensive thing it embraces everything it embraces love it embraces self-sacrifice it embraces faith and dedication and devotion all this is embodied in pure heartfelt worship that was the great essence of the gifts of these kings worship of god worship of christ and i would suggest this this morning as the greatest purpose that we could ever reach at this time of the year if you feel that a desire that you might have and enjoy at this time something that is of the exquisite blessedness and reality i would say this is the chiefest worship of christ if you've got that in your heart then peace happiness joy and blessedness will almost certainly be accompanied

[34:13] in in society in the church of god too great things are put on one side and relegated into a place of unimportance that should be the very forefront of our minds and ways and acts well these kings they brought among their presence they brought frankincense and i think that reveals the purity and the essential reality of their devotion and their reverence for jesus christ and then myrrh they brought also which is in my view of it is signifying the utter dependence and submission to the lord jesus christ three very precious and important gifts and though they are symbolic things symbolical things they are nevertheless very important and i think we need to look at these things very carefully and soberly and prayerfully too and ask the lord that he might give us the same grace and clothe us with the same spirit that he gave to these men that came all this great distance to just look at the king to bow in reverence at his feet and to signify their honor and homage to him by their gifts i think we have an abundant example in these for our own course and conduct what we should aim after that we might have that grace not simply to know the thing like the people in

[36:52] Jerusalem but to act upon it to turn our knowledge into deeds and also to be like these men these wise men watchful they did not miss a single thing they saw the star no doubt a great many others saw it a star is a visible thing generally speaking it's not for a few it's for a great multitude and these men out of all the multitude saw it and acted upon it and recognized it as something phenomenal and wonderful and also significant and they rose up together started on their way which ended in the meeting with the

[37:58] Lord what a wonderful consummation wonderful conclusion here was something that was carried out at great personal cost and great endeavor but it ended in a glorious triumphant consequence they came to where Jesus was they saw the king they were able to bow before him and render their heartfelt praises and their worship kings of Tarshish shall bring presence shall bring presence I wonder what we may personally think is we if we think about this matter at all

[39:00] I hope we do what presence can we bring to the king of kings have we got have we got empty hands today do we come with nothing in our hands we have to come to the Lord Jesus in that way when we come as poor sinners when we come to seek for his grace we have to come and say nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling make it look to thee for grace helpless fly to thee for grace but when we come in worship when we come seeking to serve him we should come with something in our hands this gold this frankincense this myrrh did not add to the glory of the king but it was a significant homage an act of worship it was and doubtless it was in the eyes of the Lord himself a sign of real devotion and love let us not be without these things let us hasten then to the feet of him who is the king of kings and lord of lords and bow before him in love and reverence and worship amen feel then what to even my