O'er each the unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let us hear the word of God. As we find written in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the second chapter beginning at the first verse. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, the older came wise men from the east of 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?
And now made the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen. Good morning, dear friends, and Christ Jesus. This Sunday morning is morning, keeping with the season of the year as I am sure all of us to be.
I hope that you are glad to be in church this morning that we have come here to worship our God. Today, as I have said, we are celebrating the festival of Epiphany, and we are also taking note of the fact that this is the first Sunday of the New Year, 1972. The word Epiphany means a manifestation of showing forth, and therefore it commemorates the time when the wise men came. When Jesus was manifested or shown forth to them, these wise men who were not Jews, but who were Gentiles.
This is perhaps the oldest festival that is celebrated in the Christian church. It all becomes on January the sixth, as your church calendar will tell you, we shall observe it. However, today it goes by a number of names, the festival of Epiphany, it is called the festival of the three wise men, the festival of the Gentiles, it's also called the festival of the 12th day, figment from December the 25th to January the 6th, 12 days. As you and I know that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the manger, he was manifested or there was an Epiphany to the shepherds, and they were Jews.
But when the wise men came, they were not Jews, they were from the Gentile world. And so Epiphany is known as the Gentile Christmas. If you have observed in your paper, there are a number of Christian churches, the Orthodox churches in the eight who celebrate Christmas not on December the 25th, but rather on January the 6th when Jesus was manifested again to the wise men. So today we are going to do as we did in the Adventist season, as we did in our Christmas Eve service, we are asking the question, what child is this?
Who is this child who was born in Bethlehem? And since this is Epiphany, we shall ask the wise men. Wise men tell us what child is this. And the wise men tell us, why don't you know what child this is?
This child is no less the wise and the king of the Jews, and also our king for we have come to worship him. We may wonder about the wise men, perhaps you wonder, why are we talking about the wise men today? Well, as they go back to the Christmas story, Jesus we know was born in a manger in Bethlehem. How long they remained in the stable there?
We are not told, but surely not very long. As people moved out of Bethlehem and went back home, Mary and Joseph certainly found the house. On the 8th day, Jesus was circumcised, and every Jewish male was. Then last Sunday, as we heard on the 40th day, Mary and Joseph took the child from Bethlehem, got sick miles north into Jerusalem, and they presented him in the temple as the firstborn son, and Mary offered her sacrifice of purification, which was the right of the Jews.
There they met the Indians we heard last Sunday, and they're under the prophetess again. She blessed the child. They did not go back home. They didn't go back up into Galatian, up to Nazareth.
They decided that they would make their home in Bethlehem. Mary evidently didn't want to go back where they had come from, so they came back to Bethlehem. Then it was after they came back and took a house in Bethlehem, that the visit of the wise men came. Judging from the fact that King Herod didn't know he killed all the little boys in Bethlehem, who were two years old and under, and he was playing it safe.
The visit of the wise men may have been almost as long as two years after Jesus was born, because he again was making sure that when he was going to kill the boy children down in Bethlehem that he would get this king. So just men, the visit of the wise men came. We do not know, but we do know that when they came they found him in a house. So the day we say, on this Epiphany festival, wise men, what child is this?
In the game the wise will say, why he is no less than the king of the Jews, and he is also the king of the Gentiles. He is the savior of all men, without accepting. He is the universal king and savior. He is your savior and my savior, not excluding you or me.
I'm not giving you a need of the brush off. Never saying, again, you are simply nothing but an orphan. You are in an outcast. You are the forgotten one.
Wise men would remind you and me and call us the thank God that this child was no less than the universal savior. Your savior in mine, the savior of every individual, not excluding one soul, not even excluding you, not even excluding me. Somehow rather than the savior of ourselves, I would like to believe that. I would like to believe that I should rejoice and thank God that this child was no less than the universal savior, the savior of the Jew, the savior of the Gentile, my savior, not excluding me, not giving me a brush off.
We may say to ourselves, it's rather hard because what did God's will that this Jesus be, the universal savior, that he be the savior of the Jew and also the Gentile world. When we read our Bibles, we may say there's so much about the Jew here that it would give us the feeling that a Jesus came primarily to be the savior of the Jewish people and how about us Gentiles, us who are non-Jews. You win, you say, how about me? We may at times in our Christian experience, out of the month and much.
After all, why should Christ come to be my savior? He gives me the brush off. I'm not very important. I don't mean so very much, and therefore I wonder, was this Jesus my savior to?
And the wise men of the pudge, you need to rejoice and say, we came to worship him. He was not only the king of the savior of the Jews, but also the savior of the Gentiles, because their visit would assure you and me that it was God's will, that it was ever God's will, it was nothing less than God's will at any time. But that this child should be the savior, not only the Jew, but of the Gentile world, even your savior in mind, not giving you and me the brush off as though we didn't raid, as though we didn't count. And let's look at the word of God this morning and let's feed.
That it was God's will, always God's good and gracious will, that this child should be the universal savior for everybody, not excluding one single soul, not even excluding you and me. Unimportant though we may say we are, and we don't announce much. And why would he be my savior? Why would he be your savior?
Because in the first place, let's know this, as a coming to the wise men, again, reminds us of that God's good and gracious will, that's will of God's will from the very beginning, back in the garden of Eden, that this child should be the universal savior, the savior of everybody, Jew and Gentile, even your savior in mind. We say, oh, this is rather a strange thing. This is a strange experience, the coming of these wise men, lo and behold, they came into Jerusalem one day, these men coming and they act various, even as born king of the Jews, they're going to starve with miraculous humanization for a star, have guided them to Jerusalem. And the amazing thing is that, in Jerusalem, the birth of Jesus, it didn't simply cut a wrinkle, of course there was no leader, there was no television.
And no one knew anything about it. Who is this king? So Herod, one mane if there was a king not start, and one mane whether somebody was going to take his throne, Herod was a little puppet king down in Judea. He called the chief priests and the elders together, and he said, where is your king to be born?
If you were to have a king, where was he to be born? And they told me rightly that Micah the prophet, who lived 800 years before, had said that he would be born in Bethlehem, but thou, that's for the emperor to go thou, as in among the thousands of you, there's so. Again, they told king, Herod, right? That their king was to be born in Bethlehem.
Then he called the wise men in, and he had a secret king with them, and he questioned them at length at what time did this start up here? He was trying to determine how old would this king be? Who was to be born in Bethlehem? And we can see again that when he had the children killed evidently, he found out that the star somehow or other within the past two years.
And then again he told them to be down to Bethlehem, said, the six miles south of here, you could down to that city, and when you have found this king, be sure and come and tell me all about it so I can go and worship him too. And they started down to Bethlehem, and the star again appeared, and they were filled with great joy, and they came to Bethlehem, and the star stood over the house. Now they were living in the house, and they found Mary, and they found the Christ child, and they found down and worshiped him, and they opened up their gifts, and they gave him gold and frankensome to Mary. And amazing things, they were white and Gentiles, and they found the Christ child.
We may say to ourselves, but where's this Jesus to be? The universal Savior, even your Savior in mine, even though you and I are not very important, even though we may say we don't amount to very much, and we got the rush off. Very much, let's go back into the Word of God, back to the Garden of Eden. When God created our first parent's Adam and Eve, this is they were the world, and then they sinned.
When they did that, which was wrong, tempted by Satan, remember the first promise that God gave as he spoke to Adam and Eve and to the devil and the guys of the servant. He said, and I will put in the sea between the woman, between thy seed and her seed, get shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. Adam and Eve were the world. God promised the seed of the woman who was the Savior.
In that, too, and I can say he was the be the universal Savior to God. The entire human race was Adam and Eve, the one with the word of God. You may say, what race were they? They were not Jews.
You don't get the word Jew, so over 2,000 years later, they were God's people. What color were they? I don't know. Were they white?
I don't know. Were they brown-skinned? I don't know. What time did they think I don't know?
All that I know is, they were the world, two human beings. And all that I know is the Savior was promised the world. And therefore, you and I know this, but from the very beginning, it was God's will that this child be the universal Savior, not just the Jew, not just for a few, not for others, but he was to be the Savior for you and for me. Not ever casting you in the office, though of him.
We were simply orphans, so we were outcasts. From the very beginning, back in the garden, he was to be the Savior, the world. And therefore, we have this joy. We have to rejoice on the company Sunday.
We ought to say when the wise men call us to be Jewish. Thank God, because what does this mean? That the first promise of the Savior was to be the Savior, the world, because it was made to the whole human race, two people. It assures you and me that we have this comfort.
There is no place in the word of God. God, be destined, you were me or anybody else, the damn nation. So maybe it owes us a thank God who is sovereign. He has predestined or predetermined that some of us are going to be damned.
You show me that in Scripture. That isn't there, friend. There is no place in the word of God, where God has determined that anyone so should be lost and should be damned. It is not there.
It was the good and gracious will of God from the very beginning, that this child should be the Savior of all men. That includes you and me, regardless of what we think of ourselves at times. And therefore, on this occasion, as we celebrate the epiphany, and as we sing our songs and we pray God because the Christ men, they call on us to do this, is not only the King of the Jews, but he is the King of the Gentiles. We ought to thank God and praise him.
And then as we are standing here at the portal of this New Year, we ought to determine to take this Christ, this universal Savior with us. When we do it, we ought to look back on yesterday. We ought to simply leave behind forever those things at which we are ashamed. We may say to ourselves, how can I give you the New Year and take Christ with me?
Look at my life. Look at the things that are wrong. They are in mind the 50s that came to be the universal Savior. You are saving in mind.
From the very beginning, God didn't exempt one human soul. It means you and me, and I don't care who you are or who I am or what I am. I know this, but you and I can turn to this Christ who died on the cross for you and me. We can take all the dirty stinkin' things up last year, and we can lay them at each feet and tell them, for sorry, don't forget us.
We can leave them behind forever. Let's leave 1971 behind. Wipe it off. Burn the bridge.
It's done. Because he was the universal Savior. His blood was shed for you and me. They taught us about lousy things, make it them done in your life and mine the past.
Cut it off. It's done. It's forever forgiven. Today, epiphany, we say to ourselves, what's it God's will at all times that this child should be the universal Savior?
We need to say, well, when you need the Bible, there's so much about the Jew and surely there is. We make up the kingdom that well God's kingdom just to be the king and the Savior of the Jews, but not of us Gentiles. It's surely not for me or for you. We need to say, I don't amount so much.
Why shouldn't God give me the brush off? Why shouldn't God sort of snub me and give me the cool shoulder? I'm not a very important person, but all the wise men, when epiphany comes, believe you me. Again, great celebration of the Christ.
The wise men call upon you and you'll need to thank God, telling us that this child is he's the king of the Jews, the Savior of the Jews, but also the Gentiles. You're denying because they're coming, as sure as I said, it was always God will. It was ever God's will that this Christ, this day, but that way should be the Savior of everyone, even your name. Not in any way, any sense, ever omitting and sliding even one so because in the second place, let's know this as a country wise man, yet reminds us that God's good and gracious will that we'll throw out the whole Old Testament period that this Jesus was to be the universal Christ.
You may say, Peter, where do you find in the Old Testament? Where do you find that this day was to be the Gentiles, Savior? You may say there's no mission work in the Old Testament. You may say, it's all about the Jew and the Jews, isn't it?
Let's go back for a moment. God big the promise to our first parents and they were the world. Then there was Cain and Abel in the promise again, was to come through Abel and Cain, and till Abel and God raised up Seth, you remember. Then the count of thousand years after the creation of Adam, he would count the time of Noah.
You may say, well, when Noah breast his son, Shymn, didn't he say, blessed be the Lord God of Shymn. In other words, Noah, when he blessed Shymn, you'll the son, he said, blessed be the Lord God or the Savior, that's going to come from your line. And wasn't he, does he say, a Shymnite or a Semitic person? And that's where we get the word.
And you may say, wasn't Shymn the fourth Father of what later became the Jewish? And that's right. When they say to ourselves, you see, God only intended a the Savior to be the Savior of the Jews. He was to be from Shymn, but to the fourth again.
You go back and look in your Bible. Now here was the second son of Noah. His name was Jesus. And when Noah blessed the second son, Jesus, don't forget what he said when he laid his hand on his hand.
And he said, and Jesus shall dwell in the tenth of Shymn. In other words, Jesus, you will dwell in the tenth of Shymn. You will enjoy the privileges and the blessings in the tenth of Shymn. They're also for you.
And don't forget this. Jesus was the Father of all Gentiles. That's you and me. And therefore again, even from the time of Noah back in the Old Testament, the promise was not only was he to be the Savior of the, again, of the Jewish, heimite, but Jacob was going to dwell in the tenths and also enjoy it.
And that's the Gentile world. That means you mean. Oh, that's long. We say, well, how about it?
That God intends with it, God's good and gracious will, that Jesus be the Savior of everybody, including you and me, that nobody gets a push off. Was that who in the Old Testament you hear so much about the Jew? Well, let's go back to the time in Moses, led the children of Israel and brought them up to the River Jordan and then Moses died and no josh with the command and they crossed the River Jordan and they were going to take the lands of Canaan, weren't they? Remember when they went up into the city here to Jericho and they sent them to the church and we sent fires into the city of Jericho because they were going to take that city and we're going to start to take the land.
And remember the fires were put up in the home of a woman by the name of Rahav. She was a Canaanite-ish woman and she was a harlot. She was the prostitute of the town. She made her living as a prostitute, but she hid the fires.
She let them down on the side of the wall and they got away safely and they told her that when we come and take the city of Jericho, if you will put in your window, they said if you will put a harlot cord, a red cord, think of it about 1500 years before Christ here about 2000, when we talk about the red light districts of the city where the prostitute lived, we talk about the red light that comes from the red cord that we have put in her window. And she put it in and she had her family there. When the Israelite came and they walked to Jericho and they took the city, she was saved. And lo and behold, in the Word of God, there was an Israelite by the name of Solomon who fell in love with Rahav and married her.
And then you see here comes some not only Gentile blood, but the blood of a prostitute of a harlot. And they had a son, they have some of them, a bull is, does that mean anything to you? And Bo is there for had in him he had his be like blood and he had Gentile blood in the blood of prostitute. And then comes the story of Ruth in the Old Testament.
And she told Ruth and she told Arthur you stay here, you worship your God, you worship your God, you worship your God, you worship your God, you worship your God. But to remember it was Ruth that said, oh no, she said, your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God. And lo and behold, Bo as who had Gentile blood in the blood of the Lord, who had the blood who had Gentile blood, he fell in love with her and married her. And that child he was old.
And no bad was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David and David the ancestor of Christ. Don't forget that when you look at the bloodline of this baby, that's what him. He was not pure blooded you. There was in his bloodline, Jim Kyle blood, the blood of a prostitute Rahav and the blood of Ruth the Moabide of the Heaton girl.
God wrote it into the fabric to work them the wolf of the Old Testament. This baby was to be no less than the universal savior. And then Isaiah 60, the Epistle lesson today, Isaiah 700 years before Jesus, he said, alright we're trying for the lightest term. And the glory of the Lord is risen upon me for Gentiles will come to thy life.
And kings to the brightness of thy rising. All the way from Hebrew shall come, they shall bring gold and incense. The camels and the bra materiales of Ephah. You know our forefathers when they read Isaiah 60, they said, here's the prophecy.
Come to the wise men. You may wonder in the wise men's story how do we call them kings? It doesn't say so here does it. Because Isaiah says kings shall come, so we made them kings.
Because the gate gets gold, maggots and early said there were three, it doesn't say three. We've given them names, it's not in the Bible. We call one Gaspry and the other now from the other Deltan far. So we put them on camels because Isaiah says the camels and the bra materiales would come.
And our forefather said here is a prophecy of Isaiah who lived seven hundred years. That's the wise men were going to come. She knew this, isn't it? And so we did but there was no mission.
There was no mission program in the Old Testament. We may say well since there wasn't, how about those heathens that lived inside in the Old Testament? Never heard about us. This bothers us a time.
Do we say, well then how about me? Is it God willing God wants to save me? I didn't God give me the brush off. I'm not a very important person.
I don't mean much. I'm sort of an orphan. I'm sort of an outcast. God's forgotten me.
Listen, you take your Bible. You try to find the answer in Scripture. What happens to a person who lives and dies who has never heard about Jesus Christ? And I want to tell you won't find it.
It isn't there. Don't let anybody tell you that the person who lives and dies without Christ without Christ without the Bible says he's saved and don't let anybody tell you to ask God says, wait a minute, that's my business. God says, let me take care of that. And I'm sure that his good and gracious will do it.
And I'm sure that God will be saved. I don't know what God's going to do about the heathen who lives and dies without Christ. But I know that God's good and gracious will. He sent Jesus to me to save the world.
That I do know. And I know that it'll be saved. That's his business. That's not mine.
And therefore you and I have to say on the company and sometimes in our Christian life we say, well Jesus didn't want to be my leader. He doesn't want me. Oh, I'm not a very important. I don't count for very much.
He gives me the brush off. He can snuff me. And he didn't come. Oh, listen, don't you remember from your childhood the visit of the wise men?
You know what it means? These were Jim Piles and God brought them. They have come to worship the king of the Jews. And they wanted to worship him too.
Why? Because he was the universal Christ. And therefore we ought to take him along this year. When we take him along as our king, we look at an uncertain future.
Let's know this. We take him along. He who controls the universe. Then we've got this assurance that may not be an easy journey in 1972, but I promise you it'll be a safe one because this king is greater than any of them in life.
When we don't know the future and everybody's trying to tell the future we're going to have economically and so forth. Who knows? But I do know this that when you and I take him along as our king and as our sages because he came to be your sacred mind. He didn't exclude you and they all know.
He didn't exclude one so then you and I know this but it'll be a safe one regardless of what comes. This is the epiphany. It ought to mean something. Oh, this is a tremendous thing.
The wise man because the wise men come in the shores and said it was not well from the people that said it was not well from the very beginning that this child was to be the savior of all men, universal, not excluding one soul, not even your name. Regardless of what horrible things we may think about ourselves at times and think it's all hope is why even because listen, the very coming of the wise men reminds us that it was God's will that the wise men should come and that in the New Testament time the time should come and it should be broadcast to the world that Jesus was the universal Satan, that he didn't exclude one soul, not even your name. Unimportant as you and I make you over the hour, so we don't count too much. It was in the province of God that in the New Testament these wise men should come and of the people that were in the church and they said, who are they pictured?
Who were these wise men? Well, of course it does. They kept their wives and they were men. Where did they come from?
They came to heed. However, if you turn to the Bible, the Old Testament, I don't think it's hard to decide where they came from. If you remember a little bit about the Old Testament, back in 586 BC, we never get measured heed from Babylon and he carried the people of Judah back into captivity. They were down there in Babylon for 70 years.
Well, listen, in the 70-year period when they lived down there, they kept alive. The story that there was going to be a star on a Jacobus had been prophesied. And they told about a Messiah saved that was going to come that people of Babylon, they knew what the Jewish folk was and the Jews came back to know. But again, down in Babylon there were those who knew about this great Thomas that God had made to Israel and evidently as far as I'm concerned, I believe they came from Babylon about 600 miles east and that God blessed them because the Babylonians had been good to the Jews and God gave a star, a miraculous star and the star of Jacob or somewhere that I don't know that God told them to start moving and the wise men, some of their great dignitaries over time and they started to tell them that they traveled about 600 miles.
Yes, coming over because there was a star and this meant again, this king of the Jews, this again, this age of the world and they came. This was the new testament of the problems of God. And this is what happened then after Jesus had died on the cross for you and me, after you had been our savior, after you had risen from the dead, after you had a tone for our sins and given us assurance, after you had gone back to heaven, when you had sent the Holy Spirit, then God says, now go out and tell the world. Here he is again, this is the Jesus.
This Jesus is the king of the world. He is the universal leader. Not only did the Jew but also of the Gentile. You are savoring in mind, think of it, that's not the business.
This is it, and you just need to go out and tell the world. And therefore again, we offer rejoice and thank God because it means this and you're like a man. God said he would have all mentorship, he said he would have none of the truth. God said to him this morning, as I live, I swear by my existence that I don't have any pleasure in having to damn you.
My joy is that you would turn from your wickedness and leave. This is the Lord of God. It's always easy. There is no reason for anybody within the Son of my voice that they had told us.
Oh, no, the wise man, don't forget a company. It's tremendous just in the many things we understand that wise man can't tell. He, I mean God in a dramatic way, paying them and saying, this is your total. This has been always my real.
He's the savior of everybody. And therefore, as we go into this year in 1972, you are out of the thank God for the visit of the wise man. Thank God for the company we all come to take him along. I'm going to take him along and I'm going to again, preaching my loyalty and I'm going to be true and I'm going to be faithful.
All that he asks is this. When you and I take along, let's say I'm going along with you and you're going as my savior and I'm going to surrender. I'm going to submit. I'm going to do your will.
I'm going to do what you want me to do. I'm going to do what you want me to do. I'm going to let you want me to let you bring them all the fast. And then it means this company this year even the death comes, everything's going to be alright.
Oh, how quickly death comes. Oh, just last night I heard the emergency squad go out about six o'clock. Standing living on my door, see if it was raining and I heard them go east and wasn't about 15 or 20 minutes later. I got a phone call, one of the patients, and I don't call us on.
Very large and none of our members died suddenly. I guess it comes just watching television. Just like that. Who knows?
I don't know if anyone is ever going to see the end of this year. I don't know how far are you and I are going to get into it. I had an innocent experience last Monday morning. I went in the grocery store and walked home and I was being checked out for girls at the check in place.
There weren't too many there. So what do you mean? I had known for a face. I don't know her name.
I didn't know she knew me by name. But she said, oh Reverend Hompan, I've been wanting to talk to you. She said, the other Sunday I was listening on the radio and you were telling about a man with one of a sack of Christmas candy. And she said, oh I cried and I cried and I cried.
I felt so sorry for him. She said, is he still alive? Well last Monday morning I was able to tell him. Yes, he was alive.
He was greatly ill. But last Monday evening God called him. Oh he didn't get to come into church. He didn't get to see the Christmas candy.
I went to the church. I went to the church. He said, there was a time when I was afraid to die. But he said, I'm not afraid anymore.
I'm not afraid to die because I know Christ. He said he decided to hurt. So last Thursday afternoon we brought Frank's body here in the church. We lighted the candles in the Christmas trees.
He didn't get to see it when he was alive. But we came into God's house and we thank God that there was one who had put his face in Jesus and who had been called home to heaven. Nothing else matters now. In your life and mind if we've got him along this year and if death should come and just hold so quickly we can go home to be with our Lord.
Everything's alright because you see he's a wonderful Christ. He's not only as the wise mentality but not only the King of the Savior, the Jews but he was the Savior, the Gentile. He was a universal Savior actually so big that he was your Savior in mind. When did this year when we sing with the wise men and realize what they mean and the fatherance of God and the joy and the hope that we can sing with him.
We've reekings of all in our. A very new gift we traverse afar, healed in fountain, moored in mountain. A following yonder star, old star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Withward leading, still proceeding.
Guide us to thy. You and I have got the pretty light. My wish for you for the New Year is this that you will take him along. The Christ that the wise men found when they came.
The peace of God which passes all you and understanding keeping your nature hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until I ever last.