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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-perkins/gods-ways-in-matthew-1-4/
Now I would like to thank the assembly here in Gardner-Villow for all they've done to convene this conference. It's been a privilege to be here and has been said already, there's a lot of work done behind the scenes in the homes and in the kitchen and elsewhere.
Thank you very much for what you've done. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the privilege of prayer that we can speak to you, our Father, and for your interest in our lives as individuals, as assemblies, and Lord, we know you have purposes for us.
And we pray, Lord, that by your grace we might allow you to have your way in our lives. We owe the Lord Jesus everything who was willing to submit to the will of God. He could say, I come to do that I will, O God.
But Lord, we are so helpless in ourselves, and yet we thank you that we're not in our sins anymore, we're in Christ, and he's in us, and he is our hope, he's our everything. And we pray, Lord, that even this afternoon, as your word is open, that we would be drawn to this one whom having not seen we love.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus. There was no one like him in this universe. No one would have done or could have done what he did when he came into this world to be our sacrifice, our substitute, our all in all.
And again, as has been said many times, we're, we thank you for the hope that lies before us of one day being with him, seeing him, and Lord, we wonder what it'll be like the first time to see him face to face.
We thank you for the triumph of the cross, all that is accomplished for you, Lord, all he's accomplished for us. So, Lord, give help, we pray. Bless your word in our Savior's name. Amen. Psalm 25, Psalm 25, and verse 4.
Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. On you I wait all the day. David could write, show me your ways, O Lord. Isaiah 55, please.
I almost said the gospel of Isaiah. I guess I wouldn't be too far wrong. Isaiah 55 and verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I'm going to read those two verses again. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God says his ways are higher than our ways, and we know this in theory, but I'm not sure we always live it. And where I'm going with this is, I wonder sometimes if we put God in a box, and we think that because of our limitations and failures, God could never use someone like us.
Or our circumstances are different than what we expected, not what we'd hoped for. We look around, God doesn't seem to be in our circumstances, and we think this can't be the will of the Lord. God's ways are not our ways.
We think God thinks like we do. He doesn't. We think that he does things like we would do. He doesn't. I think I said was it yesterday, it seems to me God often works so subtly that you would miss what he's doing if you weren't tuned into him.
Oh, I know sometimes he works in dramatic ways, but often he works in ways that we would never expect. Brother, sister, God uses ordinary people, people like you and me with their failings, with their shortcomings, people that we wouldn't choose, God uses.
And he also uses circumstances that we wouldn't choose. And who here has circumstances that are 100 Sometimes we think that we've missed the boat as far as the will of God is concerned because of our circumstances, because of what we see in here.
But God's greatness is unsearchable. God tells us that. He is greater than our limitations. He's greater than our circumstances. And he can use people like you and me, even in our circumstances. Now, some time ago, I started reading through the New Testament, and I was impressed by God's ways at the beginning of the New Testament in the first chapters of Matthew.
And turn now with me, please, to Matthew chapter 1. And I don't plan to be long this afternoon. I'm going to leave lots of time for Brother Colson. Now, what I want to consider is, how does God do things at the beginning of the New Testament?
Does he do things the way we would do them, the way we think he should? Matthew 1 and 1. The book of the—now I'm reading from the New King James Version, as I have been—the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Ammonitab. Ammonitab begot Nashun.
Nashun begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her, who had been the wife of Uriah. And then we'll drop down to verse 16.
And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ. Now, just imagine if it were you and me, and we're writing the genealogy of the Messiah, who would we choose?
Look who God chooses. I mean, He mentions Judah there in verse 3. Judah's was less than pristine, the situation with Tamar. Later on, I didn't read that, but we get some kings like Ahazem and Esser were about as bad as you could be.
Would you and me use people like this in the genealogy of God's Son? And not only that, but there's women mentioned in this genealogy, which seems to me unusual. It's not the norm. And notice who the women are.
You get Tamar in verse 3, and the immorality with Judah. You get Rahab in verse 5, the harlot from Jericho. You get Ruth in verse 5, the Moabitess, an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, stranger from the covenants of promise, no claims on the God of Israel.
And then in verse 6, it doesn't even mention her name, just that she's the wife of Uriah. That's Sheba. Now, I'm not promoting sin, and God doesn't promote sin, but it seems to me God uses people that we would marginalize, that we wouldn't choose.
In fact, He uses people like you and me. Brother, sister, we're all so flawed, all so flawed, so far distant from the standard like the Lord Jesus. I'm glad that God is the God of restoration. He's the God, this may not be the best expression, but the God of second chances.
Think of Abraham, stellar man, and yet he went down to Egypt, reaped some results from that, his wife being taken into Pharaoh's palace. I can't imagine what that would have been like for him, or for Sarah for that matter.
And God had promised them a son, and they got tired of waiting, and so there's a situation with Hagar and Ishmael's born. Abraham had his difficulties. Moses ran ahead of the Lord when he killed that Egyptian.
What, was he 40 years old or so? Killed the Egyptian, trying to do the right thing a wrong way, and haven't we done the same thing? 40 years ahead of the Lord. Of course, the Lord uses them in a miraculous way, but he was on the far side of the desert 40 years.
And there's David, man after God's own heart, man who wrote so many of the Psalms, tremendous, a warrior on the one hand, and yet a poet, musician, statesman, and yet like us, feet of clay. You wonder, how could he ever have done that with Bathsheba?
Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. And then there's Peter in the New Testament. Seems like he tried to take off a man's head. I don't know if the man ducked or not, but he just got his ear, and the Lord restored it.
And then, shortly after that, such bravery, going to defend his Lord, he thinks, doing the right thing a wrong way again, but then he denies the Lord. Say, Peter, how could you ever have done that? Don't be too hard on Peter.
We probably deny the Lord in many ways ourselves. So, have you blown it? Things in your life? I remember a commended worker telling me many years ago, he says, you know, we all struggle. And I turned, I mean, I knew I was struggling, but I didn't think he did.
And then, again, many years ago, I was staying in a home having gospel meetings in a certain place, staying with a couple. He was an elder in the assembly. She came from a long line of assembly people, well-known family.
In the course of those meetings, I was invited to have dinner in the home of a young couple. They hadn't been in the assembly very long. They had some little children. And I'm in the home there for, what do you call it, supper or dinner here in Iowa.
You know, back home in Chicago, it's dinner. I grew up in Canada. We called it supper. And I think you call it supper out here. Is that right? Well, you know the meal I'm talking about anyway. So, I was there and waiting for the supper, waiting for the supper.
And the kids are bouncing all over the walls, and the wife's trying to cook the meal and everything. And it came out, she was just so frustrated. She felt like she was a total failure as a mother. And I don't know what all.
And in the course of conversation, she wished she could be like the sister in whose home I was staying. This young sister was struggling. But she didn't think this older sister, this mature Christian was struggling.
I lived in that home. I was staying in that home. And I knew some of the struggles that other people didn't know about. And that same sister had some very serious struggles, even after those meetings were over many years later.
Brother, sister, we all struggle. A brother once told me, he says, some people think the assembly is like an arena or a stadium, and the goal is to get as many points as possible. Who can be the greatest?
It's human nature. He says, listen, the assembly is more like a hospital. We're all wounded, and we ought to be trying to help one another. I think he's right. So, beginning of Matthew, people that we wouldn't choose, ordinary people with all their failures, they're in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus.
But let's go on and see what happens. Verse 18 of Matthew 1. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us.
And Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.
Okay, so the Messiah is going to be born here. Joseph had a little difficulty, it would seem, when he found out that this woman he was engaged to was with child. Did he think, is this the will of the Lord?
This can't be the will of the Lord. But of course, the angel explains to him what has taken place, and we read in Luke that Mary goes away for three months to spend some time with Elizabeth, her relative, and then comes back.
Now we're not told, and I don't want to make conjecture here, but in the town of Nazareth, would there have been people that have deduced that she was with child before they were married? I don't know, but there could have been tremendous reproach for this young woman.
And who could fault Mary? I'm not saying she thought this way, but when she thinks, is this the will of the Lord? I mean, but anyway, I'll just leave that because it's all hypothetical. But you know what happens when she gets near the ninth month?
Caesar gives the edict that there's going to be a census, and they have to go to Bethlehem. Now my understanding, that's 70 to 90 miles. Now I don't know about you sisters that have had children, but I know my wife didn't want to go on any big trip just before one of our girls was going to be born.
In fact, I remember we had just moved up to northern lower Michigan. We were in a new work there, and our second daughter, Ruth was with child, with our second daughter. And I remember one morning we went to the hospital because she thought the birth might be imminent, and they said, no, come back later.
And so my wife says, well, let's go for a drive. So we went for a drive. There's this place called Hubbard Lake, a nice drive. And when I'm driving around, and then my wife gave me that look, like with her eyes about like saucers, and I knew here comes the baby.
One problem, I didn't know where I was. And this was the day before phones and GPSs. The Lord preserves the simple. And somehow I was able to find my way back. We got to the hospital. I think the baby was born 30 minutes later.
God is gracious. But generally, women going to have a baby don't want to be going on a long trip. And it wouldn't have been in a car, of course. How would they travel? Walk on a donkey? I think maybe that's the only options.
Mary could have thought, Lord, if I'm going to give birth to your son, why did you allow this? You ever ask the Lord why? Why did this happen? Why these circumstances, Lord? There's one reason his ways are higher than our ways.
He has his purposes. We only see a little part of the picture, don't we? He sees the big picture. But you know, the story doesn't end with just the trip to Bethlehem. Big crowds there. No room. No room.
Seems the only place was with the animals. Again, Lord, is this your will? No room? May the Lord help us when our circumstances seem to be adverse and we can't understand them. And it's easy for me to speak this.
It's a lot harder to live it. But may the Lord help us to trust him anyway. Brother, he can use you. Sister, he can use you. Even in your circumstances that you feel what's going on here, it doesn't mean that God has put you on the shelf.
Joseph and Mary, they just needed to walk by faith, not by sight, just like us. Not ideal circumstances. So even in the first chapter in the New Testament, God uses ordinary people with all their failings, with the genealogy, and then with the birth of Messiah.
I know we're not given the details here, but unusual circumstances to say the least. But let's go on. Chapter 2, verse 1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
For we have seen a star in the east and have come to worship him. Drop down to verse 9. When they heard the king, they departed, speaking about the wise men. When the wise men heard the king, they departed.
And behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. Now just an aside here, did other people see this star, I wonder? And how could there be a star that they would know the exact house to go to?
I mean, stars are usually a way up there, aren't they? I don't know. Verse 10. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So what do we have here? The first mention of worship in the New Testament. Now again, if we were doing this, who would we choose?
The first worshipers. The high priest, the priest, certainly an Israelite. No, what does God, what does God do? He calls these men from out of nowhere, just from the east. God uses people that you and I would never choose.
Unfortunately, it seems to be human nature to group people on a ladder. We see ourselves somewhere in the middle, maybe, and there's others we put up there, and unfortunately there's others we might put down there.
I don't think it's so much of a ladder, but I've thought of it, it's more like a pizza. Different pieces. One piece pepperoni, one piece sausage, one piece ham and pineapple, and maybe even one with anchovies, if you like anchovies.
Different, but one's not better than the other. And it's been brought out at this conference that that's the case. Let me just read for you, you don't need to turn to it, but these verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world, notice, God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are.
Why, Lord, why would you do this? What's he say? That no flesh should glory in his presence. Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Jack Noble? He was a missionary in the Caribbean, in Antigua, for a while until he had trouble with his eyes, I think, because of the sun, the heat.
Jack Noble was a nice man. I appreciated him. Grew up in Northern Ireland. My understanding, he was studying to be an actor before when the Lord saved him. But the reason I mention him, I remember him saying that he's glad that 1 Corinthians 1 and 26 doesn't say not any noble.
God uses ordinary people. Well, he can use kings, he can use geniuses, but he can also use people just like us. But let's continue. We got a few minutes here. I thought I would be shorter in this, but let's look at verse 13.
Now, when they had departed, that's these wise men, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word.
For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord to the prophets, saying, Out of Egypt I called my son.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
So, Mary and Joseph, the child has been born. Maybe a couple years later now, I don't know how many, but the Lord speaks to Joseph in a dream, and He says, you got to leave here, you got to go to Egypt.
Now, we're familiar with this, and it doesn't seem like a big deal, but just imagine if you had a young child, and the Lord said, you got to go to Afghanistan. This is a foreign country, a long way away, and they're like refugees.
A lot of refugees in Ukraine. People have to leave their homes. We read about it in the news, we see it, and I realize it doesn't have the impact on me. I mean, these people leaving husbands who have to stay to fight the Russians, and maybe the mother and the kids, they're going to, you know, they come to another country, to Poland, to Moldova, and they don't know anybody there.
Did Joseph and Mary say, Lord, this can't be your will. We like it here. Now, you know, I don't know what they thought. I don't know what they thought. Mary certainly, we're not told a lot about Joseph, a little bit, but they seem like godly people who would just submit to the will of the Lord, good for them, if that's the way it was.
But not only these circumstances for Mary and Joseph, having to be refugees, but back in the homeland, Herod goes berserk. He's so furious that the wise men didn't come back and report to him. He says, kill all the babies, baby boys, two years old and under, in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.
Now again, imagine if you lived there then, and you had a one-year-old, a two-year-old boy. Would you have said, where's God in all of this? Mary and Joseph are like, where is God? You know, we have to go to a foreign country.
God was still in control. He was still going to accomplish his purposes. But my point is, God uses circumstances that we wouldn't choose. Circumstances just like maybe we find ourselves in this afternoon.
The devil is always there. He wants us to count God out, and the devil doesn't want us to trust the Lord. Okay, let me just mention a couple more things, and then I'll sit down. Chapter three, verse one.
In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
Now, John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now, John the Baptist, if I can put it, he was like the advanced man for the Lord Jesus, just like when the president is going to go somewhere, he has his advanced men go before him. But again, who would we choose for a job like this?
John seems to be a bit of an unusual character, living out in the desert, apparently, eating locusts and wild honey. Now, did he roast those locusts in the fire? I hope so. And I gather that the clothes he wore weren't the norm, this camel's hair and the leather belt.
So, he was a bit different. Sometimes we think different is bad. What God is looking for isn't clones. He's looking for Christ-likeness. And unfortunately, we can judge and rank ourselves and others by how much we conform to man's standards.
We look on the outside, the Lord looks on the heart. Now, I'm not saying outside the external doesn't have its place, but it's not first place. Just one more thing, chapter four. But before I get to that, my home assembly is Spring Creek in the greater Chicago area, used to be New Lenox.
We just built a new hall a few years ago. There's a man who was in our assembly by the name of Dan Perez. He's now a missionary in Ukraine. Dan Perez would have been the last, just about the last person I would have thought that God would have chosen to be a missionary.
Dan grew up on the streets of Chicago, very difficult family upbringing, dysfunction, dropped out of high school, traveled around, but the Lord saved him and eventually brought him into assembly fellowship.
I'll tell you, the Christians at Spring Creek, we love Dan Perez. He doesn't have a big education, but I know very few people that are willing to live in a former Soviet Union country full-time. Dan has difficulty with English, let alone Ukrainian, but he manages somehow using Google Translate and using interpreters when he can.
But what he lacks maybe in sophistication sophistication and education, he has street smarts, and it serves some good use over there because people come to him with needs, utility bills, medical expenses, food needs, and from our time we spent in Russia back in the 90s, we learned that just throwing money around can create more problems than it solves.
Dan is very wise the way he ministers to the practical needs of people, as well as preaching the gospel and teaching the saints. We would never have thought that, you know, Dan Perez would ever be a missionary, but he was available, and God is using him.
My wife and I, until COVID, we were there for five summers in a row, or in the fall. My only point is, don't count yourself out. Don't think that because you're you that God can't choose you. Now, maybe God hasn't called you to be a missionary in Ukraine, but God has a work for each of us to do wherever we are.
What's the saying? Bloom where you're planted. But finally, in chapter four, I'll just make a comment on this. Verse 18 of chapter four,. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers. Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting Annette into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Then he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. That's a tremendous verse there. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. And I know you've likely thought of this before, but who does the Lord call to be his disciples, to live with him for three years, to travel with him, and then after he goes to the cross and goes back to heaven to carry on the work?
Just ordinary people, fishermen. And with their, a lot of times when the Lord was preaching, they didn't understand, just like a lot of times we don't understand things. God's ways, brother, sister, are not our ways.
His thoughts aren't our thoughts. What's he say? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. Friday night, and again yesterday, I read from Exodus chapter 33. Moses, in a time of great difficulty, after the golden calf incident, says to the Lord, show me now your ways, that I may know you, and that I might find grace in your sight.
And what does the Lord say to him? My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.