Selah Moments - Part 3

Dr. Mike Richardson

Part III—The moral reversals her Son will bring

1. Isa. 53:3 describes the birth of Jesus as a “root out of a dry ground”.
2. Jesus born during a dark period in history.
3. 49 out of the last 50 Roman Emperors died by assassination and the perverse lives of the Emperors is well documented
4. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, Herod the Great rules over Palestine. This evil, paranoid tyrant:

• Charged three of his sons with treason and had them executed
• Had 10 wives but killed his favorite wife
• He had his popular brother-in-law, the High Priest, drowned by “accident”
• He had several of his uncles and cousins killed
• He ordered the deaths of all children under 2 years of age in an attempt to kill baby Jesus thus fulfilling Jer. 31:15 “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”
• He gave orders that upon his death he wanted 3,000 Jews killed. This was not carried out

1. His son, Herod Agrippa continued in the same way. He had John the Baptist beheaded at the whim of a woman
2. Proud, evil, and arrogant men had always been-- Men like Belshazzar. 
3. If the historians Xenophon and Herodotus are to be believed, Belshazzar died in the very hall where he blasphemed God
4. Adolph Hitler posted these words on the door at Auschwitz, “I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality.”
5. Evil men like V.I. Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zadong have killed millions to enforce the philosophy of socialism
6. Winston Churchill said the following: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
7. But in Luke 1:52 Mary states, “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”
8. Mary speaks prophetically as if it has already been done. The New Testament calls it “the restitution of all things.” Acts 3:21
9. Evil men come and go but the teachings of Jesus lives on. Oh, how much good has come from his teachings! For example:

• God is love and is not vengeful
• The lifting up of women in society
• The spread of the gospel 
• The care of children so much so that the 20th Century is called “The Century of the Child”
• The ending of the slave trade by William Wilberforce and John Newton [the author of the song “Amazing Grace” was once the captain of a slave ship]p
• The benefits derived from the teachings of Christ are just too numerous to cover

1. The author of the poem One Solitary Life described his selah moment:

“ He was born in an obscure village
   He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty
   He then became an itinerant preacher
   He never held office
   He never had a family or owned a house
   He didn’t go to college
   He had no credentials but himself
   He was only thirty when the public turned against him
   Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today
   He is the central figure of the human race
   All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed,
   All the parliaments that ever sat, and all the Kings that ever reigned
   Have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.”

​Closing

A. Truly spiritual minded Christians has their “Selah Moments”
B. A.W.Tozer was a great Christian writer of previous generation
​C. He began his ministry in a small church in Nutter Fort, W.V.
D. Zech. 4:10 teaches us not to “despise not the day of small things”
E. Tozer went on to be a spiritual giant
F. Tozer said, “You can be straight as a gun barrel theologically, and just as empty as one spiritually.”
G. As we approach the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, may the Lord who is gracious give you wisdom and understanding and guide you all into the truth of His HOLY WORD!
H. SELAH!