And to let your gentle spirit be known to all men, the Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, I needed to hear that once again this morning. I actually reflected on that from my house this morning. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I pray that your requests have been made known to God this morning, that you've been in prayer, we've been in prayer corporately. I'm so thankful to be amongst you this morning. It's a pleasure to be able to open the word of God and the worship we've already had so far in the Sunday school and to hear your voices singing praises to God has been rejoicing to my soul to even hear.
Well, if you would like to open your Bibles, we will be in Luke 2. We're coming towards the end of the infancy account of our Lord Jesus. We are verse 25 to 35. Recall where we have been. We, most of all, have seen the Savior's birth. Jesus coming into his own creation. Blessing to have been in this passage for so long, for the last weeks and months. We've seen the perfect obedience all according to the law, all according to the word of God that even his parents as they came before and named him the name that was given by God, given by the angel. You probably heard in Isaiah when it says that, I was called from the womb. Did you hear that in the call to worship? It made us think back to the name that was given. to Jesus, his name would be called Jesus. And then the purification ceremony of the mother. Remember, 33 days later, after a male child was born, we looked at that last week, the presentation of the firstborn son in Israel. So much we drew from that last week, the firstborn son, the firstborn of all creation. And in Israel, this was true Israel. This was the one, the long awaited one. We just sang, come thou long expected Jesus. And here he is before us in the pages of scripture.
And so from the presentation of the firstborn this morning, we come to prophetic words of the Redeemer. Really a recognizing of the Redeemer by two very important people in the scripture. A man and a woman, an older man, an older woman, we understand. And they're at the temple, this is 40 days after his birth, 41 days, right in there. So let's read the text this morning. You can read along in your copy as I read the word. Verse 25, hear the word of the Lord.
And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, to carry out for him the custom of the law, Then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, now Lord, you are releasing your bond servant to depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed. And a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. Amen.
As soon as the reading of his word this morning, I pray that the Holy Spirit will have imparted the word read to your own hearts this morning. Let's pray together once again as we come. before our God, Lord, we desire to hear from you. Lord, I pray as we have heard in the passages of scripture that we come in the spirit to you, that the Holy Spirit will come down to us, that we would even be able to recognize and experience for our own souls as you work in our lives. Lord, may we be a Symbian and may we embrace the Savior by faith. recognize the Redeemer before us in the pages of scripture. Lord, help us, I pray. Help me as your servant to deliver your word to your people, and may your people, all of us, be those desiring to hear from you, and may our hearts be pliable in your hand. May you be praised and may you be exalted. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Well, what we notice first of all in this text, and as we've seen the scene here, we notice a godly remnant of believers. We're going to see this in Simeon, next week we'll see this in Simeon, but even before we see this in Zacharias, remember, and we see this really in Mary and Joseph. Think of the tremendous events that have happened in the past year with them and the announcement of the angels and the shepherds recognizing the Messiah, recognizing Jesus as Lord and now he has come.
And here Simeon, it says he's just a man, it doesn't say much about. We recognize that he was a man living in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was relying on the Spirit of God. And this man, Simeon, he's a believer, a follower of God, and people have surmised, well, maybe he was a priest or something, but that's not given to us in Scripture, so we shouldn't necessarily think that. But we do see he is a believer, and we're going to see Anna next week, another faithful believer, a remnant.
And the reason I say a remnant of these two is because the Lord always has his people. But recall the culture or the timeframe of this, you had people that were looking for something else. We weren't looking for this type of Messiah, a political leader maybe, a rescuer from our pain and suffering right now. Something that would help us here and now. Looking for something great, you know, coming in, riding on his white stallion, surely not on a donkey. Surely not this one, this one who is, we know from scripture, despised. Wouldn't even look upon him.
this culture of darkness that was in the time there. And frankly, in the time of our own day, we might see, we might be dejected and down and what's with the culture, what's with the church, what's with the American church and the sadness of what we see in many aspects, not in all, for there is a remnant of godly people, we know that. God always will have his remnant of godly people.
This, when we think of our modern church in the context of where we live, you and I, In this country, it's much superficiality, really just lightness and really just an entertainment base. We will wow you with this and make you feel good and all this. Well, we know that's not what God is about and his word, and we know that God still has his believing remnant. But let's look a little bit at the characteristics of what we do know about Simeon. And these are the characteristics of a believer, of all believers. It says he's, two words, just and devout.
Just, this was a man who was walking in integrity. We looked at this in Proverbs even on Wednesday, of walking in integrity. This was someone who was walking in truth, of faithfulness, according to God's word. His life was directed by what God had said. He was devout. So this would have been someone attending to the means of grace, who was all about being with God's people. The doors were open, no doubt Simeon was there, no doubt Anna was there. I don't want to miss anything. If the Lord works today, if the Lord comes today, if the consolation of Israel arrives, I want to be there.
Simeon was a man, well we're going to look at more of his qualities, I'm getting ahead of myself. But the characteristics of this man are reflections on the outside that are present in the inside. I'm reminded of 1 John when we were there just a few weeks ago, and what someone says, is that what they do? And so the heart change of a true believer, what they say is what they do. We're not hypocrites, but those whose heart has been changed, and so the inward disposition has changed, and therefore the outward expression has changed. It's not like we try to clean up the outside to hide the dirt on the inside. No, a true believer has been changed, has been given a new heart. And these are the characteristics that that highlight who a believer is.
Let's look at two or three other qualities of Simeon's life that are found in the text, and really two resulting qualities that come from that that we'll see towards the end of his prophetic word. One, he was waiting upon the Lord. He was waiting expectantly. In spite of living in a worldly, godless culture in the time of Israel at this time, godless and worldly, they were looking for political solutions, but this saint was living expectantly. Do you live expectantly? Are you expecting God to do great things? Are you longing to see God's working? Are you Godward focused in your life? Or are we tempted, like sometimes we all are, to look at life now? What is my circumstances right now? Oh no, this is happening, and we lose our Godward focus.
Simeon was waiting expectantly to see God's working. No doubt he woke up every day. Today might be the day. What will God do today? I hope you woke up this morning thinking that. What kind of amazing things could God do today? Not thinking, oh, poor me, or even convictingly of myself, thinking, oh no, what about this, and what about this, and being anxious. I should not be anxious. I should be longing and expectingly to see what God will do.
And the second thing we see of his qualities of this man, he was trusting in God's word. God had said. God had spoken in his word. He knew that there was a Messiah to come, and they had been waiting for a long time. We sang of the long expecting, come thou long expecting. So there was a period of time, but Simeon knew that he promised, God promised, he had prophesied in all the prophets before that this would happen, and so he knew that it would. He was trusting that God would provide in his time. He was a man who was living with eyes of faith. Not just looking with physical eyes, but eyes of faith. Knowing that God would provide. I'm reminded even from, was it a week or two ago in Sunday school, as we looked at Abraham. And do you remember Abraham and he comes up the mountain with Isaac as God had commanded him. And they're coming up there for the sacrifice. And Isaac, as a young boy, daddy, where's the sacrifice? Abraham, knowing what God had said, said, Son, God will provide. Trusting in God, and then we know that he did provide with the ram and the thicket. There was a trusting.
Well, this Simeon knew also that God will come. God will come in his time. I know that my Lord cometh in due time, and I am looking expectantly. And he was living in the power.
Thirdly, he was living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice how many times the Holy Spirit is brought up in this passage. At least three right off the bat. He was trusting in God and he was allowing God to lead him. In fact, he lets us know that God had actually gave him a word somehow, we don't know, we're not told exactly, but that he would not see death before the Lord's coming.
And now we see from, secondly, or first we looked at the godly remnant, and now we see, secondly, our second heading, the spirits leading, the spirits leading. What was he looking for? What was Simeon, what was the thing that it says here? He was righteous and devout, and he was looking for the consolation of Israel. This is expecting. What does this mean? Well, it means the messianic hope. The consolation, so consolation, we sang about that earlier. Consolation, it means comfort. So the comfort, comfort, comfort my people, Isaiah said. Well, he was looking for the Messiah to come.
A side note, every person, every human that's out there is looking for something, every single one. Without a doubt, but the question that needs to be asked is what or who are you looking for? What are you depending on? Who are you looking to? For Simeon, it was the comfort of God's people. He declares the consolation of Israel. This is the people of God that we know from Galatians 6.16, the Israel of God, the Jew and Gentile that God was coming to save his people. And Simeon was all about that. That was his focus.
Now, the reason I bring that up is because there's other focuses that we might be tempted at times to look to. Simeon was not looking for worldly things. Well, when will my ship come in? When will my big event? You know, it wasn't his focus. He wasn't all about me. What's Simeon going to get today? That wasn't his main point. He was not looking for a political solution. Oh, no. We, in our day, many times, even in the church, could be like, well, if so-and-so is in the then, things might be easier, we might have more freedom to worship, but let's not be carried away by thinking we'll have this party against this. That's not our hope. That's not what we should be looking forward to. We could vote wisely, we could use discernment, but He wasn't looking for a political solution, but many were. They were looking for the ruler to come in there and stomp out those Romans and that'll be our problem because they were thinking about the here and now. They weren't looking with an eternal perspective, an eternal gaze.
Notice Simeon, as an older man, we're not told how old he is, but we can assume, it is assumed, that he was older. He said the Lord would not allow him to see death until he'd seen this. He wasn't looking for the fountain of youth. How many in America are so, well, if this doctor finds this, and if this scientist, if we're looking for this, and the fountain of youth, as if that's what their main focus is. No, Simeon had an eternal focus. But the Spirit is leading and the reason I saw that in this heading is because the Holy Spirit is talked about twice here. The Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, and then down lower in verse 27, and he came in the Spirit. So it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
I love that expression, the Lord's Christ, the Adonai, my master's Messiah, the anointed one, the one who would be prophet, priest, and king, the one that we needed most. The one who would be our salvation. We talked about what Jesus means. It means Jehovah saves. This is the one he was looking for. I know if Simeon had been around us today, he would have loved to sing, come thou long expected Jesus. His heart was pointed to this.
Verse 27, we come to this intersection at the temple. intersection, meaning there's a godly couple coming with a child. Maybe some other couples were there with their child. Mary and Joseph were there. And the intersection happens when this man Simeon comes at the very same time. And sometimes we think, well what a coincidence. There are no coincidences. There's no chance happenings. God is providentially ordaining this intersection of this divine providence to happen. There's no such thing as chance.
They come into the temple. Recall the temple is where God meets with his people. In the tabernacle of old, it was where God meets with his people. In the garden of old, where the very first temple, where God walked with Adam, there was the man and God together. And we know that this child to come into the temple is the true temple. Chew on that. That the true temple is coming into his temple. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us and here he comes into the temple.
And we know some of our family has very young children, infants some still. And can you imagine though, maybe the mother or maybe the father and you come in and you're coming into the temple and all of a sudden this, I picture him as this old gray bearded man and he, Give me that child, like holding the child up, you're like, hey, wait a second, who are you, you know? And it was Simeon, maybe Mary was walking in the spirit and maybe, I don't know, maybe she gave it, I don't know. But here this older saint grabs the baby and lifts the baby and no doubt with tears in his eyes and his face brightened up and he blessed God. He praised God, first of all. His first thought was to give glory to God and his praising of God turned to prophecy. His praising of God turned from blessing that he wanted to pronounce and also to some warning here. to be gathered from the words that come out of Simeon.
But first he blesses God and our next heading is that we see that the Spirit speaks. The Spirit of God speaks. He speaks through men. And here he speaks through this Simeon. This Simeon is putting on the prophetic hat, if you will, as God is using him to recognize the Messiah. Because the parents who already knew this are hearing it again. And the people that were there are hearing it again. No doubt the priests that were in the temple heard it also. What is this? He says, now Lord, you are releasing your bondservant. He's saying, I am your bondservant. Paul talked about this, the bondservant of the Lord. I am your servant. I am here to be your steward. And as we heard earlier in the Sunday school, all is from you. And I put myself at your pleasure to do with what you will. And he says, I can depart now. I can go to be with God now. I'm ready. You can release me according to your word. He says, for my eyes have seen your salvation. I have seen salvation for myself and the Messiah. I have seen that this child who is coming into the temple is the temple.
No doubt Simeon did not know the extent of what the Messiah would do. We have a vast knowledge of what happened in Christ's full life, and we have the epistles, we have all of the scriptures to declare, but Simeon knew enough to know that this was the long expected one. This was the salvation come. God come in the flesh, and he recognizes it, he says, which my eyes have seen. I've been looking for it, and my eyes have seen which you, God, have prepared in the presence of all peoples.
He broadened it out to not just Jews, but all people, in the presence of all. This was not done in hiding. This was not done in secret, but for all to see. no doubt the many who saw even in the temple. And he goes on to declare through the word coming through this man, he says, your salvation, a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
Oh my, I wonder if some of the priests came over and said, Simeon, Pipe down, son, Gentiles? You mean the Jews, right? Well, no, to the Gentiles, a light. It brings us back to 1 John, those who walk in the light, how Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And this is the light who has come to the nations, to Jew and Gentile alike. This is the light of revelation. This is God revealing himself, coming in the flesh. He is revealing to all salvation. It is the free offer. It is the gospel proclaimed.
And this believer, Simeon, notice he's at peace at this point. He's at peace. This is faith resting. This is faith laying hold of, resting on the promises of God. And I've seen him, and Lord, you can take me now. I've seen what life is all about. I've seen the face, I've seen glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ, the light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory, the majesty of your people, Israel.
Here He is. Here is the glory of all creation. Here is the pinnacle of all creation. He is not created, he is uncreated, but here is the pinnacle of God's recreation in saving lost mankind. We would do well to follow Simeon's example up to this point as he's proclaimed this. What I mean is the focus of Simeon, where his care was, that he had a loose hold of things of this world. He didn't have a tight fist, he had an open hand. He was looking for a world to come. It's as if he had a loose hold of the world, but he was, think of a desiring grasping for the world to come. Like one foot over the line. Oh, I want to see your glory. Eternal life is where I desire. to be, and he was so expectant.
There was another preacher of old, G. Campbell Morgan, he said this, this is a quote, he said, speaking of being expectant, looking, I must say before I go further, Christ is coming again. Are you looking with eyes like that? And this quote reflects that where he says this, He said, I'm not looking for death, I'm looking for Him. I'm looking for Christ. Whichever comes first, can you who are seated here, can you who are hearing me even Recorded. Say that also that you are living for eternity.
A friend of ours has a website, it's called Striving for Eternity. I love that. Striving for eternity. You're just exerting yourself, desiring for the world to come. He had a vertical vision. He wasn't looking at things here, but he had a vertical vision, a heavenly gaze. An eternal perspective. Oh, for all of us to have an eternal perspective and to be striving for eternity. What an example of a godly man. What an example of an elderly godly man. A man who towards the end of his life was not just saying, you know, I'm just going to lay here and do nothing. He was wanting to be with God's people, wanting to be at the temple, wanting to See God work. He was looking for God's salvation and he had in his very hands hope. Think of this. He held the essence of all hope and glory in his hand. What he was doing was he was embracing the Savior. Embracing the Savior.
Next we see, fourthly, that the Spirit blesses. The Spirit blesses. Simeon blessed the parents. He gave them their blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you. The Lord give you peace.
The father and mother were amazed. They marveled. I mean, can you imagine how much they had marveled over the past months? Of all the things happening, I wonder if at some point, as we heard about the giving in the Old Testament, and they said, enough giving, that's too much. I wonder if Mary and Joseph said, Lord, that's enough. I've seen so, you've given me so much, so much sight of glory, and oh, just, that's enough. I wonder.
They're filled up. with God's glory and his mercy towards them. And it says they were amazed. It was awe and wonder. Awe and wonder how this stranger could come in to the temple. They're just doing their law. They're just doing their obedience to the law. They're not expecting anything like this. And then this prophetic word that comes out, that this is salvation, that he is salvation. It's more affirmation to this couple.
You couples out there, God will affirm your faith as you follow him. And here, this couple is affirmed that their son, that their child is the Messiah. More clarification. The true identity of Jesus. Remember from last week, he came to identify with his people. He was not a sinner. He had no sin, but he identified with sinners so that he could redeem. Sinners. He came for sinners, not for the righteous. He came for sinners, and that's good news for us because there's none righteous. We are for sure sinners.
And then fifthly, the Spirit speaks truth. The Spirit speaks truth. The Spirit heals, yes, but cuts deep. And the words here had to have been cutting and deep to hear. As Simeon blessed the parents, but then he said to Mary, no doubt he focused his attention on the mother. And he looks, no doubt, at Mary, his mother. And he says, behold, behold. That's like, listen up. It's like a divine highlighter in scripture, behold. This child, not any child, this child, and I love how my translation has child capitalized and I love how Jesus is capitalized and the Son of God is capitalized. We see that this is no ordinary child. This child is appointed. The word means it's set in stone, appointed for the fall and the rise of many in Israel. The word fall here, It doesn't mean just a small trip up, it means ruin. The ruin of many. It means to be destroyed. It means utter destruction. He tells Mary that this child, can you imagine? You love your children. What if someone come in with a prophetic word and said, this child is appointed, set in stone for the destruction. My child? This little cute baby? for the fall, but also the rise. Thank God that's there, the rise, the consolation, the comfort of Israel, the rise, the rising to newness of life, that he will save his people.
Jesus came to be our peace. Jesus is peace. He came for salvation, yes, the rising, Jesus also came for a confrontation. We know this from the Gospels. He came to bring a sword of division. Do you remember from the Gospels, it said a daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, son against father, a division. A sword of division, of piercing, of dividing. A dividing ridge, if you will. A high ridge, unclimbable, that separates parties. That same dividing ridge that you've experienced before. In the workplace, in the family, out in the world. That there is a dividing ridge.
There is no other name that divides. There is no other person that divides like the name of Jesus Christ. You can go and talk about God of some making, God of some, even just God generically. That's not really offensive to people. You can talk about Buddha or Mohammed or whatever. People don't use those names for curse words. But you name the name of Jesus, they say, hey, you stop talking about that. Don't bring that in here. Everything is on limits, but no, you've gone too far by mentioning Jesus Christ. God by Himself, fine, but God in the flesh, I will not have that. And they will fall over that. They will stumble over that. It is a rock of stumbling. It is a rock of offense. And it divides. It's a sign to be opposed, Simeon mentions. Yes, peace on earth, yes, light to the nations, but a sign to be opposed, a confrontation, a person that you cannot be neutral with, that you cannot say, well, I'll take a little bit of that. That's not an option. It's the narrow way. And that narrow way, and that straight, narrow gate is opposed by masses, by many. It's refused, it's rejected, it's repelled.
Think of, again, this child. This child was innocent, by the way. I say innocent because sometimes people, parents think their children are innocent, and look how they're innocent. Well, no, your child's not innocent, but this one was. But can you imagine Mary hearing and understanding, and Spurgeon says this, that Jesus grew up to be the most hated person of all of human history. Can you imagine as a mother and realizing that my child is gonna be the most hated person of all history? Not Hitler, not Stalin, but Jesus. Think of that. The one who did no sin. The one who came from glory, from heaven to come condescend to you and I, and he would be the cause of the fall and rise of many.
We're reminded of one commentator, Alinsky, he says this, he says, men, or men and women, fall solely by their own guilt. Men rise solely by grace. Unmerited favor that you can rise. We all come into this world fallen. You ask, how do I fall? Just do nothing. You're already fallen, but grace comes.
And note here in verse 35, there's a parenthetical sentence. When I say parenthetical, think of the parentheses. There's a parentheses laid in here, and this is only for Mary, it seems. He says, and a sword will pierce even your own soul. It's kind of, it's almost hidden in the text there. But this sentence is directed to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is a preparatory announcement. She had to have wondered about this for 33 years. I wonder what he meant by that. It probably brought much wonder. I wonder, I'm a little confused by that. A sword through my soul. Maybe he won't live to full life. I'm confused. And she probably wandered for these 33 years until 33 years and she stood or knelt or prostrated before the foot of the cross to see her son, the son of God, the eternal one, and to see the blood and water to come out and to see the agony and to hear him cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? and the sword in that mother to see that the son, her savior, who was also her son, and his life was poured out and the wrath of God was poured out upon him, who deserved not, but who gave himself.
And no doubt she understood at that point what Simeon was talking about, but I don't think she could have before then, surely not to the extent that she, felt that in her own soul, says your own soul. A sorrow pierced even your own soul. The agony that she must have gone through.
But notice when he concludes, when Simeon's concluding, he says that it'll be a sign to be opposed to the end or to the result that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. The effect of Jesus' life and His ministry, the effect of Jesus' work, reveal hearts. It exposes our thoughts. It reveals what we are, our spiritual condition.
When you are presented with the full, true gospel, The name of Jesus, when you hear the name of Jesus, to some it is a stench of death, and to others it is the aroma of life, of salvation, of Simeon being overjoyed, Lord you can take me, I'm free to depart in peace now. And to others it's like, oh, I want some more time, I want some more of this, some more of this life, because surely this is all there is.
The thoughts are revealed. As I said before, there can be no neutrality with Jesus. There's no fence sitting. Well, I'll put one leg here and just in case. No, no. That's not an option. You will either fall, ruin, perish for all eternity, or you will, by grace, receive life. You will rise, he says, in believing there's no neutrality.
Our politicians are famous for not saying on one side or the other, I'll just abstain. There is no abstaining. When you come before the reality of the Son of God, of the consolation of Israel, of the light to the Gentiles, of the glory of Israel, to not embrace the Savior is to reject Him. If you do nothing, you've already rejected Him. And the plea is to embrace Him.
Do not think that, well, I can do that at some other time, or when I get older, or when I learn more about, when I figure things out more. No, no. He says to come. Today, the word says, to come.
Some here, no doubt, in the sound of my voice, who are listening online or even in this room, have never experienced what Simeon did. You say, well, of course, I never held Jesus. No, but you've never embraced the Savior by faith. You've never come to Him and seen God's salvation. You've heard about it. You've heard from your parents. You've heard from the pulpit. but you've never received it by faith, you've never embraced it, where you cast yourself upon the Savior and you say, Lord, save me lest I die. If you don't save me, I will perish, I will fall, I will be ruined.
And this is the truth, you have come to realize that God's word is so. And what he has spoken, he's spoken to you. It's not just to a mass of people, it's to you. I know that some, probably all in my hearing have heard much about Jesus, sung about Jesus, but you need a clear vision of Jesus. You need to see him as the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah. Remember it said to Simeon, I would not depart until I see the Lord's Christ. Well, you can see him by faith. You can see him by the power of the Holy Spirit, how he is presented to you in the gospel and the word of God. And through his word and by his spirit, you can embrace him. As it were, hold him in your hands and wrap yourself in him.
You need the spirit of God to come upon you. No one comes to faith, no one comes to salvation without the Spirit of God coming upon them and awakening them. And we all need the awakening ministry of the Holy Spirit to shake us, revive us. Oh, for God to grant even this day, maybe even days to come, maybe even years to come, that the message of the gospel would bring you to faith, to clear eyes of faith, to see, as Simeon did, the Savior.
But you must take Him up in your arms. You must take Him up in your arms by faith. You can't just nod ahead to it. You must believe. You must receive. Receive. Think of taking into your arms. You must receive. You must take him into your heart and into your soul. And he will lift you up. He will cause you to rise. No longer to perish. No longer to be under condemnation. But to be justified. Not by you. But by him. And his perfect merit. His perfect life.
But you must believe. You must believe. Jesus lived and died and rose again to save such as you and me. You must believe. You must embrace the Savior. Trust yourself completely to Him, to His righteousness and to His person.
There was a story that I had heard There was a place close by here actually, Niagara Falls on the Canadian and United States border. And we went there just recently and got to experience and see the magnitude of the water and the power that was coming off there and just crashing into the river below. And the little boats, the big boats seemed like just specks at the bottom and the power that came off that falls. Some of you children saw the postcards that we sent. Do you remember the postcards from Niagara Falls that are maybe on your refrigerator? And you saw the power of the water coming down.
Well, there was a story. There was a boat, and a boat had capsized on the top side, and they're going towards the water, and they're going towards the falls, and a rope was thrown out to them. Grab the rope. And two of the people saw a big log, and they grabbed a log, and they thought, well, this will be safe, and another one grabbed a log, and this will be safe. And the only one who grabbed the rope was the only one that rose from the fall, who didn't go over and perish to ruin. The ones that held to the log were holding on to their own self-righteousness. The log representing their own works, that they were somehow good enough, well, this will be my what I'm looking for, and it caused them to perish.
But the one who grabbed the rope of Christ, who embraced the Savior, that one didn't perish, that one didn't go to ruin, but actually to eternal life. Oh, for many to be granted by grace the eternal life, to be given mercy to not go to perish eternally, but to look to the consolation of Israel. To see Him as the light of the world and to receive Him to where He comes into you, where the Spirit of God comes into you and actually you become, you have that light in you in the darkness. And that Spirit that confirms to you that the Messiah is yours, that you have eternal life, that you have no fear of death like Simeon. No fear of death, no fear of the world, no fear of man. Come with me. What a blessed Savior we have, that He would reveal Himself to us like this, open to all, the free offer, but you must receive the Savior. You must receive Him by faith or you will perish and you will experience ruin without end.
But it ought not be, for we have a merciful, Gracious Savior, who loved us enough to come in compassion into our creation, in this fallen world that we caused by our sin, to bring us to God, to reconcile us. He is our comfort. Embrace the Savior, I pray. Come as God leads you.
Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you that you have sent your son. We thank you that you have sent salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, that he came into this world, that he lived a perfect life, full obedience to you according to your word, and that he went to the cross and gave himself, took upon himself the wrath of God for sinners so that we could be made right with you, so that we could be clothed in his righteousness and pardoned from our guilt and set free to follow you, to be your bondservants like Simeon.
Oh, Father, help us. Help us to learn from the example of Simeon. to be those that look for God's salvation, to be those who have eternal gaze, who are looking for the return of Christ. Oh God, come quickly, we pray, Lord, that you would come and receive us to yourself, Lord, that you would take this, you would finish completely your salvation work when you come to bring us to yourself. to put an end to sin and sinners in all of this evil world, and to consummate the recreation, to fulfill what your whole plan is going towards, your plan of redemption.
Oh, we long for that day. We long for the day to see you. We long from the day when you will make all things new, the new heavens and the new earth. Help us to be those that long for your coming. Expect your coming. Desire to see you.
Lord, give us a heart. Give us a heart for the lost. to be able to warn those who are outside of you, to call them to Christ. Father, would you save them? Save them by your glory, we pray. Save the lost among us. Save our family members who are outside of you. Save our children, Lord. We grieve and we pray that you would save them by your grace. Lord, have mercy upon them. Have mercy upon our coworkers, on those that we have been witnessing to.
Give us a heart for your glory and for your salvation. Thank you for Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.
