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Well, good evening, everybody.
Welcome to our midweek service today on a Thursday and not on
Tuesday. Would you take your Bibles with
you, please? Open your Bibles. And open them to Isaiah chapter
9. Isaiah chapter 9. And we'll be reading from verse
1 to verse 7. Isaiah 9 verse 1 to verse 7. Nevertheless, the gloom will
not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first he lightly esteemed
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards more
heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. You have
multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before
you according to the joy of the harvest, as men rejoice when
they divide the spoil. For you have broken the yoke
of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior's sandal from
the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used
for burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and
over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment
and justice, from that time forward, even forever. The seal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. Would you take your hymn books
now, please, to hymn and 67. This I think is a wonderful hymn. Earth was waiting, spent and
restless with a mingled hope and fear, and the faithful few
were sighing, surely, Lord, the day is near. The desire of all
the nations, it is time he should appear. And then the final verse.
Earth for him and groaned and travailed since the ages first
began. For in him was hid the secret
that through all the ages ran. Son of Mary, son of David, son
of God and son of man. Hymn 167. Amen. Let's come before our Lord
in prayer. Let's all pray. Our gracious Lord, we come before
you now on this evening, this Thursday night, in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. the one who has promised never
to leave nor forsake us, the one who laid down his life for
us and shed his blood that we might live. And we come into
your presence this night thanking you for your goodness to us. Lord, we bless you for all the
blessings that surround us. We bless you, Lord, for families,
Lord. We bless you, Lord, for love. We bless you, Lord, for our food,
for our clothing, for our homes, Lord. We bless you, Lord, for
the peace. which we experience. Although
these are troubled times, Lord, we look around the world and
we see most terrible things going on. And we thank you that in
this country there is still, by your grace, peace. And we
thank you for this. We thank you too, Lord, for the
benefits of being yours, belonging to a church, Lord, where your
name is praised, belonging to your church, that part of it
at West Park. We want to thank you, Lord, for
your presence with us, Lord, in the worship services, your
presence with us always, of course, but in our worship services.
We thank you, Lord, for your word. which is precious to us. We thank you, Lord, for our brothers
and sisters who mean so much to us. We thank you, Lord, for
the Spirit your spirit, the spirit of Christ in them. We thank you
for our fellowship, Lord, with one another. Most of all, we
thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for him,
Lord. We thank you, Lord, that we love
him. We thank you, Lord, that when
he saves, He saves for eternity, Lord, that he never lets his
children go. We thank you, Lord, for his loving
care for us. The way that when we sin, we
can, in repentance, return and be cleansed from our sins. We
thank you, Lord, for the access we have to you through the Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for the work
of the Spirit Lord, in our hearts, in our lives, in the church,
let me pray this night that you would deal with us, Lord, as
you would see fit. Lord, we thank you that you are
here. We thank you, Lord, for this
opportunity to come before you. But we think too of those who
cannot come out this night through illness, through age, through
infirmity, through family duties. And we pray, Lord, that you would
warm our brothers and sisters' hearts with the knowledge of
yourself, an increasing knowledge of yourself, an increasing love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask, Lord, too, for our world
at this time. We pray, Lord, that you would
have mercy on our nation. Lord, that you would send your
Spirit, Lord, to change people's hearts. We think too though of
further afield. We would particularly mention
the area of Gaza, Lord, and the conflict there. Would you protect
your dear ones on both sides of the border and would you have
mercy in what is a very dangerous and difficult situation May you
be glorified in this situation. We don't know how, Lord, but
may you have mercy. We think too of Ukraine at this
time. Pray that you would be with those
who are struggling there, Lord. Would you strengthen your people
there and would you have mercy, we would ask, on the people of
Ukraine. and also on the people of Russia
as well. We pray, Lord, now that you would
work within us what is pleasing in your sight, that you would
go with us now in all we do as we listen to your word, as we
sing our praises, as we pray later on, and indeed in all we
do for Jesus' sake. Amen. Would you turn now please to
Luke chapter 2. We'll begin at verse 22. No, no, no, no, you mustn't do
that. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, please. And verse
22 to verse 35, that's Luke chapter 2. Speaking of Mary, now when the
days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed,
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As
it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the
womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice
according to what is said in the law of the Lord. A pair of
turtle doves or two young pigeons And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout,
waiting 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. So he came by the Spirit into
the temple, When the parents brought in the child, Jesus,
to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him
in his arms and blessed God, and said, Lord, now you are letting
your servant depart in peace according to your word. For mine
eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before
the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles
and the glory of your people Israel.' And Joseph and his mother
marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon
blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child
is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and
for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes, a sword will pierce
through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may
be revealed. Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asia. She was of great
age and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And this woman was a widow of
about 84 years. who did not depart from the temple, but served God
with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant,
she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who
looked for redemption in Jerusalem.' So speaks God's Word. Now would you turn again to your
hymn books, this time to hymn 451. 451 in the church hymn books. Ye that know the Lord is gracious,
ye for whom a cornerstone stands of God, elect and precious, laid
that ye may build thereon. See that on that sure foundation
ye a living temple raise, towers that may tell forth salvation,
walls that may re-echo praise. 451. Now would you turn again with
me to Luke chapter 2 please. Beginning at verse, well it's
actually 25 in the chapter. These are some devotional thoughts,
seasonal devotional thoughts, about Simeon and his well-known
psalm, I suppose, from 29 to 32, Now let us thou thy servant
depart in peace. Many godly Jews looked forward
to God sending his Messiah, promised in the Old Testament We're told by one biblical scholar
that they often refer to the coming one as the consolation
of Israel. And many believing Jews were
eagerly awaiting the coming one. Many, we know, were expecting
a warrior king. who would bring about the restoration
of the kingdom of Israel as it had been in the glory days of
King David and King Solomon, the days of its greatest influence
and power. And we see this very often in
the pages of the New Testament. certainly in the pages of the
Gospels, this misunderstanding of our Lord's mission. We even see it, and it's interesting,
in the book of Acts, after the resurrection and just prior to
the ascension, when just before he's about to ascend, the disciples
ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? which shows that at that stage
they had still not grasped the greatness of Christ's work and
indeed the objects he had in mind, the saving of a people
comprising both Jew and Gentile. But there were a very few who knew that the coming of the
Lord didn't mean that. It meant something really quite
different. God had specially revealed to
these few not only the imminent coming of the Lord, His imminent
coming and indeed His birth, but also the true significance
of his coming. And we've been hearing about
such people in the ministry in these weeks before Christmas. Just think of those who understood
more than sometimes even faithful believing Jews. Mary, of course,
the mother of Jesus, is an example of that, the one who was to bear
the Lord's anointed. and indeed later was told that
this child is for the fall and rising of many in Israel and
for a sign which will be spoken against. So Mary's understanding
was deeper. So was the man to whom she was
betrothed, Joseph, who was told not only to not to put away Mary, but indeed
to marry her, and that the child Mary was bearing was of the Holy
Spirit. and that this child should be
called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The majority of believing Jews
wouldn't realise that at all. Another couple who knew far more
about the mission of the Lord Jesus were Elizabeth and Zacharias. Zacharias the priest, you will
remember, Elizabeth his wife. And they were blessed by a God-given
revelation of the spiritual significance of the coming of Christ. Others
were also privileged in the same way. Just to give you another
example, after the Lord's birth, the shepherds in the Bethlehem
area, keeping watch over their flocks by night, were greeted
by the angels who declared, for there is born to you this day
in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And those were deeply privileged,
deeply privileged believers. above and beyond those other
believers who were in the dark really about our Lord's mission,
our Lord's work of redeeming a people to the Lord. There's
somebody else amongst this small group who was taught of God in
a special way and that is Simeon. Simeon in our chapter before
us from verse 25. Now, what do we know about Simeon?
Well, I think the only things we know about Simeon are found
in this chapter. But we know, we see from this
that he was a godly man. Verse 25 tells us there was a
man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. and this man was just
and devout. He was a devout believer in the
living God, trusting in the Saviour to come. Old Testament saints
looked forward to the Lord sending a saviour, we of course look
back to our Lord Jesus Christ. But he was trusting in the saviour
that God had promised to supply in the Old Testament, and therefore
he was an heir of righteousness. which is according to faith.
He was a righteous man. He was a true believer in the
Lord. We learn too from the passage
that the Holy Spirit was upon him and he too had had a special
revelation from the Lord. The Lord had revealed from verse
26 that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's
Christ. The Saviour promised, well, from
the time of Abraham. Now, just imagine, if you can,
his feelings. having been told this by the
Lord. He would have felt feelings of
great gratitude to the Lord that this privilege of seeing the
Lord's anointed consolation of Israel would be given to him,
would be granted to him. that he would see what true Jewish
believers had only hoped for for centuries and centuries. Truly he was a blessed man. He would see the fulfilment of
all those messianic prophecies concerning the coming of the
Messiah, concerning the Promised One. So he would be immensely,
immensely grateful. chosen by the Lord to see something
which he'd longed for all his life and which the godly had
longed for for centuries and centuries before. but he wouldn't
only feel feelings of gratitude, he would have a feeling every
day of anticipation, wouldn't he? Maybe it's this day I will
see the Lord's Christ. It could be this day And the man would have greeted
every day, of course, with prayer, and there would have been a longing
which would have just grown and grown, that he was going to have
this grace. And as we see from the passage,
the Lord fulfilled his promise. And verse 37 says, so he came
by the Spirit into the temple. And he's waiting there and the
parents bring the child, but that's Mary and her husband Joseph,
to the temple to do for him according to the custom of the law. The
custom of the law found in Exodus 13 required that the first child,
the first male child, should be consecrated to the Lord, set
apart for the Lord's service. Here are Mary and Mary's husband
obeying this. And this is the fulfilment of
all his desires. It's the fulfilment of his longest
longing that he's had. And they come into the temple
and he takes the baby in his arms, that's the father's beloved
son, and he blesses God. and declares that he can now
die in peace. for mine eyes have seen your
salvation.' Not only, of course, has he seen the salvation of
God, he's had, well, I don't know how you would really refer
to this, the immense grace of holding the Lord in his arms. Blessing upon blessing. and he is quite clearly completely
content. with this. And at peace with God because
he's now seen the promised Messiah. He was told he would see him
before he died, that is Simeon, and he's now ready to go. Lord,
you are letting your servant depart in peace. according to
your word, for mine eyes have seen your salvation.' What a
privilege he's had to hold the baby in his arms. But of course
he only saw our Lord before God took him, he only saw our Lord
when he was a baby. Now, if we are believers and
we're trusting in the Lord Jesus, I would suggest to you that,
wonderful though Simeon's sight was of this little baby, the
God man, our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made
man, if we are believers, in one way our privilege is greater
than that, because we haven't just seen, as has been preached
to us from the Scriptures, the Christ child is a baby. Through
the Scriptures, we have been privileged to have seen for ourselves
in the Scriptures the work and words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his ministry, his teaching, his life, his death, his resurrection
and his ascension. In the pages of Scripture we
have far more knowledge of our precious Lord than godly old
Simeon had. And that's a very solemn thought. We are indeed a privileged people. If you're believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you see and know far more of the Lord Jesus Christ
than Simeon did before he went to glory. And I wonder if we
recognise this. Sometimes we read our scriptures
and we reread our portion and it seems familiar to us and it
doesn't perhaps have the effect on us as maybe it once had even
in the early days of our conversion. But we need, I think, to ask
the Lord if this is so, that he may grant us again a greater
sense of privilege, a greater sense of wonder. We read all
the Scriptures, of course, because they all speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but we need to do this, I think, so that we can realise
not just our privilege, but how glorious our Lord is. how utterly
supreme in every aspect of his character, his person and his
work. So I would suggest to you that
Simeon had a sense of wonder and gratitude and really we should
have that and more because we know so much more and we have
the Holy Spirit of course to help us. I want to look to as
it goes on to say this. Now you're letting your servant
depart in peace according to your word, for mine eyes have
seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face
of all peoples. If I suddenly lapse into sort
of AV, I used to go to the Church of England and we used to sing
the Nunc dimittis on a regular basis, can't help it. But here
he's saying, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you
have prepared before the face of all peoples. He's looking at the salvation
of the Lord in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
arms. And if you look at that verse,
it's a salvation which has been prepared before the face of all
peoples. This salvation is not supposed,
was never to be, a secret. It's been prepared in the face
of all peoples, clearly and repeatedly promised in the Old Testament. Various texts come to mind from
Isaiah. A virgin will conceive and bear
a son. His name will be Emmanuel, God
with us. He would be God's anointed king
and he would reign forever. And indeed, even before he had
been born, this was known by believing Jews. It wasn't a secret
that God was going to send his son. A son was to be given, a
child was to be born, and the government would be upon his
shoulder. It's plainly proclaimed in the pages of the Old Testament. And the thing is that even the
spiritually dead in Israel knew this. Those are the scribes and
the Pharisees. You'll remember that when Herod
says, where will the Christ be born? They know exactly where
he will be born. It's Bethlehem of Judea. So in the scriptures, the Old
Testament scriptures, Israel had clearly known that the Christ
was to be born. It wasn't a secret. It was there
for all to see. And if you follow the thought
through, that is the case this day. The coming of Christ is
not a secret. It is not to be kept a secret. It is to be proclaimed. peoples
everywhere should know that the Saviour has come and will save
those who call upon his name. And even before the crucifixion,
this is clearly proclaimed. I'll give you one or two examples
of this. When the angels come to the shepherds,
the shepherds go to Bethlehem and see the babe, their reaction
after they came in haste and found Mary and Joseph and the
babe lying in a manger, now when they had seen him, did they keep
this news to themselves? Oh no, they didn't. They made
widely known the saying which was told them concerning the
child. So this salvation is prepared
before the face of all the peoples. If you move a little further
on in our passage, after Simeon has blessed the
child, there was one Anna, a prophetess,
serving the Lord in the temple with fastings, prayers, night
and day. And coming in that instant, that
presumably is when Simeon is blessing the child, she gave
thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked
for redemption in Jerusalem. it's being proclaimed to the
people. The coming of Christ is being
proclaimed to the people at his birth. And there would be examples of
that elsewhere too. And for instance, at the beginning
of his ministry, when people are flocking, to see this wondrous
man. John the Baptist is pointing
to Christ. Israel hasn't only got it, as
they say, in the Old Testament, but people are testifying to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does John the Baptist
cry? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. how precious that is. And you go on through the Bible,
you see that, if I can call it this, the ripples of the gospel
go out and out and out. The work of Christ for sinners,
is proclaimed by John in his Gospel with the clear intention,
as he writes, well, he doesn't write this, but it's true, not
to keep the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ hidden,
but that people might be informed about who Jesus was and what
he did and that they might be saved. But these things are written,
this is what John writes, that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in
his name. Then we know at the end of the
Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and
earth, sends the disciples out to make disciples of all nations. So it is a gospel which is to
be proclaimed to all because, as we see from our text, the
Lord has prepared before the face of all people. It's a universal call of the
gospel. And people only know and believe,
of course, if they're told who Jesus is, what he's done. So it is to be proclaimed. It is prepared before the face
of all people. And then we find, why is it to
be prepared before the face of England? A light to bring revelation
to the Gentiles. A light to bring revelation to
the Gentiles. A light to dispel the terrible
spiritual darkness of unbelievers. whose condition without Jesus
as their Lord and Saviour is absolutely helpless. Now we acknowledge that, that
unbelievers are in darkness. We see it all around us. And I think we see it and know
it increasingly in the age in which we live. We live in an
age which calls good bad and bad good. We live in an age where
people seek now to silence the gospel, to legislate against
it, to prevent it being heard. and the world grows darker day
by day. The world is spiritually blind And how do you combat this? Honestly, one looks around, and
if you're sort of old, you look back to the time of your, well,
sort of youth or when you were growing up, and although perhaps
people weren't Christian, some of them, they still held some
of them to a form of biblical morality. It's often said that
the gospel disappears first, and then, if you like, the morality
of the Bible goes a little later. Well, that's certainly happened
in our lifetimes, and it seems to be getting worse and worse. The world is spiritually blind. But what's the answer to this,
ultimately? It's the gospel. It's the gospel
that brings the light of the gospel to the Gentiles. That's
the only real remedy for the world in the situation that it
is now in. It brings revelation, it brings
the gospel, it brings the good news of Jesus Christ, it brings
eternal life. Otherwise, there's no hope, is
there? It's darkness and then hell forever
and ever. So, this Gospel is to be preached
and proclaimed. It's for all the people. It's
a light which brings light to the Gentiles, which changes lives. But also, it is the glory of
your people, Israel. This one who has come, the Lord
Christ, he is the glory of his believing people, of Christians. He's their glory in his person,
the God-man. He's their glory in the work
of salvation he has done for them, for you. He's their glory
in his matchless character, so faithful to his people. so gentle and sometimes rightly
strict, but his character is matchless. He is the one who
is the desire of nations, the bright and morning star. He's the good shepherd, who comforts
his people in their distress, who keeps his people, who brings
them beside still waters. But he is also the one who is
the radiance of God's glory. And he's your Saviour. is your glory. There's a hymn
which I always quote, I think I always end like this when I
speak, but which is very, very, I think, relevant and pertinent
about the glory of the Lord Jesus to his people. It's a testimony. Now none but Christ can satisfy
none other named for me, this love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in thee. Amen. Now we'll talk, we'll move
now, sorry, to our hymn, our final hymn. This is hymn 126. called Sankey hymn, this is.
Lovely thing. 126, it passes knowledge that
dear love of thine, my saviour Jesus, yet this soul of mine
would of thy love, in all its breadth and length, its height
and depth, its everlasting strength, know more and more. And you go
through the verses. Oh fill me, Jesus, saviour, with
thy love. lead me to the living fount above.
Thither I, may I, in simple faith draw nigh, and never to another
fountain fly but unto thee. And when my Jesus face to face
I see, when at his lofty throne I bow the knee, then of his love
in all its breadth and length its height and depth, its everlasting
strength, my soul shall sing." 126. you you Yes, will you be seated, please? Now, we'll have a time of prayer,
if we may. Lawrence was telling me just
before the service began that dear brother Darren has been
involved in an accident and is his ankle broken. Would you like
to... Lawrence? What did they call him? Right, I'm done. Darren, Darren. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I meant
Darren.
Simion's Prayer
| Sermon ID | 122823208316026 |
| Duration | 52:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 9; Luke 2:22-38 |
| Language | English |
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