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.