Bible prophecy, right? Now it shouldn't frighten us, it ought to excite us. And so what I'm saying is don't get so caught up in just spend time, the Bible said study to show thyself approved, right? So we've got to spend time studying the Word of God but then we better know why we believe what we, because here's the thing, if not you'll be led away. You'll be led away. The Bible said in the last days there's a falling away, right? And that falling away, I believe, is going to be the church, many in the church, because they're wanting a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Listen, I'm thankful that we've got the Word of God. And so that's what we ought to stick with. And so I want you to turn to Luke chapter 2, verse number 34 and 35. Now, we're on the back side of celebrating Christmas, the birth of Christ. And so we've preached on that, preached on the shepherds, we've preached on the wise men, and now I want to come to Luke chapter number two and verse 34 the Bible said, Simeon blessed them, said unto Mary his mother, behold, notice this, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. So I want you to think about the words of Simeon, the words he uses here point to the cross and to the resurrection. Now understand that the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come. They were wanting the Messiah to come. They knew he was coming, but then when he came, they didn't want him. And so right now Simeon, who again, we see here, we have verse 34, 35 Simeon, and then verse 36, Anna, they were excited about the coming of Christ, right? But the whole nation of Israel should have been excited. And so Simeon is prophesying or given a prediction, a prophecy about the death, bearing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we see that in this scripture, the cross. speaks of the fall and the resurrection points to the rising of many through the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is the message of the coming of Christ. So all through the Old Testament they knew from Adam when Adam sinned and Eve sinned, God promised, and Messiah, He promised a Savior. And so the whole nation was expecting that, but they weren't expecting Jesus. And so while we ought to study, again, why were they not expecting Him? Because they didn't know the Scripture. They knew religion, they didn't know the scripture. And a lot of people today know religion, well, I was taught this. Well, who taught you that, right? Well, I grew up in church and they taught us this. But where's it said in the Bible, right? The Bible should be our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. And so if we don't know what scripture says, then what happens is, the Bible tells us, brother Jim, there'll be many that are led away by the antichrist because they don't know the Bible. There'll be a lot of folks that are in church and they're going to say, well, you know what? Here's the man and he's proclaiming to be Christ. And so we're going to follow him because, well, we got to know the rapture. Listen, the first time when he comes in the clouds and rescues us out, praise God, he's not going to step foot on the earth that time. And so if we don't know our Bible, what happens is we'll be led astray. So Simeon understands that salvation is the message of the coming of Christ. You know what? Whether you believe it or not, this world's going to get worse. It's going to get a lot worse. And, uh, I've heard people, I remember growing up, I mean, I was scared to death cause I wasn't saved brother Matt. And I'd hear him talk about the end times and the tribulation period, the great tribulation and, and, uh, you know, that, uh, the earth was going to be burned up with fire. And, and some people say that's going to be a nuclear war. And I don't know, it might be praise God. But the fact is it's going to happen. I was scared to death. Man, I'd read about them scorpions, and I'd read about all that stuff, and I'm going, man, I don't want to be here for that, right? But the fact is, if you're saved by the grace of God, you won't be here for that. If you're not, as Brother Bart mentioned, if you don't know him as your Savior, you've never trusted him. My friend, you can't get away from that. And regardless of what Hollywood says, you don't have a second chance after he snatches his church out. And so Simeon is laying forth, and again, Mary brings him. He wraps the babe in his arms, and he understands what salvation is all about. They were looking for salvation, but until, watch this, until he became intimate or close to salvation, he didn't understand it. And there's a lot of people today looking for salvation, and they're trying to find it in religion, and they're trying to find it in relationships, and they're trying to find it in pleasure, and they're trying to find all these things, but they've never come close to the Lord Jesus Christ, and something's still missing. I'd say this, again, I don't know everybody's situation. I know we don't have a very big crowd today, and I'm sure some are sick, some are traveling. But let's be honest, some just was like, well, it's raining, I ain't going to church. You mean tell me that he died on the cross so you don't have to go to hell and you can't get wet? Right? I mean, the Bible says that we're to assemble more as we see the day approaching, not less. Amen. And so Simeon, he knows the scripture, but he's not embraced it, right? There's a lot of folks that know the scripture. They know how to be saved. They know about the cross. They know about the resurrection. They know that Jesus, but it's not intimate. It's not part of them. And now Simeon has heard about the Messiah, that he's heard about Jesus, and now he gets to experience in him for himself. And that's what salvation is, friend. It's not a prayer. It's not a herd. It's not church membership. It is experiencing the grace and the love of God for yourself this morning. And that's what Simeon's taught. So Simeon's words are prophetic and we have reached the first scene at how the marvelous gospel will be played out. He's laying it out in verse 34. He said, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. So I want to give you two things. First of all, number one is the revelation that we have and what he's given us is the revelation, first of all, of man. Why do we need a savior? Because we're sinners. Right? It shows man's pride. Remember this? All they had to do, Brother Matt, was know the scripture. And there's no way that if they knew the scripture, they could come to the conclusion that anybody but Jesus was the promised one from the Old Testament. And there's no way you can read that book right there and not believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Now, we may disagree on some secondary things, right? I realize we're Baptists, and we say, well, we're Bible-believing Baptists. Well, I will say this, I think we are. But I'll tell you this, we may get to heaven and figure out we got some things wrong. Right? God may look, y'all have missed, y'all got this right, but this y'all messed up, right? Cause there's some things that aren't clear, right? There, there's some gray areas and that's okay, but there's some things you better be solid on or you're not going to heaven. and one is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, there is no other name under heaven whereby men must be saved. I am the way, the truth, and the life. So friend, today, this last Sunday of 2024, you'd better get that settled. See, the revelation that Simeon's talking about is Jesus Christ. He will reveal to mankind how sinful they really are. You could not be around Jesus and not be under conviction, amen? And may I say that? You can't hear the word of God and be away from God and not be under conviction. You may not be able to describe it, you may not understand it, but there's something in you. If you're not living for God, if you're not saved, you know there's something not right. Now, I'm not trying to be critical. I'm just saying that is the love of God that will lead man to repentance. And so, we'll not have this man. They said, we're not going to have him rule over us. We don't want him. Are we any different today? We don't want him. Well, Sean, we got it good. We got money in the bank. We got turkey on the table. We got to be. I saw some of you in that flickering, whatever that in the world that was. Some of y'all. Wonder if they're going to call church hall, right? Because we had a glitch, right? The screens went off and the sound system is, listen, I can scream loud enough. I don't need a sound system. See, we've gotten to the place where we're so comfortable. If everything's not just like we think it ought to be, we don't need it. Right? And so it reveals man's sinfulness, his pride. It reveals man's thoughts about God. They said, we don't want him. The Jews said, we don't want him. Religion said, we don't want him. As a matter of fact, they chose a thief over him. And you know what? Today we're no different. We'll choose the world over the Lord Jesus Christ. Men go to hell not because of the sins they've committed, but because they've rejected the Savior. And so it reveals man's shallow religion. They had a form of godliness. Listen, and may I say this? There's a lot of Baptists the same way. Oh, I'm a Bible believer. I'm a sanctified child of God. I don't do anything, praise God, but want to glorify God. But here's the thing. Ready? You're a Pharisee. You're not doing it out of love for God. You're doing it because you think it makes you better with God. Man, I think you ought to live for God. I think you ought to have standards. I think you ought to be sanctified and set apart. But the motivation in doing it is as important as what you do and what you don't do. These stinking Pharisees, man, hey, you know what they did? They tithed. Well, you can't, listen, if we're going to go by that, I'd say the average Baptist would be in trouble. We tip. But you know what they did, Brother Jerry? Man, they tithed off their money. They tithed off the spices. Man, they'd get spices out and they'd say, well, 10% belongs to God. They'd take it and put it in there, right? We're trying to figure out, well, is that, do I tithe off before taxes or after? Is that the net or the gross? Is that what God expecting, right? We're trying to figure out how we can get away with stuff. They were trying to get closer to God by doing stuff. Now you think if we understood the grace of God, we'd want to do more for him, not less. See, in this age of grace we live in, it's like, well, what can I get away with? Right? What can I do to get... So it reveals man. We're wicked, man. Listen, man's not getting better. This idea of Marxism and socialism that if we put the right environment that man is inherently good and if we put him in the right scenario then they're gonna get better and the world's gonna get better. Well, that's malarkey. You say, how can you say that? Go all the way back to the book of Genesis. They were in a perfect world and they still sin. They didn't have pornography. They didn't have heroin. They didn't have all the mess that we've got. You're telling me that we're not going back there, friend. It's gonna take Jesus coming back. So when Jesus came, all the religious people were like, well, look at us. And Jesus came, and all the things they said they did, he actually did it. And so it reveals man's shallow religion, and it reveals their ignorance. They were looking for a Messiah, and here he was, and they didn't even know him. There's a lot of folks today, you're looking for salvation, you're looking for a better life. And he's offering it to you and you won't even take it. So it's the revelation of man. Also in the revelation is the revelation of God's plan. Well, what was that? Well, God's plan, and we know this, the Bible tells us from the foundation of the world, it was the plan of God that Jesus would die for mankind. Now brother, I don't understand that. I mean, again, I've said it before. I don't understand, Brother Ian, why if God knew Adam was going to sin, he would even create him. I don't know. You say, well, here's the reason. You don't know. You're not God. Right? It's beyond us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. I mean, if I knew that Brother Matt was going to betray me, right, and I was God, and I was like, well, he's going to betray me, I ain't going to worry with him. I'm not even going to create him. Why go through the hassle? Why go through the hassle of creating someone or something that I know is going to deny me and sin against me and my son is going to have to go to the cross and die in their place. I just say this, the three of us, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, it'll just be us. Us and the angels. I don't need those humans. Think about it for a minute. If it's up to us, there'd be no salvation. I mean, we get mad when somebody looks at us wrong, right? We get mad if we don't get one of these. God is, listen, God is sending His Son to die for a group of people that hates Him and blasphemes Him and curses Him and spits on Him and could care less about anything to do with God. And you say, well, that's not us, preacher, we're saved. But He died for those that would never get saved. He not only knew all that would get saved and died for them, He knew the ones that wouldn't get saved and He died for them. Hallelujah. Man, we won't even go across the road for half the people that we like. Right? I mean, we're so transactional, Miss Marlene. We'll look at things and go, well, if I do this for him, then he'll do this for me. God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He knew that there'd be people that'd say no to him, yet he died for them. He knew that there'd be people that would say yes and get saved and still turn their back on him, but he died for them. He knew it all, and it reveals God's plan that God is sovereign, and God is loving, and God is compassionate, and John 3 16, my friend, shows the love of God because God had a plan from the beginning of the world that he was gonna redeem mankind. And then there's the revelation of the law. Well, Jesus came not to destroy the law. He said he came to do what? Fulfill it. See, there was no man that had ever lived the law. The portions of it, let's be honest, we're the same today. But Brother Matt, we'll find the things we do well. We'll go, well, I've never cursed. I've never committed adultery. But you lie. Well, no, I don't. I just don't tell the whole truth. Which by definition is a lie. Right? I don't lie. But you steal. Well, no, I'm not a thief. Over in Malachi, the Lord said, you've robbed me. They said, where? He said, in your tithes and offerings. You may not have went into the convenience store, held them up at gunpoint, but if you're not giving a portion back to God, you're robbing Him. If you're not living for God, you're robbing Him of your time. Right? It's not just the monetary thing. See, if we're going to give first fruits, it's first fruits of everything. My time, talent, tithe, I mean, it's all His anyway, right? How we doing? You're not good enough, neither am I, to live that law. And it was never intended for the law to save people. The Ten Commandments, we can't even, there's more than ten, by the way, we can't even get through the ten. We probably, well, we can't get through the one. The first one. What is it? Love the Lord. Basically with everything you got. Then he says, guess what number two is? Love your neighbor as yourself. Until you love God, you can't love your neighbor. If you can't get through the first two, who cares about the lying and stealing part? Amen? So you're saying, he's revealing to us we can't keep the law. But the only way you can get to heaven, listen to me, the only way you get to heaven is to be perfect. Well then we got a problem because you ain't perfect neither am I and God's saying I demand perfection sinlessness to get into heaven and that my friend the gap between God and man Jesus bridged that gap in the person of Jesus Christ and he lived 33 and a half years without sin so that he was qualified to die in your place as you and for you and so therefore He imputed his righteousness on you, and now you stand, if you're saved by the grace of God, in the sight of a holy God, clean and pure and righteous, because we're in Jesus Christ. Now come up with a better plan if you can. I mean, you got a better one? That's perfect. But that is perfect. Satan says, well, but nope. I mean, if you get to heaven on your deeds, I promise you this, first of all, we'd all brag about it, because we're good at that, right? Look what I've done. But second, Satan would say, okay, well, Brother Jake there, yes, he did this and this, but what about back in 1979 when he... By the way, he's a good record keeper. He is the accuser of the brethren. He'll bring up stuff that you hadn't thought about in 15 decades. All of a sudden, your spirit convicts you And you say, and he's saying, what about that? And because of the perfect plan of God, God's washed it away with the blood of Jesus Christ. So he's not seeing what you did and what you didn't do. He's seeing the blood of Christ that was shed. So what Simeon is saying is the revelation of the cross and of man. And if God's plan and the law, and he said in verse number 34, he said, behold, this child is set for the fall. Well, why? Because he came to die. And Simeon figured that out. God showed that to him, right? And so then in verse 34, he said, and rising again of many. Well, what's that pointing to? The resurrection. Now they didn't understand it, but Simeon, God showed him that and he had faith that God was as good as his word. And so the resurrection is a promise of God. He promised it, friend. So it's proof that God is faithful. If Jesus would have not risen from the dead, what would we be doing here? Would be no different than the Buddhists or the Muslims or any other religion. But see, the resurrection, and here's the thing. God would not be God if Jesus would not have risen from the dead. We couldn't trust Him. Because He promised. You say, well it's just one thing preacher. Listen to me, time out. If you can't trust God in every part of His Word, you can't trust any of His Word. Amen. There's nobody else. Muhammad didn't do that. Buddha didn't do that. Confucius didn't do that. But if Jesus, if he went to the cross and died on the cross as a thief, right, and died in your place and died for you and died as you, and they'd put him in that tomb and he'd never gotten up, then we'd have no salvation. See it's not just the cross and we make much of the cross but friend May we say this we ought to make much of the empty tomb for without the empty tomb. There's no salvation Amen. There's no power resurrection. So it's a promise of God. It had to be this way. Well, what if? No, it's not a what if. Friend, it had to be this way. There's no other plan. There's one plan. It's God's plan. And God is saying, listen, he's going to the cross for the fall of mankind. But then Simeon said, there'll be a rising that takes place, rising of many. And it is the promise of God, and may I say this, if you come the way God tells you to come, it is promised that one day you'll rise too. I'm not worried about the undertaker, I want to know the upper taker, don't you? I ain't worried about going in the grave, I'm ready to go up. So we have to understand that the resurrection, though you don't have to understand it, I don't understand it, it's a promise of God. It is a proof that God is faithful. It is proof that God can be trusted. And it's proof that God has the plan. Why does that matter? Well, because here's the thing. When God deals with your heart about being saved, you have to have the confidence that what you're trusting in or who you're trusting in is the right way. Because there's coming, I promise you, there's coming doubts. There's going to come times in your life when you're going, am I sure? Right? Well, historically, what the Bible said is accurate. There's an empty tomb. Historically, Jesus died on the cross. So we know that. So all this is proof of God, that he's as good as his word. And so if I can promise, if I can understand the promise of God when it comes to the resurrection, then that's where my confidence and my salvation comes today. I'm not confident in me. I'll go out of here today and blow it. I can't believe you're saying that, preacher. Well, if you'd be honest, you'd get up here and say it. I mean, let's be honest. Before we get out of here real good today, we're going to mess something up. We're going to do something against God if we're honest. Right? Not me. Well, there you go. You've done it before we ever got there. It's called pride, right? So what are we looking at? God loves us and he'll save us. That's the promise of God. Well, then there's the proof of God's power. Well, here's the thing. I don't know you and you don't know me and I don't know all your sin and you don't know all mine. All right, listen to what I'm saying. I'm almost done. Hang with me a couple minutes. So I don't know where you came from. I don't know all the stuff you did. I don't know what you smoked. And I don't know where you hung out. And I don't know if you killed someone. I don't know all that about you. And you don't know about me. So however putrid and far away and all the vile stuff you've ever done in your life, I want to say this. God can still save you. He sure can. You say, prove it, preacher. So you look at, I'll give you this proof. I'm part of it. But here's even a bigger one. You ready for this? There's this guy in the New Testament, the book of Acts, and you read it. That guy hated Christians. Matter of fact, brother Eddie, he thought he was going to stomp out Christianity for the glory of God. Isn't that right? He was zealous about it. He thought he was doing God's business by stomping out all these Jesus people. Right? And he killed them. I mean, he threw them in prison, killed them. Matter of fact, when Stephen was stoned, he was right there holding the coats and man, he was excited about all these Christians being killed. Now I don't know about you, I don't sound like a good dude where I come from. That sure don't sound like somebody God would want. Well then all of a sudden he's on the road to Damascus and you know what he's going to do? He wasn't going to Bible study, he's going to kill more Christians and drag them to prison. Here's the problem, he came face to face with the God of glory and he blinded him. And he said, who art thou? He said, I'm Jesus. He didn't even leave room for interpretation. He said, I'm Jesus who you persecuted. And he so radically changed that man's life. He's going to Damascus and he tells this guy, he said, listen. He said, I'm going to send Saul to your house. I want you to take care of me. He said, time out. You talking about the guy that's going around dragging people to jail? He said, oh, don't worry about Saul. He said, I've showed him the things he's going to have to suffer and he's chosen to serve me. And then he got in the local church and everybody looked at him and said, I remember him. Why are we letting him in our church? They were good Baptists back then, too, by the way. Why are we letting him in our church? This is our church, right? He's not good enough to be in our church. And he had some folks come up, and I believe it was Barnabas, wasn't it? They said, no, this Paul's a good guy. God told me he's one of us. You say, why are you saying all that? Because here's a guy that hated Jesus Christ. thought he was doing God's work by killing Christians and he got born again. Can I get amen right there? He got born again. He didn't get religious. He got born again and God used him not only to write most of your New Testament. He is the apostle to the Gentiles of which you and I probably would not be in this church today if it weren't for him. So don't give me this stuff, I've gone too far, God can't do that. The resurrection is the proof of God's power, because here's the thing, death, you could conquer a lot of things as a human being, but you couldn't conquer death. Everybody was gonna die. So what'd he do? He said, I got something here, I'll just go and conquer death. So now because he lives, I can live. Now because he lives, you can live. It's proof of God's power, but it's also the proof of the power of faith. Well, you look at Simeon. Simeon, all he wanted to do was see this Messiah. And then, after that, you know what he did? Died. And he was content with it. Because his doubt and fear was gone. See, you're here today, you're saying, well, what if you're not right? I could be wrong. But that book's not wrong. I'm wrong about a lot of things. You're wrong about a lot of things. But that book's not wrong, see. And my faith is not in the Baptist. Listen, some of you probably go, he's ashamed to be a Baptist. I sure am not. You study our history, it goes way past the Reformation. That thing snakes all the way back to the early church. Right? Wasn't called Baptist but the belief was there. Same way. So I'm not ashamed of that. But here's the thing. Some folks believe more in their Baptist heritage than they do that book. Right? They're more proud. Some of you are more proud of being American. You'd rather salute that flag than you would that one. I know some of you, I don't think you'll say that preacher. Listen, I'm more committed to that flag. I love America. Don't get me wrong. I'm patriotic, but I'm more committed to that one. Why? Because that's the flag of my kingdom. Amen. I'm a pilgrim down here. If America turns socialist, communist, whatever, listen, I know where my citizenship lies. It's in heaven. And so I'm saying that the proof of the power of faith is the fact I'm looking at a bunch of folks that deserve hell and because you've trusted in Jesus Christ you're on your way to heaven. I mean some of you are even going to show up instead of going to the drunk fest on New Year's Eve you're actually going to show up to church. There's a day when New Year's Eve meant going partying with friends and acting like a fool. Now you're like, no, I think I'm going to be in church. I'd rather ring in the New Year with my brothers and sisters in Christ. That's a miracle. Some of you never darkened the door of church till God saved you. Now you want to be here. Some of you never sang them old songs of Zion until you got born again. Now they ring different in your heart. See? So Simeon, God showed him who Jesus was and he embraced him. Mary brought him, can you see that? You know where he's at when she brought him? Down at the house of God. And he's waiting. And she didn't have to say, Simeon, this is him. When he saw him, he's like, that's him. And he took that baby and did something for him. See, Jesus will do the same for you today. Doesn't matter where you've been. Doesn't matter where you've been. What matters is will you accept Him and believe Him and trust Him. Simeon, he didn't have a completed Bible. He was going off what the prophet said. And it's so burned in his heart that when he saw Jesus, he knew who He was. Now, you're here this morning, you're saying, I need something different. I'll tell you what you need. Jesus. How can you be so sure? Because that's what I needed, right? That's what others would need. Now, you're here today and you say, I'm saved, preached, good. Good, but see, you don't have him here. You need him here. You draw an eye to him, he'll draw an eye to you. That's what the Bible said. I didn't make that up. In other words, you take a step to him, he'll take a step to you, which means you're two steps closer to him. Last Sunday of this year, last Sunday. I don't know what your past this whole year. Well, I've messed the whole year up, preacher. It's been a terrible year. Well, can I help you? It's almost over. But if things don't change for next year from this year, you'll get the same results. No, because the circumstances are different. But see, you were miserable before 2024. It was COVID preacher. No, it wasn't COVID. It was before that. See, it's a decision you got to make. What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with him this morning? He's the answer to every problem. I promise you that. And so in this, in these few words, these two verses, Simeon is telling us Thousands of years later, he saw the resurrection. He saw salvation and the death, the bear on the resurrection. It's the gospel. Paul said this, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God and the salvation. To everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, also to the Greek. So this morning, what's the gospel? The good news. Death, bear, and the resurrection. That's what it's about, friend. This morning, that's what it's about. And it's available to you. Let's stand together. Bow our heads this morning.