The title of the message this morning is a promise to Simeon fulfilled meeting Simeon for the first and actually the last time and We learn in our text that a promise has been made to him and We see in our text that that promise is fulfilled. That's how it works with God. He makes promises and then He keeps them all. Last week, we ended with Joseph and Mary taking Jesus to Jerusalem, to the temple for Mary's purification, and for the presentation of Jesus as their firstborn child. They find all these things required by the law and they're coming and they're fulfilling the things required by the law.

So when today's text begins, and behold, we're picking up right where we left off with Mary and Joseph having brought Jesus into the temple courts, and that's where we find them as the text for this week begins. As we come to the text, let's ask God to help us. God, our desire is that the Holy Spirit would be present, throwing light on your Word, helping us to understand deeply the things that we've only understood a little of, to increase our understanding of these things, our joy in these things. Use these to help us and build us up. Ask you in Jesus' name, Amen.

As usual, we'll be subdividing. I want to begin with verses 25 and 26. So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Luke chapter 2. Follow along as I reread verses 25 and 26. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. 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." These two verses we have Simeon and what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him. We are introduced to a man in Jerusalem. My understanding is he lives in Jerusalem.

He's from Jerusalem. He'll never be encountered again in Scripture. This is the one place that we see Him in the New Testament. His name is Simeon. Simeon is described in four ways.

We've never met him before. Luke gives us a description of this man. He is just, he is devout, he is waiting, and the Holy Spirit is upon him. Simeon is just. So I'm just going to go back and take these one by one.

Simeon is just. This is the same Greek word used of Zacharias and Elizabeth in chapter 1 verse 6, where it said that Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous. So you have the same Greek words translated one way as righteous in chapter 1 verse 6, translated as just here, both are fine, but just making you aware it is the same word being used. Zacharias and Elizabeth were said to be righteous before God, or to use the translation from this chapter, they were just before God. Literally it means observing divine laws.

So Zacharias and Elizabeth were obedient, observing the laws that God had given to His people. Simeon is obedient. He has a pattern of life, of doing what's right. So he wisely allowed God to define what's right. And then he did that.

He cultivated a pattern of life where he was doing what was right, according to what God says is right in His law. He was just or He was righteous. Simeon is devout. This Greek word means reverencing God, religious. So Simeon lives in reverence of God.

He's not light-hearted about God. He's serious about the things of God. He's reverent towards God. And he's careful to take the practice of his religion seriously. When you hear that a word means religious, that gets a bad rap now.

I think we've given it a bad rap by being too light-hearted towards our observation of our religion. That's not what's being described by this word, devout. It means doing from the heart your religion. So none of this external only putting on a religious face where meanwhile all sorts of contrary things are happening in heart and life. No, no, no.

This is taking religious practice and making it a matter of the heart. So I've been describing sometimes fake religion as scratching a religious itch. You know, human beings have a religious itch, and some people scratch their religious itch in all sorts of things. But this is not the true worship of God as the Bible sets it forth. What we're talking about here is reverence for God, taking these things seriously and making sure that they're a matter of the heart, not just cultivating a reputation that is acceptable to your family members and neighbors and co-workers.

This is Simeon. He's reverencing God. He's religious in the good way, religion from the heart. Simeon is waiting. Simeon, what are you waiting for?

He's waiting for the consolation of Israel or the comfort of Israel. He's waiting for Israel to be consoled. Israel to be comforted. God has made hundreds of years of promises through the prophets, and so many of those promises that were made across centuries, prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, decade after decade, century after century, promise after promise. So many of those promises are tied to the promised Savior, God saying through the prophets, I'm going to send a Savior.

I know things are bad. I know things are not right between you and me, but I'm going to send a Savior to set those things right." And he was known as the Messiah or the Christ. Those that mean the same things just mean one anointed by God, set apart by God to do this saving work. So many of those promises that God was saying and saying and saying through the prophets would be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. So you see that Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

He's waiting for this promised Savior to come and to fulfill these promises, knowing that Israel will be comforted when these things are fulfilled among God's people. The coming of the Messiah would be the consolation or comfort of the nation of Israel. This is said all over the place in the Old Testament, but let me read you a couple. Let me give you maybe the best one. Isaiah chapter 40 verses 1 & 2.

Listen to Isaiah 40 verses 1 & 2. God says, Comfort, yes comfort my people. So here's the word twice, comfort my people, says God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended." We're not talking about warfare against the Philistines, which we're always in the middle of, or the Ammonites, or the Amorites, or, or, or. We're not talking about physical warfare.

We're talking about the enmity, the conflict that existed between Israel and God because of their sins. At the beginning of Isaiah 40, God says, comfort my people that the warfare that Israel started with me, because they're clinging to their sins, they're clinging to their hard-heartedness, I'm going to bring that warfare to an end. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The very next verses are fulfilled in John the Baptist who we've been studying.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low, the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Then skipping to verses 10 and 11, Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who were with young." This image of a shepherd, the people waiting for the Messiah or the one anointed by God to save, knew they were waiting for a shepherd. This is a hot link to John chapter 10, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. There are many, many Old Testament passages just like that, especially in Isaiah.

Because of those, Simeon is far from alone. So he is waiting. He's waiting for the consolation of the comfort of Israel, but he's not alone. He's a type. All sorts of people in Israel are seeing the deplorable spiritual condition of the nation.

Read the Gospels. Assess for yourselves the spiritual condition of Israel at the time of Jesus. How is it? It's not good. And there is a whole group of people who are waiting for the comfort of Israel that God would put an end to their warfare against them in their sins and would forgive their iniquities.

In next week's text in Luke 2 verse 38, just a few verses from now, Anna is going to speak to all those who look for redemption in Jerusalem. So we're going to encounter next week another of the type who are waiting for comfort, who are waiting for the redemption that has been promised Israel. So Simeon is just, devout, and waiting, and also the Holy Spirit is upon Him. We've already been saying that the person and work of the Holy Spirit is very prominent in the Gospel of Luke. Let me just give you the places we've already encountered the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Luke.

And we're only in chapter 2. Chapter 1 verse 15, John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even from His mother's womb. So when Mary enters the room pregnant with Jesus, John the Baptist in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy. He's filled with the Holy Spirit even from His mother's womb. In chapter 1 verse 35, Mary is told that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her so that Jesus would be the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit is going to come. And the conception of Jesus, Mary being pregnant, is the result of the Holy Spirit coming and overshadowing Mary and making her pregnant with the Lord Jesus. Chapter 1 verse 41, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she speaks all of these things in praise to God for what he's going to do in the life of Jesus. In chapter 1 verse 67, Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied about all these things that God is going to do through Jesus and through his son, John the Baptist. Now the Holy Spirit is upon Simeon.

The Holy Spirit is leading Simeon and guiding Simeon and teaching Simeon and influencing Simeon. The Holy Spirit is upon Him. So that is not an exclusively after Pentecost phenomenon. What do I mean? I mean, the Holy Spirit of God was poured out on the birth of the church in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, but that was not the invention of the Holy Spirit.

That was not the first appearance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all over the Old Testament, starting in Genesis chapter 1 where the Spirit of God hovered over the waters before these creative acts of God as these creative acts of God are beginning. The Holy Spirit is all over the Old Testament. Now, the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer following Pentecost is the fulfillment of Jesus' promise to send another helper. That is true.

The promise of a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a post-Pentecost phenomenon. But believers being guided by, led by, taught by, influenced by the Holy Spirit is not new in Luke chapter 2 or in the New Testament. You can find this all over the Old Testament as well. So this is the man we've been introduced to, Simeon. And at some point, we aren't told when, and in some way we aren't told how, the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that He would see the Lord's Christ, this Savior who God promised over and over again in the Old Testament, before He died.

While He was living with His own two eyes, He would see the fulfillment of these two promises, the promised Savior, the Messiah, while He lived, before He died. Now imagine having this expectation. We know Jesus is coming back. We have an expectation that Jesus is coming back. But I don't have any guarantee.

You know how many Christians have lived and died knowing that Jesus was going to come back? They didn't have any promise that Jesus would come back in their lifetime. Now imagine you have that expectation, But you know you won't die until it happens. How does that change things? As time passes, days go by, weeks go by, months go by, maybe years go by, maybe decades go by.

We don't know when the Holy Spirit revealed this to Simeon. All we know is that he has this expectation and every morning that he wakes up he knows, I'm one day closer, one day closer. It's going to happen before I die and I'm one day closer. The text reads like he's not a young man at all. As you get older, children, you become increasingly aware that there's less in front of you in terms of your lifespan than there is behind you.

Simeon is such a man. He's very aware that there's less in front of him than there is behind him in terms of lifespan, and every day that he wakes up, he knows it's part of a shorter period of time. And God has promised him He's going to see with His own two eyes the Messiah before He dies. Next section. Follow along as I reread Luke 2, verses 27-32.

So he, Simeon, came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up into his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. I like to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel." In these verses we have what Simeon says to the Lord. Simeon is going to talk to Joseph and Mary, but right now he's talking to God.

These are the words that Simeon says to the Lord. The text says that Simeon came by the Spirit into the temple. Now, that sounds very mystical, and it could be mystical, but it could also be very ordinary in that the Holy Spirit has the ability to influence Simeon with or without Simeon having a sense that he's being guided and led. So I'm not denying that Simeon had a sense that he was being guided or led. I'm just saying the text doesn't require that.

It could be a very mystical sense where Simeon feels an overpowering inclination to go to the temple and he could tell like God is driving me to the temple But I'm just saying the text does not have to mean that That the Holy Spirit has the ability to influence Simeon completely without any sense like that The Holy Spirit can get Simeon to the temple without that. Maybe you've had the experience of being unmistakably at exactly the right place, at exactly the right time. Has that ever happened to you? Without ever having had any sense beforehand that you were being brought to that place at that time. After the fact, you can look back and say, that was a divine appointment.

If I'd have been five minutes earlier, it wouldn't happen, and it's so clear to me God wanted this to happen. If I'd have been five minutes later, it wouldn't have happened. If it had been at any other GPS location on planet Earth, it wouldn't have happened, but God brought me right to that place, right to that time, but I didn't know at all beforehand He was bringing me to that point in time. So Simeon comes into the temple by the Spirit, and Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to present Him as their firstborn, and there is this divine intersection. Their paths cross, and it is a divine appointment.

God brought them both to that spot at that time for this purpose. Now, please understand that we only have a summary. What do I mean? I mean you can read All of this in half a minute. You can read today's sermon text in about 30 seconds.

But I'm very, very confident that what we have in the text is just the summarized version of an interaction that was significantly longer. How much longer? I have no idea. I'm just saying it's not the 30 seconds it takes to read it. This is a summarized version of a significantly longer interaction.

So when we read that Simeon took up Jesus in his arms, Picture this happening midstream in a wonderful and longer interaction, not as a strange sort of baby confiscation. If you read it as the time that it takes you to read it is the timeline. It's sort of like, whoa, why are you taking up this baby in your arms? No, it's part of a wonderful and longer interaction, and it would have been very natural at that point in that interaction for him to take him up into his arms. This is not a kidnapping.

We aren't told exactly how, but Simeon is able to recognize very clearly that this baby is the fulfillment of what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him. That he wouldn't see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, before he had seen the Messiah, The promised Savior. Somehow he knows this baby is it. Today is the day that God's promise to me is being fulfilled. This is the place.

This baby is the one. So Simeon takes 40-day-old Jesus in his arms and praises God. The day that Mary would have come for her purification would have been the 40th day. So he's 40 day old, just a month old, Jesus. Simeon takes Jesus up in his arms and he praises God.

Why? Because Simeon knows that this means that God has come to save his people. This baby represents that. It means God has come to save his people. God has come to fulfill all those promises that have come through all those prophets across all those centuries.

Simeon knows that to see this baby is to see God's salvation. This baby is synonymous with God saving his people. Simeon essentially says, I can now die satisfied. God you said I wouldn't see death until I had seen your Christ, your anointed one for the saving of our people. And now This is happening just like you said according to your word.

This baby in my arms is according to what you said to me. You've probably heard someone say jokingly, take me now God. Heard anybody say that? Something really good has happened and they don't want anything else to happen, you know, because it's so good they want to stay in that moment forever. Take me now God!

You might have heard someone joke that way. This is the non-joking version of that. Simeon could die in peace at that very moment, feeling like my greatest hopes in life had been satisfied by what is happening in this moment. Why? Because in seeing Jesus, He has seen God's salvation for His people.

For Himself, God's salvation for Simeon, God's salvation for his people. JC Ryle makes this observation. We see in Simeon how completely a believer can be delivered from the fear of death. As an aside, most people are terrified of death. I understand that, but I would also say Simeon is an example that we don't have to stay like that.

The more we hope in Christ, the less we're going to fear death. Let me continue what Ryle says. We see in Simeon how completely a believer can be delivered from the fear of death. He speaks like one for whom the grave has lost its terrors, and the world its charms. He speaks as one who knows where he is going when he departs this life and cares not how soon he goes.

Wouldn't that be wonderful to be one for whom the grave has lost its terrors? You don't fear the grave anymore. You don't fear the day of your death anymore, and the world has lost its charms. You're not looking to stick around for some anticipated pleasure. Have you ever had something so anticipated before you're like, oh, I hope I don't die before that happens?

You know that's foolish thinking. Do you die before that happens? Whatever it was that you were anticipating would be so far inferior to being face to face with the Lord in glory forever. May the grave lose its terrors and the world its charms as we learn to walk more closely with the Lord Jesus. Matthew Henry says this, those that have welcomed Christ may welcome death.

Simeon has welcomed Christ and now he's ready to welcome death right on it right on the heels. Jesus is a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles. And Jesus is the glory of God's people, Israel. Now understand the rich Old Testament backdrop for this phrase, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles. What I mean by that is when Simeon, this just and devout man, uses this phrase, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles.

He's not doing it in ignorance of the Old Testament. There is a rich Old Testament backdrop, and you cannot convince me that Simeon is not grabbing hold of it and pulling it into the language that he's using here. He is. That's what he's doing. Again, especially in Isaiah.

Listen to these. It's wonderful that Simeon would use this language because it's the language that's already been used over and over again by the prophets. Listen, Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2. You'll recognize this.

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." By the way, this is the Unto Us a child is born chapter so unmistakably about Jesus Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7 Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7 I the LORD have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. Every Jew knew this passage was about the Messiah. Every Jew knew that Isaiah 42 was about the Messiah.

It says that He'll be given as a covenant to the people and as a light to the Gentiles. It's just the language that Simeon is drawing upon. Or my favorite, Isaiah 49 verses 5 and 6. Listen to this. Isaiah 49 verses 5 and 6.

And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him. For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." Indeed, he says, indeed God says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth." That's amazing. What's God It's too small for you just to be a savior to Israel. You're too great a savior to just have you saving Israel.

How many are in Israel at this time? Three million? Not enough! You're too great a Savior to just have you saving this one nation, you should save the whole world. I'll give you as a light to all the nations.

I'll give you as a light to the Gentiles. Or Isaiah 60, verses 1 and 2. Listen to Isaiah 60 verses 1 and 2. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people.

But the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising." All the Jews expected that this was about the Messiah. This would be fulfilled when the Messiah came. The Gentiles would get light. It's everywhere.

Simeon is tapping into all of this in his praises to God. God, You said it, and now You're doing it. And Jesus is the glory of God's people, Israel. It is Israel's glory. It is the glory of the descendants of Abraham to be the family through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

That's what God promised Abraham in Genesis 22, 18. Genesis 22, 18, God promises to Abraham that through his descendants all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That's the glory of this family. We get to be the ones through whom God sends the Savior to the nations. He could have raised up a Savior from anywhere, but he's not going to raise up a Savior from anywhere.

He's going to raise up a Savior from us. That's our glory. It was the highest honor for this family line that the promised Savior would come from them. It was the highest honor for this family line that the promised Savior would come from them. It was the highest honor for this family line that the promised Savior would be one of them.

So that's what Simeon says to the Lord. Final section, verses 33 through 35. Back in Luke chapter 2, verses 33 through 35. Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. And 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, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." These verses we have what Simeon says to Joseph and Mary. Joseph and Mary marvel at what Simeon just said about their son Jesus. God keeps giving Joseph and Mary these marvelous puzzle pieces. None of them are exactly the same, but they fit together. They got puzzle pieces through Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her certain things about her son.

They got puzzle pieces through the angel who appeared to Joseph. This is Matthew chapter 1, who says that he will be named Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. That he is Emmanuel, God with us. Those are puzzle pieces that fit together with these other things. They received puzzle pieces through Elizabeth and what she said when she was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke to Mary.

They received puzzle pieces through the shepherds who had heard from angels and been sent to go find a child in a feeding trough, a baby in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. Now they're receiving more puzzle pieces through Simeon. They all fit together and they're getting a little more every time. Each puzzle piece amazes them. Now Simeon addresses Joseph and Mary directly.

This Greek word in verse 34, then Simeon blessed them, the word being translated blessed there, can mean to praise, but I don't think Simeon is praising Joseph and Mary. That is what it meant in verse 28. Simeon was praising God there, but this word can also mean to ask for God's blessing. So that's normally how we would use it if if you bless your children at night as they go to bed for instance. You're not praising them for going to bed.

You might be praising them for going to bed, but that's not what I mean. You are asking for God's blessing on them. That's what Simeon is doing here. Simeon has a prophetic word specifically for Mary. Up to this point, the puzzle pieces about the person and work of this baby have been glorious.

All the puzzle pieces are glorious because the Messiah is glorious. So All that's right on. Now we get the other side of the coin. The Messiah is coming to a world in rebellion. The Messiah is coming to save, yes, but to save out of rebellion against God.

That's what he's saving from. He's saving us from our rebellion against God, this war against God that we started with our sin. So the opposition is going to be tremendous. Jesus will be spoken against. Jesus will be opposed.

Jesus will be treated as the enemy, not a savior. And in the end, Jesus will be nailed to the cross and die like a common criminal. Of course, that's happening because he's a substitute, because criminals ought to die for their sins, but he's willing to go and die for their sins in their place. Of course, this is perfectly consistent with Isaiah 53, That Jesus would be spoken against and opposed. And hated is perfectly consistent with Isaiah 53, which prophesies that the Messiah would be a suffering servant.

Not an exalted servant coming to live in luxury as a king, and be honored as a king, but a suffering servant who would be despised and rejected by men. All of this fits the prophecies about Messiah too. Then Simeon says to Mary prophetically, he's telling Mary her future on behalf of God, He says prophetically, that a sword will pierce through her own soul. In John 19, Jesus is on the cross, dying for sinners, and Mary is there watching. Imagine watching your son crucified.

This is the most extreme fulfillment of what Simeon says in our text. But the truth is that Mary has been watching Jesus experience extreme opposition for three years. So this is just this extreme fulfillment. I'm sure she felt as he was facing opposition through all three of those years that her heart was being pierced with the sword. The truth is Jesus is the great dividing line.

So we've been at it a while, your attention might have wandered, I don't blame you. Happens to the best of us. I'm saying come back now. Children, if you left for the world of imagination, come back now. This is the important part of the text and the important part of the sermon.

Jesus is the great dividing line. We split people up by male or female, black or white, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, American or immigrant, and a hundred other distinctions. But the great dividing line isn't any of those things. It is have you made peace with God through faith in His Son Jesus. The Bible only knows of one great dividing line and it isn't any of those other things.

It is have you made peace with God through faith in His Son Jesus. Yes or no? Listen to what Jesus Himself said. The most famous verse in the Bible plus other verses. This is John 3.16 and following.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. This is what truly reveals what actually is in your heart. Not what you say is in your heart, but what is actually in your heart, your disposition towards Jesus. Not do you think well of Him or do you not think well of Him. Early in John 3, Nicodemus is a man who thinks well of Jesus.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again. It's not enough to think well of Jesus, to be religious like Nicodemus, to be a teacher like Nicodemus, to be moral like Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must repent and believe the Gospel. In the time of Jesus, there were many moral, very religious people who revealed the true condition of their hearts through their rejection of Jesus.

They said, I worship God. But That profession was betrayed by their rejection of Jesus. They actually didn't worship God at all. They actually weren't moral at all, though they cultivated moral exterior. They actually weren't very religious at all.

Their heart wasn't in it. God's name was on their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. This is what Jesus says. He quotes Isaiah saying these things. Do you buy that proposition in the time of Jesus?

There were many moral, very religious people who revealed the true condition of their hearts through their rejection of Jesus. Do you buy the proposition that the same is true today? Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 2 verses 15 through 16. Just consider. Consider what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 verses 15 and 16.

He's speaking of Himself and all believers. He says, for we, but believers, are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Believers are the smell of Christ among those who are being saved. Believers are the smell of Christ among those who are perishing. To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death.

To the other, the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? Same people. To some people, the smell of death. Because they reject Christ, so the smell of Christ is a putrid, it's an odor to them.

It's an odor to them. For those who see their sin and have run to Christ, it's the sweetest smell, a fragrance. The great dividing line is Jesus Christ. Peter says this in 1 Peter 2 verse 7 and the start of verse 8. Listen to 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 7 and the start of 8.

Therefore to you who believe, Jesus is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. To people who believe Jesus is precious, to people who reject Jesus, He's a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, He's offensive. Jesus Christ is the great dividing line. Is Jesus a great, gracious, willing Savior?

A thousand times yes. Does that mean that He will be universally appreciated and embraced? No! Many and maybe most will reject Jesus in favor of self-trust and self-love and self-serving. I'll say it again.

Many and maybe most will reject Jesus in favor of self-trust and self-love and self-serving. You think it's scandalous sins like murder and adultery that drag people to hell. It's those people who go to hell. No, self-trust and self-love and self-serving will do just fine. In the end, a simple failure to repent and believe in Jesus will be the fatal blow.

It won't be any of their sins, no matter how scandalous or respectable, that will send them to hell. The fatal blow will be That they would not go to Jesus to have life and repent believe in him Applications I'll give you two One is Jesus a savior to you That he came to die for sinners has nothing to do with you unless you've repented and believed. He must be a Savior to you. You must repent of your sins and you must trust Christ. No one can do it for you.

And it's never assumed. Meaning, I'm with a family who goes to church, so I'm like them in the same status as them. That's assuming salvation. It's never assumed. You must repent and believe the gospel.

You must repent of your sins. You must trust in Christ. It's wonderful that Jesus came to die for sinners, but you have no interest in that except by faith in Jesus and His work. Number two, believers. I'm talking to believers now.

If you don't believe, you can sign off. Long for the church triumphant, But understand that right now we are part of the church militant. What? Okay. Theologians love to use these terms.

What is the church triumphant? Believers in heaven! Then, but not a second before then. When all sin is gone, all opposition to our King is gone, every tear will be wiped away, every sorrow will be ancient history. The church triumphant, triumphing in Christ in heaven with all the sorrows past.

So long for it. It will help you to long for it. And how can you do anything but long for it when you think of it? But understand that right now we're the church militant. What's the root of that word?

Military. We're the church in a war. So, is Jesus a wonderful Savior? Yes. Does that mean people are going to want Jesus?

No! No, we're in a war. We're actually here to rescue enemy troops. We're the church militants. You cannot expect unbelievers in the natural state of human nature to want Christ.

But you have every hope that where God brings you, and you're not even aware that He brought you to that spot in that point of time, but if you're in that spot in that point of time. But if you're in that spot in that point of time, you can believe that the sovereign God who controls everything brought you there. And if He gives you an opportunity to speak for Him, you have every reason to hope that God has actually made that a divine point in time with that person to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to them. In other words, why are you there? Why are you there?

Random chance? Is that how you live? That's not how I want to live. That's not what I think this book teaches. We just happen to be places.

I think God's bringing us places to encounter people who need what we needed and have. Long for the church triumph, but I understand that right now we are part of the church militant. These people are not going to want Christ until they do. Don't you remember What it was like to not want Christ until you did? That is God spiritually raising people from the dead, but He uses us for those purposes.

The speak of His Son. Let's pray. God, I thank you for these texts that are so rich. Thank you in Youngsville, North Carolina, so far away from the promised land, we're so far away from being Jewish people, I thank you that you sent Jesus to be a light to the Gentiles. We were dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, You sent a light to us.

Thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.