Good morning. Let's all stand together and sing hymn number 257. 257.

"'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take Him at His word,
just to rest upon His promise.
just to know the saith the Lord.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,

how I've proved Him o'er and o'er.

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
O for grace to trust Him more

O how sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to trust His cleansing blood
Just in simple faith to plunge me
Neath the healing, cleansing flood

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him

How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
All for grace to trust Him more

Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus
Just from sin and self to cease
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest and joy and peace

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for grace to trust Him more

I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend
And I know that Thou art with me
Wilt be with me to the end

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
oh, for grace to trust Him more.

Be seated, we'll sing hymn number 361. 361.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer
that calls me from a world of care
and bids me at my father's throne
May all my wants and wishes flow
in seasons of distress and grief.
My soul has often found relief
and oft escaped the tempter's snare.
by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
Thy wings shall my petition bear,
to hear whose truth and faithfulness.
Engage the waiting soul to bliss,
and since it bids me seek His face,
believe His word, and trust His grace.
I'll cast on Him my every care
and wait for Thee, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
may I thy counsel lay.
? Should share till from ?
? Mount Pisgah's lofty height ?
? I view my home ?
? And take my flight ?
? This robe of flesh ?
I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize
and shout while passing through the air.
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.

Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter 2. I'll start reading at verse 26 and read down to verse 40. Read down to verse 40.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law.

Now this is Simeon. Then he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us, thou thy servant, depart in peace according to thy word.

That's what we want more than anything, according to God's word. That's all I'm interested in is what God says, according to God's word. He said, if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them. And that's what we live by, according to what he says. God's word, according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. God prepared this salvation. God gave Christ, God prepared this glorious Son of God that he sent into this world, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.

And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, behold, 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 thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." And, oh, God's the only one that can reveal the thoughts of our hearts. And the sword of the Spirit's what pierces it, the Word of God.

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, or Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in at that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake him to all that looked for redemption in Israel.

And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city Nazareth. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."

Now before we pray, I want to mention a couple of things. We want to mention Rick and Helen Garrett. And Joyce hasn't been with us, and she's not feeling well. And there's a man who I've met at the gym, and him and I talk about the scriptures an awful lot, an awful lot. He contacted me yesterday and asked the church to please remember him in prayer. He said, I pray, but it seems like God ain't hearing me. So please remember me in prayer. Ask that congregation to remember me. The man's name's Richard French, Richard French, and y'all remember him.

All right, let's pray. Our Father, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come as Simeon and Anna to bless your holy name, to give thanks. Lord, we give thanks to the true and living God whom we know through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we know your son because you revealed him to us. You can't know one without the other. Lord, we know you because your son revealed you to him. And we know the son because you revealed him to us.

And Lord, what a mystery it is, this glorious salvation, where you take a heart, a heart of stone, a heart of flesh, and take it out. That heart was so desperately wicked. You take it out and give a new heart. Give a heart that can be touched, a heart that's moved by the Word of God, a heart that believes the Word of God, a heart and soul that commits himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh, Father, thank you for your Word. Simeon looked to you, and it was according to what you had already told him. And Lord, we're grateful that we have your word. We don't have to lean to our own understanding. We don't have to go by men's opinions. We don't have to go by denomination. We don't have to go by what somebody else tells us. We have your own word to look at, your own word to deal with. Your word is enough. And that satisfies our heart and soul.

And Lord, bless me today. to deal with your word faithfully and truly, because I know that that's what you use. And our blessed Savior, now we pray for those we mentioned. We pray for Rick and Helen. Pray for Joyce. Pray for Richard. Oh, God bless him. Lord, have mercy on him. Bring him to hear the gospel. And our Lord Jesus, we pray for Doc and Janie. Doc's not feeling well, and we ask Lord Jesus that you'd bless them, encourage them. And I'm sorry, Lord, that I didn't mention them. God meet with us today, cause the gospel to run well here, and bring glory to yourself while you do it. For Christ's sake, amen. You know, I did want to mention this. Dirk and Elaine got caught in that big traffic jam down here on the mountain the other day. About 30 cars got in a collision down there. And Dirk's car was up under a little, up under a semi-trailer. And they sat there for hours. Somebody finally come and got them. But that was a mess.

Shirley said, let's go to Sam's today. I said, I don't, I believe it's too cold. I'm glad we didn't. But they, you know, and let me tell you what Dirk said about that. I called him and checked on him and he said, listen, God predestinate this to happen before the world ever began. He said, God was in this. He said, God ordered this and he had this ordered before time began. And he said, me and my mama talked about it sitting there. She had water and a blanket to cover up with. He just talked like this, this wasn't nothing to happen, said, you know, the Lord was in this and I give him thanks. He'd have dealt with it heaps I'd better not have. But that was, that was, blessed my heart so much. Oh, the Lord was in this, he said.

Let's all stand together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin.

Mercy is welcome news indeed to those that guilty stand. Riches that feel what help they need will bless the helping hand. ? Who rightly would his alms dispose ? ? Must give them to the poor ? ? None but the Word of God ? dead patient knows the comforts of his curse. We all have sinned against our God. Exception none can boast, but he that feels the heaviest load. will prize forgiveness most. No reckoning can we rightly keep for who the sons can know. Some souls are fifty pieces deep, And some five hundred old. But let our debts be what they may, however great or small. As soon as we have not to pay, our Lord forgives us all. Tis perfect poverty alone That sets the soul at large While we can call One might our own We have no full discharge.

Be seated. I want to read verse 36 and 37 again, 36 through 38. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser. She was of a great age and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. She was a widow of about four years. That's 84 years is what that is. 84 years. Which departed not from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

We'll talk about Anna today, Anna's message. Anna's message. And Anna and what God did for her. Simeon and Anna were very, very old. In fact, God had told him that he was so old, he said, if I see the Lord's Christ, you told me that, that you'd let me die. You'd let me die in peace. Let me go out of this world in peace. And then there's Anna. She was very, very old, very old. But God, in his sovereign mercy, was pleased to make himself known unto these before he took them home. Both of them old enough to keep going home. But God made them to understand and see who the Lord Jesus Christ was before he called them home to be with himself. And that's why we go through the scriptures book by book, line upon line, precept upon precept. That's why studying a particular book is so profitable because you have to deal with it as you come to it.

And so let's deal with Anna. Let's look at Anna. What it says about Anna. There was one Anna. And look at her description. She was a prophetess. Anna. The word Anna is the same word as Hannah. Hannah. In the Old Testament. Hannah. Y'all know about Hannah. Samuel was her son. And she dedicated him to the Lord. And that's what this is. And word Hannah means or Anna means grace or gracious. And it fit her name. It really fit her name. Gracious. Grace or gracious. And it says she's a prophetess. There's two prophetesses mentioned in the New Testament. There's Anna and then there's Jezebel. In Revelations 2, Jezebel, that false prophetess who seduced my people, and that's what she is called. But a prophetess, what it means is, it's a person that just witnessed something and declares what they witnessed. That's all it means there. She's not telling something that's going to happen in the future. She just tells what she's already known. And that's what this means. And that's what it meant in the Old Testament, too.

And there's two mentioned, but prophecy. You don't prophesy things that's to come. Prophecy has ceased for hundreds and hundreds of years. And at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ here, God used men and women, both of them. He used Simeon, an old, old man, to talk about Christ and his coming. And then he used Anna, an old, old woman, to talk about Christ, talk about Christ, and to speak of Him who had come. And oh my, and this, you know, God used two people, a man and a woman, both of them of a great, great age, And that's what tells us this, that salvation is for male or female, Jew or Gentile, bond or free. Salvation is for all people, and Christ came to save all people, all kinds of people, all kinds of characters, every tribe, nation, country, and people under the earth. And I'll tell you, and God used an old man and an old woman in this instance here to talk about Christ. And I'll tell you there, you know, a prophetess is rare, very rare. Miriam was one, and what she did, she talked about what God did when he brought him out of Egypt. Deborah talked about what God did with Gideon, Gideon. But okay, let's go on down here now. They're very rare. These prophets are very rare.

And look what else it says about her. She was of a great age, a great age. And look what it says. You know, she was 84. We know that much about it. And it says here that she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. So she had been married seven years If she'd gotten married 16, 18, I don't know. She had been married seven years and her husband died after they'd been married seven years. And she was a widow for 84 years. So this woman was well over 100 years old, 102, 103, maybe 104. But she was an old woman, an old, old woman. And I'll tell you what, she was a widow indeed. She had all the trials, all the troubles, all the desolations of a widow who'd been alone. A widow had been a widow for 84 years. And what she did, she lived in the temple. And look what else it says about her. In verse 37, She was a widow four score years and departed not from the temple, but look what it says about her, but served God. She served God. She didn't go off and whine and complain and all the things that was wrong with her and all the things that had befell her. She had been a widow for 48 years. She started in the temple and she lived in that temple for those 84 years. She went in there, she was a widow indeed, and that's what the tithes was given for, and that's why the offerings were given, so that they could take care of the widows indeed. They didn't have social security. They didn't have welfare. They didn't have anything. So she was living on what the people would give to her in the temple. And so she did that for 84 years and it says she served God. And what that means is she loved the worship of God. She was in the place where God was worshipped. This was the place that Christ himself came in and sat down and taught in the temple. And she was in this temple worshipping God. And that's the thing that, oh my, of all the things that's more important in this world is the worship of God. All us gathering together like this, God blesses us. You know what a grace it is and what a mercy it is that God enables us to meet together and have corporate worship? That we have the Word of God and it tells us about people that was in the temple 84 years.

And it don't take much to get, I used to say this, I said 11 drops of rain would keep 10 Baptists out of church. But I tell you, this business of worship, and worship, it means to adore. It means adoration. It means to adore the person you're worshiping. You give him your attention. You love them and you desire their presence. And that's what Anna, when she served God, said she was there to worship God. She departed not from the temple. She didn't depart from the temple.

Daniel, in the book of Daniel, I believe it's in chapter six, there were some men that hated Daniel. They couldn't find any fault with him. Couldn't find anything wrong with him. So what they did, they talked the king into making a law. These were some fellas close to the king. They made up a set. Let's make a law that if anybody calls on any God besides you and the gods of Babylon, they are to be thrown in the lion's den. You know what Daniel did? When they passed that law and passed that decree, you know what he did? He went up every morning, opened his window and prayed. Went back up at noon and he prayed. And he went back up in the evening and he prayed. And they said, no, we got him now, we got him now. He loves his God. He said, oh, listen, this man, we can't find any fault with him. So we got to figure out something to stop him from his worship. They passed that law. He said, go get him. Boy, I tell you, that broke the king's heart. He said, oh no, I can't do Daniel this way. So they throwed him in the lions' den. You know what God did for him? He made those lions like kitty cats. I bet one of them slept in his lap and he roamed on him. I mean, that's what God does for his people.

And this is a woman who loved the worship of God. And Daniel would worship, rather than worship God, than do anything else in his life. And that's what, you know, and you don't have to be all together to worship God. We worship God at home. We worship, you know, you ladies can worship God in the door while you're working and that you, things don't have to be all of us at one time. But I tell you, worship is something we can do personally. Personally. And oh my.

And look in, look in, look in Psalm 84 with me. Psalm 84. Look what David, look what David said over here. talking about God's house, the place to worship. Oh, there was divine services. Look what he said. How amiable, how pleasant, how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. Oh, your tabernacles are so wonderful, they're so pleasant, they're so precious. And he says, my soul longeth Yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out. For who? The living God. And listen to this now. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house. A little old sparrow. A little old sparrow build him a house up there in that Temple up there and those rafters up in there. And look what he says. And the swallow found a nest for herself. That's so precious that, you know, even the sparrow and the swallow found a place where she may lay her young. Listen to this. Even where thy altars are, Lord, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Oh, blessed are they. Now listen. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, and they will still be praising thee. Oh, my. The birds found a wonderful place. Oh, found a wonderful place. Oh, my.

And she had, not only did she worship God, look back over in Luke 2 again, verse 37. She worshiped God. She served God. She loved God. God was everything to her. You know, her husband was gone, and she had nobody but the Lord's people. And look what it says now. With fastings and prayers night and day, she had great self-denial. This woman denied herself. Fastings, fastings, night and day. You know, there was too fast in the week that the Jews did. Too fast. And she wasn't a Pharisee about it. Look in Luke 18. She wasn't a Pharisee about it. She fasted, you know, the two times a week that they were supposed to. Look in Luke 18, in verse 11. She had great self-denial. Fastings. Night and day. Too fast in the week. She faithfully did them. And she wasn't a Pharisee about it.

Luke 18, 11, the Pharisees stood, the publican bowed. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men, extortioners, I don't add more to my business than I ought to pay, and unjust or adulterers, even as this publican." And listen to this, "'And I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess.'" He wanted everybody to know, but this woman did it, and you wouldn't know about it unless God told you. Pharisee told it on himself. That's the thing about a Pharisee. You know he's a spot one. He brags on himself. He brags on what he's accomplished, what he's done. But a believer brags on the Lord Jesus Christ and tells what he's done. What have we done? I laughed a little bit about it. Have I done my best for Jesus? And oh, listen, we laughed about that. But there's a lot of people that that's all they know. Some of my preachers tell them, you need to be doing something for Jesus. Need to be doing something for Him. Instead of we talk about what Christ has done for us. I've never done nothing for him that's worth mentioning. Nothing, absolutely nothing.

He told Abraham, said, I'm going to be your reward, Abraham. This property that I've told you that you could have all this land, that's not your reward. I'm your reward. And the world ain't going to be your shield. Nothing out in this world is going to be your shield. I'm going to be your shield. And why in the world would anybody think when they get to heaven that God's going to reward them for anything they ever did when God did it all? I heard a preacher talk about he wanted all the crowns and all the stars that he could get in his crowns. How in the world would a, why would God give a man stars in his crown when Christ did it all? Huh? Oh, they talk about I'll lay my trophies down. We ain't got no trophies to lay down. We got no trophies. We ain't done anything and I didn't do anything.

She was in there because God put her there. And she loved and worshiped God. After her husband died, God, I need God. I got to have God. I don't want to worship God. And I'm going to deny myself. I'm going to fast like the Lord told me twice a week. I'm going to do that. And look what else it says about her. Fastings and prayers. Prayers. She was a woman of prayer. She prayed daily. night. I know how, I know telling how many of you that are believers that's been woke up in the middle of the night sometime in the night you woke up and automatically you start praying. You start praying. Or else you start singing a hymn. You know, you know why that is? God puts that in your heart. God puts that in your heart. And oh, she was a woman of prayer, day and night. Three prayers a day was told for people to do. And she communed with God. She communed with God. God, to her, was someone that she could commune with. And she never, ever grew weary in well-doing. No, she did.

And oh my, look in verse 38. And she coming in that instance, coming in that instance, she was looking for Christ to come. Now when it says she came in that instant and gave thanks, what do you mean she came in that instant? She walked into the temple the very time and the very moment when Simeon was talking about Christ. when Simeon lifted up that 40-day-old baby. She saw that. She was standing there watching Simeon take up that 40-day-old baby and take him up in his arms and say, Lord, I've seen your salvation. She was coming in that instant. She saw all that. She heard everything that Simeon said. And, you know, she come in and she said, I've been looking for this, this is what I've been waiting for. This is the very person I've been waiting for. That's what Simeon said, this is what I've been waiting all my life for. I'm an old man, it's time for me to die. Now Lord, I believe after he took up Christ, I believe he died that night or the next day. Because God told him when he saw Christ that he would allow him to die. He said, let me depart. Where you gonna go? I wanna go where he is. Paul says, my departure's at hand. Oh, a departure. Oh, people get upset when they miss their departure flight. But oh my, I'm not gonna miss my departure and you ain't gonna miss yours either. And it's, oh my, he said, let you do. And I really believe that the Lord took him whole with this little while after he saw Christ.

There's another man that he was, the three thieves is on the cross. Christ was in the middle. Both of these men were murderers and malefactors, robbers and thieves, and they was mean men. And one of them was, both of them was railing on Christ, and then all of a sudden, one of them, one of them looked to Christ. Now, Christ is hanging there. He's got crowns and thorns in his hair. He's naked, and he's got blood all over him. He's nailed there, dying, just like that thief is. But one thief looked at him and said, Lord, first thing he said, called him Lord. How could he see in that bleeding man, the Lord? That naked man, the Lord? He said, Lord, remember, remember me. And then he thought, boy, this man's got a kingdom. And when you come into your kingdom, would you remember me? You know what the Lord said to him? Today, today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. Oh my. And that's why Simeon, he got to go to Paris, got to go be where Christ is. And she coming in that instant, she saw that. She saw that. In that instant, she saw that.

And what did it say next in verse 38? She gave instant, in coming in that instance, Give thanks likewise, just like Simeon did. Likewise, like Simeon did. Gave thanks unto the Lord. Oh my. First thing she did, she said, oh Lord, thank you. Oh Lord, thank you. Thank you for letting me see you, son. Thank you for letting me see salvation. Thank you, oh Lord. let me see Christ. Thank you for letting me see the Son of God. Thank you for letting me see that one that's my salvation. Thank you for letting me see my Savior. Thank you let me see my Redeemer. And oh my, looking for salvation. She heard his prophecy. She gave thanks unto the Lord. She confessed unto the Lord. Oh Lord, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, to give thanks for God, I thank you that you gave us your son. Oh, our blessing. You know what I'd be without Christ? Oh, listen. We was going to cook the other day and I started thinking about the life I was when I was a young man. Started crying for the mercies that God had shown me. I was an awful man, awful man. But God had mercy, crossed my path with the Lord Jesus Christ, made me to know Him, and to want Him. And I needed Him, and I need Him now. And that's why she said, she said, Lord, I thank you. I confess unto you that you've made me to see your Son. I confess unto you Lord, that I, he's my only hope. I confess unto you that I've seen your Christ and you gave me that sight of Christ. I thank you that you brought me here at this time to hear the gospel. And oh my, and oh, she called on him. That's her profession. She called on him. And Christ had been made known to her. And oh, thank God. that he makes his soul known, even now. And you know what salvation is? It's to know Christ. Not just things about him, but to know him. Salvation's in a person. Salvation's in, they saw a person. He was a baby, but they saw salvation in him. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ said this, I am, God has given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And then he says, you know what eternal life is? This eternal life that I give is to know the true and to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know. To know. And I tell you what, if you ever, if God ever brings you to where you know him, you'll know that you know him. You won't have to try to scratch your head and say, I don't know if I know him. No, you'll know. You'll know him. You'll know him. And oh, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Ruby used to tell me that. I don't know how many times she told me that, going out of this building. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. She'd gone to be with Christ. She'd been with Christ many, many years. But oh, I remember it vividly. Oh, countless, countless, countless times. Way up in her 80s and 70s and 80s, you know, right up till she got sick and was die. Listen, she said, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Oh my. I'll tell you, she had communion with other saints. Look what it says again there at verse 38. She gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and listen to this now, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." Not only did she see Christ, but while she was in that temple, everybody come in, she said, she started talking about Him. Said, He's here! He's here! I just saw Him! I just saw Him! I just saw him. I saw him and I saw what Simeon said. Oh, listen, she's, all people start coming through that temple. Do you know he's come? Do you know Christ has come? The Messiah has come? Oh, we just saw him. Oh my. And oh, she spake of him. She spake of him. And who did she speak to about him? Look what it says. To all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem, in the margin says, or Israel. She started talking about everybody that was looking for him is coming. Oh, you know, there was people waiting there for him to come. And just like we wait for him to come now, they were waiting for him to come. And they had waited for decades and decades and hundreds of years. And finally he come. And oh my, and I'll tell you what, when she spake of him, you know what happened? These people were believers because they were looking. They were looking for redemption. In Israel, they were looking for salvation. You know, these people had faith. They walked by faith. They lived by faith in him who was to come. Christ hadn't come. And the scripture says there's one who is coming, then there's one who's come, and then there's one who's coming again. And then, and then all the comings he's had since then coming to our hearts. Coming to us individually.

But look what it says now. Oh my. These were true children of Abraham. And look what it says. Gave thanks to all them that look for redemption. Redemption. You know what redemption is? Redemption is when you buy something that you can afford to buy. And Christ had the price to pay for the redemption of all his people. They were looking for this redemption. Looking for Christ to come. And they were looking for someone that was going to come and pay their sin debt. They knew they were sinners and they knew they were sinners. And redemption is the payment for sin. People that's in bondage and he pays the price to get them out of bondage. And oh my, they were at the payment of their sin. They were set free. Set free. being forgiven by a price that was paid by Christ. They were looking for that. They were looking for that. People's looking for salvation and sins, being forgiven in so many places, so many ways. But these people were looking for Christ, the Redeemer, the Redeemer.

And you know, when Christ redeemed us, Redeemed us. You know when He redeemed us? When He was on that cross. He paid for all my sins. He paid for all these sins of these people here. And they were looking for Him to pay for their sins and to pay for their freedom. And to carry them home. Now we look to Christ who has redeemed us. And when He is on that cross, redemption, what it does is it buys It pays for someone that's in bondage, that's in sin, that's under the law, that can't save themselves. And Christ comes and he says, listen, I'll pay for them to set them free.

Heard a story the other day. You may have heard it yourself, but this young boy had caught him a couple of sparrows. Set him in a little trap and caught him a couple of sparrows. When I was a kid, I used to do that all the time. Set a wooden box out, you know, and throw stuff in there and hoping you'd get a bird over there and jerk it, you know, and catch him. Well, had two sparrows, had him in a little cage. And there was this preacher, got through preaching. He was walking down the street. And he had been talking about redemption, about freedom. He says, where'd you get those birds at? He said, I caught them. What are you going to do with them? I ain't going to do nothing with them. I'm just going to keep them in the cage. He said, what would you take for them? This had been years ago. He said, I'd take $2. That preacher rich in his pocket gave him the $2. And he took that bird cage, and he opened the door on it, and held it up, and those birds flew out of there. That's what Christ done for us. He paid for our freedom. Now go.

But I don't want to go. But he set you free. What did he set you free for? To love him, to worship him, do like Anna did. They waited and waited for the Redeemer to come. We look back at a redemption's already accomplished. But all of us were saved the same way, through the redemption that's in Christ. And now you know what we wait for? The redemption of our body. Gonna redeem this body.

Let me quickly give you two other things here, real quick. Verse 39 and 40. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, They went back home. They went back to Galilee and to the little city of Nazareth in the country of Galilee. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

They went home. And listen, you know, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the scriptures. The child grew. He was God. He was their salvation. They saw salvation in Him. But this child grew. It says he waxed strong in spirit. Waxed strong. His spirit got stronger and stronger and stronger. And he grew up. He grew up.

Our Lord partook of everything that belongs to man's nature, sin excepted. He became a baby. Then he became a toddler. Then he became a child. Then he became a man. Then he got older. And our Lord Jesus Christ went through, as man's nature, sin accepted. He started as a baby to a boy to a young man and grew like all other people did. He matured. He earned His bread by the sweat of His brow, just like everybody else. He increased His strength. He increased in intelligence.

Our Lord didn't fully come into this world full-grown like Adam did. He has to partake of flesh and blood like us. And oh my, He has to know what pain is. He has to know what toil is. He has to know what to grow is. He has to know what trouble is. He has to know what trials are. He has to go through everything that we go through in this life. Tempted at all points like as we are, yet without sin, but yet he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And as our surety, he must put himself in our circumstances, made like unto his brethren.

That's why they said, it's not this the carpenter, it's not this Joseph's son. He was poor and he couldn't, he couldn't get an education like other men did. Look over in John chapter 7, 15. I'm going to hurry up here. Look what they said about our master. You know, he was a, of course, as it's manifest when he turned 30, it's manifested, he was God. You know, manifested he had all the power of God. And he was God. He started out as God and he got on the cross. And look what it says. Verse 14, Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, Knowing how knoweth this man letters, or learning, having never learned. Where'd he get all this learning from? I quit school when I was 15 years old, and it shows most of the time. But oh my, they said, oh my, he don't even have an education.

And how this reveals to us our Lord's glorious, glorious character. He identified with us. The curse had three great points, and I'm done. Three great points. The frailty of human nature, infirmity, the frailty of it. Well, our Lord became a man. Became a man. And the life consists of a life of labor. I don't care what labor it is. You know, there's not been anybody that ever found a job that you take the work out of it. It just don't happen. It's a life of labor. And they had to, you know, God said, I'm going to put thorns and briars. So when fella goes out here to make his living off the ground, he's going to have to deal with thorns, thorns and briars. And then there's death. Sin that brings death. Death. And our Lord Jesus Christ, by dying, put death away once and for all. By putting sin away, put sin away once and for all. And to redeem us and save us, He had to go through all three of those things. Had to go through all three of them. Bless his holy name. No one like him.

And I'm, you know, I didn't see, you know, Simeon actually saw an infant and said, mine eyes have seen your salvation. I saw the same Savior. I saw the same Savior. And I trust the same Savior. And now, not only do I live in peace, but God one of these days is going to let me die in peace. Lord, I thank you. Oh, Lord, thank you. Blessed be your day.

Who's like unto you in grace? Who's like unto you in mercy? Who's like unto you in pity? Who's like unto you in compassion? Who's like unto you with the power? Who's like unto you with the prize to set us free? Who's like you, Lord? Search this universe. Search this world. Search the heavens, search the earth. And, Lord, you're the only Savior. You're our only Savior. You're our only Redeemer. You're all of our salvation, and you're all we want. We want to worship you, adore you, bless you, praise you, give thanks to you. And, Lord, cause your people calls you people in this place to believe, to trust Christ, to confess their need of him, their want of him. And, Lord, you're the only one that can open a heart, only one that can give a new heart. And so, Lord, we ask that you do that for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. in the light of His glory and grace. And it does, don't it? It does.

All right, see you Wednesday.