We'll begin reading at verse
169. This psalm is the longest chapter in the Bible, and what we might call it's a
masterpiece of Hebrew poetry. Whoever wrote it, and I'm not
sure that we even know who, there's no indication, but it's actually
a series of, I can't remember if it's 22 or 24, however many
letters there are in the Hebrew alphabet. It's made up of that
many sections and each line in each section begins with a specific
letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It would be like if we made a
poem of 26 stanzas And in the first stanza, every
line begins with the letter A. And in the second stanza, every
line begins with the letter B, and so forth. Well, we're reading
the last of these stanzas in this long poem. And if we were
to be reading it in Hebrew, we would see that every line of
it begins with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In verse
169, the psalmist says, May my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according
to your word. May my supplication come before
you. Deliver me according to your
promise. May my lips overflow with praise,
for you teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word,
for all your commands are righteous. May your hand be ready to help
me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O
Lord, and your law is my delight. Let me live that I may praise
you, and may your laws sustain me. I have strayed like a lost
sheep. Seek your servant, for I have
not forgotten your commands. Now this psalm may seem to us
to have an odd combination. It is written by a man who throughout
the psalm declares his love and devotion for the law of God and
yet many times calls for the salvation of God. We read here
in verse 174, I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law
is my delight. Now that may seem odd to us,
for a man to lay hold of grace and law in one breath. How can that be? You know, in
our religious community, and most of all, in our own hearts,
we have fought this battle for a long time, haven't we? that
you cannot mix grace and works, grace and law, that they don't
go together. We have preached as clearly as
we know how that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight. We have declared, as the Scriptures
do, that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but by His mercy that God has saved us. We say over and over
again, as the Apostle wrote in Ephesians chapter 2, it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith, not of works, lest any
man should boast. And yet we read here in the 119th
Psalm that this writer lays hold of a love for the law of God
and a cry for God's salvation all in one breath. How can that be? Well, look over
here at 1 Timothy chapter 1. When we say that by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, do we
say then that there is no good use of the law anymore? When
we say it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his
mercy that he has saved us, do we by that statement throw out
the value of the law of God? When we say salvation's not by
works, lest any man should boast, Are we then to hold God's law
in low esteem? Well, it says here in 1 Timothy
1, verse 8, we know that the law is good if one uses it properly. In fact, he says the law is good
if one uses it lawfully. There is good use of the law,
there's lawful use of the law, and there's an illegal, unlawful
use of the law. There are three things that I
was able to find that make for a good use of the law, a lawful
use of the law. First of all, the law is used
to restrain the wicked hearts of the unbelieving world from
acting on their wicked desires. Now that's what's written here
in 1 Timothy chapter 1. He said in verse 9, continuing
on from what we just read, we also know that the law is made
not for the righteous. Now who are the righteous? Well
the righteous are the believing. Abraham believed God and righteousness
was imputed to him. So he says, the law was not made
for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful,
the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers
or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for
slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary
to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God which he entrusted to me. You distill all that down
and here's what the apostle is saying. Here's a good use for
the law. It's for those who won't have
the gospel. It's for those who refuse to
come under the direction of the gospel, there is the law. And
it is given in order that at least there will be some kind
of external restraint from them exhibiting the sinfulness of
their own natures. Now I know the Lord Jesus Christ
said that if you hate a man, then you are as good as being
guilty of murdering him. You've already killed him in
your heart. And that's true. If you hate another man, you are in the eyes of God as
guilty of murder as if you'd actually gone and got your shotgun
and blown him away. But you know something? I'm glad
that there's a law for people that hate me, because I'd rather
them secretly hate me than make it obvious and shoot me. Wouldn't
you? If my neighbor gets mad at me,
I hope that the law is there to restrain him from acting on
his anger, even if his anger is justified. If he covets my things, If my
neighbor looks over and sees something I have and he wants
it real bad, then he is as guilty as if he actually stole it. But
I'm glad that there is a law that may put upon him such restraints
that his desires will never get past covetousness, maybe, and
he won't reach out his hand and actually take them. So there
is that lawful use of the law to restrain the unbelieving world. Secondly, look over here at Romans
chapter 3. Here's another good use of the
law. Verse 19 of Romans 3. Now we know that whatever the
law says, and it says a lot of things, but whatever it says,
it says to those that are under the law. Now, who's that? That's
the unbelief. That's those who are still trying
to obtain favor from God by obedience to the law. That's who's under
the law. Why? Now, whatever the law says,
it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth
may be silenced and the whole world held guilty. to be held
accountable or made guilty before God. Now there is a good use of the
law to shut the mouth of self-righteousness. You know, if there's one proof
that a man is spiritually dead, it's this. I know there's others,
but this one certainly qualifies as a proof. that he looks at
God's law, that he reads those Ten Commandments and sees all
those sacrifices that were enjoined under the law and all that whole
old covenant form of worship, that he looks at those things
and finds a reason for hope within himself and boasts in what he
has done in performance of that law. When that Pharisee says,
God, I thank you I'm not like other men because I do this and
I do that and I'm certainly not like this fellow over here. Any
man that can look at the law and think that there's any righteousness
in himself is as dead as dead can be. And he has not made lawful
proper use of the law. The law, when properly understood
and when properly applied to a man, shuts his mouth. What does the scripture say?
The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep what? silence before him. What's all the world doing? Bragging. Boasting. Well I've done some
wrong things but I haven't done this. I didn't do what that guy
did. And I've got some faults but
at least I'm a sovereign gracer. Oh my. That temple A visible representation
of all that God had to say in the law and quite frankly all
that he was going to say in the gospel. Stands as a testimony. Let everyone
just shut up in the presence of God. And stop the boasting. Stop the bragging. Oh, the blessed rest that comes
from being silenced by the law of God. Do you know that whenever
you're boasting in yourself, you're going to have an inward
fight? You just are. Because you know better than
to boast of yourself. You know that. Anytime that you're
bragging about what you've done good, there is that inner voice
of the law written upon the heart that's telling you it's not true.
It's not true. You know you're lying. And so to try to keep up the
boast, to try to keep up that reputation that you're trying
to make everyone else believe, and especially trying to make
God believe, it's a lot of work. Oh, the joy of just being able
to shut your mouth of no longer feeling that there's any value
in trying to prove how good you are. That's where all the weariness
comes from. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, all
you that are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you rest. And part of coming to Christ
involves this, silence in your mouth about your own righteousness. There may be some here this morning
who are struggling. Inside, there's an internal warfare
going on. You want to know that everything
is well with your soul, but you can find no rest, no assurance
of an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell you what your
problem is. You're boasting. You haven't shut up yet. Maybe you would own up to the
fact that so far you haven't done anything worthy of the favor
of God. But you keep thinking that you'll
eventually do something or experience something that will make you
at least good enough that God will go, Oh, well I guess I ought
to save him after all. Oh, self-righteousness is such
a subtle and deceitful form of wickedness. I'm sure of this. I'm as confident as I can be
of something that's not just stated outright in the Scripture
in so many words. Confident of this. The moment
a man is done with his own righteousness, he lays hold of the righteousness
of God in Christ. There is no such thing as a man
who has no righteousness. He's either holding on to his
own or he's laying hold of Christ's. It's just that way. He's either got some hope in
himself or his hope is in Christ. And this struggle that we go
through, and you know something? Now, I've said that and maybe
you think, well, I'm a believer and I've got these struggles.
That's right. Because you're a believer, but I'm telling you
right now, only half of you is a believer. Our brother read to us about
the basic principles of the world that the flesh just loves. And
you know something? When God regenerated your spirit,
He didn't do a thing to your flesh, and your flesh loved those
basic principles of the world made up of touch not, taste not,
handle not. And this matter of having our
mouth shut has to happen over and over and over again. Maybe
in the preaching of this gospel, you who are children of God,
as I preached this morning, God will give you grace and for a
moment your mouth, your fleshly mouth will just shut up and leave
you alone and you will enter into rest and you will hear for
a while just think, yeah, why did I let myself get all worried
about my sin? And you'll do that and then you'll
go out of here and by mid-afternoon, The voice of the flesh will start
speaking again, will start talking again. In fact, so subtle and
so wicked is that flesh, it'll say, yeah, you must be a believer
because look how you were able to lay hold of the gospel this
morning. And once again, the eyes will be off of Christ and
onto you, off of what he's done and onto what you've done. That's
just the battle you and I have got for the rest of our lives.
And part of the reason that the psalmist said, I long for your
salvation, But whenever doubts come up,
I feel pretty sure of this, whenever doubts come up in your mind concerning
your soul, somewhere in your mind, somewhere in your thinking,
there is at least a kernel of self-righteous boasting. And when you're doubting, You
find that. You find that boast in yourself. Maybe it's over there in the
corner, just a yelling and screaming its head off. Oh, there you are. Kind of like a cricket. You ever
try to find a cricket? They get in your room and start
that chirping. It sounds like it's coming from everywhere.
They're just a little old thing and they're just in one place
in the room. They can be tough to find, can't they? And you
got that cricket of self-righteous chirping going on in your head
and it sounds like it's coming from everywhere. It's often tough
to find. And maybe the best thing would
be this. Just forget about trying to find that and put your eyes
on Christ. And see if that noisy little
chirp can't be put out by the sight of Him. And I know that's
got to be the cause of all doubt. Unbelief expressed as self-righteous
hope. And thirdly, look over Hebrews
chapter 10. And I chose this particular verse,
but once again, you know, the Lord has made a connection between
what he led our brother to read and what I'm preaching, and that
is about proper understanding of the law. And in Hebrews chapter
10 verse 1, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming,
not the realities themselves. And over in Colossians, didn't
it say the same thing? The law is just a shadow. Now,
that doesn't mean it's useless. A shadow has its purpose. But
you know, a shadow of a sword can't kill, can it? And if you
see the shadow of a sword, no reason to worry about that shadow
because it can't kill you. And the shadow of the gospel
cannot save. So the law was a shadow of good
things to come. But it was only a shadow, therefore
it couldn't bring about the reality. couldn't say but think on this
if you see the shadow of a sword shadow of a gun you're in your
house suddenly you see on the wall
shadow of a gun and hand on it that'll alert you on it because
there wouldn't be a shadow if there wasn't a reality And while
the shadow can't kill you, the reality that's casting the shadow
might, and it'd warn you, and maybe you'd drop to the floor
and save your life. Or turn around, look behind you,
see who it is that's got that gun that's casting a shadow on
the wall. And even though the law, which
was only a shadow of the gospel, even though it cannot save, does
it not alert us? Does it not tell us there is
a reality that can save? And that's its purpose. That's
what the purpose was throughout the entire Old Covenant times.
It was a shadow. It's as though Christ was standing
there in eternity and God cast a light behind Him and the shadow
of Christ and His gospel was cast across that Jewish nation. Now what does the shadow say?
It says there is a reality. There can't be a shadow if there's
nothing real. And while the shadow itself cannot
say, it might teach us to turn around and look and see what
the reality is. And you know, this fella back
here in Psalm 119, He says, I long for your salvation.
This is verse 174. I long for your salvation, O
Lord, and your law is my delight. That word law is Torah, the old
covenant. He says, I delight in it. Why?
Well, at his time, all he had was the shadow, but he could
see in that shadow the hope of his salvation. He said, I long for your salvation,
Lord, because right now all I see is a shadow, and it fills me
with great hope of things to come, and I long for the time
when it really will be here. If we can delight in the shadow,
how much more will we delight in the reality and the law While
it never was given as a means to life, it was given as a means
to point us and bring us to Him who is the life, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now some people Those who are
yet dead in their trespasses and sins, they see the laws expressed
in the Ten Commandments and all they can see is a list of requirements
and so they try to do it. They cannot see in that list
of commandments a testimony of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those Jews of the Old Covenant,
for the most part, they looked upon the tabernacle and the temple
and all the sacrifices that surrounded that, and they simply saw it
as something for them to do, and by the doing of those things,
to gain favor with God. Because of their blindness, they
could not see that all that those sacrifices and the priest and
the tent and later the stone building and all that, all that
that was, was a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they didn't
turn to Him. They didn't hope in Him. They
hoped in their observance of the sacrifices. They looked at
their liturgical calendar, made up of several feasts throughout
the years and things they must do, and they would go to the
Day of Atonement And I don't know, and there's Feast of Tabernacles,
and Pentecost, and all those kind of things going on. And
they would observe all those things, and they would think
that by the observance of those things, they were gaining points
with God, not realizing that every one of those days, from
the Sabbath day each week, to all the feast days, and all that
that was going on in Passover, that was a shadow that told us
there's a reality coming. But you and I, who've been given
grace to behold the reality, can find a joy even in the shadow,
because we know what the shadow says. We know what the shadow means. And I can read, can't you? I
can read about those sacrifices and think about Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. I can read
about the Passover rules and remember Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. I can read about the Day of Atonement.
And remember that Jesus Christ is my atonement. All the law has a lawful use
and it's good and it's helpful. And may that use be with us and
in us. Now let's get back to this verse
174. I just want to look at this scripture. I long for your salvation. That's what reached out and grabbed
me when I read this portion of scripture. I long for your salvation. I believe, here's another thing
I think is true, even if the scriptures don't
state it explicitly, but every child of God here longs for God's
salvation. In fact, I can almost go so far
as to say this. Everyone who longs for God's
salvation is a child of God. Now I'm not saying that everybody
that wants to go to heaven is a child of God. I'm not saying
that everyone who wants to escape hell is a child of God. But everybody who longs for God's
salvation belongs to God. I long for your salvation. Now, the man that wrote this
was a believer. He was a man of understanding,
a man of the promise, and all this, and yet he says, I long
for your salvation. You don't long for something
you already have. You say, well, don't we already
have God's salvation? In a sense, we do. And yet in a sense, we don't
yet have it. Now, who is it that longs for
God's salvation? Well, look at verse 176. I have
strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have
not forgotten your commands. Now here's who longs for God's
salvation, those who have strayed. And look over here at Isaiah
53. You know, the Bible always talks
about those who want salvation. It talks about them in terms
of their need of it. It talks about them in terms
of how they are wholly unqualified to receive any of God's blessings. It never speaks of them in terms
of the goodness that they have done. And yet it is the natural
way of man to think that if he wants something from God, something
pleasant and nice, he's got to be good. But this man's calling
out for God's salvation and therefore all the blessings that go with
that salvation, and here's how he describes himself. I'm like
a sheep that's gone astray. And here in Isaiah 53, verse
6, we all, like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now probably Psalm 119 was written either
during the captivity or afterward. We're not sure, but maybe. Isaiah was written before the
captivity. It's quite possible that whoever
wrote Psalm 119 had read this scripture. We all, like sheep,
have gone astray. And in his monumental poem, he
says, Lord, amen to that. That's one thing to say we all
like sheep have gone astray. We got to get from we all to
I. I have gone astray like a sheep. The child of God in his nature is like a sheep.
What are sheep? Well sheep are stupid. Really
they are. I don't know why in the world,
when you think of it, what do they call a diploma? Getting
your sheepskin. I guess that's because they used
to write it on that, it was a vellum type paper. I can't remember
what the name of it was, but it was a paper made out of sheepskin,
you know, and that's what, it was pretty fancy, so that's what
they put people's diploma on, but it's kind of ironic. They
would, they'd take the skin of one of the stupidest animals
on four legs and write a diploma on it. Maybe that says something
about human wisdom, huh? The sheep are stupid. The best
thing for a sheep is a sheep fold. Or maybe that's the second
best thing. The best thing is a shepherd.
They've got to have one. They are stupid, prone to stray,
prone to get lost, having a clue where they should be, end up
where they shouldn't be. They're stupid, and when they
get in trouble, they prove that they're weak and helpless. There's only two things I know
of a sheep can do, and that is eat grass when he's where he's
supposed to be, and go back when he's where he shouldn't be. That's
about the only two things a sheep can do. He said, I was a sheep that went
astray. Oh, we'd like to think that once The shepherd found us, we never
went astray again. But that's just not the case,
is it? I'm always getting myself in
a mess, aren't you? I always find myself turning
my own way, don't you? We go astray. Thank God, every
one of God's people has a shepherd. who seeks every one of his lost
sheep and brings them home over and over and over again. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Now run back here to Psalm 119 again. He says, I've strayed like a
lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have
not forgotten your commands. Is he saying here, now, I've
gone astray, but Lord, I'm still keeping your commands, you know,
and so you come seek me. He's a lost sheep out there in
the wilderness, and he's remembered the commands of the Word and
the precepts of the Lord. And he says, I've looked into
those commands and I understand what they're pointing to, Christ.
Now seek me. I see the shadow. You remember
that parable our Lord told in the lost sheep? That sheep's
out there and the shepherd goes seeking him. What do you think
was the first cause for a little bit of hope in the mind of that
stupid sheep? that lamb, when the shadow of
the shepherd fell across him. And he looked up, and there was
the shepherd reaching down to pick him up. And this psalmist
is here saying, I believe he's saying, I haven't forgotten your
commands. I know what to... I've not forgotten
that shadow. Oh, seek me. Cast that shadow
upon me. that the reality may come upon
me. Find me and save me. I remember your grace. Who longs for God's salvation?
Those who understand. Verse 169, May my cry come before
you, O Lord, give me understanding according to your word. Well,
what does he understand? What does the word teach us?
Well, that we're a stupid and helpless lamb, that shadow of
the law. Well, that law, which is a shadow
of the gospel, what does it teach us? That we're sinners. And he says, I've got this understanding
that I am a stupid and helpless lamb with no hope but the shepherd. Who longs for God's salvation?
Those who trust in God's promises. Verse 170, May my supplication
come before you. Deliver me according to your
promise. All those promises that he had
seen there in the old covenant of the Lamb of God that would
really take away the sin of the world, of a great high priest
who could actually go into the real presence of God and there
make a real atonement with his own blood that would actually
put away the sins of his people. He looked at the law and he didn't
see requirements that he could never fulfill. He saw promises
that Jesus Christ would fulfill. He said, deliver me according
to those promises. Who cries out? Who longs for
God's salvation? Somebody who has been taught
God's decrees. Verse 171, May my lips overflow
with praise for you teach me your decrees. That word decree
means boundary. And you know something? The law
sets some boundaries. One of the boundaries it set
was this. A description of how God's going to save sinners.
You realize that? Anybody who understands the law
realizes there's only going to be one way. That there's going
to be salvation for sinners. Through the sacrifice of a substitute. Back here in Isaiah 53, I'll
just read it to you. It says, All we like sheep have
gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Well, who's the him
on whom the Lord has laid the iniquity? He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a
lamb to the slaughter. We sheep have gone astray, but
there is another lamb that has been led to the slaughter, been
led to the sacrifice, has been put to death, even though he
never went astray, even though he never did anything wrong.
He was put to death in the place of all these wandering, stupid,
helpless lambs. And it is through that one lamb,
and that's the boundary, that's the decree, through that one
lamb, is found salvation and nowhere else. And the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world and He declared the decree. He fulfilled
the decree. And He declared it in these words,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. Now that sounds like a decree.
That sounds like a boundary, doesn't it, to you? The world
doesn't like that boundary. They want to think that, you
know, well now, you know, Christianity, you know, if that's what you
want to do, fine. But I'll go my way too. And that'll be fine,
too. Christ says, no, it won't. There's
a boundary here. There's only one way to come.
There's only one road, and it's got two sides on it, and if you're
not between the two sides, you're not on the road, and you will
not get to the Father. And that's why the fellow back
here in Psalm 119 could say this. My lips overflow with praise,
for you teach me your decrees. Oh, when God showed you that
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the only way, when He set
before you that narrow road that leads to eternal life and put
you on it, didn't your heart rejoice? Weren't you full of
praise? It's those who know the righteousness
of the Lord. Verse 172, May my tongue sing
of your word for all your commands are righteous. That's the way
our translation puts it. It's actually the word righteousness.
It says all your commands are righteousness. And all those
old covenant laws were designed to set forth to us the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, this man used the law the
right way. He didn't use the law to point to himself. He used
the law to point to Christ. He said, I see all your commands
are righteousness. Righteousness fulfilled by Jesus
Christ and given to us by the grace of God. Who longs for God's
salvation? Those who have chosen God's precepts. Verse 173, may your hand be ready
to help me for I've chosen your precepts. Now once again, what
do those precepts point to? Christ. He didn't say I have chosen to
have a hope in my obedience to your precepts. What he means
is I've chosen that one to whom all your precepts point. The
Lord Jesus Christ, my hope's in Him. And then it's for those who trust
the verdict of the Lord. Verse 175, let me live that I
may praise you and may your laws sustain me. Now that's a little
bit difficult for us to understand maybe. How can God's laws sustain
us? That word actually means verdict. His judgment. King James uses
the word judgment. You say, well, how can judgment
sustain us? Well, if you realize, all it
is is the official verdict made by God. Now, how could that
sustain a man? It says the law shows us guilty.
Yeah, that's its first testimony. But we'll find a little sustaining
in that, for once we have discovered that we are utterly guilty, helplessly,
hopelessly guilty in ourselves. That relieves us from the burden
of trying to make ourselves not guilty. But you know the Ten
Commandments is not the only thing that the law says. What
else does the law say? It renders a judgment against
the substitute. They would bring, and here we're
going to just use the picture of the sacrifices, and a man
would bring that lamb in there, and that lamb was spotless, been
examined without a flaw. It's a picture of Christ. And
then they'd lay their hands on the lamb and impute the sins
of the man to that lamb. And then that lamb would be killed.
What was that? That was a judgment. That was
a verdict, the lamb's guilty. Wait a minute, a minute ago you
said it was out of spot. got the sin of the man on him. And
the sin of the man made the lamb guilty. And God rendered his verdict
against it. And when he rendered his verdict
against the lamb of guilty, he rendered a verdict of not guilty
to the man. Fast forward a few hundred years
after this was written. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
came into the world and He knew no sin. Just like those lambs
of the Old Covenant, without spot, without blemish. He knew no sin, but God made
Him a sin offering. God took the sins of His people
and charged them to the Lord Jesus Christ rendered a verdict
of guilty upon him. And with that verdict of guilty
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, then he rendered the proper punishment
upon that guilty lamb and killed him. And when he rendered the verdict
of guilty against the Lord Jesus Christ, he rendered a verdict
of not guilty. upon everyone whom Jesus Christ
represented. In Romans chapter 5, verse 9. Since we have now been justified
by his blood. Now what does the word justify
mean? Here's exactly what it means.
To render a verdict of not guilty. Therefore, the psalmist of old,
looking at those Old Testament pictures of Christ, says, Your
verdict sustains me. I'm a sheep that's gone astray.
But I see you've rendered a verdict of guilty upon another sheep
for my strain. And you've given to me a verdict
of not guilty by virtue of the Lamb that never sinned. Well, what is it to long for
God's salvation? Look over at Luke chapter 2. As I said, a man doesn't long
for what he's already got. So when this man who is justified,
this man who believed God, who understood the promises, whose
hope was in the Lord when he says, I long for your salvation. What is it he was longing for?
Luke chapter 2 beginning at verse 25. Now there was a man in Jerusalem
called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was a believing
man. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit
was upon him. It had been revealed to him by
the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the
Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went
into the temple courts. When the parents brought the
child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, As you have
promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes
have seen your salvation." That old saint in the Old Testament,
the law would cast its shadow across him and say to him, Christ
is coming. And that man said, oh, I long
for him to get here. I long, O Lord, for your salvation."
And Simeon longed for it for a long time. He was an old man.
And then Jesus, not a doctrine, not a theology, not a ceremony,
not a church, a person, a child, was brought to the temple. And
Simeon looked at him and said, Oh Lord, what I have so long
longed for is here. I have seen your salvation. Now, how does that apply to you
and me? There are times, brethren, when all that we can see is the
shadow, isn't there? We know what the gospel is, and we have a hope in it. But
oh, for those times, look over at Psalm 35. Oh, for those times,
we long for them when Christ makes Himself known in a display of His grace, Psalm
35 verse 3, the psalmist says, Brandish spear and javelin against
those who pursue me. That's my sins. Say to my soul,
I am your salvation. You know, that's why I love the
assembly of the saints so much because that's when Christ does
this more than any other time. When the gospel is preached and
Christ makes himself known. And finally, As we have been
looking at, as we've gone through that series on the book of Revelation,
there will come a time when the heavens will open and God will
reveal his salvation in its fullness and everything that the believer
longs for in Christ shall be his. I long for your salvation,
said the psalmist, in your law. in all that testimony of salvation
through a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. I delight in it
and I long for the realization of all that it teaches. Lord
Jesus, bless us now as we go into this ceremony to set forth
those same things the law taught us and that the gospel reveals
with clarity, the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
his name we pray. Amen.