When Mary and Joseph had brought
the Lord Jesus into the temple to perform that which was required
in the law, for that our Lord must in all things be made subject
to the law, they brought him to the temple. An old man by
the name of Simeon came in, picked up the Savior, and declared,
This is God's salvation, this child I hold in my hands. he is God's salvation in its
entirety. Salvation is Christ. It's not just in Christ, it is
Christ. He said concerning him who is
God's salvation, that this is that salvation which God has
prepared. The Lord God prepared a human
body for his son, in which his son would live obey his will
in all things, establish perfect righteousness, and suffer the
wrath of God to the full satisfaction of justice. This one whom God
had prepared, he sent forth as a light to lighten the Gentiles,
because it was ever God's purpose to save his elect, both among
the Jews and the Gentiles. God never, never, never intended
that his gospel and his kingdom be limited to Abraham's physical
seed, but rather God's Israel, God's elect, God's people, are
the Israel of God scattered through all the four corners of the earth,
chosen of God, called by his grace, circumcised in heart,
brought to life in faith in him by the power of his grace. And
the glory of thy people is real. The two are the same. His people
among the Gentiles and his people Israel are the same people, the
Israel of God. Jesus Christ is our salvation,
he is our light, by whom alone we have light, and he is our
glory. He is that one in whom we see
the glory of God, and that one who is our only glory, our only
boast, our only confidence before God. And then Simeon said, this
one, this one who is God's salvation, this one who is set and prepared
by God, this one who is the light of his people and the glory of
his people, is set, set by God's decree, set according to God's
purpose, set from eternity to be for the rising and the falling
of many. He will either be that one by
whom you who hear my voice fall into hell, or that one by whom
you rise to glory. He will either be a saver of
life unto life unto you, or a saver of death unto death. But I promise
you, you won't be indifferent to him. It won't happen. He will
either be that rock on which you fall, and by which you are
broken he will be that rock that falls on you and grinds you to
powder. And the prophet Simeon, speaking
as a prophet, he says now, he is one always spoken against. Always. Wherever he is proclaimed,
wherever his gospel is preached, wherever his name is declared,
Men and women everywhere in all walks of society, in all the
world, speak against him. Now I know the whole world speaks
in favor of little Jesus. The whole world speaks in favor
of that little baby Bethlehem. The whole world speaks in favor
of Jesus who rose on Easter morning, they say. The whole world speaks
in favor of Jesus standing at the heart's door of a center,
knocking, hoping somebody pretty please let him in. But that's
not the Christ of Scripture. This Christ, this Christ who
will save you according to his will, by his power, by his grace
alone, this Christ who alone is righteousness, in whom alone
is redemption, the whole world despises him. And Mary laid those
things to her heart. Now just as Simeon was finishing
up his prophecy at that precise moment, at that very instant,
as Phinehan held the child Jesus in his arms and said, Now, Lord,
I have seen your salvation. Let your servant depart in peace.
An old woman came into the temple by the name of Anna, and here
in Luke chapter 2, verses 35 through 40, Luke tells us the
story of this woman Anna. Now, Anna came in And she is
here described much the same way as Simeon is. Like Simeon,
we see her name nowhere except here in Luke chapter 2. We know
nothing about her except that which is recorded here in Luke
chapter 2. But this old woman, as Simeon
had worshipped the child Jesus in the earliest days of his infancy,
and declared him to be God's salvation, this old woman comes
in. and worships him, and gives praise
to him, and gives thanks to God for him, and spoke of him to
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. I wonder if you're
here looking for redemption. Oh, how I pray that God may be
pleased to bring you to look for redemption, deliverance,
not just escape from hell, not just to enter into what you imagine
to be the bliss of heaven, but complete deliverance from all
sin and all the consequences of sin, deliverance into righteousness
by the power of God's grace and the blood of his dear Son. If
you come looking for redemption, look away right now to the Son
of God who is made of God, and to us, redemption. Luke chapter
2, verse 36 through verse 40. There was one Anna, Apophetis,
the daughter of Phineuel. The word Anna means grace, or
gracious. It's the same as that of Hannah
in the Old Testament, and gracious this woman was. She was a woman
of gracious character. The daughter of Phineuel, the
same as Phineuel, which Jacob named in that place where he
saw God face to face. It means the face of God. This
woman, Anna, this gracious woman, was called of God to this place,
and she was made to behold the face of God in Jesus Christ our
Lord, as are all believers. She was of the tribe of Asher.
It's recorded here, Asher, same as Asher in the Old Testament.
Asher was one of the tribes carried away into captivity, which never
returned from captivity. One of the tribes carried away
into idolatry, which never returned from idolatry. But there was
an elect remnant, even in Asher, chosen and called of God's grace.
And even when God brings judgment upon the nations in which they
live, God still saves his elect. Here is Anna of the tribe of
Asher. She was of great age. and had
lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and
she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed
not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers
night and day." This woman, Anna, was a woman of great, great age,
an old, old woman. I did a little calculation preparing
this message If, we suppose, Anna was married at the earliest
age Jews considered allowable for a young lady to marry, she
would have married when she was 12 years old. That's the earliest
age allowable. It was common in those days,
as it is yet in some societies in our day. If she was married
then when she was 12 years old, and she lived with her husband
for seven years, and she had been a widow for 84 years, This
old gal is now 103 years old, an old woman of great age, and
she's found in the house of God. And she, coming in in that instant,
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of him to all
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. The word in might
better be translated by, or rather, looked for redemption for Jerusalem,
or the redemption of Jerusalem. So he's talking here not about
just Christ coming into Jerusalem to redeem his people, but rather
talking about Christ coming to redeem Jerusalem. So the word
in would be better translated, looking for the redemption of
Israel, or of Jerusalem. And when they performed all things
according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, that
is, Joseph and Mary and the young child, the Lord Jesus, 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 this woman, Anna, is called a prophetess. Prophecy had long since ceased
in Israel. It had been 400 years since God
had spoken by a prophet. But when Christ came At about
the time he came, the spirit of prophecy revived, and the
Lord God sent John the Baptist as a messenger, a prophet. And
this woman, Anna, speaks here as a prophetess. The gift of
prophecy was revived because this was a sign that Christ,
the Messiah, indeed has come into the world. But what does
this mean when it speaks of Anna being a prophetess? In this day
of utter disregard for the word of God. And what I'm about to
say arises from an utter disregard for the Word of God. In this
day when women are being ordained and sent out by almost all religious
denominations as deacons and preachers and missionaries and
evangelists and pastors and theologians, I've got to say something about
Anna being a prophetess. Now, were it not for the confusion
universally in all religions about female preachers, I'd probably
pass over this with little comment, but the fact is there is much
confusion prevailing everywhere, and I want to be clearly understood. I want you to clearly understand
the teaching of the word of God in this regard. There are clearly
a few instances in the scriptures of female prophets, prophetesses
they are called, both before the coming of Christ and shortly
after his first advent. Miriam, the sister of Moses and
Aaron, is called a prophetess. Deborah, one of the judges in
Israel, was called a prophetess. Huldah was a prophetess. And
here is this woman, Anna, who comes at the time of Christ's
birth and is declared to be a prophetess. And then later in the book of
Acts, Philip the evangelist had four daughters, all of whom are
described as prophetess. Does this mean that it is proper
for God's church to ordain women? to ordain women to be deacons,
or missionaries, or pastors, or to be elders, or to be evangelists
going out to preach the gospel? Not on your life. Not on your
life. There is absolutely no place
in the New Testament to give any validity to such nonsense. The Word of God absolutely and
clearly forbids the preaching of women. I don't care who they
Don't matter how sincere they think they are. It doesn't matter
how they imagine they've been called. Somebody says, well,
how can you say that God didn't call a woman when she says she's
called? If there's a blooming queer standing here, I tell you,
God didn't call him either. I don't care how much he says
he's been called. Well, how can you compare the two? God Almighty
declares plainly that it's not to be done. And when God says
it's not to be done, God doesn't have anything to do with it.
It's just that simple. Now look what it says here. The
word of God, plainly and clearly, sets forth this matter so that
there is no excuse concerning it. These are offices which,
by God's order, are for men only. This is not a matter of sexism
or male chauvinism or anything of the kind. I realize it's not
politically correct, but I gave that up a long time ago. Let's
turn to 1 Corinthians 14. Again, I remind you, when you
want to know what the scripture teaches, go to that place in
scripture where that matter is dealt with. Here in 1 Corinthians
14, Paul is particularly and distinctly setting in order the
manner of public worship. In verse 34, we read, Let your
women keep silence in the churches. Now how many ways can you interpret
that? How many ways can you interpret
that? Looks like silence to me. Would
you agree with that? Looks like silence to me. Any
child understands that. Only learned rebels don't understand
it. Let your women keep silence in
the churches, for it is not permitted, it's not allowed, ever, unto
them to speak. but they are commended by God
to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will
learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it
is a shame for a woman to speak in the church. Look in 1 Timothy
2. Here the apostle Paul again is
setting in order public worship. He's setting in order how things
are to be done in the house of God. He writes specifically to
Timothy, saying, Now, Timothy, I'm telling you these things
so that you will know how you ought to behave yourself in the
house of God. And this is what he says. 1 Timothy
2, verse 11. Let the women learn in silence
with all subjection. Every now and then I get a scolding
letter from women wanting to teach me something about theology,
particularly, normally, it's about female preachers. And I
generally get a little nasty. I write them back and tell them
I don't learn theology for women. If I wanted to learn something
about cooking, I'd talk to you ladies. If I wanted to learn
something about sewing, I'd talk to you ladies. But I don't learn
theology for women, and I don't recommend that you do, from any
woman. For what reason? Because God
Almighty has ordained things otherwise. I don't have to state it plainly
enough, but there's absolutely no place in the house of God
for women standing to be instructors of men. No place. Let your women
learn in silence with all subjection, for I suffer not, I allow not
a woman to teach or to usurp authority, to put herself over
in any way a man, but to be in silence. The fact is, in all
things, godly women are modest. I didn't say they ought to be,
I said they are. Godly women are. Believing women are. They
gladly live in subjection to their husbands. Believing women
are not rebels to God. They're not rebels to God's order.
They're not rebels to God's word. You may say, well, I know a good
Christian woman, but boy, she sure is bossing her house. No,
you don't. I'm sorry. You just don't. Ain't
so. Ain't so. Believing women are
in subjection. The scriptures are so plain.
Believing women submit themselves willingly to their husbands,
just as believing men submit themselves willingly to those
placed in authority over them. It is God's order, and therefore
we don't buck against it. We subject ourselves willingly
in society. That doesn't mean one's superior
to another, one's better than another, not at all. But you've
got to have order. Some of you fellows have been
in the military. David has just retired. In the military, there
are fellows to whom you just said, yes, sir. You spent 20
years saying, yes, sir. How come? Oh, well, I'm nothing. I'm just a nobody. I'm insignificant. I'm nothing. That makes me direct
under your feet. But I tower before him because
he's so much better than me. No, it's just order. That's the way you run things,
unless you want chaos. And in society, God has established
order. And when order is despised, you
have chaos, and that's the reason you've got nuts running around
everywhere without any restraint at all in every realm of society. That's exactly the reason. The
scriptures are very plain. In the house of God, women are
to be in subjection to men. They are never to be placed in
a position of dominance over men. But what about these women
called prophetesses? Do we just ignore them? No, not
at all. But we do not build our doctrine. Well, I don't know how many ways
to say this, but folks don't pay any attention. We don't build
our doctrine on obscure statements. We just don't do it. Here, Deborah's
called a prophetess. Yes, she is. Anna is called a
prophetess. Paul is called a prophetess.
There, now, it must be right for women to be preachers. We
build our doctrine on the plain statements of scripture in those
passages where the subject being considered is taught clearly. And Paul is not using, or rather
Luke is not here teaching us about preaching. He's just declaring
this woman Anna to be a prophetess. Well, what does the word mean?
We generally look at the word prophet, apophetous. Prophecy,
if we say that's talking about one who has this special, extraordinary
gift, particularly prevalent in the Old Testament, transitionally
prevalent even in the New Testament through the book of Acts anyway.
And they had the gift of foretelling future things. That's generally
how a prophet is described. But the word prophecy, is frequently
used in scripture in other ways. You remember when Manoah and
his wife saw the Lord, and the Lord did wondrously as they offered
sacrifice? The scripture said Manoah's wife
prophesied. What did she do? She worshiped
God. In 1 Corinthians 11, chapters
14 and 15, Paul uses the word prophesy in just that way. He
says if a woman comes into the house of God and prophesies with
her head uncovered, it's a shame for her to do so. If she comes
in short, it's a shame for her to prophesy in such a manner.
What he's talking about is worship. And so the word prophecy doesn't
necessarily mean to instruct or to preach in any public way.
It's used commonly to speak simply of worship. praise and witness. A prophetess was a woman who
worshipped God, who praised him, who bore witness to him, who
was known for worshipping him. We would use the word for example. For example, if somebody came
to me and was asking about Judiestas, and I wanted to describe her
in a nutshell, I wanted to just use a word that would honorably
describe her, I said, oh yeah, I've been Judith's pastor for
20 years. She's a worshiper of God. That's exactly what Luke's
saying here about Anna. Here's a woman who worshiped
God. Worshipped God. When God sets women before us
in scriptures as prophetess in an official capacity, it's interesting
how he does it. Do you know in Isaiah chapter
3 and verse 12, he declares that when he sets a woman over a man,
It's never an act of grace, but always a judgment. I'll give
women to rule over you. Have a tough time getting me
to vote for one. Why? It's an act of judgment. It's
out of place. And when our Lord speaks of a
prophet, there was one prophetess of whom our Lord spoke, only
one, in all the churches mentioned in the New Testament, only one.
You find her mentioned in Revelation chapter 2. She's in the church
at Thyatira, and she's described as a wicked, deceitful woman
who calls the children of God to commit fornication. And our
Lord refers to her by the name Jezebel. And I'm here to tell
you that's what all female preachers are properly called. Jezebel,
for they are deceivers. They are not God's servants.
Okay, enough of that. Won't cost you anything extra.
Let's go back to Luke chapter 2. I want to show you three things
here, and I want to wrap the message up quickly, but I want
you to see them. Revealed in this woman, Anna. First, we have
before us a picture of the believer's true character and conduct. Anna
was a woman of irreproachable character. She was what the Holy
Ghost describes as a widow indeed. This woman is held before us
as an example of true godliness. Not by nature, of course. She
was, like all other people, by nature a sinner. But this woman
was converted by the grace of God, transformed by God's grace,
made a new creature in Christ. And the grace of God that brings
salvation taught her, as it teaches all who experience it, that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. We tend to excuse ourselves more
than anybody else. and excuse our children and excuse
folks around us that, well, you know, folks have such temptations
today. Oh, terrible temptations. Many
things are one bit different today than when you were a kid
or when Anna was a kid. Read the first chapter of Romans.
You think our society is bad? Get your history book down and
read what it was like in this first and second century. Just
read about it. Horrible, horrible, horrible
debauchery. And yet the grace of God that
brings salvation taught these folks to live soberly, righteously,
and godly in the midst of this present crooked, perverse generation. And the grace of God still does
the same thing. Anna's character is set before
us in simple but profound words. Four things are here said about
her. First, she was a woman of moral chastity. She was a virgin
when she married her husband. And after her husband had died
after just seven years, she lived for 84 years in continued chastity
and uprightness in a debauched, immoral society where fornication
and homosexuality and adultery were just accepted things. Secondly,
this old woman was throughout her years faithful in the worship
of God. The scripture tells us here that
she departed not from the temple. Now buddy, that doesn't mean
she never went home. If that were the case, she could not
have just come into the temple. What does it mean then? She did
not forsake the worship of God. 103 years old, still worshiping
God. Now I warn you, I warn you. don't forsake the assembling
of God's saints. I promise you, the first step
toward apostasy is the abandonment of public worship. As I read
this text, I thought, why did the Holy Spirit move Luke to
record first her faithfulness in the worship of God publicly,
and then her matters of private worship? Because public worship
is the barometer. Public worship identifies what
we really are. If there's no public worship,
I promise you there's no private worship. If many women neglect
the house of God, they neglect all worship altogether. But then
thirdly, this woman, Anna, was a devoted, consecrated woman,
living before God, serving him with fastings and prayers night
and day. Fastings and prayers, night and
day. Well, what a godly woman she
was. Every day she fasted and she
prayed all the time. Anytime you see Hannah, she's
on her knees. No, no. There's a huge difference, Larry,
between outward religious rituals and worshiping God. The Jews
had reduced fasting to an activity performed twice a week in which
they would put on sackcloth and ashes and say, I can't eat right
now, I'm fasting. So that men would look at them
and say, my, ain't they holy. And they had reduced prayer to
saying prayers, just like the Muslims today. Three times a
day, they'd bow down, wherever they were, public or private,
they'd bow down and they'd say their prayers. Don't ever talk
to me about saying a little prayer. I just soon talked about cussing
God to his face. Saying a prayer ain't praying.
It ain't praying. But what on earth is it? What
is this thing of fasting? Our Lord tells us plainly, this
is not something done public. It may be in times of public
assembly, or in your family worship, or as believers gather together,
we lead one another in worship as we gather in the house of
God, and that time we ought to speak in such a way as to be
heard, but not so as for men to hear us, just to lead others
to the throne of grace. But prayer is an act of the heart,
and so is fasting. And Anna's fastings and prayers
continually implied not an outward ritual, but rather an attitude
of the heart. Fasting was self-denial, consecration
to God. She lived for 103 years, and
from the time God saved her to the day that Luke records this,
this woman was found living in self-denial, devoting herself
to Christ. She said, I'm not known, I've
been bought with a price. All that I am is his. And prayer? Why, prayer is the believer living
continually before God Almighty in subjection to his will, seeking
his glory, seeking his will, seeking to honor him, seeking
that which God has purposed and God decreed for the glory of
his name. That's what prayer is. Prayer
is the believer calling on God in an earnest heart to perform
his purpose for his glory, subjecting myself and my desires and my
will in all things to his." You see, today folks think that
what we do when we pray is we wrestle with God and we get him
in a notion of doing what he wouldn't otherwise do unless
we prayed real good. And if prayer doesn't work, Then we'll fast. Then we'll really put the squeeze
on him. Now God's got to hear what we
say. He's got to do what we want him to do. No, no, no. Fasting
and prayer is the believer earnestly devoting himself with comfort
and faith to God Almighty for this. And this woman, Anna, loved
her God and Savior. She gave thanks to God for his
unspeakable gift and spoke of him to all then that looked for
redemption in Jerusalem, who looked for the redemption of
God's Jerusalem of Israel. And that describes the hope of
all true believers. We're looking for redemption.
That is, we're looking for our Redeemer. Adam and Eve were. When Eve had her first son, she
was mistaken, but she thought, man, alive, here he is. I've
gotten that man the Lord promised. I've gotten a man from the Lord.
She was looking for Christ. Abel was looking for Christ.
Noah was looking for Christ. Abraham was looking for Christ.
Job was looking for Christ. Anna was looking for Christ.
The Thessalonians were looking for Christ. We're looking for
Him! Looking for Him! Looking for
Him. looking for him to finally fulfill and accomplish our consummate
redemption. And now we say with the Apostle,
our salvation is nearer than when we believed. It won't be
long now. It won't be long now. And then we read about our Savior
here again in his great humanity. This child grew, just like your
babies do. Physically he grew. He waxed
strong in spirit. His soul, as he grew, grew strong,
confident. His soul grew with a strong character,
strong constitution, strong will, strong affection. He was filled
with wisdom. not with all the treasures of
wisdom and grace laid on him as our mediator, but as a man,
as he walked before God, he learned just like we do. Isn't that amazing? He learned his ABCs just like
your kids. He learned to read and write just like your kids,
learned to walk just like your kids. He grew in wisdom naturally and
grew in wisdom spiritually. And the grace of God was upon
him. God looked at him all the days of his life. He said, this
is my son, my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased, because
God favored him in response to his perfect obedience and perfect
righteousness as a man, so that he because of his obedience as
our substitute was accepted of God, and now we're accepted in
him. That's our redemption. That's
our salvation. That's our Savior. May God make
him yours by his grace and for his glory. Amen. uh uh Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. you.