John 1: 1-3

Luke 2: 25-32

John 14: 1-6

Acts 7: 54-56

Matthew 22: 10-12

         The gospel preaching comes out from God, comes from heaven.  The one who is asked to preach stands here to convey the message and would pray it may go out in power and by the Holy Spirit’s help because it comes from heaven.  It comes from God, your Creator God.  We sang a hymn this morning, 118, and I just thought about verse 2.  It says:

     As we view the vast creation,

     Planned with wondrous skill,

     So our minds would move to worship,

     And be still.

You look around at the creation of this world and just wonder at it.  Many persons in this world do not like to think about a Creator God.  It is very sad.  But just look around this world and see even in the works of creation how great a One God is!  The planet we live on is quite unique.  There is nothing else like it for as far as man can see in the universe.  God designed it.  As it says in the hymn, ’planned with wondrous skill’.  God in His ways has plans and He has planned this, designed this earth even, and created it in such a way that it is made suitable for us because He had you in mind too, dear friend.  God, the Creator God, made this world, and what a variety there is in creation too.  It is not just by chance.  What a variety there is, what skill and planning went into it!  Who could enter into the depths of these things?  Scientists keep discovering new things and many, sadly, try to keep the glory for themselves; but God already knows all about these things, and they are just there waiting to be discovered.  It should cause worship.  Persons who come to realise there is a Creator God should worship when they see these things.  But I should just like to draw attention to the fact that He made this world as a Creator God, and He made you.  He placed us in this world for Himself because He wanted you.  He wants each one of us in this room for Himself.  In the beginning of the Bible we can read that He put man in the garden, beautiful area, an area of pleasure.  Eden means ‘pleasure’ (see note ‘a‘ to Gen 2: 8).  He put man there and He would come down and speak to man in that garden.  God had desires in His heart.  God is a God of love.  What a wonderful thing that is too, the desire to share His love with you, dear friends.  That is what it goes on to say in this hymn 118:

     But, our God, how great Thy yearning

     To have sons who love.

That was God’s original thought in making man, to have a company for Himself, and that includes you and me. 

         But, how distance came in through sin.  What a terrible thing that is!  It was not very long before we read of that at the start of the Bible.  Satan, that terrible, powerful, evil, fallen angel, what a one he is!  He is the enemy of God.  We just need to be simple about these things.  There is an enemy of God coming in to try and mar what God is doing, but we must remember too that responsibility was placed on man in that garden.  God just said, thou shalt not do this.  At one particular time man chose to listen to that subtle serpent there in his wily ways.  That is the way the devil works.  He still works that way, and persons still prefer to listen to him.  It is very sad, but that is how sin came into the world.  Through one man’s disobedience we are all sinners, and a sinner can have no place before a righteous, holy God, because where God dwells there is no sin.  God is a righteous, holy, sin-hating God.  We must remember that, and you must come to realise that you are a sinner.  That is a very simple fact in the gospel preaching.  You must come to realise that you are a sinner before God and you can do nothing for yourself.  That poor man on the Jericho road we spoke of today was “in a half-dead state”, Luke 10: 30.  He could not do anything for himself.  That is the way the devil would leave you.  He is very subtle in the way he works.  He drags people down and he just leaves them.  That is the way the devil would leave you.  He would attract you to things of the world, and then leave you.  There are many parables where we read of it. Luke 15 especially tells of the son that went away to the attractions of the world and then he was left with nothing.  What a sad thing to be away from God in your sins!  We sang in our hymn:

         God waits in grace with hands outstretched to bless

                 (Hymn 123).

God has not changed His attitude towards men.  He still loves you, dear friend.  He hates the sin but He still loves you and He has moved from His side. 

         That is why I read from John‘s gospel because it speaks here about the Word: “the Word was with God, and the Word was God“.  That speaks of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.  What a One, who came from a place of glory.  From glory‘s highest heights He came into this world for you and me.  I was just affected by that this morning, how great a One He is!  What movements of love brought Him here from an area of glory!  It says here, “the Word was God”.  The Lord Jesus is God in Himself, and He moved in love towards men when He came in as a man.  What a wonderful thing that is and, in doing so, He remains a Man!  Think of that!  He moved in love and He remains a man.  What does man mean to God, dear friend?  What do you mean to God that He is prepared to do this for you, prepared to move from His side to have you for Himself?  Think about these things!  It says here, “not one thing received being which has received being” without the Lord Jesus.  What a One He is, the Creator of the universe, instrumental in creating the universe!  

         We read here in Luke’s gospel where a man called Simeon had heard about this One who was coming in to save persons from their sins.  He had heard about Him.  It had been “divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit”.  It says here, “that he should not see death” until he saw this One.  What a privilege for this man to hold the Lord Jesus!  Think of that, the baby, Jesus, the Creator of the universe, coming in here in such a way that He could be held like this!  How near the Lord Jesus has come, dear friend, that this man could take Him into his arms, and then could say, “for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”.  Oh, dear friend, have you seen God’s salvation for sinners in the Lord Jesus?  Have you read through these gospels of the way the Lord Jesus moved amongst men, the way He showed forth God’s love towards men, the way He undid the work of the devil?  What love was shown there!  He did not turn any away.  I do not think there is anywhere you can read where the Lord Jesus turned anyone away.  He did not turn the children away; He did not turn those with terrible diseases away; He did not turn away the ones who cried out to Him.  The poor blind beggar at the side of the road amongst the crowds, He heard him.   The Lord Jesus heard persons who were in their sins and crying out for help.  It has often been said in the preaching that the Lord Jesus is passing by this room today.  If you have a need and you know where you are, cry out to Him today, and He will stop. The Creator of the universe, it has often been said, stopped for that one blind beggar on that road.  What a One!  What feelings He had for men!  We read too of His feelings in relation to sin.  Think of the man Lazarus.   It says He loved Lazarus, John 11: 5.  He was a friend of the family, we might say, and He often went into their house with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. He heard that Lazarus had died, and the Lord Jesus went to the tomb.  He could see these persons round the tomb, weeping and upset, deeply upset because their friend had died.  The Lord Jesus was able for the matter of death.  He was “the resurrection and the life”, John 11: 25.  He had the power for that, but what He saw, and He wept on account of it, was the effect that sin was having on these poor people, “Jesus wept”.  What a thing!  The Lord Jesus felt these things.  He felt the whole matter of sin and sins as He walked amongst men here.

         We read on in John 14 that another thing He spoke about was His Father, “my Father‘s house“.  This is also a wonderful thing, the way that God has been revealed in such a way, a Father and a Son, wonderful relationships that have been opened up from God’s side.  The Lord speaks about His Father’s house and “there are many abodes”, and He speaks about going “to prepare you a place”.  The Lord Jesus would prepare a place for persons who love Him, and it says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be“.  That was God‘s desire, to have persons where He is.  The Lord Jesus came here and He told persons about the Father‘s house.  He told persons about the Father’s desires and He came here to draw them back, to take them back to that place.  But I must be very clear that the only way into the Father’s presence is through the Lord Jesus.  It says here, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father unless by me”.  There are many poor souls in this world who are disillusioned by how to get to the Father’s house.  They feel they have to go through some minister or some priest or some other way, or through some sacraments, or other things to get to heaven, but the Lord Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father unless by me”.  Be very clear on that, dear friend!  The only way into the Father’s presence is through the Lord Jesus Christ. 

         As we read on, we see how this can be so because His pathway took Him straight on into death.  We know there came a point in the life of the Lord Jesus when He gave Himself over into the hands of these wicked men.  It was said again in the reading today that He set His face “like a flint”, Isa 50: 7.  There came a point in the life of the Lord Jesus when He had to go to the cross to meet this whole matter of sin that lay between God and man.  The Lord Jesus had that on His mind all the way He walked here.  To speak simply, think of what the Lord Jesus had in His mind as He walked amongst men.  He knew what was ahead of Him.  He knew what was involved between a righteous God and man in this matter of sin.  No one else knows it, but the Lord Jesus came to a point where He gave Himself as a sacrifice.  He knew what was required and He gave Himself into the hands of men who took Him and nailed Him to the cross.  He gave Himself.  It says, “but this is your hour and the power of darkness“, Luke 22: 53.  He gave Himself over into the hands of these men who took Him and nailed Him to the cross.  And on the cross the Lord Jesus, as He hung there, had forgiveness on His lips for them, and we know in the three hours of darkness on that cross that the Lord Jesus bore what was due to you and me.  Only the Lord Jesus could do that.  He was the holy One, the sinless One, different from every other man.  God could only accept perfection.  We can see in the types in the Old Testament that God required the best, “without blemish”, and all these things look on to the Lord Jesus.  He was the perfect One, the only One who could satisfy God, the One who was “sin apart” (Heb 4: 15) and able to lay down His life to satisfy God.  Think of the wrath of God being poured out on that One.  There was a cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?“, Matt 27: 46.  The Lord Jesus cried that on the cross, forsaken of God.  He was alone.  There was never anybody else like that, alone like that, like the Lord Jesus on that cross.  One of the Psalms says, “thou art holy“, Ps 22: 3.  The Lord Jesus knew what was required from a holy, righteous, sin-hating God.  He knew what was required there and He bore it, dear friend.  What a matter!  And then it was finished.  He says that too: “It is finished” (John 19: 30), and then He delivered up His spirit and He died on the cross, the judgment finished on the cross.

         Then we read of the soldier who pierced His side and the blood flowed out of that Man‘s side on the cross.  What a wonderful witness!  We read again in the types of the blood, what God required: “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod 12: 13. What else could the Lord Jesus give, we might say?  He has given His all, and God is satisfied: “when I see the blood”.  What a matter, dear friend!

         And then He was taken, put in the tomb for three days and three nights.  The stone was rolled there, and then we hear the wonderful message, “He is not here, but is risen”, Luke 24: 6.  The Father raised Jesus from the tomb.  He was satisfied with that One, the work finished, raised by the glory of the Father.  It says that too, “neither wilt thou allow thy holy one to see corruption”, Ps 16: 10.  What a thing!  The Father would not leave that One in the grave.  He raised Him and He is in heaven tonight.  That is where He is.  He is raised and He is ascended and He is in heaven tonight.  Dear friend, the work has been done.  What a message!  They could not proclaim this message two and a half thousand years ago, but I can proclaim it tonight.  It is a wonderful message that the work had been done and the word to each one is, only believe.  It is a matter of faith.  You know, persons cannot see God, and the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God.  It is a matter of faith.  Dear friend, these things are real.  Put your faith in the work of Jesus, believe what He says, only believe.  Remember the words to the jailor: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house”, Acts 16: 31.  What a simple matter!  Just accept you are a sinner in need of a Saviour and have faith that the work has been finished.  What a wonderful message!

         And then we read here about this man Stephen.  He was a believer in the Lord Jesus.  He loved the Lord Jesus.  Persons who have their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus can also have this wonderful power of the Holy Spirit.  He is a wonderful divine Person, a gift of God, a gift from God’s side again, the power and the Person of the Holy Spirit.  It speaks here of this one, Stephen, who really loved Jesus.  He was like Jesus here.  He was being stoned because of his preaching.  Thankfully that does not happen now in this country but think of this poor man being stoned because he loved Jesus.  What a faithful man!  But it says here, he was “full of the Holy Spirit”. I might say what was around him was incidental because by the power of the Holy Spirit, he could see his Lord and his Saviour standing there at the right hand of God and you too, dear friends, can have the power of the Holy Spirit to see Jesus at the right hand of God.  What a wonderful thing that is!  The power of the Spirit would give us some touches too of eternal life.  The Lord Jesus spoke about that too when He was here, an area which is beyond death or fear which can be touched upon by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Each of us in this room can have these experiences.  That is God’s desire for you, to live in an area of His love, in an area where you can be at liberty and free, you might say, in the Father’s house.  Think again of the parable in Luke 15, the music and the dancing, an area of joy.  That is what God has in mind for you, on the other side of death, because the Lord Jesus has broken its power.  We are reminded of that in Revelation 1 where we can see ahead to what is going to happen.  There was one there who could say, “I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”, v 17, 18.  What a message!  What a matter, dear friend!  Do you know Jesus as your Saviour?  He is a man.  That is a wonderful thing: He is a Man in heaven.  He has been here and now He is a Man in heaven.  Put your faith and trust in Him tonight, dear friend.

         I just read finally here in Matthew’s gospel.  It is a well known passage and has different applications but it speaks of a king who made a wedding feast for his son and certain ones made excuses, but then he went out again and invited others in “and the wedding feast was furnished with guests”.  But then the time came when the king came in and there was this man there “not clothed with a wedding garment”, and he asks him the question, “My friend, how camest thou in here not having on a wedding garment?”  You might say he was not suited for the occasion.  I would like to say this as a warning: do not appear before the King in heaven not suited, dear friend.  Provision has been made; the best robe is there; the Lord Jesus has been provided.  Do not appear before the King as a judge.  We do not want to think about these things, dear friend, because there is no need for that.  The man did not have anything to answer.  It says, “he was speechless“.  What a thing if you have heard the gospel and refused it.  What would you say then?  Why are you not suited?  You would be speechless.  Dear friend, there is no need for that.  Just put your trust and your faith in Jesus tonight and know some of these wonderful blessings that God has in mind for you.  For His Name’s sake.

Edinburgh

12th December 2010