There was a man by the name of Simeon. “And he came by the Spirit into the temple: the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” What did he see? A little baby. That’s all he saw. Salvation is not something you do. Salvation is a person, and that person is Christ. You either have Him or you don’t have Him. You either trust Him or you don’t trust Him. Do you have Him? You trust Him today.

The future promise of blessing rests upon the solid history of the past when God delivered them from Egypt, you see. He said, “Now I have done this for you; don’t you know I will do it for you in the future?” And that’s what He tells us today. “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you….” Has God blessed you, friend, and brought you up to this moment? Why do you think He’s going to let you down? Well, you can be confident of this very thing—that He that has brought you up to this very moment, why, He’s going to lead you right through to “the day of Jesus Christ.”

“And I will walk among you, and be your God, and ye shall be my people.” God promises, you see, to fellowship with those who obey Him. That’s what He tells us today. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” That is, with God. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, just keeps on cleansing us from all sin. And He says that He wants to have fellowship with us. “As God hath said, I will dwell in them, walk in them, be their God and they shall be my people.”

God by a miracle could have furnished the bread as He fed the 5,000, but He didn’t do it that way here. And He doesn’t do it that way for us today. He wants us involved in the Lord’s service. And if you’re in a good church, a good Bible church, you ought to get involved in helping the pastor. It’s amazing today how many ways people could help in the church if they just would get involved. That’s all they need to do is to keep your eyes open and notice something that you could do that maybe somebody else is doing. You could really do it better. May I say to you, friends, that we need to get involved.

Now God has saved you, friends. Now, don’t misunderstand me. When God saves you by grace, He doesn’t save you with the idea that He puts you in debt. Grace does not put anyone in debt. And I personally disagree with that song that puts words in the mouth of the Lord Jesus He never said. “I gave, I gave my life for thee. What hast thou done for Me?” What He’s saying is He saved you by grace; that doesn’t put you in debt. But He did save you, didn’t He? And don’t you love Him? And now you are to do this. Why? Because it’s your duty? No, because you love Him. Because you love Him and you want to please Him.

God is speaking now to the nation, and He’s saying to the nation, “I want you to be holy because I am holy.” God is asking them in their daily life, they’re to be holy. We’re told today “whether we eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” And “if any man’s in Christ today, he is a new creation” or “there is a new creation.” That means that we today, that just more than in little habits, that we’re joined to the living Christ and old things have passed away. We’re no longer joined to a legal system, but joined to Christ and we’re to seek to please Him today.

There is all of this lax and loose thinking about God today. God is only approached as a holy God, and we only come as sinners to Him. Now, my friends, when you have that great chasm between, you have to have something to bridge it. And you and I just don’t have enough goodness to do it. You and I can’t bridge it. The only thing that will bridge it is the one who came from heaven’s glory and died on the cross for us and made a way. And He says “I am the way” and that “no man cometh to the Father but by me.”

It’s not the cross that’s the important thing, it’s the One who died on the cross. After all, there could have been 300 crosses erected there that day of men that were crucified. But it’s the value of the One who died upon that cross for the sins of the world. And to remind us that we “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from our vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of as a lamb without spot and blemish.” We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

There is a great gulf between God and man, but it’s been bridged today. God offers encouragement to man to come to Him, for He says, “For by him we have access through one Spirit to the Father.” The invitation is to “Come.” And the writer to the Hebrews says, in Hebrews 10:19-22, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us.” Now it means we’re going to come God’s way, and if we do, then we can come and come with great assurance.

You don’t make the terms to come to God. God makes the terms, my friend. God says that your righteousness and mine “is filthy rags,” and He won’t have it. He won’t accept it. He won’t take it. And a great many people think that the righteousness of God is just a projection or a little higher level of the righteousness of man. Nothing of the kind. It’s altogether different. And the only way you can get the righteousness of God is through faith in Christ. You can’t work for it. You can’t buy it. And you haven’t anything to offer for it. Friends, the way of the cross leads home. There’s no other way. “No man cometh to the Father but by Me.”