All right, brothers, let's go
to Luke chapter two. We saw last time it was 41 days after our Lord's birth,
Mary came to the temple to be ceremonially purified according
to the law of Moses and to present the Lord Jesus to the Lord. beheld the Lord Jesus and took
him up in his arms. Now, the Holy Ghost revealed
to Simeon that he would not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And the scripture tells us the Holy Ghost led him to the temple. And the good news he declared
concerning Christ, that he is the salvation that God's provided,
that was of the Spirit. And what he says in our text
today is of the spirit. Luke 2.34, and Simeon blessed
them, Mary and Joseph, and he 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. That word sign
means a target that will be aimed at. Yea, a sword shall pierce
through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed. This is what Christ was set forth
for, the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a
sign which shall be spoken against that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed. The Lord Jesus is the discerner
of the secret thoughts of men's hearts. He's the discerner of
the thoughts and intents of a man's heart. The issue's not this system
of doctrine or that system of doctrine. The issue's not what
works men do or don't do. That's not the real issue. It's
not this theology or that theology. The issue is this, what think
ye of Christ? That's the issue. That's the
issue. Hebrews 4.12 says this, Hebrews
4.12, the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Christ is the word. This whole word is about Christ
is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in his sight, but
all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Now, that's what Christ was set
forth for, to reveal the thoughts of men's hearts. That's one of
the things he was set forth for. Now, who did that? Who set him
forth for that reason? That's my first point. Who set
him forth for this reason? God the Father set him forth
for this reason. Verse 34 says, behold, this child
is set. He's set for this purpose. He's
set for this purpose. Romans 3.25 says, whom God hath
set forth. God set him forth to be of propitiation
through faith in his blood. When did God the Father set Christ
forth? First Peter 1.20, Peter said,
who verily was ordained before the foundation of the world.
God set him forth before the world was made. He set him forth
for this purpose. This child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be
spoken against that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
There was most in Israel believed not. Most believed not. But by God's grace, many did.
By God's grace, many did. In Matthew's gospel, I'm gonna
give you something the Lord said. You can turn there to Luke 10. Turn to Luke 10. Now in Matthew's
gospel, the Lord said this after he spoke of the unbelief of the
scribes and the Pharisees and all those towns where he did
all his many wonderful works, he spoke against them and said,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than it will for
thee. They didn't believe. Their hearts were revealed that
they didn't believe him. And then here in Luke, he had
sent the 70 out to preach and they came back rejoicing that
the spirits were made subject to them. And the Lord made this
statement to them. In verse 20, he said, rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus
rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered
to me of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the
Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the
Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples
and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that you see. Most were revealed that in their
hearts they didn't believe Christ, but many did. And our Lord said
he praised God the Father for hiding these things from the
wise and prudent and revealing them to babes. And he's the revealer. You that rest in the Lord, that
trust him, that have faith in the Lord, What a blessing God's
given us to know him and believe him, for Christ to have revealed
himself in our hearts. This is all of the Lord. It's
all of the Lord. Now, the second thing I want
you to see, it says the Lord Jesus is set for the fall and
rising again of many. A sign, a target which shall
be spoken against that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Now our text declares here that many will fall. Many will fall. They will reject Christ. They
will make Christ the target of their enmity, the heart's enmity. And yet, he says here, many will
fall and rise again. Many will fall and rise again.
But in both of them, in both those that fall and reject Christ
and those that fall and rise again, in both of them, It's
Christ. It's Christ by whom the thoughts
of the heart is revealed. It's Christ. God set him forth
for these two ends. Go with me to Isaiah 8. These
two ends is why God set him forth. Look here at 8, 813. This right
here, brethren, a man has to be willfully, willfully, He has
to willfully reject God's word, actively reject God's word, not
to see that God chose a people, that he has to elect people.
Man has to be actively, he has to actively reject that word
because everywhere we see God showing favor to some and not
to others. We see that everywhere. We heard
our Lord just say, Father, thank you that you hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babe. Look right
here now, Isaiah 8, 13. The Lord told Isaiah to give
this to the people. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Behold him as he is. Behold him
high and lifted up. Let him be your fear and let
him be your dread. And he shall be for sanctuary.
He's gonna be a sanctuary to those he gives God-given reverence
and fear in your heart. He's gonna be our sanctuary.
But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to
both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. Now that's
the two reasons that Christ was sent forth. He's made, he's the
revealer of the heart. Some are revealed that to them,
they fear him, they trust him alone, and he's their sanctuary.
To others, he's a snare and a trap, and they fall and they're broken.
Now God's grace, there are some people in this world that are
made to fall on Christ the rock. And when you fall on Christ the
rock by grace, he breaks you. I'm gonna show you this in the
script. He breaks you, breaks that stony heart. And the Lord
gives you a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart of faith to
trust Him. And He makes you rise again. We arose with Him when He was
raised up on the cross. We were in Him. We arose with
Him when He arose to the right hand of the Father. And when
he makes you fall on him, on Christ the rock, and he breaks
your heart and he gives you a new heart, he makes you to see you
risen with him and he raises you up as the beggar off the
dung heap. That's what he does. That's what
he does. But the others that reject him,
Christ falls on them and destroys them. Look here in Luke 20, Luke
chapter 20, look at verse 17. You're either gonna fall on Christ
and be broken and be saved by his grace or he's gonna fall
on you and destroy you. Look here, Luke 20 and verse
17. He beheld them and he said, What
is this then that is written? The stone which the builders
rejected, the same as will become the head of the corner. Whosoever
shall fall upon that stone shall be broken. That's in grace, that's
salvation. When he makes you fall down on
him and he breaks your heart. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the
scribes that same hour sought to lay hands on him, and they
feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken his parable
against them. And he did, their hearts were
revealed. See, when we talk about the offense
of the gospel, Christ is the offense of the gospel. He's the
offense of the gospel, because he gets all the glory. He's the
only one that ever kept the law. He's the only one that ever obeyed
God in perfection from a holy heart. And that makes it clear
to the man that rejects Christ, it makes it clear to him that
his law keeping is not what made him righteous or holy. And that
infuriates the sinner until God gives a new heart. That's the
enmity of the carnal mind. The carnal mind is minding things
in this earth. He's minding his touch not, taste
not, handle not, all his works by which he thinks he's gonna
be accepted of God, his church attendance, his Sabbath keeping,
all these things. But when he hears the gospel
declare Christ is the only one that ever kept the law, Christ
is the one who redeemed us from the curse of the law, Christ
is our salvation, that enmity of that carnal mind is revealed,
and it's revealed by Christ. We see it in how Christ revealed
the hearts of the scribes and the Pharisees. They claimed to
believe God. That's what they were claiming.
They claimed they trust God, but when he declared that he's
God, that he's the son of God, they rejected him. He revealed
their heart. They claimed to be zealous for
God's law. They claimed what they were doing,
they were doing for the honor of God, in obedience to God,
with a zeal for God's law. But when they beheld Christ Jesus,
the righteousness of God, the one that God provided to be the
righteousness of his people, and they heard him declare that,
they hated him. They hated him. It wasn't because
of his good works. They said, we don't stone you
for a good work. We stone you because you being
a man make yourself to be God. They claimed to be looking for
the Messiah. But when the Lord's Christ appeared,
and he wasn't like they thought he was gonna be, he didn't come
to restore political Israel's dominance over the rest of the
world. He didn't come to free them from Roman bondage. He came
to free his people from a far worse bondage, the bondage of
our sin nature, the bondage of the curse of the law. He came
to be our righteousness and bring his one holy spiritual nation
to God perfect in him. And when they heard that, they
rejected the Lord's Christ. Well, when the gospel goes forth,
It's Christ's obedience alone, that he alone fulfilled the law,
that he alone is the righteousness and sanctification of his people,
that he alone gets glory. That's what reveals a man's heart,
what he really believes, what he's really trusting in. But
look at Simeon. Simeon, by the Spirit of God,
was taught he wouldn't die until he saw the Lord's Christ. And
when he saw him, he took him up in his arms and said, Lord,
I can depart in peace. I upheld your salvation. Two
different hearts, wasn't it? Who made him to differ? Who made
Simeon to differ? The Lord did. God chose Simeon,
just like He does all His people. God revealed Christ in his heart. The grace of God made the difference.
Christ reveals if a man is seeking temporal things, temporal treasure,
or if Christ is his treasure. Judah's heart was revealed when
he betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. That was his treasure. But Joseph of Arimathea, a man
who was rich in carnal things, and Nicodemus, a man who was
rich in carnal things, the Lord revealed that their heart, that
Christ was their treasure, because they came and begged the body
of our Lord that they might give his body a proper burial when
they knew they could die because of that at the hand of the Pharisees.
hearts are revealed. Go with me to John chapter six.
That multitude of disciples, they're called disciples. Were
they true or false disciples? What revealed their heart? This multitude had seen the Lord
Jesus feed over 5,000 people with a few fish and a few loaves,
and they followed him. They went all the way across
the sea following him. Made a lot of effort to follow
him, but he revealed their hearts, he revealed they were false disciples.
They were just looking for their belly to be filled. Because why? Because he declared to them,
I'm the bread. Christ said, I'm the bread that
came down from heaven. I'm the one pictured in the manna
in the wilderness. They said, give us bread. Moses
gave them bread in the wilderness. What you gonna give us? Christ
said, I'm that bread that the father's given. I'm the bread
of life. If lest you eat my flesh and
drink my blood, you have no life in you. And by that, he revealed
their treasure wasn't Christ, their treasure was earthly things,
because they left. They turned away and went away
backwards. He told them, don't murmur amongst
yourselves. That's what men do. They hear
the gospel preached, and we keep preaching Christ, we keep preaching
Christ, and they murmur, they murmur, they murmur. They're
like the children of Israel in the wilderness. They said, would
to God we'd have stayed under Pharaoh, where we had garlics
and leeks to eat, because all we got out here in this wilderness
is this light bread. Men will listen to you preach
Christ, and they'll seem like they rejoice in Christ, and they
want to hear Christ preach, but you keep preaching Christ. You
keep declaring he's the end of the law for righteousness. You
keep declaring he sanctified his people by fulfilling the
will of God. You keep giving him all the glory, all the glory,
all the glory. Men will say, we understand that
now, now preach something else to us. What are they saying? We're tired of this light bread.
We're tired of this bread. That's what this multitude did
right here They went away from him. Their thoughts, their hearts
was revealed that they weren't after Christ. They didn't want
him. But at the same time, look down
here at the end of John 6, at the same time, the Lord, he turned to his own,
to his own disciples, his true disciples. And verse 67, Jesus
said to the 12, will you also go away? Isn't that totally different? Isn't that totally different
than how Christ is presented by most people in this world?
He's presented as begging you to let him do something, begging
you to let him save. Christ turned to them and said,
you wanna go with him? It was a multitude of people
that were leaving and Christ said, will you go away also?
And look what they said, look how their heart was revealed.
Verse 68, and Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. We're told over in 1 Corinthians
11, in verse 19, There must be also heresies among
you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Heresies means sects. It means dissensions arising. There's a line drawn and there's
a choice. There's some choices. But if
a man still has choices, his choices are between wrong and
wrong, that's what his choices are. They're between a false
God and a false God, if a man's still making his choices. Go
with me to Joshua 24. I've showed you this before,
that this is quoted a lot, and men quote it as Joshua saying
this, but it's not Joshua saying this, it's the Lord saying this,
and Joshua, 24, verse one, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel
to seek him, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their
heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and they
presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the
people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Now everything Joshua's
gonna say after this is not Joshua's word, it's the word of the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus Christ speaking. And look what he said, your fathers
dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time in Terah, the
father of Abraham and the father of Nacor, and they served other
gods. And I took your father Abraham
from the other side of the flood. Joshua didn't say that, he wasn't
born then. That's Christ saying that. I
took Abraham from the other side of that flood and led him throughout
all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.
And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau. And I gave unto Esau,
Mount Seir, to possess it. But Jacob and his children went
down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron. I plagued Egypt according to
that which I did among them. And afterward, I brought you
out. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And you came into
the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots
and horsemen of the Red Sea. and when they cried unto the
Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought
the sea upon them and covered them and your eyes have seen
what I've done in Egypt. And you dwelt in the wilderness
a long season and I brought you into the land of the Amorites
who dwelt on the other side. He said, I gave them to your
hand that you might possess their land and I destroyed them before
you. On and on he goes down and then
look down here Look down here at verse 13. I've given you a
land for which you did not labor, cities which you built not, and
you dwell in them, of the vineyards and olive yards which you planted
not. Do you eat? This is the Lord
Jesus, pre-incarnate Christ speaking. Now therefore, fear the Lord
and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods
which your father served on the other side of the flood and in
Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. The Lord's still speaking. And
if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, to serve Jehovah God,
the true God, choose you this day whom you will serve. Here's
the choices. If a man's still got a choice,
here's his choices. whether the false gods which
your father served that were on the other side of the flood
or the false gods of the Amorites in whose lands you dwell. Christ
speaking, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
Jehovah. Christ is the head of the house.
He's the head of his church. And when he calls his child,
he gives you a new heart and he makes him and his children
serve God Jehovah. the true and living God. He takes
your choices away. He makes it so you see you don't
have a choice. Your choices was between a false
God and a false God. He makes you see he's salvation,
just like Simeon. Lord, I've seen your salvation.
Christ is that salvation. Now let me give you one last
thing. Let's go back over here to our
text. He reveals the heart, the Lord
does. And we see this in no better
place than Mary. Mary shows us this so well, so
very well. Verse 35, speaking by the spirit
of the Lord, Simeon said, Gay, a sword shall pierce through
thine own soul also. Think of how Mary felt when she
beheld the Lord Jesus Christ and bruised and hung up on that
cross. Think about that. According to the flesh, that
was her son. She carried him for nine months
in her womb. She raised him up, was with him. She nursed him.
She raised him up and taught him. She was with him every day.
That was her child. That was her child. Think about
how she felt. You reckon that was a sword piercing
her soul when she saw Christ hanging on that cross? But, more than that being said here,
Christ revealed Mary's heart was a heart he had given her
by grace. Her heart had been pierced by
the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. She'd been given
a new heart. Go with me to Matthew 12. She'd
been given a new heart so that Christ was made salvation unto
her. One time our Lord was preaching
and they said, your mother and your brethren are outside and
they want to speak with you. And our Lord said this in Matthew
12, 48. But he answered and he said unto
them, that told him that, he said,
who is my mother? Who are my brethren? And he stretched
forth his hand toward his disciples, his true disciples, and he said,
behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother. Look over now at Luke 11. Luke
11, look at verse 27. He was preaching in another place,
and it came to pass, Luke 11, 27, it came to pass as he spake
these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her
voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee and
the pounce which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed
are they that hear the word of God and keep it. That's who's
blessed. Now, what is this will of God
that he makes his people keep? What is it he brings his people
to do? What is it that he had brought
Mary to do? Go with me back to John, John
six and look at verse 29. Jesus answered and he said unto
them, they were saying, what works can we do that we might
inherit eternal life? He said, this is the work of
God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Look down
at verse 40, down at verse 40. This, this is the will of him that
sent me. that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. You see, the sword that had pierced
Mary's heart was the gospel. It was the gospel of who Christ
is, the God in human flesh, the gospel of what he came to do.
His name was Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. That's what she was taught. She
had heard the gospel when Simeon held him up and said, Lord, I
can depart in peace now. I behold your salvation, the
Lord's Christ. This is the heart he gives to
all his elect. When our Lord said, my mother
is the one, and my brother and my sister are those who believe
on me and trust me for salvation, he said, They said, blessed are
that womb that carried you and the breasts that gave you suck.
He said, no, the one that's blessed is the one that's given a heart
to believe on me. That's the sword of the spirit,
the word of the God that pierced Mary's heart. Christ revealed
that Mary wasn't following him for fleshly reasons. Mary wasn't
following him because he was her child, according to the flesh. That's not why she was following
him. She was following him because he was her Lord and her Savior,
and he had given her faith to believe that he was her Lord
and her Savior. Mary knew she was a sinner. Mary
knew she couldn't work out a righteousness for herself. Mary was made to
behold the one who justified her hanging on that cross. Mary
was beheld the one who sanctified her hanging on that cross, just
like all God's elect are made to see. It was by faith that
Mary beheld that Christ was her salvation. He gave her faith,
he gave her a heart, and she revealed what her heart was,
because she followed him and trusted him. Go with me now to
Acts chapter one. I'll show you this. She wasn't
following him just because that was her son. Listen, but now
40 days had passed after our Lord had gone to that cross and
he came from the grave and he made himself known to his brethren. At 40 days, he was with them.
At 40 days had passed, and they watched our Lord ascend up to
heaven. He's gone now. If she's just
followed him because that was her son, he's gone now. She can go back to doing whatever
she's done before. He's gone. So he told them, go back to Jerusalem,
wait on the Spirit. So they did. And look what we
see here in Acts 1.13. They went back to Jerusalem.
When they would come in, they went up into an upper room where
abode both Peter, Acts 1.13, there abode Peter and James and
John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James,
the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes and Judas, the brother
of James. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus. and with his brethren. Where
was she? She was there worshiping. She was there praying to the
Lord to save. That was her heart. She wasn't
driven away by what took place on that cross. She wasn't driven
away when she saw him depart into glory. She was still assembled
with his people, still worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. That was
the heart he gave her. That was the heart he gave her.
Here's the question, what think ye of Christ? What think ye of
Christ? Which one are you? Is Christ
gonna be the target of your enmity? Are you gonna lash upon him with
a tongue by lashing upon his preacher and his people? Are
you one that Christ the Rock shall fall on and grind upon
her because she refused to bow to him? Or has the sword of the
spirit pierced your heart? Has the Lord Jesus Christ come
in spirit and been formed in you and given you a new heart?
A heart that says, I believe, Lord, you're my only hope, you're
my only salvation. I need you, I must be found in
your righteousness alone. Has he given you a heart to not
be ashamed of him anymore, to confess him before men and believers
baptism like he commanded? Has He given you a new heart
to know that He alone must present me faultless to the Father? I
can't do it by my works. Which one are you? Which heart
is it? Christ is the revealer. Our hearts
are either enmity against Him, just like it was when we were
conceived in our mother's womb and came forth speaking lies.
No matter how religious a man gets, He manifests what his heart
is by what he thinks of Christ. But if you're his and he's giving
you this heart, the heart that he gives bows and says, yes,
Lord. We want him to have the glory.
We don't want the glory. We want him to have it. And we're
not gonna listen to anybody that's giving man the glory. Because
our Savior has done it all. God chose him. God blessed him. God sent him. And our Lord Jesus
came and fulfilled all righteousness for us. and it's only in him
that we have salvation. I pray you're the second of the
two. I pray you're the second of the
two, that the Lord has given you a heart. I really and truly
believe some of you are. You manifest your heart. I pray
that be so of each one. Let's go to him now. Lord God,
we thank you for your grace. Lord, we thank you You didn't
leave us alone, that you gave us hearts to believe you and
trust you. Thank you, Lord, that you've given us a new heart to
fall on Christ, to trust him alone to be our salvation. Thank
you for raising us up from the dung heap. And Lord, we pray
you protect us and keep us. Don't let us stray, don't let
us ever cease believing in you. Give us hearts to persevere in
faith to the end. We pray this for all your people
everywhere, Lord. Yes, we pray for their earthly
well-being, but we need Christ, that's what we need. And we pray
you give this heart to each of your people and keep us looking
to him only. Forgive us our sins, Lord. In
Christ's name we pray, amen.