Let's turn to Luke chapter 2.
While you're turning there, I want to say thank you to everybody
that showed up yesterday to help the Thackers move. It always does me good to see
when the Lord's people come together like that to help one another
and it's always encouraging to me and I know there's some of
you that would have been there if you could have been there
but I appreciate those who were able to make it. Luke 2 and verse
25, Behold there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him
and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came
by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then he took 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. which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and
the glory of thy people Israel. Now, the whole world will recognize
Wednesday as the birthday of this one that most refer to as
the little Lord Jesus, or the baby Jesus. But who was that
baby? Who was that one born in a barn
in Bethlehem? Who was he? Some think he was
just another baby. Others think that he was a good
example. Some think he was a good teacher
like Muhammad, equal with Muhammad or Buddha. But who was it? Who was that infant laid in a
manger? Simeon said in verse 30, mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
salvation. That's who He is. Simeon looked
at this infant. raised this infant up in his
arms and said to God, Behold, I have seen thy salvation. Now, I want to just look at those
two words, thy salvation, and see what we can learn from those
two words. One, we understand that Christ
is the salvation provided by God himself. It's God's salvation,
thy salvation. Number two, Christ is Himself
salvation. He is salvation. And three, that
tells us the result will be He will save somebody. He will save
somebody. Now let's look at these three
points. The Lord Jesus, first of all,
is the salvation that God Himself provided. Verse 26 says, at the
end there, says He is the Lord's Christ. He's the Lord's anointed. Now that tells us three things.
One, God the Father Himself chose God the Son. He chose him. He elected him and anointed him
to be salvation. Go with me to Isaiah 42. Isaiah
42 and verse 1. God is speaking here. And he's speaking about Christ.
And he says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in
whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him,
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
He's not going to be some voice for political change or something
like that. He came unobserved. He says,
a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. Those that are just weak and
helpless, he's not going to break them. He's going to be gentle
with them. Look at this. He shall bring
forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment, justice in the earth, and the Gentiles
shall wait for his law. God says here, that Christ shall
not fail. He's the one God chose. He elected
Him. He's God's servant. He chose
the Son of God. He chose one equal with God. God chose His Son. And God says
here, He shall not fail. He shall set justice forth in
the earth, judgment in the earth. And if you understand what that
means, And you know when He says He will establish judgment in
the earth, it means He will save His people. That's what it means. Why is His name Jesus? Remember
the angel said His name should be called Jesus. Why? For He
shall save His people from their sins. He shall save His people
from their sins. God the Father chose His Son
to be God's salvation. The salvation God provided. Psalm 89, verse 19 says, Thou
spakest in vision to Thy Holy One and said, I have laid a help
upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. That one is Christ. Look at Isaiah
49, a few pages to your right, and look there at verse 3. Now he's talking to Christ here,
and he says in verse 3, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in
whom I will be glorified. The word Israel, the name Israel
means as a prince, thou hast power with God and hast prevailed. That is Christ's name. He's Israel. When He gave Jacob the name Israel,
He did what He does when He saves His people. He gave Jacob His
name. And when He saves His bride and
unites Himself with His bride, you and I who believe, He gives
us His name. He's Israel. Now look what he
says here in verse 6. And he said, it is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee
for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto
the end of the earth. Look at Isaiah 51 and look at
verse 5. He says my righteousness is near. You know Romans 10 says Christ
is God's righteousness. He's the righteousness God has
provided because His people had no righteousness. We can't earn
a righteousness. He says, Behold, my righteousness
is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge
the people, the isles shall wait upon me, and on my arms shall
they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
look upon the earth beneath. He's saying look around everything
you see right here around you in this earth. He says, For the
heavens shall vanish away like smoke. And earth shall wax old
like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like
manner. But my salvation, my salvation
shall be forever. My righteousness shall not be
abolished. Look at verse 8. For the moth
shall eat them up like a garment, the worm shall eat them like
wool, but my righteousness shall be forever. and my salvation
from generation to generation. Christ is God's salvation, eternal
salvation. You see, everything around us,
everything that you see with your temporal carnal eye, you
and I think that is lasting. We think it's solid, that it's
been here for so long, it's going to be here forever. Well, God
said over through the Apostle Peter, He said, people say, well
everything's just continuing like it always has. And He said,
God's not slack concerning His promise. As some men count slackness. He's longsuffering to usward. To those He's determined to save.
Because He's not willing that any of His people shall perish. but that each of his people shall
come to repentance. And so he's long-suffering. He
will not destroy this earth till he's brought each of his people
to believe on Christ, his salvation. Christ is salvation. Now, God
said there, we read there in Isaiah, God said, it's in him
that my soul delighteth. God said of Christ, my soul delighteth
in him. He's the only one God's delighted
with. He came down, the Son of God,
and took flesh and became the God-Man. There was a first Adam
who represented all who would be born of Him, and when He sinned,
He plunged us all into sin and death. Christ is the last Adam. He's the head and representative
of all who shall be born of Him. When Christ brought in everlasting
righteousness, He made His people everlastingly righteous. And
God says of Him, I'm delighted in Him. God's not delighted in
you and me. We're sinners. He's delighted
in His Son. And He's only delighted with
us if we come to Him through faith in His Son. No man cometh
to the Father but by me, Christ said. He said, I'm the way. I'm the way. No man comes to
the Father but by me. You think that if God says of
His Son that He's my salvation. I chose Him. I anointed Him.
I sent Him forth. This is my Son in whom my soul
delighteth. He's my salvation. and we're
all going to die, and we're all going to stand before God on
the Day of Judgment. Do you think God's going to delight
in anybody who rejects the salvation that He provided? You think God's
going to be pleased if a man comes to God and he says, well,
I know you provided your salvation, but I thought I'd just work out,
do some good works myself. I thought I'd do some things
on my own and contribute. No. God's delighted in one. He's done everything God sent
him to do, and that's the only one we can come to God in. No
works of our own, no goodness in us, strictly trusting Christ
alone for all our acceptance with God. I'll tell you something
else it means when it says, Thy salvation. It means that God
chose to save somebody. God chose to save somebody. And
the word salvation means those he chose to save cannot save
ourselves. Now, this is good news. God provided salvation. Christ is his salvation. That
means God provided salvation for someone. You don't provide
salvation, especially if it's your own son that's going to
lay down his life to make that salvation. You wouldn't do that
in just hoping that somebody would avail themselves of it.
Besides that, what was included at the cross was Christ was paying
the debt of sin. That means Somebody was guilty,
and their sin had to be taken off of them and put on Christ,
and then justice poured out on Christ instead of on them. And
so because God justified each one for whom Christ died, Christ
justified each one for whom He died, He satisfied the law for
each person for whom He died, And therefore, God will not punish
that sinner. He will not pour out wrath on
him. That wouldn't be just. Justice has been satisfied. So,
we know this. God didn't choose everybody without
exception for Christ to lay down His life for. Because He just
told us, Christ shall not fail. Christ shall not fail to save
each and every one that the Father sent Him to save. He's God's
salvation. If He loses one, He ceases to
be salvation. And the very word salvation means
you can't save yourself. I can't save myself. You look
around and you say, well, I'm not that bad a sinner. I'm not
as bad as that sinner. Well, it's not that sinner that
you have to measure up to. It's God. You have to be as righteous
as God. And the only way we can be made
the righteousness of God is by Christ who is God's salvation. We can't do this ourselves. Let
me show you who He came to save. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. This is who God came to save,
who Christ came to save, right here. Look at Ephesians 1, look
at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul's writing to believers. He says there in verse 1, I'm
writing to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. That's who he's writing to. When
you read a letter, don't you always first see who it's written
to? If that letter's written to you, particularly, you don't
think that what's written in that letter applies to your neighbor,
do you? No, it applies to you. It was written to you. Well,
here Paul's writing to believers. And this is what he says all
believers have in common. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated
us, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. He predestinated the time when
He would send forth the Spirit of God and quicken us to life
and draw us to faith in Christ. And He says there, He did it
all according to the good pleasure
of His will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Grace is free. It's free favor. It means God didn't see something
in you to make Him do it. He did it freely by grace. Look
at this. wherein in Christ he hath made
us accepted in Christ the beloved. And in Christ we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he's abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself. Who are
God's elect? Who is Christ's salvation for?
They are those blessed by the Father from eternity. Before ever the world was made,
before He ever founded the world, He chose a people in Christ and
blessed us with all spiritual blessing. What's left out of
the word all? When He says all spiritual blessing,
that includes them all, doesn't it? He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ before the foundation of the world. Who
are God's elect? Those God predestinated. He set
their destiny. So that he works everything after
the counsel of his own will to bring them under the sound of
the gospel to hear this good news and God regenerates them
and adopts them into his family. And he does this by Christ Jesus.
But they had to be holy and righteous for God to receive them. And
so Christ redeemed them by his blood. And they have to be made
to know Christ if they're going to believe on Christ. And He
abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence, making known to
us His will. You see, Christ is salvation. That sounds like God does all
the saving. That's right. Salvation means
God must do all the saving. Jonah said salvation is of the
Lord. That excludes you and that excludes
me. That excludes your works and
that excludes my works. That means salvation beginning
to end is of the Lord. That's just what it means. You
know if the coast guard is called and there's a man that's drowning
in the ocean, and they rush to this scene where he's drowning,
do they say, Well, we got everything we need to make this rescue,
but let's don't carry a life preserver. Maybe this drowning
man will have a life preserver. Maybe he can contribute that
to this saving mission. Do they fly in on a helicopter
and they let down a basket and there's a man drowning and they
send a man down there who's an expert swimmer to secure the
drowning man in the basket? Or do they stand on the shore
and say, now if you'll just take the first few strokes and swim
toward us, we'll do the rest. That wouldn't be salvation. That
man wouldn't need to be saving. If he could swim two strokes
toward him, he could swim all of them. That wouldn't be salvation. Salvation means God does all
the saving. Does the EMT, does he show up
to where the man's unconscious and bring no resuscitating equipment
with him? Does he just show up and say,
well, maybe this man is unconscious, maybe he'll just resuscitate
himself and we'll do the rest. God says if you and me, the way
we come into this world, we are dead in trespasses and in sins. And a dead man can't do nothing.
A dead man cannot do one thing. Therefore, we have to be quickened.
We have to be regenerated. That's why Christ said you must
be born again. And that's all of God. He gets the glory for that. Salvation's
of the Lord. Three, this means He gets all
the glory. In God is my salvation and my
glory. That's what the psalmist said.
In God I find all my salvation and in God I'll give all my praise
and all my glory. I boast in Him, I don't boast
in myself. Now secondly, When we look at
this word, thy salvation, it means the Lord Jesus is Himself
salvation. He is Himself salvation. Simeon
took up this baby in his arms and looks at this baby, eight
days old, and says, God, I've seen thy salvation. This was
before the Lord Jesus had began to preach. This was before He
had done any works under the law or done anything on the cross. As a baby, eight days old, Simeon
said, I have seen thy salvation. And to you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. But Simeon's
declaring here, he's more than a Savior. He is salvation. He is himself salvation. Moses saying, he said, he also
hath become my salvation. David said, the Lord is my light
and my salvation. Isaiah said, behold, God is my
salvation. He is, himself. Simeon didn't
say, now, he was in the temple and they were still under the
law at that time so they were bringing all these offerings
in there. He didn't say, well, all these offerings of these
lambs and these turtle doves, this is my salvation. No, he
looked at that babe And He said, He is my salvation. He's my salvation. He Himself. Now we love to hear
the truth proclaimed about all of Christ's saving works. We
love to hear the gospel declare how He saved us by His life,
His death, and His resurrection. He alone lived, He alone was
holy and without sin from the womb. That's why He had to be
born of a virgin. You and I were born of another
sinner. And our Father, because He was
a sinner, we were conceived in sin. But Christ wasn't. He wasn't. There's only been
two men that started their life out in this world without sin.
That's Adam, And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He came forth
without sin and He lived under the law all His days without
sin. And then He went to the cross
bearing the sin of His people so that it would be just for
God to pour out wrath on Him. And He satisfied divine justice
for His people. He freely justified His people. And then He arose and sat down
at the right hand of the Father where He sovereignly is working
to send forth His gospel and call out each one He redeemed. We love to hear about the works
that our Lord Jesus accomplished. He alone fulfilled the law of
God. He alone declared God just and
the justifier. He alone did it. But don't ever
forget this. as much as we delight in the
works that our Redeemer accomplished, He Himself is salvation. He Himself is salvation. He's the only one who can make
us wise. The scripture says He Himself
is our wisdom. He's the only one who sanctifies
His people, sets us apart for His holy use and makes us holy
and accepted. He's the only one that does that.
But Scripture says He Himself is our sanctification. He's the
only one who makes righteous. But Scripture says He is our
righteousness. He's the only one who redeems
and sets His people free from the bondage of the law and from
the bondage of our sin nature. But Scripture says He Himself
is our redemption. He is all and in all to His people. Now does He tell us to come to
His work? When He calls you, does He say,
now you come to My work? Does He call you and He say,
now you come to My doctrine? No, He says, come unto Me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And He's our rest. He gives it
and He's our Sabbath. That's right. He said, come to
me. Come to me. Now, this one that
we're talking about is holy God and holy man in one person. Now, you can give up trying to
explain that. You're not going to. This is
the very mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He's holy God and holy man. And
He had to be a man so that He could be made under the law and
work out a righteousness for His people because we were flesh
and blood and we were under the law. And He had to be God so
that every work He accomplished would be eternal and never have
to be done again. And that's what he accomplished.
Christ is all salvation. He's not part of salvation. He's
all salvation. Colossians 1 says it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Believer,
Scripture says you are complete in Him. There's nothing to be
added. You are complete in Him. Why?
It's because Christ is our salvation. He's all salvation. Don't seek
a part of salvation in yourself. Don't seek a part of salvation
in your works. Don't seek a part of salvation
in your will. Don't seek a part of salvation
in your religious doings. Don't seek a part of salvation
in you. Salvation is all of Christ. Salvation is Christ. Salvation is Christ. Now lastly,
what are the results of Christ being God's salvation? What's
it going to terminate in knowing that He's God's salvation? What
does that mean? That means He shall not lose
one. That's what it means. That's
what He said. He said, I will, no man will pluck them out of
my hand. Not anybody. He shall do for
each of his redeemed what He did for Simeon, right here. There
in verse 25, the Holy Ghost was upon Him. The Holy Spirit came
upon Simeon. Verse 26, it was revealed unto
Him by the Holy Spirit. Verse 27, He came by the Spirit
into the temple, was made to behold the Lord Jesus, and took
Him up and confessed He's all my salvation. The Spirit of God
shall come upon every sinner who God chose, who Christ redeemed. God will send forth the Spirit
upon each one of them. And God the Holy Spirit will
bring them into God's house under this message of the Gospel, under
the sound of the preaching of the Gospel. Listen to me. I don't
care what all the second causes were that made you end up here
today. I can tell you this, God brought
you here today. God brought you here today. I
wouldn't take that lightly. Some of you sitting here today
are probably hearing the truth for the first time in your life.
You've probably been hearing preachers who are trying to pad
their pocket and live an easy life and so they'll tell you
anything you want to hear to tickle your ears and to boast
up your flesh so that you'll keep coming and paying the bill. God's preacher don't want your
money. God's preacher don't want anything you can give. Christ
don't want anything you can give. God brought you here so you heard
the truth. But then the Spirit of God also
shall reveal this in our heart. You can't just hear what I'm
preaching today. You can listen to me, but you can't hear it
spiritually unless God gives you a heart to do it. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 says, The natural man receiveth not the things of God,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But when the Spirit of God reveals this to you, when He reveals
Christ to you, then He irresistibly draws His people, makes us willing
to come to Christ and cast all our care into Christ's hand.
and say, He's all my salvation. And even then, God preserves
us throughout our life of faith. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of salvation. That's
what Paul said in Philippians. He'll perform, he'll work kept
by the power of God unto salvation. He keeps us in faith. He keeps
us trusting Christ. And then one day, we're going
to die, or either He's going to return, but either way, we're
going to drop these bodies of death, this sinful flesh, and
He's going to raise us, resurrect us anew with a new body, with
a perfect spirit, and we're going to be in God's presence, perfectly
conformed to Christ without sin. And all of this work will be
God's. And everybody in heaven will
praise one. Everybody in heaven will give
Christ all the glory saying, He's all my salvation. If you don't like this message
now, you're going to hate it in heaven. Because that's all
anybody's going to be talking about in heaven. Nobody's going
to be talking about you and me. We're going to be all talking
about, He's all my salvation. I pray God will bless that to
your heart. Let's stand together. Our gracious Father, we thank
you that you provided your Son who you chose and sent forth
to be the salvation of your people. Lord, teach us and help one of
your lost sheep to hear this, reveal it to them, and draw them
to Christ and cause them to believe on Him. We pray, Lord, You'll
be glorified in everything we say and do here today. that you'll instruct us and grow
us and teach us. Lord, save us from ourselves.
Please save us from our sins and from our thoughts and from
leaning to our own understanding and walking in our own way and
thinking that's wise. Deliver us from that. Make us
read your word and do what you say. Lord, forgive us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.