I'm so glad that the Lord reached
down his hand for me. I'm sure there's a few of you
here that could say with a song, I was lost and undone without
God and his son when he reached down his hand for me. I'd like
to thank you all for the welcome. I'd like to thank Paul and Mindy
for their graciousness to us these past few days. They've
been delightful hosts. We've known of this place for
a long time. We've known of Paul. We've known
of his father Henry, of course. We've known many of the Sovereign
Grace preachers over here. And it's delightful to be able
to come over here and visit with you today. Now, if you turn in
your Bibles please to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Where we read in verse 5, There
was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest
named Zacharias of the course of Abir and his wife, was of
the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they
were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child because
that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken
in years. And it came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an
angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. Verse 5, there was in the days
of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias. A certain priest. The message of the scriptures
from Genesis to Revelation is singular. Christ. He is all and He is in all. He is in the first word of the
book He is in the last word of the book. If we read the Scriptures
and miss Christ, we found nothing there. He is there in every word. He is the message. And in the
midst of the Scriptures, in the beginning of the New Testament,
God has recorded unto us four Gospels regarding the coming
of his son, his person, his work, his redeeming grace for sinners.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As four gospels, they present
the same Christ, the same Jesus, the same Saviour unto us, but
as it were from different angles in different lights. They are,
as it were, a prism of glass and one views Christ from one
side of the glass, one views him from another, one from another
and the fourth from another. He's presented unto us as the
Son of God and the Son of Man and declared to be our Prophet,
Priest and King. John's Gospel, distinctly from
the other three, uniquely presents his divinity. The opening words
of each Gospel set the tone. John opens, in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. in him was
life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. John presents
unto us Christ the Son of God. Matthew presents Christ unto
us as the Messiah, the King. It opens of course with that
Kingly genealogy showing his descent, his origin. Much that
is recorded in Matthew presents him as the Messiah. The book
of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham. The son of David. Chapter 2 of
Matthew, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the
days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the
east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the
Jews? Mark's Gospel presents Christ
unto us as the prophet. It's common Mark
is often considered to present him as the servant. He is the
servant. But he's a servant as the servant
of God is a servant, as a preacher is a servant of God. He's a prophet. And this is why the book begins,
the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
as it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. Immediately we hear the voice
of John, one crying in the wilderness, a prophet sent of God to prepare
the way of the prophet, God's son, his servant, his messenger. And again Luke sets the tone
early in the book of how he will present Christ unto us. There
was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest
named Zacharias of the course of Abia. In Luke Christ is presented
unto us very much as the saviour who brings salvation through
a priestly ministry. He's our priest. The great high
priest. And how we need a saviour. And how we need salvation. And how we need a priest to make
a way of salvation for us. As wretched, vile, lost, rebellious
sinners lost in the darkness of sin. We can do nothing to
save ourselves, nothing to make ourselves righteous, nothing
to wash ourselves clean before a holy God. We can go to the
priests of men, we can go to a church, we can go to preachers,
we can go to the Word of God, we can go to everything we can
in the flesh, as the Jews did. with their ceremonies, with their
rituals, with their temple, with their priesthood and if all we
have is that of man, it will not save. We need a priest who
can offer a sacrifice that can truly wash us from our sins. And Luke presents unto us the
priest, the Great High Priest. As we read in Hebrews we have
such an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Yes he
presents salvation unto us but it's through a certain priest
not Zacharias but the one of whom Zacharias was but a picture
Christ himself. Yes, if you read through Luke
from chapter 1 to 24, you will see this. You'll see that Luke
opens in the temple. In chapter 1 here, Zacharias.
And in the very last chapter, it closes in the temple. There
are more references to Christ going to the temple and going
into synagogues to teach and to preach and to worship than
in any other gospel. So much is recorded throughout
Luke regarding the temple, regarding the keeping of the law, regarding
the customs of the law, regarding the priesthood, regarding the
offerings, regarding salvation. And here we open up in chapter
1 in the temple with Zacharias, his wife Elizabeth, And here
the angel appears unto Zacharias and promises him and his wife
a son, John, who heralded the coming of Christ, the son of
a priest, to point the way to the priest. As we get to chapter 2, we see
that Jesus is brought in as a child into the temple. Chapter 2, verse 25, we read And 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 before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple And when the parents of Jesus 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, which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people. a light to lighten the Gentiles
and the glory of thy people Israel. What a day! And what an answer
to prayer for Simeon. An old man. He'd gone to the
temple. He'd served the Lord. He'd waited. He waited and he waited for salvation. And then in the providence of
God he lived in the very day when God's son was brought by
his parents into the temple and he took the child Jesus up in
his arms and said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Yes,
this man took up his priest the great High Priest in his hands
and beheld in him his salvation. We may not be there physically but has the Lord come unto you
and spiritually presented unto you Christ? And have you been able to say,
mine eyes have seen thy salvation? What a wondrous sight! What a day! So much so that it
tells us in verse 33, Joseph and his mother marveled at those
things which were spoken of him, of Christ. And Simeon blessed
them and 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. Yea, a sword shall pierce through
thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And then we go on to read of
another in the temple. There was one Anna, a prophetess,
the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asser. She was of a
great age and had lived with her husband seven years from
her virginity. And she was a widow of about
four score and four years which departed not from the temple
but serve God with fastings and prayers night and day. She too
waited. And she coming in that instant
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of Him to all
them that look for redemption in Jerusalem. Are you looking for redemption? Deliverance from your sin. Does
it matter to you? Does it matter to you? It mattered
to these. They waited on the Lord for decades. They were about to depart this
world in their old age. And the Lord appeared unto them. The Lord came unto them. The Lord reached down from on
high and touched them and presented his Son unto them. Oh may the Lord give us a heart to desire salvation, to desire
redemption, and cause us to wait on Him and never give up waiting
and never see ourselves as so lost that He cannot come unto
us. For there is no sinner so wretched,
so lost, so vile that he may not pass their way and come unto
them and touch them and heal them. There were blind men whose
eyes Jesus touched and they saw. There were lepers, vile, untouchable,
unclean, whom Jesus touched and healed. There are hard-hearted,
rebellious, apathetic fools of sinners today, whom God can send his gospel
to, and break their hearts and melt it and cause them to see
his son. Don't think that you're so hard
and so strong that you can resist. If he chooses you, he will find
you. He will deliver you. He will
present his son unto you. The priest who offered himself
for the sins of his people. As we read on in this chapter,
we read that Jesus himself at 12 years old went up to Jerusalem
after the custom of the feast, verse 42. And when they had fulfilled
the days as they returned the child Jesus tarried behind in
Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they
supposing him to have been in the company went a day's journey
and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And
when they found him not they turned back again to Jerusalem
seeking him. And it came to pass that after
three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst
of the doctors both hearing them and asking them questions. And
all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him they were amazed. And his mother said unto
him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father
and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is
it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about
my father's business? At twelve years old the Son of
God, Jesus Christ, was in the temple. because he was a priest. And he knew what the temple was
about. And he knew what he would do
one coming day outside Jerusalem. And his understanding astonished
the scribes, the priests, the doctors of the law in Jerusalem. This 12 year old knew more than
they did. These scriptures are rich in
their pictures of the gospel. It came to pass that after three
days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors
both hearing them and asking them questions. A pointer to
the cross and what Christ would do. There came a day when Christ
laid down his life when the priest took up the sacrifice and slew
it and shed the blood and sprinkled it. When Christ cried out it
is finished and was laid in the grave and on the third day he
arose and the temple of his body which was broken was rebuilt
and there he was on the third day in the temple risen again
with his people preaching and teaching the gospel. As we go on throughout Luke,
chapter after chapter we see Christ in the synagogues, we
see his teaching, we see how he presents unto us the gospel. In Luke chapter 4 verse 14 We read, And Jesus returned in
the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a
fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in
all their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book. And he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth
and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? What a preacher! Oh that he should come where
we are and open up the word as he did there and preach himself
to lost sinners to those who are broken hearted to those who
are captives, to those who are blind, to those who are bruised. Is that one of you? Oh that he should preach salvation
unto us today. In Luke 6, as we move on, is
recorded what is taught, what is spoken
of as the Sermon in the Plain. In Matthew 5 we read of the Sermon
in the Mount. And you'd be well familiar with
it. Blessed are they that are this and so on. In Luke 6 there
is a similar account. But it's recorded in a different
manner. In Matthew's Gospel, the Gospel
of the Messiah, the Gospel of the King, he goes up into a high
mountain and draws his disciples under him and preaches unto them
in the mountain whilst the multitude are down below at a distance.
In Luke 6 we read in verse 12, And it came to pass in those
days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night. in prayer to God. And then he
chose the 12. And then in verse 17 we read
that he came down from the mount. He came down with them and stood
in the plain and the company of his disciples and a great
multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem and from
the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon which came to hear him and to
be healed of their diseases and they that were vexed with unclean
spirits and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought
to touch him, for there went virtue out of him, and he healed
them all. And he lifted up his eyes on
his disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the
kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now,
for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall
hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company
and shall reproach you and cast You out as evil for the son of
man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap
for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven. For in the
like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. He preaches
these things but in the plain because Luke would present him
to us as coming down as our priest to where his people are. to meet
them where they are and to go as their priest to offer a sacrifice
on their behalf, to shed his blood for them, to go into the
holy of holies for them. What a priest he is. Yes, we have such a high priest. You may read through Luke at
your leisure chapter after chapter and you will see this priest
on his journey, on his pathway to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, to
a place outside the city where the Jews rejected him and cast
him out. where Pilate, when he was taken
up and presented unto them, tried to release him. And they said,
no, give us Barabbas in his stead. Away with this man. Crucify him. Crucify him. Yes, in Luke 22 verse 52, when
he was in the garden And the scribes and the Pharisees,
the priests, came unto him to take him. He says in verse 52,
Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple,
and the elders which were come to him, Be ye come out as against
the thief with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in
the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me. But this
is your hour and the power of darkness." Then they took him
and led him and brought him into the high priest's house. And
Peter followed afar off. They took the great high priest,
the son of God, into the high priest's house And they called out for his crucifixion. And he is the son of God. Purposed
and let these men deal with him. Their hands were in his hands. The soldiers that took him and
beat him, he caused to take him and beat him. No man took his
life from him. He laid it down for the sheep. They cried out, crucify him,
crucify him. They took him to the cross. They
nailed him to it. The soldiers beat him. They derided
him. They mocked him. There was a
malefactor on the right hand and a malefactor on the left
hand. They nailed him to the tree.
They lifted him up. and the world looked on as the
Son of God hung in the place of sinners. Has God ever brought you there
to see him on the cross? Not as a defeated, weak, derided
man of history, but as the all-powerful Son of God, the Creator of heaven
and earth, who sustained all things while he hung upon the
cross, who gave life to the men that nailed him to the tree. Every one of us in our hearts,
in sinful rebellion against him, have taken up a hammer and by
our sins have nailed his hands and his feet to the tree. Every
time we have said on here in the gospel, I don't want to know. Or this is not relevant for me. Or I'll believe when I'm older,
I'm too young, I've got too many things I want to do. Every time
we've turned our back on him, we've nailed his hand to the
tree. And he has given us the life
and the power and the ability to do so. And he can take that life and
ability and power away in an instant. And cause us to drop
down dead guilty before him and stand before him to answer for
our deeds. Or he may cause us to hear his
gospel and to see him crucified for us. And he may come to us
as he came to Simeon and present himself unto us as our priest
as our sacrifice as our saviour and he may give us faith and
a heart to say this is my salvation mine eyes have seen my salvation
oh that he would do that oh that we would see him see the priest
See Him take the Lamb of God Himself. Take it to the altar. Slay the Lamb because of our
sins. See the bloodshed. See Him take
that blood into the Holy of Holies on our behalf. And know by faith
that He sprinkled the blood upon the mercy seat. For us. He didn't do it for all. He went
with a heart, with the names of all his people written upon
it. Names chosen by God before the
foundation of the earth, an elect company, an election of grace. God said to his son, this is
my people. And the son said, I will offer
myself for them. I will deliver them, I will redeem
them, I will set them free, I will cleanse them, I will be their
sacrifice. And for that particular people
he laid down his life and he offered it up and he cried out
in power at the end of the three hours in the darkness, it is
finished. And he accomplished their salvation.
He accomplished it effectually, powerfully, once and for all. We read from Hebrews of the priests
of old, they had to go year after year after year and one priest
died and another priest took his place and year after year
they offered and offered and offered again and not one sinner
was saved because all they were doing was a picture. And the
faithful who looked for redemption in Israel saw the picture, heard
the witness and looked by faith to Christ who should come. And
the blind looked at the picture and thought it saved them. And
yet they're lost still. Oh may we see beyond the form,
beyond the pictures to Christ himself. Oh what a sacrifice was offered
that day. What a priest offered it up. He hung in the darkness, made
sin, bearing the sins of his own people. The father looked
upon his own son, laying those sins upon him and said the soul
that sinneth it must die. and the sword of justice was
plunged into the Son of God in the darkness. For three hours
he hung suffering an eternity of judgement an eternity of hell
upon the cross. The wrath of God poured down
like billows upon his head. He was sunk in the midst of our
sin like the rain that poured down on Noah's ark. He was the
ark of his people. They were in him at the cross
in the darkness as the storm poured down from on high. And
like Noah and his house, they were brought safely the other
side. The other side. Yes, they took
his body down. They laid it in a grave. and
they shut the tomb with a stone but that tomb could not hold
him it could not hold him chapter 24 Now upon the first day of
the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre,
bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others
with them. And they found the stone rolled
away from the sepulchre. And they entered in and found
not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass as they were
much perplexed thereabout. Behold, two men stood by them
in shining garments, And as they were afraid and bowed down their
faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living
among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you
when he was yet in Galilee. The grave could not hold him. How many are seeking the living
among the dead? How many? Who are these two men
there? Well, they remind us in many
ways of the cherubims on the mercy seat. There were two cherubims
at the end, at the size of the mercy seat that the priest would
take the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle the blood upon the
mercy seat. And there were these two angels,
two cherubims upon the mercy seat. And there at the tomb in
Matthew's gospel we read of them as two angels. In Luke's gospel
we read of them as two men. They're most definitely pictures
of those Cherubims. A picture of the mercy seat.
Their blood has been sprinkled. Salvation is accomplished. It's
finished. But they also remind us of two
men that we read of earlier in Luke's Gospel. Luke chapter 9,
we read of the Transfiguration. Luke 9, 28. And it came to pass
about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John
and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was
white and glycerin. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory
and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were
with him were heavy with sleep and when they were awake they
saw his glory and the two men that stood with him and it came
to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Jesus Master
it is good for us to be here and let us make three tabernacles
one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing
what he said. While he thus spake, there came
a cloud and overshadowed them. And they feared as they entered
into the cloud and there came a voice out of the cloud saying,
this is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice was passed,
Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close and told
man, no man in those days, any of those things which they had
seen. Yes, there were two men there, Moses and Elias, and they
spake of the decease which Christ should accomplish in Jerusalem. They were waiting for it, they
were looking for it, they knew what he would do. And as it were,
here at the tomb they come to find that Christ is not there,
and there are two men, Moses and Elias perhaps, if not there
are pictures of them. The Law, the Prophets witness
to this. It's done, it's finished, he's
risen. He's not here. He's not here. You won't find him in the Law
and the Prophets alone. They point to him. If all you've
got is the Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, you're looking
for the living among the dead. They point to Christ. It's accomplished. It's accomplished. Later in this chapter we read
of how Christ having risen meets with his disciples. He's finished
the work. The priest has accomplished the
work. He's made the sacrifice. He's shed the blood. He's sprinkled
the blood on the mercy seat between the cherubims. And now he comes
to his people to preach the gospel and say, it's done. All that
the scriptures said of me have been accomplished. It's done. He finds two men on the way to
Emmaus. He asks them, why are you down?
What are you talking about? They tell him of Christ and how
they'd hoped he'd be their saviour. And he says unto them, O fools
and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses,
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself. Oh that he'd come unto us in
the Gospel and speak unto us in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself and tell us to stop looking amongst the dead. I'm risen! Your Saviour, your
priest has offered the sacrifice. It's been accepted by a holy
God. It washes the sins of his people. It's done! In verse 36 we read this, And
O that Jesus would come unto us in our hearts and say the
same. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. The disciples were gathered in
Jerusalem. They were mourning the loss of
their Lord. And he appears in the midst and
he says, Peace be unto you. Why are ye troubled? And why
do thoughts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet that
it is I myself. Handle me and see for a spirit
have not flesh and bones as ye see me have. Oh what a high priest
we have, we have such an high priest. who finished the work
of salvation. It's done. It's accomplished.
It's over. There's nothing for man to do. There's nothing that man can
do. It's all of God. It's all of
grace. It's all by Christ. He's the
priest. He's the sacrifice. He's the
offering. He's the saviour. and he's the
preacher of his gospel and he comes unto lost sinners like
you and I in our hearts, in our worstest state and if we're his
he comes with his blood and he says unto us, peace be unto you. And then at the end of the book
we read of how his people are gathered in the temple. He led
them out as far as Dibethany and he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass while he
blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven
and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and
were continually in the temple. praising and blessing God, Amen. They were in the temple where
it all started, where their priest spiritually offered himself for
them, looking unto him. But they weren't just in the
temple. Where are you today? Are you in the temple? For John
tells us, in John chapter 2, plainly what that temple is. Then answered the Duke, verse
18, Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest
thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered
and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and
six years was this temple in building and wilt thou rear it
up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. Yes, those disciples were in
the temple. But they were in the temple of
his body. They were in Christ. And if you're in Christ today,
you're in a good place. You're in a good temple. Where
the sacrifice has been offered once and for all. where it's
accomplished and you are by faith there when God brings his son
and presents him to you and you can say by faith mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. Oh if you're not there if this
is just a mystery to you God have mercy upon your soul may
he send his gospel in power and lead you to the temple and to
his son. May we have faith to say mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. Amen.