Now we're gonna be right there
where Brother Mike just read in Luke chapter two. This portion
of scripture to me is one of the most fascinating passages
revolving around the life and the birth and the life of our
dear Savior. Growing up and reading from the
scriptures at this time of year, I never really understood or
realized that this was even there because it's in Luke chapter
2, and I'm going to preach from Luke chapter 2 next week on Sunday, Lord willing. I'm going to preach from another
passage here, but we usually stopped around there concerning
the revelation of the spirit to the angel to the shepherds.
and where they say glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men. And I think that that, I know
that that means something other than what most people think it
means, and I'm gonna deal with that next week. But here you
come down to this point of scripture where there's an old man, probably
a priest in the temple of the tribe of Levi, that's what that
means. His name is Simeon. And look at verse 25, it says,
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. It says
the same man was just and devout. Now, what does that mean? Just
means to be righteous in God's sight. That means justified.
A just person. If you're a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're a just person in the eyes of God. all based
upon His grace, not your works now. You may be a just person
with your dealings with your fellow man, and that's a good
thing to be, but that's not gonna make it right with God. You understand
that? I mean, we oughta be just people
as far as our dealings in business, for example, and our relationships,
we oughta do right. That's what that means. But now,
when it comes to a right relationship with God, To be just means to
be declared righteous on a just ground before holy God who knows,
think about this now, who knows our hearts. He knows our minds. Now whatever you're thinking
right now, you know, I don't know. All I see is your face. Now there are times I can look
out and I'll see a blank face and I wonder, maybe I need to
shout a little bit, I don't know. Anyway, I see your face but I
don't see your thoughts and you don't see my thoughts other than
what I'm expressing here. But God knows your thoughts.
He knows the state of your heart. And yet, if you're a just person
in God's eye, that means he has declared you righteous. Perfectly
righteous. his side. Now how can he do that?
It's only by his grace through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ accounted to you, charged to you, imputed
to you. That's the only way he can do
it because even as saved people we're still sinners, aren't we? We still fall short of And what
do we fall short of? We fall short of the perfection
of the law that can only be found in Christ. We can love each other,
but we can't love like he loved. And you know why? It's because
we still have so much selfishness in us. Too much self-love, we
do. And that's why we have to wait
until we die from this life and go to be with Christ to claim
to be perfect within ourselves. That's when this, Paul said it
in 1 Corinthians 15, when this corruptible, us, shall put on
incorruption, a new body, a spirit, a perfect existence in Christ. So to be just is to be justified
by the grace of God through the blood and righteousness of Christ.
It's to be forgiven of all of our sins on a just ground, and
that's the blood of Christ. You're not forgiven by the birth
of Christ. Now the birth of Christ was necessary
for us to be forgiven because he had to have a human nature
without sin, a human body and soul without sin in order to
die for our sins. That's the payment. The soul
that sinneth must die. The wages of sin is debt. He
had to die to put away our sins as they were imputed to him,
charged to him. So it's to be forgiven of all
of our sins to the point that God will not charge us with our
sins. When we stand, a believer now,
and you understand who I'm talking about here. I'm talking about
a sinner saved by grace. A believer will stand before
God at judgment and there'll be no sin charged to him or her
because they were all charged to Christ. That's why he came
into the world. That's why he was born of a virgin.
That's why he was created in the womb of the Virgin by the
Holy Spirit and not with the aid of man. He was not a fallen
sinful person like we are. He had to be above us, separate
the scripture says from sinners. And he existed as God manifest
in the flesh. That's what I read in Isaiah
7. What we sang in one of those hymns, a son is given, a child
is born. That's what that's all about.
So here's Simeon, a just person. And then it says he's devout
in verse 25. Now what does it mean to be devout?
It means to be a believer. who has been given the gift of
faith in God by Jesus Christ. He believes in Christ, he's devout. Devout does not mean that you're
holier than everybody else. That's in the Old Testament,
it says, don't be like those who say, don't come near me,
I'm holier than thou. No, this church, it's not full
of holier than thou's. It's a hospital for sinners,
that's what a church is, for sinful people. The Pharisees,
they were the holier-than-thou's. They didn't want to have anything
to do with the publicans and the harlots. And you remember
what Christ said to them? He said, those publicans and harlots
will enter the kingdom before you. And what he was talking
about is those who were saved by grace. And so to be devout
is to be a sinner saved by grace, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 25, it says, waiting. That means persevering, continuing
for the consolation of Israel. Now, who is the consolation of
Israel? It's Christ. Each time I read this passage,
and I've preached on it several times, it seems like there's
one thing that kind of just reaches out and grabs me. And usually
it's that right there, the consolation of Israel, the peace of Israel. But that's not talking about
physical Israel. It's talking about spiritual
Israel, to whom God has reconciled. and to whom they are reconciled
to God on the same ground and it's the very ground I've been
talking about, the blood and the righteousness of Christ.
Christ is the consolation of His people, His spiritual people.
You remember how Paul wrote in Romans chapter 2 that he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly and circumcision is not that of the flesh but of
the heart that's spiritual circumcision. Now what is that? That's the
new birth whereby God brings a sinner to faith in Christ and
true repentance. That's the cutting away of the
filth of the flesh in spiritual terms. Brought to Christ. I look to Christ. I rejoice in
Christ. I have confidence in Christ and
none in the flesh. None. don't have confidence in
myself. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that He is able, Christ is able, not
only to save me but to keep that which I've committed unto Him
against that day. He is the comfort, the peace,
the satisfaction, his people and the Holy Ghost was upon this
man." The Holy Ghost is upon every sinner saved by grace but
there's a special way that he was upon Simeon at this point
in time and it says in verse 26, it was revealed unto Simeon
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death physical death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ the Messiah. Now what
a revelation. As you know, there were special
revelations back then because the word of God, like we have
it today, was not brought together in its completeness as we have
it today. We don't need revelations today
outside of the scripture. We need God to reveal to us what's
in the scripture. But Simeon had a special revelation. And God told him, he says, you're
not going to leave this earth until you see the Messiah in
the flesh. you know how much that must have
stirred his heart. And it was just at that time
that Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to the temple
to do for him what the law said to do to those who were born
in Israel. And it says in verse 27, and
he came by the Spirit in the temple, the Spirit led Simeon
to the temple at this time when the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law," now listen
to this, this is another thing when I preached on this several
years ago, this one just reached out and grabbed me, it says,
"...then took he him up in his arms," Simeon took the babe up
in his arms, "...and blessed God," which means he praised
God, He worshipped God and he said, Lord now let us thou thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. Now think about that. Don't let
that go over your head. He's holding a child in his arms
and he says I've seen God's salvation and it's called God's salvation
because it's the salvation that God has accomplished, that belongs
to God, and that He gives to His people. I preached a message
on our television program not too long ago called God's Way
or No Way. It's either God's way of salvation
or it's no way. Every other way is a false way.
And that is not popular today, is it? Oh, there's got to be
many roads to God, many ways to heaven. We have the spirit
of universalism today. Oh, you may be going a different
way. And then even within the realms of Christendom, as they
call it, you have different ways. You have the way of the Sabbath.
You have the way of baptism. You have the way of works. But
my friend, there's only one way, and that's God's way. No other
way. And what is God's way? It's the
way of grace. Unconditional love. Unconditional salvation towards
the sinner. Now there are conditions. There
are stipulations and requirements that must be met in order for
God to save me or anybody else. But upon whom are those conditions
and requirements and stipulations? Are they on me or on you? If
they are, there's no hope. There's no possibility. They're
all on Christ. And that's what Simeon meant
when he said, I've seen thy salvation. Christ is God's salvation. I've
got a little article on the back of your bulletin about that.
And it gave him so much peace. He said, now, lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace. I'm ready to die. Most of us
would say something like, well, I don't really want to die today.
And especially you young people, you don't want to be cut down
in your youth. We've seen so much of that. And it's sad. It's
pitiful. But here's a man who said, I'm
ready to go. This man had a peace about him. And it had nothing
to do, he didn't say, well, he didn't say, Lord, I've done what
you've required. Now I'm ready to go. No, he said,
I've seen your salvation. I've seen Christ. I've seen the
God man. I've seen a righteousness that
is given to me by grace that I had nothing to do in producing.
That's what grace is all about. Grace is not salvation conditioned
on you. It's salvation conditioned on
Christ who fulfilled all those conditions by His obedience unto
death as God manifest in the flesh. Emmanuel. Lord now let us Let us thou thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word." See, this is God's
Word. This is not pie-in-the-sky religion that we've formed a
committee and voted and come up with. No, this is what God
says. This is the Word of God. This is the Gospel of God. Paul
said, the Gospel that I preach is not of man, it's of God. It's like no other message in
the world. I don't care who you go to, what denomination. There's
no other message but this message of God's free and sovereign grace
through and by the Lord Jesus Christ alone, who is the surety
of his people. That's what this infant or this
babe was. He's the surety. What does that
mean? That means he became responsible for my debt, my sin debt. That's what sin does. It runs
up a debt to God's law and justice. Well, that sin debt was laid
on Christ. That's what imputation, you hear me talk about impute
and imputation, that's what happened. The sin debt of God's people,
his elect, that's what the scripture calls them. I know people don't
wanna hear that, but that's what it is in the Bible. The sin debt
was laid up on Christ. He put it on my account, I'll
pay it. That's what a surety does. And
how did he pay it? By the price of his obedience
unto death on the cross. that's why he was born, that's
why he united with his deity a sinless humanity, that's the
salvation and his righteousness, the worthiness, the value, the
power of his righteousness is accounted to his people. charged
to his people. Jeremiah said it twice, his name
shall be called Jehovah Sidkanu, that's the transliteration, that
means the Lord our righteousness and that's what Simeon's saying
here. He says in verse 30, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Well look at verse 31, now this is where I want to get to mainly.
He says, this salvation which thou God has prepared before
the face of all people. A prepared salvation. It's already
prepared. It's already done. You say, well,
I've got to bring my dish. You know, when you talk about
a potluck dinner or whatever they call them, a covered dish
dinner, you bring a dish. Not to this dinner. And I want
to show you a couple of scriptures. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. What he's saying is this, that
the salvation which God gives to his people, it's already prepared,
it's already finished, it's already done. The gospel is not do and
live. The gospel is done and live. It's been prepared. And who prepared
it? Well, there's several ways we
can talk about that preparation. You know what it means to be
prepared. It means that you're already equipped, already all
the conditions, as I said, requirements and stipulations have already
been made and you're ready to go. That's what Simeon said,
I'm ready to depart because I've seen God's salvation, which he
has prepared. People today, they say, well,
you gotta do your part. Well, what is your part? One
old preacher, years ago I heard preaching, he said, well, your
part is the sinning, God's part is the saving. And that's probably
a good way to put it. But look at Matthew chapter 25,
and look at verse 34. Now, this is where Christ says
he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats at judgment. Who are the sheep? They're the
elect of God, they're the redeemed of the Lord. He said he gave
his life for the sheep in John chapter 10 and verse 11. He said
my sheep hear my voice. What is that? That means they
hear the gospel with spiritual ears having been born again by
the Spirit and they hear and believe the gospel. Who are the
goats? Those are those who live their
lives in unbelief and die in that state. That's what a goat
is. right? And here's what he says
to the sheep in verse 34, he says, then shall the king say
unto them on his right hand, that's the right hand of acceptance
and how are we accepted in Christ? He says, come ye blessed of my
father. Now listen to the language, inherit
the kingdom. You didn't work for this, you
inherited. What is an inheritance? Somebody else worked for it and
bequeathed it to you. inherit the kingdom, look at
it, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's
an eternal preparation. Before the foundation of the
world, what does that mean? That means before the world was
ever created. God had this set in his mind and purpose before
the world ever began. Everything about Christ, now
listen to me, his birth, his life, his death, His burial,
His resurrection, His ascension was fully prepared in the mind
and purpose of God in the everlasting covenant of grace before this
world ever began. And all that we're seeing in
this world is God working it all out in time and nothing can
stop it. I heard an old preacher from
Ohio make the statement talking about the crucifixion of Christ.
And he was getting real emotional, and it is an emotional thing,
I'm not denying that. But he looked up at the crowd
and he said, oh, if I'd have been there, I would have stopped
it. And I said, stopped it? Are you crazy? First of all,
you can't stop the sovereign purpose of God. He said, I will
do it, I will make it come to pass. Who can argue with him? Who can say stop? Who can even
question him? What do you think you're doing?
Oh no. But my friend, that's our salvation.
That's the salvation of God's people. Not just the birth of
Christ, but His life and His death, His burial, His resurrection.
And right now, where is He? He's at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for His people. And therefore,
we are kept. We're preserved. But this is
before the foundation of the world. Well, look at John chapter
14 with me. Turn to the book of John. I've
got two more scriptures here I want you to see. John chapter
14. And this is one that you're familiar
with. A lot of times it's used at funerals. But John chapter
14, he's talking to the disciples. He's been telling them about
what's going to happen. He's going to go to Jerusalem.
He's going to be arrested. He's going to be tortured, punished,
and he's going to die. And he tells him in verse one
of John 14, look at this, he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Verse two, in my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go, where's he going? He's going to the cross, going
to the grave, going to the father. I go to do what? To prepare a
place for you. I'm not sending you to prepare
a place. I'm sending you out, he says,
to tell people that a place has already been prepared. Because
you've seen, like Simeon, God's salvation, the consolation of
Israel. I'm going to prepare it. Now,
how's he going to prepare it? He's going to keep the law perfectly. He's going to die under the judgment
of God for the sins of his people. He's going to be buried. He's
going to be raised again the third day. And he's going to
ascend unto the Father at the right hand of the Father, the
right hand of acceptance. And you know what? He did so
not as a private person, but as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer, the life giver, the preserver and protector of
all of God's people for whom He died. It's prepared. Nothing's left out. Remember
when He was on the cross in John 19, 30? Remember what His words
were? It is what? Finished. Finished. The Bible says in Romans
10 and verse 4 that Christ is the end of the law. Now that
word end in Romans 10, 4 is the same word, Greek word, as finished
in Romans 19, 30. For Christ is the finishing,
the fullness, the completeness, the perfection of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. And somebody might
say today, they might say, well, yeah, but you've got to believe
it. Oh, that's right, but that's been prepared too. Do you understand
that? Even the faith that God's people
have to cling to Christ is a gift from God through Christ. For
by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
In other words, if you're a believer, and you're standing beside somebody
who doesn't believe, All you can say is, Lord, how blessed
you are to save a sinner like me. You don't have a thing to
brag about. You can't say I'm going to heaven
because I believed and you're going to hell because you didn't.
I'm going to heaven because God saved me by his grace and gave
me the gift of faith. That's humbling. And that's what
salvation's all about, us being humbled and Christ being exalted. But he said in verse three of
John 14, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself that where I am there, you may
be also. That's what Simeon knew, this
prepared salvation. He said in verse four, and whither
I go, you know the way and the way you know. Thomas, you remember
Thomas, the disciple, he saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither
thou goest, and how can we know the way? Look at verse six, Jesus
said unto him, I am the way, I am the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. Prepared salvation. One more
passage, look at 1 Corinthians chapter two. This prepared salvation. And let me tell you something,
if the Lord ever reveals to a person what we are by nature, just like
down here in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, I quote this all the
time. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, it says, but the natural
man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." What is
the natural man? That's man and woman as they are naturally born
fallen in Adam into a state of sin and death. Now one thing
you can't deny is that because you know at some point in time
you're going to die physically. So that's man and woman as they're
naturally born in a state of sin and death without knowledge
without any desire to come to God by Christ. That's what he
says here in verse 14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
What it's telling us is that in order for me to receive Christ
and to rest in Him in this prepared salvation, I've got to be born
again by the Spirit. You must be born again. You've
got to be given a new heart, a new knowledge, a new mind,
a new spirit. And that's God's work. That's
not your work. But here's where I want to get
to in 1 Corinthians 2. He's talking about the revelation
of God. And in verse nine, he says, 1
Corinthians 2, listen to this. He says, but as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man. Now, whatever he's talking about,
you didn't see it with the natural eye or hear it with the natural
hearing, ear. and has never entered the heart, the mind, the affections,
and the wills of men. All right? What hasn't entered
our minds by nature, naturally? Look, the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him. The things that God has prepared.
He says in verse 10, but God hath revealed them unto us by
His Spirit. That's when the new birth comes.
For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. The things that only the Spirit knows and he reveals
to God's people. For what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. What that means
is like old Clint Eastwood used to say in the movies, man's got
to know his limitations. The only thing you can know is
what you can naturally know unless God intervenes. And by powerful
revelation in the new birth, lets you in on it. Even the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God has to reveal them through the Word of God. And so, the
things that God has prepared, listen to it, verse 12. Now we
have received not the Spirit of the world. In other words,
when God revealed this to us, He didn't give us the Spirit
of the world, we had that already. Not the Spirit, but the Spirit
which is of God. Now look at this, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. That's what
man by nature doesn't know. The things that are freely, unconditionally
given to his people by God. The things that he's already
prepared. We'll go back to Luke and I'll close. Here's Simeon. For mine eyes, verse 30, mine
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people, That doesn't mean everybody without
exception. That just means those Jew and Gentile who he reveals
it to. He says this in verse 32, a light
to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. God
has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
Verse 33 says, and Joseph and his mother marveled at those
things which were spoken of him. Could you imagine Joseph and
Mary hearing that? They marveled. Verse 34, Simeon
blessed them. and said unto Mary his mother,
behold, the 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. What he's saying there is this.
The coming of the Christ child, the consolation of Israel, the
salvation that God has repaired is going to divide people. There
are gonna be some who believe it, and there's gonna be some
who reject it, walk away unaffected. That's the issue. Well, who's
gonna receive it? Well, the Bible says that those
who are born again by the Spirit will receive it. They are the
elect of God. They are the redeemed of the
Lord. They are justified, and they are made devout, just like
Simeon, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the issue. That's the issue of this prepared
salvation. And we pray and hope that the
Lord will make it make it valuable to all of us.