Let's turn back to Luke chapter
2. Luke chapter 2. We've been looking at this just
and devout man named Simeon. One that the Lord had promised.
by his Holy Spirit that he was not going to see death until
he saw physically the Lord's Christ. And of course, he did. The Lord directed that man into
the temple and brought the child Jesus before this man Simeon. Simeon knew him. God's people
know him. They know him. People say, have
you ever seen Him? No, not with these eyes. Not
with these corporal eyes, not these physical eyes. But I've
seen Him by faith, the seeing eye, the hearing ear. God's people
know when He's beheld by faith. They know when they hear the
gospel of God's free grace. They know it. Then they just
rejoice. Bless God and praise Him. Mary
and Joseph brought in the Lord Jesus and took Him up in His
arms. And it says that He blessed God. You know, there was something
else there that I didn't bring up, but I'd like to. He blessed God. It said, Father,
Son, Spirit. The Father who chose a people
from before the foundation of the world. He blessed the Son
who was made flesh, the Word. And He blessed the Spirit of
God, Father, Son, Spirit, God, Triune, Jehovah. He blessed Jehovah. Father, I bless Your holy name,
You that chose me unto salvation. I bless the Son who is my Redeemer. You think about what Simeon knew,
that this was his Redeemer. Job knew that hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of years before. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Bless the Spirit of God that
had taught him. He says, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word. Lord, let me leave
this world now forgiven. You know, you say, well, didn't
he know that before? Absolutely. Let me ask you this. Is there any sweeter request
that any forgiven saint of God would have? Forgiven right now,
but in the moment of your departure, is there any sweeter request?
Lord, let me now leave forgiven. Lord, let me now leave with no
guilt to answer for. Lord, let me now enter into your
presence, absent from this body and present with the Lord. Let
me leave this world now. clean, washed white in the precious
blood of the Lamb. Here's the reason, verse 30,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen thy salvation. You know, Isaiah prophesied,
Isaiah 52 10, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of our God. That is to say, all the ends
of the earth shall see by faith for sure. God's sheep shall surely see
the salvation of God. They're going to see Him. You
that believe, as I said, you see Him now. You see Him. You
see Him by faith. Simeon saw Him by faith and he
saw Him physically. He saw Him. People looked on
Him. Peter said, we saw Him. John said, I saw Him. Peter said,
I was with Him. We was with Him on the Mount
of Transfiguration. I saw Him. I saw Him ascend into
Heaven. I heard two men, two angels,
two men say to me, that's what Scripture says, You men of Galilee,
why stand you here gazing? This same Jesus, the same one
you're looking at right now, the same one received up into
the clouds, He's going to come back just like that. He's coming
back. As we said before, there's a
man, the God-man, there's a man sitting on the throne of God.
You know why? He's God. He's God and He's man. Totally God, totally man, not
half and half. Not heaven, totally God, totally
man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. We can't explain that. I can't
explain the fullness that God Almighty would be made flesh. And as we said last Sunday, I
believe, when we looked at that burning bush, the fire that was
there, and that bramble bush, and the bush wasn't consumed,
that flesh could be prepared Him, and it wouldn't be consumed. With the glory of God, mine eyes
have seen Thy salvation. thy salvation. Not hoping, not
just hoping to save his people, but the one who seeks and saves
his people. You remember this. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. God chose to show mercy, chose
a people. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4.
He chose us in Him from before the foundation of the world.
Christ redeemed God's elect. That's John 10, 15. Who did He
die for? If you say He died for the sins
of the whole world, you've misquoted. He said, John 10, 15, I lay down
my life for the sheep. And you say, well, yeah, but
if somebody believes, don't they become a sheep? No. He looked at those Pharisees
and he told them, he said, you don't believe because you're
not my sheep. That's the reason you don't believe. You're not
my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. They follow me. I know them.
I know them. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. David said in Psalm 85, show
us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. God gives salvation. And I'll tell you how he does
it. He does it just like he did Saul of Tarsus on the road to
Damascus. Saul of Tarsus on the road to
Damascus. He had letters of authority in
his hands. He's going to go to the temple there. He's going
to get all that's of the way that were, you know, believe
in this Jesus of Nazareth. He's going to take them back
to Jerusalem. He's going to get them. I'm going to get them.
How did God save him? Saul of Tarsus, you know, asked
him to exercise his free will. And you know, give him his heart,
wanting to save him. Oh no. What did he do? He set
a bright light shone about him. He stopped him. He said, Saul! Saul! And Saul, a religious man, said,
Who are you, Lord? Who are you? He said, I'm Jesus
of Nazareth. the one you're persecuting, it's
hard for you to kick against the bricks. And Almighty God
gave that man a new heart. Just like He did to Lydia, opened
his heart, gave him a new one. He granted, that's what He says,
grant us thy salvation. God's not a beggar. God's not
a beggar. God doesn't beg men to give Him
their life. He stops them. And he gives them,
he said, I'm going to show mercy to you. And he shows mercy to
a man, a woman, and gives them a new heart. He said, I'm going
to give you a new heart. He tells them about it. Tells
them what he did. After the fact. After the fact. He tells them, I've shown you
mercy. Mercy that we did not deserve.
Lord, mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. What a sinner needs
is a Savior. I am hopelessly impotent, spiritually,
of myself and you too. I can do nothing. I can do nothing. People say, well, you know, if
you give your heart to someone... Listen, let me tell you something.
Listen to me. You know what God Almighty is
going to accept? Let me tell you what God's going
to accept. Holiness. Holiness. Somebody say, well
I exercise my free will. Was it an exercise in absolute
holiness? Holiness. It better have been
holy, and you better have been holy before you ever did it.
And you better have been holy ever since you did it. You better
be able to stand before God and say, I have done everything as
perfectly as God. Now let me ask you this. Who's going to stand before God
and claim to have done perfectly? No, no. No, my friend. Let me
tell you, I'll tell you what I need. I need His salvation.
I need for God Himself to come into this world as my representative. I need for Almighty God Himself
to live before God obediently. I need for God to say to me, Well done. How's that going to
be? Only in a substitute. I need
for Him to do for me what I cannot do for myself. I need for Him
to live for me and die for me. I need for God Almighty as a
man, as a man like me, I need to have all of my guilt transferred
to Him. I need for God Almighty an absolute
wrath. I need for God to deal with my
sin and put it away as far as east is from the west. I need
for God to put it behind His back. I need for God to forget
it. And I can't do that. I can't
do that. Let me tell you something. If
you're standing here and trusting in something that you've done,
whatever it is, whatever you've done, walked down the aisle,
got baptized, took the Lord's Supper, prayed through, read
the Bible. I had a man tell me the other
day, he said, I've read this Bible cover to cover. I haven't. I'm trying. But I cannot say that I've read
every word of this Bible, but I'll tell you this. As I study
the scriptures, seek God's direction, guidance. I know this, I need
His salvation. I need God to show mercy to me
for Christ's sake. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Look at this, verse 31, which
thou hast prepared before the face of all people. which thou hast prepared. Now
let me tell you what he's saying right here. When I tell you what
he said, you'll say, well that's consistent. That's consistent
with what I know. Which God has prepared, which
he has provided, that's what the word says, which he's made
ready. You remember when scripture says,
a body, hast thou prepared me? a body, a human body, hast thou
prepared me." God Almighty made a body, a flesh body for the
Lord Jesus Christ and He inhabited, inhabits, inhabits now. According to God's eternal purpose
decree, the Lord Jesus Christ was appointed chosen to be God's
salvation, which He willingly stood as the surety of God's
sheep. A body was prepared Him in time,
and the Spirit of God moved upon a virgin, Mary. And in her womb,
in her womb was actually conceived a child, a baby. This holy thing the scripture
refers to Him as. A body was prepared Him. A body
was made Him. And the Word Himself was personified
before men. I mean, we looked at Him. They
looked at Him. As I said a moment ago, John, Peter and those apostles
said, I saw Him. I looked at Him. I touched Him.
He said, touch me. Here, Thomas, here, put your
hand right here on my side. Touch me. I'm not a spirit. I'm
real. I'm a man. God-man. A body was
prepared. This is what Simeon was saying.
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared, personified,
which you've brought into this world. and caused us to look,
Yah has prepared before the face of all people. He was made flesh
before the face of all people. That is, He was revealed in mercy and power to all of
His people out of all the nations and kindred and tribes and tongues.
God was pleased to show Him God's Spirit. How are we going to see
a Spirit? Well, that Spirit is going to
have to be prepared. He's going to have to be set
forth and be seen, personified. He said, 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. Men by nature are born spiritually
dead. You know that. You know that.
Man by nature is in the darkness of sin and unbelief. And here
the Spirit of God reveals through this man, Simeon, that Almighty
God has eternally been pleased to save His people and send the
light Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, to send for Jew and Gentile,
all of His people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the
glory of Thy people, Israel. God has a people and they're
everywhere. Can God save a heathen out of
this country or this country? Absolutely. He saved me, He saved
you. Almighty God is going to save
His light. Here Simeon is saying that the
Lord has now revealed openly that He in time is going to absolutely
call His people out of darkness, the light. You have prepared
before the face of all the people a light. And the Lord Jesus Christ
revealed Himself to be that light, John 8, 12. Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world, Jew and
Gentile. Not everybody, you know that.
I want to qualify every time, and you know that. Not every
person. Not every person out of the world,
because he wouldn't pray for the world. I pray not for the
world. That's John 17 now. I pray for those that you've
given me out of the world. Go back and read that. Does he
pray for everybody? No. No. How do you know? He said he didn't. I pray not
for the world, but for those that you've given me out of the
world. That's the ones I'm praying for. That's the ones I'm going
to save. I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light, the revelation of life. Verse 33. And Joseph and
his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Not because they didn't believe
what he was saying. They were marveling not because
they didn't believe what he said, but because they did believe
it. Here was the marvelous thing.
They knew the same things. They knew the same thing. They
knew that this was the Son of God. They knew that. Well, how
did they know it? Well, look at Luke. Just turn
back a page to Luke 1.35. How did Mary know who he was?
Well, the Lord's angel told her. Luke 135, The angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee in the power
of the highest, shall overshadow thee, and therefore also that
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. She knew who he was. She knew
exactly who he was. At his birth, the angels sang
hosanna, praised God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to men.
This day, the city of David is born Christ the Lord. These shepherds heard that. And Mary, they came there to
see it and they knew it. But look at Luke 2.19. Let me tell you, while all this
was going on, But Mary kept all these things and pondered them
in her heart. It doesn't say that she went
around, you know, going to her neighbors. I don't know if you
know who this baby is, but oh no. She kept all those things
in her heart and pondered, mused on them, thought upon them, just
meditated upon them. The scripture says when Simeon
was proclaiming, she walked in with the child Jesus in her arms. And Simeon walked up to her and
took the baby in his arms and the scripture said, he blessed
God He was praying, Lord, let us thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people alike
to lighten the Gentiles in the glory of thy people Israel. And Mary was listening to what
he was saying. And she knew that. But how did
you know it? That's what she marveled over.
How did you know that? How did you know that? I'll tell
you how he knew it, the same way she knew it. God had revealed
it to her, to Simeon. She marveled. She marveled that
God would reveal to that man, that stranger, no record she'd
ever met him before. Simeon, a man named Simeon. And
she marveled. at the revelation that God had
given that man. It's a marvel that any of us
know the same thing. But I'll tell you what, you meet
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I don't care where
he is or where she is, you meet a believer, one that God has
taught, and you know what they believe? They believe just exactly
what this believer believes. Same thing. Same thing. And you listen to that speech,
You listen to the things they're saying concerning the glory of
God and they don't talk about themselves and what they've done
and how faithful they've been. They talk about Him. What did
Simeon say about himself here that had any significance at
all? Nothing. He blessed God. Mine eyes have
seen your salvation. You prepared Him before the face
of all the people. He is the light. She marveled at that. And scripture
says in verse 34, And Simeon blessed them. Not that Simeon
had the power to bless. What he did is he pronounced
them to be blessed of the Lord. Simeon blessed them and he said
unto Mary his mother, Behold, Now here's a miracle of God's
grace. Now I'm going to tell you, the
Spirit of God revealed to this man that he wasn't going to die
until he saw the Lord's Christ. He revealed to this man that Mary and Joseph brought in the
Christ Jesus. He revealed to Him who He was.
He revealed to Him who He was. God's salvation. He knew these.
God had taught Him these things. Taught by the Spirit of God. And now He prophesies. He's going
to prophesy something that there's no way in the world that He could
have known what He's about to say. Unless God had taught Him
this. And he says this, Simeon blessed
him, and he said unto Mary, his mother, behold, this child, or
actually child is in italics, so it's actually behold this,
the Lord himself, is set for the fall and the rising again
of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Now let me tell you what he just
said. He just said that God Almighty is sovereign. He's sovereign
in salvation, sovereign in providence, sovereign in creation. He's sovereign.
But especially, He just said God Almighty is sovereign in
salvation. Look what He said. Behold, this
is set for the fall, and for the rising again of many in history. This blessed one right here is
set, he's appointed, that's what set means. He's appointed and
he's made to be for the fall, that is to be a stone of stumbling,
a rock of offense to many. That's what he's saying. This
right here, this is set To be a rock of offense, some are going
to look upon him and they're going to say, I'm not going to
have this man rule over me. And they're going to fall. Eventually. They're dead now. But they're
eventually going to be cast out of his sight. He's going to be
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for many. But he says
also, he's also going to be a rising again of many. To some, This
one right here, this, this Christ, this the Lord's salvation is
going to be a precious cornerstone, a foundation to all that Almighty
God shall surely call unto Himself. And He shall. He shall. To all
that God has been pleased to give to this one, All that the
Father eternally chose in this one right here, God's salvation,
in this one right here, is found all of God's elect. This man was holding in his arms
the revelation The One prepared that revealed all of the fullness
of God's will and God's purpose. Can you imagine? This one right
here. He's set for fall and rising
again of many in Israel. Can you imagine this man held
in His hands by God's good pleasure, the entirety of God's salvation
and all in Him. He's just lost in the wonder
that this one that he held is the Christ. This one right here. He's going to be set for the
fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which
shall be spoken against. He's going to be a mark. There's
going to be a ridicule. He's going to be shot at, hated
and despised. His deity is going to be denied. His sovereignty is going to be
opposed. His word and miracles are going
to be called sinful. Man doing this by Beelzebub,
nobody can do it. Beelzebub, the devil did that
to him. This man right here, he is going
to be for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, verse
35, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. I'm sure that after he grew up and revealed
himself to be who he is. So much is not written of his
childhood, but when his earthly ministry commenced. I'm sure that Mary saw and felt
the pain as she saw him and heard the ridicule of this one. Truly, his mother, by the implanting
of that holy seed by the Spirit of God. But this is her Lord.
This was her Lord. Mary knew, if she knew God, it's
her Lord, it's her God. It's her Savior. That's who He
is. I'm sure she heard, knew of all
the ridicule, but especially, He said, a sword is going to
pierce through thine own soul. She saw Him on the day of His
crucifixion, hanging. And heard him say to Peter, you
know, heard him say to her, woman, behold your son, the suffering
it's going to take for you. Told Peter, go take care of her. The sword is going to pierce
through thine own soul also. And here's the reason, here's
the reason. And she saw Him hanging on that
cross that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. That
means that all that shall suffer shall be revealed. All that He
suffered is going to be revealed to show the difference between
God's chosen and a reprobate. This that He's doing, dying and
putting away the sin of His people, that all the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed. God Almighty is going to reveal
what every man, every woman thinks of Christ. It's going to be revealed. In that day, maybe not in this
life, but I'm telling you, this life is just, once this life
is over, then the judgment. It's appointed unto a man who
wants to die. Then we're going to stand before God. The preaching
of the glorious gospel. of God's free grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ, sovereign grace in Christ. Electing, redeeming,
regenerating grace for God's particular people. I've said
this, God has a people, a people that He's always loved. He's
chosen, placed them eternally in Christ. Christ has redeemed
them. And He died on that cross and
His death is going to be the merit, going to be the foundation
of Almighty God justly judging all men according to that man,
Christ Jesus, according to these scriptures right here. Almighty
God is going to do that which is right. Simeon saw Him that
day. And he blessed God. He said,
let me now leave in peace. Mine eyes have seen your salvation.
I pray this morning. I know that his arm is not shortened,
that he can't save. I know he can't. I pray God bless
these words to the hearts of his people, the comfort of his
people, and the salvation of his elect. I pray that God have
mercy upon us for Christ's sake.