One of the wonderful things about
the scriptures is how the story of God's redemptive plan unfolding,
what he set in purpose in eternity, unfolds moment by moment. It
unfolds in the hands of people who just come just so briefly
into the story and are just mentioned in a few passing words in the
scriptures. They say a few words, well they
are like Anna, who lived 84 years. So she was married when she was
15 and she was a widow, widowed after 7 years. And she lived for another 84,
she was 106. 106 years old she was and she'd been As the scriptures say, she lived
as a widow and for all those years she departed not from the
temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And she bears testimony to the
words that Simeon said. And Simeon, we know nothing of
his history. You can speculate all you like.
All we have is this man. But we have a word from God about
him. It says in verse 25, and behold,
the Holy Spirit calls upon us to look at him, to examine him. and particularly, of course,
to examine his testimony about the Lord. And what an extraordinary
thing it is. Here was a man who was now prepared
to die. You young people probably never
ever think about it. You think that you are immortal
and eternal and most of the rest of us don't think about it as
much as we ought. look forward to it because it's
the day when they will receive the jewels in their crowns. They
feel like they'll have an opportunity to stand before God and stand
before men and they'll be thanking God but thanking themselves at
the same time. What a shocking, shocking testimony
the Lord gives in Matthew 7 of the many that will come to him
in that day and acknowledge him, Lord, Lord. And then they'll
say, look at the things that we did. And the Lord Jesus does
not deny one single thing that they did. And then he says, depart
from me, I never knew you. We must all meet God. Simeon is a remarkable case,
isn't he, of a man that's laid before us as someone who had
seen, he says, now let thy servant depart in peace according to
thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Why don't we ask the Lord? to
grant us the grace to have his word impact us that we might
be found to be like Simeon. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
you and praise you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that
in his life he has worked out a perfect righteousness for all
his people. In his death he has borne the sins of all his people
away and he's defeated that last enemy of death. Heavenly Father we thank you
that for your children Passing from this world into eternity
is a time of extraordinary blessing when we are freed from this flesh
which so hinders our fellowship and our communion with our Lord
Jesus. What a remarkable thing, Heavenly
Father, that so many of our brothers and sisters throughout time have
gone through that process and come to the other side and they've
seen Him face to face and they have been, like Simeon for this
last 2,000 years and Anna, been rejoicing in the presence of
the Living God. Heavenly Father, may you cause
us to think deeply and seriously about the things that Simeon
experienced and especially the things that he proclaimed about
your dear and precious son. And may you cause us, Heavenly
Father, to speak as Anna did, to speak likewise of our great
God and our great Saviour. We pray that you would bless
the speaking of your word, Heavenly Father, and you would bless the
hearing of it to our hearts this morning. For we thank you that
we can come to you in the name of your dear and precious son,
without whom we can do nothing. We thank you again for gathering
us here together, our father. We pray your blessing on your
word. May your son be exalted and lifted
up before us as glorious. We pray in his precious name.
Amen. As I said, the Holy Spirit says
to behold Simeon. So I was just going to briefly
go through these verses, and we're just going to behold Simeon.
Behold Simeon's testimony. Verse 25, it says, and behold,
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. Simeon is obviously named after
one of the tribes of Israel, one of the sons of Joseph, I
mean one of the sons of Jacob. And simeon means to hear. And what a description we have.
We are told to behold him. We're not told to behold Herod
in all of his greatness. We're not told to behold the
high priests. We're not told to behold other
people. We are told by the Holy Spirit
to behold Simeon. And what a description, what
a description that we have of this man. This man was just and
this man was devout. And it's so easy for us to think
that these men just lived more holy lives in those days than
we do now. But as we saw in Zechariah, the
Holy Spirit's description of Zechariah, he was righteous before
God. And he walked in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless, but the righteousness, the justice,
the justness that Simeon had is the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We saw that Zechariah was proclaimed
to be righteous before God. In the very next instance, we
see him acting in unbelief for a season. He didn't believe the
words of the angel. Simeon was a man who was just.
All of God's children are just. They are righteous before God
because of a righteousness that is one for them, a righteousness
that is tied up exclusively and particularly in the Lord Jesus
and all those who are united to him in that everlasting covenant
of love. But he was also a devout man. He was righteous, he was devout,
and he was a man who was waiting. He was righteous because of Christ's
righteousness. and he was devout. The word means
to be cautious, to be reverent. There is so much flippancy about
religion. May God cause us to be sober. May God cause us, like Simeon,
to be cautious and to be reverent. and to treat holy things with
holy care that God would bring. These are descriptions of his
character, descriptions of his character before God. I love
what it says, he was waiting. He was a man who was waiting
for the consolation of Israel. So much of the scriptures. Encourage
us to be people who are waiting. Someone who is waiting is someone
who is dependent. Someone who has no ability to
achieve something in himself. He's looking outside of himself. He's looking to God. He looks
in faith for God to provide. He looks in faith and he looks
in hope. And if you look up that word,
waiting, you find throughout the scriptures there are just
many, many verses, and you can probably recall many, that talk
about the Lord's people as people who are waiting. This is a great
description in Isaiah 25 of the Lord Jesus. It says in verse
8, He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will
wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of His people
shall He take away. from off all the earth, for the
Lord has spoken it. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him. We will be glad and we will rejoice
in His salvation. God's children are called upon
to wait, to wait patiently. Abraham waited all that time
as an old man, he had a promise, and he had to wait until he was
99 years of age before that promise was fulfilled. The people of
Israel at the time of Simeon had waited 400 years. And until
the events of his previous nine months or so, there wasn't a
single word from God. And yet, in Simeon and Anna,
we see that the Lord always has his witnesses. No matter what
the religion of the time is like, the Lord has his witnesses. He has a lot. in Sodom. He has a Daniel in Babylon. He has a Simeon and an Anna in
Jerusalem. And he was waiting. What was
he waiting for? It's a wonderful description,
isn't it? A wonderful title of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was
waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting for the
Deliverer. He's waiting for the Comforter. The Lord has comforted His people. They're waiting for Him. Simeon
was waiting. And the Holy Spirit 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. So the Holy Spirit comes upon
His people, and He comes upon His people to be a revealer,
and particularly to be a revealer of the Lord Jesus, the Lord's
Christ, the Lord's Christ. What a title. There are many
Christ's in this world and there are many Jesus's in this world,
but he's called the Lord's Christ. He would see the Lord's Christ.
We'll talk more of the Lord's Christ in a minute. And he came
by the Spirit into the temple. This Lord, this Holy Spirit that
came upon him, takes him to that meeting place where Mary and
Joseph have taken this baby who is now six weeks old. Just a
little baby. just a baby, and he came to that
place. He came to that place to do according
to the custom of the law. There were these peasants, these
poor, poor people. They couldn't afford to buy the
lamb which was traditionally offered and the Lord allowed
for poor people to bring a pair of turtle doves or two young
pigeons. One for a burnt offering and
one for a sin offering. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord
Jesus obeyed the law perfectly as a baby. Even as a baby in
his mother's arms, he perfectly fulfilled and obeyed the law. His parents brought him in. And
Simeon was there in the temple. Where do you meet with God? You
meet with God in the place that God has provided to meet with
his people, the place where he promises to meet with his people. He came into the temple and there
we have this great word. Simeon took him up in his arms
and blessed God. He held this baby in his arms
and he praised God. Col, do you want to turn those
things on? I think people are getting hot. Is that the right? You are? It is, it is. Thank you. I can cope with the
noise. Right? You can turn them down
if you like. Are they cold enough? I think
they're wonderful. I know, I'm happy. I think we'll
deal with the noise. He took him up in his arms. Faith takes the Lord Jesus into
the arms, into the arms, and faith praises God. And listen to his prayer. He
says, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according
to thy word. He's saying, now release your
servant. Your servant has come, your servant
has done his work, your servant has seen your promises fulfilled. Let him depart in peace. Let him go. He has seen. He says, for mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. See, it's a title, isn't it?
He's the Lord's Christ. It's a title of the Lord Jesus.
Thy salvation is a title of the Lord Jesus. Verse 32, a light
is a title of the Lord Jesus. Verse 32 again, the glory of
thy people. They're titles of the Lord Jesus
Christ, aren't they? They describe Him. Lord's Christ,
Thy salvation. God's children are called upon
to wait. I have waited for Thy salvation,
O Lord, said Jacob when he was dying." And that is the remarkable thing, isn't
it, about the Incarnation. that we can be united and hold,
as it were, by the arms of faith the Lord Jesus close to our heart
and because of Him we can praise God. That which brings peace, that
which brings peace in departing from this world is holding Him,
having Him, and believing Him, trusting Him. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. Mine eyes have seen Him. The
eyes of faith, multitudes saw Him. multitudes in Israel saw
this young baby grow. They saw him grow to be a man
in that town in Nazareth. They saw him and witnessed him
being baptised by John the Baptist and then for three long, three
and a half long years, he witnessed to that multitude of people,
millions. heard about him, heard about
the remarkable things that he did. There was just one name
on the lips of the people of Israel for that three years,
and that was Jesus of Nazareth. But how many saw him? How many saw him as a light? How many saw Him as the glory
of Thy people Israel? How many, like Joseph and Mary,
marveled at Him? We can speak much about the Lord
Jesus, can't we? But until He comes and a light
from on high is shone upon us, we don't see Him as glorious
and we don't marvel at Him. And people march. People might
imagine all sorts of things to be their peace in dying, and
when we have death in this world now, it is just so, so washed
down of all of the seriousness of judgment, isn't it? Everyone
lives on, and they live on in the hearts of other people, and
they live on in heaven. And this cricketer who died so
tragically a few weeks ago, what did he do after he died? He went
to heaven, according to popular understanding, and he's playing
cricket now, better than he ever did before. Simeon had a real hope. Simeon had a real reason for
saying now, I can go, I can depart, I can leave this world in peace. It's because He held him in His
arms, and it's because He declared him to be what God declared him
to be. Look at verse 31. He has seen
Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared. It's a prepared salvation. It was prepared before the foundation
of the world. It didn't come by chance or by
accident or by man's invention. It was God having prepared a
salvation. It was prepared before the face
of all people. It was prepared and it was revealed
to all those who had eyes to see, to all those who by the
grace of God stopped suppressing the truth of God. They saw that
it was prepared, prepared in eternal purposes and decrees. It was prepared throughout all
of the Old Testament, prepared and written down. Amos says,
Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He reveals His secrets to
His servants, the prophets. He does nothing without revelation. Simeon is just declaring the
things that the Old Testament prophets all declared. It's a
salvation which is prepared before all the people and it's a light,
a light to lighten the Gentiles, a light to lighten this world. Send thy light thy truth, let
them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill. Let them bring me to thy tabernacles."
This light shines a light on the Lord Jesus and it draws people
to Him. He's a light to lighten the Gentiles
and throughout the Old Testament we know about God's purposes
for nation Israel, but we know again and again that the purposes
of the Lord Jesus were a purpose to bring salvation to all these
people scattered throughout the world. And that's why he's called
the glory of thy people Israel. Glory of thy chosen people. Let him glory in the Lord. He is the glory of his people. He is the light of this world. And Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were spoken of him. They had been spoken
again and again. Angels had spoken, Elizabeth
had spoken, Zechariah had spoken, shepherds had spoken, heaven
itself had spoken. Joseph and his mother heard this
description of this baby in their arms and they marvelled. Isn't it marvellous that we can
marvel at familiar things in the Scriptures? Isn't it marvellous
that we never cease to come to the end of marvelling at the
things of God? We say the same things, we repeat
the same gospel truths over and over again because we marvel
at them. They are wonderful. They are
so often beyond human imagining and understanding and we are
speaking of things which are too big. for us to comprehend,
but they're not too big for us to marvel at. Joseph and Mary
had heard these things many times, and yet they still marveled that
were spoken of them. And Simeon, verse 34, blessed
them and said unto Mary, his mother, Behold, this child It's
almost as if Simeon has run out of titles for him. You'll see
that in our translation it's in italics. He says, Behold,
this one, or this, is set. He's set. You know that word
set means to be purposed or ordained. This one, this child, is set. sent by God's eternal purposes
and decrees for the fall and rising again of many in Israel
and for a sign which shall be spoken against. He's set. The scriptures describe him as
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation stone. is set for the fall of many. Many will be offended at Him. It was promised again and again
that He, instead of the world rejoicing when the Saviour came,
the world would find Him offensive. And what is the offence? What is the offence of the Gospel? The offence of the true Gospel
is that it leaves God on a throne and it dethrones men. When the Gospel is preached with
faithfulness, natural man finds the God who is revealed in that
Gospel as offensive. A God that they can't control. A God who reminds them that they
are in His hands. If you turn to Romans 9, you'll
see that the context is the sovereignty of the grace of God. He says in verse 15, in answer
to that question, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, verse 15,
for He says unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture says unto Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power unto thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardneth. And what does natural man say?
Thou wilt then say unto me, why does he yet find fault? For who
has resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Has not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction,
that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels
of mercy which He has aforeprepared unto glory? Even us whom He has
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, He
set. He's set for the fall of many,
but wonderfully He's set for the rising again of many in Israel. What do you need to do to rise? To rise again, you need to be
fallen. We fell in our father Adam. And we fall and we fall and we
fall again. But it's fallen people that He
raises up. He raises up. He raises up the
brokenhearted. He raises up those who are of
contrite heart. He raises up those like this
Anna that we read of, 106 years old. 90 years suffering the reproaches
of people in that nation, because to be without child was deemed
to be in a cursed state. 90 years, and here she is, proclaiming
the Gospel. Here she is, raised up by God
Himself. Raised up in resurrection when
our Lord Jesus rose, all of his people rose with him, all of
his people are seated with him in heavenly places. He's set,
he's purposed, he's ordained for a sign that shall be spoken
against. And isn't that what we have borne
witness to, brothers and sisters, throughout time, the Gospel has
been spoken against again and again. And then he says this
word to Mary. He says, yes, a sword shall pierce
through thine own soul also. I don't think there's any doubt. that he's talking about what
it must have been like for Mary to be there at the cross of the
Lord Jesus, to see this son that she so lovingly brought into
this world, to see this son hanging naked on a cross, his beard having
been plucked out, crown of thorns on his head, people walking by
spitting and mocking him. mocking him as a priest, as a
prophet and a king. If you are the Christ, come down
from the cross, save yourself, mocking him about our mockery
that fell on her in that time of her deepest distress. He set for a sign, He's set for
the fall and the rising of many. In verse 35, He is set as a revealer. The Lord Jesus Christ, as proclaimed,
as lifted up in the Gospel, as God's Christ, as the Lord's Christ,
as the Lord's salvation, as the Lord's light, as the Lord's glory,
His declaration, the declaration of Him, is an exposure of the
thoughts of many hearts. It reveals hearts, doesn't it? The Gospel reveals hearts. We
have many conversations about people that we're witness to.
And it's just fascinating as we see time go on and as we are
led by God to stand firmly for the gospel, to stand for the
things that Simeon and Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary had said
about this Lord Jesus, that he is God's Christ. He is the salvation
of his people. And all of the declarations are
declarations of a perfect and finished work and all of them
centre ultimately on who He is and what He achieved at the cross.
And we declare those things and we declare it with hope and expectation
that people would come like Simeon and hold him in their arms, and
they might be like Joseph and Mary, they might marvel at how
glorious he is, and yet we find that they are prepared again
and again to compromise those things. And what we see is what
Simeon promised 2000 years ago to Mary, that He will be the
revealer of the hearts of people. What do you say about the Lord
Jesus Christ? What do you say about what He
did on the cross? What do you say about Him as
God? Where, where do you find your
comfort? Simeon was looking for the consolation
of Israel. And what a comfort he received. He held the comfort of Israel,
the consolation of Israel, in his hands. And he declares to
him, doesn't he, where do you find your comfort? If we would
find our comfort where Zechariah found his, and where Mary found
hers, Elizabeth found hers, and where these people stayed with
these things that they most surely believed amongst them. they would
find Him to be a comforter. What a comfort it is for Him
to be mighty God, able to save to the uttermost. What an amazing
comfort to know that His blood was shed and its precious blood,
and it was shed perfectly and effectively, and it washes away
our sins, and God does not see the sins of His people anymore,
and it speaks peace, and it speaks pardon, and it speaks of cleansing
from all sin of all of His people. We talk of His righteousness,
that pure and perfect righteousness that justifies and cleanses and
robes us in the righteousness of God. We talk about that sacrifice
again that takes away all sin and all the transgression, all
the filth and all the pollution. of the fall of our Father Adam
and all of the sins that we have willingly and unknowingly committed
all of our lives. He's taken it all away. We talk
of His fullness, His sufficient. the sufficiency of Him to supply
every need. We talk of His power. He's able
to keep from falling and to present us faultless. He is able. We find comfort. We find consolation
in His word of promise. As Simeon did, His word promised
and His word of promise fulfilled. We find, like Simeon, we find
comfort in His presence. And we see hearts revealed, and
we are thankful that God, through the Gospel, reveals hearts, and
He reveals our hearts. May He continue to reveal hearts
that look for the consolation of Israel, to be comforted by
Him as a Saviour, comforted by Him as one who draws His people
to Himself, to one who brings peace, to the one who is prepared,
the one who is set, the one who is to be marvelled at. I was
just going to finish with a couple of verses out of Galatians, if
you'll turn there. One of my favourite verses is
in Galatians 5, verse 5. As I said earlier, to wait says
that I have no ability, but God has ability, and God has a time,
and I can wait for His promise to be fulfilled. And I look to Him, a waiting
person looks to Him to provide. A waiting person looks to Him
on the basis of His character revealed and His promises. because we know His promises
are to be fulfilled. But Galatians 5.5 talks about,
encourages us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free and do not become again entangled in a yoke of
bondage. Don't go back to law, don't go
back to works, look to the Lord Jesus, look to Him alone. If you think you're going to
be justified by the law or by anything you do, Christ, verse
4, is become of no effect unto you. You've fallen from grace. And in verse 5, he says, for. For we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness with faith. That's a wonderful
translation, but let me transliterate it in the Greek, because I love
the way the sentence is structured. It says, we, God's children,
we, by the Spirit, by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
revealing and leading us and causing us to hold the Lord Jesus,
as it were, in our arms of faith. We, by the Spirit, out of faith,
or by faith, The hope of righteousness, wait. We wait. We are so prone, like Abraham
in his impatience, to produce Ishmael's all the time. Instead of waiting, waiting for
an Isaac. waiting for the blessed hope,
waiting for the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And may He, as we talk about
these familiar things again and again, may He grant us the grace
to wait expectantly, but to be like Joseph and Mary, to marvel. If we would just marvel at the
glory of God seen in the face of the Lord Jesus. The glory
of God seen in He who is called the Lord's Christ is Thy salvation. May He grant us the grace to
declare Him as Simeon did and to find comfort and peace in
that hour when nothing else will matter. Only one thing will matter. Only one thing will matter at
that time when we must cross the Jordan. Only one person will matter then
and that will be Him, the Lord Jesus. That's Crow.