Alright, now going back to Luke
chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. I have preached
on this passage concerning this man Simeon several times before,
but I have to confess to you this is my favorite passage of
Scripture that revolves around what is commonly known as the
birth of Christ. And I noticed as I was reading
through this part, in all the messages that I preached from
this passage, I had never really emphasized the last two verses
there in verse 34. Luke 2, 34, Simeon, after he
saw the Lord Jesus, he blessed Mary and Joseph. which means
that he attested to the fact that they were blessed of God.
That's what that means. This is not a man blessing another
man like in false religion, you know, where you go to the priest
and he blesses you or he blesses your dog or cat or whatever,
you know, all that stuff. I don't have a power to bless
you. I hope that I am a blessing to you. And I hope that my message
is a blessing to you. But what that means is that Simeon
just, he attested to the fact that these two individuals, Joseph
and Mary, were so blessed of God. And he said unto Mary his
mother, behold this child. Now the child there is in italics,
just like when we read that passage before. The word child isn't
in the original. And he says, behold this is set.
And he's talking about the whole situation, the coming of Christ
into the world, the incarnation of Christ. But he says this is
set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. Now I've entitled
this message, The Fall and Rising of Many. And I want you to think
in terms of what that means this morning. Think about it in terms
of what's going on today in religion and things like that revolving
around this season and how the scripture puts these things in
a certain context. This is set for the fall and
rising of many in Israel. And he says, and for a sign or
a signet which shall be spoken against." What does he mean? Well, hold on. He says, verse
35, "'Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'" And I thought
I've never really emphasized that part of this, that the thoughts
of many hearts may be revealed. Talking about how you think,
your attitude. Well, you know, And I've thought
a lot about this, you know, how to approach it and how to do
it. You know, there's no question
that there are positives and negatives to this time of year.
There are some positives, believe it or not. Many people think
about Jesus. more than any other time of the
year, and I know, listen, now don't get me wrong, I mean, I
know that our thoughts of Christ, of Jesus Christ, must be set
down and inspired by the word of God. Many people who think
of him don't have right thoughts of him, I know that. Others may
even seek the truth even more, and it's only by God's power
and will that anybody is going to seek him. The Bible says in
Romans chapter three that by nature, none seek him. None seek
after God. So there are some positives.
A lot of people become more giving and more charitable this time
of year. That's fine. Families get together. That's
fine. And don't get me wrong now, I'm
well aware that there's a lot of negatives too. I mean, I could
sit up here for hours talking about the negatives. This time
of year is full of merchandising, full of greed, avarice, myth. Oh, there's so much myth going
on. But you know, that's no different than any other day of the year,
is it? A lot of myth, a lot of false religion, a lot of idolatry. And there's a lot of hypocrisy. And like I said, it sounds like
every other day to me, Some people jump head first full into the
whole realm of it. You know, and just get with it.
Some people go to war against it. And I remember going up to
a church in West Virginia one time preaching. They had a literature
table. And every holiday you can think of, they had a pamphlet
against it. So, I mean, you just go to war
against it. Some people ignore it, and that's
okay. You know, some people can't disassociate
the things of this season. They can't disassociate it with
idolatry. You know, they say, well, you
know, just like some people say the tree, you know, they go back
to Jeremiah and say, that's talking about a Christmas tree. That's
not talking about a Christmas tree. That's talking about worshiping
the God of the groves. Anytime that Jeremiah talks about
the gods of the groves, the prophets of the groves, they're talking
about people who forsook the temple in Jerusalem and went
into the fields and worshiped with nature. And according to
that, you couldn't even have an apple grove or a peach grove
or anything like that. If you're going to take it that
far, go all the way with it now. So don't get crazy with this
stuff. You know, if you determined that
today you were going to cast everything out of your life that
had any association with idolatry, then let me give you just an
example. Never use a calendar again. You know where January got its
name from? From the Roman god Janus. And
we could go on and on and on. Sunday, we're worshiping on Sunday. The name Sunday comes from worship
of the sun. Monday, from worship of the moon.
Saturday, from worship of the Roman god Saturn. Incidentally,
if you drive a Saturn automobile, you need to get rid of it. Don't sell it, because you'll
be peddling idolatry. You need to get rid of that thing.
Now, you know I'm being facetious there. Our life, we can't even
begin to count the... Any of you ladies use Ajax? I
don't know if Ajax is around here. You don't use Ajax, do
you? Don't use that. Don't clean your bathrooms with
Ajax. Because that's after the Titan Ajax, you know. It's myth,
idolatry. Listen, if... You could drive
yourself crazy. And the Bible deals with stuff
like that. You read 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14 talking about
In 1 Corinthians 8, he was talking about those who were eating meat
that had actually been offered in a pagan temple to an idolater. And basically, he says, there's
nothing wrong with you eating that meat. You know an idol is
nothing. You don't have to get involved
with idolatry. You know, if you put up a tree
or whatever, if you... Somebody said, well, when you
kneel down, you're kneeling down to... That's crazy. Now, that's
crazy. That's everything in this life
that we have to deal with in modern society. It can be and
probably is associated some way, somehow, if idolatry. The whole world or much of the
world's meeting today on Sunday, much of it preaching a false
gospel. Now, what are we gonna do? Well, we won't meet that
day. We'll meet on, no, can't meet on Saturday. That's Saturn. See what I'm saying? There's
nothing wrong. Now listen, there's no biblical
mandate for the church to set aside one day a year and commemorate
the birth of Christ. There's no mandate there. They
didn't do it in the early church. That's not the issue. We thank
God for the birth of Christ, don't you? What is the birth
of Christ? It's his incarnation. John 1.14,
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. If he hadn't been made
flesh to dwell among us, there'd be no salvation. Isn't that right? I don't know what day he was
born. I know this, it wasn't December 25th. I don't know what
day he was born. Some say he was born in October.
I don't know. I don't know. You don't either. Doesn't matter. The Bible teaches that in the
fullness of the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman,
made under the law. To do what? To redeem them that
were under the law. So I thank God for his birth
every day. But it's not just his birth.
Listen to this. Now let's look at this passage,
Luke chapter two. The reason I like this passage
so much is because it really puts everything in perspective
for us. concerning the birth of Christ, who he is, here's
this man Simeon, he was probably a priest of the temple, and it
says in verse 25, now let's listen to this, he said, and behold
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the
same man, now listen to how it describes Simeon, he was just,
devout, and waiting for the consolation of Israel. Now what does that
describe? Does that describe a fellow who's
better than everybody else in Jerusalem? No. It describes a
sinner saved by the grace of God. That's who Simeon was. He was a sinner just like you
and me, but he was a sinner saved by the grace of God. That word
just means justified. Now understand, this is not the
assessment or judgment of men towards Simeon. This is the way
God sees him. This is God's judgment of Simeon.
God says this man was just. What is a man who is just before
God? He's a sinner saved by grace.
He's a man who's washed in the blood of Christ. He's a man who
stands before God complete in the righteousness of Christ imputed.
He's justified. That's the ground of his salvation.
The ground of Simeon's salvation. Think about this. And this is
amazing to me. This is amazing. This man is
getting ready to take the baby Jesus in his arms. And the death of that baby that
he has in his arms is the ground of his salvation. Isn't that
amazing? The blood of that baby is the
forgiveness of his sins. The righteousness that that baby
was going to work out in his obedience unto death was his
complete acceptance before a holy God. That's amazing. And then it says he was devout.
What does devout mean? It means he's devoted. It means
he was a man of faith. Now that speaks of the new birth.
Not only was he justified before God based on the blood and righteousness
of Christ, but he was born again by the Spirit. He was devoted
to Christ. He believed in. He rested in. the Lord Jesus Christ for all
salvation. How do you know? It says in the
next line, he was waiting for the consolation, that's the hope
or the comfort of Israel. He was waiting for the Lord's
Messiah. He wasn't waiting to see a baby
in a manger. That's not what he was waiting
for, even though he saw a baby. He wasn't waiting necessarily
to hold the baby in his arms, even though he did that. He was
waiting for the hope, the consolation, the comfort of Israel. Now what's
he talking about Israel here? Well, some people say he's talking
about physical Israel. I believe he's talking about
spiritual Israel there, because the Lord Jesus Christ was not
a comfort, hope, or consolation to every individual Israelite.
I'll show you that in just a moment. Now it says here that Simeon
was a sinner saved by grace, it says here, and the Holy Ghost
was upon him. Now that's a way of talking about
describing a special revelation by the Holy Spirit. You see,
the Holy Spirit indwells every true child of God. Every one
of you who know Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you permanently.
Christ dwells in you by His Spirit and by His Word, the Scripture
teaches. And it's the spirit that enables you to fight the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit that I've been talking
about and I'm going to continue in the next coming weeks. If
we have the presence of the Holy Spirit, what do we do? We rest
in Christ. We look to Him. We exalt Him.
We follow Him. And we war against the flesh.
So every believer has the presence of the... the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit. But here was a special revelation
given to this man at this time in this day. And what was it? Well, look at verse 26. And it
was revealed unto him, unto Simeon, by the Holy Ghost, that he should
not see death, physical death, before he had seen the Lord's
Christ, the Messiah. In other words, the Holy Spirit
revealed to Simeon that before you die and leave this world,
you're actually going to see Messiah in the flesh. Now, Simeon
had already seen Him with the eye of faith, Just like any Old
Testament believer. You say, well preacher, I thought
this was the New Testament. Not yet. I know it's recorded
in the New Testament books, but Simeon's living in the Old Testament
days. You know when the Old Testament days finished and ended? The
death of Christ. When the veil was written to,
Christ said it's finished. Simeon's an Old Testament believer.
That's right. He saw Christ already by the
power of the Spirit with the eye of faith, just like Abel
did. just like Enoch did, just like
Noah did, and we could go right on up through. He was looking
to the coming of the Messiah to be his salvation, but the
Holy Spirit told him, he said, you're not gonna lead this life
until you see Messiah in the flesh. You're gonna have a view
of Messiah. Now let me say, many saw Christ
in the flesh who didn't see him with the eye of faith. That's
right. Many in Israel saw him physically
who did not see him spiritually and savingly. That's right. Pontius Pilate saw him physically,
stood right before him, and could find no fault in him and still
did not see God's salvation. You see, it's not a physical
view of Christ that saves a soul. It's a spiritual view, empowered
by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. And then it says
here in verse 27, and he came by the Spirit into the temple.
He was led to the temple by the Spirit of God, and when the parents
brought in the child, Jesus, to do for him after the custom
of the law. Now he'd been circumcised, that
was recorded back up in here, but he had to be cleansed and
he had to be presented, that was the custom of the law and
the old covenant, or a child that was born. So they brought
him after the custom of law. You see, everything in the life
of Jesus Christ in the flesh was according to the law because
he had to keep the law, even as an infant. He was subject
to the law. Remember when I quoted a while
ago, Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4, in the fullness of the
time God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. That means he was responsible
to keep the law. And so they brought him to do
after the custom of the law. When the Pharisees accused him
of being a lawbreaker because he didn't follow their traditions,
Have you ever had anybody do that to you? They've got a certain
tradition they follow. If you don't follow, they say,
well, you're breaking the law. No, that's not the law. That's man's
traditions. He didn't break the law. Christ didn't break the
law. He's the only one who ever kept the law. He had to keep
the law unto death in order to bring forth righteousness whereby
Simeon and the rest of us who believe stand before God whole. That's why he came into the world.
That's why he was born. And said in verse 28, now look
here, then Simeon took him up, took the Christ child up in his
arms and he blessed God, which means he praised God. He worshiped
God. And here's what he said, look
at verse 29. Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word. God kept his word. God always
does that. We don't, but God does. God never
goes back on a promise. And this is according to thy
word. It was according to the word of the Old Testament. It
was prophesied that the seed of woman would come and that's
who Christ is. He's the seed of woman. He was
born, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary without the aid
of man, conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit.
A virgin shall conceive their son. That's according to God's
word. The Lord said in Isaiah chapter
9 and verse 6 and 7 through the prophet Isaiah, unto us a child
is born. That's his humanity. His humanity
was created in the womb of the virgin. But he said a son was
given. His sonship, his deity was never
created. You cannot create deity. Creation
by definition cancels out deity. He's the eternal son of God,
the God-man. That's who he is. And the government
shall be upon his shoulder. That's the government of grace.
That's the government of salvation. All my salvation was placed upon
his shoulder, conditioned on Christ, on this baby at Simeon
Hill. That's amazing. And before he came into the world,
the angel appeared to Joseph, as it's recorded in Matthew 1,
21, 22, and 23, and recorded here in Luke chapter two in verse
21. They said, his name shall be
called Jesus. What does that mean? That means
God, my salvation. That means Jehovah, my salvation.
His name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. And then he said, his name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And so he says, he says, according
to thy word, Look at verse 30, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Oh my soul, that seems chills
up my spine when I say, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
You see, Simeon saw more than just a baby. He saw God's salvation. He saw his hope, his consolation,
his comfort, his assurance, his forgiveness, his righteousness
in that baby, that person. who would grow in stature and
wisdom. God growing in stature and wisdom? Well, God and man. And I can't
explain that to you and you can't explain it to me and I'd appreciate
it if you didn't try. I've already had that. And it
won't help. It won't help you or me. We're
just getting an argument. It just won't help. Listen, this
is an amazing thing. Man of sorrows Think about it. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Consider
the apostle and high priest of our calling, of our profession. This is something that's miraculous.
This is beyond our understanding. I admit that. But it's so. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
I want you to turn back to Isaiah chapter 46. Listen to this. Isaiah
chapter 46. The last verses of that chapter.
Talking about the history of Israel here. In Isaiah 46 and
verse 9 he says, remember the former things of old. And I've
got an article in the bulletin on that, the significance of
Israel's history. And the significance of that
history is this right here. Look in verse 12 of Isaiah 46. In other words, what God is saying
here through the prophet Isaiah to Israel is that everything
that I've done in your history, in providence, in delivering
you from Egypt, bringing you together, protecting you, keeping
you together in spite of yourselves, which is how God saves any of
us, right? Everything I've done was to bring
it to this purpose. Here's the significance of it
all. Simeon states it, and here it is in verse 12 of Isaiah 46,
hearken unto me, you stout-hearted, that's proud, that's religious
pride, that are far from righteousness. Why does he say it that way?
Because you got a group of people here who are trying to be righteous
in order to be accepted of God. That's man by nature. Some give
up and totally go the other way, that's true. But on the whole,
man has a spirit in himself, it's an evil spirit, whereby
he seeks to save himself by his works, and his efforts only drive
him farther away from God, and so he says, you're far from righteousness. Whatever you try to do in your
life, no matter how often, no matter how long, in seeking to
save yourself by your works, here's the reality, you only
get farther and farther away from God. Isn't that sad? But it's true. So what's our
hope then? What's the consolation of Israel? Verse 13, I bring near my righteousness. God's righteousness. Not mine,
not yours, but God's righteousness. That's what I need. That's what
you need. God's righteousness. It shall
not be far off. And what he's saying there, it's
not a goal that you have to attain. See, that's what religion does
to people. Gets them in, and then gives them a goal to make
themselves righteous, and they keep getting farther away from
it. But here he says, it shall not be far off, and my salvation
shall not tarry. You don't have to wait for this.
Now Simeon was waiting for Christ to come, but he was already saved. He didn't have to wait on salvation.
He was already justified based upon the promise of God to send
the Messiah. But he was waiting for the Messiah.
What that means is this, it's not like sitting in a waiting
room waiting on a doctor that frustrates you and makes you
angry. But waiting for the consolation
of Israel means that he was sitting in expectation for God to keep
his word. He was assured God's gonna keep
his word, and he believed. And so it says here, God says,
my salvation shall not tarry, I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel, my glory. What's he talking about? Talking
about Christ. How do you know that? Old Simeon said it. Here's
the commentary. "'Lord, now let us thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation.'" Have you seen God's salvation? Have I
seen God's salvation? Well, if we've seen Christ, we've
seen God's salvation. And it has something to do with
righteousness, he says back there in Isaiah 46, doesn't he? I bring
near my righteousness. Well, where do we find that?
Well, Paul wrote it in Romans 1, 16 and 17. He said, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and the Greek or Gentile also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. It's Christ. Look back at Luke
2. Look at verse 31 now. It says, which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and the glory of thy people Israel. Now that's who he's talking about.
He's talking about God's people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. Not just the Jews, but all who
believe in Christ. Jew and Gentile. And what Simeon
said there, we really don't understand the significance of that statement
in that. What he said there was very offensive
to the Jews. What? You know, somebody, one
of them might come up and say, well, Simeon, I can take this
thing for the Jews, but the Gentiles too? You mean they're going to
have an equal standing with me and the kingdom of God? Not so. See, they just didn't want to
believe that. But Simeon knew better. So, it says in verse
33, And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which
were spoken of him. Here's a man who knows the truth.
That's what they're saying. Here's a man whom God has revealed
something to. And in verse 34, Simeon blessed
them. Oh, how blessed you are for God
to use you in such a miraculous way. He didn't worship Mary. He didn't pray to Mary. You know
what Mary was? She was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. Did you know that? He didn't
build statues of Mary. He didn't call her the Queen
of Heaven. She's not the Queen of Heaven. There is no Queen
of Heaven. The Bible doesn't speak of a
Queen of Heaven. No, sir. But she was blessed. She was blessed. She was blessed
among women. That's amazing. And he said unto
Mary his mother, Behold, this is set for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel. What does he mean, the fall and
rising? Well, the Bible speaks of Messiah
coming, and in many passages of Scripture, it says that he
will be a stumbling block. Isaiah 28, for example, says
that. He'll be a stumbling block. Turn to John chapter 1. What does it mean a stumbling block?
Well, it's symbolic language showing that not everyone is
going to embrace Him and receive Him and believe in Him and follow
Him. Some are going to be opposed to Him. Some are going to reject
Him. Some are going to stumble over
Him. He'll be a rock of stumbling
to them. Why? Because they're walking on a
path that leads to destruction, trying to establish their own
righteousness before God, and when they're confronted with
the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of God in Him for sinners,
they'll trip over it every time and they fall. This fall of many
in Israel describes the unbelief of many in Israel. They opt for
their religion, their works, their self-righteousness instead
of bowing to the Lord Jesus Christ and resting in him for all forgiveness
by his blood and all righteousness by his right... all righteousness
by his obedience unto death. Look at verse 11 in John chapter
1. It says, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. That's the fall of many in Israel. Talking about his own nation.
He was a Jew in the flesh. But look at verse 12, now what
is this rising? Well, this rising is a sinner
looking to Christ for all salvation, like Simeon. A sinner who sees
God's salvation there. He's born again. He's resurrected
from the dead. He rises up. He's brought in
resurrection up to Christ. He's saved by the grace of God.
Look at verse 12. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power. The word power there does not
mean ability. It means right. to them gave
he right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on him, which were born." What's he talking about? The new birth.
They were born, not of blood, didn't have anything to do with
their pedigree, or their heritage, or their nationality, or ethnicity,
or family, nor the will of the flesh, didn't have anything to
do with their so-called free will. That's not how you're born
again. nor the will of men, didn't have
anything to do with the will of others, but of God, has to
do with the will and power of God. That's the rising of men. There's going to be some, this
may, now go back to Luke 2, let me show you something. Somebody
says, well now, now, you know, I've always heard, you know,
this time of year they read Luke chapter 2, they go back to verse
1, and they talk about the tax, Caesar, Augustus, and how Joseph
and Mary, they were counted. Later on, they fled to Egypt. Here's the shepherds, look at
verse 10. The shepherds, the angel appeared
to the shepherds. The angel said unto them, fear
not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. In other words, it's preached
to everybody. Now listen to me. Let's interpret
scripture with scripture. And there's a lot of people today
who are looking forward to next Sunday because they're going
to celebrate the birth of Christ and they think they're celebrating
good tidings of great joy. But now he said over here that
this child is set for the fall of men in Israel. Now it wasn't
good tidings of great joy that the coming of Christ into the
world was not good tidings of great joy to those who fell. There's millions of people, billions
of people on this earth. It's really not good tidings
of great joy. They might experience the season
and the charity and the gift-giving and all of that and feel good
about that. That might be good tidings of great joy. I got what
I wanted for Christmas, that kind of thing. But the message
of Messiah and salvation in Him alone, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. No salvation without Christ.
No forgiveness except by His blood. No justification but by
His righteousness imputed. And all who are either ignorant
of or not submitted to Christ and His righteousness as the
only way of salvation are lost and under the curse. Now, is
that good tidings of great joy to everybody? No, sir. So what's he saying? Well, it's
good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. It's
not just to one exclusive group of people like the Jews, but
it's to anybody who wants it. Now man by nature doesn't want
it. It's not of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but
of God. But let me tell you something, if you want it, you can have
it. That's right. He says, he says
in verse 11, for unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, which is Christ, that means Messiah, the Lord.
And he says, and this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find
the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on
earth peace, goodwill toward men. Well, what is that good
will? You know what that verse in the
original, if you read this in the original language, literally
interpreted, it would read this way, verse 14. It would read,
glory to God on high and on earth, peace amongst those with whom
God favors. That's what it would read. Well,
who does God favor according to the scriptures from Genesis
to Revelation? Only those who are in Christ. That's right. He said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well-pleased, hear ye him. The Bible says those
who are of the works of the law are under the curse. Does that
sound like well-pleased? No. What do you mean of the law? Those who are trying to save
themselves by their works, they're under the curse. Well, how can
I get out from under the curse? Look to Christ, rest in him,
plead his blood in righteousness alone. That's the well-pleasing
of God. But here he says in verse 34
of Luke 2, this child is set for the fall and rising of many,
and for a sign which shall be spoken is many are going to speak
against him. See, that's a signet. Christ is God's signet. He's the signet of the covenant
of grace. He's the signet of salvation.
He's our banner. He is everything, that Christ
is all and in all, the scripture says. He's everything to his
people in salvation. Just like Simeon, when I see
Christ, I see my salvation. Not just my religion or my denomination
or my sideline. I see my salvation when I see
Christ. He's everything. and he's God's
signet. He's an ensign of the people
to look at and gather to in comfort and peace and righteousness and
salvation and eternal life. But is by many contradicted,
opposed and treated with contempt and abhorrence so that he appears
rather to be set as a target. Look here, when it says in verse
34, for a sign which shall be spoken against, it's literally
like he's going to be a target to be shot at. People are going to come against
him. People are going to reject him. They're going to say all
manner of evil against him. When fallen humanity crucified
the Lord of glory, the word that is used to describe him in the
hearts of fallen, unbelieving, ungodly humanity is malefactor. You know what that is? That's
criminal. Criminal. And we looked upon him as cursed
of God. But there comes a day in the
hearts of God's people when they're brought by the Holy Spirit under
the preaching of the gospel, and that which was such an offense
to them became good tidings of great joy. Just like Simeon,
I've seen the Lord's salvation. He told Mary and Joseph here,
he says, "...yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also."
That's Mary's sorrow over her son's death. Oh, what sorrow. She's sorrowed. But she rejoiced
too. She sorrowed over the sins of
humanity, as we all do. Isaiah said, and in his day,
he said, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell amidst a people
of unclean lips. I'm a sinner. I'm in need of
mercy. But he says, this is for, verse
35, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Now,
here's how the thoughts of my heart is revealed. Here's how
the thoughts of your heart is revealed. What think ye of Christ? What is he to you? What is he
to you? You know that passage in Lamentations
1 and verse 12, where the prophet is speaking of his own sorrow
personally, but he's typically speaking of Christ on the cross. And he says this, he says, is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see if there's
any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
That's typically speaking of Christ on the cross. having the
sins of his people charged to him and bearing up under the
wrath of his father to the point that he said, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now, is that nothing to you?
Is it nothing to me? There's a story of a man who
took a friend on a tour through Paris, France, and he took him
to that great art museum called the Louvre. I guess I'm pronouncing
that right, the Louvre. And he showed him all the great
art that was in the Louvre by the greatest artist of all time. Paintings worth millions of dollars. People paid millions of dollars
for these things. And then he took him to a concert
hall in Paris that night and he heard a great symphony by
one of the great composers. And at the end of the day, his
friend who took him on this tour asked him, he said, what do you
think about all that? And the guy looked at him and he said,
well, to tell you the truth, I really wasn't that impressed. And his friend said, well, if
it's any consolation to you, that museum and its art, they
were really on trial. And neither was that symphony.
You see, you were on trial, not them. History's already judged
the greatness of those works of art and that great music that
you heard. All that's revealed by your attitude
is the smallness of your knowledge and appreciation. Same thing
here. God's Word has already set the
boundaries of the value of the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. And you know what? In God's Word,
there is nothing to eclipse it or nothing to even compare to
it. Christ and Him crucified and risen again! The righteousness
of God, there's nothing to eclipse it, nothing to compare to it.
Now what you think of it, or what I think of it, really only
reveals the thoughts of my heart and your heart. You see, Christ
is not on trial. He was already put on trial,
and he passed it. He became guilty for my sins,
but he put away my sins. God required righteousness. Christ
brought forth a righteousness. He brought it near. It's not
far off. I have Christ. I've seen God's
salvation. Now, what do I think of it? You
see what I'm saying? Do I love Christ? Well, if I
love Christ, I love the truth of Christ. Whatever God's Word
says of Christ, I love to hear these words that glorify and
honor Him. If I love Christ, I love the
salvation that he provides. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. If I love Christ, I love his
word. Peter said, you have the words of eternal life. If I love
Christ, I love his people. That's right. You remember how
Christ brought Peter to understand that? His last words before he
ascended unto glory, he said, Peter, do you love me? Peter
said, Lord, you know I love you. He said, feed my lambs, feed
my sheep. And I'll tell you what now, I
know he's primarily talking about preaching the gospel, but that's
not all. It's not just me up here preaching. It's all of us
together around the truth of Christ, around the word of God,
feeding each other with encouragement, with prayers, with love and fellowship. If you love Christ, you love
his people. What think ye of Christ? Well, Simeon said, I've
seen the Lord's salvation, and I pray that we've seen that salvation
in him. All right.