Turn to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter
2. It's such a privilege. It is
such a privilege to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It doesn't matter where it is,
whether it's in Papua New Guinea or here. The Lord continually
reminds me of what a rich blessing has given to us as preachers
and as the Lord's people who've been given this great gift of of the mystery of the gospel
of Christ Jesus and the life that's found in him. And tonight
I just, you know, I went back and forth on what to preach on. I really struggled. And you're
going to hear a message, I think, a simple message, I think, a
message that's always blessed me, and that's word that is revealed
to us in this chapter, the second chapter of Luke, of the salvation
that's found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean,
that is salvation, isn't it? And so let's just look at that.
Let me just read there Luke chapter 2 and verse 21. We'll start there
and we read, And when eight days were completed for the circumcision
of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the
angel before he was conceived in the womb. Now, when the days
of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed,
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As
it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the
womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer sacrifice
according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of
turtledoves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was
upon him. And it had been revealed to him
by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into
the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in
his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting
your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my
eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the
face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles
and the glory of your people Israel. Well, here in this passage,
we read a remarkable event at the very beginning of the life
of our Lord Jesus Christ, at this time when he'd just been
born. His parents, Joseph and Mary, brought him to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord. Now, think of that. Think of
that. The Lord presented to the Lord. God presented to God. the eternally begotten Son of
God, an eight-day-old infant, presented to the Eternal Father. Think of that, if you can, if
you can. If a voice had spoken from heaven
at this point in time, it would have said, just like it did on
two other occasions, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased. What a wonder. What a wonder. Who is this man? Who is this
man? He's salvation. He's salvation. For mine eyes, this is what Simeon
said, for mine eyes have seen your salvation. And that's really
all I want to speak to you about tonight. Nothing new. I hope I don't ever preach anything
new. I really hope I don't. You know, in most pulpits today,
you hear a message of a man redeeming himself. And a message of a man
saving himself. And you know, if you think about
it, if a man can redeem himself, he doesn't need a redeemer, does
he? If he can save himself, he doesn't need a savior. Well,
that's what's being preached everywhere. Not only here, but
throughout the world. We hear it all the time. And
how contrary that is to the biblical teaching of what redemption and
salvation is. What does the truth of the Word
of God reveal to us? It reveals that a man is in a
state of bondage and captivity. He's in a hopeless and a helpless
state and there's nothing, nothing that he can do to deliver him
from that state. He needs a savior. He can't save
himself. He needs a savior. I think, too, we tend to forget
what it means to be saved. There's so much that we do in
the normal course of life to accomplish what we purpose and
what we want. Our whole culture is driven by
that in a good way in many cases. But when we apply it to the things
of the word, the things of the Lord, the things of Christ, it's
a wholly different story. Salvation means that we are truly
in a state where there is nothing, nothing that will help us except
a savior. Now let me give you a practical
illustration of this. A few years ago I was in this
village of Waterboom where we have a church and I'd come there
the day before to meet with them on Sunday morning. There's a
small church there and I'd driven a couple of hours and then walked
about 45 minutes, stayed there the night so I would be there
Sunday morning. So I got up and I was, you know, the people in
the village were getting up, cooking their meals over the
open fires in their houses and going down to wash and I'm just
waiting for the time when we'll begin the service and this young
teenage woman took her two nephews down
to the river to wash. Just a boy, probably about three,
the other about two. And she put them on this rock
beside the river and went up into the bushes to toilet. And these, you know, these are
two little boys. And they're jostling each other.
And the one, the older one, or nudges the other one, he loses
balance and falls into this river and the current whisks him away. You know, for all intents and
purposes, if that was all, the minute he fell in that river,
he was dead, wasn't he? He was. I mean, what's this small
child, this toddler, going to do? He's in this current, he's
caught, and he's being carried away, and what would have occurred? They would have just found this
dead, lifeless body, cold, somewhere miles down the river, if they'd
ever recovered the body. But the Lord, in his providence,
had this older Christian woman. She was about 50 yards down the
stream, and she was washing. And she sees this little child
coming, and she plunges out into the midst of that river, and
she grabs that child, and she brings it out. And what was she? She was the savior of that child. What could that child do? Nothing,
nothing. It was dead for all intents and
purposes without that savior. And that's a picture. I had prepared
to preach on this passage. on this passage, and that occurred.
And of course, I was able to speak to the people about that.
This is what I wanted to teach them. Salvation. We need a savior. And salvation. And this occurred. And it's an example of what we
need. But we're not caught in a stream,
are we? We're not caught in this river.
We're caught in the this raging torrent of sin, this torrent, if we can picture it,
of this raging dirty water full of trees and rocks and debris,
and we're caught in that, in our sin. Certain to perish, certain
to die. What do we need? We need a Savior,
don't we? We need a Savior. And here, this is what we want
to consider today. This is what we want to think
about tonight, and what Simeon has to say. Well, look here in
verse 25. What do we read? And behold,
and behold, here's this man. We read of this man named Simeon.
And there's no other place in the Bible that he's mentioned.
We know nothing about his life before or after Jesus was born. But what we do know, about Simeon
is that he cared about the only thing that mattered. He desired
to see the Lord's Christ before he died. This was his desire. And like Abraham, Simeon believed
the promise of God. And he waited with great expectation
for the salvation of the Lord to be revealed. And we're told
he was a just and devout man. This is significant. Why? Because
the people of Israel as a whole had long left the faith of Abraham
and the faith of the prophets. The true worship of God had become
polluted and profane by outward religion. That's all it was.
That's all at this point in time. You go to the synagogue, sing
the psalm, circumcise your children, keep the Sabbath, observe all
the outward rites of the law, Go to the priest and make the
appropriate offerings for sin, stand in the congregation of
Israel on that great day of atonement, and you're good. You're good. You're the children of Israel,
the children of God, the children of Abraham. This was their great
boast, wasn't it? That's all the worship of God
had become, just an outward form of religion. most of Israel,
for most of the nation of Israel. The understanding that all of
this worship, all of this old covenant worship that God had
given to Israel through Moses was only types and shadows, foreshadowing
the promised redeemer until he had all but disappeared. The true religion is spiritual. And as such, it's characterized
by things which are not seen. Not seen. You see, Israel was
taken up with all these outward forms of religion. The things
that they could see and that they could touch and that they
could do. Things made with hands. and how strongly the scriptures
emphasize that true religion is of the spirit, is spiritual.
It's things not seen. It's everywhere in the word of
God. But let me just read one text
there from Hebrews 9, where we read, but Christ came as the
high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and
more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this
creation. And we see this everywhere. Listen,
the unseen things are the things that are real. It's the opposite
of what natural man thinks. See, to us, we think the real
things are those tangible things. We think the things that have
substance are the things that we can hold and we can see and
we can touch and we can affect. But it's not so, not so. The unseen things are the things
that are real. How important this is. But anyway,
a period of about 400 years, at this point in time, a period
of about 400 years had gone by and Israel had received no new
prophet, no new word from God. This was a dark time. But here was this man in Jerusalem
named Simeon, and he was a just and devout man. He was a man
who knew he needed a savior. A man who believed God, a man
who believed the scriptures, a man who believed the promise
given to Abraham of this blessing. that would come not only to Israel,
but to all the world. A seed, a seed of Abraham. He believed and he was waiting.
Isn't that remarkable? He looked, what? For those good
things to come. And Simeon waited. He waited
in hope. He waited, what? For the consolation
of Israel. The consolation of Israel. Now,
that's one of the great names given to Christ. Why is Israel
in need of consolation? Well, we just heard it in Jeremiah,
didn't we? We just heard it in Jeremiah.
Israel had sinned. They had departed from their
God. They had sinned grievously. They were an abomination to Him.
And the Lord had come and desolated the city. We read in Lamentations,
you don't need to go there, but here is Jeremiah in Lamentations
and the Lord gives him a word to personify himself as the city,
the desolated city, the city of Jerusalem and in that first
chapter he goes through Oh, it is a sad picture. It is a sad
picture. Lamentations, that's exactly
what it is. But here, just in verse 18, he
says, the Lord is righteous, for I rebelled against his commandment. And that's you and I, isn't it?
Rebelling. Rebelling against God. Hear now,
all peoples, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have
gone into captivity. See, O Lord, in verse 20, I am
in distress, my soul is troubled, my heart is overturned within
me, for I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves. What's outside? Death. And at
home, it's like death. Inside, death. And it goes on
and on. And then in chapter 2, we read,
How shall I console you? To what will I liken you, O daughter
of Jerusalem? How shall I compare you with
you that I may comfort you, O daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread
wide as the sea. Who can heal you? Who can heal
you? And who indeed? And the same
is true of you and me, apart from Christ. We read, we know,
and we need to be reminded continually that all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. Think of that. Fall short of
the glory of God. That means you never enter in
to the kingdom of God. You never see the kingdom of
God. You fall short of the glory of
God. This is what the word says. All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And what is
the consequences of that? Well, exactly as it was for Israel.
All the consequences of sin. Sorrow. But true spiritual consequences. Sorrow and captivity to sin and
death and the devil. Distress and trouble of soul. Who can console us? Who can comfort
us? Because our ruin, too, has spread
wide as the sea. Who? Who can heal you and me? Well, the consolation of Israel.
The consolation of Israel. And when a man truly sees his
sin, there's nothing Nothing that can console him except the
consolation of Israel. Isn't that true? Listen to the
words of Christ spoken by the prophet in Isaiah 61. This is
a prophecy which you and I know. We know it by heart. This is
a gospel prophecy, isn't it? It tells why Christ is the consolation
of Israel. Listen to this. The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me. The Lord himself read this, didn't
he, when he was given that? The prophet Isaiah, and he stood
up in the synagogue and he read this and said, today this scripture
is fulfilled in your sight. He said, the spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good tidings
to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in
Zion, to give them beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for
mourning and the garment of praise, for the spirit of heaviness.
What a message. What a wonderful message, isn't
it? A message of Christ and how the faithful of Israel longed. They longed for this promised
Redeemer and Savior. You know, can we fully appreciate
the great faith of these just and devout men before that revelation
of Christ? Think of that. You know, we have
all the riches of the mysteries of the gospel revealed to us.
We have Christ and his incarnation laid out, portrayed before us
in the gospels and all the truth of the epistles Not only giving
us the New Testament scriptures, but what do they do also? They
shed this glorious light on the entire Old Testament revelation,
and we see Christ in them, don't we? But they didn't have all
of these things. They longed for an understanding,
and they searched diligently. But think of Abraham. Think of
Abraham. Here's this 75-year-old man.
He's from Ur of the Chaldeans, and he's living in Haran. a man,
we were just speaking about this, a man who the scriptures speak
of as the father of all who believe. And rightfully so, rightfully
so. Abraham, we know, he too was
a man of enormous wealth, immense resources. The word of God tells
us that he was rich in cattle and gold and silver. And in his
own land, Abraham would have been a man who had great dwellings,
much land, and all the privileges which accompany all those things.
That's what he would have had in his own, that's what he had
in his own land. And even when he went out, think
of this, when he left all of these lands and dwellings and
all of these things, even when he went out, when he traveled
in this promised land not having a, owning a any land even enough to put his
foot on. That's what we're told. These
other nations looked on him, they looked upon him as a prince. Think of this, when his nephew
Lot was taken captive, Abraham from his those born in his own
household, 318 trained servants born in his
own household he sent to rescue Lot. Can you imagine the number
of servants Abraham must have had? Many, many hundreds more
than that, possibly upward towards 1,000, and all the cattle and
wealth that he had. Well, this is who Abraham was. And the word, like this morning,
the word of God comes to Abraham and says, get out of your country. And what did Abraham do? He got
up and went out. Well, what moved Abraham to do
such a remarkable thing? Well, let's let the son of Abraham
himself, the promised seed, answer that question. You know it, don't
you? This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad. That's what
moved him, isn't it? You know, we can talk about all
sorts of things, but that's what moved Abraham. He believed in
this promised seed who would be his Savior, salvation to him,
and a multitude of believers. The faith of Abraham was such
that it's as if this promised seed was standing right before
his eyes. If Abraham had lived a thousand
years, his faith would have never wavered. Why? Because it was
God-given faith. And Abraham knew that whatever
God promised, he was able to perform. Even Abraham was willing
to kill his own son. Because he knew what? God would
raise him up. Why? Because God promised me
that in this son, Isaac, my seed would be called. And that's going
to happen. God told me. And so if he tells
me to kill my son, offer him on that mountain, he'll raise
him up. Because he already told me, in
him, this seed would come. My salvation, the blessing of
God to me and to all the nations. That was Abraham. No wonder he's
called the father of the faithful. We could go on, but it was this
hope that completely captivated Abraham and all of his remarkable
life. And this is the hope that captivated
the heart of every just and devout man and woman in the thousand
years in the succeeding generations as they waited, too, with hope
and expectation of their promised Redeemer and Savior. Well, think
of Job. Think of Job, too. Here he is,
this man. He's lost everything, every one
of his sons and his daughters. I'm sure you're like me, you
read that first chapter and you say, I cannot even begin to comprehend
what Job faced at that point in time. Every one of his sons
and daughters, all of his livestock, all of his servants in one day. And one day, gone. Gone. And for a time, too, we know
then he lost his health. And for a time, too, he lost
the assurance of his salvation. That's almost the worst of all,
isn't it? And he was struggling. And he was in turmoil. He was
in a place of intense physical and emotional suffering, psychological
suffering. And in this place he wrestled
with the most important question any man could ever ask. How can
a man be righteous before God? And Job had three friends, didn't
he? Three friends. Job's comforters. Hardly. Hardly. Job's comforters. They were no consolation at all,
were they? These three men were, let me
give you an illustration of what these men are like in terms of
that picture I gave you earlier. They're like men standing on
the riverbank calling to this child as the river's carrying
it down. throw out your arm, swim a little
harder, throw out your other arm, kick your feet, and you'll
get to the bank. You'll save yourself. You know,
really, that's what false religion is doing every day. Go to church. do whatever the church tells
you to do, you know? You join a Sunday school, you
come to the meetings, and you know, you pick up the hymnal
and sing the hymns, and after a while, you listen, and you
know, you're there long enough, and you say, well, I want to
be baptized, you know? And you get baptized, and hey,
there you go. It's not so hard at all, is it?
And this is what people are being told everywhere, you know, that
I can't begin to tell you the number of people in New Guinea
who are trusting in their baptism card. Baptism card. They keep it. And they literally
say to us, this is my ticket into heaven. That's what they've
been told. Trusting in baptism. I mean,
how pathetic, how sad, how tragic. No help, no consolation. And here are these men, telling
Job all the things that he should do and that he shouldn't do.
And if he would do this, then everything would be good. No
consolation. Well, where did Job find help?
Where did Job find consolation? Well, here are his words. For
I know that my Redeemer lives. And he shall stand at last upon
the earth. And he did, didn't he? And after
my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see
God, whom I shall see for myself. And my eyes shall behold, and
not another, how my heart yearns within me. That was faith, wasn't
it? Job 2 waited for the consolation
of Israel. You know, this is what Peter
means in his first epistle when he says, of this salvation. There
was a longing and a desire to understand, when is this promise
deliverer coming? And this is what Peter said,
of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently
into who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. He's
speaking about these ones who now have all the revelation of
Christ. And he says, searching what or
what manner of time the spirit of Christ who was in them was
indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glories that would follow. Oh, how they longed for
this Savior, this promised Savior and Deliverer. Well, here in
Luke, where are we? We're at that time purposed by
God, aren't we? At that exact time, the fulfillment
of God's purposes. And here is this promise being fulfilled,
given to Abraham so many years ago. Here he is. Here he is. And here's Simeon, and he's been
given A great privilege. A great privilege. In some way, what does it say?
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. What a blessing
this would have been, wouldn't it? He knew that before I die,
I'm going to see this Messiah that we've been waiting for. he would see the Lord's Christ. The Lord speaks of him, his Christ,
in this way, my righteous servant, my righteous servant. He's the
Lord's Christ, isn't he? Yes, he's our Christ. But more
than that, he's the Lord's Christ. and what a Christ he is. The
Holy Spirit was upon Simeon, and he believed, and he waited
for the promised Savior to be revealed. And verse 27, what
do we read there? So he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And Simeon, he goes into this
temple, and he sees this young couple holding a newborn child.
He came to the exact place and time in which he would see Jesus. Well, how did that happen? He
came in the only way anyone will ever see Christ. He came by the
Spirit, didn't he? He came by the Spirit into the
temple, and he saw the parents holding this child, and he walked
over to them. In verse 28, he took him up in
his arms. He took him up in his arms. He
took that baby from Mary or Joseph, and he took him up into his arms.
Well, who? Who did Simeon take up into his
arms? He took up into his arms an infant
child. He took up into his arms all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He took up into his arms his
righteousness. Think of that. He took up into
his arms his righteousness. He took up into his arms his
holiness. He took up into his arms his
redeemer. He took up into his arms his
life. He took up into his arms his
salvation, didn't he? He took up into his arms so much
more too, didn't he? He took up into his arms the
Lamb of God. He took up into his arms the
great high priest who would make one offering for sin and perfect
him forever. What a wonder. Simeon took up
into his arms his salvation. And he blessed God. He blessed
God. Lord, now you are letting your
servant depart in peace according to your word, for mine eyes have
seen your salvation." This is true faith, isn't it? Seeing
his salvation, seeing Christ in this person. This is God's
salvation. You know, Daniel, when he was
praying, praying for the deliverance of that city. He prayed, for
we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous
deeds, but because of your great mercies. And Simeon, he knows
he has no righteousness of his own, nothing whatsoever to commend
himself to God, and he pleads, he pleads not his own righteousness,
but God's gracious mercies. And that's enough. And that's
enough. Because these are covenant mercies,
aren't they? Covenant mercies. We think of
this again in Isaiah 55. These great words, gracious words. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come
to the waters. And you who have no money, come
buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Why do you spend your money for
what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen
carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight
itself in abundance, abundance of life. Incline your ear and
come to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Now you are letting your servant
depart in peace," said Simeon. That's all that matters, isn't
it? All that matters. You know, seeing God's salvation,
by faith holding Him in your arms, this person, resting in
Him. Let me just close by telling
you of a man, a pastor of one of the churches, and how this was brought home so powerfully
to me as a result of what occurred. Robin and I were away in the
tribe where my parents were working earlier this year, and And we had, when we came out
to return home, where this man Samson is pastor of one of the
churches, he sent word to us that he was very sick. And when
we got and asked if I could help him, and when we got back, you
know, I think it was the day after we got back, I drove in
as far as I could to where his village is and they had carried
him out about three hours on a bamboo stretcher. And he could barely walk. He
was in such bad shape. And what had happened is he'd
come down with spinal tuberculosis. And his entire back was just
ravaged by the sickness. And he was in terrible shape. And we didn't know that at the
time, but I took him down to this medical center where there's
no doctor in any way. that in God's providence there
was a man there who had TB medication. Typically they won't give it
to you. It's serious cancer type treatment over a period of nine
months for spinal tuberculosis. But this man was there and anyway
they saw that Well, we have no way of testing, but this is tuberculosis. And so they said, we'll give
you the medicine if you want and go on it. And so he did. And I told Samson, look, I'll
come back a week later. And I took him back, dropped
him off near this Lutheran medical center that was partway out where
he lives. And he had a relative living
right near there. So I said I'd come back and I
came back about a week later, but there had been a lot of rain
and the road out there is terrible. So I left my vehicle and walked
out about an hour and a half to see Samson. And as I came
near this aid post, relatives of his ran out and said, no,
he's in here and they're trying to help him. And he'd become
completely paralyzed from the waist down. His urinary tract
was blocked and he was in great pain. And this nurse, who has
very, very rudimentary training, was caring for him. And she,
because of cultural taboos, didn't want to insert a catheter and
had her husband do it, who has no experience. And he had pierced
him internally and he was bleeding everywhere. And Samson, he was
in the process of dying at that point in time, really, if nothing
had been done. And I walked in and I'll tell
you, I really did, I almost fainted. And I said, well, look, we need
to get him help. What do you think about getting
him down to the hospital? And I talked to his wife, and his
son-in-law was there, his daughter. And Samson said, he said, just
leave me. I don't want you to trouble yourselves. He said, it'll just be hard.
You'll have to go down and get your vehicle." You know, this
is the type of person he is. He'd go down and get your vehicle,
and the road is bad, and you might get stuck and not get through.
And then to his wife, he said, we have no help down where the
hospital is. Where will we get food? And he said, it doesn't. Look,
don't trouble yourselves. He said, I'm happy to go and
be with the Lord. I know he's my righteousness.
This is what he said. I know he's my righteousness,
and I know him. And he said, if it's the Lord's
time for me to die, well, then I'm happy. I'm happy with that. And he said, I'm just thankful that he's given
me this time. to shepherd his sheep and to
care for the flock that he entrusted to me. And I'm worried about
them. Who will care for them? And who will preach the gospel
to them? And he said, I'm worried, too,
about my young son. And he told me, I've already
told my wife, if this is the Lord's time for me, then don't
take him away from these men who preach the gospel. I talked to his wife, and I said,
well, look, no. We don't know what the Lord's
purposes are, but I told Samson, we know what the Lord tells us
to do, we'll do what, we're going to do whatever we can to help
you. Now if it's the Lord's time for you, well then it's the Lord's
time. But what we do know is we're going to do what we can
do to help. And you know, I hiked down and got my vehicle, got
it up, and you know, the test, as we were driving down several
hours to this hospital, I can't even begin to tell you
the words of grace which poured from his mouth. But here, why
am I saying this? Because here was his hope, wasn't
it? Here was his salvation. That
Christ was his righteousness. That's all that mattered to him,
you know? And that's all that matters to you and I too, isn't
it? You know, when we come to that point in time when the Lord
is ready to take us, Well, we can say this, the same as Samson. We can say the same as Simeon,
can't we? Lord, now you are letting your
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen your salvation. Isn't that true? What a blessing. Amen. Thank you brother. Thank you
very much. That was so good. You know,