Now look with me at the passage
that Brother Randy just read. I've entitled the message is
this, have you seen the Lord's Christ? The title Christ means
Messiah. Have I seen the Lord's Christ?
Have you seen the Lord's Christ? That's what I want us to think
about today. And this passage, this is one of my favorite passages. This is a miracle of God's grace. And every time I read it, I get
chills thinking about it. Revolving around the birth of
Christ. It's not normally one that is read or studied at this
time of year when people celebrate the birth of Christ because this
actually took place around 40 days after his birth. Verse 21
talks about how he was circumcised on the eighth day according to
the law and then how Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple
and Mary for her purification that was under the Jewish law,
the Mosaic Covenant, that she would be accomplished. And so
it was about 40 days afterward. But it is about the birth of
Christ because it's talking about why Christ came into this world,
why he came into this sin-cursed world. And normally when we come
to this time of year, preachers are preaching on the shepherds
who got a vision from the Lord. went to the manger, and they
talk about the wise men. I hate to bust the bubble of
all these nativity scenes around here, but there were no wise
men there right at his birth. They didn't come until about
two years later. Well, I actually don't hate to bust that bubble. People just don't read. The scriptures
are right. The wise men came, but it's probably
about two years later. But either way, it's still revolving
around the birth of Christ, the King of Kings. This passage here
speaks of a man named Simeon, an old man who was in the temple
there in Jerusalem. And it speaks of his revelation
that God gave him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die,
he would not leave this world until he actually saw with his
physical eyes that physical child, Jesus, meaning he shall save
his people from their sins. And that's a miracle in and of
itself. But the greatest miracle of all
that revolves around Simeon is that he really saw Christ before
then with the eye of faith. And that's the way We see Him,
if we see Him at all, in the way of salvation, with the eye
of faith. But let me begin, first of all,
as I ask that question, why did Jesus Christ, the Bible says
a child was born, and all that revolved around that, miraculous
birth, a son was given, that's the incarnation we call it, the
incarnation of Christ, the union of the two natures, His holy,
sinless humanity created for Him in the womb of a virgin by
the Holy Spirit. And then His absolute deity. See, He didn't bring that humanity
with Him when He came to earth. He came in His deity and He united
Himself. And what a thought! I mean, that
is something that is just totally mind-boggling. That God the Son,
the Eternal Son, cloaked himself in human flesh, in the womb of
a virgin, in that tiny, tiny thing, and that he was born and
that he grew in wisdom. I mean, all of those things are
just marvelous things to consider. And really, we cannot explain
those things in a physical way. We know it's so. Unto us, a child
is born. But unto us a son is not born,
he's given. Now why did all that happen?
Well, here in the first verses of this portion, verse 22 says,
when the days of her purification, as I said, verse 21, Christ was
brought to be circumcised all according to the law. Mary came
to be purified the way that the women were purified after they
had a child, according to the law. They brought him to Jerusalem. Verse 23, listen, as it is written
in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall
be called holy. He had to be dedicated. That's
what that means. He had to be dedicated to the
Lord according to the law of the Lord. And it says, and to
offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law
of the Lord. See how the law comes forth here? It's mentioned
a pair of young turtle doves or two young pigeons. Bloodshed,
all of that. So it's all according to the
law. Why did Christ come into the world? Well, Galatians chapter
4 tells us this. This is verse 4. That in the
fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son. Now what is that,
the fullness of the time? That means that before the foundation
of the world, God set forth a time. that this event would happen
here on earth. It was God's time. It wasn't
man's time. God wasn't up there waiting for
men to do something in order for the time to come. This was
established before the foundation of the world by God in His sovereign
authority. And in the fullness of that time,
when that time came, God sent forth His Son. The next thing
it says here about his son in Galatians four is that God sent
forth his son made of a woman. It doesn't say made of a man.
Made of a woman. And of course we know that woman
was Mary. Christ was prophesied back in
Genesis chapter three and verse 15 to be the seed of woman. His birth was a miracle birth.
He wasn't made by the aid of man. Now He came through the
lineage of men, but He came by miraculous birth through Mary,
conceived in her womb by the Spirit. He's the seed of woman. So God sent forth His Son made
of a woman. That's His humanity. The Son
of God, the second person of the Trinity, was not born and
He was not made. He always has been and always
will be. But in his humanity and that
union that took place, his humanity had a beginning. I don't believe
it was December 25th, but now whatever you want to believe
about that, you can. Doesn't matter. I know it was the fullness
of the time. Whatever time that was, that's
when he came. Most scholars, I think, believe
it was in spring. But it doesn't matter. He came. And we who know him, we who have
seen the Lord's Christ, we're glad of it. So he was made of
a woman. Now the next line says this in
Galatians 4. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law. Think about it. He's the one
who wrote the law. And now he's made under the law.
Now what does that mean? That means he's subject to the
law that he made. Well, why would he do that? Well,
the next line tells us, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. He did it for the redemption
of his people. Now, what did he have to do?
He had to keep the law, had to keep it. When we read over in
Isaiah chapter nine there that he would come and he would establish
the throne of David with judgment and justice. That's keeping the
law. What did he have to do? He had
to redeem them by paying the redemption price and the redemption
price was his blood, his death. When was that established? Back
in Genesis chapter three when he was prophesied as the seed
of woman. And God, you remember Adam and
Eve, when they realized their nakedness, their lack of righteousness,
they sewed fig leaf aprons together to hide their nakedness. God
took those fig leaf aprons off and destroyed them, and He shed
blood. He slew an animal and made coats
of skin. Remember why He had to do that?
Death, blood, what is all this about? He told Adam in Genesis
chapter two, in the day that you disobey, in the day that
you eat of that tree that you're forbidden to eat, Thou shalt
surely what? Die. Have you ever quoted Romans
6.23? Most people have. What's it say? The wages of sin
is death. That's right. The gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ. And how did he bring
about that life? Through the redemption that he
would accomplish as God-man. And that's why he had to do all
of this, that we might receive the adoption of sons. You know,
when he came on his public ministry, when he first began his public
ministry, he came to John the Baptist. You can read about it
in Matthew chapter 3. And he come up on John and he
said, John, baptize me. John said, I can't baptize you.
I'm not worthy. He said, you need to baptize
me. And Christ said this, this is Matthew three and verse 15,
Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, allow
it to be so, for thus it becometh us. And I believe he's speaking
of himself and the Trinity of his persons, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, to fulfill all righteousness. And then he suffered and then
John baptized him. What does all that mean? Well, that baptism
was water baptism, where he was immersed in water. It all pictured
his death, his burial, and then he came up out of that water,
his resurrection. And what does his death, burial,
and resurrection mean? It means he paid the redemption
price. He kept the law perfectly. He
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He purged our sins
by one offering. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. and he established a righteousness
whereby God could justify sinners like us. That's why all that
happened. Now go back down here in Luke
two. Who is this Simeon? Well, look
at it in verse 25. It says, behold, there was a
man in Jerusalem. Well, here's what we know about
him. He's a Jew. He's a Jerusalem. One of the first, when I first
came into the knowledge of the truth, one of the first little
pamphlets I got was a treatise written by old John Bunyan. You
know who John Bunyan was, he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress.
And the name of that pamphlet was The Jerusalem Sinner Saved. The Jerusalem Sinner. Why would
Bunyan call that? Bunyan referred to himself as
the Jerusalem sinner. What he's talking about is a
religious person who is lost in false religion and God saves
him. Well, here's a Jerusalem sinner
named Simeon. And he says the same man, look
at verse 25. It gives us two thoughts about him. He was just
and devout. Now, a lot of preachers who get
this passage here, they say, well, that means he was a guy
who was kind and moral, did right by men and all of that, and he
was sincere. It means more than that, my friends.
What is it to be just? The word justice, just, judgment,
is the same word in the New Testament as right, righteous, and righteousness. And what's it saying here? It's
saying Simeon, the same man, he was righteous, he was right
with God. How does a sinner become right
with God? Only by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by the grace of God. That's the only way a sinner
can be right with God. You can't be right, you can determine
in your mind right now that you're gonna try to be the best person
you can be, you're gonna try to keep the law, that will not
make you right with God. They may make you right with
men, but not with God. The question, how can a man,
a sinner, a woman, a sinner, be right with God? Two things
has to happen. First of all, you have to be
forgiven of all your sins. Past sins, present sins, original
sin, future sins. You have to be forgiven of all
your sins, but on a just ground. And there's only one just ground,
and that's the righteousness, the blood of Jesus Christ. Your decision will not wash away
your sins. Your confession will not wash
away your sins. Only Christ can do that. That's
why he came, to redeem them that were under the law. You have to be forgiven on a
just ground, and you have to be declared by God, not by men
and women now, not by the preacher, not by the church, not by mom
and dad, but you have to be declared by God to be righteous in His
sight. And always remember this, God
knows your heart. God knows your thoughts. We can put on a pretty good show
outwardly towards men, but we can't hide from God. We're sinners. So how can God declare me righteous? Only as I stand before him washed
in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness imputed
to me. And that's what Simeon was. You say, well, it doesn't
say all that there. It does in other places of the
Bible and the Bible doesn't contradict itself. David said it, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
That's just. As a sinner saved by grace, that's
what Simeon was. And what does it mean to be devout?
It means to be devoted to God, believing God, he was a man of
faith. He had God-given, Holy Spirit-wrought
faith, this man Simeon. Now, how do you know that? Well,
look at the next line, verse 25. He was waiting for something. Now, that word waiting is not
like waiting in a waiting room. as we would say it, impatiently.
It has to do with faith that God is going to do what he said
he would do. And what was Simeon waiting for?
He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. That's the comfort,
the peace, the consoling, the comforting, the peace, the assurance
that only Israel could have. And let me tell you something,
there's two things about this. Number one, who is the consolation of
Israel? Christ is. He talked about himself, about
being the consolation. He said, in prophecy, he's coming. to bind up the brokenhearted,
to heal the sick, to set the captives free, to bring consolation
to those who are troubled. Only Christ. He is the consolation
of Israel. That's what he says here. And
God, through the Holy Spirit, told the Simeon, you're not gonna
die until you see that consolation, until you see Christ, until you
see the Messiah. It's not necessary to see Christ
or the Messiah in the flesh. Simeon already saw him with the
eye of faith. If you look over at verse 38,
talking about Anna, the prophetess, the older woman, look at verse
38. It says, and she coming in that
instance gave thanks likewise unto the Lord. This is the same
time Simeon saw the Christ child. And she spoke of him to all that
looked for redemption. That word look there is the same
word waiting over here in verse 25. Look for redemption in Jerusalem. What does the Bible say? Isaiah
45, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth from
God. There's none else. Who is he? He's a just God and
a savior. This is the eye of faith. And
the second thing back here in verse 25, waiting for the consolation
of Israel, he's not talking about the physical nation Israel. He's talking about spiritual
Israel. Somebody say, well, what is that?
That's a spiritual nation made up of sinners saved by grace
who are justified in God's sight based upon His righteousness
charged to them. and who have been born again
by the Spirit, brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works." That's spiritual Israel. Are you a believer like Simeon? Have you seen the Lord's Christ? Have you seen that salvation,
the consolation of Israel? If you have, you are a citizen
of a spiritual nation, Israel. Well, how do you know it wasn't
physical Israel? Because he wasn't a comfort to
the physical nation, just a few in that nation. Over in John
chapter one, it says, in verse 11, it says, he came unto his
own and his own received him not. But to as many as have received
him, to them gave he the power, the right to become the sons
of God, All who have believed on his name, which were born
not of blood, that is physical descendancy, not of the will
of the flesh, that is the works of the flesh, they weren't born
again by works, nor the will of the flesh. They weren't born
again because they made a decision, but they were born of God. That's
who he's talking about. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
Isaiah said. Speak to the people and tell
them the Lord hath given them double for all of their iniquities.
What does that mean? That means Christ is coming to
take away your sins and give you in return his righteousness.
Comfort you. That's what Simeon wanted to
see. And then it says in verse 25,
the Holy Ghost was upon him. Now the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Spirit, dwells within every true believer. guides every true believer. But here it's talking about in
a special way. And it says it here, verse 26,
it was revealed unto Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Have we seen
the Lord's Christ? Have we seen the glory of the
person of Christ, the power of his finished work? Have we seen
him as the Lord, our righteousness? Now you understand now, Simeon,
I opened up the paper today and they had one of those pictures
in the middle. They call it pictures of Jesus.
It's not pictures of Jesus. Nobody knows what he looked like.
I'm not talking about did you see that this morning. A lot
of people see that and they don't see this Christ. And you understand
now, Simeon, what he's going to see is a baby. But this is what the Lord told
him. You're not gonna see death, you're not gonna die, you're
not gonna step out of this world until you've seen the Lord's
Christ. And let me tell you, that's the way it is with all
of God's elect. You're not gonna step out of this world until
you've seen the Lord's Christ with the eye of God-given faith.
Submitting to him, believing in him. Verse 27 says, he came
by the Spirit into the temple, And when the parents brought
in the child Jesus, a baby, to do for him after the custom of
the law, he was made under the law, he kept the law. Look at
this, this is amazing. Verse 28, then Simeon took him
up in his arms and he blessed God, he praised God, he worshiped
God. And he said, Lord, now let thou
thy servant depart in peace. Let me die. Let me out of this
sin-cursed world. Let me out of this body of this
death. According to thy word, according
to what you promised, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I like the way that's put. Now
Simeon was saved by the grace of God. He could have just as
well said, I have seen, mine eyes have seen my salvation.
But he said it this way, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the salvation that only God can give. The salvation that only God can
accomplish. The salvation of which God is
the source, the originator, the sustainer, and the completer. This is God's salvation. Have
you seen his salvation? If you have, you've seen his
Christ. And he says in verse 31, now listen to this. This would go against popular
Jewish thought in that day. These next two verses. He says,
God's salvation, verse 31, which thou hast prepared before the
face of all people. What that means is that God did
it publicly. This was no secret. This was
no hoax. This was put on display for all
the world to see. The birth of Christ, the life
of Christ, the ministry of Christ, and then the suffering and the
dying of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ.
It's all out there. Now people deny it. People today
say it was a hoax. It wasn't a hoax. There were
eyewitnesses to all of this. And they recorded it. And it
was put on public display before the eyes of all people. And you
could have been there and seen it all physically and not seen
the Lord's Christ. Most of the Jews were. Many Gentiles,
Romans, they were there and they saw it physically. They saw him
walk this earth. They saw him carrying that cross. And you remember when the women
were crying because they felt sorry for him? You remember what
he did? He turned to him, he said, don't weep for me, weep
for yourselves. I'm not in trouble, I'm doing
what I came to do. That's what he was saying. This
is what I came to do, he told his disciples. Even they tried
to prevent him from going to Jerusalem, remember? He said,
what, are you kidding? This is what I came to do. I'm
going to victory. He knew that. Oh, he suffered
now. It wasn't no cakewalk. He suffered
and he bled and he died. He felt all the infirmities and
the sorrows and the burdens of the flesh. But it was all for
his people. He was bruised for our iniquities.
That means he was crushed for our iniquities. Man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. He knew grief. He knew no sin. But he knew grief, he knew the
results, the consequences. And then he says in verse 32,
now here's what would get the unbelieving Jews. A light to
lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. What? Gentiles? You're including Gentiles
in on this? No, they got to become Jews first.
They got to be circumcised. They got to keep the law. Oh
no. God has a people whom he chose
before the foundation of the world out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He gave them to Christ. This
is quoted from the book of Isaiah and it's talking about spiritual
Israel. We look at verse 33, and Joseph
and his mother marveled at these those things which were spoken
of him. And Simeon blessed them. He recognized that Joseph and
Mary were blessed of God, especially Mary, to have this child. He
didn't worship Mary. He didn't pray to Mary. But he
recognized she's a blessed woman. And he said, behold, this child
is set. Look at this in verse 34. Behold,
this child is set for the fall and the rising again of many
in Israel. for a sign which shall be spoken
against." This very child is going to be that which divides
many in Israel. Some will believe, some will
reject. He'll be a stumbling block to
many. What did Paul write in Romans chapter nine? That Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, did not attain
it because they sought it by works and not by faith in Christ.
And when Christ came and spoke to them, they stumbled at the
stumbling stone. They fell. What did John say
in John 3? That this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
and hate the light because their deeds were evil. What did Christ
say to the religious majority of his day? He said, except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well,
how righteous do we have to be? as righteous as this one who
was made of woman, made under the law to redeem them under
the law. Acts 17, 31, God's appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man, that God-man whom he hath appointed and that he hath
given assurance unto all men that he hath raised him from
the dead. Christ. You see, without Christ, there
is no righteousness for us. Without Christ, there is no forgiveness
for us. Without Christ, there's no spiritual
and eternal life for us. Without Christ, there is no heaven. Today in our world, everybody
that dies goes to heaven. Isn't that right? I mean, if
you read the paper, I don't care who they are, what they believed,
what they said, what they did. Everybody, well my friend, without
Christ, without his blood to wash away my sins, his righteousness
to justify me, there is no heaven. There's only eternal damnation.
So he set for the rise and the fall of many. And for a sign
which shall be spoken against, verse 35, yea, a sword shall
pierce through thine own soul also, and the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed. What think ye of Christ? You
wanna know your state before God? What think ye of Christ? And then he talks about Anna
the prophetess there, but she was a believer too. She looked
for the redemption in Jerusalem. She looked for Christ. She waited
for the consolation of Israel too. And what a great testimony. Have I seen the Lord Christ?
Have you seen the Lord Christ? I pray that we have by God's
grace. All right.