Well, I'd like you to turn to
Luke's Gospel, chapter 2. I want to look at the verses
from 25 to 35, the account of Simeon. just after the birth of Jesus,
Simeon in the temple in Jerusalem. And I've called this message
Holy Spirit Revelation. Remember last week we were looking
at Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, how he was a believer,
he and his wife were devout, they were believers, they were
faithful to the God of Israel. But when the angel Gabriel came
to tell him that his wife in old age was to have a child,
he used human reason. And as J.C. Ryle said, where
reason begins, faith ends. He appealed to fleshly reason. We're too old. It doesn't happen
like this. Disbelief. And he was chastised
by God for nine months with deafness and dumbness until he learned
to believe God and trust Him. But then, you know, when they
came to the naming of John the Baptist and they were all gathered
around, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit
filled him and gave him the message of truth to proclaim to those
around. The revelation of the gospel
of grace that caused him to proclaim clear gospel truth. You see,
it's not by rational human reason that we understand the things
of God. It isn't. It isn't. The scriptures
tell us it isn't. and yet again and again people
in religion sincerely try to appeal to the human flesh, to
human reason, to persuade people about the sensibleness of believing
the gospel of grace, the validity of it, but it's never by that
that we understand the gospel. It's only ever by Holy Spirit
revelation. It's futile to try to make it
easier for flesh to reason its way into faith. I'll give you
some examples. There are And there has been, over the last
hundred years, an abundance of new versions of the scriptures.
Now, I've got nothing per se against new versions of the scriptures.
Nothing at all. I don't mind at all if the scriptures
are put into the language that we speak today. so long as the
people that do it are of the caliber of the men that translated
this version that we have open before us now. And you may say,
well, the language is old and it's difficult for people to
understand. The Holy Spirit will make his message clear. This
is the truth. Words matter. Structure matters. It's absolutely essential that
we have it right. And the modern versions don't
because the modern versions always appeal to human reason. And the
modern versions always put a human slant on things to try and make
it more credible to fallen human flesh. Or, for example, in our
worship, you say, why do you sing such old-fashioned hymns? Because the truth of God is in
them. Why do you sing them to such old tunes? Well, they're
good music tunes. There's nothing wrong with the
music. Why don't you have popular music? You know, people like
popular music. If you had popular music in your
church, people would come to it. Yes, but they might not hear
the truth there. It's just a fleshly distraction.
Why don't you have some fancy social events? That will get
people to come in. Have a barn dance or something
else like that. Have some social events. People will come along
to that. No, it's absolutely futile because you're appealing
to the flesh. Well, what about, let's do some
apologetic argument. That's a theological term. It
means arguing the case for the Christian faith. And so, let's
try and make it clear that it's perfectly reasonable to believe
in creation and not evolution. Let's make the case that it's
perfectly reasonable to believe in miracles. Not to the flesh
it isn't. Not to the flesh, it's by Holy
Spirit revelation that we understand these things. What does Paul
say in Hebrews 11? By faith we understand that the
worlds were created. We don't do those things because
it's futile, never by human reason. We avoid unnecessary barriers. I don't want to put up any barriers
that are not necessary to people hearing the gospel of grace.
I don't want to make barriers of dress. I don't want to make
barriers, there's places that we've been on holiday in years
gone by where the icy chill of so-called friendship has chilled
you to the bone when you've gone in there, you know, it's been,
you could feel these eyes piercing through you that you're not welcome
there. We don't want to do anything
like that. We want to adorn the doctrine, as Paul says to Titus,
adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior in all things. But
what do we do is we declare gospel truth. We preach it. We proclaim
gospel truth. And we trust the Holy Spirit
to make that truth manifest to those whom he will. That's what
we do. We proclaim it. We don't try
and persuade, we don't try and make things easier for the flesh
to believe. We don't put barriers in the
way that are not necessary, but we do what God says, which is
the foolishness of preaching. Be it a stumbling block, be it
foolishness, but to those who believe, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. It's a mystery, is the gospel,
that is made manifest by Holy Spirit revelation. Colossians
1, verses 26 and 27. Even the mystery, says Paul,
which has been hid from ages and from generations, but is
now made manifest plain, clear. Who to? His saints. It's made
manifest to his saints. To whom? His saints. God would
make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles. Gentiles as well. Gentiles are
in the Israel of God. Gentiles, non-Jews, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now this man Simeon, this man
Simeon, had Holy Spirit revelation to know what was happening. He
was there in the temple. He was waiting. He was waiting
for the consolation of Israel. He was waiting to see God in
human flesh. Let's have a look at this man
Simeon. Verse 25 of Luke chapter 2. And behold, there was a man
in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost
was upon him. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit
of God was upon him. He had Holy Spirit revelation. He's described as a just and
devout man. This is the nature of God's saints. And God's saints are his people,
who are brought to believe the gospel of his grace. God's saints
are not Catholic saints, who where the so-called Catholic
Church on earth decides that Pope so-and-so, who has now died,
is made a saint. Biblical saints, God's saints,
are these people, people who know the gospel of God's grace,
who believe the truth of God. And he is described as just and
devout. Just? What made him just? Just in the sight? How can a
man be just with God? What made him just? He was justified
from all his sins. Oh, he was really good at keeping
the law of Moses. That must have made him just.
Is that what you think? No, Acts chapter 13 verse 39
says this, one of them preaching, and by him, by Jesus, by the
Christ, all that believe in him are justified from all things
Listen, from which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. Justification cannot come from
the law of Moses. This man Simeon could not have
been a just man because of his obedience to the law of Moses,
because you cannot be justified by the law of Moses, because
it's weak through the flesh. The flesh can't do it. You can
only be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the only
way. And this man knew those things. Oh, you say, Christ hadn't yet
come in most of his life. How did he know these things?
The Old Testament Scriptures taught him. He knew about justification
and salvation because it's promised throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures. Oh, what are the Old Testament Scriptures about?
What are they about? Jesus said, these are they which
speak of me. This is how Simeon knew these
things. He knew the gospel. He'd read Isaiah chapter 40.
He'd read about consolation. He was waiting for the consolation
of Israel. And he read Isaiah 40 verse 1.
It probably wasn't called Isaiah 40 verse 1 at the time. Somebody
put those chapter and verse divisions in later for us very conveniently
and it's good to keep them. But he read that scripture which
says Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God. Say that their sins are forgiven,
that there's forgiveness of sin. That comfort is the consolation
of salvation. That same chapter said how it
was going to be achieved. God is coming to earth. He is
coming to save his people from their sins. It says, say unto
the cities of Judah, behold your God. And there is Simeon in Jerusalem. where God's temple was, where
the presence of God was in the Holy of Holies, and he's looking
at the scriptures and he's waiting because he knows eyes, human
eyes, are going to see God in human flesh. Behold your God. Make ways, make the way straight. The valleys, build them up. The
hills, knock them down. Make a straight way for your
God to come. He's coming. The Good Shepherd,
God, it says in Isaiah 40, God is the Good Shepherd of his people,
like a shepherd protecting his lambs. And Jesus came and said,
I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. I take
care of my sheep. He knew those things. He knew
that Psalm 49, verse 8, talked about the redemption of a man,
what was necessary to redeem one in the sight of the law.
And he knew that that redemption was costly. And ceaseth forever,
it says. It means it's so costly, so precious,
you will never ever pay it. You will never ever pay it. The
redemption is too difficult to do. Man cannot do it. But he also knew Psalm 130 verse
7. Let Israel hope in the Lord. With him is plenteous mercy,
plenteous redemption. He prays that God will redeem
Israel from all iniquities. He knew about these things. He'd
been looking in the Old Testament. He knew the Scriptures. He knew
the promise concerning the One who was coming, the consolation,
the comfort of Israel, the salvation of Israel. Simeon was devout,
meaning this, he was devout. He was devoted to the worship
of God. He was devoted to the will of
God. He didn't want to be outside
of the will of God. He wanted to do the will of God
in everything. He wanted to serve God. in righteousness,
in holiness, in the truth of the gospel of his grace. He was
devoted to the glory of God and the honor of God and he was just
righteous in all of his dealings with his fellow men so that None
could fairly bring a charge against him of dealing corruptly or dishonestly
or unfairly. No, he was just and devout. And
that, my friends, is the nature of God's servants. That is the
nature of God's servants. You read the scriptures, and
you prove to me that it's any other way. It isn't. The people
of God, the elect of God, who know what they've been saved
from, live their lives in a just and devout way. justified by
the grace of God, but devoted to the will and service of God.
He was waiting, was this man. It says there, waiting for the
consolation of Israel. He was waiting, studying the
Old Testament scriptures, knowing that they spoke of the Messiah.
He was seeking when he would come. He was reading those prophecies
about the weeks in Daniel. He knew it must have been about
now. He was expecting it to happen. Could all of these things be
said of us? We claim to be the children of God believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ could this be said of us that we're just
in all our dealings that we're devout in all our service of
God that he comes first in everything that in our priorities of life
he is first as he clearly was for this man this is the nature
of God's saints and he had Holy Spirit revelation. Verse 25,
the end of it. And the Holy Ghost was upon him. And verse 26, it was revealed
unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death. He wasn't
going to die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. He wouldn't
die until he had physically seen God incarnate, God in flesh,
God in a human body. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Look, there is your God. Note
this, he'd been told, this special saint, by the sovereign purposes
of God, had been picked out and he'd been told, Simeon, you're
looking for the consolation of Israel. You're not going to die
until you've seen him, until you've held him in your arms.
Then you can die. That's especially revealed by
the Holy Spirit. Note this, all of God's elect,
every single one of them, every single redeemed sinner will be
given the eyes of faith to see the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ before they die. Is that not true? Everyone chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world, not one of them
will die until they have seen in their heart of hearts the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. What a blessing that is. He has
redeemed all his people that he chose. He will regenerate
all his people that he chose. He'll give them Holy Spirit sight
to see the things of Christ, to see the Christ of God. And
what a blessing that is. Jesus said to Peter, Simon Peter,
Simon Bar-Jonas, in Matthew 16 verse 17, he said, who do people
say I am? And they said, some say you're
Elijah, and some say you're one of the prophets. And he said,
who do you say that I am? And Simon said this, he said,
you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said
to him, blessed are you Simon Peter, Simon Bar-Jonas, for flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you, has not revealed Christ
to you, but my Father in heaven. He's had special revelation of
this truth, of who this man was. There was no comeliness that
we should desire Christ walking this earth, that's what Isaiah
says, no comeliness that we should desire him. But when the Holy
Spirit gives sight to see, blessed are you Simon Peter, For flesh
and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven."
Where did the Apostle Paul get his doctrine from? The clearest
presentation of the gospel of sovereign grace, of justification,
of particular redemption, Paul was the one who was privileged
by God. chosen of God to write those words. Where did he get
his doctrine from? Was he picked out because he
was the smartest guy around? Was he picked out because he
was the professor of theology at Gamaliel's University of Theology? Not in the slightest. He got
his doctrine straight from God. You read Galatians chapter one,
he said he didn't confer with flesh and blood. Not at all. He went into the desert, three
years in the desert, where God taught him the gospel of his
grace. Holy Spirit revelation. And in verse 27, look at verse
27 of chapter 2. And he, Simeon, came by the Spirit
into the temple. How did he get into the temple
on this particular day? Why was it that, I mean he would
be there a lot, but why was it that he was there on this particular
day? It was by the Spirit that he
came to see the infant Christ. The Spirit of God organized his
events, organized his circumstances, organized where he would be,
and where Mary and Joseph and the infant Christ would be. He
organized those things so that their paths would cross. And
all things are ordered. All events and circumstances
are ordered. Why are you here today hearing
this message? You think back over your life.
You think back of the path that God has brought you on. Think
back of the ways that he has led you. Think back of the things
that you never ever would have known had he not caused your
path to cross with another person at a certain time. I remember
my wife traveling on a bus in Liverpool when we were in all
sorts of Arminian religion and passing a church that had a notice
outside of it and you said, I think we ought to go to that church.
Remember? Yeah. God just caused the path to cross.
And what that led to? Well, you know how he deals. He deals in mysterious but wonderful
ways, ordering our circumstances. ordering us all the circumstances
of his people to bring them to that knowledge of the truth and
even in dark days like the ones that we're living in we think
that they're hopeless you look around you can advertise you
can put notices up, and it seems like nobody takes any notice
whatsoever that the gospel is being preached. What do people
care about the gospel of sovereign grace? They're comfortable with
their material lives as they are. They want to know nothing
about eternity. They're not interested in eternity.
It's of no relevance to them. Dark days, but God the Holy Spirit
always has some in every age to whom he reveals gospel truth.
Always does. He always does. He always had
his 7,000 when Elijah said, I even I only am left. a prophet of the Lord. And God
said to him, I've got my 7,000. My perfect completeness, I think
is what that number means. My perfect completeness of people
who have not bowed the knee to Baal. You think there are none?
He's got his perfect completeness. We think there are none here?
He's got his perfect completeness. Blessed is that man. Blessed
is that man who is amongst those to whom the Holy Spirit has revealed
the truth of His grace. Blessed is that man, as Psalm
1 verse 1 says, who does not walk in the counsel, in the wisdom,
in the Philosophy of the ungodly. Blessed is that man who walks
in the philosophy, the counsel, the wisdom of God. And that wisdom
is in Christ, for he is made unto us wisdom from God, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Blessed is that
man like old Noah. Right? Thousands of years ago.
when that world was in such a state of wickedness and sin. And God
looked down and saw and said, this is coming to an end. I'm
going to end all life. But Noah and his family, just
eight of them in total, found grace in the sight of the Lord. Wasn't that Noah in his flesh
was better than anybody else, Noah found grace in the sight
of the Lord. Noah had Holy Spirit revelation
concerning the truth of the Lord. Noah built that ark which is
such a picture of God's salvation from judgment, such a picture
of the Christ of God. He found grace in the sight of
the Lord. The Holy Spirit revealed truth
to him. Think about Lot. in a world which is so much like
our Western society, in Western Europe and the United States
of America. It's like a modern day Sodom, the place where we
live. Everything about it, the laws
of the land, the culture, everything about it is the culture of Sodom
and Gomorrah. And Lot was there, even there.
And before God could destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he had to
come down and take Lot out of that place. God always has his
people. where he reveals by his Holy
Spirit the truth of his gospel. We read of Lot that the wickedness
in Sodom vexed his righteous soul. His soul was made righteous
by knowledge of the truth of the gospel of grace. And what
he saw around him vexed his righteous soul. Like this evil society
in which we live vexes our righteous soul if you're in Christ. Think
of Daniel in Babylon, in that great domineering empire. Daniel
was there. Think about Simeon and Anna.
If you read on in this chapter, you come across Anna, a prophetess.
She's about 103 years old, and she's been waiting and looking,
and she speaks to everybody that comes in all around Jerusalem
about redemption, because she's seen the Christ of God. What
about bringing it more up to date? What about Luther of the
time of the Reformation? When it seemed like there was
nobody, but Luther, the truth was revealed to him. Think of
Tyndale, think of Bunyan, think of many, many more. Think about
our situation here. Think of the blessedness. Think
of the blessedness. You know, we glibly say, there
but for the grace of God go I. Isn't that an expression that
people regularly use? Nobody can say it more truthfully.
If you are a believer today, you look around at the world
in which we live, and you know the truth, and you can only say
this, there but for the grace of God, go I. Praise his name. Why me? Isn't that gonna be the
question? When we get to eternity? Why
me? Praise his name, why me? Why
has he been gracious to me amongst all the others that he could
have been gracious to? Well, let's look at the blessings
of this Holy Spirit revelation. Did you notice, and it's so obvious,
there it is, verse 26, he's told him, the Holy Spirit has told
him that he will not see death until he has seen the Lord's
Christ. And he takes him up in his arms.
And then verse 29, Well, he takes him up in his arms and he blesses
God, he praises God, he thanks God and he says, Lord, verse
29, now let your servant depart in peace. I'm ready to die. Everything's
finished, nothing else waiting to be done. I'm ready to die
according to your word, because mine eyes have seen your salvation,
which you promised. This is the blessing of Holy
Spirit revelation. Simeon is relaxed about death. He's seen Christ. He's seen God
in the flesh. Now, he can die peacefully. He's not like unbelievers. We're surrounded by unbelievers
who put on a good show that they're happy and everything's fine.
But in actual fact, as Hebrews 2.15 tells us that through fear
of death, they're all their lifetime subject to bondage. through fear
of death. Fear of death. I heard somebody
famous the other day, I can't remember who, saying how frightened
he was of dying. Frightened of death, scared.
Fear of death, subject to bondage. Does death cause you to fear
the prospect of death? I'm not saying, you know, are
you ready to go and jump off a building today? I'm saying,
does the prospect of death frighten you? How if today you were snatched
from this life into eternity? That's a serious question. Think
about it. However young you are, however
old you are, think about it. What if today you're snatched
from this life into eternity? How do you feel about that? Is
that a prospect that you think, oh the bliss to know that I The
dying thief on the cross next to Christ. Remember me. This
day you shall be with me in paradise. Is that what it is to you? Or
is it this fearful dread of death, of the unknown? Simeon is holding
the Christ of God. Simeon is holding this bundle
of flesh, which is God, made of a woman, to live and die in
our nature, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Why? To satisfy
divine justice on our behalf. He's holding the one that he
knows he's going to do that, because he knows his scriptures.
He knows he's holding the one who's going to remove the sins
of his people from the books of God, so that God the judge
might look for iniquity in his people and find none. And he
knows that he, in doing that, has destroyed death. He knows
that he's destroyed the power of death. He doesn't know what
Paul has written, because Paul hasn't written it yet, but he
knows the truth of this. 1 Corinthians 15, 55 to 57. Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. And if you don't know it, go
to a funeral and tell me you don't know it. Look at that one
that you knew in a coffin, going into the crematorium or into
the ground. Where is your victory, O grave? The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law. For all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and are all condemned before
the law of God. And in that is the sting of death. The strength of it is in the
law that condemns, and that's the sting of death is sin. But
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory over death through
our Lord Jesus Christ. where the word of God said cursed
is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the
book of the law to do them we read on in Galatians chapter
three that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law
that curse of death Christ has redeemed us he's paid the price
he's bought us back from the curse of the law how? by being
made a curse for us in our place on our behalf so that we don't
have to go in that place and he's risen from the dead, having
paid the penalty, he's risen from the dead. And Simeon knew
by Holy Spirit revelation that it was promised in the book of
God, and therefore as good as done already, that Christ would
rise from the dead when he'd accomplished that which he came
to do. He knew what the Psalms said about his body. He would
not suffer his Holy One to see corruption. He must rise from
the dead. And he's holding this one who
he knew was going to do everything before the law of God that he
needed and he couldn't do himself. And he's confident about death.
He's confident about everlasting life. He knew that it could be
said of Christ, Christ now ever lives, having died and risen
again. As Jesus said to Martha at the time of the death of Lazarus,
Lazarus, he said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. Don Faulkner wrote this, he said,
death to the wicked, and by that I mean those without Christ and
without hope in this world, death to the wicked is the execution
of divine justice. Because God said to Adam in the
garden, in the day that you eat thereof, disobey my law, you
shall surely die in the day that you eat of it. It's divine justice. Death to the wicked is the execution
of divine justice. But to the believer, to those
like Simeon with Holy Spirit revelation of the truth of the
gospel, death is but the deliverance from the experience of sin. The
experience of sin. To die forgiven and accepted
in Christ the beloved is not really to die at all. Do you
remember that hymn that Don wrote? We sang it a couple of times.
Don't stand around my grave and cry. I am not here. I did not
die. For the believer, for Simeon,
death is no threat, it's no terror. It's just the passage into sinless
bliss with Christ. And what a blessing, something
worth waiting for. He was waiting for the consolation
of Israel. It's worth waiting for. Why was
he waiting for the consolation of Israel? He knew that the coming
Christ, who he now held in his arms, was God's salvation, was
Israel's salvation, the consolation of Israel, the light of the Gentiles,
his salvation. The salvation promised to Abraham. When God promised to Abraham
in Genesis 22, 18 and other places, He promised, in your seed, who
is Christ, shall all the nations, Gentiles as well as Jews, be
blessed. Not just physical descendants,
in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Verse
32, He says that this one He's holding, is the salvation of
God, mine eyes have seen your salvation which you've prepared
and verse 32 he's a light to lighten the Gentiles the Gentiles
sit in darkness They sit in darkness, Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2, Isaiah
52 thereabouts again. The Gentiles sit in darkness,
the darkness of the lack of light, of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But Christ comes to lighten the
Gentiles. He's the glory of your people
Israel. The glory of the elect of God,
the Israel of God. And it's all by Holy Spirit revelation. Jesus said this in Matthew 11,
27. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son Himself. And He, to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. Has the Son revealed Him to you?
Has the Son revealed the Father to you? Revealed by God. This is sovereign. This is polarizing. You're either one or the other.
Agnosticism is not an option. You either love his truth or
you hate his truth. Verse 34, this is what it says
here. Simeon blessed them and said
to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and
rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be
spoken against. Flesh hates the gospel of sovereign
grace. If you preach the truth, if you
witness the truth of sovereign grace, as it is in the scriptures,
you will find that fleshly reason will hate it. But Holy Spirit
revelation brings the savour, the taste, the smell of life. To one, it says, to those who
are perishing, it's the smell of death, the savour, the taste
of death. But to those that believe it's
the savour of life, Without that Holy Spirit revelation, the blessed
truth of God is but foolishness or a stumbling block. But with
that Holy Spirit revelation, it's the power of God and the
wisdom of God. But it isn't without suffering.
It's not without suffering. Verse 35, he says to Mary, yea,
a sword shall pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts
of many hearts may be revealed. Philippians chapter 129 says
this, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake. Simeon is
a man who knows what he knows because God the Holy Spirit has
revealed it to him and no other way, not by human reason. You
may respond, well what hope is there for me then if he doesn't
choose to reveal it to me? And you're right. If he doesn't
choose to reveal it, there's no hope. But listen. If that's
a concern to you, then think of this. You can pray for mercy. For God is a God of mercy. You
can pray that prayer of the hymn. Pass me not, O gracious Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others you are calling, Do not pass me by. That's the prayer.
A prayer. God be merciful to me like that
Pharisee. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Do not pass me by. And you can
hear those gracious words of the Son of God who said, come
unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. What with? Your
sins, your guilt, your knowledge that you're condemned before
a holy God, your knowledge that your sins will drag you down
to hell, you're burdened with them, come unto me, you who labor
and are heavy laden, and he says, I will give you rest. What blessed
Holy Spirit revelation that is.