Equipping Eve: Simeons Psalm

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

The Need to Equip Women with Truth

Ladies and welcome to another episode of Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word to stand strong and firm on that truth in an age of deception. I am your host Erin Benzinger and here at Equipping Eve, we love the Bible and we love Jesus and we do not like when God's Word is distorted, is perverted, is twisted, is lied about, and that is done very frequently in evangelicalism today.

It's done by pastors. It's done by your everyday Christian because they are sitting underneath pastors who mishandle the scriptures. It is done by Bible teachers, well-meaning or wolfish, and done by many women Bible teachers, unfortunately, and so we must be discerning and while we don't want to take and spend all of our time simply talking about error, we do have an obligation as Christians to call out error when we see it, to call out false teachers and false teaching.

However, we must always point back to the truth and we must always point back to Jesus Christ. That is what it's about because pointing out error won't actually save anybody. It might save them from error, but it will not save them from sin and the wrath of God.

You must point people to the truth of Christ. You must point people to the gospel in order to actually fulfill the commission which Christ has given us which is to go and proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Incarnation and the True Meaning of Christmas

So, ladies, as I record this, we are rapidly approaching the Christmas season here in the year of 2015. Christmas. Oh, it's almost Christmas and, you know, I love Christmas time. I always have from a little girl on up.

I love it for very different reasons now that the Lord has graciously chosen to save me, but it's very easy to kind of hit one of two extremes in this season of Christmas. We can either get too wrapped up in the world and just be worried about the decorations and just having the perfect Martha Stewart home when my stockings are hanging just right and my tree is decorated just perfectly and the lights sparkle just the right way and every ornament is hung just right.

The packages are so perfectly placed and wrapped underneath the tree. Maybe you get your cat or your dog to sleep under the tree. My cats like to sleep under the tree, so I have a lot of really great pictures that way.

But, you know, it's easy to get wrapped up in this picture-perfect, picket fence Christmas, and that's not what it's about. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who just want to completely ignore all aspects of Christmas because the world has perverted it, and I don't know that that's necessarily the best way either.

The point is, Christmas is there so that we may recognize the birth of our Savior, the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself becoming man, in order that He might live the perfect life that we cannot live, fulfill the law and prophecies of God of the Old Testament, live the life that we cannot live, die the death that we deserve, take on the sins of all who would believe, bear the wrath of God for all who have been chosen from before the beginning of time, and rise again three days later, indicating that God accepted His sacrifice, His atonian sacrifice, so that those who have been saved may live forever, may not receive judgment for their sins as they deserve, so that they may be justified before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why would we want to ignore that? We celebrate that every day, not just on Sundays, not just on Christmas, not just on Easter, we celebrate that every day, that our Lord came in the incarnation so that we might be saved.

And I think in a previous show, ladies, I mentioned a book by Bruce Ware entitled The Man Christ Jesus, and we won't be using that book today, but just a reminder that that is a really excellent book and really speaks of the incarnation of Christ and His humanity.

And so I would encourage you to read that book, that is an excellent recommendation. So I am not inclined to boycott Christmas, if you will, and it is easy to get wrapped up in the world's version of Christmas and worry about which toy do I get for my children or my nieces or nephews, and you know, let's take a step back.

Let's take a step back and let's revisit the scriptures. Let's revisit a passage that we know quite well because we've all read the Christmas story as it's known over and over again. Ladies, will you turn with me to Luke chapter 2.

Simeon's Encounter with the Christ Child in Luke 2

Luke chapter 2, and I'm going to start reading in verse 21. Luke writes, and when eight days had passed before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the days for their purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Verse 26, 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.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary's mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul, to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

How often do you think about Simeon? You know, I feel like we don't hear a lot of sermons around Christmastime about Simeon. There's not much that we know about him other than what's here in these verses in Luke, but he was obviously a very important player, if you will, in the Christmas story, and obviously a man well-loved by the Lord.

We see in verse 25 that God describes him as righteous and devout. He was a saved man. He says he was looking 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.

You know, here, think back to where we are historically, ladies, when we read this story. From Malachi on, there had been silence in Israel. No prophets had spoken until John the Baptist came along. It had been 400 years of silence.

Israel knew a Messiah was supposed to come in the midst of this time of silence, in the midst of an uncertain time. God had revealed to this righteous and devout man that the Messiah was coming soon and that he would not die.

This man, Simeon, would not die before he saw the Messiah. What a gift. Can you even fathom that? This man was no doubt one of a small group of the remnant in Israel who was looking for the Messiah. His name means God has heard, and so he represents this saved remnant there in Israel.

We don't know what he was expecting when he saw the Messiah. I'm sure he looked every day, every time he went to the temple. Is this the Messiah? Is this the Messiah? Would he see a man, a grown man? Would he see a man of riches and wealth?

He probably did not expect an infant, and yet the Spirit revealed to him when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus, revealed to Simeon that this was indeed the Messiah. And so Simeon offers a psalm in this passage.

Verse 29, He's saying you promised I would not taste death until I saw this, the Savior, and so now I can go. So he very likely was an old man. Verse 30,. And those, ladies, are the verses I'd like to focus on today.

Christ as God's Salvation, Sinless Humanity, and Love

A few points, three particular points brought out here by James Montgomery Boyce in his book The Christ of Christmas. The first of those is that this child is God's salvation. God's salvation. And Boyce indicates that in the Greek text, this word salvation means one fitted to save.

Can you imagine that? At last, here's Simeon, here's this remnant in Israel who has been looking for this Messiah, who knows that the Messiah has been promised, but does not know when or where or how or who this will be.

How long had Israel been waiting? At least 400 years, at least, for a word from God. And Simeon says, my eyes have seen your salvation. My eyes have seen the Savior God. Why was Jesus Christ fitted to save?

He was fitted to save because he was God. A mere man could not die for the sins of men because a mere man would be sinful. That doesn't work. Every man is fallen at conception. Every man inherently is a sinner because of Adam's sin.

And so he needed, our Savior needed to be God and Jesus Christ. This baby, when Simeon meets him, was God. He was also fitted to save because he was a man. We also needed one like us to save us. Christ's humanity was essential.

And a third reason that Christ, this child in Simeon's arms, was fitted to save was that he was sinless. So here he's God, he's man, he's the God-man, Christ Jesus, and he's sinless. And he must be sinless.

As we said, men, mankind, is fallen, cannot save himself, but Christ fulfilled the law the way that we never can. Christ never sinned. He was wholly righteous. And that's why we need to repent and believe upon Christ for salvation.

And that his righteousness is imputed to us so that we stand justified before him. 2 Corinthians 5 .21, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God for the sins of all who would believe. This is why he was fitted to save. And finally, Boyce says he was fitted to save because he was love. He was the embodiment of the love of God.

1 John 4 .10, In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

And that is what Christ did. He was the God-man. He was sinless. He was love. Another point from Simeon's psalm here is that he was the light of revelation to the Gentiles. That's in verse 32. Simeon says, Christ is the light of revelation to the Gentiles in the glory of your people, Israel.

The Light of Revelation to the Gentiles

Jesus Christ came into a dark, dark world. That world is still dark today. Our world is full of sin. It's growing darker each and every day. Boyce writes, if you should then go to the scriptures and ask what God has to say, the answer is that not only was the world in darkness then, but the world is also in darkness today, apart from the light that the Lord Jesus Christ brings.

Paul spells it out in Romans 1. There, Paul says that the problem is not that light is not available, but that men have repressed the light and so have brought on their own darkness. God has revealed himself in nature, but because men do not like the God revealed in nature, they have repressed that knowledge and so have turned from him.

Turning from the light, they find themselves progressing into ever greater and greater darkness, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. That's Romans 1, 21 to 23. I think too, ladies, when I think of the darkness of the world, I think of John 3.

Everybody thinks of John 3, 16. Well, God loved the world. He sent his only begotten son. Yes, but keep reading, will you please? Verse 19, this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

1 John 1, verse 5, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, Christ is the light of revelation to the Gentiles.

You know, here you're in Israel in the first century and they are not exactly fans of the Gentiles. They don't want to hear that the Savior is the light of revelation to the Gentiles, but that was foretold in the Old Testament, was it not?

John MacArthur says, so Simeon and probably Joseph and Mary had a normal view that Gentiles were the enemy. They were outside the pale of God's provision and Simeon says, no, no, God has brought with the Messiah a salvation that has been prepared in the presence of all peoples and the Messiah is called a light of revelation to the Gentiles.

And that's an amazing statement, says MacArthur. And he says, he goes on, he says, we shouldn't be shocked by this because that's what the Old Testament promised. And I'm sure when Simeon said it, he realized it was right out of the Old Testament.

Salvation had been prepared by God, but it's been prepared for the whole world because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That message rings throughout all of scripture. The great commission is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

This was not something that should have been a surprise that Christ would be a light of revelation to the Gentiles. It may have been shocking at that time, but this is Old Testament prophecy. Turn, ladies, in your Bibles to Isaiah 9.

We'll start in verse 1, but there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times, he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

Verse 2, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. The Savior will be salvation and revelation to the Gentiles. Isaiah 42, verse 6, God is talking to the Messiah and says, I am the Lord.

I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

Just a few chapters over, Isaiah 49, verse 6, he says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Keep flipping through Isaiah, ladies. Chapter 51, verse 4, pay attention to me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my nation, for a law will go forth from me, and I will set my justice for a light of the peoples.

My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples, the coastlands will wait for me, and for my arm they will wait expectantly. Isaiah 52, verse 10, the Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.

And then Isaiah 60, verse 1, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear upon you.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising, and on and on. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was prophesied to be a light of revelation to the Gentiles. And these are the same types of words that Simeon uses in his psalm, and no doubt he had in mind the prophecies of the Old Testament.

MacArthur goes on, he says, Simeon is in his praise, extending the saving work of Messiah to the ends of the earth. The Gentiles participate in salvation as equals. They participate in the millennial kingdom as equals.

They participate in eternal glory as equals, not to the exclusion of Israel, which Simeon makes clear in verse 32, as he speaks of the glory of thy people Israel, not to the exclusion of the people of Israel.

But salvation includes people from all nations. So then we go back, ladies, to Luke 2, and Simeon says, verse 32, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. The glory of your people Israel.

The Glory of Israel and the Shekinah Glory of God

This child is God's glory. If you turn backwards a little bit, ladies, from Isaiah, where we just were, and go to 46, verse 13, I bring near my righteousness, it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay.

And I will grant salvation in Zion, and my glory for Israel. Boyce writes, glory relates to God, for in the proper sense, only he is glorious. Therefore, when Simeon held the Christ child in his arms, he saw him as God.

He saw in the child, the one who was also to be the world's savior, and therefore, quite properly, also the glory of God's own people Israel. The glory of God's own people Israel. MacArthur says glory is another word for light.

In fact, in the Old Testament, God reveals himself as light, and calls it his Shekinah glory. So light to the Gentiles means the Messiah is the light of salvation. To the Gentiles, glory to Israel means the glory of Messiah, who is salvation to Israel.

What's going to happen then, Israel is going to be saved, and Gentiles are going to be saved from the ends of the earth. The word glory is a special word to the Jews. It has a special meaning. In the Old Testament, God appeared in the garden in his glory, showed his glory of the Shekinah, showed his glory to Moses on the mountain, showed it in the sky, in the pillar of cloud and fire, showed his glory at the building of the tabernacle, showed it at the building of the temple.

The glory of God was synonymous with the radiating light of God's saving, leading, guiding, protecting power. And the Gentiles also will see the light of salvation, and Israel will see the glory of salvation.

So how rich, then, is this Psalm of Simeons? Read it again, ladies. Back to Luke 2. Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.

A declaration that this was indeed the Messiah promised long, long ago. He had come. Christ had come. And so, ladies, I'd like to end with what James Montgomery Boyce ends this little portion of his teaching with.

He asks two questions. First, is Jesus God's light and glory to you, or is he just a story that you talk about at Christmas time? Has he illumined your darkness? Is he the one in whom you have seen and know God?

That is a most important question. If you do not know the answer, you can find out on the basis of whether or not you talk about Jesus, think about Jesus, and talk about Jesus with others. When Christ has become our light, we find that so tremendous that we want to share it with the world.

How can we keep silent when such a great revelation has been given? The second question is this. If Christ is your light and glory, do you reflect his glory to others by the way you live? That is what we are called to do.

To be a Christian is to be a Christ one, one in whom the Lord Jesus Christ can be seen. Can he be seen in you? You should be a mirror to reflect his glory, or to use another image, you should be a picture frame in which the Lord Jesus Christ is displayed.

God is not too concerned whether you are a gold frame and therefore valuable in the world's eyes, or whether you are just a simple wood frame like simeon. All he is interested in is that you be an empty frame.

For if you are empty of self, the Lord Jesus Christ may be placed there. And when men and women look at you, they will see the Lord. And that is what it comes back to, ladies. It always comes back to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It has to, it must come back to Christ. Do people see Christ when they look at you? Not just at Christmas time, but all the time? It's a convicting question, isn't it? Ladies, I encourage you to pray for further sanctification.

Pray that God would show you your sins so that he may continue to sanctify you and grow you to be more and more like Christ. Pray for opportunities to reflect Christ in trial and in joy. Ladies, I pray as we rapidly approach this Christmas season that you would not get caught up in the worries of the world and the fake wars on Christmas that so-called Christians try to wage, but that you would use this time to proclaim Christ and draw people, point people to the only one who can save their souls, the one who is a light of revelation to the Gentiles in the glory of Israel.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the only Savior. Ladies, until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped. Thanks for listening.

Closing Announcements and Sign-Off

You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get ahold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com, or you can check out one of her two websites, donotbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.

Thanks for listening.