Sermon #14 Luke
Sermons
Title: “According
To The Law”
Text: Luke 2:21-24
Subject: Christ’s
Presentation in the Temple
Date: Sunday Evening – October 3, 1999
Tape
# V-48a
Readings: Office: Buddy Daugherty Auditorium: Merle Hart
Introduction:
Everything our Savior did as a man he did “according to the law.” When the Lord
Jesus Christ came into the world to save his people from their sins, he
willingly put himself under the law and became voluntarily subject to the law
in all things as a man. He did so because God cannot justify the guilty except
upon the grounds of strict justice. Righteousness must be maintained and
justice must be satisfied in the exercise of mercy, love, and grace. He who is
our God and Savior is “a just God and a
Savior” (Isa. 45:20). “By mercy and
truth iniquity is purged” (Pro. 16:6).
The
LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and
make [it] honourable. (Isaiah 42:21)
But when the fulness of the time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons.
(Galatians 4:4-5)
Though the yoke of the law was a heavy yoke, and only a
shadow of good things to come, if we would have those good things, Christ must
bear the law’s heavy yoke for us. And he did it as our willing Substitute and
Surety. Though the carnal ordinances of the law were what the Holy Spirit
calls, “weak and beggarly elements,” and
but the “rudiments of the world,” our
Lord Jesus Christ submitted to all the ordinances and institutions of the law
as a man, that he might fulfil the law for us and bring it to an honorable end.
Proposition: Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the law
for us, from the beginning to the end of his manhood, that he might by his
obedience unto death bring in everlasting righteousness for us and put away our
sins forever, and that he might do so in a way that honors God.
In our text, tonight, we see our Savior, Mediator, Surety,
and Substitute beginning to fulfil the law of God in the room and stead of his
people – Luke 2:21-24.
And
when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name
was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in
the womb. And when the days of her
purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him
to Jerusalem, to present [him] to the Lord;
(As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the
womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of
the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. (Luke 2:21-24)
I.
When he was just a baby, eight days old, The Lord Jesus Christ was
circumcised as our Covenant Surety.
Circumcision was instituted under the law as a symbol of the new birth. The cutting away the filth of the flesh showed the necessity of God’s elect being purified by his grace (Tit. 3:5-6). But Christ had no sin. Why was he circumcised? The answer is obvious. He was circumcised as our Surety.
A. Circumcision identified him as one with Abraham’s seed whom he came to save (Heb. 2:16-17).
For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:16-17)
B. Circumcision required the shedding of blood.
Here he shed a few drops of blood by a painful act done to him by order of God’s law, as a foreshadowing of the pouring out of his life’s blood unto death, by the order of God’s law, in the most painful, ignominious manner possible.
C. By submitting to this ordinance of the law, our blessed Savior voluntarily made himself a debtor to do the whole law for us (Gal. 5:3).
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. (Galatians 5:3)
Circumcision was the legally required pledge of every Israelite that he was a debtor to keep the whole law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, “by being circumcised,” wrote Thomas Goodwin, “did as it were set his hand to it, being made sin for us.” The ceremonial law consisted much in sacrifices. Christ hereby obliged himself to offer, not the blood of bulls and goats, but his own blood.
II. When he was circumcised, The incarnate God was named as our Savior. – “His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
This
name Jesus, or Joshua, was given to our Lord by the express command of God by
the angel, both to Joseph and to Mary, before he was conceived in the womb
(Matt. 1:21; Lk. 1:31).
A. Many are called “Jesus” who
are not saviors at all. – This was a common name (Col. 4:11).
B. Our Lord was given this name
because it was the name of two very eminent types of him in the Old Testament.
1.
Joshua, who led Israel into the land of rest.
2.
Joshua, the priest upon his throne (Zech. 3:1-5; 6:11-13).
·
Joshua represented the
removal of sin by Christ.
And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist
him. And the LORD said unto Satan, The
LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee: [is] not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take
away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of
raiment. And I said, Let them set a
fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed
him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by. (Zechariah 3:1-5)
·
Joshua also represented our
Lord Jesus Christ upon his throne as our Intercessor King.
Then
take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set [them] upon the head of Joshua
the son of Josedech, the high priest;
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,
Behold the man whose name [is] The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD;
and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he
shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between
them both. (Zechariah 6:11-13)
C. Our Lord Jesus Christ was
named Jesus because he was sent into this world to save his people from their
sins; and save them he shall.
And
she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall
save his people from their sins.
(Matthew 1:21)
1.
He shall save! – By Redemption! – By
Regeneration! – By Resurrection!
2.
His people! – His by divine election!
– His by covenant gift!
3.
From their sins! – Their Penalty! – Their
Power! – Their Presence! – Their Consequence!
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows,
heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
It makes the wounded spirit
whole,
And calms the troubled
breast,
Tis manna to the hungry
soul,
And to the weary, rest.
Dear name! The rock on which
I build,
My shield and hiding place:
My never failing treasury
filled,
With boundless stores of
grace!
His
name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and
[men] shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. (Psalms 72:17)
III.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was presented in the temple at Jerusalem as the
Firstborn, “according to the law.”
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present [him] to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) (Luke 2:22-23)
A. Mary came to the temple to
offer he sacrifices, according to the law, for ceremonial purification, forty
days after Christ was born , “according
to the law” (Lev. 12:4-6).
There is no cleansing from uncleanness of any kind, except by the blood of a sacrifice. If we would be clean before God, it must be by blood.
B. The Lord Jesus came into his temple to fulfil the prophecy given by Malachi.
Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:1)
C. Our Savior, the God-man,
came into the temple, according to the law of God, as the firstborn, as God’s
firstborn, that one who is sanctified and holy before God (Ex. 13:2; Num.
3:13).
Sanctify
unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of
Israel, [both] of man and of beast: it [is] mine. (Exodus 13:2)
Because all the firstborn [are] mine; [for]
on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto
me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I [am]
the LORD. (Numbers 3:13)
·
Christ
is the Firstborn!
·
Among Many Brethren (Rom. 8:29).
·
Of Every Creature (Col. 1:15).
·
From The Dead (Col. 1:18).
IV.
In
order to bring us into the unsearchable riches of his grace and his kingdom,
the Son of God became the poorest of men (v. 24).
The law required worshippers to bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering, except if they were very poor. If they were very poor, they were allowed to bring two young pigeons or two turtledoves (Lev. 12:6-8), the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Mary was a poor woman.
And
to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A
pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
(Luke 2:24)
For
ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Application:
1. Since Christ fulfilled all the law for us, we are entirely and forever free from the law (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 7:4; 10:4).
2. We must never attempt to
worship God by the carnal ordinances of legal religion.
3. Those who attempt to
establish righteousness by their works do but trample upon God’s holy law and
would nullify it altogether as an unholy thing.
4. We establish the law by
faith in Christ (Rom. 3:28, 31).
Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
(Romans 3:31)
5. Let us now prove the
sincerity of our love to Christ (2 Cor. 8:7-9).
Therefore,
as ye abound in every [thing, in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in]
all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace
also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your
love. For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,
that ye through his poverty might be rich.
(2 Corinthians 8:7-9)
How do we prove the sincerity of our love to
our Savior?
·
By Our Devotion and Commitment To Him.
·
By Our Generosity in His Cause.
·
By Our Love and Devotion to One Another.