countenance doth behold the upright. So as we begin a new year together,
it seems like it's becoming many years for us and the Lord has
been faithful in causing his gospel to be proclaimed and causing
us to rejoice in the old, old story. I thought I'd go back
to the foundations and I wanted to look this morning
at Luke chapter 1. I was going to read it and then
later on we'll go and look at the first Christian message of
the Gospel Age. Zacharias, Zacharias' Declaration
of the Gospel at the Naming and Circumcision of John the Baptist
is the first Christian message that was publicly proclaimed.
We're not saying for one moment that there wasn't a proclamation
of Mary to Elizabeth and Elizabeth to Mary and the angels to Mary
and the angel to Zacharias, but this was the first public proclamation
of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first word, the first
public word from God for 400 years. And it preceded the angelic
host singing those glorious songs from heaven, come from heaven
at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But one of the things
that we need to re-establish again and again and again, and
I trust that what Zachariah preaches is the heart and soul and the
substance of the message that we preach week in and week out
here, Lord willing, I love how Luke begins, so let's turn in
our Bibles to Luke 1. Let's start from verse 1. For as much
as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration
of those things which are most surely believed among us. So this is a declaration of the
apostolic testimony of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, surely
believed among us. Even as they delivered them unto
us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers
of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding
of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order,
most excellent Theophilus.' Theophilus is the name of a man who we don't
know a whole lot about but we know what his name means. lover of God, friend of God.
And then he says in verse 4 that thou mightest know the certainty
of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. That word certainty is the word
safety. So here in this declaration of
Luke we have something that's certain. We have something that's
surely believed among the apostles and it's a place of safety for
us. So this Gospel declaration of
Zacharias is a place of something that is surely believed and it's
a place of safety. Our safety before God is in these
declarations. wherein thou hast been instructed. So Luke is doing what we do in
church over and over again. We just keep reminding people.
And why do we have to keep reminding people? Because we keep forgetting
all the time. We put you in remembrance. I
want to be put in remembrance. I need to remember who the Lord
Jesus Christ is and what he's done. So let's turn on to verse
5 and we'll read some of this history. There was in the days
of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias,
of the course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of
Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And this is a lovely description
of them, isn't it? They were both righteous before God. There is only one righteousness.
They had the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
yet here they were in old age and in travail. They were both
righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord, blameless. Isn't that a lovely word? That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ promises to do with us, doesn't it? He
presents us blameless before in his sight. They were righteous
and blameless, and they walked in the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord. And they had no child because
Elizabeth was barren. And they both now were well stricken
in years. And it came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of the incense. And there appeared unto him an
angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zacharias. For thy prayer is heard, and
thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call
his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even
from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God." You might recall that that
is how the Old Testament finishes. That the hearts of the fathers
will be turned to the children, and the children will be turned
together as one to the Lord. He shall go before him, before
the Lord God, in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zechariah
said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an
old man, and my wife well stricken in years.' And the angel answering
said unto him, I am Gabriel. Gabriel means God is my strength. that stand in the presence of
God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these
glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb
and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be
performed, because thou believeth not my words, which shall be
fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias,
and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when
he came out, he could not speak unto them, for they perceived
that he had seen a vision in the temple. For he beckoned unto
them, and remained speechless. And it came to pass, that as
soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed
to his own house. And after those days his wife
Elizabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked
on me, to take away my reproach among men. And in the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto the city a city of Galilee
named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph
of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the
angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favoured. And the Lord is with thee, blessed
art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. She's
been graced. She's the recipient of grace.
And behold, thou shalt conceive him, thou worm, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
sixth month with her. She, this Elizabeth, who was
called barren. And don't you love verse 37?
For with God Nothing shall be impossible. Do you feel barren? With God,
nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. What a lovely response
to the promises of God! "...be it unto me according to
thy word." And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those
days and went into the hill country with haste into the city of Judah. and entered into the house of
Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the baby leaped in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she
spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among
women. Blessed is the fruit of thy worm. And whence is this to me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as
the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in
my worm for joy, and blessed is she that believed. For thou
shalt be a performance of those things which were told her from
the Lord. Let's sing before Mary sings.
Norm, thank you. We're going to sing number 31. Tell out my soul, the greatness
of the Lord, unnumbered blessings give my spirit voice. This is Mary's song. It's extraordinary,
isn't it, how Mary's declaration as she is filled with the Holy
Spirit and sang this song is so remarkably different from
what is perceived of Mary by hundreds and hundreds of millions
of people throughout this world. It's not as if God didn't know
that Mary was going to be exalted by men to a place where, in some
understandings of Catholicism, she's equivalent to the Lord
Jesus Christ. She's co-redemptrix. Extraordinary, isn't it? Listen
to what Mary says rather than what men say. Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Mary was a sinner in need of
a Saviour. She rejoices in God her Saviour. For he hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. And His mercy is
on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He has showed
strength with His arms. He has scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. That's where we get the word
image from, isn't it? We create images in our hearts. May God be an idle destroyer
before us. There will be one image, the
true image of God. Verse 52, He hath put down the
mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He
hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath
sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to
Abraham, and to his seed for ever. Mary abode with her about
three months and returned to her own house now Elizabeth's
full-time came that she should be delivered and she brought
forth a son and her neighbors and her cousins heard how the
Lord had showed great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her
and it came to pass that Don't you love that expression? It's
throughout the scriptures. It came to pass. What's the it
that comes to pass? All of God's sovereign purposes. All of God's sovereign purposes. that on the eighth day they came
to circumcise the child and they called him Zacharias after the
name of his father. And his mother answered and said,
Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her,
There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.
And they made signs to his father how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table
and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all,
and his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he
spake and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt
around about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout
all the hill country of Judea. Isn't that extraordinary that
when the Pharisees go from Jerusalem
down to examine John the Baptist. All of this history had been
known and reported and widely distributed for 30 long years. And yet when they went down there
looking through their Pharisaical eyes they looked upon John the
Baptist and said, he's nothing. They looked upon the Lamb of
God and said, He's nothing. And they went back to Jerusalem
as empty of revelation of God as they did when they came down
there. These people laid them up in
their hearts, verse 66, what manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was
with him. And his father Zacharias, in the midst of this crowd, his
father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied,
saying, And this is the first gospel sermon of this gospel
age. It's a gospel sermon proclaimed
before the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the gospel, came forth. And what a glorious, glorious
foundation is laid here for all gospel preaching. And may the
Lord cause us to go back to this passage again and again and again
and read what the Holy Spirit had caused Zacharias, after all
those years of silence, to say publicly, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Zacharias had so much to say,
didn't he? He could have said, I met the
angel Gabriel in the temple. He could have said, we had in
our old age the promise of a child to be born. He could have spoken
so many things about the things that the Lord had done for him
and with him. But out of his mouth, and I trust
it comes out of our mouths again and again, and the first thing
that comes out is, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed
his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in
the house of his servant David. must realize this is before the
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ as he spoke by the mouth of his
holy prophet which have been since the world began that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and
to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our
father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him
without fear. That word serve is the same word
that's translated worship in so many other places in the scriptures.
we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt
be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before
the face of the Lord to prepare his ways This is what it is to
go before the face of the Lord and to prepare his ways, to give
knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their
sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring
from on high have visited us. to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. And the child grew and waxed
strong in spirit and was in the deserts until the day of his
showing unto Israel. We might have a break there,
but I just love the fact that the salvation that Zacharias
is preaching of is a salvation that comes when the Lord visits
his people. The Lord visits his people. He has visited and redeemed
his people, verse 68. The day spring on high has visited
us. what immeasurable eternal blessings
are wrapped up in the visit of the Lord. Let's have a break.