Luke chapter 1 this morning. When the scriptures are read,
the Lord is gracious often to show us one particular thing
that we perhaps have not had impressed upon us in the many
times we've read it before. And as Brother David just read,
I noticed where it says the Spirit said to Philip, go. That's the
first word he said to him, go. And then it says, and Philip
ran. And I know that the heart of
that passage now is the the gospel that that man read from the book
of Isaiah and the fact that God gave him faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I believe that Jesus is the son of God. Jesus Christ
is the son of God. But I just thought, may the Lord
give us grace to run when he says go. Luke chapter one, verse 46. I want to talk this morning about
rejoicing in God, my Savior. Rejoicing in God, my Savior. Luke 1 46 and Mary said my soul
doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Savior. Now think with me for a moment
about the occasion upon which Mary magnifies the Lord in her
soul. The occasion is this God sent
an angel to her. with a message for her and told
her these three things mainly. If you look at the context you'll
see these three things. He said that the Son of God was
about to be born into this world. God's Son. He'll be called the
Son of the Highest. He told her that he would save
his people. He's going to be the Savior of
sinners. And he told her he was the sovereign. He's going to reign over his
people Israel. Now think about this. That's
pretty much what's happening this morning. God has sent you
an angel, not a heavenly creature like we think of when we use
the word angel, but the word angel means messenger. All of us are God's messengers. A messenger is sent with a message
from God. And it's pretty much the same
message that this angel had. God's son has come. God's son. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
if like you say, if I preach by the power of Satan, then by
whose power do your children preach? But if I come from God,
if I'm who I say I am, then the kingdom of God is coming to you.
That's the message. God's kingdom has come to you
in the person of his son. And he is the king. and He is
the Savior, the Savior. My spirit hath rejoiced in God,
my Savior. The God of heaven and earth has
come to this earth, come where we are, to save His people from
their sin. That's why He said He came, to save. That of all that the
Father gave him, he should lose nothing. And he does and shall
rule over his people. And when Mary heard that, it
made her very happy. She was happy to hear that. How
do you feel about that this morning? How do I feel about that? God
is doing for us this morning just what he did for Mary. He
sent a message concerning his son, who he is, what he did and
what he shall do. Are we happy about that? Glad
tidings of great joy. What will our reaction be this
morning? Mary, her reaction to the message to God sending her
an angel was twofold. She magnified the Lord and she
rejoiced in God, her savior. Two reactions. She magnified
and she rejoiced. and two characterizations of
God, the Lord and God her Savior. And all four of these things
are important to see. She magnified the Lord. She magnified him. The word means
to, listen to this, to declare to be great, to esteem highly,
to celebrate. Celebrate This world is always
celebrating something What do we celebrate Who do we
celebrate when we gather and hear God's messenger tell about
Christ that he's come And he's the Savior and he's the king.
He's the sovereign Savior. He said Lord. He prayed to his
father You've given me authority over all flesh. You've made me
the sovereign that I might give eternal life. I To as many as
you gave me, he's the sovereign savior of sinners. To that message,
what's our reaction? She magnified the Lord. When
we come together and hear that Christ, he's not just a savior. People talk about, well, he's
the savior, he's the savior. He's the shall save savior. That's
who he is. He's the savior who shall save. And he's the king that God has
set on his holy hill of Zion. Is it a time of celebration when
we come together? And if it is, what are we celebrating?
You know, so-called churches celebrate. They get all excited,
you know, and do all kinds of crazy things and say it's a celebration.
But what are we celebrating? Well, many in religion celebrate
Mary herself. They magnify Mary. But how foolish
is that? Think about how foolish that
is. If Mary magnifies him, why would you magnify Mary? Let's
follow her example and magnify her Lord. This morning let's
do that. This is like when the Apostle
Peter came to Cornelius's house in Acts chapter 10. And Cornelius
was so glad that his prayer was answered that the Apostle Peter
was going to come preach the gospel to him. He was so excited
about that he bowed down and began to worship the Apostle.
And Peter said, no, it says that he took him up. He grabbed ahold
of him and said, no, no, no. And him and the Apostle Cornelius
and the Apostle Peter went into Cornelius's house together and
worshiped the only one who's worthy to be worshiped. So many worship Mary, they celebrate
and magnify her. But Mary magnified the Lord. She celebrated in her heart with
her soul. There's a difference between
outward celebration, the fanfare and the hoopla, and saying my
soul celebrates the coming of my of God's Son, my Savior and
my King, my Lord. And we'll see that word Lord
in a minute. But Mary also rejoiced. She rejoiced in God, her Savior. Now, God was Mary's creator.
God was Mary's judge. God was the disposer. He was
the one in whose hand Mary rested to do with as he would. But Mary
here is rejoicing in him in a certain character. God, my savior. You see, he is the judge. And if the judge is going to
save you, he's going to do so with righteous judgment. He's
not going to compromise justice now. He's the judge. Can he be
your savior too? The one that made you. Is He
your Savior? In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is all that that angel talked about in that message. What did the angel tell her?
What was his message? It was all about Christ. May that be
true this morning. All he talked about was Christ.
And her response to that is God is my Savior. Of all the things
that God is, my Creator, my Judge, He's also my Savior in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that caused her spirit to
rejoice. Now, again, when we hear from
God, is it a time of rejoicing? Celebration and rejoicing. I
know that some like to make the worship services more like a
funeral. And you know, I get that. I think
a lot of times that comes from the right place. It comes from
a desire to be reverent and to be solemn, I guess, in the assembly. But it's either a celebration
or it's not. It's rejoicing or it's not. And of course, we don't
want the worship to ever degrade into a frivolous display of silly
emotions and things like that. But I don't believe worship is
either. I don't think it's a funeral. or a frivolous, silly, fleshly
celebration, we can rejoice and fellowship together and laugh
and cry together and just be ourselves. How about
that? Let's just be a bunch of sinners that God has had mercy
on in Christ that are glad to see one another and like to talk
to one another, like to be together on this occasion. the worship
of God's Son in His presence. Let's celebrate Him and rejoice
in Him. When God is speaking through
His gospel, we rejoice. We keep the rejoicing on the
inside, don't we? For the sake of order and so
that there's not any distraction. But before and after, I love
to hear you enjoying one another in the fellowship of Christ.
I don't have any problem with that. It makes my heart glad. You stay after service 30, 45
minutes rejoicing together. That's fine with me. I've got nowhere to be. Unless, you know, on Sunday night
I get pretty hungry sometimes. We don't eat before service on
Sunday night, but that's alright. You know, it doesn't matter. Now he was Mary's Lord. She magnified her Lord, and this
is an important word. There are different words translated
Lord in the scriptures. This one means. And I see a lot
of Jesus is Lord, you know, and bumper stickers and little plaques
and think Jesus is Lord is some kind of a religious slogan. But
I don't think most people who display that. Think of him this
way. Here's what it means, literally.
He to whom a person or thing belongs. Mary is saying, I belong to him. And she magnified him in that.
Listen to the rest of it. He to whom a person or thing
belongs about which he has the power of deciding. You think
I made that up. You look at it in Strong's Concordance. That Greek word means he who
has the power over you of deciding. The one who owns you and will
decide everything about you. You look it up. And it means
this, which is One word for all that I just said, master. Master. There are not very many magnifying
him that way. Master. I'm a dog, but you're my master. The possessor and disposer of
a thing. Scripturally, you might put it
this way. He's the power, and I'm the clay. Is He your Lord? Boy, it's easy to say Jesus is Lord.
And you know all the stupid sayings of this world. Let's make Jesus
the Lord of our life. Let me tell you something. You
don't have a whole lot to do with that. He just is now. But he's the Lord of his people
in another sense entirely. He's my master. And I like it
that way. I like for him to call the shots.
He disposes everything. He decides and I like it. I'm
happy about that. I don't ever want any decision
of mine to ever enter into the equation. Is he your Lord? Do you magnify
the one who if he put you in hell? It would be his right to
do that, and he'd be right to do it. Do you magnify the one
who will do as he pleases with your children? Do you magnify
him? If it pleases him, can you bow
to him in whatever he does with your children, with those that
you love the most? Do you remember what Eli said
in 1 Samuel 3, verse 18, when God judged his children and put
them in hell, he said, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth
him good. Because you see, here's the thing,
if it seemeth him good, it is good. Could you magnify God as Job
did? If he took away everything in
this world of any value to you, including your wife and your
children. Could you magnify him then? That's
what it means to magnify the Lord, the one who decides, the
one who owns you and everything else and everybody else. Can you magnify him who saves
whom he will, who loves one sinner and hates another before they're
ever born? Or have either one of them ever done any good or
evil? Can you magnify him? You see, that's the Lord. And
then the one she rejoiced in is God, her Savior. God saved
me. Can you rejoice in that? The
judge of all the earth who must do right, and you know by his
grace that the right thing surely must be not good for me. But you see how in his infinite
grace, he sent his son to be our sin offering and our righteousness
so that he can do the right thing and that right thing be saving
you. By the grace and power and precious
blood of his son, God saved me. He didn't give me a chance. He
saved me. He didn't show me the way. He
is the way and he came right where I was and brought me to
himself. He didn't provide salvation.
He saved me. And the way that he did it was
by sending his son to live and die for me, for me. He is my righteousness. He is
my sin offering. He is my savior and he is my
salvation. If you can't rejoice in that,
you just don't know it. You just say it. And I'm talking
about myself. Verse 48 in our text. For he
hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold,
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. What was so blessed about Mary?
Well, you know what? I could say without hesitation
that it would be a blessing to be the one chosen to bear in
your body the Son of God. That'd be a blessing, wouldn't
it? It would have been a blessing just to walk with Him. Can you
imagine? Having God's Son? But that wouldn't save you. That's
a blessing in a sense, but blessed of God now is when God is your
Savior. When the one that she carried
in her womb when she could say before God. Like Simeon just
in the next chapter. That little baby is God's salvation. And he's come to me. He's mine. He hath regarded the low estate
of his handmaiden. What's beautiful about this now,
God regarded my low estate. He looked down and saw me in
my low estate and loved me. That's true. But he did more
than that. He didn't just look down and
see me in my low estate. He himself was made of low estate. Like me. He came right where
I was. In order to save me, he had to
come where I was and become what I am. That I might be made what
he is. The righteousness of God in him.
Listen to Philippians 2.5. May God give us grace. I know
the more we hear scripture that we're familiar with, the more
familiar it becomes, and the more it just seems to escape
us, doesn't it? But God's gracious. May he impress
this on our hearts. Philippians 2.5, let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, Thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In him
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead in his body. But made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. That's how he regarded my low
estate. He took upon him my low estate. and was made in the likeness
of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That's why I can say God's my Savior, because he came right
down here and became what I am in order to save me from what
I am. Verse 49, for he that is mighty
hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. Now we could preach for a long
time just on that, just on the great things that he has done
for us, but let's think about one thing here in this verse.
When you think about who he is and the great things that he
has done for you, those two considerations together are overwhelming. Think
about who he is and what he did for you. Who is he? The mighty
God. What did he do for me? He became
a helpless baby. The mighty God. The one who makes babies. The
one who created every one of us from the dust. Became a baby. Who is he? Holy is his name. What did he do? He took all of
my sin and bore it in his own body on the tree. The Holy One
did that. You see, the greatness of what
he did is fully seen in who it is that did it. The mighty God,
the Holy One of Israel became a nobody. and was made sin in order to save me from my sin. You and I will never know what
happened on Calvary until we know the one who died there,
who died for me, he who is mighty to save. There is therefore now
no condemnation unto me Because it is Christ. Because it is he
who is mighty that died. How shall I stand before God?
What right do I have to stand before God? I can't stand in
his presence. The one who stands in the presence
of God for me is he whose name is holy. That's how. Verse 50. And his mercy is on
them that fear him from generation to generation. All who fear him
never need to be afraid. What does he say to those who
fear him? Fear not. And that just causes us to fear
him even more. It's a different kind of fear,
you see. We reverence Him. We're in awe of Him. We bow to
Him. We acknowledge Him as our master.
We magnify Him as Lord. And we have no fear of anybody
or anything because the Lord, He's Lord, but He's my shepherd
too. You see, the Lord is my shepherd.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
not fear. Hearing of Christ being born,
being God, being a sure Savior, being God's sovereign, Mary said
this, God's mercy is on us. His mercy is on them that fear
him. Mercy is God not giving us what
we deserve. And upon the declaration of the
birth of God's Son, Mary's saying this, instead of sending his
wrath upon us, God sent his only begotten, well-beloved Son. We don't deserve that. We deserve
wrath, but he didn't send wrath. His mercy is on us. We deserve
hell, and God instead sent heaven. Christ is heaven. We deserve
punishment, and God sent forgiveness. We deserve shame, and God sent good tidings of
great joy. We deserve darkness, and God
sent the light of the world. And his mercy is on his people,
generation after generation after generation, because his gospel
is taught from generation to generation, and because God is
faithful who has promised. Look at verse 54. Skip down to
verse 54 for a second. He hath open his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers to Abraham
and to his seed forever when it says in remembrance of his
mercy. Let's talk about in remembrance
of his covenant of mercy that he promised verse 55 to Abraham
and to his seed forever. That's why from generation to
generation to generation, his seed forever is blessed. His
mercy is upon all of his seed. He remembers his covenant of
mercy, which he first gave verbally to Abraham. But this is an eternal
covenant. It is to Abraham and his seed,
which as we found in Galatians chapter three, is both Christ,
Paul said, he said seed and not seeds because that seed is Christ.
And also Galatians 3.29, if you be Christ's, then you're Abraham's
seed and heirs according to his promise. It's Christ and it's
me and you, if you're his. So this promise is to all. And the word hoping. Before we
look at that one, I want to look at that word last. Let's consider
verses 51 through 53. Let's just read them together. Verse 51 through 53, we skipped
those, but I want to look at them. And just read them and just make
a comment or two on that. Luke 1, 51. He has showed strength with his
arm, He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them
of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with
good tidings, and the rich he hath sent away empty. He hath
hope on his servant Israel. In verses 51 through 53, it just
says that the Lord passed by the proud the strong and the
rich and had mercy on the poor, the weak and the lowly. That's the way God does things.
So if you're here this morning and you are nothing, you have
nothing and you can do nothing, he's your savior. He is a savior
for you. He came for you. Now the word hopin' in verse
54 means simply this, to lay hold of and hold fast. In other words, God promised
before the world began to bless me and his son, to put me in
him and gave me to him before I was ever born. And what that's
like is this. Our Lord, I love the beautiful
simple pictures that our Lord gives us. What does it mean to
be in Christ? To be found in him that God blessed
us Ephesians chapter 1 with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
places in Christ before the foundation of the world Well, he says it's
kind of like this. This is what Mary prayed and
this is the word that the Lord gave her to record in his eternal
word hoping It's as though In Christ, God embraced me, wrapped
me in his almighty arms. He put his arms around me in
a loving, saving, securing, and comforting embrace a long, long,
long time ago. And he has never once let me
go. And he's promised that he never will. May God give us grace in this
new year to magnify the sovereign, magnify the Lord, the one to
whom we belong and who is the sovereign disposer of all things
and all things pertaining to us. May we magnify him and may
we rejoice. You know, more and more, I just
said this to somebody the other day, more and more I hate And
it's just me, it's me that I hate. It's not something about me,
but this is the thing that I hate about me. I'm so messed up and so sinful
and so ungrateful that I worry more than I rejoice. And here's the thing about that,
I've got nothing to worry about. And think about all that I have
to rejoice about. May God give us grace to rejoice
in free, full, finished salvation in Christ. And if you don't know Him this
morning, come to Him who came where you were. With all of your heart, come
to Him. And you'll find that He saw you before you ever saw
Him. Well, you were sitting under
the fig tree. He saw you and loved you then. Come, let's pray.