All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke 1. Let's ask the Lord's blessing
before we get started. Our gracious God and our Father,
Lord, we need to hear from you. We need your spirit with us. We need you to teach us in our
hearts. And Lord, we ask you to come now
Cause your spirit to quicken us and make us to behold our
Redeemer. Give us hearts to worship. Increase
our faith and cause us to see how you've saved your people
and your son and make us do as your servant does in our text
this morning. Make us worship you. We ask it
in Christ's name, amen. All right, brethren, Luke 1.
Like everybody that God saves, Mary worshipped the Lord. She
worshipped the Lord. A lot of people vainly worshipped
Mary, but Mary worshipped the Lord. And we're going to see
that. She had gotten the news from the Lord, from the angel
of the Lord, that she was carrying the promised seed. She ran to
Elizabeth. She told Elizabeth the good news.
And the Spirit came in Elizabeth. declared the things which surely
come to pass that had been declared to her. And we're going to see
some things here that Mary said after that. She's going to...
Mary believed the Lord and she knew scripture. Most of what
we're going to read here, she's quoting the Psalms, she's quoting
Hannah's prayer, she's quoting what the Lord did for Leah. There's
a lot of scripture she's quoting in what we're going to see here.
And I've titled this, Magnify the Lord. the Savior because
that's what she does. Now, I'll give you our divisions
as we read it. First of all, she owned Christ
to be her Lord and her Savior. She owned Christ to be her Lord
and her Savior, verse 46. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. That's where I get our title,
magnify the Lord, the Savior. Then secondly, she attributed
her salvation to God's grace. She says in verse 48, this is
why she magnified the Lord. She said, for he hath regarded
the lowest state 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 then she declared God's holy.
She said in the last part of verse 49, and holy is his name. Holy is his name. All right,
fourthly, she speaks of the great things that he did for her, and
this is what the Lord does for his people. Verse 50, she said,
his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He showed strength with his arm,
He has 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 things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. And then
she talks about God's faithfulness to his people. She says, he hath
opened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as
he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. And
she abode with Elizabeth about three months and then returned
to her own house. First of all, Mary owned the
Lord Jesus to be her Lord and her Savior. She said in verse
46, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Savior. She gave the glory and the praise
to the Lord. That's what she's doing here.
saying, my soul doth magnify the Lord. When the Lord gives
a new heart, we worship him from that new heart. And it's a true
heart worship he gives in our new heart. And that's, she says
here, my soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit magnifies him. It says in Job 38, 36, that he
puts wisdom in the inward parts. He gives understanding to the
heart. That's what David prayed for. Lord, you'll make me, you
desire truth in the inward parts. You'll make me know truth in
my heart. And that's what he did with Mary. She said, my spirit,
my soul does magnify the Lord. Now, when the Lord saves us,
you know, we were trying to give glory to ourselves. and thinking
that we had something good about us or whatever, but when the
Lord saves, you start giving Him all the glory. You give Him
all the praise and all the glory. She said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord. She said, my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Savior. Now you see here, you got all
the Catholics and folks that worship Mary. Who did Mary worship? Mary worshiped the Lord. She
attributed her salvation to the Lord. She magnified the Lord. And that's what somebody does
when the Lord calls them. When He calls you, you know you're
the sinner. When He teaches you, He makes you know you're the
sinner. And He's the Savior. He's the Lord who did the saving.
And He's the Savior. Jonah said, I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I'll pay that I have vowed. Salvation
is of the Lord. He learned that, didn't he? He
was fleeing from the Lord and direct rebellion against the
Lord. The Lord sent that storm to Jonah. and he was cast overboard,
and the Lord provided that well to swallow him up, and when he
brought him out on the shore, Jonah said that. He said, I thank
God. I thank God alone. Salvation's
of the Lord. If the Lord hadn't turned Jonah
and saved Jonah from Jonah, and that's what he did, he saved
him from himself, and if the Lord hadn't done that, Jonah
was a goner, he was leaving. And that's what brought him to
say, salvations of the Lord. Mary experienced that same power
and grace of God and she said, I magnify the Lord. I rejoice
in the Lord. Everything about salvation, I
said this last week, the reason that men think that it'd be impossible
for God to create spiritual life in John the Baptist when he's
six months old in the womb. The reason men think that's impossible
is because it's something you can't do. Man will say, well,
that couldn't happen. Well, it's because we can't do
it. Well, here's the thing about salvation. Everything in salvation
is impossible to me. Every aspect of salvation, we
can't do it. That's why we need a Savior.
We can't do it. We have to be perfectly righteous
with God. We can't do it. There's none
righteous, not one. We need to be turned and given
a heart to seek the Lord in spirit and in truth, and we can't do
that. We can't give ourselves that
heart. There's none that seeketh after God. We can't be profitable
to God. We need somebody to pay everything
we owe and represent us to God so that God will have mercy on
us. We're altogether unprofitable, Scripture says. That's so of
everybody born of Adam, and that's me, you, and all of us. We need the Lord to make us holy
and be our holiness with God because Scripture says there's
none that doeth good, not one. And that's me and you. And when
the Lord saves you, There's still enough sin, all your nature,
old nature is a sin, and so there's still enough sin mixed with anything
you and me do that if it was just up to us, we would perish. We have to have Christ. Everything
about salvation is of the Lord, and Mary knew that, and that's
why Mary's saying, I magnify the Lord. I rejoice in the Lord,
and that's what he brings his people to do. Now secondly, look
here. She attributed all her salvation
to God's grace. Listen to this language, verse
48. He hath regarded the lowest state
of his handmaiden. She owned herself to be his handmaiden. For a man, he would call himself
a bondservant. She called herself the handmaid
of the Lord. She said, he hath regarded the lowest state of
his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things. She, in these words, she's saying
she did not do anything. She did not save herself. God
did it for her. He regarded her. How does he regard his people?
How did he regard Mary? There's more here than just the
fact that he chose her to bear the promised seed. That is a
blessing. But Mary here is speaking about
more than that too. How does the Lord regard his
people? What does this mean that he's regarded me? Well, he chose
us before the world was made. That's how he regarded his people.
He wasn't Him looking to see if there's something in you to
save. He regarded us by being gracious
to us without any cause in us, knowing us beforehand, ordaining
us to eternal life from before the foundation of the world.
Now, I was thinking about this. We looked at Romans 8, 29 recently
on how the Lord foreknew His people. And men will say, That's
him seeing beforehand that you would believe, who would believe,
and that's why he chose us. But if that's a man's God, if he
thinks his God foresaw something in him, that's why he chose him.
Then think of the ignorance he ascribes to his God, because
then they turn around and say, so they're saying Christ knew
who would believe beforehand, that's why he chose us. Then
they say He came forth and laid down His life for everybody.
So He knew before who would believe Him, and He knew who wouldn't
believe Him, and He came and laid down His life for people
that He knew wouldn't believe Him? That would be ignorance. No, God knows His people. He
regards His people from before He created anything, and He regards
us in Christ, and it's no cause in us. It's all of God's grace,
and it's all in Christ. She was blessed to carry the
Redeemer. There's no doubt about that.
But the blessing here is more than that. It's the blessing
of salvation. It's the blessing of God regarding
you in grace and sending His Son and doing everything to save
you. That's the blessing. She was the object of God's grace. And then, you know, look at verse
49. He that is mighty hath done to
me great things, It was certainly a great thing that the Lord formed
the body for our Savior in Mary, and the Spirit of God, Christ
Jesus took the Spirit of the Son, came in and took that body. That was amazing, that's a great
thing. But I'll tell you something even greater, as far as salvation
goes, is the fact that The Lord had taken up abode in her in
spirit and saved her. That's the great thing she's
talking about. He came and saved me. He came
and gave me a new heart and gave me faith and gave me an understanding
of who he is. And that's who God is. Christ
Jesus is mighty to save. He's mighty to save. And he does
only great things toward his people. Everything about our
salvation is great. It's all great, and he does great
things. You think about, you think about,
scripture says by nature we hate him. We hate God. God has created
a new spirit in you, and you think of that. Think of the Lord
causing you to have a new spirit. It's not that he just reformed
something that was already in you. He gives you an entirely
new spirit, a spirit you didn't have. That's a great thing that
God does. And if you know, you know how
before you couldn't believe him, you couldn't trust him. And then
one day he started dealing with you in grace and causing you
to confess yourself to be the sinner. That's totally against
everything that's in us by nature. By nature, man won't confess
he's nothing. and he made you confess you were
nothing and confess you that you're a sinner, that's a great
thing, a great work of God's grace. She said, I'm low, I'm
the lowly handmaid. She's on herself to be the sinner,
lowly, ruined, undone. He hath regarded my lowest state,
she said. She said, I'm blessed to the
Lord, all blessings, come from the Lord. She said, behold, from
henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. What God's people
see in that, what you see in that, and what lost folks in Catholicism see in that
are two different things. We're seeing that the blessing
is salvation. They only see that, and they
exalt Mary. because the Lord came through
her. But she ascribed it all to Him.
Grace. Salvation is all about grace.
Look at Romans 4. I want to just look at a few scriptures. Romans
4. If it wasn't of grace, it wouldn't
be sure. Salvation is sure because it's
of grace. Look at this, Romans 4.16, Romans
4.16, he says, it is a faith, salvation, righteousness, it's
a faith, trusting Christ to do it. Salvation is a faith that
it might be by grace to the end, here's why. the promise might
be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who's
the father of us all. Abraham is a Gentile, he didn't
have the law. And you see, if it's of the law,
if the salvation was of the law, Abraham wouldn't have been saved,
because he never had it. And us Gentiles wouldn't have
been saved, because we weren't under it. But it's by grace. And not only that, we didn't
ever believe the Lord. We didn't ever obey the law.
So it's of grace that it might be sure to both Jew and Gentile
who God saved. Look at Romans 5, verse 15. He showed the difference here
between Adam's fall and the grace of God. He said, verse 15, not
as the offense, so also is the free gift. That's grace. The gift of salvation is free.
But if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the
grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus
Christ, hath abounded unto many. It's all of grace that God sent
His Son. It's of grace that Christ went
to the cross for His people. It's of grace that He revealed
Christ to us. It's of grace that He's kept
us. It'll be of grace that He presents us perfect to God. Look
at Romans 11. This is how come Mary's saying,
He did great things for me. She's describing it all to God's
grace, Romans 11, 6. And if it's by grace, then it
is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is
no more work. Salvation can't be by both. If
it's of works, then that means a man's got to do all the works. If a man wants to say he's saved
by at least one work, then he has to do all the works. But
if it's of grace, then it's all of grace. If it's of Christ,
it's all of Christ. And that's how it is. That's
how it is. Now go back with me. In Luke
1, then she declares God's holy. Verse 49 at the end, she said,
and holy is his name. Now this right here is the greatest
thing in the world to us, brethren, because holy is his name. holy
is his name, that means to save his people, God had to send his
son. You want to see how holy God is and how sinful and ruined
and depraved we are. It's revealed in the fact that
God had to send his own son and his son had to come and become
a man to represent us. and had to go to that cross on
our behalf. That shows you God is holy. When you look to the cross, there's
two things you're gonna see at the cross. One, you see how holy
God is, and two, you see how sinful and ruined you and me
are. Those two things. Now, God's
holy, so he will not clear the guilty. He will not clear the
guilty. Everybody is going to die under
the justice of God, everybody. Now, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, and God won't clear the guilty, so
all have to bear the just punishment. The justice of God has to be
poured out on everybody for God to be holy. Now, how's he gonna
save you and me? How's he gonna save those he
chose and give us life? It's gonna be by him coming himself. The Son of God came down and
became a man so that He could represent His people. As a man,
He could bear our sin and He could bear our curse, and that's
what He did. And as God, everything He accomplished for us is eternal.
He went to that cross and bore our sin. That's how holy God
is. He would not pour out justice
on Him until He made Him bear our sin. I know I say this to
you all the time, but brethren, this is the gospel. This is what
our salvation is, and it's why we're saved. It's because God
is holy. He determined to have a people
for Himself, but the only way He could do that, and He did
it all on purpose. He did it to show us His holiness. He did it to show us how holy
He is and how righteous He is. And in His purpose, we fell in
at Him, so that his son could come forth the last Adam and
go to the cross and we see God's holiness. And so, since God will
not clear anybody, Christ went to that cross, bore our sin,
and then because he made him sin, God made him a curse. And
he bore the wrath that all his people deserved. And he, it was
all, not just, we died by one sin. But Christ bore the sins,
all the sins of every elect child He bore. Because all those sins
had to receive a just recompense. They had to be punished. And He bore that, and by His
death, completely and totally answered justice. By His death,
justice has nothing else to say to any of God's elect. Now everybody that's not in Christ,
they're going to bear what Christ bore on the cross, but they're
going to bear it themselves in hell for eternity. Nobody, you don't want to meet
God that way. You don't want to meet God without
a redeemer. You do not want to meet him and
have to answer his justice on your own. And that's what everybody's
going to do that meets Him without Christ. If God didn't spare His
Son when sin was found on His Son, He's not going to spare
you, or me. But Christ bore that for His people, and because He
did, you and me, who He's called, and everybody Christ bore that
for, will never, ever, ever, ever have any of that wrath poured
out on us. Because Christ satisfied God.
And that same holiness God is. Demands that that same holy name
of God says that because justice is satisfied by Christ for his
people Every single one of his people must be called out and
they will be That's the only reason this world is held in
store right now. That's what Peter said in 2nd
Peter 3. He said God's not slack as men some men consider consider
slackness God's not he's not being late with his purpose and
He's on time all the time, and he's not being late. What he's
doing is he has a people in this world. Maybe some of them hadn't
even been born of a woman yet. Maybe some of them hadn't even
been born into the world yet. But they're going to be born
the first time, and then he's going to send the gospel to them.
create them a new spirit, and make them see what great things
He's done. He's gonna make them bow and worship His holy name. And that's why Peter said, so
you can account that the long-suffering of God is salvation. It will
terminate in God saving every one of His people. And when He
does that, when He's finished, this world and everything in
it's gonna be burned up. And I'm telling you something,
brethren. Every time you hear of somebody confessing Christ,
that the Lord's called somebody, there's coming a day when the
last one will be called. And there's gonna come a day
when that last one is gonna be brought to faith. And then we're
gonna be with the Lord then. He's coming back then. Well,
go back now, verse 50. She declares here the great things
that God's done for His people, that He continues to do for His
people. She said in verse 50, and His
mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.
Now, it's not that you feared Him and you started to have reverence
for Him and so He started showing you mercy. No, it's His mercy
that gives us a reverence for Him. It's His mercy. creating
us anew that gives us a reverence for Him. And His mercy is on
them that fear Him from generation to generation. He's never stopped
being merciful. From Adam, who He showed mercy
and saved, until He caused the last one. God continues to be
merciful to His people. And it was His mercy that called
us to faith in Christ, and it's been His mercy to us Even before
we knew him it was his mercy protecting us and then since
he it was his mercy that called you and since he called you his
mercies been on you and And he saves us from all our enemies
look here in verse 51 She said he has showed great showed strength
with his arm he has scattered the proud of the imagination
of their hearts and he hath put down the mighty from their seats
and exalted them of low degree and Well, on the cross, Jesus
says here, these are the enemies of his people. He showed strength
with his arm, and he scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts. On the cross, Christ conquered all our enemies.
On the cross. He put away all the sin of his
people, and he made us everlastingly righteous on the cross. That's
what Christ accomplished. Our number one enemy was God.
and we made ourselves his enemy, but Christ came and reconciled
us to God, brought us into friendship with God, and he conquers the
enemy of our flesh in the new birth. He came and gave us a
new spirit and a new heart, and he's not gonna let our flesh
reign over us from then on. You're gonna have struggle with
sin, and you're gonna fall, but he's not gonna let sin have dominion
over you anymore. and as far as any other enemy,
he will save us. But here's the blessing is knowing
this, there's no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus,
no condemnation. We're gonna be able to draw our
last breath and meet God and not have to do that in torment.
We're gonna do that knowing I'm in Christ and he's gonna represent
me. That'll be a fearful thing. I
mean, anybody that said they aren't afraid have some kind
of trepidation about dying is probably lying. I was with a
pastor one time that's a believer, and he was dying, and he told
me, he goes, I've never died. He said, I don't know. He said,
I don't face this without some fear. And he said, but I do have
the good hope of knowing. He said, I believe what God told
me is true, and I believe Christ will represent me. And I can't
imagine facing that without Christ. I cannot imagine that. There's
no condemnation. Christ, when you look to the
cross, you see, there was my condemnation. And He bore it. But everything that comes to
pass in this world, our Savior is working it. He has all power
in heaven and earth. He's working everything that
comes to pass. And everything that He's doing, He's doing just
for you who He's called. Everything. Everything and he's
and he's protecting us from all our enemies and he's saving us
we saw Not too long ago, and we know Romans 828 all things
we know all things work together for good All of them even the
things that don't appear good to us and painful to us They're
working together for good to them that love God to them or
the call according to God's purpose Go with me to Psalm 105 Now this
is so of the children of Israel, but he's speaking of his elect
Israel who he had truly saved. And this is so of all his people
right here. This is so of all God's people.
Psalm 105 verse 13. When they went from one nation
to another, from one kingdom to another people, He suffered
no man to do them wrong. Now get that, he suffered no
man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets
no harm. Now that's what the Lord did,
and that's what he's doing for his people. He scattered all
our enemies. God hates pride. But he's near
his people that he's given a lowly and a humble heart. Look what
she said. Mary said in Luke 1, 51, he has scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from
their seats. And then she said, and exalted
them of low degree. That's what he hates pride. Pride
is just trying to be in competition with God. That's all the pride
of a sinner is, is him trying to be in competition with God.
Pride says, I was saved by my will. No, we're saved by God's
will. But God's not gonna, he's not
gonna have somebody taking that glory, and any prideful thing
men do, he's gonna put that down. He'll put it down in your flesh
and my flesh too, because we got plenty of it in our sinful
flesh, But as far as you who are His, He's gonna save you
from the proud. That's what all men are by nature.
He's gonna save you from the proud. Scatter them in the imagination
of their hearts. God can take a man's vain imagination
and use it for our good to save you from men. And in the imagination of their
heart, they're doing whatever they want to do, and they're
doing it of their own will, and God doesn't tell me what to do.
I can do what I want to, when I want to, whatever. And while
they're saying that, they're doing exactly what God purposed
for them to do. He's turned them away from His
people to save His people. They're doing just what He purposed
and using their vain imagination to turn them. But He's going
to save His people who are of low degree. Look here, and he
provided his son for us, he's gonna provide everything we need. He said here in verse 53, she
said, he hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich
he sent away empty. Are you hungry? You know what,
when you start asking God to forgive you of your sin, I'm
talking about as a believer, and you're asking God to forgive
you of your sin and asking him to help you honor Him in your
walk and asking Him to give you a better understanding of Him
and asking Him to reveal things in His word to you. And all the
things we ask Him to do for us when we pray to Him, you know
what that is? It's being hungry. You're hungry
for the Lord to do these things for you. Well, He's gonna feed
the hungry. If you're hungry, He's gonna
feed you. And I mean spiritual meat, spiritual bread. And any
physical bread you need, He's gonna feed you. but he's gonna
feed you spiritual things. But men that are rich, men that
think that they can do all these things of salvation themselves,
he sends them empty away, sends them empty away. Christ said,
I came not to call the righteous. He didn't come to call the well,
those that aren't sick. He said, I came to call sinners
to repentance. He's gonna give you the hunger
for him, and he's gonna keep that hunger there and he's gonna
fill you. He's gonna fill you. That's what
he's gonna do. And then lastly, we see it right
here. She exalts God for being faithful
to help his poor and needy people. He's gonna help his poor and
needy people. She said, verse 54, he is hoping
help the servant Israel, his servant Israel, in remembrance
of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and
to his seed forever. God promised Abraham that he
was going to save all his people. He promised him that. He told
Abraham, look at the stars, Abraham. He said, you're going to have
spiritual children more than the stars for multitude. He promised
Abraham that. And he promised him it was going
to be so because of Christ the seed. And Christ the seed came,
just like God promised. He said, the Lord said to Abraham,
he told Adam, he said, there's gonna be a seated woman. Did
he come? Yes, he did. That's what we're
seeing in our text. He promised Abraham that, he
said, the Lord will provide himself a lamb. We see Christ's a lamb. He provided him. He's promised
he's gonna deliver all his people just like he delivered Egypt
by that Passover lamb. and we seek Christ our Passover
sacrifice for us. Everything he promised, Christ
came and fulfilled all the law and the prophets. God promised
that to Abraham, and God never breaks a promise. We're saved
by his covenant word. Go with me to Isaiah 40, we'll
end with this, Isaiah 40. This is his promise, and this
is what he says to you and me. You know this chapter, He's speaking
about Christ the shepherd. He told the preacher what to
preach. And then the whole chapter, this
whole chapter declaring God's sovereignty is about Christ,
our sovereign shepherd. But look at verse 26. Is he able
to help? He said, lift up your eyes on
high and behold, who hath created these things? that bringeth out
their hosts by number. He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might. That's what Mary, she's magnifying
the greatness of his power and his might. He does it all by
the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not
one faileth. When you look at all the hosts
of heaven, stars and all, in all of creation, the Lord of
hosts created it all, and he sustains it all by his power.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou this, for my way
is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from
my God? Why do we say, the Lord's forgotten
me? Why do we say, is he really gonna
provide for me? Is he gonna do what he promised?
Why do we think that? When something, we're going through
some suffering, we start thinking, oh, the Lord's not providing
for me. Look what he says. Verse 28,
hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint.
And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the
youth shall fain and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. Those we think are strongest, they're gonna fall. But they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew strength. They shall mount
up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint. That's what the Lord's promised,
and that's what he'll do. That's who Mary's magnifying.
And that one who is in her womb, In the lowest parts of the earth,
that's Him, and Isaiah 40. The same one that created everything.
The same one that created Mary was the one in her, and that's
our Savior. And He's come and worked it all.
And He's gonna save His people. All right, let's thank Him. Lord,
thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your mercy. Thank
You for sending Your Son. Thank You that salvation is all
of Your grace. Lord, keep us We ask it for your
holy name's sake, and we pray for your people everywhere. We
pray that you send forth your word today in power, and that
you make your people to know your name and your power and
your strength and your promise, and keep us looking to you. In
Christ's name we ask it, amen.