Let's ask God's blessings upon
the preaching of the Gospel. Lord, give to each of us now a spirit
of worship a great desire within to honor
our God. This service is indeed for the honor and glory of you, Lord. We confess our sinfulness. And yet we remember that You
have said, You'll never leave us nor forsake us. Therefore,
believing Your Word, we go forward with this service. Exalt the
Lord Jesus. Father, bring glory to Yourself
by the Spirit of of the Incarnation of Christ, the One who conceived
Him in the womb of Mary. May the Spirit of God be with
us. That is, upon me and upon all of these who hear. Lord, may this truly be a worship
service. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. This is a magnificent portion
of Scripture that has been read to us. There are a number of
things that I could kind of enlarge upon as we look at this portion
of Scripture, but I'll give you three things to begin with. First of all, here is a chosen
vessel, and that would be Mary. The Scripture says that in the
sixth month, that is in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy,
she's carrying John the Baptist, the angel of the Lord, Gabriel. Gabriel's name means the man
of God who stands in his presence. This man of God who stands in
the presence of the Lord, he came and visited a young virgin
in Nazareth. All of Galilee was held in contempt
by all of the Jewish people, but most especially that city
in Nazareth, or the city in Galilee called Nazareth. In fact, even
Nathanael said in John 1, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Well, this is the location where
a young virgin, 12, 13 years old, something like that, Mary,
lived. We know nothing of her parentage.
We know nothing of her upbringing. We know virtually nothing about
her at all, except she's of the lineage of David. She is, therefore,
of the tribe of Judah. But we know that God had been
gracious to her. She's a believer by the power
of the Spirit of the Lord. And in the Scripture, she's often
called a virgin. She's not called the virgin.
She's called a virgin throughout the Word of God. And that's not
so much to give honor to her, but to give honor to the one
that she will carry in her womb for nine months and then give
birth to him, this one whose name is Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins." It is very important that we
emphasize that she was a virgin. You see, our Lord Jesus, He's
not born of Adam's seed. because the Scripture says in
1 Corinthians 15, all of Adam's seed died, for as in Adam, all
died. Our Lord Jesus wasn't of the
seed of Adam. Our Lord Jesus was born of a
virgin, And the Scripture says in Genesis 3 and verse 15 that
the one who would defeat Satan would be of the seed of woman. Jeremiah makes reference to the
fact that a woman would enclose a man-child. This is Mary. that one whom God had chosen
in grace to be the recipient of this great honor of being
impregnated by the Lord, and therefore carrying in her womb
the Savior of sinners. Isaiah spoke of this better than
700 years prior to our Lord's birth. In chapter 7 verse 14,
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt
call his name Immanuel. And we read in Matthew chapter
1 that Immanuel means God with us. It is very important that
we understand man had no role. He had nothing to do with the
birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a cardinal doctrine of
the faith of God. That is, the gospel of the grace
of God. If he wasn't born of a virgin, He would be a sinner like all
the rest of Adam's race if he were kin to Adam, if he was born
as the result of Mary having relations with a man. then our Lord Jesus would be
polluted by sin, and that cannot be. One sinner cannot redeem
another sinner. So our Lord Jesus was not corrupted
by sin. He had no original sin. and He
had no sins in and of Himself. The sins which He bore upon the
cross of Calvary were sins that were charged to Him. They were
laid on Him, made to meet on Him by God Himself. And He died
as our substitute, bearing our sins which were His, made His
by what we call imputation. But as far as His birth was concerned,
all of the Trinity had a part in this. In fact, the Scripture
even says that. It emphasizes the fact that He
was born as a result of the power of the Father. You remember in
Hebrews chapter 10, our Lord Jesus said, to the Father, a
body Thou hast prepared Me. This was a body ordained for
him from all eternity. In fact, that body ordained for
our Lord Jesus Christ, that body was the pattern for Adam's body. Our Lord Jesus was born of a
virgin, and that involved the work of the Father. In fact,
it involved the work of the Son of God Himself, because He said
in Hebrews 2 that He took not on Himself the nature of angels,
but the seed of Abraham. And also in Hebrews 2, it is
said of Him that He was made flesh and blood, likened to his
brethren. He was made that. He himself
had a hand in this. Not only the Father, but the
Son of God, as well as the Holy Spirit. In fact, in this portion
of Scripture that's been read to us, here in Luke chapter 1,
the angel Gabriel said to Mary, the power of the Holy Ghost shall
overshadow thee. So all of the Trinity is involved
in this miraculous impregnation of Mary. But man had no part
in it. Our Lord Jesus was born of a
virgin. That is stressed over and over
and over again in the Scriptures. And there are those today who
want to water this down and say He was born of a young woman.
Well, she was a young woman, but more than that, she's a young
woman who never knew a man. That's what the Scripture says.
This is a very important doctrine of Holy Scripture. And as I said,
the fact that she was a virgin is not to honor Mary. It's to
give honor to that One that she gave birth to, our Lord Jesus
Christ. He was in no way polluted by
or contaminated by Adam's transgression. Gabriel is the messenger who
came to Mary with this news of what God was going to do with
her and for her and in her. This is the same messenger who,
better than 500 years before this, spoke to Daniel concerning
the coming of Messiah. And you know, Mary herself, she
acknowledged this. Look over in verse 47. This is Mary a little bit later,
and she is speaking, and she says, My spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Savior. Mary, she was born into this
world a sinful person like everybody else. Pay no attention to that
heretical statement of Catholicism that speaks about the immaculate
conception. They're not talking about the
conception of our Lord Jesus, they're talking about the conception
of Mary. the immaculate conception. My friends, she was a sinful
woman. We're thankful for her. We see
the sovereignty of God in choosing her to be the vessel through
which our Lord Jesus would be born into this world. But she
was a sinner. She said, I rejoice in the Savior. Who needs a Savior? A sinner. Who needs cleansing? Someone
who's filthy. Who needs redemption? Someone
who's in debt to the law of God. Who needs forgiveness? Someone
who has transgressed God's law. All of these needs of Mary's
and all of the people of God, these needs are met in, through,
and by this One that she would bring forth into the world. The
Lord Jesus Christ. God had given her grace before
the world began. Notice in verse 28, the angel
came unto her, this heavenly messenger, and said, Thou that
art highly favored." And if you have a center column, notes or
references in the middle, if you don't, you could get your
Bible, such as I recommend, the Cambridge Bible. They've been
making them longer than anybody else. But right in the center
column where it says, Thou art highly favored, it says, or graciously
accepted. Because that word favored, the
root word of that is the Greek word charis, or grace. Grace. Thou art highly favored. You have been graced by God. In fact, she was given grace
in the Lord Jesus before the world began, as were all of the
rest of God's people. And God has graced her by making
her to be the vessel through which the Lord Jesus would come
into the world. You've been highly favored. That's
what it says. Graciously accepted by God. Ephesians 1, 6. That is a reference
that comes to my mind to the praise of the glory of His grace
wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Let me ask you
this. How long have God's people been
accepted in Christ Jesus? The answer is from old eternity. We've always been accepted in
Him, chosen in Him, predestinated under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ in Him, blessed in Him. Notice what the Scripture says
here. about Mary, go back up to verse 28. The angel came unto
her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord
is with thee. Blessed art thou, or blessed
art thou among women. Get your concordance. Look up
the word blessed. It is identical to that word
used in Ephesians chapter one, where we're blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Just as the Lord has blessed
us, He blessed Mary. Notice it says, Blessed art thou
among women, not over women. You're blessed among women. You're
blessed with the knowledge of God. You're blessed with salvation. You're blessed with righteousness.
You're blessed with forgiveness of sins. You are blessed among
women. You women who know the gospel
of God's saving grace. You women who love the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's all of your hope. He's all
of your confidence. He's all of your salvation. I
tell you, you are blessed among women. You're blessed. Here's a chosen vessel. And you
see, in many ways, Mary is typical of every center that God saves
by His grace. Who sought this honor out? Mary? No. The Lord sought her. He blessed
her first with salvation and then blessed her with the gift,
the honor of bringing forth the Lord Jesus into this world and
the salvation of His sinner. Who seeks whom? The Scripture says in Romans
3, no man seeketh after God. Who does the seeking? The Lord
Himself. The Lord Himself. I will both
seek and I'll search out my sheep. I'll find my sheep." And the Lord sends, as Mary finds
out about this, what God has done for her, it's the messenger
of the gospel sends, or the Lord Jesus sends forth the messenger
of the gospel to Mary. She didn't send for a messenger
and you didn't send for a messenger. I don't know who told you the
truth about God and salvation and redemption and reconciliation
and righteousness, your own pollution, your own sinfulness and the necessity
of the work of God in salvation. I don't know who told you, but
somebody told you because God sent you a messenger. Somebody
came and was honest with you. says thou art highly favored
and blessed. By the way, that highly favored
also means you've been made beautiful and comely. And isn't that the
way it is with all of God's people? We've been made beautiful and
comely. We're like Ezekiel's deserted
infant in Ezekiel chapter 16. Polluted. Filthy. Born in sin. And the Lord says,
you became beautiful through My comeliness. That's how Mary
was made beautiful. And if you're beautiful to God,
you're made beautiful in the Lord Jesus Christ, who of God
has made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I'm telling you, Mary is in many
ways a picture of every sinner saved by grace. You'll notice
there again in verse 28, it says, the Lord is with thee. And I can say that to all of
God's people. The Lord is with you. As He was
with Mary. To protect her. To provide for
her. To save her. To bless her. The Lord is with you. And He'll never forsake you,
never leave you. You're blessed of God and you're
highly favored of God. You're beautiful. You've been
graced by God. In a word, the Scripture says
Mary found favor with God. Mary didn't bless God. God blessed
Mary. Mary is honored of the Lord.
Now, we give thanks to God for Mary, but we must never idolize
her, and we must never exalt her to a position that she is
not worthy to hold. All believers have a greater
relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ than even Mary did. Did you know that? One day our
Lord was preaching. You can read about it in Mark
chapter 3. And a great crowd of people hearing
Him. And then some of the people turned
around and noticed a commotion behind them. We tend to do that
when there's a commotion going on. We turn away from the preaching
and they turned away from the preaching of our Lord Jesus.
And there was Mary. and the brothers and sisters,
half-brothers and half-sisters of our Lord Jesus, and some of
them in the congregation said, Master, your mother and your
kinfolk, they want to see you. They're out here. And he looked at them and he
said, Who is my mother? Who are my brethren? And then
he proceeded to tell them. My mother and my brethren are
those who do the will of God. This is the will of God, that
everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him hath everlasting
life. Let me tell you something, we
have a relationship to the Lord Jesus that is an eternal relationship,
a relationship much greater than this physical relationship that
Mary had with the Lord Jesus in her being the mother of His
human flesh. Because we're the sons and daughters
of the Lord Himself. He is to us our Father. He's
the everlasting Father. He is our Mother. He is our Brother. He is our Sister. He is all and
all to His people and we're complete in Him. It would be painful to each of
us if all of our family members were removed from us and we had
no spouse, we had no brother, we had no sister, we had no cousins
or aunts or uncles or whatever. That would be very painful. But
we still have the Savior and that's the greatest relationship
of all. We're His. And He's ours. Oh, here's a chosen vessel, and
I see here also, here's an angelic declaration. Oh, how honored
Gabriel was in preaching this message. It could very well be,
and I'm of the persuasion that Gabriel is a pre-incarnate form
of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you differ with me, that's
fine. That's fine. But this is a great,
great honor. If He was just a great angel,
He preaches concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what He
says about Him. In verse 31, He calls Him Jesus. He says to Mary, you're gonna
have a son. Thou shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He has a people,
a people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, and he shall
save them. He must save them. They were
given to him in covenant love, and he will save them by his
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. He says in
verse 32, He shall be great. I'm going to go back to this,
because I want to talk to you about the greatness of our Savior. He shall be great. But notice
He says also that He shall be called the Son of the Highest.
Not the Son of Mary, but the Son of the Highest. and the Lord
God's going to give unto him the throne of his father David? And he shall reign over the house
of Jacob forever? This is not a physical throne. Our Lord Jesus didn't come to
set up His kingdom in Jerusalem. He came to establish a spiritual
kingdom and He set up His very throne in the hearts of all of
His people. and He reigns over the house
of Jacob forever. Who are the house of Jacob? We're
the sons of Jacob, are we not? Isn't that what the Scriptures,
that's how the Scriptures speak of us? We're sons of Jacob? He reigns over the house of Jacob,
the sons of Jacob forever, spiritual Israel, and of His kingdom there
shall be no end. And then, and I'll go a little
quickly here, I want you to notice that here's the response of faith. At verse 34, Mary says, well
how shall this be, seeing I know not. Man, she didn't say I don't
believe you. The attitude of Zacharias earlier
in chapter one was one of unbelief when Gabriel told him that he
and his wife Elizabeth would have a child in their old age. And therefore, he was smitten,
Zacharias was smitten with the inability to speak until the
child was born. Mary, she did not express unbelief. She said, how can this happen?
How can this happen? And we could say this, if there's
nothing a sinner can do to bring, to give new life to himself,
spiritual life, he can't save himself, how can these things
be? Listen to the answer. The angel
answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.
That's what's necessary in regeneration too. The Holy Ghost has got to
come upon you. The power of the highest has
to overshadow you. And here is the act. This is
the nearest definition of the act of the generation of our
Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary that can be found in the Word
of God. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. There
will be an act, a divine act of generation. It never says that our Lord was
begotten of Mary. It says, the power of the highest
shall overshadow thee. God's going to do something for
her. I'm going to tell you something. God's got to do something for
a sinner too. And if He ever gives life to
a sinner who's spiritually dead and trespasses and sins, here's
what He's going to do. He's going to form Christ in
us. After all, that's what Paul said,
Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. He told one of the
churches, I travail till Christ be formed in you. In you! You remember in Galatians
1 when he spoke of his conversion? He said, when I pleased God who
revealed His Son in me, not just to me, although He was revealed
to him, but He was revealed in him. God's got to do something
for us on the inside. There's got to be a miracle of
grace. Therefore, the messenger of God
says in verse 35, therefore that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God. And he tells her, your cousin
Elizabeth, she's conceived a son. She's six months pregnant right
now. Verse 37, nothing's impossible. And Mary said, Be it unto me
according to Thy Word." She had no quarrel with this. Listen,
Mary. God chose you. God graced you. God blessed you. The Spirit of
God is going to overpower you, overshadow you. Jesus is going to be formed in
you. Because nothing is impossible
with God? And Mary said in verse 38, Behold
the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. She didn't quarrel with the way
God's going to do this. She didn't fuss about it. She
just rejoiced. And let me tell you, that's the
way it is with a sinner. When they hear the Gospel and
suddenly they find themselves believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they have no quarrel with the way their salvation has come
about. Yes, the Lord had to choose me. I didn't choose Him. The Lord
had to seek me out. I didn't seek Him out. The Lord
had to send His Son to die for me. I couldn't deal with my sins. The Lord had to graciously favor
me. The Lord had to make me comely
and beautiful. The Lord had to make me righteous.
The Lord had to do something within me to form Christ in me. I have no quarrel at all with
the way God saves sinners. and no sinner who is saved by
the grace of God ever quarrels with God about it. Mary, she believed the Lord. Look what it says down in verse
45. Elizabeth says this, Blessed
is she that believed. Blessed is she that believed.
She didn't argue. I don't believe that. Mary, she didn't say, well, I
can't believe this. What do I have to do? She just believed. She believed
the Word of the Lord. Can you believe the Word of the
Lord? Salvation is in Christ. Salvation
is by grace. Salvation is a gift and God makes
you willing to receive the gift. She just bowed and later said,
my soul does magnify the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my
Savior. I'll tell you something, if God
ever does something for you, for you who are watching, you'll say something like Mary
did. My soul magnifies the Lord. Well, let me talk to you just
a little bit in the few minutes I've got left about the greatness
of our Savior. His person is great, number one. He is, first of all, that great
prophet. Our Lord met a funeral procession
that's recorded in Luke chapter 7 one time. The only son of a
widow woman had died. being carried on his bed to the
cemetery. A lot of people with her. The Scripture says that the Lord
Jesus touched the bed, that is, B-I-E-R. He touched the death
bed upon which the bodies were carried. And said, young man,
I say unto thee, arise. He was dead, sat up, and began
to speak. And the Lord Jesus took him to
his mother. Great fear came upon the people.
They glorified God. You know what they said? A great
prophet has come. A great prophet has risen up
among us. God has visited His people. I tell you, the great and inspired
Lord Jesus, He's the great prophet. He's the prophet that Moses spoke
of in Deuteronomy chapter 18. And the Jews had great esteem
for all the prophets of God. Our Lord was preaching to a group
of Jews one day, and they said they loved every prophet. And He made reference to Jonah. He said, greater than Jonah's
here. You see, if our Lord Jesus was
just a prophet, just the same as Jonah, or Micah, or Nahum,
or Habakkuk, or Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or any of the rest of
the prophets, if He's the same kind of prophet they were, then
He'd be no different from them. He'd be a sinner. But as high as the heavens are
above the earth, that's how much greater He is as a prophet than
they were. That's why in Matthew 16 or 17, when the Savior said, who do
men say that I, the Son of Man am? And they started listing
the prophets. Why, they were insulting Him.
He's not on the same level with all the prophets. He's the prophet
of God. He speaks the mind of God. They
had the Word of God. He is the Word of God. What a
vast difference. He's the great prophet, number
two. He's the great high priest. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that. What did the high priest do in
Israel? He represented the people of God. He offered the sacrifice
that put away the sins on the Day of Atonement for all the
nation of Israel. Our Lord Jesus is the Great High
Priest who offered the sacrifice unto God that fully and finally
and forever puts sins away. The sacrifice of Himself. He's the Great High Priest. And
He's the Great High Priest who makes intercession for us always.
Number three, he is the great king. He's the great king. Beautiful
for situation, beautiful for her height, the joy of the whole
earth, the size of the city of Jerusalem, the city of the great
king. The great king. Israel had some
great kings. Our Lord Jesus said again there
in Matthew 12, He said, I'm the King greater
than Solomon. A greater than Solomon is here.
David, Solomon. To the Jews, those names rang
forth the glory days of Israel. Our Lord Jesus said a greater
than Solomon is here. In any comparison between David
and Solomon and King Jesus, He's the great King. And I'll
tell you something else, He's the great Shepherd of the sheep.
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 says that. And His blood is the blood
of the everlasting covenant. And He's the great God and Savior
who's coming again to receive us unto Himself, according to
Titus chapter 2 and verse 13. His person is great. Oh, the
greatness of our Savior. And then consider this. His works
are great. Great in creation. All things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. Great in providence, by Him all
things consist. Great in salvation. Great in
grace. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? He's great in His incarnation.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. I was rereading this week that
passage in Isaiah that I read to begin with, Isaiah 9. For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. You moms and dads, You remember
when your firstborn arrived and your secondborn, your thirdborn,
every how many kids you've had. You remember that. And you said,
we have a son. We have a daughter. A daughter is born to us. A son
is born to us. And it's a time of joy. Let all
the people of God hear this. Unto us. Unto us. A child is born. He is born for us. He's ours. He's ours. You held that little
darling in your arms and you looked down and you said, this
is mine! This is mine! And you and your
wife You snuggled together, you huddled together with this little
infant in your arms and said, He's ours! He's ours! Let me
tell you something, this great Savior, He's ours! Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. He's great in His incarnation. He's great in the rescue of sinners. Nehemiah 1.10 says, we're redeemed
by Thy great power. Great in conversion. Isaiah 63
and verse 1. He travels in the greatness of
His strength. Who are You? I that speak unto
Thee am mighty to save. And He's great in judgment. Revelation
14.9. speaks of His greatness in judgment. Psalm 145 verse 3, Great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. The greatness of our Savior is
absolutely unsearchable. I'll give you one more thing. Look again at the wording of
this verse here in chapter 1 of Luke, where Gabriel is speaking
of the greatness of our Lord Jesus. In verse 32, He shall
be great. What's unusual about that? We know He has been great from
eternity. But now the language indicates
this greatness that he's going to achieve is yet in the future. He shall be great. Wherein does that greatness lie? In that work that he came to
accomplish. Great redemption. Reconciliation. Great salvation. And I'll tell you, the day is
coming when He shall be called by all men, the Son of the Highest. He shall be great. He's already
great as God. But now He's going to be great
in this, well, dare I call it a new role? It is the fulfillment
of His everlasting role as our Savior. He shall be great as
the God-man. Great as the God-man. And He's
going to earn honors. He's going to earn glories that
no one else will ever have. Save Himself. And someday all
of the world's gonna bow before Him and say, You're Lord. To
the glory of God the Father. That's our Savior. The greatness
of our Savior. Let's sing a closing song. 46, I decided we'd sing this one
this morning.