allowing us to gather together.
Lord, you've gathered us here in this small town of Almonte,
Michigan, by Thy sovereign power. We've come, Lord, seeking to
hear a word from Thy holy scriptures. And we pray that the Holy Spirit
would illuminate the scriptures and teach us more and more of
our Lord Jesus. And we who are your blood-bound
people desire just to sit before Thee, O Lord, and to be in awe
of who You are and what You've done for us. May You be glorified,
may You be magnified tonight through the preaching of Thy
Word. May You receive all the glory, in Jesus' name, Amen. Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. The name of the message is, He
shall be great. He shall be great. In the text we'll look at tonight,
we'll see proclaimed very clearly the greatness of our Savior.
The greatness of our Savior. We'll see in the two verses which
we look at, a five-fold proclamation of the greatness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let's read our text and consider
and pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us and direct us and
teach us the things of Christ. Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 35. And in the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin a spouse 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 that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Bless 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 when she
saw him again, sorry, and the angel said unto her, fear not,
Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou shall
conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his
name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be
great and shall be called the son of the highest and the. 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." The subject tonight that we're considering
is the greatness, the greatness of our Savior. The greatness
of our Savior far transcends all utterance that we could speak
upon this subject. Someone might say, well, I already
know that the Lord is great. Yes, but you could speak for
eternity and never come to even close to being at the end of
the greatness of our God and who he is and who he is. We could
study all our lifetime on the greatness of Christ and never
exhaust the subject. Jesus is the one that no amount
of speaking of his greatness could ever reach the height of
his glory. No amounts of speaking on his greatness could ever reach
the height of his glory. As one commentator bought forth,
he said this, the simplest words are best suited to a subject
so sublime. Fine words would be but cheap
things to hang beside the unspeakable glorious Lord. I can say no more
than he is great. He is great. If I could tell
forth his greatness with choral symphonies of cherubim, yet should
I fail to reach the height of this great argument, I will be
content if I can but touch the hem of the garment of his greatness. It's wonderful. It sums it all
up, doesn't it? We could never exhaust the subject. Tonight I'd like us to consider
the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we see this proclaimed
in verses 32 and 33 in a five-fold way. Declared by Gabriel in his
announcement to Mary of the incarnation and birth of our Lord and Savior. The verses here before us contain
the most beautiful and uplifting things ever revealed to man.
May God the Holy Spirit illuminate the scriptures and teach us.
that we may be filled with wonder, faith, love, and praise for our
wonderful Savior, as we behold the greatness of our King. The greatness of our King. Let's
read the text again. 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." My, my. Our Lord is great from many points
of view. And again, if we were to sit
and just speak of all His greatness, then our minds would fail us.
Our minds would fail us, our lives would fail us, time would
fail us, and there could be no end to the speaking of the greatness
of Christ and His perfection. One could speak of it for eternity
and not find the end of it, not find the end of it. So the scripture
here proclaims the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verse 32 again. He shall be great and shall be
called the son of the highest. The Lord God shall give to him
the throne of his father, David. Note the proclamation by Gabriel
here, the fact of the greatness of our Lord, the fact of it. He shall be great. It's not He
may be. He shall be great. Because He's
already great when Gabriel is proclaiming this. He's the Word
of God in glory. He's already great, beloved.
He's already great. But He shall be great in His
incarnation, in His condescension. He shall be great. So here is
the first glimpse of the greatness of Christ, because He's great
in all He does. Everything He does, He's great
in. Christ is great in all His offices. He's prophet far surpassing
any other prophet. He's the one the prophets spoke
of. He's the one the prophets spoke
of. He's our priest, and in His office as our priest, He is far
superior. He's our great High Priest. He's
far superior than any other High Priest, any other one who has
ever served. Christ alone is the High Priest
of God's people. He's King. He's the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords. And all kings which have ever
lived pale in comparison to our great King. in comparison. They don't even come on the radar,
beloved. They don't even come on the radar
in comparison to the greatness of our King. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is far greater than all who
went before Him. And far greater than all who
will come after Him. And we would do well to remember
that we are but dust. We are but dust. And He is God
Almighty. He is God Almighty. Oh, He's
great. He's great in His person, His
God-man. This child which shall be born
shall be great. Because it says He's the Son
given. He's the Son given. He's the mighty God. He's that
great and famous One that the prophet Moses spoke of. He's
the One who all the prophets spoke of. The One who is mighty
both in word and deed. Both in word and deed. Mighty
and great in his doctrine, and great in his miracles, which
testified of who he was, God incarnate in the flesh. Again, he's great in his office
as king, as king. He's king of kings and lord of
lords. The whole of his office ruling and reigning as a supreme
savior over all things visible and invisible. And he's great
in his high priestly office, being a great high priest for
his people. Both who he is in himself as
our high priest, and he is great in the fact that right now he
is interceding for us. He's our high priest right now,
beloved. Right now in glory, it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
Absolutely wonderful. He's the greatest mediator. He's
great in his position as mediator for his people. Think of how
many people have mediated different things in this world. Nothing
even comes close to our mediator. He's the great mediator for his
people between God and man. Between God and man. He's great
in the fact that he's our Savior. He alone is the only Savior of
sinners. There's no hope outside of Christ.
He's the only Savior of sinners. Outside of Christ, what happens?
All perish, don't they? They all perish. They all perish.
Oh, but in Christ, all are safe. We're safe in the Beloved. We're
safe in Christ. And He is the author of that
great salvation. His salvation's great, and He's
the author of this great salvation. He's the one who planned it and
purposed it. Therefore, it's a great salvation
because He's a great God. He's a great God. Oh, He's the
only... Think of this, think of this
too. He's a great Savior. Why? Because we're great sinners,
aren't we? I need a great Savior, do you? Because I'm a great sinner.
I need a great Savior. And He's a great Savior. Oh my! All our sins are forgiven in
Him. And the sinner can only find pardon and forgiveness in
Christ, in Christ alone. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. He
alone. is the One who worked out and
accomplished the great salvation, the great redemption that His
people have in Him. The salvation of the Lord is
all His doing. The Great One has accomplished
our salvation. His greatness is also displayed
in His divine perfections, in His divine perfections, His works
upon this earth. And the fact that He is God incarnated
in the flesh, The greatness of Christ is displayed in his miracles
that he wrought. And again, those miracles which
he wrought were proofs of his deity, were proofs of his deity. He made blind man see. He raised the dead. He made the
lame walk. He cast out demons. They cried. They fell down before him, these
demons, and they said, thou art the holy. Yeah, they knew who
he is. They know how great he is, and
they fear him. They fear him. Oh, he's the great
God. He's the great God. The greatness
of Christ is displayed again in his miracles that he wrought,
which were proofs of his deity and proofs of his messiahship,
too. And again, his greatness is displayed in the work of redemption,
in the work of redemption. which he alone accomplished,
which he alone accomplished. It's also displayed by the resurrection
of himself from the dead and where he is right now, where
he is right now, he's in glory right now, interceding for his
people right now. My, what comfort that brings
my soul to know that my king is beside the, is mediating for
me with the Father. Oh my. He is my advocate. Is He yours? Oh my. And He is highly exalted right
now, far above all principality and power. Look at verse 32 again.
He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest.
And Lord God shall give to Him the throne of His Father David.
Note the next proclamation of the greatness of our Savior.
He shall be called the Son of the Highest. the Son of the Highest. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God
the Son. He is the Word of God incarnate. He is called the Son of the Highest.
The text proclaims, beloved, that He is the Most High One. Oh, and He shall be called the
Son of the Highest. Beloved of God, not by creation
as angels and men are, or by adoption as the saints of God,
but by nature. He is the Eternal Son of God.
He is the eternal Son of God, of the same nature as the Father
and the Holy Spirit, and equal to them. Oh, He is the Son of
the Highest. And He was not now to become
the Son of God. No, He was the Son of God before
His incarnation. Oh, my. From all eternity. This portion here speaks of his
incarnation. Speaks of his incarnation of
the fact that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Fully God and yet fully man. Son of the Highest. Proclaimed, known, and acknowledged
to be the Son of God. The Word incarnate in human nature. And he proved this again by the
works which he accomplished. He proved this by the works that
he accomplished. He was declared to be the son
of God with power. And again, he showed this by
his miracle, miracles and by his resurrection. Note now the
greatness is also his greatness is proclaimed in the fact. Let's
look at our text again. He shall be great and shall be
called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give to
Him the throne of His Father David." Note here, His greatness
is proclaimed in the fact that the Lord shall give to Him the
throne of His Father David. Beloved of God, our Savior is
the only one who has the right to rule the universe. Turn if
you would to Psalm chapter 2 and then put your finger in Romans
chapter 14. Psalm chapter 2 and Romans chapter
14. Our Lord is the only one who
has the right to rule all the universe as the God-man mediator. Look at this in Psalm chapter
2. We'll read verses 7 and 8 and then we'll read Romans 14 verses
9 to 12. Psalm 2 verses 7 and 8. Our Lord has all power. He's the son of the highest.
He has all power. This is the one who keeps my
soul. Is he the one who keeps yours? This is the one. This is the savior of my soul. Oh, I pray if it's not for you,
not so for you that God would make it so. The scriptures declare that all
will stand before the Lord. Look at Romans 14, 9. Romans
14, 9. Oh, He has all power. He's been
given the throne of His Father, David. He has all power. He is
upon the throne. Romans chapter 14. All will stand
before the Lord. Romans 14, verses 9 to 12. But to this end Christ both died
and rose and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. Why dost thou judge thy brother,
or why dost thou set it not thy brother? We shall stand before
the judgment seat of Christ, for as it is written, As I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. So then every one of us shall
give account of himself to God. Let's go back to Luke chapter
1. Luke chapter 1, we'll see our fourth point here in verse
33. Our fourth point. About the greatness of our Lord.
And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His
kingdom there shall be no end. No end. Beloved, He reigns over
the house of Jacob. And He will reign over His people
forever. He is the head and we are the
body. The church and her King. The bride and the bridegroom. Our Lord did not come here to
rule as a king over that little piece of land called Israel,
beloved. He didn't come to rule for a few hundred years or a
short time, no. Our Lord rules and reigns right
now. right now in glory. Our Lord
rules and reigns. He is a triumphant King. His
reign is over all, saved and unsaved. And His kingdom is a
kingdom of vast domain. It comprises all things everywhere. In His kingdom, His people It
says here, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, beloved,
that's the Israel of God. That's God's people. And he reigns
over us. And that people comprises both Jews
and Gentiles, saved by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
redeemed by our great God and King. David reigned over the
Edomans and the Syrians as well as others. He reigned over the
house of Judah and Israel, but this son here shall reign both
over Jews and Gentiles. He shall reign over both Jews
and Gentiles, and his kingdom shall be from one end of the
earth to the other. From one end of the earth to
the other. Over all the elect of God. who
in success of generations call themselves by the name of Jacob
and surname themselves by the name of Israel. Oh, my beloved. No matter what nation they be
of. They are the house of Jacob.
They are the house of Jacob. And note here, it says at the
latter part of this verse that the reign of our great God and
king shall be eternal. shall be eternal. And this is
the fifth point of our Lord's greatness found in our text. And of His kingdom there shall
be no end. No end. No end. Our Lord's kingdom is an eternal
one. He rules as King in Zion forever. One commentator brings
forth about our Lord's kingdom. All the kingdoms of this world
have been and are designed of God only for the building of
the kingdom of our God and His Christ. Because we are all drawn
out of various places. The kingdoms of this world are
only the scaffolding by which our God builds His kingdom. like
Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, Carthage, Rome, the British Empire,
and the Soviet Union. All the nations and empires of
the world shall perish, and all men shall be made to bow before
this great and glorious King, who shall reign forever, forever. And His rule is eternal, beloved.
It'll never, ever end. never ever and Daniel turn of
Daniel if you would Daniel chapter 7 Daniel chapter 7 or see this
proclaimed in Daniel chapter 7 and when we go to Philippians
chapter 2 or see this fact proclaimed here that our great God and King
shall reign forever forever and this is the one who we can draw
great comfort from beloved God because This is the one who has
saved us. This is the one who has redeemed
us. The Lord Jesus Christ. And He
is the King. And His kingdom shall never end. Daniel chapter 7, look at verses
13 to 14 and then we'll look at verse 27. I saw in the night
visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds
of heaven and came to the ancient of days. and they bought him
near before him. And there was given him dominion
and glory in a kingdom that all people, nations, and language
should serve him. Remember, God's people are taken
out of all different places, out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. His dominion is a what? Everlasting
dominion. An everlasting, which what? Which
shall not pass away, beloved. His kingdom, not which shall
not be destroyed. My, that's our God. That's our
savior. Be what will come our way. That's
the one who we rest in, beloved. That's the one who we trust in.
The one who the scripture says that his kingdom, his kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom. It'll not be destroyed. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion. That's the keeper of our soul.
Then look at verse 27, in the kingdom and dominion and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given
to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom,
it's His kingdom, is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall
serve and obey Him. Everything is in subjection to
our great God. Everything. And His kingdom will
be forever, and it is forever. There has never been a time when
our Lord has not ruled. He's King, beloved. He's King. Now turn to Philippians chapter
2. So we saw it there proclaimed in the Old Testament. Let's look
now over there in the New Testament, in Philippians chapter 2, where
we read verses 1 to 11. 1 to 11. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be
like mine, that have in the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let us each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. 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,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of man. This speaks
of his incarnation. And being found in the fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death
Even the death of the cross, he humbled himself. He left the
glories of heaven and came to this world to die, to live the
perfect life and to die on Calvary's cross. He humbled himself, beloved. And he became obedient unto death.
Never forget that he became obedient unto death for you and I. He
was sinless. He's perfect. He's spotless. He did this for his people. He
did this for his bride. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him. Well, he's the king of kings
and the Lord of lords, beloved. We saw that over in Daniel, where
his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, a dominion that'll never
end. And given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Even those people who have shake
their fists at God will be made to bow their knee. Be made to
bow their knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord all to the
glory of God the Father. So ponder then, beloved, the
greatness of our Lord. Ponder the perfection of His
nature. Ponder the fact that He has no
peers. None. No peers at all. No peers at all. He is incomparable
in greatness. Incomparable in greatness. And
the fact that He is fully God and yet fully man, He's perfect
and sinless, should just leave us in awe. should just leave
us in awe at the greatness of our Savior. He's incomparable,
incomparable. Ponder the greatness of his offices.
He came to be our prophet, our priest and our king, and he fulfilled
all those offices, offices gloriously and beyond compare, beyond compare. And think of the greatness of
his condescension. He leaves heaven and comes to
this sin-cursed world. Comes to this world to redeem
his people, to die for us. And he does it willingly. And
he goes to the cross willingly. To die for another. Would you
die for someone else? Would you die for what they've
done? Lord Jesus Christ goes to the
cross, willingly, in great love, to redeem sinners. Sinners. To redeem His people from all
their sins. So think of the greatness of
the condescension of our Lord. And how great is Christ in the
eyes of his people for doing that. When I ponder that the
Lord Jesus Christ left the glories and splendor of heaven to save
a worm like me, because that's what we are, in the eyes of the
Lord, that he came to save a worm like me, I am absolutely amazed,
beloved. I am absolutely amazed. It's
stunning. It's absolutely stunning. And
so in the eyes of those who are redeemed, how great is our God? How great is our Savior? He's
incredible. Is it not true that words can't
even express how we feel in our souls for Him? How great He is
to us? My, my. He's so great. Oh, He comes to this earth and
accomplishes that great salvation. The Great One, He shall be great,
comes and accomplishes a great salvation. And think of how great
it is. He has saved a number that no
man can number by His death. And the believer says, I'm one
of the number. And we're amazed. We're absolutely
amazed. Oh, and he came and he accomplished
the salvation on Calvary's cross. He purchased our souls, beloved. He purchased us with his own
precious blood. My. And how great He is. How great
He is to His people. And to accomplish this great
salvation, He came to be our Savior. You know, Savior means
rescuer. He rescued me. Did He rescue
you? He rescued me from my sins. He rescued me from God's law.
He rescued me from God's wrath. And He rescued me by dying for
me. That's why we say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. There's no other hope. There's
no other hope but Christ. None. None. If you're hoping
yourself and that's anyone, anyone outside of Christ is hoping in
their own self-righteousness, whether they admit it or not.
And there's no hope. There's no hope in our works.
But there's hope in the One, the One, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my,
He's the standard bearer among 10,000, beloved. And I ask you,
I ask you, who are His blood-bought people? Who is like our Savior?
Who is like our Savior? There's no one greater, is there?
There's no one greater, beloved. No one. No one. No one at all. Oh my. No one at all, in all
eternity, who is as great as our Savior. Think of the greatness
of His achievements. He is the one who has finished
the work of salvation. It's complete. It's absolutely
perfect. Absolutely perfect. And you know
what? It's so perfect that if a man tries to add something,
they mess it up and they're not saved. Because the salvation
is perfect. It's the only one God will accept.
The only one. His sacrifice. His sacrifice. Oh my. He's finished the work
of salvation for His people. And He alone has done this. And
think of this, you who are His blood-bought people. He alone
has done this. He alone has accomplished this.
Does this not make Him great in your eyes? Oh my. What a great Savior. What a great
Savior. And He did this because He loved
us. And that love is a great love, beloved. It's an everlasting
love. It's a love we can't even come
near and close to. Oh my. Oh my. Conquerors are great. But He's
the greatest conqueror of all, because He conquered all my sin.
Oh my. And a believer can say that,
can't we? We can say that. He conquered not just my sin,
but He conquered the sin of all the elect of all the ages. He
conquered Satan. He's the conqueror. He's the
victorious conqueror, beloved. Oh my. He's conquered all our
enemies. Sin was a great enemy of ours,
wasn't it? Oh yeah. He's conquered it for his people.
The law of God was our enemy, because it declared us sinners. It's holy, it's right, the law
of God is wonderful, but to the unsaved man, it's their enemy.
Oh my. We hated it, and yet that perfect
law demanded satisfaction. And the Lord Jesus Christ lives
the perfect life in the ruined place of his people. And the
scripture says, the soul that sinneth, it must die. So the
Lord Jesus Christ goes as the great substitute and dies in
the place of his people at Calvary's cross. The sinless one dying
for sinners. Oh my. Deliverers are great,
but he is the greatest deliverer of all. Because He has delivered
His people from all their sins. Again, He's also delivered His
people from the wrath and justice of God. Liberators are great,
but He's the greatest liberator of all. He's the greatest liberator
of all. Because if the Son shall set
you free, He shall be free indeed. He shall be free indeed. He's
the greatest emancipator. My goodness. Rescuers are great,
People rescue people, that's great. We think that's wonderful.
Beloved, He's the greatest rescuer because He's rescued us from
the penalty and power of all our sins. He's the greatest rescuer. My. And what has He done? He's bestowed everlasting joy
upon His people. I rejoice in my Savior. Rejoice
if you're saved. Rejoice. We are free in Christ. We are free in Christ. He's given
us eternal life, and it's all based upon what he's done. Nothing
we done. We. We we need to rejoice, beloved. We need to rejoice. This is his
work. Think of the greatness of the
results of his work to think of the greatness of the results
of his work. We have eternal life. We have the forgiveness
of all our sins, past, present and future. Why? What a great savior. And then
think of this. We have all spiritual blessings
in him. All of them. He is called great in our text
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read our text one more
time. 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 in
his kingdom and of his kingdom there shall be no end. So consider
the greatness of our Savior this week as we're at home or at work,
ponder and meditate upon the greatness of our Savior. The
greatness of our Savior. Ponder the greatness that he's
bestowed upon you, who are in Christ. Because it's a great
pardon. And remember, we couldn't pay
for one sin. But in Christ, all our sins are forgiven. All of
them. It's wonderful. So think upon the great pardon
that he bestows upon his people. And think of right now, and think
of when you're at work, and when you're at home, in all times,
he's a great meat-eater. He never stops being our meat-eater.
ever, ever. He's ever watching over us. And
He's our great mediator before God. He intercedes for His people
before the throne of God. So in Christ the believer has
a great deliverance. They have a great peace, a great
rest, and it's all found in Christ, in Christ alone. And they have
great joy when When we're down and we start to think about who
our Savior is, think about the greatness of who our God is.
Think of how great He is. It'll lift your spirits. It'll
lift you up. Oh, He's so great. He's so great. And then one day, beloved, one
day, one day, and the believer, we're excited about this day.
One day we'll breathe our last breath here. And we will be in
the presence of the Great One forever. We will see the One. We will see our great Savior.
We will see the One who's called great in our text. We'll see
Him face to face. And the only reason we'll see
Him is because of Him and because of what He's done. Oh, my. We will see the Great One, the
Lord Jesus Christ in glory, face to face. Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee for this time that we've had together. Oh, Lord,
we pray Praise thee as we look at how great thou art. You are
wonderful, Lord. You are amazing. And as the proclamation
comes forth from Gabriel, he shall be great. Oh, Lord, you
are a great savior, a great rescuer, liberator and emancipator of
your people. You've done it all for us, Lord. Oh, Lord, you've
done it all for us. And we love you and we praise
you and we thank you for your goodness and mercy and grace.
We pray that you'd be glorified and magnified. We pray that we
would take the things that we've heard tonight and that we've
looked at. And oh, Lord, that they would be bought to remembrance
this week. And may they be a balm to our
soul. We love you because you first loved us. In Jesus name.
Amen.