Let us start with a word of prayer. Let us come before the Lord.
O Lord God of heaven and of earth, we come before Thee in the attitude
of worship this afternoon, and seek, Lord, Thy presence and
Thy blessing to be upon Thy sacred Word, and that Thou would magnify
the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst, granting us Thy Spirit,
to open up Thy Word and to attend it with power, helping us to
sing Thy worthy praise, to show forth Thy praise and Thy glory
here below, to have a little taste of heaven in worshipping
Thee here before we get there. Lord, do help each one with their
infirmities and their weaknesses, in their trials, in their temptations. Lord, those that feel low, do
grant that they might hope in God, for they shall yet praise
Him for the help of His countenance. Grant, Lord, that blessing of
the Lord that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow within. We pray for each here. Bless
each of the residents, bless the staff, and do be with them. Remember their loved ones and
those at home. Lord, they may have left trials
and troubles at home to come and minister and help here, to
be with their families, to be with the families of those here. And Lord, where they may, remember
that they are worshipping, to be in the house of God where
they are. And remember any that have turned
their backs upon Thee, who do not know Thee, who do not love
Thee, O Lord, do work in their hearts, do turn them again unto
Thee, and do give the friends here prayer for those that are
near and dear to them. We do seek, Lord, to humble ourselves
before Thee. We are sorry for the vote in
Parliament on Friday regarding the Assisted Dying Bill. We pray
that this might not become law, that it might not impact such
homes as this and add an extra burden. Lord, we do seek Thy
mercy. Make this to be indeed a Christian
nation that does fashion according to Thy holy sacred word. So we do make intercession concerning
that as that bill goes forward may it yet be defeated. May there good come, may there
come that better care, better palliative care and better care
in the homes and afford the financial aid to support the homes like
this one. So now our Lord do be with us
and do bless us as we seek to worship Thee We ask through thy
name, Lord Jesus, Amen. Now let us sing the first hymn
on our hymn sheet. Great is thy faithfulness. Now the subject today, this is
the first of December, so it is the first day of Advent, and
so I am following that theme. Susan has suggested that. I think
she's going to use as a study theme during the week perhaps.
the portion that we have this afternoon. So, our first hymn,
thinking of the faithfulness of the Lord, when at last the
Saviour was sent, Emmanuel God, with us. Great is thy faithfulness, The reading is on the second
page of the hymn sheet, and we're reading from Luke chapter 1,
verses 39 to 56. So from verse 39 to 45, there's
the introduction, then there's Mary from verse 46, blessing
the Lord. And Mary arose in those days,
and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah,
and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapt in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she
spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this
to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For though as soon as the voice
of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leapt in
my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaiden For behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is
on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath 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 things, and the rich He hath sent empty
away. He hath opened His servant Israel
in remembrance of His mercy. as he spake to our fathers, to
Abraham, and to his seed for ever. And Mary abode with her
about three months, and returned to her own house. Thus by the
reading of God's holy word. Well, it is the verses 46 and
47, Mary's Magnificat, the praise that she has to the Lord. Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. So, I want to think firstly of
what she did, and then the reason that she did it, with the things
that the Holy Ghost has inspired here to tell us that were so
precious to Mary at this time. So what she did, she magnified
the Lord, and not just outwardly, but my soul, her very being was
to magnify the Lord. Now we know that to magnify something
doesn't actually change it, but our view of it becomes greater. If we would get a magnifying
glass, I see one right here, and when that glass is used it
doesn't make the page any bigger, literally, but it appears bigger
and it's able to be seen. Without that magnifying glass
sometimes you wouldn't even be able to see what is there. And so what Mary is doing here
is magnifying, shining on the Lord and on His work so that
we and generations can see what she can see and to make the Lord
precious and great to us. And that is always going to be
the work of the Holy Spirit, is to make the Lord Jesus Christ
precious, and to lift Him up, and to magnify God in all that
He has done. And it's a good thing if you
and I can join with Mary in those things that we might see, and
we might know, and that we magnify the Lord as well. You think of
visitors you might have to the home, those that might come in
here. You say that I am old, I'm in
a home, I can't do the things I used to do. But if you're able,
Wendy, to have visitors to magnify the Lord, That is a precious
thing for those that are even tired of their lives at the end
of their journey to magnify the Lord, the one that they are trusting
in for salvation and for eternity. And so the second thing that
she does, she rejoices in God. This is not just something she
is saying. about God or about someone else,
this has touched her heart. She rejoices. Do we? Do we rejoice
in God? And can we add that second part
that she says, in God my Saviour. Now of course some will say,
well, They think that she was sinless, that she was the sinless
virgin. No, she was a sinner just like
you and I, and she needed a Saviour the same as you and I, and she
rejoiced in God, her Saviour, that was in her womb, that she
was to bring forth. And it's a blessed thing for
us to view the Saviour and to rejoice in Him. like Mary did. Now, she doesn't only do that,
but then she tells the reasons why. In the verses that follow,
we have the first ones, for what he hath done, but mainly right
the way through this remaining chapter, each verse is beginning
with, he hath, he hath. Those things that the Lord has
done. The Lord works what he has done. The first thing that she mentions
is he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. Of course
Mary herself, she couldn't have, well she hadn't even been, had
a husband, so she, and obviously of low standing, low estate,
And really, but what a picture that is of all of us as sinners,
how low a state, how low we are to be regarded. Why? Why did the Lord look upon us?
Why did He come to save us? Why did He pass by angels and
yet He came to sinners? And you think when our Lord was
on earth, it wasn't the high, it wasn't the mighty, it was
publicans and sinners, it was the poor, it was those that had
nothing, even literally. But spiritually, when we regard
our state by nature, to think that the Lord has even thought
about us, regarded us, that's the first reason that Mary gives. Then she speaks of what He has
done to her. He that is mighty hath done to
me great things, and holy is His name. really the remarkable,
the birth, "...the Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee, therefore
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God." That great miracle of the Incarnation was done to
Mary, and she would have realized what a unique miracle, never
done before, never to be repeated, the Eternal Son of God made flesh
dwelling among us. And she speaks of this way, this
is a holy thing. But just think as concerning
us, we can come in here as well, have done to me. great things. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." God, the
mighty God, works in us. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
he tells those Ephesians believers the same power was wrought in
them to make them believers as what raised up Christ from the
dead. So when we realize that as believers,
then we can say that the Mighty hath done to me great things. Then we have in verse 50, His
mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. If you read Psalm 136, the end
of every verse is, Mercy endureth forever. And it is mercy that
has brought the Son of God, mercy that has provided a way of salvation,
a way that God can be just, and be the justifier of them that
believe in Him. Then in verse 57, "...he hath
showed strength with his arm, scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts." How many devised and thought how the Lord would
come! Some thought He would come as
a King. Israel did not know the day of their visitation. The
Lord did not come as they expected, and yet He came, the real Saviour,
and to save, and He did. Mary, she can see this. You know,
all of those that may have expected how the Lord should come, Mary,
she sees, she realizes how He has come. So very different. And then you read the way everything
is put, you might say, upside down. They put down the mighty
from their seats, put them down, exalted the low, filled the hungry
with good things, the rich He sent empty away." What a picture
of the Lord's ministry, and what a picture of what Mary is seeing
here. And speaking of Israel, how Israel
has been helped by the remembrance of His mercy, and she views What
has been done is the promise to the fathers, Abraham and to
his seed forever. And so may we be like Mary, when
the Lord shows us His blessing, that we are brought to magnify
the Lord and to rejoice, and we have a real reason for that. we can rejoice the same as her
in the provision of the Saviour, and as well as being brought
to believe, and to have a good hope through grace, a hope beyond
the grave. And so at this season of the
year we come up to where we would remember the birth of our Lord,
and we begin this season with this theme, and with joining
with Mary in magnifying the Lord and in rejoicing in His name. The Lord bless you with these
thoughts. You have the sheets here and
read through them. Meditate upon these verses through
the remainder of the day. Well let us sing the second hymn
on the hymn sheet. Come thou long expected Jesus, O Lord our God, we do thank Thee
for Thy Word, we thank Thee for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
for Thy coming, for the Gospel, for Thy Word enduring to all
generations. Bless us here, be with us on
this Thy day, the day that we remember that Thou didst rise
from the dead and appear unto Thy disciples, to appear for
the dear friends here. Bless thy word, we ask these
things through our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion
of the Holy Spirit abide with you all now and evermore. Amen.