He is, as Romans 1.25 says, the
Creator who is blessed forever. And in that marvellous declaration
of the Gospel in Ephesians chapter 1, it's blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed God, blessed God in the
planning of salvation for us. Blessed God in the purchase of
salvation for us. The blessed God in the performance
of salvation in us. A blessed, blessed God. Listen to this description. The
Lord Jesus Christ is at this time a six-month-old baby in
his mother's womb. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and hath redeemed his people. He has visited. That word visited
is to look upon in order to help or benefit, to look after, to
have care for, to provide for, to inspect and examine. It's as Zachariah will say later
on, it's the day spring on high hath visited us. The beginning
and end of this sermon speaks of a visitation from God. What a mercy it is when God visits
His people. That's the story that Naomi heard
in the land of Moab. She heard that God had visited
His people in Bethlehem. What was He doing in Bethlehem?
He was giving them bread in Bethlehem. He was visiting them. God has
visited His people. There is in the time and the
providence of God a thing called the time of love in Ezekiel 16. There is a time when God visits
his people. In fact the judgment of God fell
upon the Jews of that time because they knew not the time of their
visitation in Luke 9, 19. This ushers in a remarkable time,
isn't it, when God steps into human history and steps in and
becomes Immanuel, God with us. God visits His people. God visited
His people and saw what was done in Egypt and God looked upon
their affliction. Our God is present. Our God sees. Our God knows all things. Our God visits. For salvation,
God must visit us or we will remain like Adam and Eve, hiding
from God, hiding from the voice of God, making a covering of
our own works for our shames. Doing what Adam and Eve did in
the garden will be blaming others for our sin and rebellion. Unless
God visits, we will remain dead in trespasses and sins. For salvation God must visit,
for salvation God must declare His redemption. Just listen to
it, isn't it? It's a remarkable Zechariah's
declaration, isn't it? He hath visited and redeemed
his people. Don't you love how God declares
all the issues of salvation in past tense? Why? Because as far as God's concerned,
they're finished. When God declares something,
it is finished. There will be a finishing in
time. In remarkable ways, we just sang of it then. It is finished,
it is finished. But there is a redemption that's
sent. In Psalm 111 verse 9 it says, He sent redemption unto
his people. He has commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverent is his name. So what's redemption? Quite simply,
redemption is to buy back at a promised price. It's to clear
someone by payment. It's to obtain possession by
a payment. I love what Elihu says to Job. It says, save your soul from
going to the pit because I have found a ransom. I have found
a price to set him free. It is to loose one that is bound,
it is to release from bonds. He hath redeemed his people.
We have, Ephesians 1 says, we have redemption through his blood.
The price has been paid. We have the redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace and we're made accepted in the Beloved. He's redeemed
his people. He's redeemed them. Zacharias
knew nothing. knew nothing, as did any of the
Jews, they never knew of a Saviour who tried and failed. That's Greek thinking, this idea
that God could try to do something and do his level best to achieve
it and fail and shed his precious life's blood for people who end
up in hell. That's never ever mentioned or
allowed in the scriptures and Zechariah won't allow it. At
the very beginning of this first Gospel message of this Gospel
age, Zechariah says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for
he has visited and he has redeemed his people. verse 69, and hath
raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
David. You might recall those remarkable
promises that Nathan made to David. I love reading them and
I love particularly, and I like to repeat, as it were, David's
response. There is, you know, David, as
you know the story, David wanted to build a house for the Lord
Nathan comes to him and says, David, God has a much bigger
plan for you. You're not going to build this
physical house, but God is going to build a house for you. Just
listen to me as I read. He says, For thy word's sake, and according
to thine own heart, thou hast done all these great things,
to make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord
God! For there is none like thee,
neither is there any god beside thee, according to all that we
have heard in our ears. For what one nation in earth
is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem
for a people to himself, to make him a great name, and to do for
you great things and terrible for thy land before thy people
which thou redeemed? to thee from Egypt, from the
nations and their gods. For thou hast confirmed to thyself
thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever, and thou,
Lord, art become their God, and now God. This is David's response,
isn't it? And now, O Lord God, the word
that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said. Do as thou hast said. We've heard
that repeated earlier in Luke, haven't we? And let thy name
be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God
over Israel. Let the house of thy servant
David be established before thee. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build
thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God,
thou art God, and thy words be true. Thou hast promised this
goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee
to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever
before thee, and thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it. And with
thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. He has visited his people. He's raised up the horn. The horn, of course, it speaks
of power. The Lord, the God of my rock,
in him will I trust. He is my shield, the horn of
my salvation, my high tower and my refuge and my saviour. It
is. He's raised up the horn of salvation
for us. Everything God does is for us. There is always a for us, there
is always a people at the centre and purposes of all of God's
activities. Everything, everything the Lord
Jesus Christ did involved an us. I love what he said to John
at the Jordan River at his baptism and John said, I'm not worthy
to untie the laces of your sandals. And the Lord said to him, Suffer
it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. If all righteousness is going
to be fulfilled, it's going to be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the only way you'll fulfill it is in Him. He's raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been
since the world began. Isn't that remarkable? There
has never been a time in this creation where there hasn't been
a witness for God in this world. It might seem very, very few
and far between. It might be, as Elihu said to
Job, that there might only be one in a thousand who is a faithful
witness. There might only be one in a
million who is a faithful witness. But God will always have his
witness in this world. There never is a time where there
will not be a witness. Salvation is God visiting his
people. Salvation is God coming and revealing
himself to his people as the promise-making and promise-keeping
God. that we should be saved from
our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. Salvation is a deliverance, isn't
it? The Jews mistakenly thought that their enemies were the Romans.
They had much bigger problems than the Romans. We have much
bigger problems than the things of this world. We should be delivered
from sin and death and Satan. We need to be delivered from
the law of God. We need to have that law magnified
and honoured. and every transgression must
meet its due recompense. We need deliverance. Salvation
is a deliverance. Salvation is to be delivered,
to be saved. We should be saved. Why should
we be saved? Why should there be a people
saved? Because there were a people given to the Lord Jesus Christ
before the foundation of the world. And all of what is spoken
here is in reference to that holy covenant that was made from
before the foundation of the world. And from the hand of all
that hate us, The Lord Jesus Christ promised that the world
would hate us. It hated him without a cause. The hatred of the world
to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is an irrational hatred,
but nevertheless it's a real hatred. And when it burns in
our ears, we are shocked at what's revealed of people who hate the
very message of salvation and deliverance. We, like the psalmists, might
often say, My tears have been my meat day and night, while
they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? And they mocked the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross, didn't they? Let's see if God will rescue
him. Seeing he trusted him, they mocked the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary Street. Where is our God? Where
is God? It's a question that's asked
again and again and again, isn't it? Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God? What's the response in Psalm
115 verse 3? But our God is in the heaven.
He has done whatsoever he hath pleased. Our God's in the heaven. It's a horrible story to have
to contemplate, but Henry Mahan some considered to be the greatest
preacher of the last century, and certainly among them, had
a son and he went to Vietnam. And on the day that he arrived
in Vietnam he was killed. And a preacher who hated what
Henry Mahan proclaimed of who the Lord Jesus Christ came to
him and sent him a message to Henry Mahan that day, Where now
is your God? They hate the people that bring
the message of the Gospel as much in some ways as they hated
the Lord Jesus Christ. Henry replied in the words of
that psalm that I just quoted. He said, My God's sitting on
the heavens as he always was and always will be. And Henry
and his family were comforted by the Lord in the midst of it
all. Unbelief. Unbelief is the greatest enemy,
isn't it? We need a visit on high. We need a visit from God proclaiming
His salvation to quench the bitterness and the emptiness that unbelief
brings into our lives again and again and again. Verse 72. Let's go back a little bit and
read it and try and get some context. that we should be saved
from enemies and the hand of all that hate us, verse 71. Verse
72, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember
his holy covenant. Oh, what a merciful God we have.
I love how the Bible speaks so often of the mercy of God. It's
called great mercy. It's called plenteous mercy.
It's called, in this passage of Scripture, tender mercies. It's abundant mercies. It's everlasting
mercies. And of course, in Romans 9, it
is distinguishing mercies. Mercy simply is God not giving
us what we deserve, and grace is giving us what we absolutely
don't deserve and cannot earn or merit in any way at all, to
perform the mercy. Who needs mercy? Who needs mercy? Who knows that they need mercy?
Sinners know that they need mercy. I quote it often, but I do love
that story of the publican. You can imagine how publicans
were treated in the days of the Jews and the days of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That publican who was a tax collector for the Romans,
he was a traitor and he was defiled by handling that money. And he
goes up to the temple and he beats on his chest because his
problem's in his heart, it's not in the hands that have been
defiled. And he says, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. And if you're a real sinner,
if God has made you to be a sinner, you'll need mercy performed,
not just mercy promised, not just mercy that's there in a
distance, but we need mercy performed. We need mercy present with us. We need to know the mercy of
God with us. We need to know the yay and amen
of all the promises of God, to perform the mercy promised to
our fathers. It's the oath he swore to father
Abraham. It is those great promises that
are repeated again and again in Genesis chapter 12 and 15
and 17 and following and repeated again in Galatians. To remember
the mercy promised is to remember his holy covenant. In preaching the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot preach the Gospel faithfully
unless we preach the Covenant of God faithfully. To be a minister
of God is to be someone who proclaims the Covenant of God, the Holy
Covenant. That's what Zechariah is saying
here. The mercy promised, the mercy performed, is the remembrance
of the Holy Covenant. It's all got to do with the Holy
Covenant. And it's extraordinary, isn't
it, that that which is foundational in the proclamation of the Gospel
in this Gospel age is neglected and not known by almost everyone
in religion these days, this Holy Covenant. The Covenant is
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The winds are
getting difficult here for me, but let me read in Isaiah Chapter
42 I the Lord have called thee,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 42 verse 6, I the Lord
have called thee in righteousness and I will hold thine hand and
will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people
and for a light of the Gentiles. That's what we're reading about
in John's Gospel. It's the Holy Covenant. The Covenant is a person.
The Gospel is a person. We are declaring the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ to remember His Holy Covenant. Isaiah 49 verse 8, Thus saith
the LORD, In an acceptable time I have heard thee, in the day
of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee, and
give thee a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, and cause
to inherit the desolate places. This covenant is none other than
the Gospel. This Holy Covenant was the cause
of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world. This covenant
was the cause of Him going to the cross. There is no understanding
of those words that we just sang. It is finished without an understanding
of the Holy Covenant. Before the foundation of the
world God the Father gave a bride into the hands of his son. And
the Lord Jesus Christ became surety of that covenant at that
moment before the foundation of the world. And at that moment
God the Father necessarily, legally and righteously must look to
the Lord Jesus Christ for absolutely everything for anyone in that
covenant. And we are in a covenant with him, we are bound. Our lives
are bound up with the Lord Jesus Christ in that covenant. And
that's why the mercy must be performed. That's why he must
visit his people, because they were redeemed from the foundation
of the world. The Lamb of God was slain from
the foundation of the world. The elect people of God were
one with the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore righteously God
can lay their sins upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and a righteous
and holy God can put his son to death, and a righteous and
holy God MUST must raise his son from the dead because the
price has been paid. That's why they should be saved.
They should be saved. They must be saved. The Holy
Covenant is that covenant that's ordered and sure in all things.
It's the covenant that's in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God remembers his covenant. He must remember his covenant.
Our salvation and our satisfaction and our comfort is in the fact
that God must remember his Holy Covenant. Performing Mercy is
remembering His Holy Covenant. Listen to what happens as a result
of this covenant, verse 74 of Luke 1, that He would grant unto
us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might
serve Him might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life. Does anyone think for one tiny
second that you have any ability in yourself to do that? How do we perform those things?
How do we serve Him or worship Him all the days of our lives
in holiness and righteousness? Isn't it remarkable? Such is
the glory of the covenant, such is the glory of the union of
all of God's people with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one
with Him, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. God looks
upon His Son, and He looks upon all in His Son with equivalent
delight. It's remembering the Holy Covenant.
It's a grant, isn't it? It's not something we earn that
we might be we might be the recipients of this gift that we being delivered,
we might be rescued out of the hand of our enemies, might serve
him without fear. We spoke earlier of all the enemies
that we have. Satan is a terrible enemy of
the Church of God and all of God's people. Sin is an enemy.
Sin captivates us. The world is an enemy. It's called
in Romans 7 the body of this death that we live in. that we might be worship without
fear. There is a necessary reverence
of God that causes the child of God to both fear and reverently
worship all at the same time. that we worship him without fear. We come to the throne of grace. We come to meet God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there is no reason for fear
because perfect love casts out fear. We might serve, we might worship
him. People might say, what did I
get out of church? And people might say, well, it
didn't do much for me. to get, but to give. The gifts
are given by God, the ascension gifts are given, that we might
care for and nurture and love each other. We might worship
Him in our serving with Him, in serving our brothers and sisters
with the Gospel that Zacharias proclaimed. We might serve without
fear, without fear of men and without fear of enemies. Let's
move on. All the days of our lives, in
holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives.
This is just a description of the Holy Covenant. It's just
a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we serve Him
without fear. In the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ is all of our holiness. The Lord Jesus Christ
is all of our righteousness. Verse 76, And thou, child, shalt
be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before
the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. What a lovely description of
our God. The angel sang Hosanna in the highest, glory to God
in the highest. Our God is high and holy and
righteous. For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in
a high and lofty place. It's remarkable, isn't it? God
dwells with people, with him that is of a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the
heart of the contrite ones. Thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways. His ways, he is the way, isn't
he? But his ways are ways of truth
and righteousness. His ways are ways of holiness
and peace. It's called the old ways, the
way of the Lord. His ways are to give. Listen to that, isn't that glorious?
To give, verse 77. His ways are to give. Our God
is a giver. He might make us receivers. If
He visits us He'll make us receivers. We'll receive what Zechariah
says and we'll rejoice in every single word of it. To give knowledge
of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins. He gives the knowledge of salvation
by the remission of sins. He gives the knowledge of salvation
as He gives you the knowledge that your sins have been put
away completely. That's the knowledge of salvation, isn't it? That
your sins are gone forever. They have been laid on the Lord
Jesus Christ and they have met their just punishment and they
don't exist anymore, which is why God can't remember them.
They don't exist anymore. I love what Jeremiah says of
this, isn't it? This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it on their
hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall
all know me. from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord, because for I will forgive their
iniquity and will remember their sin no more. That's how you know him. You
know him in that your sins have been forgiven. He'll give the
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their
sins. Remission is a very similar word
to redemption as we looked at earlier. It's to release from
bondage. It's to release from imprisonment. It's to be delivered,
as verse 74, out of the hands of our enemy. It means just to
let them go, let them go through. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did in Gethsemane's garden, didn't he, to the people who came to
take him to the cross. He says you can have me, but
if you have me, you must let these go. Must let them go, they
must be let go. He must go and suffer what the
Lord demands for all of its brokenness. See, salvation begins with the
forgiveness of sins. Salvation begins with the forgiveness
of sins. And how many sins did the Lord
Jesus Christ forgive? I love what Colossians 2 says. If he visits his people then
we'll find these words the most rejoicing thing, isn't it? He
blotted out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us
which was contrary and took us out of the way. You being dead in your sins in
the uncircumcision of his flesh, has he quickened together with
him, having forgiven you, Col 2.13, all, having forgiven you
all.