Okay, if you turn in your Bibles
with me to Luke chapter 1. Last week we looked at the words
of the angel Gabriel and the words of Elizabeth and the words
of that amazing song of Mary. But in chapter 1 verse 67 We
have the first words of Zechariah. Mary's conversation with Elizabeth
seems as if it was a private affair. Just two extraordinarily
blessed ladies celebrating in the privacy of Elizabeth's home.
the wonders and the glories of the Lord visiting them. But Zechariah's
mouth was opened after nine long months, nine long months to contemplate,
to contemplate his unbelief, to contemplate what all of this
means, to watch as his wife grew more and more pregnant, more
and more that promise being fulfilled before his eyes, and not able
to say a word. Nine long months with not a word. And now we have the words of
this man, and they're not just his words. not just his words
it's him filled with the Holy Spirit prophesying and saying
verse 68 blessed be the Lord God of Israel For he has visited
and redeemed his people and has 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, that
we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us. to perform the mercy promised
to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which
He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us that
we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve
Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him
all the days of our life. And thou, child, speaking now
of this son, just the baby called John, thou, child, shall be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God. whereby the day spring from on
high has visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way
of peace. And the child grew and waxed
strong in spirit and was in the desert until the day of his showing
unto Israel. Let's ask the Lord to help us.
Heavenly Father, you asked for your servants to comfort, comfort
my people, says your God. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
like Mary we might be able to magnify the Lord in our souls
and like Zechariah that we might be able to proclaim blessed is
the Lord God of Israel. Heavenly Father, we thank you
that you cause us so often throughout our lives to know again and again,
without the Lord Jesus, we can do nothing. Without you, we can
do nothing. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that you have made remarkable promises that where two or three
or more are gathered by you in your name, you come and you visit
with them and you deal with each and every one of us individually,
personally, and you come, Heavenly Father, with tender mercy. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
you'd cause us to be the recipients of tender mercy from your hand
again today, that we might be granted the grace to look upon
our Lord Jesus and to be in awe of our God. Be amazed that He
who is God took on flesh and became Emmanuel, God with us. May you grant us that comfort
that you've promised, the peace that you alone can bring through
the gospel to your people. And may your words be very real
and living in our lives. So we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. First things are important, aren't
they? Foundations laid are critical. Beginnings are crucially important. And here in this message, inspired
by the Holy Spirit as He moved those silent lips to speak, is
a message that was proclaimed throughout time before He came.
and proclaimed throughout time after he came and will be proclaimed
by the Lord's servants until he comes again. Zechariah lays
a foundation in these amazing words. And as you have read through
it, you might have noticed that his words are incredibly similar
to the angels' words to Mary. They're similar to the snippets
of words we hear from Elizabeth, and they're similar, so similar
to Mary's words. When the Holy Spirit comes, He
causes His people to speak with the same voice, because they
speak the words of heaven. They speak God's words. Zechariah, as we read last week,
was a man who was righteous before God. And yet, a righteous man
before God had a moment of unbelief. and the Lord to magnify the events
of what was happening here and to show His love. Whomsoever the Lord loves, He
chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives, says Hebrews
13.6. Zachariah acted in wicked unbelief. All unbelief is sin, says Romans
14. But Zachariah was still a righteous
man, acted in unbelief for a moment, but a righteous man before God. And now this righteous man before
God is filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesies. He says these
remarkable words. So often, Christians talk about
being filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's something that should
burn in the hearts of all of God's children, that we would
be filled with the Holy Spirit, that we filled, in a sense, to
overflowing with the Holy Spirit. And like so many things that
are beautiful promises and gifts of the Lord, It is misused by
people, and misused by people who speak so much of it. Ephesians
5, if you'll turn there for a second, shows us what it is to be filled
with the Holy Spirit. What is it to have a Spirit-filled
life? In Ephesians 5, 18, he says, be filled with the Spirit.
Do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with
the Spirit. Verse 17, be filled with the Spirit, is to have a
life of wisdom. do not be unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is. A spirit-filled life is a life
that spends time in the Word of God and meditates on it. How can we know the will of God
except from what He has written and what He has promised? Verse
20, a spirit-filled life is a life that's giving thanks always. and praising God. giving thanks
always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is that mediator. We have access, perfect access
to the Father through Him. And we thank God in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 21, a spirit-filled
life is one of voluntary submission. submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God. Zechariah is a spirit-filled
man and he prophesied saying, he spoke these public words 400
years of silence, not a word from God, not a prophet of God. God's children were there bearing
witness. We read about them in a couple
of chapters on in Luke's Gospel, Anna and Simeon. Anna, an old
woman, probably over 100 years old, had been in that temple. worshipping and praising God
and sinning in an old man who'd had a promise from God. God has
always had his people. God has always had people who
bear witness to him in this world. But 400 years without a public
word, 400 years of silence, those last words of Malachi,
no doubt ringing in their ears and those promises of Daniel.
And they were a people who were expecting at that time, they
were looking forward to the coming, looking forward to this promised
time, looking forward to this Deliverer coming, looking forward
to that Messiah we read about in Isaiah 53 coming and doing
those remarkable things that He must do. And Zachariah, as
I said earlier, lays this foundation sermon. And we do well, we do
well to re-examine the foundations again and again. In India, they
had a great tradition on New Year's Eve. I'm far too old for
it now, but what they used to do is have a meeting in church
and for several hours prior to New Year's Eve, prior to midnight,
they'd look back on their year. and they'd look back with thankfulness
to God for the things that He'd done. And then after New Year's
Eve, after midnight, at the beginning of the next day, they'd look
forward with expectation and prayer. to what God might do
amongst them in that coming year. It's a nice thing to ponder,
isn't it? And here we are, closing out
another year, another week, another day, another year, closer to
the Lord coming, closer to none of us being on this earth. Closer to us, being in the presence
of God. Beginnings and foundations are
critical, aren't they? Beginnings in our lives are critical. He says in Colossians 2, he says,
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue in him. So walk in him. And that walking
is a walking that is rooted. That walking is a walking that
is built up. That walking is an established
walking. And it's a walking of thanksgiving. And the New Testament proclaims
the gospel. And then there is a remarkable
response to the gospel and the warning of the prophets, the
apostles of the Lord Jesus, again and again, is to hold fast, be
rooted, be established, hold fast to what you've heard. I love the way John expresses
it in 1 John 2, let that therefore abide in you which you have heard
from the beginning. The gospel that you heard from
Paul, the gospel you heard from Timothy, the gospel you heard
from John, No matter what happens around you, no matter how fancy
the oratory of false teachers might be, no matter how much
they might promise, no matter how many miracles they might
seem to perform, no matter how much they might sound like the
apostles, the message and the warning of the Scriptures is
you heard a message from God a message that proclaimed a Saviour
and proclaimed the salvation that that Saviour wrought, don't
move an inch from it. Listen to how John says, what
you have heard from the beginning, and then he repeats it, if that
which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you,
you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this continuing is a critical
continuing. He says in the next verse, and
this is the promise that He has promised us, even eternal life. Zechariah proclaims the gospel,
and he proclaims the gospel in simple, simple words, and he
proclaims it in the most wonderful way, a foundation, a foundation
that we can rest on, a foundation that we can be comforted by,
a foundation like that tried stone of Isaiah 28. It's tested
and tried and we can go back and we can find our comfort and
our peace in it. And I love the way he begins. Mary says, my soul does magnify
the Lord. As he has moved in her heart,
she finds him magnificent. She finds him amazing. She finds his promises extraordinary. But like Zechariah, she looks
to his being. You see how he begins this proclamation. He says, blessed be the Lord
God of Israel. Praise, it might be. Praise Him. Speak well of Him. He is worthy of praise, and He's
worthy of praise for His very being. Heaven is singing. At this very moment, while we're
here, our brothers and sisters in heaven are singing, Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for Thou
hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and
were created. The grace gift of a spirit-filled
life is the gift that God gives to His people to esteem Him as
He is. See, worship is to look at the
worth-ship of our God as He's revealed in the Scriptures. It's to esteem Him as He is.
It's to worship Him as He is. It's to reverence Him as He is. John, like Mary, begins with
the very being of God before he begins with the remarkable
gifts that naturally flow from the character of God. Just turn
briefly down to verse 78. I love what 78 says about our
God. All of these gifts come to His
people through the tender mercy of our God. It means, in the
original, the mercy of the heart of our God. May God help us to see His character
as He has revealed His character to us. Let's esteem Him for who
He is. We must delight in His gifts. But the beginning is a delight
in Him for who He is. As Mary said, my soul does magnify
the Lord and she says in verse 49, she says, He that is mighty. And it's wonderful to think,
isn't it, how in the manifold wisdom of God, He so ordained
for us to be the children of Adam and the children of fallen
Adam, that the very character of God is perfectly matched to
the very needs of all of his people. All of his characteristics
are perfectly suited and they're perfectly magnified in the salvation
of his people. Our God is a God who speaks,
and our God is a God who acts, and our God is a God who is mighty. Zechariah goes on to say, in
the last half of verse 68, for he has visited and redeemed his
people. Our God doesn't stand far off. He visits His people. And that
word visit means to visit with a view to helping His people,
to visit with a view to caring for His people. Salvation, as
John 17.3 says, salvation is knowing the Lord. This is eternal
life. You must know the Lord. and to
know Him, He must visit you. But also to know Him and to dwell
in His presence, He must do this remarkable thing. He has visited
and redeemed His people. Isn't it wonderful? Isaiah 53,
you read it, and it's all in the past tense. Whenever you
read of the redemption and the work of our Lord, it's always,
almost always in the scripture, particularly with reference to
the redemptive activities of the Lord Jesus, it's always cast
in the past tense, isn't it? Where is the Lord Jesus at this
time? He's a little three months old baby in his mother's womb. And Zechariah can say, he has
visited and redeemed his people. What a wonderful word redemption
is. It means to pay the price of
release. It's to pay that ransom price. It's to deliver upon the payment
of a ransom. The redemption of a soul is a
precious thing. It is beyond the imagination
and the power of man to even contemplate what's involved in
the redemption of his soul. That's why Peter can say that
we're not redeemed with corruptible things, but we're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot or blemish. to redeem is to pay a price that
God has set and to pay a price that God accepts. He has redeemed. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He has visited and He has redeemed. His people. He's come as mighty
God. He's come with a purpose. He's come to redeem His people.
For thy maker is thine husband, and the Lord of hosts is his
name, thy Redeemer, and the Holy One of Israel, the God of the
whole earth shall He be called. He's come and He's visited. He's
come and He's visited and He's redeemed and He has raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. He's raised up a horn. He's caused
that horn to rise up, a horn of salvation. A horn signifies
power, it signifies defence. It signifies, of course, the
horn that anointed the Messiah. They filled that horn with oil
and they anointed people, didn't they? They anointed the King.
And in a remarkable picture of the Holy Spirit being poured
out on those people who are anointed, they filled it with almost a
litre of oil and it poured out and it covered them. They were
covered and dripping in oil. It doesn't sound nice in the
flesh, but the spiritual significance of it is huge, isn't it? That
God so covers and fills His people. They are anointed. God has raised
up. And it's all in promise, isn't
it? I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a
lamp for mine anointed. This Saviour who is coming, this
Saviour who is here, this Saviour who has redeemed, redeems with
power, redeems with strength, defends mightily. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. He'll thunder from heaven. He'll
give strength to His King. And just to reiterate this foundation,
He has visited and redeemed His people. He's raised up a horn
of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. He's raised
that horn up for His people in the house of His servant David.
the promise that was made to David that his child, a child
of his, would always sit on a throne, would have an eternal throne
and an everlasting kingdom. The child, of course, is that
baby in the womb of Mary. That's in the house of his servant
David. And he reminds us again, Zechariah
reminds us, as Paul did again and again when they declared
the gospel, they declared the gospel in light of the scriptures,
according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures.
A Holy Spirit-filled messenger from God takes the very words
of the Old Testament, promises and prophecies, remarkable descriptions
of God, and he just lays them out before men. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and He was buried and He rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures. The Gospel is according to the
Scriptures. What was happening is what was
promised. God is faithful. He's always had people who bear
his witness in this world. There has never been a moment
of human history without there being a witness from God on the
face of this earth. For those who claim to be atheists,
God says that they are lying, aren't they? In Romans 1, he
says it's been made manifest in them. And God has shown it
to them and it's clearly seen and it's been understood. They
have no excuse before God. God has borne witness to who
He is and He bears special witness in the hearts of His people as
He comes and He makes promises to them and then He fulfills
those promises again and again. Our God is a God who speaks. Our God is a God who speaks and
worlds come into existence. Our God is a God who speaks and
righteousness comes into existence. Our God is a God who speaks in
His Word. His dear Son made flesh and sins
are gone. This man who's speaking is declared
by God to be righteous before God. righteous, and yet clearly
evidently from the text of scripture, a righteous man who acted for
a time in unbelief. God's righteousness is a righteousness
before God, a righteousness that is remarkably unsullied in the
lives of these people by their sins, which they see just a glimpse
of occasionally. He is a righteous God and He
is a God who speaks and He performs His words how God promises and
performs perfectly, exactly on time. And when God speaks, it
is done forever. And God's prophets, like Zechariah,
always have spoken about one thing. There is just one theme,
isn't there? There is one tune that they play
over and over again, and it is God's salvation. That salvation
that God had promised in eternity, in that eternal and everlasting
covenant. that promise of salvation that
was spoken in the garden to our parents Adam and Eve when they
sinned, that promise that was spoken outside of the garden,
that promise that was spoken of God's salvation prior to the
flood, that promise that was spoken to Noah, the promise that
was spoken again and again before Babel and after Babel, that promise
that was spoken to Abraham, a promise that was spoken to all of the
prophets. Salvation, in verse 71, is the
complete deliverance of your souls from all our enemies. The complete and perfect deliverance,
that we should be saved from our enemies. Not potentially
saved, but really saved. It's the salvation that really
saves. It's the salvation that delivers
us from all of our enemies and from the hand of all that hate
us. What a remarkable thing the Lord
Jesus promised His people, that the journey of his life would
so match, so mirror so much of the journey of their lives. What
was there about the Lord Jesus to hate? He says, they hated
me without a cause. They hated him without a cause.
They had no reason to hate him. They had no reason to hate His
prophets and His people who proclaim these things. The God's children
are going to be in this world according to Zechariah's promise
and this prophecy from the Holy Spirit, that we will have enemies
and we will be hated. and God will deliver us. He will save us and deliver us
from their hands. No harm, no harm will befall
the righteous. Paul talks about those enemies
laid up against us. 17 of them are listed in Romans
8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake We are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. But nay, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Amen. God says, deliver him. God says,
deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. This mercy, this mercy is that
promised ransom, that promised redemption, that promised salvation
to perform. This God performs the mercy promised. Salvation is the performance
of God's promised mercy. He saved us not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. We don't have any at all. But
according to His own mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The mercy of God, its tender
mercy. It's great mercy, 1 Kings 3. It's called plenteous, abundant,
abounding mercy, Psalm 86. It's abundant in 1 Peter 1 through
8. It's everlasting mercy. It's everlasting to everlasting
upon those that fear Him. And His mercy is a distinguishing
mercy. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I have mercy. He will have mercy, which is
the remarkable thing. And He'll have mercy upon those
whom He will choose to have mercy. And the next thing, this mercy
promised. He then goes on to say, and to
remember His holy covenant. To remember His holy covenant.
And the particular covenant he's talking about here is the covenant
that he made to our father Abraham. The story of Abraham's a remarkable
story, isn't it? An Iraqi idolater visited by
God, taken out of that land of idolatry and taken by the very
hand of God and led into a land of promise. He says, I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt
be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse them that curse thee, curse him that curses thee,
and in thee or shall all the families of the earth be blessed. As you read through those next
chapters of Genesis you see again and again the Lord came back
and he revisited his promise to Abraham. Again and again he
has these ceremonies where this covenant is laid out before him
again and again. And he makes promises to him,
like in chapter 17. He says, as for me, behold, my
covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father to many nations. Verse seven of chapter 17. And
I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant. to be a God unto thee and to
thy seed after thee. A covenant to be a God. A covenant to be a God who visits. Galatians 3 shows us what that
covenant is and what is the blessing of that covenant. The blessing of this eternal
covenant. is the blessing of Abraham. In
verse 14 of chapter 3 he says that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. The blessing of
the covenant is that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith. A covenant established in eternity
a covenant signed and sealed with the blood of the Lord Jesus.
What a remarkable covenant it is. When that covenant was made
in eternity, and God the Father gave a people to God the Son,
and there was a marriage promised between those two. And from that
moment on, From that moment on, before the worlds were made,
before the fall of Adam, from that moment on, Christ Jesus
was the surety, the guarantor. And from that moment on, God
the Father looks upon His Son. to provide all that is needed
for all of his bride. That's the covenant. That's the
covenant that Abraham looked to and lived in and died in. That's the covenant that our
father The father of this man, the father of this Lord, he died
with that covenant, those covenant promises as his rest, as his
pillow for his soul, as the everlasting arms that Moses died with under
him. He says, David says, although
my house be not so with God, it is made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure. For this is all my
salvation, all of David's salvation was tied up in a covenant promised,
a covenant blessing, all my salvation and all my desire. All his salvation and all his
desire. God remembers what He's promised. He says, as I have planned, so
shall it be. As I have purposed, so shall
it stand. And it's not for nothing that
twice in Isaiah, in chapter 42, verse 6, and 48, verse 9, He
reminds us that the covenant is a person. The covenant is
the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the covenant. the oath
which he swore to our father Abraham, that this seed, this
seed, in this seed, the Lord Jesus, all of the blessings of
God, all of the blessings of God are wrapped up in this one
tiny baby in Mary's womb, promised, promised. Verse 74, God's salvation is a salvation
that makes servants. He makes servants that He would
grant, that He would give, that He would as a gift grant unto
us that we might serve Him without fear. To serve Him, that verse
goes on to say, isn't it? To serve Him is to be delivered
out of their hands. Having been delivered, He delivers
with a purpose. We are saved to serve God. The lost people of this world
want God to serve them. And in my flesh, I continually
want God to serve me. I want this little need and this
little need and this little need served. But God makes his people
willing in the day of his power. By his delivery, by his redemption,
by his salvation, he causes his people to be servants, to serve
him without fear. Mary was fearful of the angel
and the angel in verse 30 says to her, fear not Mary for thou
has found favour with God. People who have found favour
with God, who are highly favoured as he says in verse 28, accepted
in the beloved They serve God. They serve God like Zachariah
served Him by declaring the wonders of who He is and the wonders
of what He has done. He's delivered us to serve. Then we serve. How do we serve? Just read the next verse in verse
75. God's children serve Him in holiness
and righteousness." Whose holiness? Whose holiness? Anyone who knows anything of
themselves could say it's got absolutely nothing to do with
me and it's all about Him. What a remarkable gift, a delivery
to serve Him in holiness and righteousness. He is our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness is
the name by which He should be called. That is the great Remarkable
news of the gospel, isn't it? That God made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Holiness and righteousness in
His presence. in His presence, Zechariah was
righteous before God. Imagine that, brothers and sisters,
being in the very presence of God, serving Him, being declared
holy, being declared righteous, and being in His presence. Unless
you are holy, you cannot be in His presence. How good do you
have to be to get into heaven? The answer is simple, isn't it?
You have to be as good as God. You have to be as holy as God. You have to be as blameless as
God. You have to have God's righteousness. That is the great transaction,
isn't it? We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. And it goes on all the days of
our life. This gospel that Zachariah proclaimed
is a gospel that begins the work because God has visited a people.
It's a gospel that begins and continues because God has redeemed
these people and he's made a promise covenant with them and they serve
him and they continue to serve him. They persevere to the end,
not because of any strength in them, but because of his promise
to them. kept by the power of God. What a remarkable gospel Zechariah
proclaimed. What a remarkable foundation
message for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to have and
to proclaim throughout this world. A perfect finished work. So that's what John's task was,
wasn't it? He's to go and be that prophet
is to go before the Lord, before the face of the Lord, is prepare
the way for Him. And how do we prepare the way
for Him to come? To give the knowledge of salvation
to His people by the remission of their sins. There is no knowledge
of salvation apart from preaching the gospel. There is no word
of God, proclaimed according to first Peter, without the preaching
of the gospel. There is a salvation that is
accomplished. A salvation that accomplishes
the remission of their sins, the forgiveness, the release
it means, as if from bondage. And it's the remission as if
they had not been committed. God blocks out the sins of His
people. They are taken away and He remembers
them no more because they don't exist. His Son has taken them
away. On the cross, He took all of
the sins of all of God's people and He cast them as far as the
east is from the west. It's remarkable, isn't it? That
it didn't say north and south. If you go to the North Pole,
you turn in every direction and you're heading south. If you
go to the South Pole, you turn in every direction and move and
you're heading north. But where is the end of east? Where is the end of West? Blotted
out the sins of his people. A salvation accomplished. He has visited and he has redeemed. And it comes, it comes as a revelation
of the character of our God. Their source and the origin of
all of this is a tender Mercy of our God. And we only realise
the tender mercy of our God when light from on high visits us,
when the day spring from on high has come, when that light The
Son of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings and He sheds
a light and the darkness of our lives is exposed and it's taken
away and we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They sit in darkness. They were
sitting in darkness and they were in the shadow of death.
and the Gospel guides our feet into the way of peace. Christianity was called the way
for the first several decades. It was just the way. The way
of truth, the way of righteousness, the way of the Lord Jesus. I
am the way, the truth and the life. May God grant us the remarkable
gifts of his tender mercy, that he might visit, that he might
redeem, that he might shed a light, that where there is darkness,
there will be light. Where there is captivity, there
is that glorious liberty of the children of God. And may it all,
as we look back on this year and look ahead, may it all cause
us to magnify God in our souls. And bliss. Praise the Lord God
of Israel. Let's pray.