A couple of weeks ago I had the
pleasure of going with Lisa down to Bermagui, where our friends
Egloff and Isabel and others first came to hear the Gospel.
And we had a lovely time. It was a great reminder of how
for 15 years God has worked in the lives of those people and
kept them faithful. It's also a great reminder of
what an effort it is for Peter to come all the way up here every
couple of weeks. It took us nearly 3 hours to
get here. And just the encouragement that
that is. And I'm really pleased that Egloff
and Isabel come on separate weeks to Peter because we're getting
double encouragement basically. It's just lovely anyway. It was
a nice time. And seeing I hadn't been with
those people down there before, obviously the first time you
get together you just want to talk about things of the utmost
importance with them. And so I brought a message from
Luke Chapter 1. And the Lord's just shown me
so many things, extra things in this message, that I thought it would be really
good for us to hear it again. We are warned by Jude that we
are to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the
saints. We are promised that heresies
will come. We are promised by the Lord Jesus
that false Jesus Jesus is and false Christs will arise and
they will draw multitudes after them. We are promised that people
will heap up to themselves teachers who will give them what their
itching ears want to hear. And my job, one of my jobs as
the Lord's under-shepherd for your souls is that I have to,
as the Lord's servant, warn you about those things. And not only
to warn you, but I must, if the Lord allows, give you the words
of God that protect you from the heresies that are promised
to abound. And if we are going to contend
for the faith, we're going to stand and be counted for the
Lord Jesus. If we're going to enjoy the joy
that is promised for God's saints in this world, then we need to
have the Word of God. clear for us, and we need to
be able to go to the Word of God and say, this is what you
are saying, this is what God says. I am going to stand with
what God says. His Word is simple, His Word
is plain, and His Word is clear. And so in Luke chapter 1, we
actually have the first Gospel proclamation in the New Testament
era. And so when God lays foundations,
those foundations are significant. And this is a significant word
from God. In fact, I challenge you to test
every heresy that you come across against these words and you will
find that in these 12 verses of scripture, Every issue that
I can think of that has confronted the Church in the last 2,000
years and confronts the people of God today is actually dealt
with. And so we don't have a confession
of faith. But if someone wanted to ask
us what we believe, then this is a great place to go. It's
a great place to go. God had kept silent. for the people of Israel for
400 years. And so I know, as you would know
from the history, the Lord met with Elizabeth and Mary, and
Mary sang that beautiful song. But she kept it privately to
herself. And so in Luke 1, verse 68, Zacharias,
who had met the angel of the Lord in the temple, And because
he didn't believe the Word of God, even though he was a righteous
man, because he didn't believe the Word of God, he was kept
silent for at least nine long months. Not a single word. In that time when the disgrace
of his wife was taken away, that family had so much to rejoice
over. Zachariah couldn't say a word. The Lord had shut his mouth. And then in verse 68, at the
circumcision of this son that was promised and this son that
was given, at this signing, this sealing of the covenant, this
reminder of the covenant with Abraham in the life of this baby,
Zacharias' mouth is finally opened and he speaks these wonderful
words. Let's just read them together.
You have them on your sheets there. Luke chapter 1 verse 67. These are the words of God through
Zacharias. Just note, his father Zacharias
was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, speaking or saying. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people and
has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David
his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from
of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who
hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his
holy covenant the oath which he swore to Abraham our father,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days. And you, child, will be called
the prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the
Lord to prepare His ways, to give to His people the knowledge
of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the
tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high
will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. So I'd just like to briefly dip
into these verses this morning. There is much, much more in them
than we'll be able to deal with this morning, but I'd like to
look at them under four headings. Firstly, what God has done. Secondly,
what God has promised, because God always does what He has promised
to do. Thirdly, what God is doing in
His people. And fourthly, what God has called
His servants to proclaim. And so the first thing that we
look at is what God has done. Firstly, our God speaks. He comes to Zacharias. He fills Zacharias with the Holy
Spirit and He causes Zacharias to speak. And God, here in these
verses, is proclaiming God to His people, who have waited for
so long. They have been waiting ever since
that promise was made to Eve, that the seed of the woman would
crush the serpent's head. And the first words that come
is, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel. Everything begins with God. For God's people, the blessing
of God is the beginning of all things. And He is the Lord God,
the Sovereign God of Israel. Blessed be His name. The scriptures
call on people to honour the name of the Lord God, to honour
his character, to honour the fact that he is absolutely sovereign,
to honour the fact that he is the God of Israel. And then this
God, this holy, awesome, sovereign God has visited us. You've got to remember that at
this time John the Baptist is just a baby eight days old. The Lord Jesus is just a tiny
baby in his mother's womb. But he has visited us. Remarkable, isn't it? That God would come and visit
with people like us. Visit with that nation that had
turned away from Him almost universally. That nation that had turned His
holy law, that spoke of His holiness, into a means of works righteousness. This nation that was proud of
its heritage, but when its Messiah came, when God came, they rejected
Him. But He visits with a purpose,
our God, our sovereign God comes with a purpose. And He says here,
He has accomplished redemption for His people. And I can hear
people saying, this is before the Lord Jesus has even been
born. This is before the Lord Jesus has come and gone to the
cross. This is before the Lord Jesus
has been risen from the dead. This is before the Lord Jesus
has been exalted to heaven. How can we talk about accomplished
redemption? God talks about accomplished
redemption because in the eyes of God, the Lord Jesus was the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Hebrews 4 verse
3, God says that His works were finished from the foundation
of the world. They were finished from the foundation
of the world. The Lord Jesus didn't come on
an errand from heaven hoping to achieve something. God says,
as he speaks after 400 years, he has accomplished redemption
for his people. To redeem someone is to buy them
out of, or to deliver them, to deliver what was lost. A classic
example from our day is the pawn shop, isn't it? If you take your
watch to the pawn shop and the man gives you $50 for it. It was your watch. You've sold
it. And you take your $50 back a
week later and give your $50 to the pawn shop owner, the watch
which is yours has been redeemed. It is now yours. He has accomplished
redemption for us. When we sinned in our father
Adam and gave Satan rulership over our lives in this world,
we were lost. We needed salvation. We needed
salvation far more desperately than any of us could possibly
imagine. We had no idea of how dark the
situation was. We had no idea of how serious
sin was. And it takes all of the majesty
and all of the power and all of the glory of God Almighty
to redeem sinners from that pit that they found themselves in.
So many people these days talk about free will. If we have free
will in the spiritual sense, we really don't need a Redeemer. If people are worshipping their
will and attribute something of salvation to their will, then
what they are worshipping is themselves and their will. Just read Colossians 2.23. God calls it will worship. God's people need redemption. We desperately need redemption. And it's extraordinary, isn't
it, that God speaks of redemption as an accomplished thing. And
it's an accomplished thing for His people. It is finished for
His people. And this is how He's done it.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us. A horn is symbolic of
power for God to raise his people from the dead, to rescue his
people from the pit of sin and the entrapments of Satan, God's
power is at work. Amazing power is required for
God to save his people. He's raised up this horn of salvation
in the house of David, his servant. David, as you can remember, was
promised a kingdom, an extraordinary kingdom. David thought he was
going to build a house for God. And God says to David, no, you
won't build a house for me, but I'm building a house for you,
David. It's a remarkable house that
he builds. In 2 Samuel 7, verse 13, he talks
about the house that will be built. for God's name and I will
establish the throne of His kingdom forever. Verse 15, His mercy,
my mercy shall not depart from Him. Verse 16, and your house
and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established
forever. What a remarkable promise from
God to a man who was weak and fickle, to a man who was going
to sin against God and God's people in such obvious and public
ways. But God's activities are based
on His grace and mercy and not on the activities of men. Isaiah 55 verse 4 talks about
the everlasting covenant that I will make with you, the sure
mercies of David. And in verse 5 of that chapter
there is the reason for this sure mercy and this covenant,
everlasting covenant, Because the Lord your God and the Holy
One of Israel, for He has glorified you. David's kingdom was an earthly
kingdom. Joseph and Mary were descendants
of David. For a thousand years, David's
kingdom had now nothing but decline. 1,000 years of glorious decline
and there the children of the King, Joseph and Mary and many,
many others, are slaves effectively to Rome. Poor are outcasts. But now this horn that was promised
to David, this salvation that was promised to David has come.
It's been raised up. And always in the scriptures,
God operates in perfect fulfilment of what he has promised. And
that's our second heading. God always, God only ever does
things that he has promised. Prophecy is promise. God's word is sure. and nothing is going to stop
God's Word and God's promises being fulfilled. God spoke through
the mouth of the holy prophets from of old. The prophets from
Adam through to Malachi told about this Saviour who was coming. They promised this Saviour hundreds
and hundreds of prophecies. more and more specific as time
went on about this glorious saviour, this glorious saviour who was
going to be God. How can David have a son who
lives forever unless that son is God himself? The prophecies
of Daniel about this kingdom that's coming, this child that's
being born to us, says Isaiah, and he will be called Wonderful. He will be called Counsellor. He will be called Mighty God. Salvation from all our enemies. God speaks salvation. God promises salvation. The name
Jesus, the name Joshua, actually speaks of salvation. And so when
the Hebrew readers read their Old Testaments, when they came
across that name Joshua, they would have seen it as salvation,
as they wrote. Salvation from all our enemies. You could well think that Rome
was the enemy. Hardly a word is said in the
New Testament about the wickedness of Rome. In our day, we have
a world around us which is appalling. In fact, on Channel 7 News last
night, I glimpsed it after Lisa was watching the Rugby Union,
and they had a nude woman lying on a bed on the Channel 7 News
at 6.30 in the evening. And we say, What a rotten world
that we live in. But the scriptures see enemies
as being much more dangerous than the evils that we see around
us. The open pornography, the open
wickedness, the open exaltation of things which offend God and
are just so prevalent in our society. John the Baptist was
going to be killed by Herod. The scriptures say very, very
little about Herod. Our enemies are much, much bigger
and much, much more sinister than Roman empires and wicked
despots like Herod. Our enemies are Satan. Our enemies are the
sin that lives in us. Our enemies are the fact that
in these bodies we do lust after the things of the flesh. Sure,
all these external things are enemies to God's people, but
the real enemies that the Word of God warns us about more than
anything else, are the enemies that are us. The real enemies
of the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures are the scribes and the Pharisees. Pilate is not seen really as
an enemy of the Lord Jesus. He's just weak and cowardly. And throughout the rest of the
New Testament, the enemies of God's people are false teachers
and false doctrine. False teachers and false doctrine
that take away from the glory of God's people. Deny what he
has done. deny His deity, deny His finished
work on behalf of His people. And then in place of the glory
of the Lord Jesus, they raise us up in our glorious free will,
in our mighty sovereignty, and we can reign in our hearts over
Almighty God. And we can put Him under obligation,
to serve us and to reward us because of things that we have
done. God's children, according to
this verse, are hated by people. To declare God's free, saving,
sovereign grace flowing to sinners purely because of the work of
the Lord Jesus and devoid of any of the works and merits of
men. To proclaim what these scriptures
proclaim about the character of our God and what He has done
for His people will cause people, religious people, to rise up
against God's people. That's what they did to the Lord
Jesus. That's what they did to the early
church. They went all the way from Jerusalem
to Antioch, all the way from Jerusalem to Turkey, to proclaim,
man's works plus Jesus' works equals salvation, and here is
how you do it. We need salvation from our enemies. We need, as these verses say,
to be visited by our God. The text is quoting some words
out of Psalm 106. Might be good to turn there for
a minute. It's wonderful the way the psalmists
always praise God for His activities and always exalt what He has
done and make man realize what He really is. Verse 6, we have
sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not
understand your wonders. They did not remember the multitude
of your mercies. but rebelled by the sea, they
provoked God by the Red Sea. Nevertheless, what a wonderful
nevertheless, what wonderful buts there are in scripture,
nevertheless He saved them. Why does He save them? For His
namesake. Ezekiel 34 says, for my holy
namesake I saved them, that He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also and
it dried up. So He led them through the depths
as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of
Him who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
The waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left.
Then they believed His words. They believed His words. They
sang His praise. So God has shown mercy to the
fathers. To the fathers of Israel, God
has shown mercy again and again. To show mercy is to demonstrate
mercy, to perform mercy. He actually does it in ways where
God's character is revealed. He hardened Pharaoh's heart that
his character might be revealed and his power might be known.
But also He is a God who remembers. Look at verse 72, the second
part of it, to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham
our father. A covenant is just an agreement. The holy covenant that he's referring
to here is the everlasting covenant. In the scriptures it's called
the covenant of grace. It's the covenant of peace, the
covenant of life. Hebrews talks about it being
the better covenant when it's compared to the Mosaic covenant. It's called the new covenant.
It's called the everlasting covenant and this is the covenant that
God manifested to Abraham. In Genesis 7.17, at the institution
of this ceremony which was now before them, as John the Baptist
was being circumcised, at the institution of that symbol which
was just a sign and a seal of an eternal covenant, God says to Abraham in verse
7, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants
after you in the generations for an everlasting covenant. And the result of it is to be
God to you and your descendants forever. Do your descendants
after you. He who is born in your house
and who is brought with your money must be circumcised. And
my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant."
The symbol of the covenant, the cutting of the foreskin of this
baby, was a sign of an everlasting covenant. And the wonder of the
everlasting covenant is that it's a covenant between God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that covenant,
that eternal covenant, that everlasting covenant, signed and sealed in
the blood of the Lord Jesus, is the covenant that governs
everything that happens in this world. When God says in Romans
8.28 that he's working all things for the good of those who love
God and are called according to his purpose, that working
of all things for their good is the outworking of this everlasting
covenant. It's called a holy covenant here
because it comes from a holy God. It comes from a God who
will only accept holy things. It's called a holy covenant because
this covenant honours the holy work of the Lord Jesus. his darling son. And this covenant is called a
holy covenant because by this covenant and by the work of this
son, God can call all of his children holy. Because by this
covenant and by this man, God has honoured his holy law. He's magnified His law. He said that His law is holy. He said that His law is spiritual. And in the Lord Jesus, and all
of those who are united to the Lord Jesus, God's law is holy. God's law is satisfied. God's law is honoured. It's a holy covenant. The remarkable thing in Isaiah
is that twice in Isaiah the covenant is about a person. In chapter
42 verse 6 he says, I the Lord have called you in righteousness
and I will hold your hand and I will keep you and give you
as a covenant to the peoples. and as a light to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus is the seal of
the covenant, the sign of the covenant, the fulfilment of the
covenant. He is the covenant. They promised in eternity to
save all of God's children and the Lord Jesus has fulfilled
that promise. And so this is what God is now
doing in the lives of his people. Because of what has been finished,
because of accomplished redemption, we might say, well what does
it mean to us? How does it affect me now? The first thing in verse
74 we see, that we are granted. We are given as a gift to grant
us that we having been or being rescued from the hand of our
enemies might serve Him without fear. We have been perfectly
rescued, we have been perfectly redeemed that we might serve Him. The
result is that we must and we will serve our God. But in the scriptures Only the
clean serve God. So much of the religious world
tells us that we have to get our act together. And when we've
got our act together, then we'll progressively sanctify ourselves
and we'll become more and more holy and more and more acceptable
to God. And I don't know about you, but
so often when you go through times of darkness and the heavens
seem like bronze and God seems so distant and you just have
no taste for heavenly things, I keep saying to myself, now
if I could just sit down and read the whole New Testament,
if I could just spend an hour praying if I could just do something,
surely I could do something to fix this problem. I want to love
God and I want to serve Him. I want to honour Him and I want
to try and do all these things to make it better. These words
here are words of extraordinary comfort for people who get tossed
like that. I'm not sure how you are, I can't
speak because I don't know your hearts, but so often we are tossed
around when we sin and sin badly, when we fall and fall badly. We so often look and say, if
I can actually do these things now, I can get myself clean and
then I'll be right with God and then I can go back to where I'd
like to be, living in peace and joy with Him. Just read what
God says, that we serve Him Without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before Him all our days. Without fear, without fear of
God's law any longer, because it no longer holds me guilty. The Lord Jesus is the end of
the law. He's finished the law. No fear. of future punishment, no fear
of failure, no fear of shame, no fear of the weakness which
is just part of my makeup day by day, no fear of Satan and
his minions. We serve him without fear in
holiness. There are some wonderful descriptions
of the outworking of this covenant in Hebrews 9 and 10. Hebrews contrasts what it was
like for the people of Israel to live under the Mosaic law
and issues the most solemn warnings possible from God about anyone
ever going back to that law to seek righteousness. that with
his own blood he entered into the most holy place once for
all, once for all time, not for all people, having obtained eternal
redemption. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
for the purifying of the flesh, it was an outward cleansing only,
how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God." What a wonder to
have a clean conscience before God. What an amazing gift from
God that He would work in His people, that they would serve
Him without fear. They would serve Him in holiness
and in righteousness all of our days. One of the problems for
the Gospel is that it's too good. It's such good news that it's
too good news, isn't it? We want to say, surely there
must be something I can do now. There must be some little thing
that I can do that will make me a little bit more holy than
that Beth day over there. Surely. She's failing and I'm,
look what I'm doing, look what I'm doing. God says, all of his
children serve him in holiness and righteousness. What a remarkable
promise from God. What a remarkable promise. It's
true, isn't it? God says it's true. Do I actually
see it in myself? The question is, do we believe
God or do we believe what goes on in our minds? Do we believe
God in his word or do we believe what we say and other people
say about us? So the basis of Christian service
is not that we might do something to make God kind toward us, but
the fact that he's actually done absolutely everything for us.
for the basis of Christian service is redemption accomplished, salvation
finished, promises fulfilled, God's people made holy. We don't
serve God to gain something. God's people serve him because
they have gained absolutely everything. If you have the Lord Jesus, you
have everything that this world and the world to come can ever,
ever give you. God's people serve out of a grateful
heart of gratitude. We're not mercenaries, we don't
have to be paid to serve God. We're not people who seek rewards,
extra rewards and extra crowns in heaven. God's people go to
heaven on the basis of the Lord Jesus' work and His work alone.
We serve Him now, He says, in holiness and righteousness all
of our days. And this leads us to the last
thing. This is what we proclaim. This is the Gospel that we proclaim. This is what John the Baptist
was prophesied to proclaim. will be called the Prophet of
the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare
His ways." To give to His people the knowledge
of salvation. To give to God's people the knowledge
that salvation is finished. Salvation is accomplished. Redemption is finished. God's
children are now. Holy. God's children are now
righteous. Amazingly, that's what we proclaim,
isn't it? Salvation is finished. The Lord
Jesus really meant what he said when he died on the cross and
gave up his spirit and said it is finished. All of his children
at that one point in time are perfectly qualified, made fit
for heaven. They are all, by that one event,
caused by God's work alone to be presented before the Father
wholly spotless and free from accusation. God's children are
perfect. Holiness is not something that
has degrees. You are either holy, perfectly
holy, or you are 100% defiled. God's children are caused to
know about the salvation because their sins are forgiven. They were forgiven completely. Not one sin between us and God. Not the sin that you did yesterday.
Not the sin that you're doing now. Not the sin that you're
doing tomorrow. Blessed is the man whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man who the Lord
will not take count of their sins. He remembers them no more. We declare a great God and Saviour,
the Lord Jesus. And all of this comes through
the tender mercy of our God. He talks about His everlasting
kindness. God loves His people with an
everlasting love and therefore He draws them. Isaiah 54, 8 talks
about the everlasting love everlasting kindness of our God. He says, with a little wrath
I hid my face from you for a moment, just for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness I will have mercy on you, says your Redeemer. Your Redeemer is the Holy One
of Israel. And this tender mercy will come
like the sunrise. It will come like the dawning
of a new day. When Malachi finished God's Word
in the Old Testament, the last words were about this Son of
Righteousness arising with healing in His wings. and you shall go
out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the
wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
on the day I do this, says the Lord of Hosts." The Son of Righteousness
was coming. For 400 years they had waited
for this Son of Righteousness. And He visits, He visits His
people. He shines the light of who He
is. into their lives to shine the
light of those who sit in darkness. A great proclamation that Isaiah
makes about the darkness that is now broken by this sun. For those who walked in darkness
have seen a great light. Have you seen that great light?
Has he appeared to you as a great light? a great and glorious light
that's shone upon you. Have you known what it is to
be in darkness, the darkness of your own righteousness, the
darkness of no way to get right with God, the darkness of sin,
the darkness of this world, the fear of death hanging over you
as a dark cloud, like the guillotine's blade, That fear that Hebrews
says that all people have until the Son of Righteousness rises
with healing in His wings and says that it's finished. Death
is no more for God's children. We will not die. Our death happened
2000 years ago. We will just be gloriously transferred
into heaven and He will guide. our feet into the way of peace. The way of the Lord Jesus is
the way of peace with God. What a promise we have. God visits
His people Israel and sends His Son. He visits with the Son of
Righteousness and visits the hearts of His people. to be guided
in the way of peace." Do you have that peace? There
is just one way, the Lord Jesus is the way. Any way plus the
Lord Jesus is not a way of peace with God. May He give you that peace. May
He come and visit you. It should be a constant prayer
of our people that God will come and visit. We look out on this
world and so much toil and trouble and so much heartache, but God
visits His people. When He visits them, He visits
them with power. He visits them with light and
He leads them into the way of peace. May He come and do that
again to you today. And may Zachariah's prophecy
be your proclamation of our Saviour. Redemption finished. A glorious
covenant that we live in and rejoice in. A God who is tender
toward His children. A God who comes and shines a
light. so that we see reality in the
light of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray.