All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke chapter one. Sorry about being a little
warmer in here. We'll try to get that fixed this
week. Zacharias is speaking by the
Spirit of the Lord, and he's speaking of how the Lord will
use John the Baptist. But this is how the Lord Jesus
uses each of his preachers, This is how he uses his people as
his witnesses. Let's begin reading in verse
76. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest.
John the Baptist is just a newborn baby. Thou, child, shalt 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 hath
visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the
shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts
to the day of his showing unto Israel, to the day the Lord had
John ready to begin preaching. Now, in the times before Christ
came, God spoke to men in various ways. Hebrews 1, 1 tells us that. He spoke in different ways. But
since Christ has come, God has spoken to us in these last days
by his son, by the Lord Jesus. And the means that God has chosen
to use is the preaching of the gospel of Christ. It tells us
clearly in 1 Corinthians 121 that God is pleased to save through
the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Everybody you see in
the New Testament that was saved They were saved by the Lord bringing
them under the preaching of the gospel and by the Lord calling
them through the gospel. It's Christ who has the glory
to provide his preacher and he brings his preacher and his child
who he redeemed under, he brings them together so that that child
can hear the gospel. Look with me to Jeremiah 3, Jeremiah
chapter 3. This is what he declared he would
do in these last days. John 3, verse
14. He said, Turn, O backsliding
children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. We notice
in our text it says he does this for his people. That's his elect,
his people. He said, I'm married to you,
and I will take you, one of a city, two of a family, not all men,
but his people, he would call, one of a city, two of a family,
and I will bring you to Zion. I will, the Lord said. Zion is
the church, his people. I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's the Lord's promise and
that's what Christ does. Now, John the Baptist is called
in our text the prophet of the highest. He's the prophet of
God, he's the prophet of Christ Jesus, the highest. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.19,
he said, the Lord hath committed to us the ministry of reconciliation,
the gospel of reconciliation. And now then, speaking of his
preacher, he said, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. Just like a president of our
country sends an ambassador to a foreign country, That ambassador
doesn't go there speaking his own words. He goes there speaking
on behalf of the president. Well, Christ is the highest,
and he sends his preacher not to speak our own words, but to
preach the word of God, to declare what Christ has accomplished,
how he has redeemed his people. Now, are you one who he redeemed? If you are, be reconciled to
God. That's the message Christ sends his preacher to proclaim.
If he's reconciled you to God, be ye reconciled to God. Surrender
to the Lord Jesus Christ today. Now this is the purpose of the
preacher. Verse 76, Luke 1, 76. This is what John was sent to
do. This is what Christ does with his preacher. He said, thou
shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. The Lord sent John the Baptist
first, preaching the gospel. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
came. This is what the Lord does. I'll
call this preaching that prepares. God predestinated the time that
Christ will call each one of his elect who Christ redeems.
God predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself. And so the Lord Jesus, at that
time, he will call that one that he's redeemed, he will bring
them unto the gospel and cause them to hear the preaching of
the gospel. He does it to prepare his child.
It's how he regenerates his child, it's how he enters the heart
and gives a new heart, a new man, making you hear the gospel
of Christ's person and his finished work. Now we're gonna see three
things here. When through the preaching, Christ
gives us the knowledge of salvation. Number two, he makes his child
know salvation is all of God's mercy. It's all of his mercy
and grace. And number three, Christ is the
light by which we are given sight, by which we see and know. He
gives you a knowledge, spiritual knowledge. He shows you it's
all by mercy, and Christ is that light that gives us this understanding. Now first of all, Christ sends
his preacher, verse 77 says, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sin. As we come into
the world, every sinner is spiritually ignorant. We come into the world
ignorant. We don't know anything about
spiritual things, about salvation. No sinner has knowledge of salvation,
and none can obtain spiritual knowledge by ourselves, by our
seeking. Romans 10.3, Paul said the Pharisees
were very zealous, but he said they were ignorant of God's righteousness. Ignorant. So they were going
about to establish their own righteousness by the works of
law and had not submitted to the righteousness of God, which
is Christ. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. But they were ignorant. So were
we, so were all people as we come into this world. And ignorance,
a man can become religious while he's ignorant, but it only puffs
him up. It makes him proud. He's conceited. Paul said, I would not, brethren,
that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should
be wise in your own conceits. And if you just want to see how
proud and conceited a naturally unregenerate religious man is,
you begin declaring the truth of the gospel to him. And he
begins to see that he doesn't know like he thinks he knows,
and he starts seeing something of the truth. You'll find out
real quick. and he's proud of his knowledge.
You'll see how conceited he is. No sinner can know Christ in
truth and in spirit but by the Lord Jesus Christ teaching us
through the spirit of God, through the preaching of the gospel.
He gives us knowledge. It's by divine revelation. Go to John chapter six. When he declared the gospel to
these folks, they began to murmur and said, this is a hard saying.
And verse 43, the Lord Jesus said to them, murmur not amongst
yourselves. Verse 44, no man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. and I will
raise him up again at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Taught by God, that's what it
means. So every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned
of the Father, that one the Father has taught, he cometh to me,
Christ said. Well, I thought you said it's
by Christ. Christ and the Father are one. We worship one God in
three persons. God the Father teaches us, Christ
teaches us, the Spirit of God teaches us. 2 Corinthians 2,
let's look there, we saw this last week, just about every time
I preach, I point it out to you. 2 Corinthians 2, 12. I'm sorry, I said 2 Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 2, 12. 1 Corinthians 2, 12. Now, we have received, not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual, Scripture with Scripture. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. Our text says, without saying
the exact words, it's telling us Christ is the wisdom of God.
Now 1 Corinthians 1 says Christ is the wisdom of God. He's the
power of God. He sends the gospel to give knowledge
of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sin. Now Christ is wisdom of how God
can save his people and honor his law. It's how he's the wisdom
of how God can be just God and a Savior. Everybody that God
saves sinned and are guilty, and the law requires that we
have to die. We have to be cursed. We have
to be condemned for God's to be holy. For Him to remain holy,
we have to be crucified or condemned, killed. The law demands the death
penalty for any that sins. Well, how's God gonna slay us
and be just and yet be the justifier. He sent his son. And in his son,
God has upheld his law. Everybody God saves died in Christ. We've died in Christ. And everybody
God saves, it's God who justified us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's just and he is the justifier of his people. That is the gospel. Remember we saw In Isaiah 53,
11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied
by his knowledge that Christ is the wisdom of God. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquity. This is what Christ sends the
gospel to teach us. And, you know, what religion
will say is, well, we know that, so we're moving on to other things.
Christ saves through repetition. We have to hear the gospel over
and over and over and over. And we don't have a new gospel.
We hear the same gospel. You go through and you read the
epistles. It's the same message over and
over. And we have to hear this gospel
of Christ and how he's just and the justifier, how God's just
and justifier in Christ. We have to hear this over and
over. This is how he gives us knowledge. He doesn't just give
you knowledge and let you go. He keeps saving through the preaching
of the gospel, through this word, through this word. Christ didn't
attempt to remit the sins of his people. He didn't come and
attempt to do it. He didn't come to make it possible
for your sins to be remitted. For his people, Christ put our
sins away. Christ remitted our sins through
his blood. The law requires death. He gave
the law what it requires. We died in it. The law can say
nothing else to us. It requires nothing else of us.
We died in Christ. Hebrews 1.3, look there with
me. Hebrews 1.3. This is how he gives us knowledge. This is the knowledge he gives
us, Hebrews 1.3. He said, for the remission of sins, because
of the remission of sins, He's gonna teach all his people this
because he put our sin away. Look here, Hebrews 1.3. I just
want you to look at this one phrase at the end. It says, when
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. You see that Christ by himself
put away the sins of his people. Look at Hebrews 9 and verse 26.
We got one death to die, and after this we have one judgment.
Christ came and died that one death for his people. He settled
that one judgment for his people. Hebrews 9, 26. And it says there,
the second part, now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now either
Christ succeeded or he failed. He succeeded, that's what He
came to do, that's what He did. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. 1 John 3, 5 says, you know that
He was manifested to take away our sins and in Him is no sin. When Christ sends the Spirit
into a sinner and He reveals Christ in us, He reveals to us,
brethren, that He has put away all our sins. He makes you to
know he's put away all the sins of his people and that God remembers
our sins no more, no more. Before God, now listen to this
good news, before God, you that he's called to trust Christ,
before God, we have no sin. Before the law of God, we have
no sin. Our old man, this old man that's
in us where we see our sin and it troubles us and it's always
a conflict between the old man and the new man, before the law,
legally, that old man has already died under the justice of God
and all our sin has been dealt with, it's all been put away
when Christ laid down his life on the cross. It is finished,
it is finished. Hebrews 10, 17, God says, their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there's no more offering for sin. This is what
he sends his preacher to preach, to give knowledge of salvation,
he says, unto his people by or because of the remission of their
sin. You see, he justified his people. So that same law that condemned
us, now, because God's holy and just, it demands they must be
saved. They've been justified. They
must not perish. They must not be condemned a
second time. So this is what Christ sends the gospel to teach
us. Now, secondly, back in our text,
in Luke chapter one, Christ makes his child know that
salvation is entirely by God's mercy toward us. It's entirely
by God's mercy to us. He said in verse 78, Luke 1,
78, through the tender mercy of our
God. Mercy, if you want to get technical
about it, mercy is God withholding from us what we deserve. Grace
is God giving us what we do not deserve. Salvation is of God's
mercy in Christ. We were spiritually dead, spiritually
dead. Look at Psalm 102. Psalm 102,
we were spiritually dead. God predestinated the time. He chose who he would by grace
and he predestinated the time that he would bring this good
news to us. And this is what Christ does
at the time appointed, verse 13. Thou shalt arise and have
mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea, the set time
is come. When that predestinated time
is come, Christ will have his child under the gospel and Christ
Jesus will speak and make us know that he has had mercy upon
us. His Zion, his church, his child,
he make you know salvation is entirely of God's mercy. Entirely of his mercy. Romans
3, go with me there, Romans chapter 3. We were guilty before the
law. He sent his son and he justified
his people. He did it by grace, freely giving
us a righteousness that we didn't earn and we didn't deserve. Verse
Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He calls
you by mercy. He makes you know you've been
justified by the mercy and grace of God. We hated God in our hearts,
and he gives you a new heart, and he makes you know that's
by his mercy. 2 Corinthians 5.18 says, all
things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We hated God. We were dead in
sin. So our spiritual birth has to
be of God's mercy. We were dead. It has to be of
God's mercy. We hated God in our hearts. For
him to give you a new heart that's willing to believe it, that has
to be of God's mercy, because we couldn't change our hearts.
He said, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change
his spots? Then may you do good that are
accustomed to do evil. We couldn't change ourselves.
It had to be of God's mercy. The message of works, it speaks
of mercy, and it speaks of grace, but they're bringing sinners
under the law. They're using New Testament precepts,
just like they used the Ten Commandments, and teaching morality, And the
whole message is only a message of works. Since religion does say, well,
we know all that about the gospel, so we're willing to teach sinners
how to live. But by not declaring the gospel
of Christ, they leave sinners thinking this is how you're made
righteous and holy. And it becomes just a message
of works. Christ makes his child know salvation is by the tender
mercy of God. It's by the grace of God. God
said, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And we need
to learn what the Lord said in Matthew 9. Look there with me,
Matthew 9. Remember when the Pharisees saw
him eating with the sinners? And look what he told them. In
verse 12, he said, Matthew 9, 12, he said, they that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. Go, but go ye and learn
what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He's quoting from Hosea. And
you remember the picture in Hosea and Gomer. Hosea, it means savior. It's a picture of Christ. And
Gomer is a picture of the Lord's people. He said that clearly.
He said, this is a picture of the children of Israel. The Lord
told Hosea, go to a land of whoredoms and take a bride. And Hosea went
down and married this harlot. And she bore him some children,
but not very long after that. She's probably 30, 40 years old.
They'd been married a while. She had two or three children.
She left, and she went after her lovers. She went back to
her whoredoms. And Hosea kept putting corn and
oil and wine and flax at her doorstep, and she praised her
lovers and said, look what my lovers have done for me. And
the Lord said, now I'm going to bring her into the wilderness,
and I'm going to strip her. I'm going to take all this away
from her. He took all the corn and the
oil and the wool and the flax away, and he allured her. He brought her into the wilderness.
He said, I'm going to allure her. I'm going to speak comfortably
to her. And what he did was he brought
Gomer down to the slave block. She was in debt. She couldn't
pay her debts. He brought her down to the slave
block, and he told Hosea, Nobody bid on her because nobody wanted
her. And he said, now you go and you love her. And he said,
and I went and bought her. And the Lord said, in all of
these pictures, what I've done in my son, this is the mercy
I'll have on my people. Not sacrifice, not your works,
mercy. We were the harlot. We played
the harlot. We went after our lovers. And
Christ, the whole time we were in spiritual ignorance and darkness,
Christ was providing for us just like Hosea did Gomer. And then
in the point in time, he brought us into the wilderness and he
stripped all these things from us and he showed us our sin. He made us see we're the sinner.
He made us see we owe God justice. And so we're brought down to
the slave block and we could not redeem ourselves, and there
was no man that could buy us out from under our debt. And
Christ made us to see, I came forth and laid down my life for
you, and I bought you, and you're mine. And Hosea, the Lord said,
Hosea took her home, and he said, you'll be mine forever. And Christ
brings us to him, and we're his forever. He's not gonna let us
perish. He will have mercy, not sacrifice. Not sacrifice. God's not interested
in your works. He's pleased with the works of
His Son. He'll work good works in His
people, but it's not to save us. It's a fruit of what He's
done for us. His mercies never end toward
His people either. If you look at Lamentations 3, Lamentations chapter 3, His mercies
never end. He doesn't let us go at any point,
because of this sin nature, we keep wanting to go after our
lovers. Look at Lamentations 3 in verse 21. This I recall
to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord's gonna keep showing
his child mercy, keep showing his child mercy, and save us
by his mercy. First hour to last, it's all
of God's mercy, all of God's grace. This is the message he
sends his preacher to proclaim. Now lastly, go back with me to
Luke 1. The way we have light is because
Christ is the light. He is the light, He's the message
that's preached, He's the reason God's merciful to us, the way
God was merciful to us, and He's the light by which we actually
see and believe. Luke 1.78, whereby the day spring,
that's another name for the sun, S-U-N, the sun, the day spring. whereby the day spring from on
high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of
peace. Malachi 4.2, Christ is called
the S-U-N, in Malachi 4.2, and it says this, he says, unto you that fear my name shall
the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and
you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. That
son, just like the sun comes up in the morning, Christ has
arisen and he shines the light just like the sun's rays with
healing in his wings. and he heals his people by giving
us this light and making us see what he's done for us. That's
why Peter said we have a more sure word of prophecy, these
scriptures. And you do well that you take
heed until the day star, that's another way of describing Christ,
the day star, till he arise and give you light, shining in a
dark place. Every sinner is born spiritually
dead. We sit in darkness and in the
shadow of death. That's where we are by nature. And through this gospel, the
Lord shines the light. He gives light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death. Go to 2 Corinthians
in verse four. Paul said in verse five, we preach
not ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. Here's how the preacher knows
this gospel and here's how Christ makes his child to know this
gospel. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God, not of us. The preacher and no other sinner
saved by grace, none of us can give anybody light. None of us
can cause anybody to believe this gospel. We're the earthen
vessel. We have a rich treasure in us
by God's mercy and grace, Christ Jesus, but we can't make anybody
hear and believe this gospel. But through this message, the
same God who said, let there be light, speaks and shines the
light of Christ in our heart, and he gives us light. John 8,
Christ said, plainly, John 8, he said, I am the light. John
8, verse 12. Then spake Jesus unto them, saying,
I am the light of the world. Wherever his people are, anywhere
in this world, He's gonna be the light of which they see.
I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He's the light
of life, Christ Jesus. And he says there in Luke 179,
he says he guides our feet into the way of peace. He is that
way of peace. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And in John 14, I want you to see this, John 14. This
is why he sent the Holy Spirit. John 14, 26. He said, but the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you. My peace
I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He said, I've
given you my peace. And brethren, he's the way of
peace, he's the way and he is the peace. He's made peace with
his people for his people with God. Now, has he sent you the
gospel and made you here? Has he given you an understanding?
Has he given you knowledge? Has He made you to see that all
of salvation is all of God's mercy, is all of His grace in
Christ Jesus? Has He shined the light and made
you behold His glory in the face of Christ Jesus? Has Christ become
the light to you? Listen, this is what He tells
His people to do. This is what He tells when He
calls you. He teaches you to believe on Christ, cast all your
care of salvation into Christ's hands, and leave it there, trust
him to save you. He teaches you to confess him
in believer's baptism. That believer's baptism, we're
saying that our old man died in Adam, we've been buried, and
that's what the water pictures, the grave, and we come out declaring
we're risen with Christ, brand new in Christ Jesus. Everything
we had confidence in, we have no confidence in it anymore.
We trust Christ our life alone. And he says, follow me, and you
start following Christ. You start assembling with his
people, you start hearing this gospel every week, because it's
the same message by which he first calls you, that he's gonna
keep renewing you and keep you looking only to him all the way
to the end, and he'll save every one of his people. This is salvation. That's the preaching that prepares
his people, and Christ keeps on preaching. He keeps preaching,
he keeps saving all the way to the end. And in that day, heaven
is gonna be, we're gonna get to sit and hear the preacher
who is everything to us, we're gonna get to hear him declare
this gospel. The things that, you know, we've
studied this book for years and years, and there's things that
we don't even see. And he's gonna declare his glory
to us, for eternity, we're gonna get to hear and learn of him. Salvation's all of Christ. It's
knowing more and more of him. I pray he would do that for us.
Let's go to him. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your son. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for
saving us, redeeming us. We thank you for sending the
gospel to us and calling us. We pray, Lord, you bless this
word, do the same for any that you purpose to say. We pray,
Lord, this would be, today would be the predestinated hour, as
you call one of your lost sheep. We thank you, and we give you
the glory and the honor. Keep us, Lord, we pray. Keep
us under this gospel, keep us delighting in your mercy, by
your power and your grace. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.