All right, brethren, let's turn
to Luke chapter 1. Well, this is the first Sunday
of the New Year. And yesterday I was reading Brother
Larry Criss' bulletin, and he had a quote in there from Augustus
Toplady. He wrote this in New Year's 1767. This is what he said. He said,
upon review of the past year, I wish to confess that my unfruitfulness
has been exceeding great, my sins still greater, and God's
mercy greater than both. Every believer here can say amen
to that. And we don't ever get above that,
brethren. That's the state of God's child the whole way through
this earth. We're trusting the Lord's mercies.
We saw Thursday night, his mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth
forever. Now, we'll be in Luke 1 here,
and we're gonna begin to see our Lord Jesus and what he did
through John the Baptist's father and mother. I've titled this
Zacharias and Elizabeth, and we're just gonna look Verses
5 through 7. Verses 5 through 7. Let's begin
in verse 5. There was in the days of Herod,
the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the
course of Abiah. And his wife was of the daughters
of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless. And they had no child because
that Elizabeth was barren. And they both were now well stricken
in years." Now, the first thing that we see here is Christ the
King. It's the first thing we behold
in this passage is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of His people. He's King of His people. We see
it in this little phrase in verse 5, there was in the days of Herod
the King of Judea. Now how do we see Christ the
King in that? Well, Herod was not a Jew. He was not a child of Israel. He was a Gentile. And the Romans
had set him up as king. The Roman government, they were
ruling over Israel and Judah, and they had set him up as a
Roman king, I mean as a king over Judea. They had taken over
Judea, the Roman Empire had, and they set him up. Now, that
means the kingly scepter the kingly scepter, the power and
the government of the kingdom had departed from Judea. It had
departed from Judea. And that means it's time for
Christ the King. We read over in Genesis 49, 10,
the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, That means there won't be a king depart
from Judah. He'll always have a king until
Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Shiloh's a name for the Lord
Jesus Christ. The word, it's from a root word
that means rest and tranquility. And the word itself means he
whose it is. the throne and the glory, the
throne, the rule over His elect Israel, and the glory is Christ. He whose it is. We know from
Isaiah 9, 6, it said the government shall be on His shoulder, and
His kingdom is a kingdom of peace, rest, tranquility. Now brethren,
let's learn from this right here. If you lived in Judea in that
day, all your civil liberties would
be gone because the Roman government, the Roman Empire ruled over them
at this time. But even with that being the
case, do you see how Christ was working in this? He was working. He was fulfilling
God's covenant and God's purpose. Nothing was out of order because
Christ was, he'd been ruling from the beginning. Everything
that was taking place was by Christ our King. That means if
you and I were taken over, if this country was taken over and
we lost all our civil liberties, as believers we have hope. because
we know who's really ruling. It doesn't matter who the king
would be, or the president, or whatever title they went by,
we know who the real king is, and that's our Lord Jesus. And
knowing him, and knowing that he's ruling all, and that he's
the salvation of his people, that's our rest, that's our tranquility. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
is ruling over all. Now secondly, we see God's sure
covenant all fulfilled in Christ. His sure covenant promises fulfilled
in Christ. We read here in verse five, there
was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abiah. And his
wife was of the daughters of Aaron. and her name was Elizabeth. Every word in that is important. Every word in that passage right
there is important. When we find that word certain,
referring to a person, usually in the scripture, it's speaking
about God's elect. And it surely was right here.
Zacharias and Elizabeth were chosen of God before he made
the world. They were chosen in Christ. These
were some that Christ came to redeem. And that's so with all
God's elect, everybody that he saves, he chose us in Christ
before the world was made. He chose us in him. Now, we're
gonna see here as we go, we're gonna see the angel told them
what to name their child, John. That's what he told them, you
name him John. Brethren, The Lord moved Zacharias' mother
and father to name him Zacharias. And the Lord moved Elizabeth's
parents to name her Elizabeth. Because their names mean something. Names in scripture mean something.
And this was ordained, what the Lord's gonna use them for was
ordained from before the world was made. And so our sovereign
God brought this to pass. We have this couple, Zacharias
and Elizabeth. Zacharias means remembered of
Jehovah. Remembered of Jehovah. God chose
his people in Christ. He chose his people in Christ.
And for that reason, for the sake of our Lord Jesus, all God's
elect are remembered of Jehovah. All his people are remembered
of Jehovah. We saw this Thursday night. We
were looking at Psalm 136. Verse 21 said, the Lord remembered us in our
lowest state, for his mercy endureth forever. And this is what all
God's people can say. You and me sitting here today
can say, he remembered us in our lowest state. He always has,
he always shall, because his mercy endureth forever. Now Elizabeth,
her name means oath of God, or my God hath sworn. That's what
her name means. That's why God remembers us,
because of His covenant, His everlasting covenant of grace,
ordered and sure in Christ. That's why He remembers us. Psalm
105.8 says, He hath remembered His covenant forever, the word
which He commanded to a thousand generations. The Lord can't break
His promise. He cannot lie. And He swore to
Abraham, and He confirmed it. He made a promise, confirmed
it by swearing to Abraham with an oath. So two immutable things
in which it's impossible for God to lie so that we might have
a sure hope. And that hope's in Christ. We
saw Thursday night when we looked at how he remembered us in our
lowest state. We saw the children of Israel
when they went into bondage back in Egypt. God had made his covenant
with Abraham over 400 years before that. Now get this, this is important. God made his covenant with Abraham
over 400 years before, and then the children of Israel were enslaved
in Egypt. And the scripture says, and God
heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with
Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God remembered his covenant.
That's why he came to deliver him. He remembered his covenant.
That 400 years is significant because you know how long it's
been since God made his covenant promise concerning what he was
going to do and why he's using Zechariah and Elizabeth? He made
a promise over 400 years before of what he was going to do. We
find it over in Malachi chapter 4 if you want to look at it.
It's the last book in the Bible. You find it in Malachi 4 in verse 5. He said, Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. And He shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
And when God made that covenant promise right there, He didn't
say another word for over 400 years. Not another word. Not to Israel. And the first
word He speaks now, is he sends an angel to announce to Zachariah
that they're gonna have a son named John. And look down at
verse 16. This is what the angel said about
John. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God and he shall go before him,
before the Lord and the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. That's the fulfillment of Malachi
chapter four. That's what God promised. and
he always makes good on his covenant promise. God remembered his covenant
word, and he's sending John the Baptist to prepare the way of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice here, this is so good
right here. Notice, Zacharias was of the
course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron,
and her name was Elizabeth. Abiyah was Zechariah's great,
great, great, great, great grandfather. I don't know how many generations
back, but you find him mentioned in 1 Chronicles 23 and 24. And
that's where the Lord divided the priests. There was over 24,000
priests, and he divided them into courses. So they came up
by course to serve in the temple. And so, but the point here I
want you to get is Zechariah's father's name was Abiah. He was
of the tribe of Aaron. He was of the tribe of Aaron,
the priestly tribe. And Elizabeth was of the tribe
of Aaron. So that means this one that's
going before the Lord, John the Baptist, he was of the priestly
tribe. And not only that, but John the
Baptist is the last prophet. He's a prophet that the Lord
has sent. Well, our Lord Jesus, who will
come after John the Baptist, John the Baptist's gonna go forth
preaching the gospel, and then our Lord Jesus is gonna come.
The Lord is of the house of David, of the tribe of Judah, the kingly
tribe. That's who he's of. Now get the
picture here of the, there's a beautiful spiritual picture
of Christ right here. Before our Lord Jesus Christ
to fulfill His promise and to make good and to remember His
people, He first had to fulfill His priestly office. He had to
go before fulfilling His priestly office. He came and laid down
His life in the place of His people. As our great high priest,
he's the lamb of God, who laid down his life in our room instead,
poured out his blood to justify his people. He's our high priest
who entered into the true holiest of holies, and having accomplished
redemption for us, he entered in and sat down. And then, as
our prophet, John the Baptist was of the priestly tribe, and
he was a prophet, and he went before the Lord. As the prophet,
our Lord Jesus sends forth his preacher, going before him. And
our Lord Jesus speaks, he speaks powerfully and affectionately
into the heart of his lost sheep that he redeemed. And then Christ,
as the king, enters in in spirit and takes over the heart of that
one he called. Do you get the picture of what
I'm trying to say? John the Baptist went before,
he's a priest of the priestly office, he's of the priestly
tribe, and he is a prophet. You see a picture of Christ our
priest doing the work first, then the prophetical work he
does in calling us, and then Christ the King enters in and
saves his people. And the point here, brethren,
is our prophet, priest, and king fulfills every covenant promise
God has made. Just like we see Him fulfilling
Malachi 4, He fulfills every covenant promise that the Father
made. And this is why God always remembers
His people, because all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and
in Christ, amen, to the glory of God. All of them, all of them. Now, let's get to Zechariah and
Elizabeth. We see here, thirdly, how that
the Lord always remembers his people. He remembered Zechariah
and Elizabeth. He remembered them. God had ordained
before the world began that the parents of John the Baptist would
be Zechariah and Elizabeth. How do you know that? Because
anything that comes to pass, God ordained it before the world
was made. That's how I know that. And that was going to be a particular
blessing to them. Because as verse 7 says, they
had no child because that Elizabeth was barren. Don't you know what
a blessing this is going to be to them to find out they're going
to have a child? She's barren. And not only that, The fact she's
bearing shows it's going to be a miracle of God's grace. He's
going to produce this child. But also, another point, verse
7 says, they both were now well stricken in years. Just like
Abraham and Sarah, they're past the age of childbearing. Just
like Abraham and Sarah. Now, think about them for all
these years, they haven't been able to have a child. haven't
been able to have a child. And don't you know that made
them sorrowful? Back in the garden, God said that the Lord Jesus,
the Messiah, was coming through a woman. He would be the seed
of woman. He's coming through a virgin,
the seed of woman. And every woman They didn't really
understand that exactly, but every woman thought they would
have the Messiah. Actually, when you read in Genesis,
when Eve had her first child, she thought she had begotten,
that she had had the seed of woman. But every woman looked
forward to that. So for a woman in Israel to be
told that she couldn't have a child, or to find out she couldn't have
a child, that would cause great sorrow. Not only that, God put
so much emphasis on the firstborn son. Because the firstborn son,
he was the heir. He got everything. And when the
father died, he was in charge of the whole house and all his
brethren. And the Lord did that to picture
Christ Jesus. Romans 8 tells us God predestinated
those he foreknew. He predestinated to be conformed
to the image of Christ, that Christ might be the firstborn
over many brethren. That's what every firstborn child
was picturing, Christ Jesus the firstborn. So this was reason
for them to be very sorrowful they could have a child. This
meant, you know, it's sorrowful now if somebody can't have a
child, a couple can't have children. But in that time, it meant something
spiritual. And it was really significant
to them and caused a lot of sorrow. And not only that, but because
of these things, these spiritual things, for somebody to not be
able to have a child, that was a stigma against that couple.
That was the sort of thing that would make the folks in Israel
sort of avoid them. And even if they didn't avoid
them, it was the kind of thing that they would go around and
sort of talk about, you know, and say, well, they must be guilty
of some secret sin. God's punishing them. Won't let
them have a child. That was not the case. That was
not the case. It's certain that they came into
this world sinners. Just like everybody God saves,
just like every person in this world, but like everyone God
saves, we all come into the world sinners. Guilty sinners, dead
in trespasses and sin. But look what verse 6 says. It
says, they were both righteous before God. Before God, before
the law of God, before the all-knowing eye of God, they were righteous. They were righteous. They were
righteous in Christ. They were righteous in Christ.
Before he laid down his life at Calvary, he was the surety
of all God's elect. From the foundation of the world,
he'd been the surety of God's elect. That means he's the righteousness
of everybody. God said before Christ came,
he's their only righteousness. And the Spirit of God had given
them life. He'd given them faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, their righteousness. They saw Christ. They believed
Christ in those ceremonies and in the commandment. They saw
Christ. They were believers waiting for
Christ to come the first time. And so the fruit of the Spirit
was that through faith in Christ they were motivated by God's
love to them and they were, verse six says, they were walking in
all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Blameless. Now listen, that was not their
righteousness because it couldn't have been because the scripture
tells us no man is justified by the works of the law in the
sight of God. That's impossible. And it wasn't
that they were without sin. They would have told you that,
just like every believer today would have, just like we heard
August Toplady declare. They would have said, we're sinner,
we've come short of the glory of God. They would have said
that, they would have admitted that. And we can be sure of this
now. Because the Spirit had quickened
them, just like all of God's saints, they loved the law. They
loved the law of God. It's what made them know they
were sinners. They loved the law of God. It's holy, just,
and good. And they endeavored to keep the
law the best they could, just like every believer. And we can
be sure that in all those ordinances, they saw Christ foreshadowed.
I think the Old Testament saints saw Christ in those shadows and
types far more than what we give them credit for, what most people
give them credit for. Peter said on the day of Pentecost,
he said David knew. He said David knew. He'd been
a prophet. He knew God was talking about
Christ when he said, I won't leave your soul in hell. He knew
that in the grave. He knew that. And you can be
sure that Zacharias and Elizabeth, when they saw that high priest,
they saw Christ our high priest by faith. When they saw the lamb
and spotless, they saw the spotless lamb of God, Christ Jesus. When
they saw him, the sins of the people put on him and he died,
they saw their substitute. When that high priest went in
to the holiest of holies on their behalf once in a year by himself,
they saw something of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they saw Christ
in those ordinances. And we can be sure that as far
as their life went in the world, they endeavored to live blameless
before men, just like every child of God does, every saint that
God sanctified does. But the Holy Spirit doesn't say
here, they did their best. It doesn't say they did their
best. It doesn't say this was the tenor of their life. This
was how they usually walked. It doesn't say that. It says
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Before God. Before the all-seeing
eye of God, they were blameless. There are several Greek words
in the scriptures that are translated blameless that have to do with
character. But this is not one of them.
This is not one of them. This is the word Christ used
when he said this. In Matthew 12, seven. He said,
if you had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned
the guiltless. That's what this word means.
Blameless means guiltless. Unreprovable. Unreprovable. As they walked. Now get what
it's saying. As they walked. Like you walk,
you walk endeavoring to keep God's law, and they were endeavoring
to keep the ordinances, because at that time Christ hadn't fulfilled
the law and they weren't put away yet. But they endeavored
to keep the law and the ordinances. And though they did this, sin
was mixed with everything they did. What Paul said when he said,
when I would do good, evil is present with me, that was true
of Old Testament saints too. Sin was mixed with everything
they did. But before God, before God, they
were guiltless. Before God, they were blameless,
unreprovable. Why is that? They were justified
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, so they were without
fault before God. That's true. That's true of all
God's saints, brethren. That's true of all God's saints.
That's true of you sitting here. If you trust Christ, by God's
grace, you trust Christ, He's all you're righteous, that's
true of you. I said Thursday night, when God looks at His
child, He says, when He's sanctified, He says, from the womb, from
the day you were born, Through every step of your life, all
the way to the last breath you drew, in thought, word, and deed,
you were perfectly righteous, no sin whatsoever, blameless,
guiltless, unreprovable. And the only way that's so is
because that's true of our Lord Jesus Christ. From the womb he
was without sin, and every step he took, every thought he had,
every word he spoke, every deed he performed was righteous before
God. And He went to the cross and
on behalf of His people, He put away all our sin. That sin that's mixed with all
that we do, He put away all our sin. So when God looks upon His
child in that day of judgment, He's going to say, unblameable,
unreprovable, in my sight. That's the gospel, brethren. That's, oh, now, you know, I
know people will object and you'll see commentary. Without a doubt,
they were sanctified by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them. And
in their hearts they were holy. And they walked by faith. They
walked looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. They did everything they
did constrained, motivated by the love of God toward them in
Christ. They wanted God their Father
to have the glory. They wanted Christ Jesus to have
all the glory. Because they were believers.
That's how we know that about them. But that was not what made
them blameless. That wasn't what made them blameless
before God. They were blameless by the obedience of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why they were blameless.
Brethren, none of God's saints are under the law. We're under
grace. But in our new man, we love the law. We do. It taught us our sin. The law's
holy, the law's just, the law's good. We would keep the whole
law if we could. But we do endeavor to keep it
as far as we can. We don't want to break the law. But we do what we do looking
to Christ by faith, trusting Christ by faith, walking by faith,
motivated by his love toward us and the love he's given us
toward him. But we know that's not our righteousness,
brethren. He's our only righteousness.
We're talking about before the all-seeing, all-knowing eye of
God. Is there anybody that wants to stand before God and expect
to be accepted based on anything you've done? A man would have
to be a fool to want to do that. A man would have to be totally
blind to the righteous requirements of God to want to do that. There
is not anybody that can do that. The way you know that is God
would not have sent His Son if any man could do that. God sent
his son and he's pleased with his son and he's the righteousness
of his people. By the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. By the obedience of one. But
now listen, hearing how the spirit of God records right here in
God's word that they were blameless before God, we see from that,
brethren, that this barrenness was not a punishment due to the
sin in them. It wasn't a punishment. Now I
want you to learn from that, brethren. This wasn't a punishment.
When brethren suffer a trial, do not presume that it is due
to sin. Don't presume that. There have been many children
in the scripture born after their mother had been barren a long
time. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson,
Samuel, and right here, John the Baptist. Right here, John
the Baptist. When brethren suffer a trial,
don't presume it's due to sin. Don't presume it's due to sin.
Indeed, Abraham and Sarah sinned when he went into Hagar. They sinned greatly. But long
before that, Sarah was barren. That wasn't the cause of her
barrenness. It was to show God's glory. That's what it was. It
was to show His glory. And here's another thing to learn
from this. If God gives you a trial, if He chastens you with a trial,
examine your own self. It might be due to sin. If it
is, ask God for grace. to repent and put it away and
keep following him by faith. And when he works that in you,
you know what you'll do? You'll give him all the glory,
because you'll know, and he did it. Because God works, when he
works that, he works in a way to make you know he did it. He's
the one that did it in you. But also remember this. God gives
us trials to draw us nearer to Christ. That's why he gives them.
That's where it, sometimes that's the only reason for the trial.
As far as we know, we're not given any other information.
As far as we know, that was the only reason for this trial, with
Zacharias and Elizabeth. She was burying them for a long
time. They're well now stricken in
years now. She'd been burying a long time. But where in the
next passage we come to, we're gonna find John, I mean Zacharias,
in the house of the Lord, praying to God. And that's the purpose
of the trial, is to draw you near to Christ's throne of grace,
to seek help from him in time of need. That's the purpose of
it. We get to thinking we have some sufficiency in ourselves,
God's gonna make us, no, no. We get all our sufficiency from
Christ, and he'll send you something to draw you to him, to draw you
to him. And here's one last thing. They
were well stricken in years. And you know, they probably figured
by now that they'd never have a child. I mean, they're past
the point now of, naturally speaking, being able to have children.
And they probably thought they'd never had a child. Now they hadn't
heard what Abraham had heard. Abraham had heard from the beginning,
the Lord told him, you're gonna have a seed more than the stars
of heaven. So he knew they were gonna have,
he had a promise from God they were gonna have a child. Zacharias
and Elizabeth didn't have that promise. They had no idea. So naturally they're thinking,
we'll never have children. And then the angel comes in verse
13. Let's just read this part. But the angel said to him, fear
not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. and thy wife Elizabeth
shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John, and
thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his
birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and
shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be
filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And many
of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God,
and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of the lies,
and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. We're gonna look at that passage
later at another time, but here's what I want you to get right
now. God not only gave them a child, produced this child, He gave
them John the Baptist. You could be sure they recognized
that word of the angel. Zechariah would have recognized
that from Malachi 4. That this child's fulfilling
the scripture. And he tells him there that he's
gonna... Just imagine if the angel of
the Lord came to you and told you... Ben, imagine this. If
he told you, your child's gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit
from the womb. Your child's going to be saved. That's what he's
saying. From the womb he's going to be saved. You know what kind
of joy that would give you to know that? And not only that,
but he's going to be used to save many more. Many more. Now here's the point I'm trying
to make. God may make his child wait a long time. And you may
have a lot of sorrow and a lot of trouble and just be sorrowful
over over God's providence, what He's put you in and the place
He's put you in, whether it be something like barrenness or
whatever it is, and your sorrow over it for a long, long time. And then God pour out His mercy
on you and give you a double portion. That's a double, triple,
quadruple portion that He gave Zacharias and Elizabeth, wasn't
it? And when he does that in this
life, it's so that our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. That's what it's for. And I'll
tell you this, if he don't give you a double portion in this
life, When you draw your last breath and open your eyes before
the Lord Jesus, you're gonna get more than a quadruple portion.
That's when you're gonna see, oh, that was just a light affliction
working something far, far greater for me when you behold the Lord
Jesus. All right, brethren, we'll pick
up right there next time. Let's go to the Lord. Our God and our Father, we thank
you for this word. Lord, thank you that every word
in your scripture has purpose, has a meaning, points us to Christ. Lord, make us more diligent to
read your word and think about what everything means and ask
you for understanding. Lord, we ask you to keep us looking
only to Christ and trust in him. We thank you for your covenant. We thank you that you've trusted
Christ from the beginning. We're thankful, Lord, that you
worked this in Zacharias and Elizabeth, our brethren, and
showed us your sure promises and what you fulfill for your
people. Lord, we thank you for what you've done in our lives
and how you've led us and guided us. We pray you continue to do
so for Christ's sake. Lord, we pray you look to him,
receive us in him, accept it in him, perfect in him. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.