May God be with us as we turn
together to his word this morning and we'll turn to the chapter
we read in the gospel according to Luke in chapter 1. This morning
I want to consider this song or speech of Elizabeth found
from verses 39 to 45. We'll read together verse 45,
just a way to focus our minds. The account is from verse 39,
the song itself is from verse 42. Verse 45 reads, and blessed
is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those
things which were told her from the Lord. There are a number of occasions
in the scriptures where we read following God's blessing or God's
deliverance or God's special help that the Lord's people sing. And we have recorded a number
of those psalms or songs written and sung in praise to God. One example is found in the book
of Exodus when the children of Israel had come out of Egypt
and safely through the Red Sea the miracles of the plagues of
the Passover and of the dividing of the waters. And the children
of Israel stood on the other side of the sea with the Egyptians
having been drowned before them. And we read, then sang Moses
and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, spake saying,
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. They burst into song in praise
to the Lord. Another example in the book of
Psalms, and of course in the book of Samuel also, we read
how David, when he had come to a time of peace and prosperity,
having been delivered from his enemies and from Saul, he penned
a psalm in thanksgiving. I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. The Lord is my song and my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust. And so
often God's people resort to these psalms in thanksgiving
for when God has blessed them and delivered them. They are
responses, and at times spontaneous responses, to what God had done. Well, in the opening chapter
of the Gospel according to Luke, we have recorded three people
who burst into song or at least spoke these words of thanksgiving
for the blessings that they had received. We have firstly, Elizabeth,
who said these words that we have read this morning. Mary
also sings her McIvocat, the wonderful way that the Lord had
blessed her. And Zacharias also, filled with
the Holy Spirit, he gives thanks to God in response as he gains
his speech at the birth of John. And I hope to be preaching here
today and Tuesday. And what I want to do is take
each of those songs in turn, looking this morning at Elizabeth,
this evening Mary, and God willing on Tuesday, Zacharias. They are so full. of instruction
and of wondrous truth. There are great similarities
between these songs. They are all, it would seem,
spontaneous responses to God's work, to God's mercy and grace
and his power and his love towards them. They all have about them
a true sense of humility, They are God-centered. These people,
each one of them are greatly blessed, chosen of God, and honored
of God, and given a wonderful role to play in these days of
the coming of the Messiah. And yet none of them actually
focus on themselves. They give thanks to the Lord
and marvel at His amazing work. But there are also differences.
between these three songs. Elizabeth, as we'll look at this
morning, her focus is to look forward. She, by faith, looks
to what is to come. She sees these promises which
are being fulfilled A promise that her child is yet unborn
would be the forerunner of Christ. And the promise that Mary's child
is yet unborn would be the Christ. And she looks beyond and sees
that these things are coming to pass. She cannot literally
see the children even. They're yet unborn and yet she
looks to the future and sees what will come to pass through
their birth. Mary on the other hand, as we'll
hope to look at this evening, she looks more at what God has
done now. Not what he is going to do, although
of course that is part of her song, but also she thinks of
what God has done. And then lastly Zacharias, he
more looks backwards. and looks at the prophecies and
the promises that God had spoken and sees now how they are coming
to pass. So generally speaking, Elizabeth
looks forward, Mary looks now, and Zacharias looks back. Of
course, it's not quite that simple. There are overlaps where they
speak in different ways, but generally speaking, that's the
focus of each of these three songs. Well, let's turn this
morning then to this one of Elizabeth. Remind ourselves of the background
of how these things came to pass. Elizabeth was an old lady. We don't know exactly how old,
but we know she was well beyond the age of having children. Not
only was she old and therefore physically unable to have children
because of her age, she was also barren. So when she was of childbearing
age, she was not able to have children. So as she comes to
her old age, she is doubly, could we say, unable to have children.
It is absolutely impossible. She is not only barren, but she
is beyond the age of bearing. And she has been through that
pain, that social stigma, and that physical sadness and difficulty
for her, that she is not being able to have children in an age
where many of the women of Israel would be looked down on not being
able to have children. And of course, many of them were
hoping that their child might be the Christ. And Elizabeth
had had to come to terms with the fact that she would not be
that one. and that she would have to pass
through her life seeing her friends and neighbors with their children,
and yet she would always go home to just her husband. And this
would be very hard for her, and she had made it a matter of prayer.
And her husband, Zacharias, had also made it a matter of prayer.
And they had brought it to the Lord. No doubt they had prayed
that they would be blessed with a child. They had prayed that
God would hear them. grant them this kindness to bless
them with a child. And perhaps, we don't know, but
perhaps as they got older and their years increased and it
became clear that it seemed they weren't going to have a child,
that their prayers perhaps changed to being more praying for resignation
and submission, that they would not have a child and that they
would be able to serve the Lord and honour Him and that they
would be able to be content. with the situation, the life
that God had planned for them. Well, this was her situation
when Zacharias goes to perform his duties in the temple as a
priest, and he is on the rota and chosen on this day to go
to light and to offer the incense at the altar of incense. And
Elizabeth was therefore there when Zacharias came out of the
temple And suddenly her husband could no longer speak. She had
not been there. She did not know what happened.
She had not seen the angel. As far as she was concerned,
the first thing she comes to see is that her husband, Zacharias,
can no longer speak. And perhaps that she was concerned
for his health and concerned what may have happened to him.
But it became apparent, of course, as the people outside also realized
that he had seen a vision in the temple. Now it would seem
probable that he communicated to her somehow, though he couldn't
speak with his voice, that somehow communicated to her what had
been spoken to him. But either way, this must have
been a great sadness and a great difficulty for them that in their
household her husband no longer could speak. They couldn't commune
with each other about what was happening. They couldn't speak
with each other about what God has spoken to Zacharias about.
But then the days came that Elizabeth received that greatest of blessing,
the baby she had given up in praying for. We read that she
conceived. She conceived. What joy this
must have brought to Elizabeth and to Zacharias, as they realized
that God had miraculously worked that her age and her state of
barrenness was something that was not beyond the work and the
power of God. And now, Elizabeth finds that
she is with child. And it's wondrous in that household
when they came to realize how full of joy and thanksgiving
they must have been. But then they hear news that her young
cousin, Mary, has also conceived. Now this was, of course, an altogether
different situation. Mary was not old and she was
not physically barren, but Mary was unmarried. And the rumors
of the people in Nazareth, and possibly even of her family,
would have been that she had been unfaithful to Joseph, her
proposed husband, and that she was with child outside of wedlock.
And therefore, there was concern. But Elizabeth and Zacharias came
to realize, perhaps through messages and information from the family,
that Mary had been visited as well. She also had seen an angel,
and she had been told that her child was unique, like Zacharias
and Elizabeth's child. But this child was the Son of
God. She had been conceived and blessed
of the Holy Spirit, And Mary was to give birth to the Christ
that John was to speak of. And then Mary comes. She speaks,
rather she makes the journey from Nazareth down to the hill
country of Judea and she meets Elizabeth. And as she comes into
the house and greets Elizabeth, Elizabeth feels the child within
leaping. Imagine really what that was. Those ladies who have been here
who have carried children, you know something what it is when
a child moves within. But this was obviously more than
just the general movement of an unborn child in the womb. This was something significant.
This was something dramatic. This was something clear to Elizabeth
that it was directly linked to the salutation of Mary. And there
was a leaping in the womb. And Elizabeth is filled. We read she is filled with the
Holy Ghost. She had a natural joy that she
had conceived and was bearing a son. She had a natural joy
that Mary also had come to visit her, and she had a natural joy
that Mary was with child of the Lord Jesus Christ. here is something
more than just joy she was filled with the Holy Ghost and having
been filled with the presence of the Lord and full of faith
and understanding of what was there for them and the situation
they found themselves in she responds to this blessing of
God by speaking out with a loud voice this wasn't done quietly
Even just between herself and Mary, she spoke with a loud voice
in praise to God, having been filled with the presence of the
Holy Spirit. And she says, blessed art thou
among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. I want you to notice, in looking
at these verses, that though she announces Mary to be blessed,
And she has some understanding of the wonderful honor that Mary
had in bearing the Christ. She does not fall down and worship
Mary. She does not bless Mary for who
she is, or that she in herself is perfect, or that she in herself
is worthy even. She honors Mary, she knows that
she is greatly blessed. But the focus of Elizabeth is
not on Mary. It is on Mary's child. And Elizabeth's focus isn't even
on her child. She is greatly favoured. She
is greatly blessed. She has the joy of carrying a
miracle within her womb, and yet her focus isn't even on her
child. When Mary arrives, her focus
entirely shifts on the unborn child in Mary's womb. And therefore
it's important to notice that in our worship, we do not worship
Mary or anyone else. As blessed as they were, we worship
Mary's child. That was Elizabeth's focus and
that must be our focus. She is filled with thanksgiving and
praise to God. But this song or this speech
that she loudly proclaims is something which shows clearly
her faith. Elizabeth had faith, a real,
deep, solid faith in the promises that God was going to fulfill. And as yet, they were unfulfilled
and as yet they were unseen. And yet she had faith that they
would be fulfilled. Now, of course, there was a,
in a sense, they were starting to be fulfilled in that she was
carrying child and so was Mary. And yet they had not been delivered.
Childbirth, of course, was a very dangerous time, particularly
in those days, and there were many uncertainties ahead of both
of them. They didn't literally hold these children yet in their
hands and yet she could believe and she was sure in her faith
that these things would come to pass. So she looks forward
and with certainty believes that Christ will be born and Christ
will come. Well, our hope, our salvation is grounded in
Christ. It must be. Like Elizabeth, focusing
on him, our hope for salvation must also be grounded in Christ. Not in Mary or anyone else, in
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and grounded on his promises.
Because today, whilst we walk in this world, we walk by faith. Until we reach glory and we see
the Lord face to face, our religion is grounded by faith. There are
many things we cannot see. There are many things we cannot
grasp. And things that we will see and we will grasp one day
are not as yet clearly as revealed to us. We do not see by sight,
we walk by faith. And therefore true religion is
to be blessed with this faith to hold to the promises of God,
to hold to the word of God, with that certainty and assurance
that it will and it must come to pass. And that is what Elizabeth
did. And really this morning I want
to focus on this element of this song. Elizabeth's faith to hold
to what she had, believing, it would come to pass. Well then, what is faith? What
is faith? It's difficult, isn't it, perhaps,
to quantify. It's difficult to really put
words as to what these things mean. But one way of looking
at it is, well, how do we recognise faith? How do we know if we have
faith? Well, faith is seen, really,
by what it produces. It's seen by its effect. It's
seen by its fruits. The Apostle James tells us, doesn't
he, in his epistle, that he would show his faith by his works. It's all very well to say, I
have faith, but if it has no effect, no fruit, no evidences,
then it's just words. But faith has an outworking. Faith acts. I know I've said this account
in the Sunday School and I've probably given it from the pulpit
as well, but it doesn't harm saying it again. There was an
account of a boy in his house, and one night that house caught
fire. And the family escaped from that
house out of the door, but the boy was trapped upstairs. And the house was increasingly
being engulfed in flames, and smoke was billowing out of the
windows, and this boy was leaning, shouting out of the window upstairs,
shouting to be rescued. And his father, who had escaped
from the house, was standing on the lawn outside. And he was
looking up at his son, shouting and crying out of the window.
And with all the smoke around, his son looked out the window
and he couldn't see anything. He couldn't see the ground, he
couldn't see his father. But if his father was down, he
could see up. He could see where the window
was. And in his fear, the son was
crying and couldn't see what to do. And he was shouting. And
his father was shouting, jump. I am underneath you and I will
catch you. You jump from the window. And the son shouted, but I can't
see you. I can't see where you are and
I can't see through all of this smoke and the confusion. But
the father shouted back, that doesn't matter. I can see you
and I will catch you. Now, in order to jump, that boy
needed to believe that the words that his father spoke were true.
He needed to believe that he was underneath the window. He
needed to believe that he would catch him. But then, he needed
to jump. He couldn't just believe that
he was there, he needed to jump. That boy needed, in that natural
sense, faith in his father. He needed to put his trust in
that father to save him and hold him. That's what faith is. Faith is to hear the Word of
God. Faith is to believe the Word
of God. Faith is to believe that there
is a God who is able and willing to save. And then faith is to
jump. That is to trust Him to save
us. We cannot see God. None of us
have seen God, and apart from through the Word of God, none
of us have literally heard God. And yet faith believes wholeheartedly
that these things are true, because they have been revealed to us
as reality, and we hold to them as reality. A true believer must have faith. And to be a true believer, we
must believe and have faith in and hold to what Elizabeth believed
and had faith in. And Elizabeth and Mary and Zacharias,
they all believed in the promises that would be performed and would
be fulfilled. You see, they didn't have a blind
faith. They didn't just have a general hope and hoped in the
possibilities and hoped things might happen and a faith that
was just grounded in their own thoughts. Their faith was grounded
in something. It was grounded in the word of
God. It was grounded in the promises of God to them. And Christianity
is not just blind faith. We do not just hope that things
will be all right. We do not just have a general
idea of heaven. We are not grounding our faith
on just ideas of men. We have stability to put our
faith on. That is the word of God and his
promises, which are sure and certain. Well, what elements then of Elizabeth's
faith do we see in her words here? Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Elizabeth, she believed that
the child that Mary was carrying was special. She believed that Mary's child
was the Christ. She believed that this one was
the one who had been promised through the thousands of years
past, and that this one finally had come. And therefore, when
she considered the whole vast of humanity over the centuries,
all had been working towards this day and this birth, And she sees Mary in the, at
this stage, probably early stages of pregnancy. And she believes wholeheartedly
that the child that was growing in her womb was the Christ. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Remember, Elizabeth was blessed,
but it was the child of Mary that she focused on. Blessed
is the fruit of thy womb. She must have heard about Mary. She must have heard, say probably
through family networks, that Mary, her cousin, was with child.
She must have heard. that this child had been announced
by the angel. She knew something of the background
and now she had the privilege of meeting the mother of her
Lord. And she really believed it. Perhaps,
we don't know, but perhaps there were members of the family who
did not believe. There were cousins throughout Judea or cousins throughout
Nazareth who didn't believe Mary's story. who thought that she had
made it up, who thought that her ideas of angels coming to
her was a way of getting out of the shame of being with child
outside of wedlock. Maybe many didn't believe, but
Elizabeth did. Elizabeth, by faith, saw that
there was the Christ, that God was come in the flesh. And that was a tremendous thought
and a tremendous blessing, wasn't it? as John chapter 1 tells us,
and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. And there she
saw and believed that there was the Word in flesh to be born. She believed that the Saviour
of sinners had come. She believed that the long-ford
Christ had arrived. She believed that the King of
kings and Lord of lords had come now to be born amongst men. She
believed that the promise And the prophecies have been fulfilled. And she looks forward to the
day when this glorious Christ will walk the earth. Blessed
is the fruit of thy womb. Well, like Elizabeth, do we believe
Do we believe that Mary's child is more than just a good man?
Yes, a good man he was. Kind, loving, patient, gracious
man. But do we have faith to believe
he was more than just a man? Here is the one whom God promised
way back in the Garden of Eden would crush the head of the serpent.
Here is the one that was promised to rule as the king from the
household of David. Here is the one who was promised
through Isaiah that he would bear our sins and carry our sorrows. There is more than just a man.
This week, as we think about the child in the manger at Bethlehem,
here is more than just an ordinary child. Here is the fulfillment
of the prophecies. Here is the fulfillment of God's
promises. Do we believe that He is the
Christ? Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though
thou be smallest among the tribes of Benjamin, yet from thee shall
come forth a king. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall bear his people's sins, he shall
save his people from their sins. He shall be Immanuel, wonderful
counsellor the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And time
and again we come across these prophecies of Christ through
the Old Testament. And the promises even to Mary
and Joseph, and Elizabeth believed, these are fulfilled. This is
the Christ, and this is the Christ who will bear our sins. She didn't
fully grasp, I'm sure, how he would bear them. She didn't fully
understand how he would die and what that would mean. But she
believed that here was the sacrifice on the behalf of sinners. Here
was the Savior. And this is what's so vital for
us to grasp. The Lord Christ is the only Saviour. He has come. He has been born. He has lived. And He has died. And He is the only way whereby
we can be saved. No other way to God. Do we by faith believe that? Faith looks not just at the man,
but in the man sees the Saviour. Secondly, Elizabeth didn't just
believe that Mary's son was the Lord, but Mary by, sorry, Elizabeth,
by faith, believed that he was her Lord. Whence is this to me,
she says, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? He
was her Lord. And this was personal, this was
real, this was an individual blessing for Elizabeth. That
through the door of her house comes the mother of her Lord. And this is amazing faith, isn't
it? To believe that the child who she could not physically
see growing in the womb was her Lord. We can think, can't we? And people are used to thinking,
perhaps, of God as great and glorious and powerful and eternal
and almighty and the great creator of the heavens and the earth.
And that, of course, is right. But what faith she needed to
see an unborn child as her Lord? That here was her God, that here
was her savior, and that here was one who would grow and suffer
and die. Her Lord Elizabeth knew. Although she was greatly blessed
of God, although she had known the miracle of conception, although
Zacharias had seen a visual of the angels, she knew that she
still needed a saviour as blessed as she was. She knew that she had been relying
on the promises of a saviour throughout her life that was
yet unfulfilled. And now here in the very room
before her is the mother of her Lord. You see, isn't this interesting? That before the child was even
born, before she held him in her arms as an elder cousin,
before Christ grew and started to walk and to talk and then
to teach and so forth, even before he was conceived, he was her
Lord. She had faith to believe in the
coming of the Christ, and she believed in the promises of the
Saviour, and now here is her Lord. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord, my God, has
come to me? You see how personal Elizabeth's
faith is, how real it was for her, and that's the faith we
need. So does our faith have that evidence, that effect, that
fruit. Not that we just believe that
Christ is the Saviour, but He is my Saviour. He is our Lord. He is our way. He is God's way
to salvation. He is God's way. But is He ours? Is He my hope? Is He my trust?
Is He mine, who has suffered in my place? Do we, like Elizabeth,
realize we need a Savior? Do we realize that without Him
we are lost, that we are condemned, that we are dead in our sins? And do we have come to realize
we've nowhere else to go? No other Savior can do this for
us, and no other man, or no other philosophy, or no other religion.
We need a Savior. By faith do we see this is Him.
that my Lord should come to me. You see again the faith of Elizabeth,
she couldn't see her Lord and yet she knew that that child
was her Lord. She looks forward, believes that
he will be born and that he will save. Thirdly, she trusts fully and
completely that the child she cannot see will perform those
things that he has promised. Blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord. She believed that the things
that Mary had been told, and of course the things that Zachariah
also had been told, would come to pass, that God's promises
were sure and certain. We have, don't we, of course,
that well-known summary, if I can put it that way, of faith in
Hebrews 11 verse 1, where we're told that faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And when
you think of those words in light of Elizabeth, we know there were
things she could not see, the child as yet had not been born,
and there were things that she hoped for, that this child would
be the Saviour. It wasn't a vague hope, of course,
this was a certain hope, a sure hope. And her faith was the substance
and evidence of these things. That they would come to pass.
She believed them to be sure and to be certain. Her faith
believed that it was real and God's word would come to pass. Like Noah. Noah promised that
the rains would come and the world would be flooded even though
he lived on dry land. Go and build an ark. Noah acted
by faith. Like Abraham, promise that though
your wife is barren, you will have a seed and a family beyond
the stars of the sky. And he acts and he walks by faith. You see, they hold to the word
and the promises of God, and by faith they believe them to
be totally and absolutely true and reliable. And that's what
Elizabeth knows. There shall be a performance
of those things which were told her from the Lord. So do we,
by faith, hold to the promises and the words of God. Hold to
the words of Christ. What does the Lord Jesus Christ
say? And he invites and exhorts those to come unto him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, he says. And he that cometh unto me I
will in no wise cast out. Do we believe and hold and ground
our hope in that word of Christ? He that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out. He exhorts us to come and promises
that those who truly come will not be cast out. Do we hold to
the promises of God that those who do come and those who do
trust in him will be and are indeed eternally safe? If I go and prepare a place for
you I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I
am there ye may be also. The promise of eternal safety
for those who come to him. The promise that those who are
saved will not be lost. I know my sheep and I'm known
of mine and not one of them is lost. I'm calm that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. You see these
words come unto me. You may have life. I will not
cast you out. You will be where I am also.
My presence shall go with you and I will give you peace. I
am with you always, even unto the end of the world. You see,
this is the word of Christ. These are his invitations. These
are his promises. These are his sure and certain
promises to his people. Blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a performance
of those things which were told her of the Lord. Elizabeth looks
forward and sees that the things that were spoken shall and must
come to pass. Do we by faith cling to the promises
and the words that God has spoken and hold on to them fast? Say, yes, I have not heard literally
the voice of the risen Christ. I have not seen literally the
wounded hands and feet of my Saviour. I have not entered literally
into His presence in heaven. But I hold to His word and His
promises of salvation. He has told me to come unto Him. And there shall be a performance
of those things which were told me. This is faith. Faith that
holds to what we have. and believes it to come to pass. Finally, just very briefly, Elizabeth
had, didn't she, a physical reminder, a physical evidence that here
was a special Lady Mary and her child. John leaped in her womb. True faith It's not just something
which is something where we say we believe and we hold to, but
it is something which affects us. It affects our lives, it affects
our hearts, it affects our souls, it gives us joy that we've never
had before. Joy in the Lord, in believing
Him as our God and Saviour. It gives us peace. In believing
that we are redeemed by his blood and saved by his grace, it gives
us a desire and a striving for holiness, to walk with the Lord. It gives us these blessings that
we read of so often. Think of that one we read in
the time of the resurrection on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within
us? It affected them. It touched
their hearts, it touched their souls. So true faith has an outworking. True faith works in us that we
know that sense of its presence and joy and peace in the Lord. So these four things, these marks
of faith, in Elizabeth. She believed that Mary's son
was the Lord. She believed that Mary's son
was her Lord. She believed that the promises
would be fulfilled. And she had an evidence within
of these things being true. So do we have faith? Do we have faith which leads
us to the promises and the person of Christ? Because true faith
always does that. True faith leads to Christ. Do we hold to him? Do we trust
him? And can we say, yes, we believe
there will be a performance of those things which have been
told me from the Lord. Hold on to these promises and
believe them to be true. Well, may the Lord add his blessings
to these thoughts this morning.