Luke chapter 1. John the Baptist's
father, Zacharias, he had been made mute, dumb. He couldn't speak according to
what the angel Gabriel said to him, according to the set time. Zacharias, well, the angel came
and told him, Zacharias, your prayer has been heard. And your wife, Elizabeth, shall
bear a son. And you think about that. Zacharias and Elizabeth were
now well stricken in age. I would imagine that Zacharias
hadn't prayed that prayer for decades. Decades. And Gabriel came and said, your
prayer has been heard, Zacharias. And your wife, Elizabeth, shall
bear a son. And Zacharias was taken aback
by this, and he asked, well, what sign do you show me that
I might believe you? Well, he asked for a sign, and
he was given one according to his unbelief. And the angel said,
you'll be dumb. You won't be able to speak until
this child is born. And he remained that way until
the set time when John was born. And he was eight days old now.
And he was brought into the temple to be circumcised according to
the custom of the law, to be circumcised there and to be named. That's when he would be named.
And these events here, they would be made known unto all. And it wasn't just for Zacharias'
sake that the Lord showed him these things, but in order to
turn the hearts of the people, to prepare the hearts of the
people for the coming of the Lord. It was to turn their hearts
from death and from dead things and to consider the Lord, to
hear him, pray to him Lord help me help me prepare me to receive
your your son to proceed to receive your your salvation and you know
at that day Elizabeth said his name is John, and the people
didn't believe her, because no one in the family's name was
John. And they were going to name him
Zacharias, and Zacharias said, give me a writing tablet, or
Sig signed for a writing tablet, and he said his name is John.
His name is John, and all the people marveled at this, and
they were surprised. And it says, verse 64, Luke 1,
64, his mouth, Zechariah's mouth was opened immediately, and his
tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. And before we really
get started, just think about that, what a picture this is
of the grace of God for you that believe. This is how God saved
you and me. This is how he saves his people. It's a picture of us who, like
Zacharias, don't believe God. We might hear things, we might
have a certain understanding of the things of God, but we
don't believe him, we doubt his word. That is until the appointed
hour of grace. when he gives his spirit and
looses us from our bondage and looses our still tongue, unable
to praise God, unable to give God the glory, unable to thank
God for what he's done according to spirit and in truth. And he
looses us from our bondage and gives us salvation freely, freely
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that appointed hour. And
then we give praise and glory to God. It's just a little picture
of our salvation, of our salvation. And so what we see here with
Zacharias, Zacharias didn't believe. And yet I'm amazed because God's
will and purpose would not be stopped. It didn't change God's
mind. God didn't say, that's it, Zacharias,
stand aside. You're bypassed. Moving on to
the next one. No, God's will and purpose was
still fulfilled according to his purpose with Zechariah, using
Zechariah and Elizabeth just as he purposed to do. And it's
a beautiful picture that the sinfulness of man can't even
stop the will of God. God's will is going to be done
and accomplished And he's going to work his will of grace in
the hearts of his people as it pleases him. And I'm astounded
by that. I'm thankful for God's grace.
I'm thankful for his almighty grace that overcomes the foolishness
and the darkness of our heart. I'm thankful for that, very thankful
for his grace. And so we're told here in verse
65 and 66 that fear came on all that dwelt round about them,
and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill
country of Judea, and all they that heard them laid them up
in their hearts, saying, what manner of child shall this be?
And the hand of the Lord was with him. And I want to speak
to you on the birth of Christ, on the coming of Christ more
so, on the promise of Christ that the Lord would bless you
to lay these things up in your heart, that you would think on
these precious things of what God has done sovereignly in his
grace for his people according to promise. I want to look at
just a few of these scriptures These things which Zechariah
said, prophesying of Christ, because these are the things
that were noised abroad. All these events, these things
which he said were noised abroad. And Luke records these things.
He's gathered these things for our encouragement. And so I declare
these things to you, praying that you lay them up in your
heart. Lay them up in your heart. Now
verse 67 says, And his father Zechariah was filled with the
Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying. We're looking at these words
of prophecy. Let's read our text, these next
three verses here in verse 68 through 70. And he said, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed
his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in
the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began. So what
is happening here in Israel at this time, God has drawn near
to his people. He's visiting his people for
gracious purposes. He's drawn near and he's visiting
his people for gracious purposes. So the first thing we see here
is that we do well to take notice that God is the one who comes
to his people. He visits us. He comes that He
might be gracious to His people in His appointed hour. He does
this. God does. He draws near to you.
You that believe Him, it's because God drew near to you and God
drew you near to Him. He does this. We only have a
hope in Christ because God drew near to us. because God came
near and drew us near to him. Christ said, Jesus of Nazareth,
the one who is the Christ, declared of God to be the Christ and the
savior of his people. He tells us God is spirit. And
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And what he's telling us there,
what he's showing us is that by nature we don't see God. We don't know the true and living
God. We don't understand the things
of God. We might be religious. But we're
very religious in ignorance by nature. We don't know and understand
the true and living God because we are fleshly creatures. As
Terence read this morning from Romans 8, the carnal mind is
enmity against God. That's what we are by nature.
We are enmity against God. Just like Adam, when he heard,
after he sinned and he heard the voice of God walking in the
cool of the garden, he ran. He ran because immediately God
was his enemy. That's us by nature. That same
corrupt nature that struck Adam is our nature because we were
all in Adam. When he died, we died. When his
seed was corrupt, we come forth corrupt by nature. And so God
shows us in his word that the true and living God He visits
His people. God has not left us without a
witness. He's given us His Word, and He
gives His Spirit, and He draws near to us even when we don't
see Him, or know these things. It's because He has drawn near,
and even though we be in darkness, even though we've done nothing
to deserve His gracious visit, that's when He comes, when it
pleases Him, He teaches us he delivers us from darkness and
death and gives us light and life in himself You know, there's
Zacharias and he's just going through the motions of religion
He was a faithful man. The scriptures tell us that he
was faith him and his wife were faithful to the ordinances and
commandments of God he was a faithful and Man, but here he is, not
expecting a visit from God. He's just going about his business,
doing the incense in the temple there, and God appeared to him
graciously. Graciously. when he wasn't even
looking for him, in order to accomplish his promise made unto
the people by his holy prophets and according to the scripture.
And I say this, that we would be mindful of these things and
pray to the Lord. When you go home, as you're going
home, think on the things you've heard. Pray to the Lord that
he take this word and meet this word effectually in your heart,
that he visit you. Lord, pass me not, pass me not. When you're visiting your people,
Lord, please don't pass me by. I pray you are stirred up, that
you do pray, Lord, visit me. I need you. I need your grace,
Lord. Speak to me, teach me, show me
these things, Lord, as you say in your word. Make it real, make
me alive that I might hear your word and believe you. Pray he
does that for you and pray that he does it for your brethren
because all we do is we just walk out that door and the birds
of the air just come and just take the seed away and it's gone
like that and easily forgotten. Except God be gracious and sow
it in our heart in good ground, prepared of him, that it bear
fruit, that it be rooted in Christ, and bring forth fruit, some hundred,
some sixty, some thirtyfold, as it pleases him. Then the second
thing, the second blessing we notice here is that everything
is spoken of in the past tense. God said, he says of God that
he hath visited and redeemed his people. And in the next verse
he said, he hath raised up an horn of salvation as he speak
by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world
began. And what that shows us is that
when God gives his word, he will bring it to pass without fail. If he says he's doing something
in his word, he's doing it. He will do it, brethren. He will
bring it to pass. And we'll see, especially as
it concerns the salvation of His people. He gives His word
and He brings it to pass. Paul tells us that our spiritual
blessings are all in Christ, according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Our Savior is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We're told that
the works were finished from the foundation of the world. These things were all finished
from the foundation of the world, brethren. And here our Lord shows
us the certainty of His word in bringing to pass the very
things that He was there signaling, testifying of, bringing to pass
before their very eyes that the salvation that He promised at
the beginning of the world was coming to pass. He was fulfilling
His promise just as He said He would. And so what God promises,
He brings to pass without fail. Expect great things from the
Lord. Expect great things from Him who fulfills His word, who
keeps His word. and is not like you and me, unable
to do it. He's able. He's able. Now, in
this time of year, we typically remember the birth of our Savior. And I know that it's probably
unlikely that he was actually born in December. People have
different ideas of when he was born. It doesn't matter. The
thing that we're remembering here is that God brought to pass
his word, his promise, without fail. He did exactly what he
said he would do, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
which have been since the world began. I was thinking about that,
and the first one who spoke, who prophesied, who declared
to us what shall be, was the word of God himself. Jesus Christ,
pre-incarnate, there in the garden, immediately after the fall had
taken place. When Adam rebelled against God,
God comes, Christ comes, pre-incarnate, standing there, and says to the
serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve, they're right there
listening there, and he says, I will put enmity between thee
and the woman. Eve being a picture of the church.
His church. He said, I'll put enmity between
thee, the serpent, and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head. It shall crush thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. He declared that. He promised
it. And that is the promise upon which all promises hang. upon
Christ, upon our God, fulfilling His Word spoken right there in
the beginning of the world. That's why it says He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. That's why it says
that the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
He's declaring it to us right here. It's done. I'm going to
reconcile my people to God. He said, I'm going to make right
that which was wronged. I'm going to set all things right
by myself, by my blood, according to my word. And that's what Christ
is saying here. He promised it right here in
the beginning. And he fulfills it. Isaiah spoke
of it, Isaiah 9, 6. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the
government shall rest upon his shoulders. It shall be upon his
shoulders. He's the one bearing the weight
of this. He's the one bringing this to
pass. He's the one, he's the very promise
of God for his people. And now it's being fulfilled. Great is, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the
flesh. God himself came and took upon
him this flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory. And so he came for the purpose
of saving his people. to redeem us with his own blood,
to purchase us from that death and destruction with his own
blood, to deliver us from the hand of justice, which we rightly
deserve for our wicked works. He paid the price, settled the
debt, and we're his now. He does with us what he pleases.
When He pleases, we're His people. God, according to His promise,
hath raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. According to his promise,
Acts 13, 23, this is the one of whom Zacharias is now prophesying,
speaking of, saying, the promised seed is come. And we're told
in verse 69, God hath raised up an horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David. Christ is the very salvation
of God for his people. He's speaking of him here while
he's as yet in the womb of Mary. He's not even been born. And
yet all these things are done and accomplished. Because when
God gives his word, he brings it to pass. He brings it to pass. Some of us here might only know
Christ in a carnal, fleshly manner. We might have a certain carnal
knowledge of Him and thinking that this is salvation. But when
God comes with His Spirit, with His grace, He'll make this Word
to live in us, alive in us, causing us to believe Christ and to rest
in Him, to hear this Word in the glory of which it's spoken,
which is by His grace and power. There's coming a day when all
His people hear this Word and it's met with the Spirit in the
heart effectually. so that it takes root, and it
bears forth the fruit of God, that spiritual fruit, which we
can't do, we can't make it, but he does it. And he'll visit us
to show us our sin, he'll visit us to show us our weakness and
our need, he'll visit us again and again with this word, sowing
this word, breaking us of vain fleshly confidences, and visit
us again and again to show us Christ, to reveal Christ to us.
What he begins, he brings to pass. He completes it. And he
grows his children. I am confident, fully confident,
fully confident that he's able to do this. If I may just plant a seed for
that day, when the Lord will make this word effectual in your
heart, know this, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is the Son of God come in
the flesh. Know this. Pray about it. Hear what the Lord is saying.
Believe Him. And pray, Lord, teach me this.
Show me what that means. Make this word effectual in my
heart. Understand that when Christ came,
it is God keeping his promise. It is God fulfilling his word.
He did it. He promised it all the way at
the beginning and then made it happen just like he said it would.
He made it happen. He cannot fail. He's almighty
God. He promises his people a perfect
righteousness through this same Jesus. He promises it. It says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. You that believe Christ. Pray,
keep praying. Lord, visit me. Lord, show me,
teach me these things. Give me all confidence in Christ. And he will, because he's the
one that gives that prayer in the heart. He won't leave you
hardened and cold and indifferent. He makes this word alive in your
heart and draws you to himself because it pleases him. He loves
you for whom he sent Christ For whom Christ redeemed, you are
loved of God, and He will not lose you. All that believe Him
have the promise of eternal life. He says in 1 John 2.25 This is
the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life. This one who promised that he
would send the seed to crush the head of the serpent says,
I promised my people eternal life. And as he fulfilled that
promise in Christ, so he shall come again and fulfill this promise
of eternal life unto you. And so he shall return, and he
shall raise the dead. In that day, he says, our Lord
said in John 651, I am the living bread. which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He
goes on to say, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. Well, how do we eat the flesh
of Christ? How do we drink his blood? It's
by His grace and power, we are made to know that He is life. He is salvation. He is my hope
of righteousness. He's the hope of righteousness
of all His people who trust Him. He's our hope. We believe Him.
It's through faith. These words are spiritual words.
They're not carnal words, they're not fleshly words, they're spiritual
words. He says, my flesh is meat indeed
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. He's showing us you that
hope in Christ, you that depend in Christ, you are alive in Christ. and you're dependent upon him
and you're continuing to live in and by him. They're spiritual
words with spiritual meaning. Lord, help us to hear them, to
understand them, to believe them, to trust you by faith, to trust
you. Our Lord tells us that we're
sinners in his word, that we cannot save ourselves by our
works, by the law and religion or by practice. It's by Christ. It's by Christ. And that's the
experience of every true believer. His spirit testifies in our heart
that I am a sinner, that I am sold under sin, that I am coming
short, that though I strive and spend and labor and try, I come
short. Lord, save me. He does that to
bring us to cry unto him, Abba, Father. And it's because the
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, interceding for us when we know
not what to pray or how to come to God. It's the Spirit's grace
that does this for us and accomplishes this salvation in our hearts. God promised to send a Savior. Though we be sinners, He promised
to send a Savior in the very beginning, in the fall of man
in the garden, and He sent Him, and His name is Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. He is the
Savior. He accomplished the salvation
of His people by the death of Himself. And God testified that
this is salvation in raising him from the dead, telling us
all who believe him have eternal life. He is the Savior. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Christ, this man is the Son of
God, come in the flesh. He is the righteousness of God,
revealed from faith to faith, as it's written, the just shall
live by faith. It's a spiritual work. We don't
see him with carnal eyes. We see him by faith, by the grace
of God, through his spirit. And he forms this hope in his
people and promises, I shall return. And I shall raise you
up to be forever with me. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there ye may be also. It's the promise of God. He gives
us these promises and assures us of the truth of this, that
we might know Him and be made certain of these promises in
Him. And He seals them in our hearts
by His Holy Spirit. I testify of these things to
you at this time of year, praying that God make this word effectual
in your hearts, to know that Jesus is the Christ, the son
of God sent to save his people from their sins and that he has
done it. He is salvation. This word is
accomplished and shall be accomplished in the hearts of his people. Call upon him. call upon him,
ask him for faith, ask him for grace, ask him to show you these
things in your heart. And I say that because he does
that. He visits us in the day of his
grace and he keeps returning as it pleases him to reveal the
truth of these things. And I say this, I'll give you
a personal story from my own life. When I was a young man,
Young like those boys in the back there and throughout your
ages. But my parents brought me to
church services. And thankfully, I heard a lot
of good things. I was still very ignorant. I
can't tell you when I was converted. I can't tell you when I understood
as I ought to understand. I don't know. I'm still learning.
I'm still growing, still seeing things more and more in Christ. I trust him. I don't trust my
experience. I don't trust a day. I trust
that all that is needed He's doing it and he's accomplishing
this work. I am saved being saved and shall
be saved and and so the Lord declared to me through the preaching,
I heard that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus came and laid down his
life on the cross, shedding his blood for the remission of sins,
and that he was raised from the dead, and all who believe him
have eternal life. And I would hear those things
and go home thinking on those things in the car, getting home,
just sitting out there, thinking of the Lord. Many times, not
always, but many times. And I would pray to the Lord
and ask him to show me these things and ask him to reveal
yourself to me, Lord. And he was very gracious. And
of course, the prayer was because he was doing that. And I remember
when I was, I don't know, about 15 years old approximately, I
had a friend. And I had many wicked friends,
friends that were awful, that I wouldn't want to have as my
friend anymore. And I was a wicked man too. And one of my friends, he got
in trouble with drugs and his parents sent him to rehab for
like 30 days I guess was the standard thing. So he was away
for a while and he comes back and he's telling me about the
things that he heard there and what went on. And he I mean,
I was not living the life of a Christian. I was very forgetful
of these things. And these things were not on
my mind. And he said to me, he showed
me a piece of paper. He pulled this paper out. And
it said on there, do a drawing of what you think your higher
power looks like, which is very foolish. And that's what they
tell you there, a higher power, because they won't say God. They
won't believe. in God, and so he told his counselor, and he
drew a picture of Satan, and said, my God is Satan. Yeah,
just like that's how I was. And we had been friends for over
a year, and we never had this conversation, apparently. And
he said, I want to be a Satanist. Will you worship Satan with me?
I said, no, I will not. He said, why? And I said, because
Jesus is the Son of God. And He is God. He's the Savior. And He's defeated that one. And no, I won't worship Him.
That's disgusting. I won't have anything to do with
that. I believe Christ. Christ is God. He is the Savior. And the conversation
ended and thankfully over time the Lord separated us and we
weren't friends there. And again, I was still a wicked
man myself, but I say this only to say the reason why we declare
these things is because God takes these things and he sows them
in the hearts of his people. And he visits his people and
he waters these things through the word, through the preaching
of the gospel. And we don't know or understand how the Lord does
it. We just believe and know that God makes this word effectual
in his hearts. And so I say these things, right?
At this time of year, we know Christ is born. And we know what
he's accomplished. And it's all according to the
promise of God. And my prayer is that he makes
it effectual in your hearts. And I pray that you would pray
and desire for him to make this word effectual in your hearts.
If I can't make it, you can't make it, he makes it effectual
in the hearts of his people. Seek him. Trust him. Believe
him. He keeps his word of promise.
He makes his word effectual in the hearts of his people. And
you go through life and I can look back and I know many of
you can look back and say, there are times where I was near death.
and I can see how the Lord delivered me and how the Lord steered me
away from that, how the Lord delivered me from that and that's
what he does. He is faithful to his people
that he gave to Christ and will not lose them and will not leave
them and will make this word known unto you in your heart
by His grace and power." And I pray He does make this word
effectual in your hearts to the saving of your soul. It's all
by grace. It's all because Christ laid
down His life, faithfully came and did this work, and He performs
His word in the hearts of His people. So I say this in hope,
in hope that He make this word effectual in our hearts. that
we go out at this time and we have family and and see people
who don't know and believe these things but but pray the Lord
be confident in the Lord and and and be Trust him and pray
that he give you opportunity to tell others friends and family
of what he has done For you because he does take that word even me
and my ignorance and my darkness he thankfully delivered me from
a very wicked thing and a foolish thing and I and he does that
and We see his testimony doing that in us. I pray he blessed
that word to our hearts brethren. Amen