Go with me to Luke chapter 1
again. Luke chapter 1, let's begin reading
in verse 46. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. and His mercy is
on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath showed
strength with His arm. He hath scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled
the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers and to
Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary abode with Elizabeth
about three months and returned to her own house. This may sound strange to you. I've been trying to figure out
exactly how to say this all day, but I am constantly trying to figure
out what it is to really preach. Does that sound strange? Maybe
it doesn't sound strange to you, but I know that I'm a low man on
the preaching totem pole. This is not even really that
long, but I've been doing this now for 20 years. The first four
years of that was me teaching a Sunday school class just like
our teachers do here every Sunday. I started teaching that class
in January of 04, and even though I wasn't standing in an auditorium
with adults, there was still a congregation of souls that,
you know, I thought about and prayed for and studied for. They were on my heart. They were
on my mind. I cared for them. And it's just like our teachers
do here. They know what I'm talking about.
I still sat down with a pen and paper, and I wrote some kind
of outline or something in order. And I stood before them, and
I spoke, just like I'm doing right now. This is no different
from what I did then. This is no different. What our
teachers do for these children is no less important and it's
no less effective than what I'm doing right now. And it's because our teachers
are teaching these children Christ. They're not in there playing
games. They're teaching Christ to them. And I personally and
publicly want to thank each one of our teachers for their heart
and willingness and effort in teaching our children. And I
would encourage you children to thank your teachers for preaching
the word of God to you and teaching the word of God to you every
single week. It's a lot of work. And it's a great burden. Anybody
who has ever walked into this building on a Sunday morning
with a responsibility like that knows what I'm talking about.
It's a great burden. And I just thank each one of
you for doing it. I really do. So that side note's over. This may sound a little strange,
may sound strange to me, but after 20 years of doing this,
I'm still constantly thinking about and pondering and praying
about, what is it to really preach? I have heard some men preach
before. And if I'm gonna stand up here
and do this, I want to know what is it to honestly, sincerely
preach? What is true preaching? What is spirit-filled? I'm talking about Holy Spirit-blessed preaching. Tuesday morning, I got to my
study and I listened to two messages by two different men. Neither
one of these men are pastors. They were filling in, both of
them were filling in for their respective pastor. Both of them very dear brothers,
love the gospel, they know it well. And you know, you all know
one of those men very well. here, I won't say William's name
because I don't want to embarrass him, but I listened to his message from
Sunday night and I listened to another man from another place,
and I will, I'll keep his name to myself, but as I listened to both of these
men speak, and I know this is embarrassing and we'll just,
We'll take all men out of the equation. I'll take myself out
of the equation, you out of the equation, every man who's ever
spoken out of the equation. Let's forget about men. But here's
the fact of the matter. As I listened to these two men
speak, all they were doing was talking about Christ, which is
an insult. Some men use that as an insult.
One man told Henry Mahan one time, all you do is tell us what
the Bible says. That was an insult, you know,
to the man. That's highest honor that could
be paid, a preacher, a true preacher of the gospel. But as I listened to both of these
men just talk about Christ, my heart burned within me. I was so blessed. I was so blessed. I tell people all the time, you
know, a message was preached and it was wonderful. Yeah, it's
loaded on sermon audio. You ought to go listen to it.
Just because a message is loaded on sermon audio, that does not
mean it is going to be blessed by the Spirit. You can bottle
a man, but you can't bottle God's Holy Spirit. You can't load the
Spirit of God on the internet. And so, you know, you can just,
your heart can burn within you and somebody else can go listen
to it and they'll say, oh, it was good, but you know, I mean,
it was true. But I believe God's spirit blessed
it to me through sermon audio. And as I was listening to both
of these men, I listened to them back to back, I said to myself
in that moment, That's preaching. That is preaching. It's that
simple. And in saying simple, I don't
mean easy. It's not easy, is it? This is
not easy. I've been struggling over this
all day, trying to get out what I'm trying to say. So everybody's
not going, where are you going with all this? It's not easy,
but what I mean by simple is singular. It's that singular.
It's that singular. True preaching is not complicated. It's not about outlines, and
it's not about points, and it's not about doctrinal positions. True spirit-filled preaching
is one person telling another person, come see a man. That's
what it is. Our Lord said, when the Spirit
comes, He will speak of me. He won't speak of Himself. He
won't speak of anybody else. He will point you to me. That is true God-given, God-blessed
preaching. And I went searching for a good
example of that in the Scripture. And they're everywhere. Good
examples of that are everywhere, but I believe the Lord led me
to Luke chapter one. And I know that our Lord has
called men to stand publicly to preach his word. But privately right here, Mary
was doing a very good job at preaching to Elizabeth. And it says right here that both
of these women were filled with God's Holy Spirit. It tells us
that. Verse 35 says, the angel answered
and said unto her, unto Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore,
also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. The Son of God was in her. Therefore,
the Spirit of God was in her. Verse 39 says, And Mary arose
in those days, and went into the hill country with haste into
a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias,
and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. So this
was of God. What happened right here, what
was said right here was of the Lord. Verse 42, and she spake
out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me
that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? For lo, as soon
as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe,
that's John the Baptist, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord. Verse 46 says, And Mary said,
and this is the reason why we're here. This is the example. Okay,
this is our message. Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord. My soul doth magnify the Lord. Now again, I understand that
our Lord is not ordained for women to stand publicly and assert
authority over men publicly. And the reason for that is it's
a spiritual picture of Christ and his bride. This is the reason
for it. Christ being the husband, his
people being the bride. The bride of Christ will never
assert authority over Christ. Never. And never will they ever
want to. Never. It's not that men are
better. It's not that men are higher
than women. Every person here knows the opposite
is true. Every person here knows that.
But in the eyes of God, we are all the bride of Christ. All
of us. And for that reason, for this
spiritual picture, women do not preach publicly, but privately. Privately. I've heard some women
do some of the finest preaching that has ever been preached.
I really have. I have gotten more truths to
repeat in messages from women than you could possibly imagine.
Women will say something and I'll think, wow, I wish I'd thought
of that. And privately between Mary and
Elizabeth right here, this was true spirit filled preaching. That's what this was. So much
so our Lord recorded it for the whole world to read till the
end of time. And what I want to point out
in this is all that Mary was doing was talking about Christ.
That's the whole point of this. You want to know where are you
going with this? Here it is. All that Mary was doing was talking
about Christ. That's it. Verse 46, Mary said, my soul
doth magnify the Lord. You see that capital L, lowercase
O-R-D, that's Jesus Christ. That's the very one who was in
her womb at that moment. She said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord. That's what takes place in true
God-blessed, Spirit-filled preaching. The soul of a sinner is magnifying
the Lord, declaring His greatness, showing His greatness. Verse 46, Mary said, My soul
doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Savior. God my Savior, who's that? Jesus
Christ. God my Savior. Sometimes we don't
know what to say about Him. I don't, sometimes I don't know
what to say about Him because there's never gonna be enough
to say about Him. You know, we try to put this
into words, but then I go back and look at the words and I think,
that's not enough. I can't tell you how often I
call my dad on the phone and say, this is what I just wrote
down about this. Do you think that's enough? I
don't think I've said enough. That's just not enough. That's,
that's not high enough. That's not exalted enough. It causes me to realize that
the true worship of God's people, it goes so much deeper than words
can go. It's a groaning of the soul.
It's a desire and a boasting and a worship of the soul that
there are just no words for sometimes. Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Hold your place
right here and go over to Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse 1. I love this. Psalm 34 verse 1 says, I will
bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. That is spirit-filled preaching. That right there. Praising, boasting,
magnifying, exalting Jesus Christ for who He is and what He's done
for sinners like us. Go back to Luke chapter 1. Let's listen to Mary tell us
this. Verse 46, Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden. He looked on me. He chose me. He had compassion on me. He started the work. The whole
thing was of Him. The Lord did this. Verse 48,
For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For
behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. That's
all you can say about me. Blessed. Blessed. In my flesh, sinful. Concerning my salvation, blessed. Verse 49 says, for he that is
mighty hath done to me great things. He is mighty and I'm
weak. He is great and I am nothing. Oh, but he hath done great things
to me. He's done great things for me.
He's done great things in me. Hold your place right here and
go to Psalm 126. Psalm 126 verse 3 says, the Lord
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. The Lord has done great things
for us and we're so glad. What great things has the Lord
done for us? Well, how about let's start with the cross? The cross of our deliverance
from sin, the cross of our liberty from bondage. Verse 1 right here
says, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were
like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then said they among
the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. He said
that's what the heathen were saying. The Lord has done great
things for them. Verse three, he said, the Lord
hath done great things for us, whereof we're glad. Turn again
our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that
sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him. The victory is yours, and we're
glad. We're so glad. Go back to Luke
1. Verse 46, Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded
the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. Holy, reverend,
just, right, righteous. Every bit of that belongs to
him. Every bit of that. Verse 50 says, and his mercy
is on them that fear him. from generation to generation,
His mercy. How could we ever come up with
words to do that justice? We talk about the blood that
He shed. How often do we talk about the
blood that He shed? Every service. The sin that He bore, the death
that He died, the victory that He won, the salvation that He
accomplished according to His mercy. Never will we ever do that justice.
Never. But here's the thing. We can
still talk about it. We can still talk about it. And
maybe as we stand up here talking about it, God's Spirit will fill
it. You know, we just sang right
before this, fill me now. You know what that means? That
means I can't fill myself. I need you to fill me. I can't
feed myself. I need you to feed me. I can't
bless myself. Lord, I need you to bless me. We stand up here and we speak
of these things, hoping and praying that maybe God's Spirit will
fill it and bless it to all the souls of them that fear Him.
And I can tell you, if we're talking about Christ, God's people
are filled. A brother just read a scripture
in my study, and that scripture was talking about Christ, and
I enjoyed every word of it. Verse 51, he hath showed
strength with his arm. Isaiah 52 says, the Lord hath
made bare his holy arm. That's Christ. Mary is still
speaking of Christ. He hath showed strength with
his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He has put down
the proud, he's put down the self-righteous, and he has helped
every soul who couldn't help himself or herself. God does
not help those who help themselves. You know who God helps? Those
who can't help themselves. That's what he helps. He puts
down all those who say, no, I got it. The lowly, the humble, the broken.
Verse 53, he had filled the hungry with good things and the rich
hath he sent away empty. He has fed every soul who couldn't
feed himself. and he empties every soul who
is full in his or her own eyes. Verse 54, he hath hope and he
has helped his servant Israel, his chosen people Israel in remembrance
of his mercy because he made a covenant of mercy forever. concerning His chosen people.
He has helped and helped and helped and helped. He just keeps helping and helping. Why? Because of His covenant
of mercy. Verse 55 says, as he spake to
our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever, he did that
because he told them he would. Exactly what he promised he would
do, he has done it. Every promise he's made, he's
kept it. And that right there is where spirit-filled preaching
ends. It ends right there. Verse 56
says, Mary abode with her about three months and returned to
her own house. It does not say Mary asked Elizabeth. Now, what are you going to do
with that announcement, Elizabeth? You going to accept that or are
you going to reject that? It's all on you. Now, what are
you going to do? It does not say that Mary asked
her, are you gonna believe that or are you not gonna believe
it? Mary said everything that he's
promised to do, he has done it, period. I'll see you later. That's where it ends. That is
spirit-filled preaching. It's Christ in the beginning,
it's Christ in the middle, it's Christ in the end, period. And we're going to find that
to be the case all through the scripture. All through the scripture, just
look, I'm done, but just look right here. When the angel came
to Mary and announced the birth of the Lord, all right, we read
it for the scripture reading, but just listen to his spirit
filled message. Verse 30, the angel said unto
her, fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God. And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt
call his name Jesus. Here's the message. He shall
be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There shall be no end, period. And that's it. Does that bless
your heart? I just blessed my heart. Period. John the Baptist, our brother
read about John the Baptist. This was his, listen to his spirit
filled message, okay? Behold the Lamb of God. He's going to exalt every valley.
He's going to make low every mountain. He's going to make
straight everything that's crooked. He's going to make plain everything
that's rough. He's going to rule with a strong
hand. He's going to finish the work before him. He's going to
feed his flock like a shepherd. He's going to carry the lambs
in his arm. He's going to gently lead those that are with young.
He is going to comfort and bless his people, period. That is spirit filled preaching. I pray the Lord will bless us
with it. I pray the Lord will bless us by it. I pray the Lord
will teach us what it is to stay on Christ. That he might be glorified. We might be blessed. Amen.