As most of you know, Brother
Gabe is preaching in a conference today, where Brother Paul Mahan
pastors in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and Pastor Darwin Pruitt will
be here to speak to us this evening, Lord willing. If you will turn
with me for our text to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. Luke, chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, and look with
me at verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art
highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among
women. Now the words highly favored
that the angel said to Mary here, if you have the center margin
that I do, it says graciously accepted. or much graced. And another meaning is pursued
with grace. Now, I feel like we often err,
I say we, but, you know, false religion errs in dealing with
this passage of scripture, putting so much emphasis on Mary. But here's the truth about Mary.
She was a sinner graciously accepted much graced, pursued with grace
of God. She was a sinner saved by the
free, sovereign, irresistible grace of God Almighty. Look at
verse 29, and when she saw Him, that is the angel, she was troubled
at His saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. I'll go ahead and tell you, she
wasn't looking for it. And what the Lord was gonna do through
her, she wasn't desiring it, she wasn't seeking it, the Lord
did it. He came to her and he was gonna
be pleased to use her, all right? Now look at verse 31. And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt
call his name Jesus. 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. He shall be great. He shall be great. That's the
title of my message, that's what I would like us to consider here
for a few minutes this morning. Now here in Luke chapter 1, you
may or may not be aware of this, but we read of two men whom God
tells us shall be great. Look back at verse 13 here, Luke
1 verse 13. But the angel said unto 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 Elias 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. Here we read of
John the Baptist, we read of his birth, and how the angel
declared, he too shall be great. Now, briefly about John, he was
indeed a great man. He truly was. We just read that
he's going to be filled with the Spirit, filled with the Spirit
of God from the womb. That babe left in the womb. When his mother, Elizabeth, was
told of the salutation brought to Mary, when Elizabeth, John's
mom, heard that Mary was going to carry and birth the Son of
God, John the Baptist leapt in the womb. He was filled with
the Spirit from the womb, and he was greatly used of God. Our Lord said this concerning
John the Baptist. He said, among them that are
born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the
Baptist. That's what the Lord said. John
was great in the sight of the Lord, but I'll tell you this,
he was not great in his own sight. That verse goes on to say, Matthew
11, 11, notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of God
is greater than he. You see, John, just like Mary,
was a sinner chosen and saved by the grace of God. They were
vessels of God's mercy, vessels whom God was pleased to use.
He was pleased to use Mary to give birth to our Lord. He was
pleased to use John to go and prepare the way of the Lord.
John was no rival of Christ, nor did he desire his own greatness.
He was sent to declare Christ. And that's what he did. John's
message was, he that cometh after me, he was born after Christ,
six months after Christ, but he was preferred before him.
Our brother just read it in John chapter three. John's message
was this, he, that is Christ, must increase, but I must decrease. You see, we're talking about
two different types of greatness. Look here in our text, Luke 1
verse 31 again. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. 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." You see, John was just a man. Our Lord is the God-man. He was no mere man. He's God
and man. We just read that the Son that
Mary would bring forth is the Son of God. Now that's a mystery
beyond our comprehension. As long as we're in this earth,
we'll never be able to truly enter into this, but God became
a man. We could dwell on that forever,
couldn't we? The glory in that. We read in John chapter 1, the
Word, that's Christ, was made flesh. He really was. The Word
was made flesh. He dwelt among us. He dwelt among
sinful men and women. And John said, we beheld His
glory. Oh, praise God He did. I pray
we will, too. I pray we will, too. Full of grace and truth.
You know, when our Lord spoke, often people said things like,
never may a man speak like this man. He speaks as one having
authority. We just read that the Lord Jesus,
He's the Son of the Highest. You know, John, in this flesh,
He was just the son of Adam, and that's all we are. The Lord
was born the Son of the Highest. He was born King. King of heaven
and earth. King of Israel, God's people.
I love what it says about his kingdom. It says he has a kingdom
and it says of this kingdom, he reigns over him and there's
gonna be no end to this kingdom. He shall reign over the house
of Jacob forever. There's not gonna be an end to
his reign, to his kingdom. I love that. Who is he? He's
God. You know, we looked at not long
ago, who is this man, Jesus, the Son of Man? He's Jesus the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Our brother dealt with this
a couple weeks ago, but look with me to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. I pray God might enable us to
get just a glimpse of the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews
chapter 1, verse 1. Says God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds. You know, he was born into this
world, but he made the world. You know that? born into the
world He made, walk the earth that He spake into existence."
Amazing. In verse 3, "...who being the
brightness of His glory," that is God's glory, "...and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they." The Lord Jesus Christ is the
brightness of God's glory. If we want to see God's glory,
just look at Him. Look at Him. May God cause us
to look at Him. The brightness of God's glory,
the express image of His person. What does God look like? Christ. Oh, to behold Him. May God give
us eyes to see Him. His person is great. Do we see
His person, who He is? Second, His name is great. He
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent, a more great,
majestic name than they. Now, a familiar verse, but turn
with me to Isaiah chapter 9. This verse is so glorious. These two verses, rather. Isaiah
9, verse 6. Isaiah 9, 6, For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Verse 7 says, Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end. upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. Don't you love what his name,
his glorious, excellent name, shall be called wonderful? You know, that's a word, personally,
I use a lot. But every time I use it, it pales
in comparison to its meaning right here. His name, the Lord
God, the Lord Jesus on His throne, His name is wonderful. I want
to show you a verse, just a few pages over, Isaiah 25, verse
one. Wonderful. Isaiah 25, verse one. says, O Lord, thou art my God. I will exalt thee, I will praise
thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels
of old are faithfulness and truth." If God ever reveals Christ to us,
we will say, Amen. Oh, thou hast done wonderful. Thanks faithfulness and truth.
Brethren, our Lord, I don't have to tell you this, I pray we know
it. Our Lord is full of wonder. Full of wonder, excellence. His
name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. You know, in this
life, we take counsel from people. Personally, I take counsel from
Gabe. I take counsel from my parents,
my elders. I believe I'm wise to do so.
I need counsel. We have one counselor. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our wisdom. You know, you
go to a counselor for wisdom, for advice. Christ has all the
wisdom we could ever need, spiritual wisdom. And I love this. He takes
counsel from no man. He never has. He never will.
He alone is counselor. Wonderful counselor. Here's my
favorite, the mighty God. You know, we're reading of His
birth. You know, when He was in the form of a baby in the
womb, He was no less the mighty God then than He is right now. And when He hung on the cross,
you know, naturally we saw weakness. He saved others Himself He can't
save. Isn't that what the flesh cried
as we crucified Him? We saw no strength, especially then. the mighty God. That's who He was. That's who
He is. That's who He shall be. God Almighty. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Now this
is one that often confuses me. You know, God is three in one.
The Father, the Son, the Spirit. But they're one. No need to be
confused. The Lord himself said, He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. He said, I and my Father are
one. I take that to mean He's our
everlasting Father. And lastly, it says, the Prince
of Peace. We know that through the cross,
He made peace. We know that as we live our life
in this world, He gives peace. Oh, brethren, but more than that,
He is peace. He is our peace. The longer I live, the more I
find that to be true. You know, we look for peace in
ourselves. We look for peace in one another.
How's that going? Oh, we know where our peace is,
don't we? It's in Him. He is the Prince of Peace. The psalmist said, O Lord our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Do you find
his name to be excellent? I ask myself this question. Is
his name truly great to us? Turn to the last book of the
Old Testament, Malachi. This is an important verse for
us to see, Malachi chapter 1. Malachi 1, verse 11. I'll preface this verse by saying,
His name is not great. His name is not thought to be
excellent by everybody. Now look here, Malachi 1.11,
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the
same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every
place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering,
for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of
hosts. Can we identify with the Gentiles? You know, it was frowned upon
to be a Gentile. You wanted to be a Jew. It was
frowned upon to be a heathen. I remember in college, I remember
one of my coworkers making fun of someone calling them a heathen.
Can we identify with them? According to this verse, that's
who believes his name to be great. Gentiles, heathens, sinners. Sinners. Sinners believe His
name to be great. Sinners rejoice at the very sound
of His name. And here's why. Because there's
no other name whereby we must be saved. Oh, when, you know,
somebody you love, when you hear their name, when you hear somebody
talking about them, speaking highly of them, and it's someone
you love, oh, you just, you can't help but smile and be happy,
can you? Because you love that person. Sinners love Him. They
love His name. Oh, they love His name. Because they know who He is and
they know what He's done. His person is great, His name
is great, His work, His work is great. Turn over just a page
or two to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew 1 verse 21. Same account as Luke 1, it says,
And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Jesus means Savior. That's why He came into this
world, was to save His people from their sins. And I don't
know that I've ever heard a verse quoted more than that one. And
honestly, I'm glad, because there's a lot of There's a lot of people
out there that do not believe this simple declaration, he shall
save his people from their sins. Not he might save, not he'll
make an attempt to save. He'll do his best to try to save. He hopes to save. Not at all. This, what the angel declared,
was a most blessed, absolute, certain, declaration of something
that would no doubt come to pass. He shall save His people, all
of His people, from their sins. I love that. And let me ask us
this question. Do we need to be saved from our
sins? He's going to save His people.
Am I one of His people? Do I need to be? Do I need Him
to save me from my sins? It all comes down to a need.
Our pastor just brought a message this past week about all that
the Father hath given to him, his people, they shall come to
him. Well, what if I'm not his people?
Him that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast out. Well. Who comes
to Him? Those who need Him. Oh, I pray
we need Him. I pray we need a Savior because
He is the Savior. And He's there for all who need
Him. He came to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
By the grace of God, Paul knew himself to be a sinner. And I
pray likewise it's so with us. And turn back a few pages to
Zephaniah. It's just a few books before
Malachi. Zephaniah chapter 3. This is a remarkable verse. Zephaniah
chapter 3 verse 17. This is speaking of Christ. It
says, Again, we don't have to wonder about this. Well, did
He save me? Is it really safe to trust Him and Him alone? The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He shall save. I'm here to declare
he has saved. He has saved. Now, how did he
save us? We need to know this. How did
he save us? How did our mighty God save us? Here's how. When He was born
into this world, it was on purpose. It was for a reason. A sacrifice
for sin had to be made, and praise God, this sacrifice was prepared
long before Adam ever sinned in the garden. You know, in Hebrews
chapter 10, we read that God has no pleasure in burnt offerings
and sacrifices. You know, men are standing, offering
sacrifices daily, trying to please God, trying to atone for their
sin. All the sacrifices you read of in the Old Testament, they
were all made, but they never atoned for one sin. But it said,
a body hast thou prepared me. That's Christ. That's who we're
reading about. Why was a body prepared for him?
to save His people from their sins. A sacrifice had to be made. Because no sacrifice you or I
make, try all the sacrifices men make, we could never put
away our sin. But Christ could. And praise
God, He did. He hung on that cross, not in
weakness, but in power as our mighty God. He was in the midst
of us, saving us. He hung on that cross on purpose,
in our place, in our stead, to save us, to make reconciliation
for us, for the sins of His people. He was made like unto us, made
like unto His brethren. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. He died as our substitute, brothers and sisters. When He
hung on that cross, all our sins were laid on Him. When He stood
in the garden of Gethsemane with our sin being pressed into Him
and He sweat as it were great drops of blood and cried, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why would all this happen?
It was according to God's purpose. It was the means God chose to
let holiness and truth and justice and righteousness and peace all
meet together. in Christ on the cross. That's
why a sacrifice had to be made. And the only sacrifice there
is, is Christ crucified. Christ alone, his blood alone,
our sins were laid on him, pressed into him. He bore them all, literally
bore our sins in his body on the tree. Oh, I can't begin to
truly enter into that, but I'm so glad that he did. It's all
my hope. He bore the guilt of our sin,
the weight of our sin, the punishment of our sin. Sin has to be punished. The wages of sin is death. But
praise God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's what happened when He
hung on that cross, when He was made sin, made a curse to redeem
them that were under the curse. You know, right before He bowed
His head and gave up the ghost, He cried those blessed words,
"'It is finished.'" That's how He saved us. Call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
I pray God would enable us to behold Christ crucified, like
He did that one of those thieves on the cross. You know, they
were both casting the same in His teeth, and then all of a
sudden a great change happened. It didn't just so happen. God purposed to save that man,
just like He purposed to save all His people. And He caused
that man who moments ago saw Just another man. He caused him
to see his Savior, and he cried, Lord, would you remember me,
a worthless sinner, when you come
into your kingdom? Again, that was our mighty God
hanging there. He saved that man while he was
hanging right beside him. That man was getting exactly
what he deserved, and yet he saw right beside him the just
for the unjust dying for his sins, not his own. Oh, praise
God for our substitute, brethren. Our Lord came here to live and
to die as our substitute, and praise God, He is successful. He succeeded. He finished the
work the Father gave Him to do. He made eternal satisfaction
to God on our behalf. We can rest in Him. Rest in Him,
child of God. I mentioned Hebrews 10. It goes
on to say, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
How'd He do it? By one offering. The offering,
the sacrifice of Himself. Again, our brother read it in
John 3, but it said, The Father loveth the Son. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. We must have the Son. We must believe on the Son and
be found in the Son. His person is great. His name
is great. His work is great. And lastly,
His glory is great. Because of what He accomplished
by Himself, His glory is great. Psalm 21
verse 5 says, His glory is great in thy salvation. You know, while
so many people will glory in themselves and think that it's
something to do with them, that God is pleased with them, something
to do with them by which they're going to be accepted. May we
glory in His salvation. May we glory in our Lord Jesus
Christ alone. He alone is worthy. And He alone
is our salvation. He accomplished it by Himself.
We played no part in it. Mary played no part in it. You
know, people glory in Mary because, oh well, she's the Virgin Mary.
She birthed the Son of God. Hail Mary. She was a sinner chosen
by God in Christ. Just like John the Baptist. Just
like you and me, I pray. The glory is His, it's all His.
Because of who He is and what He's accomplished, I love this,
Philippians 2, God hath also highly exalted Him and given
Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, every
tongue shall confess Jesus is the Christ, every knee's gonna
bow, Every knee's gonna bow either here in this life or in eternity. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord God
Almighty. He's King of heaven and earth.
He's the Savior of His people forever and ever. And when we
confess who He is, it's gonna be to the glory of God the Father. I pray because of who He is and
what He's accomplished. I pray that as God hath highly
exalted Him, is well pleased in Him, may we too highly exalt
Him. If we need Him to save us, if
He is our Lord and Savior, we will exalt Him. We won't be able
to help it. We will rejoice in Him. We will
glory in Him. We will find a desire to worship,
praise, honor, extol, magnify Him because of the great things
He hath done for us. We read it Wednesday, and I had
it in my notes here, what David said. He said, the Lord is my
light and my salvation. I pray we can honestly say that.
Oh, I pray we can. Paul put it well. He said, Christ
is all. Christ is all and in all. May God enable each of us to
honestly see the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ, His person,
His name, His work, and His glory. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
be great. Amen. Lord bless you.