Malachi chapter 4, no one knows
for sure exactly when our Lord was born into this world in human
flesh. But this is the time of year
that the majority of the world thinks about it. And it is a wonderful thing to
think about. It's a very wonderful thing to
think about. Had our Lord not come to this
earth and caused Himself to be born in the flesh, had He not
caused Himself to be made flesh, then He could not have lived
for us. Had He not been born for us,
He could not have lived for us. as our substitute for us. And
He could not have died for us. And He could not have been buried
for us. And He could not have risen again
for us. So I personally adore the fact
that there is a moment on the human calendar,
a designated place where men Remember the fact that Christ
came into this world. How glorious is it that Christ
came into this world. I do know that man ruins it. I understand that. And religion
ruins it. They just ruin it. They make
a mockery out of it. They make it a thing of idolatry. I know all that. But what the
world does ignorantly, it doesn't have any bearing on our true
hearts before God. Singing, you know, that song
we just sang, truly entering into, this is my hope. We could dwell on them and the
error and the ruin Or we could just dwell on the
glory of God's Word and rejoice in it. And I just prefer the
latter. His coming, it is so glorious. And that's what I want
us to look at today. All of today. As I was studying
this week, I had it in my mind that we would look at Luke chapter
2 tonight. Something in me just immediately
felt led to look at Luke 2 tonight. And the Lord willing, that's
what we're going to do. But as I was looking at that, I thought,
well, we could look at Luke 1 this morning. And the Lord willing,
that's what we're going to do. We're going to look at the announcement
of his birth this morning, and we're going to look at his birth
tonight. Right here, though, in Malachi
4, if you look here, These are God's last words of His Testament
of Commandments. We call it the Old Testament.
These are the last words that God gave to us before Christ
came. Malachi 4 verse 5 says, Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. What does he mean, the great
and dreadful day of the Lord? In verse one, he said, everything
is gonna be burned up. I'm burning everything up. For
behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven. And in verse
two, that's where he talked about the son of righteousness arising
with healing in his wings. We just sang that. I'm gonna
burn everything up, but he said, before I do, I'm going to send
Elijah the prophet. Verse six, and he shall turn
the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with
a curse. And think about that, that's
the last word he gave to us in the Old Testament. That's where
he ended it. Last word. What he's saying right
here is, you only have one hope. This is my last word to you.
You only have one hope. I am going to send you one hope. And I'm going to send a man.
I'm going to send a forerunner. to point you to that hope and
to tell you who that hope is, to make sure that it's known
this is the only hope you have, to make sure that the whole world
knows this is the only hope that you have. Why did Christ come
into this world? It's because it was the only
hope we had. God said, I'm sending one hope,
one hope. Now right here, he said, I'm
going to send Elijah the prophet to prepare the way of this hope,
to prepare the way of the Lord. But in many locations in the
New Testament, well, I was gonna turn to some, but I don't need
to. In many locations, the Lord told us that he was speaking
of John the Baptist, who he called right here Elijah. He was talking
about John the Baptist. One of those locations is our
text. So go with me if you would now to Luke chapter 1. Let's just read the announcement,
this glorious announcement of the coming of the only hope that
we have. Christ Jesus the Lord. Oh come,
let us adore him. Verse one says, for as much as
many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration
of those things which are most surely believed among us, even
as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, It seemed good to me
also, having had perfect understanding of all things, from the very
first to right unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. He said, this is the truth, and
you can believe every word that's about to be said. Verse five,
he said, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea,
a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abiah, and his
wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God." What does that mean? They were both righteous before
God. What does that mean? That means
They were in Christ. How could they be in Christ?
He wasn't born yet. All of God's people, all of God's
elect, chosen to be righteous people, were placed by the Father
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Don't turn, but
Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame, righteous, before him in love. The scripture says that
outside of Christ, there is none righteous, no, not one, not even
these two. But in Christ, they were righteous,
and in Christ, so are we. That's an amazing thought. Verse
six, they were both righteous before God, walking in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, again, in
Christ. And they had no child because
that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken
in years. And it came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an
angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 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." What that means is, he would be born
a believer. That's what it means, filled
with the Holy Ghost. He would be born a believer,
all of his years growing up. We're about to see that he was,
earthly speaking, worldly, by the flesh speaking, he was the
Lord's cousin. And all of his years growing
up, he was a believer. He was a believer on Christ,
his Lord. Every time their families got
together, he knew whom he had believed and was persuaded that
he was able. You think John the Baptist was
persuaded? You think about how he preached. You think about
the dogmatism that God gave him to preach Christ. He was persuaded. That man is able to accomplish
every purpose for which he was sent. And that's a glorious thing
to be persuaded of. That is so, so restful and peaceful. It's wonderful. But God sent
that spirit of belief and trust and faith to him in his mother's
womb. It says at the end of verse 15, 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 Elijah, 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. And that's what God's people
are. They are a people prepared for the Lord. The Lord told us
through Isaiah the prophet what John's message would be. Don't
turn. But in Isaiah 40, this is what he told John to cry.
All flesh is grass. He's preparing the Lord six months,
coming right behind him in six months. All flesh is grass. Every valley, every deep thing,
secret thing is gonna be exalted. It's all gonna be exposed. It's
all gonna be brought up. And every mountain, every proud
thing is gonna be made low. The crooked is going to be made
straight, and the rough place is going to be planed off. What
shall he cry? Behold your God. That's just,
that's wonderful. That's wonderful. John knew this
was his message. Behold, the Lord God will come. His reward is with Him and His
work before Him. What was His work? Redemption
from that curse He told us about in Malachi 4. The angel told
Zacharias, God is sending this prophet to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord. I mean the Lord, not just this
man who, I mean the Lord. They're gonna be ready for the
Lord. Verse 18, and Zechariah said
unto the angel, whereby shall I know this? For I am an old
man and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering
said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God
and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb
and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be
performed because thou believest not my words which shall be fulfilled
in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias,
and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when
he came out, he could not speak unto them. And they perceived
that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto
them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon
as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed
to his own house. And after those days, his wife
Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying, thus hath
the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me
to take away my reproach among men. The Lord performed his promise,
and Elizabeth conceived. And verse 26 says, in the sixth
month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Six months later, 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. The first words out of his mouth
to her were the words of the gospel of Christ. That's the
first thing he said to her. He preached the gospel to her. That's the gospel message. Verse 28, the angel came in unto
her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored. Highly favored
means graciously accepted. That's a good news message, isn't
it? to a soul that's not expecting
that. Accepted by grace. You are accepted by grace. It means much graced. He said the Lord is with thee. Can you imagine that? I think
we can imagine that. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. Dear Bride of Christ, Bride of Christ, Bride, Bride,
Bride, Bride, Bride, Bride. You're blessed among women. The Lord chose you. Graciously
accept it. Don't turn, but Ephesians 1 verse
3, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Where? In Christ. In our only hope. Verse 28, the
angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, 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. That's a past tense announcement. Hast found. That's a past tense announcement. He didn't say, Mary, you will
find favor if you do this. No, he said, this is happening
to you because you have already found favor with God. How? How have I found favor? Through this Savior. Through
this Savior, verse 30, the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary,
for thou hast found favor with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. That means Savior. That means
Emmanuel. That means God with us. That's what it means. God with
us. Who is this that's coming? God
is coming. God is coming. He said, Mary,
listen to me. God shall be with you. I'd love to be a Mary right now
and get a hold of that. God shall be with you. Verse 32. He shall be great and
shall be called the Son of the Highest. Oh, okay, so He's second
in command then. He's next to the Highest, the
Son of the Highest. No way. He said, the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David. Do you see
in Lord God that capital L lowercase O-R-D? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. That says, Jesus Christ God shall give unto Himself The throne of His, by way of
the flesh, Father David. What that means is the King is
coming. The King is coming. That's the
announcement. The King is coming. Who is this
that's coming? The King is coming. The one who is coming is not
coming to be king. He is not coming so that He can
be made King. The King is coming. Hold your place and go to Matthew
2. Matthew chapter 2. Verse 1. Matthew 2 verse 1 it says, Now
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod
the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem
saying, where is he that is born king? Born king. Who is this that came? God came. The king of heaven
came. Back in Luke chapter 1 verse
32 says, 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. Is that not wonderful? That's
who He's chosen to reign over. The house of Jacob. Who is Jacob? He's the sinner. The trickster,
the supplanter, the liar, the cheat, the thief. That's who
God the King has chosen to make his people. That's who he's chosen
to fill his kingdom with. Sinners. He said, Mary, this
is the friend of sinners. The help of sinners. This is
the hope of sinners. That's the announcement. Verse
33, he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? She was engaged to
Joseph, but they were not married yet. Therefore, anything coming forth
from her, Anything being produced in her, it was a physical impossibility. She couldn't understand how is
this gonna happen? How could this possibly happen?
She knew that she was totally incapable of producing anything on her
own. Anything of her own doing that
could produce life in her. And that's the way it is in salvation.
Man on his own has no way of producing life in himself. No
way. And once a sinner sees his deadness,
once God reveals to a sinner his own inability to produce
life, that's an awakening. Once a sinner sees that, because
of the deadness of his flesh, that sinner will cry, how can
this be? How can this be? With man, this
is impossible. That's her response to the announcement.
The messenger said, Mary, life has come to you. A new creation
is within you. A new man The hope of glory has
come, Christ in you. And she said, how can this be?
I know what I am. I know that I can't produce anything.
How can this be? Verse 35. And the angel answered
and said unto her, 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." He said, God is going to do this. That's how. That's how this can be. God is
going to do this. He started it and He'll finish
it. This life is of God. This hope
of life that is in you is of God. This salvation is of the Lord,
totally of the Lord. Verse 36, and behold, thy cousin
Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this
is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God,
nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed
from her. Be it unto thee according to
thy word. What she said was, I believe you. That's what she
said. When God sends a messenger with
an announcement of life to a sinner, when God does it, When it's His
time and His work and He sends the message, this is the response.
Every single time, I believe you. Every single time. Verse 39, and Mary arose in those
days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judea
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, 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
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." I love the
thought of that moment. We've mentioned it many times. I just love the thought of that
moment. I'll bet you no baby has ever leaped in a womb like
that baby leaped in the womb. John truly was the chosen forerunner
of God. He really was. Chosen before
the womb, chosen in the womb. He truly was created to point
men to Christ. That's why God sent him. And
the first sinner that he ever pointed to Christ was his own
mother. Verse one, inside the womb of
Mary, the Lord of glory walked into the room and as soon as
he did, John cried, There he is! That's him. He's the one. And verse 41 says, the moment
he did that, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she cried,
blessed, bless God. My Lord has come to me. Verse 46, And Mary said, My soul
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour. Who is that you're carrying,
Mary? That is God my Saviour. Verse 48, For he hath regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. And that's what all of God's
people are. Blessed. That's all you can say about
them. They're just blessed. That's all you can say about us. We're
just blessed. Verse 49, for he that is mighty
hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. She said,
it's not what I've done for him. It's what he has done for me. And His mercy is on them that
fear Him from generation to generation. She already knew that He came
with mercy. She knew He was coming with mercy.
She said, His blood, when she said His mercy, this is what
she was saying, His blood, His payment of redemption for my
soul, it's not just on me. He didn't come to give His life
a ransom and to make His soul an offering to God just for me. She said, He's done great things
for me, verse 50, 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 hath He sent empty away. Again, why is she saying all
that in past tense? God's Holy Spirit has revealed
to her that it's already done. It's already done. Known unto
God were all His works from the beginning. He is not coming to
try to do anything. He's coming to fulfill what is
already done. 30 years from this moment. Thirty years from this, John
is going to seek Christ, walking up to the place where he's preaching
and baptizing, and John is going to cry, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world. But here's the thing,
he did not come to be the Lamb slain. He came because he was
the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Mary
said in verse 54, he hath hope and he has helped his servant
Israel in remembrance of his mercy. As he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary abode with her about
three months and returned to her own house. Now Elizabeth's
full time came that she should be delivered and she brought
forth a son and her neighbors and her cousins heard how the
Lord had showed great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the
eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they called him
Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered
and said, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said
unto her, there's none of thy kindred that is called by this
name. And they made signs to his father
how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table
and wrote saying, his name is John. And they all marveled. John means, the name John means
Jehovah is the gracious giver. Zacharias and Elizabeth both.
Don't you want him to be called by your worldly family? No, no,
no. His name is John. This is how
he came. This is the message he will preach.
God is the gracious giver. Verse 64, And Zacharias's mouth
was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake,
and praised God. And 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 his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost
and prophesied saying, now listen to this right here, all this
time Zacharias was a priest and he had his ministration. His
job was he had to go burn incense, had to go inside that temple,
had to offer up, they had to make sacrifices. And now God's
Holy Spirit has come and he's gonna reveal to him what all
that meant, what all that was pointing to. Verse 67, his father
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying,
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. And He spake by the mouth of
His holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that
we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and
to remember His holy covenant. the oath which he swore to our
father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we, being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him
without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all
the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins. through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Before the Holy Spirit comes, it's law, law, law, law, do,
do, do, do. And as soon as God's Spirit comes,
it's Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. He said, I see Christ
in this. Verse 80, and the child grew
and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day
of his showing unto Israel. Any man who is given the opportunity
to declare the coming and the accomplishment of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's a blessed man. And not just a preacher, any
man or woman, any person, that God has given a heart to tell
others of the glorious news of this glorious hope that we have
in the Christ who came. That is a blessed person. That's a blessed person. That's
the result of it all. Blessed. Every person that had
Christ revealed to them said, blessed, blessed. We're so blessed. And that's
what we are, just blessed. And it's because our King came
to us. Let's sing, O come all ye faithful,
O come let us adore him. Let's all stand together.