Luke chapter 1. I sat down and wrote an outline
on verses 46 through 55. Mary's song of praise. And last
night and this morning, After looking at it and after going
over my notes, I went back and I read verse
26 where the angel Gabriel was sent from God. And it changed my whole focus,
which is scary for me. And I thought, you really can't enter into her song of praise
until you deal with what happened to her before this. And I thought, what an example
she is of salvation. And I want to point some of those
things out this morning. I hope I don't sound scattered,
but we will see what happens. But let me say a few things about
that, and we'll see where it goes. Now, in using Mary as an
example, I'm not setting her up on a pedestal. I'm not setting
her up on a pedestal like the Catholics have. Hail Mary, Mother
of God. God has no mother. God has no
mother. That's a way of bringing God
down to our level. Because everyone in here has
a mother. That's a way of bringing Him
down. I was listening to a man preach here a week ago and he
was telling about a new translation of a Bible. I can't remember
the name of the Bible because I didn't write it down. But in
that new translation, It is written, God the Father and God the Mother.
That's the new translation, trying to feminize God. It is written in that translation,
instead of the Son of Man, it's the Child of Humanity. It's bringing Him down. And I'm not setting Mary up on
a pedestal, and we do not call her Mother of God, and we do
not pray to Mary. We do not pray to any of the
saints. We pray to God Almighty. We pray
to our Lord. We pray to our Father in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to recognize this.
Look in verse 28. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail thou that art highly favored. Now in my margin,
it says this, graciously accepted or much graced. I can say that
to every child of God here this morning. You are highly favored
of God. Highly favored. The Lord is with
thee. I can say that to every child
of God here this morning. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. I wrote out from that, not above
them, among them. Mary was a sinner just like me
and you. Mary needed to be saved by grace
just like me and you. Much grace. Are you? Much graced. All whom God saves are blessed,
God is with them, and they are much graced. Grace upon grace. You had grace before you even
knew it. You and I had grace upon us before we even knew the
grace of God. Someone said, mercy, and let
me see if I get this right, mercy is God giving us what we don't
deserve, and grace is God not giving us what we do deserve. What happened to her, in a spiritual
sense, happens to everyone whom the Lord saves. And I'm going
to try to point out some of that this morning. Now, first of all,
salvation starts with God. We saw that and we see this in
verses 26 through 38. God sent the angel. She found
favor with God. She was much graced by God. She found favor with God as all
God's children do. Noah, listen, Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Now for everyone here whom the
Lord has saved, you can put your name there. You can put your
name. John found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Doug found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. You ladies who believe, you found
grace, put your name there. You found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. All whom God saves have found
grace in His sight. It starts with Him. Ephesians
2.8, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Saved by the grace of
God. It starts with grace, it endures
through grace, it ends in grace. It never ends by the energy of
the flesh. At no time is our salvation begun
by the Lord and then continued by us. That's what Paul tells
them in Galatians 3. Having begun in the Spirit, are
you made perfect by the flesh? In other words, did you just
pick up the ball and run with it? It's grace from beginning
to end. It's by the grace of God we're
here. It's by the grace of God we continue to believe. It's
by His grace. Now, in verse 35, I want to point
out some things here. In verse 35 is a description
of what happens in the new birth. In a spiritual sense, this happens
when God saves a sinner. When God saved me, God saved
you, this is what happened. First of all, it says in verse
26, And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
into a city of Galilee, named Lazarus, to a virgin, to Mary. In the Word of God, an angel
is what? A messenger, a messenger. If you go over to Revelation
and you read the letter to the churches, there's seven letters
to the churches, he writes them to the angel of the church. Who is he speaking of in writing
to the angel of the church? The pastor, the pastor. A messenger. That's what I am.
I am a messenger. So here's the first thing. God's
going to send you a preacher. Then this preacher is going to
be sent of God. God is going to send His messenger to you. And you are going to hear the
gospel. You are going to hear the truth. You are going to hear
from God. When Gabriel spoke to her, she
was hearing from God. God sent Gabriel and gave Gabriel
the message to give to Mary. And He told her the truth. And
nothing but the truth. He gave to her what was given
to Him. And God will send you a messenger just like He did
the eunuch. The eunuch was reading the Word
of God. And God told Philip, go down to the desert. And there
he met that eunuch, and he preached to him from Jesus Christ from
Isaiah 53. And that eunuch believed. He
believed what? He believed who? That's what's
better to say. He believed that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the Messiah. That's what he believed. It starts
here. It doesn't start with the doctrines. It starts with the
person. He believed that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Now, from that foundation, we
can establish all doctrine. But until that is established,
until in my heart, in your heart, we believe that Jesus Christ
is God Almighty in the flesh, that He is truly the Son of God,
that He is truly the Messiah, until we believe that. We haven't
believed anything yet. We really haven't believed it.
But when you believe that, now you have a foundation to build
on. When you believe that He is the
Christ, and an angel, a messenger was sent to her, and a messenger
is sent to those whom God saves. And then here's a second thing
that happens. Look over in 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, the Lord Jesus Christ, he call him a holy thing, which
shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Here's
a second thing. The messenger comes. He gives
the message. But here's the agent in salvation,
the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, all
you're going to do is hear me say some words up here this morning.
It takes the Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and show
them to us. Here is the work of the Holy
Spirit. A man told me some years ago, he said the work of the
Holy Spirit is not as important as the work that Christ did. Now listen to me. Listen to me. The Father chose us, the Son
redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates us. It's the work
of the Trinity. It's not the Father didn't put
away my sins. Now listen to me. I've been thinking
about this. I sat down and wrote, tried to
write something on it. It's not He didn't put away my
sins. The Holy Spirit doesn't put away my sins. You know what
puts away my sins? The blood. The blood of Jesus
Christ puts away my sins. That's what put them away. That's
what enables a father to be a just God and a Savior. That's what
enables him to receive sinners like me. Because the Son of God
shed His blood and it's His blood, His blood that puts away my sins.
Now listen, without the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't even know
about it. He will guide you into all truth.
If I go not away, the what? The comforter will not come. It won't be complete. I've got
to go away, go back as we heard in the Bible class this morning,
seated at God's right hand. But now the Holy Spirit regenerates
us. The Holy Spirit applies the work
of Christ, the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit enables us to
know Him. to know Him. Apart from the Holy
Spirit, we cannot know the Lord Jesus Christ. He will take the
things of mine and show them to you. So there's the work of the Holy
Spirit. In the new birth, there's regeneration. In the new birth,
there's a revealing of Christ. In the new birth, He's the one
who convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment. That's what He
convicts us of. It's the work of the whole Trinity,
the Holy Spirit, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of
God. You know, those who don't believe,
I cannot really instruct you. You don't have anything to receive
the truth in. When the Lord told Nicodemus
he must be born again, because he said, I don't understand.
And he said, well, you must be born again. I'm going to paraphrase.
You must be born again to understand what I'm talking about. He said,
you don't pour new wine into old wineskins, because it'll
burst. There has to be a new wineskin,
there has to be a new birth, a new creation, a new man to
receive the truth. And this is what happens in the
new birth. And he says here, the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee. Regeneration, eternal life is
the power of God. And let me say this about the
Holy Spirit, two things. Number one, He's not our ministry.
When you hear someone constantly talking about the Holy Spirit,
feeling of the Holy Spirit, that's not His ministry. His ministry
is not about Himself. Although when we come across
it in the Word of God, we deal with it. His ministry is Christ,
taking the things of Christ and revealing them to those whom
He saves. But here, the power of God will
come up on you. He commands life. He commands
life and you live. You don't believe the gospel
because you just intelligently understand it. And you say, I
believe it. And then now all of a sudden
you're born again. The evidence of life is what? Is breath. Cry. If a baby cries when it's
born, it's evidence of life. It's breathing, it's crying.
The evidence of life is this, you believe. You believe and
did not cause you to have life. It's the evidence of it. Repentance
is the evidence of life, never the cause of it. Arminianism
has completely flipped that around. They've turned it around. They've
made it the cause and not the effect. It's the effect of salvation,
not the cause of it. But the Holy Spirit is involved
in this matter of our salvation. And then this, Christ, He said, Listen, "...the
high shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Now, in a spiritual
sense, that Holy Thing, that Holy One, which is in you, is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, Christ in you is the
hope of glory. Paul stood in doubt of the Corinthians
until, it was either Corinthians or Galatians, he said, until
Christ be formed in you. It's Christ being formed in you.
When Paul spoke of the Lord saving him in Galatians there, I think
it's chapter 1, he said, when it pleased God who revealed His
Son in me. That's not a misstatement. Yes, He does reveal Christ to
us. But salvation is when Christ
is in you. Paul said, when He revealed His
Son in me, in me. He was formed in me by the Word
of God, by the Holy Spirit. So you have the messenger, you
have the Holy Spirit as the agent, You have Christ who's the subject
and the object of salvation. Jesus Christ is the object of
our salvation. And it's through Him that we
learn who God the Father is. It's through Him that we learn
that God the Father chose us. It's through Him that we learn
what redemption really is. Redemption to redeem something. When He came into this world
and He died on the cross, He actually accomplished redemption.
That means He actually purchased. It wasn't a down payment. He
purchased. He paid the sin debt. Of a multitude
of sinners, no man can number. When the messenger comes and
the Holy Spirit works and Christ is formed in you, then the evidence
of that comes out in faith. The evidence of it comes out
in faith. Look in verse 38. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord. Speaking to the angel, Gabriel.
Be it unto me according to thy word. She believed it. See? She believed it. The very evidence
that God has saved you is that you actually believe the gospel.
You truly, from your heart, you believe it, you believe the gospel,
you believe God, and you live that way. The just shall live
by faith. That's how you live the rest
of your life. You live by faith. You are here this morning by
faith. You're here this morning by faith.
You believe this is it. You believe the gospel is the
gospel. You believe this is the truth. That's why you're here.
You're here by faith. And what I'm preaching this morning,
what you're reading from the Word of God this morning, you
believe. You take it by faith. You believe it. I mean, you embrace
it. You don't just look and say,
I can receive that. I can believe that. No, you embrace
it. There's a heart that goes with
it. There's love that goes with it. There's affection that goes
with it. You have affection for the truth.
Paul speaks of preaching the truth in love. He says, God will
send them strong delusion that they believe a lie and be damned.
And you know why? because they receive not the love of the truth."
It's one thing to say, well, I believe those doctrines of
grace, I believe those doctrines, but do you love them? I mean,
can you really embrace that God chose you, loved you? Can you
really embrace that Christ died for you? He didn't just die,
then you just happened to be, you know, you accepted it, now
you're one of the number. You really embrace this truth. You embrace the grace of God. You embrace salvation by grace
alone, in Christ alone. You embrace it. There's a difference, you
know, in just believing something and embracing something. You
know, I believe, I truly believe that George Washington was the
first president. But I don't embrace that. I mean,
it's not like I'm in love with that. But I believe Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. And I embrace that. I embrace Him. I embrace Him. Peter, do you
love me? You know, that really comes down to this. It doesn't come down to, do you
believe this doctrine? Do you believe that doctrine?
Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? There is nobody on the top side
of this earth, there's nobody in the grave that will perish
that loves Jesus Christ. Nobody. And listen to this. I'm not going
to get to the other part of it. I may do that next week. We'll
see. But listen to what Elizabeth
says to Mary in verse 45. Blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord. Isn't that so clear? Isn't that so clear in the Gospel?
I don't have to make many comments on that statement. Blessed. You know, faith takes
God at His Word. Faith believes God concerning
His Son Jesus Christ. Faith takes the person of Christ
to be real. Faith takes the person of Christ
to be God. Faith takes the person of Christ
to be the Savior, the Advocate, the High Priest, the Sacrifice,
the Atonement. Faith takes that. Faith lives
on that. It lives on it. And here's the promise. Here's
what Elizabeth said to her, and this can be said to everyone
who believes. There shall be a performance
of those things which were told her from the Lord. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone
who has called on His name shall be saved. There shall be a performance
of that man or that woman's salvation. God will save them. Come unto
me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. There
shall be a performance of that rest. Indeed, cleansing from
sin come to Christ. There shall be a performance
of that cleansing. To you who believe, there shall
be a performance of those things which He has said. All right.