Thank you, Robin. Thank you,
John. Thank you, Ron, for reading and praying for us, for me. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter
1. This is a long chapter, and we're
taking our time. We've been through this before.
We've been through some books more than once, and we're taking
our time. There's no hurry, is there? And so much here, if you've been
able to enter into it. Chapter 1 is just amazing. This
is a story of a man named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. Zechariah
was a priest, as you know, and his wife was also a daughter
of Aaron. They were two believers. They
were two children of God. Two saints. Zechariah and Elizabeth. Their hope, their great hope,
their one great desire, their desire was about to be
realized. Not a child. They had long since
given up hope of having a child. I just am sure that having a
child, it's like one of you ladies in your 60s, you don't want to
think about that, do you? But, now Zechariah, he was waiting
on a child alright. In the next chapter is an old
man named Simeon. They brought a child to him. I can't wait to get to that. But
this is just as good. Zechariah and his wife, they
were hoping, they were waiting for the Kingdom of God and His
dear Christ. That's what they wanted. That's
what they hoped for more than anything else. That was their
great desire. And it's the desire of God's people. He's the desire
of all nations. Christ. He's the one great desire.
David said, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there's none on
earth I desire beside thee. He said, One thing have I desired,
and that will I seek after. So this is what they were waiting
on. They were waiting on Christ. They were waiting on His kingdom.
Salvation. Redemption. It's about to be
realized. They heard the good news. They heard the report.
Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? And then it goes into Isaiah 53. A long chapter full of promises,
blessing, hope, comfort, consolation. And there's not one mention of
one material thing. And it talks about the consolation
of Israel. The hope of God's people, the
joy and the rejoicing. People rejoicing. There's going
to be great joy. What over what? Not one material
thing is mentioned. Isn't that all people think about
today? When they think of blessings? That's not the blessing. That's
not what God's people seek. Here it is, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Any bowels? Any mercies? According as He
hath chosen us. Get any feeling out of you? Before the foundation of the
world, that we should behold Him without blame, before Him
in love, having predestinated us. You like that word? An adoption of children to the
praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted
in the blood, in whom we have redemption. Zechariah is going
to talk about redemption. Anna, the prophetess, is in the
next chapter. She's going to speak of redemption
to those that need it. To those that don't have any
redeeming qualities. Redeem means to pay for. To those who can't pay for their
sins, that can't undo what they've done, that can't make up for
what they've done when they hear about this. Somebody's going
to redeem you from all of that. He's going to pay the price.
He's going to redeem you. To those in captivity. And I'm
way ahead of myself here. But I couldn't wait to get to
that. Does that make your heart flutter
a little bit? This old man and his wife are about to have a
son. Yet, over and above the son in
his preaching, in his prophecy, in his prayer to the Lord, he
doesn't even mention that boy until way on down the line. Like
Hannah, her prayer, she received a son, Samuel, but in her prayer
she doesn't even mention him. Like Mary, The Virgin, when she
heard, she doesn't even mention. She talks about her salvation. The Lord being merciful to her. Not the fact she's going to be
a mother. Alright, look at verse 59. It
came to pass on the eighth day they came to circumcise a child.
They called him Zechariah after the name of his father. His mother
answered, not so, no, no. He should be called John. John
means favorite of the Lord. We called John. They said, no,
your kinfolk named that. Nobody in your family has named
that John. Why are you going to name him that? Because this
ain't about my kinfolk. This ain't about my family. It's
not about my name. I don't want this child bearing
my name, his father's name. I want him bearing the name of
the Lord. Oh, no, it's not about us. It's about him. Not our name. George Whitefield said, let the
name of George Whitefield perish from the earth. Let the name
of Jesus Christ be praised. John, filled with the Spirit. John, greater woman, man born
of woman, never. They came and said, what's your
name? He said, Du Bois, my name. No, his name. His name. It's not about us. She said,
His name shall be called. They came to Zechariah and said,
His name is John. Well, call Him John. Verses 62 and 63, they made signs
to His Father how He would have Him called. I want Him called
John too. But this is what the Lord said.
The Lord named him David. The Lord gave him the name. That's
who we want to call our children to. That's who we want to name
our children. We want them to be called, not my son, but his
son, the Son of God. John said his name is John. And
they marveled. They marveled. Call His name John, favored of
God. Oh, Lord, show favor on our children, our grandchildren,
on us. We want to bear Your name. Christian. Son of God. We're sons of Adam,
alright? And we bear His sin. We want
to be a son of God and bear His righteousness. Verse 64, it says, wrote that, his mouth was opened
immediately and his tongue loosened. He spake and praised God. Praise
God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here
below. Praise Him above ye heavenly
host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Isn't that genius? Praise the
Lord. His mouth was still to pray.
First thing that happened to him when life was revealed, shut
his mouth. He didn't believe it. Don't believe
that. Okay, well, shut your mouth.
And now when life is born, he'll open his mouth. Isn't that us? When the Lord first deals with
us, creates life, born of God, the first thing we do is, I'm
going to put my hand on my mouth, not going to say anything. I'm
just a sinner. Nothing but cursing and bitterness
has come out of this mouth. All those previous days, now
I'm just going to shut my mouth and listen. But boy, again, when
life is born again, you'll open that mouth. And you'll sing,
won't you? You'll sing. Verse 65, And fear came on all
that dwelt round about them. Fear. Oh, would to God that fear
would fill this place. Every person in here. All. Would
to God He'd put the fear of the Lord in our children. Everyone.
Everyone. Our children. Would to God that
you'd start right today fearing the Lord. If you did, that's
the beginning of salvation. That's where it begins. I look around me. I see no fear
of God. I see some in here, but I mean,
out there. But in the faces of some in here
already, I don't know. Lord, help us. Fill us with Thy
fear. Unite my heart, David said, to
fear Thy name. You know what that means. You
have any understanding of it. By fear of the Lord, men depart
from evil. By the fear of the Lord, they call on Christ. They
come to Christ. But it was all noise abroad.
In verse 66, it says, all they that heard laid this up in their
heart and saying, what manner of child shall this be? Not a
question. What manner of child shall this
be? This must be a special child.
Here's how special he was. The hand of the Lord was with
him. He's already got the name, God's favored him. God showed
favor to Zachariah. God showed favor to Elizabeth.
God showed favor to Mary, to Joseph then. God's shown favor
to me. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should become the favor
of God. John. Go show John again. The
Lord's named you. The Lord's shown favor to you.
And the Lord's with you. Here's the favor of the Lord
if the Lord's with you. There's going to be a day when
he's going to... The Lord said concerning his people, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. David, envious of the prosperity
of the wicked. He said, I was envious. I was
foolish. And he said, I'm just religious
for vain. I'm just going to quit. And then he went into the sanctuary.
And you know what he found out? He just filled his heart with
joy. He said, I'm always with Him. I'm with the Lord. The Lord's
with me. A hand of the Lord was with Him. Isn't that what we
want for our children and ourselves, isn't it? Oh, Lord, be with our
sons and our daughters and our grandsons and granddaughters.
Be with our spouse. Lord, speak to our spouse. A
hand of the Lord. Touch my child. Touch my spouse,
my wife, My husband, my father, my mother, my neighbor. Lord,
touch them. Wrestle with them. Lord, take
hold of them like you did me, like you did Jacob. Would you
wrestle them down and reveal yourself to them? Please, Lord,
touch them. Send the hand of the gospel,
your power, and touch their heart." The hand of the Lord was with
them. Is that all that matters? It sure is. We've already gone through this,
but John didn't live but 33 years. He didn't have a home, didn't
have a wife, didn't have children. He wasn't a success in this world.
But oh, the hand of the Lord was with him. You want your child
to be somebody in this world, you want him to be somebody in
the kingdom of heaven. Zechariah was filled with the
Holy Ghost. Look at verse 67. He was filled with the Holy Ghost.
His son was too. From the womb. And he preached. Zachariah preached a brief message.
Oh, what a message. I hope I can preach it. He prayed. He witnessed everybody. Everybody
heard this. There was a crowd of people around
him. It says he was filled with the
Holy Ghost. What is it to be filled with the Holy Ghost? Oh,
you hear so much about the Holy Ghost. Pentecostal free holiness
church. Anything but free. Bondage. And it's anything but holy. What
is it to be filled with the Holy Ghost? Well, I've already said
something about that. To be filled with the Holy Ghost,
to be filled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ,
is to be filled with joy and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. in His salvation. That's it. Paul said we're the circumcision,
we're the true people of God, and these are the marks. We worship
God in the Spirit. God does not worship with men's
hands. If you worship God in the Spirit,
you don't have to have a big band. In fact, get that out of
here. You don't have to have all the
stuff that religion needs. Somebody said the bigger, the
more empty the drum is, the louder the sound of the mouth. You don't
have to have all that stuff. All you need is the Spirit of
God, a man with a Bible, and God open your heart. Boy, you'll
worship God from the Spirit and rejoice, secondly. They rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ in Him crucified. The Spirit
of God comes in the preaching of the Gospel and takes the things
of Christ and shows them to His people. And those that need Christ,
those that need salvation, those that need forgiveness of sin,
those that need a Savior, those that need a Keeper, those sheep
that need a Shepherd, they say, preach it loud, brother! Hear me? Make your heart flutter
a little bit? Oh, I hope the Spirit of God
makes somebody's heart flutter a little bit. For the first time,
somebody for the first time, he's talking to me. To be filled with the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of truth. Truth. Oh, we live in a day full
of lies, lies, lies, and people love to have it so. Would somebody
please tell me the truth? I'm here to tell you. The truth.
And His name is Jesus Christ. The truth! Everything He said
is true. Everything about Him is the truth.
The truth will make you free. The Spirit of God, the Spirit
of truth, the Spirit of Christ takes the things of Christ and
shows them to you, shows sinners their need for a Savior. He shows
helpless people their need for an absolute sovereign Lord on
the throne. And He shows them, and their
hearts leap. John had the Holy Spirit from
his mother's womb, didn't he? That's amazing. Do you not find
that amazing? There are very few instances
throughout history of real young children having the Spirit of
God, the Spirit of Christ, and what it was They knew Christ. They were taken up with Christ. The Spirit of God doesn't make
you talk like a bloomin' idiot. He makes you talk about Christ.
But John had the Spirit from his mother's womb, alright? When
he was still in his mother's womb. And Mary walked in, who
was just conceived. Christ was in her womb. When
Mary walked in, John was in his mother's belly and says, He lives!
A baby in the womb leaps. He kicked me hard. What's he
doing? He's not leaping over Mary. He's
leaping over Christ. He's not even born yet. He says,
here he comes. Upon the prophet's face. Upon
whom I'm waiting for. And my whole mission in life
is to tell people about this one who's to come. He comes here. He's here. That's what it is
to be filled with the Spirit. It's to be filled with wonder
and amazement at God's sovereign mercy and grace to you. It's
to be filled with praise and glory for the glorious gospel
of His dear Son. It's to be filled with gratitude,
thanksgiving for so great a salvation. That's the Spirit of God. is
to be filled with wonder and amazement that He would love
such a sinner as you, that He would come for such a sinner
as you, that He would pay such a high price for someone so worthless
as you. That's what the Spirit of God,
He breaks your heart and then He mends it by showing you Christ
came for the likes of you. That's a Spirit-filled person
and message. Zechariah was filled with the
Spirit, and his son was filled with the Spirit. Maybe if we
were more filled with the Spirit, maybe our children would feel
the Spirit. You know that? You know, He gives
the Spirit by measure. Right? Maybe if our conversation
was in heaven, they'd hear it, and maybe the Lord would do something.
But know if our conversations on earth, if all we talk about,
if all we just complain about this and that and the other,
find fault with the preacher, find fault with the church, find
fault with the message, find fault, find fault, that's what
they're going to do. But oh, no, if we don't find
any fault, but we find everything to be thankful for. This is a
Spirit-filled person. Thank you, Lord, for preaching
the gospel to me one more time. I didn't deserve it the first
time. I don't deserve to hear it again. But here I am sitting
with God's people, hearing this blessed Word again. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you, child. Honey, do you
realize what a privilege this is? Let's sing. Oh, sing, honey. Maybe the Lord will open your
heart. That's my heart's desire. That's my hope. That's my prayer
for you more than anything on this earth, that you know Jesus
Christ! If you have Him, He has it all.
We want the world for our children. No, we don't. We want to get
the world out of them. They're born with the world,
aren't they? We don't have to aspire them to this world. They
have it in them. We're hoping the Lord will take
it out of them. We're hoping the Lord will give them a desire
for another world, like those people in Hebrews 11. Embrace
the truth and say, we're strangers and pilgrims, like Moses, choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than the pleasures
of sin for a season. We want to show them the vanity
of this life. We want to show them these are
not vain words like Moses said in Deuteronomy. Oh, this is lies.
This is your life. This is your children's life. This is what John wanted for
his child. This is what Zechariah wanted
for his child. This is what Elijah wanted for
his child. This is what they wanted for
all the children of Israel. Their hope, their desire, Their
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be what? A good economy?
No. Saved. Saved. Alright, look at his message.
It won't take long. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.
Verse 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.
If you're full of Spirit, you'll bless God, the Lord God, that's
what you'll call it, of Israel, Sovereign God, Electing God,
Merciful God, for He hath visited and redeemed His people. Bless
God, He's visited us. What is man, that thou art mindful
of him? And who am I, and what is my
house, that he would visit me? My, my. Don't ever get over that. He
would visit me. Has anybody you love and esteem
highly come to pay you a visit, called on you? There's none higher
than Jesus Christ. Oh, glory. Thank you for visiting
us. Would you stay with us? That's
like those disciples in the last chapter of this book. We may
never get to it. I hope we don't. I hope he comes
to visit again. real soon. He's not staying, and neither
are we. He's visited us and redeemed. Past tense. Zechariah's saying this is past
tense. Yes, for whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate, whom he predestinated, he called whom
he called, he justified whom he justified, he glorified. Known
unto God all his work from the beginning of the word. When he
spoke it, it was done. Dictum factum. Redeemed. Redeemed. He was a Savior before
there was ever a sinner. Christ was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. Bless God. All is within me. Bless His holy name. Why? He
forgiveth all iniquity. He's redeemed us from our transgression. Bless God. Verse 69. He's raised
up the horn of salvation. Read on. For us in the house
of David, His servant, as His faith. by the mouth of His holy
prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should
be saved from our enemy and the hand of all that hate us, to
perform the mercy promised to our Father, and to remember His
holy covenant, His oath which He swore to Abraham. He grant
us to be delivered out of the hands of our enemy, to serve
Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days
of our lives." Bless God. What a good message. I don't
mean to comment on that, but I'm going to. He says he's raised
up a horn of salvation. A horn of salvation. You remember
the story of Rahab and Harlot? Harlot. The Lord paid her a visit. The Lord sent an angel like He
did these people. Two men with a message of destruction,
warning, but salvation. You get in this house, Rahab.
I'm going to put this scarlet line in the window. It's token.
It represents the blood of Jesus Christ. The house is the church.
You get in that house with the people of God, with your people,
and you stay in that house and you don't leave that house. And
we're coming. Joshua's coming. He's coming.
Joshua's going to come. He's going to level Jericho.
He doesn't love his place. He's going to level it. But Rahab,
Rahab, you stay in that house under that scarlet line, which
means you, if you're under the gospel, if you believe this gospel
where the blood is The priest, you stay right there until the
Lord comes. He's coming like Joshua. That's
His name. Savior. God our Savior. He's
coming. Well, lo and behold, one day,
and she waited, and she waited, and she waited. How long? Doesn't
matter. She's waiting. Every now and then, I believe
she'd go look out that window. Is that line there? It's there.
I believe. They promised. They said their
life, they'd give their life for me. One thing, the trumpet
sound. It was a ram's horn. They were
standing outside. One long blast of the ram's horn.
What were they playing? Bill said, Joshua's coming. Oh, it was music
to Rahab's ears. Oh, she may have been down and
depressed that day. She may have been worried about
this and worried about that. When she heard that horn blow,
she lifted up her head. You know what? Her redemption
draws nigh. People of the world said, we
don't want to hear that. What is that noise? She said,
oh, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? And you know
what? He came. He came for her and brought her
out, leveled that plate, like he said, like he said to the
children in Exeter, in the home. And they took her all the way
to Joshua, Bonnie, Joshua, Harlot, Joshua. And it said in that passage
in Judges, she's still there. That's what it said. What was
I going to look at? Oh, we just sang. It says, His oath, His
covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood when He
shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness
alone, hopeless to stand before the throne, on Christ the solid
rock I stand. We're going to sing that again
here in a minute. We're going to sing it again. And we're really
going to, I hope we're really going to sing it. This is what Zachariah said,
His oath, His covenant, His blood support us in this overwhelming
flood, when all around my soul gives way. He then is all my hope and stay."
That's a good hope. Brother Larry preached on it.
A good hope. What is it? Through grace. It's
in Christ. That's a good hope. All other
ground sinking sand. So when that horn, that's what
that horn represents. The blast of that ram's horn. He's coming. He's raised up the
horn, the house of David, to perform. Look at verse 71, that
we should be saved from our enemies and all them that hate us. Brethren,
the God of this world, like a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may desire.
We're no match for him. We're no match for him. We need
a Savior. We need a stronger than he. We can't stand before
one of His disciples. Not one. Not one temptation. We cannot stand before one temptation
of the serpent. Eve couldn't. And we can't either. We need a Savior. We need somebody. And to keep us all the days of
our life, to present us faultless before the throne of His glory,
we can't do it. He can. He will. He said He would. I'll never leave you. He said
He's able to present us. And He will. He will. He won't let you go. Those that
trust Him, He won't do it. He'll save us. You know, I hate
myself. Satan hates God's people. They
hate themselves. This old man in me, I hate him.
The Lord's going to do something about him, too. He's going to
save us from him. No man is able to pluck you out
of his hand. Not even that old man. Isn't
that good news? Look at verse 72. He's come to
perform mercy. Not offer it. Are you with me? I say that all
the time. Why? Because I want you to be
with me. Salvation is not an offer. It's a performance. Listen. David said, Be merciful unto
me, O God. Be merciful unto me. My soul
trusteth in thee. In the shadow of thy wings will
I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. He
said, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth
all things for me. This thing of salvation is a
marvelous, wonderful, glorious performance by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Something He did, you think,
as a performer. All right, you go someplace,
and you've got this celebrated whoever, whatever, violinist
or vocalist or whatever, and they're up there. I was watching a bullfighter,
a matador. There's nobody more proud than
those fellas, is there? I mean, they literally, you've
seen them. And the crowd, every little boy,
aren't they brave? And the crowd just, ooh, ah,
and adore them. They make millions and millions.
Well, I watched this one fella, that bull. Dead as a hammer. No more pride. He's dead. And he ain't nobody. And now
he's standing in front of God. No flesh, no glory in God's presence,
but one man. This thing of salvation is a
wonderful performance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvations
of the Lord. Scripture says when He had by
Himself purged our sin, like David went and defeated that
giant by himself, cut off the head of the foe. And they said,
David, this is David's victory. This is David's fall. Well, this
salvation is Jesus Christ's salvation. It's his fault. It's his victory.
He well deserves the praise. And when he was hanging on that
cross, he said, it's finished. It's finished. He finished it.
He finished the transgression. He put an end to sin by himself,
by himself. And it says he bowed his head. And God's people give him a This is no bang at the show.
This is redemption. What a performance. And He that
performeth all things for us. My, my. Well, look on. It says here, verse 72, to remember His holy
covenant, His oath which He swore to our Father Abraham. You remember
the message, what we can't remember, God can't forget? And what we
can't forget, God can't remember? You remember that? For what it's
worth, look it up again. It's good. And what that story
was all about was Psalm 106 and 7. We can't remember his oath, his
covenant. We forget God. It says they forget
God. They forget God. How many hours
do you go by without giving God a thought? If Pete went one second
without giving you a thought, you're gone. You're gone. He said, I'll never forget you.
What you can't remember, He can't forget. His oath, His covenant. Then you get down, you get doubtful,
you get full of fears and worries about your soul and all that,
but no, He remembers His covenant. He says, I remember. He remembers
what Christ did. Oh yeah. And then what we can't
forget, our sin. Like David said, my sin is ever
before me. Paul never could get out of his
mind's eye Stephen, Ben Stone, all those people that he hailed
to jail, he could never get over that. That's why he said, I'm
the chief of sinners. But God doesn't remember. He remembers. His oath, His covenants. He'll never forget it. Never
forget it. Verse 74, that He would grant
unto us to be delivered. A grant, people, is something
given to poor and needy people. One of our young girls, years
ago, the family was not able to send her to school, and she
asked me to write a recommendation to those on the
board to give this government grant. And I did. I wrote a glowing
report, and I commended her to them, and I was, as it were,
I was her intercessor. Well, she got the grant. They
granted her this large sum of money. Was it because of my intercession? Well, I'd like to think so, but
the Lord did it. This is a grant for the poor and needy that comes
through the intercession of one, that comes through the recommendation
of one. And He doesn't recommend our
goodness. No, she's worth it, or she's good. No, she's a sinner,
but I lied for her. Would you grant him or her thy
salvation? You know what God will do every
time? Blank check. Oh, yes. Grants. Grant her full pardon. A full,
free, unconditional, eternal pardon. Isn't that one? Provisions
all things are for all time. A full ride to glory. You get a full ride to glory. Grant us to be delivered from
sin, Satan, and the world. Read on. It says that in holiness
and righteousness before Him, verse 74, I need to read this,
that we may be delivered out of the hands of our enemies that
we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our lives. See, we need to be delivered
from the world which we're captive to. We need to be delivered from
sin which we're in bondage to. We need to be delivered from
self whom we serve all the days of our life. We serve ourselves.
We serve sin. We serve our lust and passion.
We need to be delivered from that to serve Him. Just finally
to serve Him who loved us and washed us from our sin. When
Moses came before Pharaoh, And God told him to tell them this,
let my people go, that we may go out and serve him. I was going to read to you Psalm
85, but it sounds just like Zechariah. Read it for yourself at home
sometime. It talks about he's forgiven the iniquity of his
people. Shown mercy unto us, been favorable
unto the Lamb, brought us out of captivity. This is the message. Alright? Was Zechariah holding
that child? He was holding that baby boy
in his hand. You know him? He was holding
that baby in his hand. And he hadn't mentioned him yet. He's holding that son, John.
And he doesn't call him son. He doesn't call him his son. But he's holding that child in
his hand this whole time. What's he talking about? Talking
about the Lord. Talking about so great salvation.
Talking about redemption. Talking about God's mercy. He
hadn't even mentioned the child yet. Because this, this is greater
than this. Much greater. To this end, Was
this born? This is subservient to that.
So was Zechariah's will and desire subservient to that? He hadn't
mentioned his child yet. Now he does. Look at the next
verse. Verse 76. Oh yes, and thou child. Not my son, this boy of mine.
What a good boy he is. He'll be a fine... No, thou child. You see, under him a child is
born. The Son, the Son of God is given. And He'll be called the Prophet
of the Highest. He'll go before the face of the
Lord to prepare His way. That's what Zechariah wants for
this child. To give knowledge of salvation
unto His people by the remission of their sin. That's what he
wants. God gave him this child, and
what he wants is this Son to give knowledge of salvation.
That the Lord would use this son, this child, to give knowledge
of salvation to others. The Lord gave him to me. Oh, may he give glory to the
Lord who gave him. Isn't that our desire for our
children? Is there any other desire? Really. I brought up Hannah. Hannah didn't
even mention Samuel. She said, My heart rejoiceth
in God my Savior. Here's what she said, My horn
is exalted. Is that what we want? To give knowledge of salvation
unto the people by remission of their sin. This is for the
remission of sin. This is Christ who can. That's
what they need. That's what everyone needs more
than anything. Let the economy go. Let this nation fail, but oh,
don't let Christ fail to save us. He won't. He shall not fail. And verse 78, he says, Through
the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring, that's
Christ, from on high, he's quoting Malachi, hath visited us. To give light to them that sit
in darkness, the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way
of peace. Oh, what mercy, what grace. God
has given us a child, and this child is going to be a prophet
of the highest. You know, you can substitute
all this for Christ here. He's going to be called the Son
of the Highest. He's not going to go before the face of the
Lord. He is the Lord. He's not going to prepare the
way. He is the way. He's not going to give knowledge. He is
knowledge. He is salvation. He is the remission of sin. He
is the mercy of God. He is the day spring. He is the
light. He is our peace. And the child grew. How did the
child grow? Boy, he's bigger and stronger
than any boy on the block. He grew in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord. and spirit. And the Lord was
with him. Isn't that what we want? Is that what you want? Is it?
Is it? Is it? I'll give you an illustration. I'll quote exactly. There was
a missionary named William Carey in the 18th century. He's often
called the father of modern missions, but he was a missionary to India.
He had a son named Felix. The son ended up breaking his
heart, ended up being in everything, drugs and he died. But he had
hoped that the Lord would save this son and he would join him
on the mission field. But at one time in his early
adult life, Felix was a pretty upstanding young man, and the
King of England appointed him ambassador to Burma. an ambassador
of the then greatest country, a kingdom on earth. The King
of England appointed him ambassador to Burma. William Carey, his
father, a missionary, a preacher of the gospel, said this. He
said, my son has chosen to be an ambassador of the King of
England when he could have risen to the status of being an ambassador
of the King of Kings. He's come down. He's lowered
Himself. What would you want for your
son? Wouldn't it be wonderful if, Ricky, I asked about Andrew,
if the Lord saved that, is that what you want for him more than
anything else? The Lord reveal Himself to you? What if he grew
in wisdom and stature and the fear of the Lord and the Spirit
of the Lord is with him? You know what you want? Alright? He knows the Lord and the Lord
fills him with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit fills him with zeal
for this gospel. He says, Daddy, I've got to preach
this gospel. Daddy, I've got to get out there
and tell somebody. Would that make you happy? What if we married
one of these young ladies like, well, I'm going to scare anybody.
You've got to marry somebody. What if it's Daisy? Abby? I'd be alright. I really would.
It would be wonderful. You know the Lord, and He knows
the Lord, and you become a servant to the cause of Jesus Christ,
like my wife did for me. A servant of your husband, a
preacher of the gospel. No higher calling on earth than
a servant of Christ, of His kingdom, a servant of the husband, A witness
to the children of the Lord who gave Himself and served you. There's no higher calling given
to a woman. My daughter is now a servant
of a preacher of the gospel. Isn't that wonderful? Wouldn't
that be wonderful? Andrew would become the next pastor of this
church. Can we lift up our hearts and
ask Him to do that? Can you hear the prayer? This
is what we want for our children, people. That's so, isn't it, you old
folks? Life's gone by fast. What does anything matter but
this? Alright, let's sing that, 272.
My hope is built Let's sing the first, third,
and fourth verses. I hope it's built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
rain, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All underground is sinking sand, All underground is sinking
sand. His oath is color, not his blood. Support me in the well-made flood. When all around my soul gives
way, he then is all my hope and say. On the backs of scholars,
rock-hard men, all other brave men,