Philippians chapter 1, let's
read verses 12 through 20. I would, you should understand
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. So that my bonds,
his imprisonment in Christ, before Christ, are manifest in all the
palace and in all other places. Many of the brethren in the Lord,
waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the
word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even
of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. One preached
Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to
my bonds, but the other of love. knowing that I am set for the
defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and
I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that
this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation
and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in
my body, whether it be by life or by death, whether I live or
whether I die. This is a gospel worth dying
for. That's the theme, that's what
he's writing about. Now some of these verses are
difficult to understand at first glance. That's why we study God's
Word carefully, line upon line, comparing spiritual things to
spiritual things. But Paul is encouraging all believers
who suffer persecution for the truth's sake. He said, look down
at verse 29 and 30, To you it is given in behalf of Christ,
and what a privilege, what an honor, not only to believe on
Him. Faith's a gift, but so is this, to suffer for His sake. Suffer what? Hatred and persecution
for His sake, for His glory. Verse 30, you'll have the same
conflict you saw it be, and now hear it be. Our Lord said this, didn't He?
All who believe and declare the truth will suffer some sort of
persecutions given unto them. Our Lord said that. You shall
be hated. He wasn't talking just about the disciples back then,
because believers beginning with Abel, beginning with Abel, was
hated by his brother, his own brother, to the end, to Zechariah. A lot of blood shed over the
truth. But precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death and the blood of his mother. Because
mankind does not like the truth. Doesn't want the truth. Paul
is in prison for telling people the truth. They killed the Lord
Jesus Christ because he spoke the truth. That's the ultimate
example of it. What God can say is there's none
more loving, none more merciful, none more kind, none more gracious,
none spoke with more grace, none had more compassion and mercy
on people, but he told the truth and men hated him for it. He said one time, for which good
work do you stone me? He went about doing good. They
said, not for a good work, but what you say. We don't like what
you're saying. The truth of election. Here I
go again. But this is the truth. This is
where it starts. This is God's glory that man
would rob Him of. The truth of election offends
man's free will. It offends man's free choice.
They will not allow God to have what they insist for themselves.
Free choice. The truth of man's depravity
offends man's self-worth. When God plainly said, there's
nobody worth anything. None good but God. That's what
He said. And the only ones that are good are the ones that God
puts Christ in them. A new creature in them. Now that's
the truth. But people don't like that. I'll
have you know, my little boy, he's a good boy. Right. Yeah,
right. The truth of man's inability, the truth of revelation, that
you cannot do anything apart from Him, you can't know anything,
you can't be anything, that you're dead in trespasses, that offends
man's wisdom. The truth of righteousness imputed,
Offends man's self-righteousness. It offended Saul of Tarsus, didn't
it? He said, I don't blame this.
I kept the law. And he went about to kill this Jesus that they
said, God won't accept you except through Him. He said, I'll have
you know, I've given my whole life to my religion. And Christ came and showed him.
The truth of justification, sanctification by someone else, totally and
completely by someone else doing it for you. That offends man's
righteousness, his morality, his law keeping, but it's the
truth. And when you are born again,
you'll quit arguing. Oh, to the contrary, you'll start
thanking. You'll start praising. You'll
commence to begin to get started to give Him the glory where it
belongs to Him. No more argument. Paul was in
prison for preaching the truth. He was in prison by religious
leaders. I hope you read this bulletin.
I choose the articles very carefully. Some of you do, and I get comments.
I was just talking to Brother David Edmondson and every pastor
who produces a bulletin goes through this. We were bemoaning
the fact that very few of our people made any comments about
the bulletin. But other people from other churches
call and write and text and email and all of that and tell you,
that's a wonderful bulletin. We were both saying, Brother
David and I were saying, we don't produce this for other people,
it's for our church. I had no sooner said that and
hung up than more people in this congregation commented on the
bulletin than ever before. I'm thankful. This man wrote
a brief article in last week's bulletin. Religion has always
been the enemy of Christ. If you won't hear me, listen
to Henry. The true believer has conflict
with the religious world. The greatest enemies of Christ
have always been those who boasted of their knowledge of God and
what they're doing in the name of Jesus. It was in the synagogue
that the death of Christ was plotted. It was in the cathedrals
that the Reformers were tried and burned. It is in the churches
and so-called churches and seminaries today that the gospel of God's
glory and grace is denied. And that's a fact. It never has
changed. It never will change. Paul was in prison for telling
the truth. One time he said that, am I become
your enemy for telling you the truth? Yes. Because God said
through Isaiah, this is a wonderful and a terrible thing, that people
love lies more than truth. And the only reason you and I
don't love a lie right now, and we believe the truth, is the
mercy and grace of God, the sovereign, electing, revealing grace of
God. That's why you love the truth.
Is it not so? Because such were some of you
in religion, hating, despising the truth. I know that. I saw
some of your faces when you first heard me tell you the truth.
You got the veins start popping out. I don't like that. But I'm sure God I'm sure glad
God chose you, because you'd still not like it. We were talking after the service
on Wednesday that only those born of God, chosen of God, can
love it when a man stands up and calls them a dog, calls them
a worm, calls them no good. You've got to be born of God
to tolerate that. Not only tolerate it, but believe
it. This really is a gospel for sinners. It really is. Christ came into the world to
save sinners, not good people. Paul was in prison for preaching
the truth. He was in prison by religious leaders. But he said
in verse 12, I want you to understand, I would you should understand,
brethren, that the things that happen to me have fallen out
rather under the furtherance of the gospel. God's ways are
not our ways. This is not the way we would
have done it. Paul was the greatest preacher and teacher of the truth
at this time, the leader of the church. He was a chief apostle,
the leader of the church at that time. And they put him in prison. Oh no, they silenced him. That's what they thought. We'll
put him in prison so nobody can hear him. No, God sat him down to write
four letters. And the whole world is going
to read them. Isn't that something? Here we
are, halfway around the world, 2,000 years later, we're reading
the letter that this man wrote while he's sitting in a prison
cell. And that's because it's not this man's words, it's God's. And that's the way God did it. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
Philemon, like John on the Isle of Patmos. They said, we're going
to shut his mouth. We'll exile him on an island
somewhere where nobody will ever hear from him again. Okay? He's going to write the last
chapter in the book. He's in and out the words of
men. Holy men spake as they were moved
of God. No scriptures of any private
Interpretation, but God. The words of the prophets, most
of them were imprisoned, killed. Our Lord said that. Which of
the prophets have not your fathers killed? Jeremiah, remember he
wrote his book and there was a king named Jehoiakim and he
had them read it to him and every page, They would read the King,
he hated it, and he took a penknife and cut it and threw it in the
fire. Said, nobody will read that again. He didn't like anything
said. He threw it all in the fire. Thomas Jefferson did that. Anyway, he kept cutting, cutting,
cutting Jeremiah's book until he threw the whole thing in the
fire. You know what God did? He told Jeremiah, get your pen
out. I'll write another one. You can't
destroy the Word of God. Why? For ever, O Lord, thy Word
is settled in heaven. The Master copies in heaven.
The author and finisher of the faith. The one that lives to
ensure that his people have it. Oh, they tried to silence God's
Word, didn't they, for years. That no one could have it. I
just read again the story of William Tyndale of England. who,
in God's good grace and mercy, led him to translate the scriptures
into the vulgar tongue, English language, so that everyone could
read God's Word. And oh, did the religious world
hate that and wanted to stop it? And they put him in prison
and finally burned him at the stake. What for? Just translating
God's Word. Just so that everyone could have
a copy of God's Word. And I love his words to that
Sanhedrin, that bunch of self-righteous Pharisees who wanted to keep
people in darkness. William Tyndale in chains, in
bondage like no less than Paul the Apostle before Agrippa and
all of them. Tingle said to those bunch of cardinals and bunch
of devils, he said, by God willing, I'm going to make it so the plow
boy will know more about God's Word than you do. And he did. God did. He can't
silence God's Word. Isn't that wonderful? He being
dead yet speaketh. God's Word is the seed. God's
Word is incorruptible seed. God's Word cannot be stopped
seed. Persecution of the church, the
blood of the saints, the martyrs is what waters that seed. The church at Jerusalem was one,
the whole church consisted at one time of just a group of people
over in Israel, in Jerusalem, that little town. Well, what
did God do to disperse it? What did God do to send the Word
out everywhere? He persecuted it. He sent the
sword. And it persecuted. They fled. They fled everywhere. Went everywhere
into Turkey. Went everywhere. All over Europe.
What for? Have you ever gone out in the field and got a milkweed
pod? Huh? Milkweed pod? All right. Don't strike it. Don't smite
it. Don't break it, don't bruise
it, or you've scattered it everywhere. That's exactly what God did. I loved it. Let me die the death
of a righteous. Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer,
two of those old, and they, that's what they were all about. translating
God's Word. They were preachers and they
were condemned to die, to burn at the stake for preaching the
truth to the people, common people, by religion. Nicholas Ridley
and Hugh Ladmer, 1485, 15th century, preachers of the gospel. They
had churches like this. Under the rule of Bloody Mary,
Queen of England. In October of 1555, 400 years
to the month that I was born, 400 years ago. They were burned
at the stake, both of them together. And Hugh Latimer said to Nicholas
Ridley, his brother, while they were setting fire to those faggots, He said, play the man, Master
Ridley, Mister, play the man, be a man. For we shall this day
light a candle by God's grace in England that shall never be
put out. Let me die the death of the righteous. Brother, wouldn't that be wonderful
if we were back to back right now? Play the man, brother. This is
for a great good. And they did. And it started
long before them, long before Brother Hugh and Brother Nicholas.
Verse 13, Paul said, Everywhere my bonds in Christ are manifest,
in all the palaces, in all places, everywhere. Everyone's heard
of them. How do people hear without the Internet? That might be the greatest thing
that ever happened. Except for the preachers of the
gospel, maybe. This world is so totally... I'm going to get
on that. But everywhere, he said, in all
places, they heard this man is in prison in Rome. What man?
What did he do? He didn't do anything. He didn't
do anything wrong. It's because of what he said.
What did he say? I've got to hear that. It's just
human nature to want to hear what you can't hear. Our Lord quoted it to you. He
said, for good work. Which good work do you stone
me for? They said, you're a man. You just make yourself God. Now,
this is still the truth for which man stones those that preach
it. This is still the truth. And
how backward is man's wisdom You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
was God. He made himself to be a man.
But people don't believe that now. They don't believe that
now either. They didn't believe it then. You're just a man. You're
just Jesus. And we've got to let you be God. We've got to make you Lord. Am
I exaggerating the case? Boy, they all found out who's
God, didn't they? Pentecost. By the grace of God, 3,000 of
them, they found out in a hurry. He's not just a man after all.
He is God. And thank God He let us know
it. And we didn't make Him Lord, God did. And thank God made us
His. Made Him our Lord. Thank God
that God made Him our Lord and let us know of that salvation. Now, well, it says, you know,
verse 14, look at it. Many of the brethren, now some
of these verses are difficult. I used to have difficulty, I
don't think I do now. Many of the brethren in the Lord,
waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the
word without fear. Many brethren were emboldened
by Paul's resolute and courageous stand for the truth. Like I just
told you about Nicholas and Ridley and Latimer. I don't know what
persecution we may face in this country. It may not come to that
point. It might. It might. And honestly,
I would love to to die taking a stand for the truth. Not for
my glory, but just because I feel like I've been so worthless all
this time. Living for self, living for pleasure,
living for flesh, all these things. Just let me with my dying breath
give God some glory. Let my life be worth something
besides for me. Huh? It may come to that. And if it does, you know what?
God's grace is sufficient. He will give courage and strength
such as you've never had before. You mark the death of the righteous.
The Scripture says that. You know, we all want to live.
All of us want to live. It's just human nature. It's flesh
that want to live. You don't want to die. That's
just human nature. It puts this new creature in
Christ in you. When it comes time for you to
die, God says, you mark the end of that perfect man in Christ.
You mark the end of that person in peace. They're going to be
ready to go. They're going to be willing to go. They're going
to want to go. Many were emboldened by Paul's
courageous stand for the truth, and so have I. So am I. I've
preached more from Hebrews 11 than any chapter in the book. And there's a reason for that.
Because these people encourage me. Don't they, you Dan? They
encourage me. People just like me. In a world just like I live
in. Deal with people just like I
deal with. With problems just like I deal with. Setters just
like me. But God gave them a real faith and a real love for Christ. And a real strength that was
not of themselves. So that they did great things
that they were not capable of doing. So I read these things and I
get courage, like Abel, like Enoch, Noah, and their generation
stood for the truth, stood for the true God, Moses, destined
for greatness in the world. We said, no, there's no greatness
about it. My next message is about what
is greatness? Moses could have been the next
Pharaoh. He said, I don't want that. I'd rather suffer reproach with
the people of God. But you can have a palace in
Egypt. I don't want that. I'd rather live in a tent in
the wilderness. Now who could do that to a flesh and blood
human being? But God. Refuse all the splendor
and the wonder and the beauty, so-called the greatness of Egypt,
and see it as nothing, as vanity, and see an unseen kingdom. Oh,
now this is wonderful. by faith, see things you can't
see, embrace them, fall in love with not them, but Him, and say,
I don't want you to have all this stuff, because that's all
it is, stuff. I'll take Him. Now, who can do
that but God? And that's what He does to every
single child of God, no exception. He says, many of the brethren
took were confident that they could speak the word without
fear, because Paul had no fear. They would beat him to a pulp,
Brother Mike, they'd beat him to a bloody pulp. Dragging him,
the centurion had to come in, a band of soldiers had to come
in at Antioch and grab him and pull him out. They were going
to pull his limbs apart and kill him right there. As they were taking him out,
Paul said, hold it, stop, stop, I want to say something. These people hated his gut, they
wanted him to die, just like our Lord. And he said, I want
to say something. And he stood there with his face
bruised and swollen and bloody, his eyes probably shut, blood
streaming down his face. And he said, brethren, I was just like you. But God, just like our Lord hanging
on the cross, the very ones who hung Him there, He said, Father,
forgive them. You talk about greatness, greater
love hath no man in the earth, and a greater purpose is never
served. That's our purpose. Many brethren are emboldened
by my So Paul said, so that's what he said, if I'm put in prison,
fine, I'll do it for Christ's sake. If they kill me, wonderful,
I go to be with the Lord. But if not, he said to abide in the flesh,
to stay here, it's for Christ, for me to live, it's for Christ.
Whose Christ? His body, his people, to serve
his cause, to serve his kingdom. We come far short, don't we,
brother, far short. Well, look at verse 15. He said,
Some preach Christ of envy and strife, some of goodwill. One
preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add
affliction to my bond, but the other of love, knowing I am set
for the defense of the gospel. Well, how in the world could
somebody preach Christ of envy and strife? How? How can that
be? Well, I know full well how it
is. They envy Paul's state, in the church, he was well thought
of. He was the chief apostle, and some of them wanted to be
that. They wanted that. There was much
fruit in Paul's ministry. Some of them, they wanted that.
I said, now that he's out of the way, I'll be next in line.
Could a true preacher do something like that? Ask the apostles.
Ask them all. John, James, Thomas, Bartholomew. Have you ever envied greatness? Oh, they'd all say greatness was
standing right beside us. And we were talking about how
great we were. We were talking about what we wanted for ourselves,
what we thought we could do. I'm ashamed of it. Oh yeah, oh
yeah. Anytime we think anything about
ourselves, us, or our own, and the Lord hears it, and He will
chasten us for that. We'll find out by Him, by the
grace of God. They all forsook Him. They all
forsook the Lord. It was a severe lesson, wasn't
it? Simon Peter was the last. He said, they'll all leave you,
not me. Oh, no, not me. Okay, Simon, you're going to
be the first. Okay, Simon, here's your salvation now. You're going
to leave me. And everybody in here at some
point is going to do it, forsake him. But here's your salvation,
brethren. He had said, I'll never leave you. Is that good news to you? It's
good news to me. Yep. And Paul had such a spirit of
Christ in him, he said, well, it doesn't matter how they're
preaching Christ, I'm just glad they're preaching it. Now, you
know he's not talking about those that are compromising the truth.
No, sir. Not those that are preaching
law, those that are preaching man's work, man's will, man's
worth, man's good. No, no, no, you're not talking
about them. Who name the name of Jesus, but deny His glory
and His power. No, sir, you're not talking about
them at all. You're talking about people that are preaching Christ.
Christ's righteousness. Christ's person. Christ's work. Christ's glory. Christ's honor.
It's amazing how a human being could preach for the wrong motive,
It's just so because they're human beings. And no flesh is
going to glory in His presence. How could someone preach Christ
with contention? I've done it. I've preached in
such a way to try to prove people wrong. And I shouldn't be up
here to try to prove people wrong, but to declare God is right.
And that people might see that He's right. And that people might
believe. My pastor used to say this, told
us young preachers years ago, though men don't love the truth,
though men don't believe the truth, and probably when you
stand up to preach, very few will believe it. And if you go
to a place where nobody believes it, you can probably pretty much
expect very few to believe it. But preach in such a way that
you can't believe that they don't believe it. This is the truth. Why wouldn't you believe that?
It's good news. But as we've been saying, it's
only for the sinners. You've got to heal before you
make a living. You've got to wound before you
heal. I know a young man, a couple of young men in fact, that preached
in such a way. One time me and I were listening
to him. Both of them. I listened to one of them, and
it was the truth. He agreed with everything he
said. I couldn't find anything wrong with what he was saying. But Buddy, he was committing
everyone to hell, and it's like he enjoyed doing it. It's like
he relished everybody going to hell. And after about halfway, I told
Minnie, I can't listen to this anymore. And I remember a man
who sat under him, calling me years before that. I didn't know
at the time who it was he was talking about. He called me and
said, I can't take this anymore. And I defended the young priest.
He's just young. Bear with him, because everybody's
overzealous. And they are. Just stick with
it, but no. Well, what happened? Well, it's
like 2 Corinthians 3, I believe it is. No, 1 Corinthians 3. The Lord removed him. He removed
that man and the other one. I hope they belong to the Lord. If anyone was converted under
their preaching, they are. But he sure did remove them and
restored their so-called ministry. Paul said, at the time, I rejoiced
that the man was preaching the truth. You see? I rejoice. But now verse 17, some of love,
he said. Some others do it of love. Timothy,
Titus, Silas, Epaphroditus, Tychicus, boy they loved Paul and they
loved the truth. That's why Paul told young Timothy, preach the
truth in love. Love the men's soul. That doesn't
mean you've got to smile on your face all the time. And you're
saying everything everybody wants to hear. That's not what that
means. You know, if you love men's souls, you'll tell them
the truth. You'll warn them. And you can't warn people to
smile on your face. Our young people, our children
that don't know the Lord, I want them to know the Lord more than
anything on this earth. And if the Lord doesn't reveal
himself to them, they'll perish. That's serious. A life or death
message is just that. It's just that serious. The son of love, of love to God,
love to God's glory, love to God's honor, love to the truth,
and love for Paul, and love for those that defend the truth. He said, no, I'm set for the
defense of the gospel. Oh, I want to be set for the
defense of the gospel. Don't you? Don't you argue? Are you set for the defense of
the gospel in the face of this world, in the face of your family?
Will you justify or defend your family in the face of the truth?
Or will you defend the truth in the face of your family? Some defend an old profession. They defend the false professions
of their family. Why? Because they're not willing
for God's will to be done. I heard someone say one time,
if my mother's not saved, then nobody is. What then? Notwithstanding, every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, what do we do in pretense? Anybody? How many songs have we sung in
pretense? How often have we drawn near
to God with our lips when our heart was far from Him? How often? How many times have we? Maybe
right now, and how many times will we? What's our hope? The mercy of God. Pretense or
truth? Christ is preached, and I rejoice. I know, he said, verse 19, this
shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, the supply of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, The last verse, 20, and it's my earnest
expectation, the thing I look forward to, the thing I hope
in, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that in nothing I should
be ashamed. Oh, not ashamed of the gospel,
rather I'm ashamed of myself, aren't you? I'm ashamed of this
world, vexed by it. I'm more ashamed of myself than
anybody in it. Ashamed, but I don't want to
be ashamed of Christ at all. I want to be bold for His glory
and His honor, so whether Christ is magnified whether I live or
whether I die, let it be for my Lord who lived
and died for me and ever lives right now for us. Why would He do that? Because
He's God. Thank you. Thank you very much. I love you. Hey. Hey. Oh, oh boy. And I'm gonna show you a clip
of it. the the the the the the How would you feel like that? Would you like to listen to a
big piano? and and and the choice of him robin how can
it be How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? The message this morning is about
someone great, and there's none greater. Number 50, hymn number
50 is a good hymn, a great hymn. It's saying about his greatness,
fairest Lord Jesus. Number 50, let's stand. Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of
all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, We will our cherished
Thee will I honor, Thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. Fair are the meadows, Fair still
the woodland, groved in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fair, Jesus is pure,
who makes the woeful heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine, fair
still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry host. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus
shines purer than all the angels ever can boast. Beautiful Savior, Lord of the
Nations, Son of God and Son of Man. Glory and honor, praise
and adoration, now and forevermore be thine. Y'all may be seated. Let's turn
to number 523. 523. And we will sing this to the
tune, Oh For A Closer Walk With God. Happy the home where God is there,
And loves us every breath, When one their wish, and one their
prayer, And one their heavenly rest. Happy the home where Jesus' name
is sweet to every ear, Where children early live His fame,
and parents hold Him dear. Happy the home where prayer is
heard And praises want to rise Where parents love the sacred
word And all is wisdom prized Lord, let us in our homes agree
this blessed peace to gain. Unite our hearts in love to Thee,
and love to all will reign. That's a good hymn, isn't it? That's our prayer, my prayer
for us, for you, for my family, for this church family, all our
family. Let's read about a family who
prayed together and it was their hope and wish and rested in Christ. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Let me remind
you again of the cleaning list. Please look at that. Luke chapter 1
is a long chapter. I'm not going to read all of
it, but most, a lot of it, most of it. We will still be in this
chapter for a couple of weeks anyway. There's so much here.
But I want to read, well you just follow. All right. 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 write unto
thee in order most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest
know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.
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, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. They had no child. because Elizabeth
was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while
he, Zechariah, 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 the 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
Enzim. 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. favored of God. 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, shall drink neither
wine nor strong drink. 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 the Lord their God in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, disobedient
to the wisdom of the judge, to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. Zechariah said unto the angel,
Whereby, or how shall I know this? What's the sign? I'm an old man.
My wife is well stricken in years. The angel answered and said unto
him, I am Gabriel. I 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." People waited for Zacharias and
marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. When he came out,
he could not speak unto them. They perceived that he had seen
a vision in the temple. He beckoned unto them and remained
speechless. And it came to pass, 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. And in the six months,
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. 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. 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.' Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. 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. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she 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. Now go down to verse 57. 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 that the Lord had shown
great mercy upon her. And they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass on the eighth
day they came to circumcise the child. And they called him Zacharias
after the name of his father. His mother answered and said,
Not so. He shall be called John. And
they said, and there is none of thy kindreds called by that
name. So they went and got Zacharias, and they made signs to his father
how he would have him called. He asked for a writing tablet
and wrote and said his name should be John. They marveled. And his mouth was open. Zacharias
immediately, and his tongue loosened, and he spake. Praise 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. 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, John. And his father, Zacharias, was
filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied. Say, 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, as 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 enemy, might serve him without fear in holiness
and in righteousness before him all the days of our life. And
thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. He didn't even call him his son,
did he? Thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sin, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring, the sun of righteousness
from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit
in darkness, and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. end of prayer and prophecy. And
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit. And he was in, he
lived in the deserts to the day of his showing in Israel. What
a story. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
we ask this day that you might glorify your name. Father, glorify thy name. You
have glorified it. You know you will glorify Him.
And oh Lord, glorify this little assembly in seeing something
of Thy glory. I pray, I hope, we pray and hope
that everyone in here will be to the praise of the glory of
Thy redeeming grace. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Right, let's all stand and turn
to number 495. Number 495. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, Wealth that can never be told
Rich is exhaustless of mercy and grace Precious, more precious
than gold Precious, more precious Wealth that can never be told
Oh, the unsearchable riches of pride Precious, more precious
than gold Oh, the unsearchable riches of pride Who shall their
greatness declare? Jewels whose luster our lives
may adorn Pearls that the poorest may wear Precious, more precious
Wealth that can never be sold Oh, the unsearchable riches of
pride Precious, more precious than gold Oh, the unsearchable
riches of pride, freely, how freely they flow, making the
souls of the faithful and true happy wherever they go. Precious, oh, precious, Wealth
that can never be told Oh, the unsearchable riches of pride
Precious, more precious than gold Oh, the unsearchable riches
of pride Who would not gladly endure Trials, afflictions, and
crosses on earth Riches like these too secure