We're in Luke today, Luke chapter
1. If we were to title this message,
we'd call it The Visit. And as kind of a background here,
last time we were examining this portion that had to do with Zacharias,
after the birth of his son John, the Lord said he was going to
be my messenger. He's going to prepare the way
of the Lord. And Zacharias, as you remember from
last lesson, that he was made dumb and unable to speak during
the time of the pregnancy because he didn't believe what Gabriel,
the man God, said to him that he would be the father of a son. And he said, I'm old. My wife is old. How's that going
to be? And he just didn't believe it. And so God, as Norm said,
God gave him some time to think that over. And as he was at the
temple to the circumcision, the dedication of the baby, and all
the family was gathered around to name the baby and to have
the circumcision right, they said, They made signs to him,
which indicates that he couldn't hear as well as couldn't speak.
They made gestures to him. What will the name of the child
be? Why aren't you naming him Zacharias after yourself or some
of your kinfolk? He asked for a table, a tablet,
and he wrote down his name is John. And immediately he got
his speech back. And so that gets us up to where we
are today. And verse 64, and his mouth was
opened immediately and his tongue loosed. And he spake and praised
God. First thing he did, he praised
God because Not only did he get a son, but his son was going
to be to prepare the way of the Messiah. The Messiah that was,
even as he was speaking, was here. Emmanuel, God with us. He was not born yet, but he was
present. He praised God, and fear came
upon all them that dwelt around about them. And all these sayings
were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And they that heard them laid
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, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel for he had visited and redeemed his
people. He hadn't had a prophet in some time, anybody that prophesied.
And we find in Luke that Zacharias is gonna prophecy, Simeon's gonna
prophecy, Anna's gonna prophecy, all about the coming of the Savior. So he prophesied. preached the
gospel, is all he was doing, saying, blessed be the Lord God
of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. And
he kind of puts these in the tense, the pluperfect tense or
whatever there. It's happened. It's happening. It will happen. It's a perfect
tense. And has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began."
He says, from Genesis on, this has been recorded and put down
for us. 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, by two immutable
things." It tells us in Hebrews, two immutable things. that He would grant unto us that
we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, and sin
is just the greatest enemy that we have, that we might serve Him without
fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
life. And that only happens through our Savior, through Him. And
thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, prepare His ways,
to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission
of their sins. That's interesting how he says
that, to give knowledge of something that's taken place, not telling
you instructions on how to accomplish that. 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. And the child
grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the
day of his showing unto Israel." So we're primarily concerned
today with this part about the visit, the Lord. In verse 68,
"'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and
redeemed his people.'" Well, remember Gabriel, who stands
in the presence of God. Gabriel, the valiant man. The Almighty, that compound word
that makes up that name, was in His presence. the savior in the womb of Mary,
as all this is going on. It's kind of beyond our scope
to understand all that. But he said, he hath visited
us and redeemed his people. And there's this word redeemed
here is in the Greek, it's called lutron, and it's translated ransom,
mostly. And it's in those days, If you
wanted to buy up somebody out of bondage or somebody that was
in prison for whatever, you paid the ransom for them. You paid
the Lutron. And that's what this verse says. He has visited us and he's paid
the Lutron. for his people. He's paid the
ransom. And so as we look at this word,
visit, it's a fascinating word, and it has its roots in the Old
Testament, as you might well guess. But And Zacharias, being a priest,
probably was well familiar with most of these terms here. But the roots are in the Old
Testament. And when you look up visit in the dictionary today,
it says to go and see someone in a social
way or for some benevolent purpose or
to inflict punishment. The word can also mean to inflict
punishment or torment or those kind of things. Like the Lord
is going to visit his wrath on all unbelievers. That's a context
that you could apply that to. But here it's in context of him
visiting his people for the benevolent purpose of redeeming them, paying
the That's why he's here. He's not here to be a moral guide.
He's not here to just be a good example. He was here for the
purpose of paying the Lutron for his people, paying the ransom.
If you turn back to 1 Kings 8, When Solomon was dedicating the
temple, he said a lot of things that were very, very similar
to what Zacharias is saying when he is finally loosed and able
to speak, and the first thing he does is praise God. So, turn
back to 1 Kings 8. And let's begin in verse 54 of
chapter 8. And we'll read through verse
60. And it was so that when Solomon made an end of praying all this
prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he rose from before
the altar of the Lord, kneeling on his knees with his hands spread
up to heaven. And he stood and blessed all
the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed
be the Lord God that hath given rest unto his people, Israel,
according to all that he has promised. There hath not failed
one word of all his promise, which he promised by the hand
of Moses his servant. The Lord God be with us. Emmanuel. As he was with our fathers, Let
him not leave us nor forsake us, that he may incline our hearts
unto him." Notice how he gives God the credit for that activity. It's not that we incline our
hearts to God and then he has regard to us. God inclines our
hearts to Him to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments
and His statutes and His judgments which He commanded our fathers.
And you know we can't do that in the flesh. We only do that
through our Savior that did that for us. And let these my words
wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord be nigh unto
the Lord our God day and night that He maintain the cause of
His servant and the cause of His people Israel at all times
as the matter shall require. that all the people of the earth
may know that the Lord is God and there is none else." So he
praises Him, gives Him the credit for redemption, gives Him the
credit for even causing our hearts to be inclined to Him, gives
Him credit for protecting the Israel, the church. So a lot of things similar that
we find in Zacharias' prophecy here as he spake by the mouth
of his holy prophets, that we should be saved from our enemies,
to perform the mercy that he promised to Abraham, the oath
that he swore that he would grant unto us, being delivered in holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of our life. Well,
that only comes through the righteousness of our Savior. He has visited us. And this,
as we mentioned earlier, this particular word visited was used
in several ways in context and depending on the
context in the reference to God as we find it in the Old Testament. The first reference is in Genesis
where the Lord God in a divine way set in motion the things
which were according to the covenant of grace from before the foundation
of the world. In Genesis chapter 21 verse 1,
the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. And the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken. Another interesting thing about
this word visited, sometimes it's, we'll look at some scriptures
here in a minute. And I was talking with Norman
about this morning and he was reading a passage from the New
Testament where the Lord said, verily, verily, Well, in the Old Testament, in
a lot of places, it says, I will surely visit. And that is the
same Hebrew word, visit, twice in a row. It's just like verily,
verily, or of a truth, of a truth. And it just emphasizes God accomplishing
everything. It's just like what Solomon said.
There has not one thing failed of what he promised. He says,
surely, I have surely will visit you. And that's just that same
word used twice to emphasize the trueness of it, the power
of it. So we'll look at a couple of those examples here in a minute.
But first we found in Genesis 21, where the Lord visited Sarah,
as he had said. And we could go back to chapter
17, where God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my
covenant with Him for an everlasting covenant and with His seed after
Him. And the children of the promise
are the counted for the seed we find in the New Testament.
The next reference is in Exodus chapter 3, verse 16. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say unto them, the Lord God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me saying,
I have surely visited you. That's one of those cases where
the same, the surely, I have surely and visited you, are the
same word over again. there. I have surely visited
you and seen that which is done unto you in Egypt. And it just
brings to mind that we have a high priest that's just, that is in
touch with our nature. And that was why he is Emmanuel. That's why he is the son of man,
the son of God. He's God with us. And it's not
like he was just stayed in heaven and said, well, I don't really
understand why they just don't do what I say. I don't understand
why they can't quit sinning. I don't understand why they're
subject to what they are. He came and took on himself the
form of a man, took on flesh, and yet was without sin. Exodus
chapter 4 verse 31 the people believed and when they heard
that the Lord God had visited the children of Israel And that
he looked upon their affliction Then they bowed their heads and
worshiped. Thank you for understanding. But a lot of them, they just
said, well, that was yesterday. Let's make some golden calves
now. So we're fickle there until the Lord redeems us. And then
we can't go back to that old junk, that old refuse. The next time we find this word
used as translated visited is in Ruth. chapter 1. Remember
Ruth, the book of Ruth? They went to Moab because of
the famine, and she was married to her husband, and they had
two sons. The husband died, and the sons
died, and she had the Ruth and the daughters. She said, I'm
going back to home because she says in Ruth chapter 1 verse
6, she rose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the
country of Moab for she had heard in the country of Moab how the
Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. And she attributes this visit
as a benevolent act of God for His people in giving them bread.
And that was a picture of what we find in John chapter 6 starting
in verse 28. If you want to turn over there
to John chapter 6. Seems like while we're studying
Luke, we always end up kind of spending a little time in John
as well, which is not bad. And he just got through feeding
these people with the fishes and the loaves. In verse 26, it says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, seek me not, because you saw the miracle.
that because you did eat of the loaves and were filled, labor
not for the physical bread, the meat that perisheth, but for
that which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed." They wanted
to do something for it. They said, well, what shall we
do that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent." It's totally the work of God that you believe.
We believe according to His mighty power which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead, from Ephesians chapter 1. They
said unto him, therefore, What sign showest thou then that we
may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? They just
got through eating all He took five bread and two fishes
and fed thousands of people. Well, show us something really
magical. Show us something that'll cause us to believe. That's not
enough. That's crazy. But it just shows you how we
are. Unless the Lord incline our hearts to Him, We won't,
we cannot, and we won't believe. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven,
that spiritual bread. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven, just as that manna, God said, I'm
gonna rain manna down on you from heaven. And it's gonna be
more then enough. Nobody's going to want. Pick up everything you need.
And it'll be there every day. You don't have to stock up. I'm
a stalker. I like to stock up on stuff.
I've got a sale on mushrooms at Biomart. I'll go buy a flat
of them. God says, it's new every day. The manna is new every day. The bread of heaven is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said
they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. We want the
free bread that we don't have to work for. And Jesus said,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me
He's going to incline their hearts. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. In Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
just like that manna from heaven, I came down not to do my own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
every single soul in the covenant of grace that He hath given me,
I will lose nothing, but shall raise it up again at
the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." Then they're just like politicians,
and they said, he said he was from heaven. Bad, bad, bad. Shame on you. Don't say that. That's blasphemy.
They said, give us a sign. Oh, I've just fed 5,000 of you
with nothing. I'm the bread from heaven, the
spiritual bread. Oh, blasphemer. So, then we find
the term visited used in reference to God in 1 Samuel, Job, Psalms,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. It's just replete
through the Old Testament. There are all these visitations
by the Lord. And it's translated in some other
ways that are very interesting as well. In Genesis 39, it's
translated overseer. The visit is an overseer. Joseph
found grace and was made an overseer. It's translated charged in Genesis
chapter 40, which has the meaning of being assigned a duty or a
task as related to Joseph in prison. They assigned him to these guys
and charged him to do their bidding and it was all working according
to the, it's just one of those wonderful examples of Romans
8, where it says God works all things for good, and he's in
prison in Egypt because his brothers flipped a coin and decided to
sell him instead of just kill him outright because they were
jealous of him. They sold him, and he ended up in Egypt, and
then he ended up in prison because of some circumstances that we
would not on the surface say, well, that worked out for good.
But he says, you know what? All these things fell out for
the furtherance of the gospel. All these things, you meant it
for evil, but God worked it for good to save much people alive. It's translated appointed, as
Pharaoh instructed by God via Joseph to appoint officers over
the land to prepare for the coming famine. Many times, as we mentioned
earlier, it's used double in a sentence as different words, but it's
the same basic Hebrew word. And Joseph said in Genesis 50,
24, Joseph said unto his brethren, I die and God will surely visit. That's the two words. It's both the same. Verily, verily,
I surely will visit you. Not perhaps. It just reminded me of in the
New Testament, Jesus, Zacharias, you come down. I must be in your
house tonight. I must go through Samaria. I
must go here. I must go there. I have to visit
my sheep as was foreordained before the foundation of the
world. It's used that way in four more
verses, which it just absolutely declares the certainty of God
visiting. There's not one word that he
promised that has failed. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me,
saying, I have surely visited you, and that which is done to
you in Egypt. And he visited them in a benevolent
way, and led them out, and took them out of Egypt. And then,
interestingly enough, the next big block of scriptures we find
this word is translated as numbered. And it just tells us the exactness
of God. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. We won't miss a single one. In Exodus, it's described as
numbering the people for the purpose of paying a ransom for
their soul, a lutron in the New Testament. Exodus 30, 12 says,
when thou take us the sum. of the children of Israel after
their number, that's that same word, visit, number, then shall
they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. When
thou numberest, same word there, when thou numberest them, that
there be no plague among them when thou numberest them. The
plague of the death of sin is taken away from them because
the ransom has been paid for their soul. It's a type and a
shadow of the Lord determining the exact number of the elect
given to the Son in the covenant of grace for the redemption of
their souls to God. It was translated as the sum
of the tabernacle. Everything that was in the tabernacle,
the sum of everything that was in the tabernacle, was a type
and a picture and a shadow of what was going to be the redemption
of the church. It wasn't just made just because
they were bored and God said, well, they need something to
do while they're marching around for 40 years, let's have them build
a tabernacle. It's just everything in it. Everything, the sum of
the tabernacle as it was counted, that's that same word. Everything
bought or used in the making of the tabernacle is connected
to this word visit. It's translated numbered countless
times in the book of Numbers. Go figure. And the Lord commanded
Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness. And it goes on,
if you want to go back there in Numbers and read, of this
tribe this many, of this tribe this many, of this tribe he numbered
this many, and all that word is this term visited. The Lord
keeps an exact count. You know, the very hairs of your
head are numbered. That's how exact the Lord is.
He knows every star He knows everything. Another interesting
thing about this, as we mentioned earlier, when we looked that
up in the dictionary, there's two applications of visit. One
of them is in a benevolent social way, but one is in a way of visiting
punishment or affliction on someone. I'm going to visit my wrath on
all unrighteousness. And in the Old Testament, there's
generally two ways that that word is used in that connection.
In God's sovereign purpose in redemption and grace, it's used
benevolently. And in His wrath, it's, Norman's
been going through those prophets, and man, some of the things that
God says is gonna happen is just not not pretty. The ones that took these very
symbols that, you know, we were talking about the tabernacle
and the sacrifices that the people were to do to commemorate and
bring to remembrance the lamb that was slain from the foundation
of the world. And it was supposed to be exact. It was supposed
to be a true picture of the Lord. And they said, well, That lamb's
worth like 50 bucks in the meat market. And if I give it to the
priest, I'm not going to get anything. But I got this one
over here that's a little scabby looking, blind in one eye and
halt and lame. I could only get about a dollar
and a half for the height on that one and nothing for the
rest of him. Let's sacrifice that one. And
I'll sell this other one and make my profit. God won't know. Well, he knows. That is not acceptable
to him. But in connection with his benevolence
and his grace, the psalmist wrote, and it's something that I think
everybody can connect with that's been saved. What is man that
thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou
visited him, And it's in that pluperfect tense where it's not,
you're going to sin. He's the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. David said, he's all my salvation. That was from Psalm 8, chapter
8, verse 4, by the way. And then the next one we have
is from Psalm 17, 3. Thou has proved mine heart. Thou
has visited me in the night. And thou has tried me and shall
find nothing. Isn't that wonderful? He says, I've been on trial and
they didn't find anything. I'm covered. I'm covered because
I've been visited. I'm purposed that my mouth shall
not transgress. Boy, you say that all the time,
but then the next thing you know, your mouth has transgressed.
But then you say, you didn't find anything. And then we find it used in the
sense that he will visit his wrath and execute punishment
on unbelievers. All the prophets use that word
in terrible, terrible judgment that they're saying, this is
what's going to happen. Isaiah 13, 11, I will punish
the world for their evil. That word punish is that same
word visit. I will punish the world for evil
and the wicked for their iniquity and I will cause the arrogancy
of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. Jeremiah 6, verse 15, they were
ashamed when they had committed abomination. Nay, they were not
ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among
them that fall at the time I visit them. They shall be cast down,
saith the Lord. So he's going to visit some in
indignation and wrath, and he's going to visit others in grace.
It's like the sheep being divided from the goats. Hosea 4, verse
9, And there shall be like people, like priests, and I will punish
them for their ways, and reward them according to their doings.
He is not going to reward benevolently those that make a mockery of
the covenant of grace, of sovereignty, of his Emmanuel sent to pay the
Lutron for his people by saying, well, he really didn't pay it. You still need to do something.
It wasn't satisfactory. You still need to do this. I
know that you believe in grace, but you still need to be circumcised.
You still need to do this. Be baptized. Here's a list of
things you need to do. You need to contribute. It goes
on and on. It just works. He's not going to reward those
kind of doings. Amos chapter 3 verse 2, You only have I known
of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for
all your iniquities. He's visited them in a very benevolent
way, and yet they rejected Him. He came into the world. He came
unto His own and was rejected. Zephaniah 1, verse 9, The same
day also I will punish all those that leap on the threshold, which
fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. Zechariah
10.3, mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I
punished the goats. For the Lord of Hoth has visited
his flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly
horse in the battle. So we have kind of two connections
there in the same sentence where the goats are going to be punished,
but the flock is going to be visited in a beneficial, beneficent
way. Judgment or redemption? It just
comes down to those two things. Goats or the sheep, grace or
punishment, the elect or unbelievers. I see we're about out of time.
I'd just like to read just a little bit here in Luke chapter 1 here
as we close out in verse 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for He hath visited and redeemed his people. He's paid the Lutron,
the ransom for their souls. He's raised up a horn of salvation,
and we'll be going into that a little bit next week, Lord
willing. The horn of salvation, the horn,
a symbol of power, a symbol of God's effectualness. Raised up
a 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. to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins. When they have
received that, they're going to know that faith means total
reliance on Christ for salvation. Through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the dayspring on high have visited us. And we're
going to look at this word dayspring, this dawning of light, the day
spring from on high, a light to them that sit in darkness. And of course, there's quite
a lot of Old Testament scripture for that that we'll review. So until then, I hope you enjoyed
the study in Luke chapter one. And until next time, be free.