We're in Luke chapter 1. Today
we'll be primarily focusing on verse 26 that has to do with
the angel Gabriel appearing unto Mary. announcing the coming of the
Savior. We'll back up just a little bit
just to kind of review where we were since it's been several
weeks since we were here. Previously we were in the section
earlier in the chapter dealing with the announcement of the
coming of John the Baptist and the things that he was ordained
to do by God. And verse 15 says, He shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from
his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. and he shall go before him
in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zacharias said unto the angel,
Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife
well stricken in years. And the angel answering said
unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,
and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb,
and not be able to speak until the day that these things shall
be performed, because thou believeth not my words, which shall be
fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias,
and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple, and when
he came out he couldn't speak to them. And they perceived that
he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto them, and
remained speechless, and it came to pass. 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 so we remember that Zacharias,
his function as it was his lot, they had a rotation of duties
and he was in the temple performing the duties of a priest and his
duty was to light the incense at the altar. While he was doing
that, the people prayed outside. Then we mentioned that John said he would be in verse 17, he shall go before
him in the spirit and power of Elias. And remember, we went
back and we looked at Elijah, the Tishbite, and that word Tishbite
kind of give the meaning of turning. And it says here that, John,
many shall he turn to the Lord their God. And so we kind of
explored that a little bit. And so this next segment of the
scripture in Luke's gospel, again, follows the original theme where
he says, we want to set forth in order a declaration of those
things which are most surely believed among us. And there's
a lot to unpack here. And our pastor will be going
into some of this in the sermon a little bit later this morning.
Having described the circumstances of the messenger of the Lord
that was sent to prepare the Lord's way, that would be John. Now our attention is directed
to the circumstances of the virgin birth of the Savior and in the
person of Jesus, the Messiah, which is declared to be interpreted
as the Christ, means anointed. It's not his last name. We kind
of get in that habit of just saying Jesus Christ, like it's
John Smith or But it's a title, it's the anointed, the sent one
of the Lord. And our attention is directed
to some key elements in verses 25 and 26 through 56 here. Mary in this,
we didn't quite read that far, but she confesses her faith and
her belief in declaring God my Savior. She understood something. I really enjoyed that article by Spurgeon where he
talks about her rejoicing in the Lord. It just struck me that
that's something that a regenerated person comes to understand when
they come to understand what happened to them. in regeneration. They realize that God did something
for them that they could not do for themselves, could never
do for themselves, were not qualified to do for themselves. And she
just rejoiced in the Lord doing that for her. And my soul doth
magnify the Lord. Give To Him be the honor and
the glory and then the credit. So much of religion is tied up
in, well, here's what I did. It's all self-pointing and useless. My spirit rejoices in God my
Savior. And I can think of a couple of
times since I've been saved where I've seen some things that the
Lord has done, and it just leaves you speechless, and it just leaves
you with such a sense of awe, and you just rejoice in that. It's just hard to explain. Norm
has a note in his office that essentially says, you know, there's
no explanation that you can give a faith to someone that's not
saved, but to someone that is saved, there's no explanation
needed. They understand perfectly well. Her belief in God my Savior presupposes
a knowledge of an actual need to be saved. Just that is a miracle in itself
that one is brought to a point where they recognize a need of
a Savior. And here we have the necessity
of the virgin birth laid forth due to the circumstances of the
fallen Adam. and the passing through to all
his progeny by birth the sin nature, which we all inherit,
and thereby rendering any male descendant of Adam by natural
means disqualified to satisfy the righteousness of God in saving
his people. Just would not qualify. Turn with me in 1 Peter 1 for
just a minute, and we'll just read a few verses from 1 Peter
1, verses 18-21. He writes, For as much as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, such
as silver and gold from your vain or useless manner of life,
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. He
had to fulfill that requirement. And that had to be arranged by
God. It couldn't have happened by
natural means. As in the case where we contrasted
this with John's birth, it was divinely ordained, but it was
achieved through natural conception with Zacharias and Elizabeth. In verse 20 of 1 Peter, it says,
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest, made known in these last times for you who
by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and
gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. What
an insightful thing that the Holy Spirit gives us through
Peter there. The particulars are laid down in all the Scripture concerning our Lord from the
beginning. Or chapter 3, rather, in verse
14. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. And it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto
Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe
them, the death of a substitute to make a covering." I was just
reading a few minutes ago in Ezekiel where the In that section of, I think it
was chapter 16 where he's talking about, I found you and you were
naked and in your blood. I cleaned you up and I covered
you with badger skins, it says. It just struck me as interesting
that badger skins are covering in the tabernacle. Kind of a
parallel there. We'll maybe explore at a later
time. But surely here in Genesis chapter
3 it describes the death of a substitute to make a covering. And the declaration
of a need of a substitute passed from Adam to his progeny. And in the case of Abel, which
we have recorded in Hebrews, who by faith offered a more excellent
sacrifice. Firstling of the flock, it said.
And in contrast to his brother, which brought it the works of
his own hands. Here's what I did and all the
things that didn't portray a lamb without blemish, without spot
slain from before the foundation of the world. So you can read about that in
Genesis chapter 4 if you would want to go back to verse 1 through
5. It said, to Cain and his offering
he had not respect. It didn't picture what the Lord
intended. And he got the same message that
Abel did, and yet It was meaningless to him. And all were familiar
with the Law and the Prophets, and all were aware of the circumstances
that God had ordained regarding His Son coming into the world.
In Isaiah, the seventh chapter, verse 14, Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." That's pretty
direct. A virgin shall conceive. It reminded me of when our pastor
was going through the book of Habakkuk. He says, I'm going
to do a work that if someone told you about it, you wouldn't
believe it. And Paul quotes that in Acts,
the 13th chapter, and he gives a kind of a soliloquy there of
this history. And he quotes that passage from
Habakkuk in regards to the redemption of the church. I'm going to do
a work that even if someone told you about it, you wouldn't believe
it. And Isaiah wrote himself in chapter
53, who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our report
is the ones that the Lord has given a new heart to that we
believe according to the working of his mighty power. That's who
believes the report. And to them, they don't fuss
about it. They just say, thank God. Thank
God. Thank God. That name Immanuel
is in the Old Testament in Isaiah it's Immanuel and in the Greek
it's Emanuel and we've seen that kind of Greek rendering of Hebrew
names and Esaias, Isaias. And that kind of thing. And we
find that same thing here in Matthew chapter 1 verse 23. Behold
a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and
they shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God
with us. Isn't that handy when the They give you the interpretation
of it, right? You don't even have to look it up. Here's what
it means God with us and and and it's really not so much a
proper name as a we would understand it, but a title, God with us. It's, thou shalt call his name
Jesus, but he's God with us. And there's many, he has many
titles like that. Behold, unto us a child is born. Unto us a Savior is given. He shall be the Prince of Peace.
The government shall be upon His shoulders. And all those
things that are written in the Old Testament that are characteristics
and titles of Him. So, certainly this fulfills it. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
in verse 31. So, let's read through from verse
26 for today's lesson. And in the sixth month, 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. in the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail thou that are 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. Boy, isn't that a wonderful thing
to hear? And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his
name Jesus. And 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 in his kingdom, there shall be no
end." And Mary said unto the angel, how shall this be? Kind of the same thing that Zacharias
said. This is not normal. This is not
in the normal course of things. How shall this be? Saying, I
know not a man. And the angel answered and said
unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also, that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God." How amazing is that? You know, when the Lord appears
to them and tells them these things, and understands and ordains
all these things, that the timing was foretold,
preordained. Isaiah 9.6, I mentioned a little
bit of that a minute ago. For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His
shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful." Well, they
don't call Him Jesus Wonderful, or Jesus Counselor, although
they should. Those are titles for Him. The
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, all those
characteristics. all those attributes, the timing
for ordained of God. In Galatians chapter 4, verse
4, it says, When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 through
26, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and
to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness
and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most
holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem." And Norman's
been going through that in the Wednesday night studies and they
were sent back to Jerusalem to carry that out by the decree
of God. So from the command to restore
and build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
and three score and two weeks. The street shall be built again
in the wall even in troubleous times. And after threescore and
two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." Not going to be here for
a long time. He's going to come accomplish
the mission that was laid down in the covenant of grace. Giving
His life a ransom for many. Laying down His life for the
sheep. And the conception of the Savior
by the Holy Spirit. The angel said unto her, Fear
not. This is not going to be normal,
but fear not. 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, Son of God, the Son of Man. And
the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David. And we'll look into that a little
bit more when we get into chapter 3, when we go into the lineage
of the Lord. And there's some scriptures there
that Messiah isn't going to come until the throne departs, the
scepter departs. And certainly it had departed
by the time that we get to this point in time. So we'll look at that a little
bit more later on. I want to call your attention
to Psalm 139 for briefly. If you turn over to Psalm 139. On my iPad I just go boop boop
and I'm page turning is a little bit of a longer process here. I just want to read verse 13 through 16. For thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that
my soul knoweth right well. My substance, my body was not
hid from thee when I was made in secret. and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. This lowest parts here, it's
a reference to the reproductive portion of a female. It's kind
of their vernacular that they use to describe that lowest parts
of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being imperfect, and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
them. this curiously wrought. It's not in the ordinary way. And it's a word that's in the description of it talks
about embroidery. And this talks about the Lord talking
about the curious way that the Holy Spirit overshadowed her
and wrought in her this holy thing. And it talks, and it brings in
this description of embroidery. And we find that same term used
kind of in the tabernacle where the door of the tabernacle was
embroidered, was fine linen with embroidery on it. What a picture
of, I am the door. What a picture of Christ in this. So it just kind of lends meaning
to when Christ, when we get into the latter part of Luke, when
He talks to those two on the road to Emmaus, He expounds to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And
when we come to a thing that's just as simple as this embroidery,
how it speaks to the the work of Christ and the fact that this
conception through the Holy Spirit that would bring us God and man
together that was able to fulfill the righteousness of God, to
be able to keep the law, to be able to do the thing that we
could not do for ourselves. The thing that crops up more
and more in all the scripture is the inability of man to do
anything in His own behalf spiritually. He just doesn't have that capacity
of Himself. In Adam, all die. That's just
the Scripture says that. It's clear that a descendant
of Adam, the male lineage, would have inherited a sin nature just
the same as John. And he would have not been a
lamb without spot. He would have not been able to
be an acceptable sacrifice. The requirement was a lamb without
spot. So here we have In perfect combination,
decreed and ordained from God in eternity, Jesus would be Son
of Man and Son of God, able to satisfy the requirements of the
righteousness, justice, and mercy of God completely and perfectly
when the fullness of time was come. And God decreed when that
time would be. And He spoke it through the prophets
from the beginning, that when it would be, and even gave exact
times when it would be according to His purpose. And we don't
know exactly why that purpose was at that particular time,
but that's the time that God decreed that it would happen. So when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. One other thing I wanted to mention
too, back in, I missed my little note here, but in Psalm 139 verse
15 where it says, curiously rot, in connection with the embroidery
and things, that word means to variegate color. And it's kind of the same thing
we find in the New Testament where it talks about the manifold
wisdom of God. And we talked about that in our
studies on the rainbow and Noah and the covenant of grace there.
And maybe we'll look at a little bit more in the coat of many
colors that Joseph had in our series on the fabric of grace. But anyway, I thought that was
interesting. Norman and I were talking this
morning about how concise and precise is the Hebrew and the
Greek. They're unambiguous in their
words, and they have a precise meaning. And sometimes that gets
muddled up in the English translation that's kind of evolved over time. When we think of something wrought,
it's something that's been worked. But we sure don't get the variegation
of color out of that word. So interesting point there that
I enjoyed when I stumbled across it. And we'll look at that a
little bit more in another study. So today we're going to stop
there. And Norman's going to pick up
more in this wonderful, wonderful birth of our Savior that would
come and fulfill that which we could not do ourselves. Thank
you for your attention and as always, be free.