Well, I thank you for that. That
is a blessing. Look at Romans chapter 3. The book of Romans chapter 3
is where I am going to begin. My subject this evening is expecting
the Savior. Expecting the Savior. Romans
chapter 3. Let me begin this way. All of
the Old Testament saints, they lived in expectation of
the coming Messiah, of Emmanuel, God with us. As soon as Adam had sinned and
ruined our race, The Lord our God came in search
of Adam and Eve. He pursued them. Aren't you delighted
and thankful God pursued you? That He didn't wait for you to
take the first step. You see, if you can take the
first step, You can go all the way. But Adam's fall has rendered
not only Adam and Eve, but you and me totally depraved. We're a fallen race. We have
no spiritual abilities whatsoever. And we're not going to come to
him on our own. He's got to do like David did
with Mephibosheth. David said, fetching. Thank God
for fetching grace. That's effectual grace. Our Lord
came after Adam and Eve. He wouldn't leave them in their
sinfulness and in their darkness. He came to the rescue. And in great mercy, he made this
announcement. And he made it really to the
serpent. But it's good news for sinners. The Lord said, and I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. And from that very moment of
promise, every sinner in the Old Testament who was saved by
God's free grace, they lived in expectation of the coming
of Christ the Savior. Every one of them. Now as the
Old Testament unfolds, more information is given about him. It's a progressive
revelation of the Savior. So as you get further from the
book of Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, as you make your way
through the Old Testament books, you see more and more of the
Savior by way of pictures. And everybody who believed Him,
everybody who trusted Him, Everybody who waited for Him. Everybody
who looked to Him. They believed the Word of God
that He would someday enter into this world. Now there was much
about His descending from glory that was mysterious to them.
Much about the gospel was hidden in pictures. Hidden in emblems. hidden in typology, but God gave
them enough light to see His Son. And they looked for Him. And they believed God's Word.
They believed His promise. They didn't know when He was
coming, but they knew He was coming. And they lived in expectation
of that coming. They knew his name would be,
based upon Isaiah's prophecy, his name would be Wonderful,
and Counselor, and the Mighty God, and the Everlasting Father,
and the Prince of Peace. They knew he would be a child
who was born, and yet, at the same time, the Son who was given. And they waited. They waited. looking with the eye of faith
for our Lord Jesus to come into the world. And throughout the
4,000 years that's covered by the Old Testament, all of these
promises were given about somebody who would come into the world
to save his people by the sacrifice, not of blood, not of bulls and
goats, but by the sacrifice of himself. And every sheep, every
lamb, every oxen, every turtle dove, every pigeon that died
on a Jewish altar, all of those rivers of blood that flowed,
they all announced, he's coming one of these days, he's coming,
we're just pictures of him. And they lived in expectation
of that coming. They would hear from the prophets
of God, like Micah, who said, He'll be born in Bethlehem. They
file that away in their memory. They heard from Moses' writings
in the book of Genesis. He'll be a descendant of Judah. That narrows it down. a descendant
of Judah who will be born in Bethlehem. They remembered the words of
the psalmist who said, great kings will pay homage to him. They remembered the words of
Abraham. He'll be the seed of Abraham,
the offspring of David. They remembered the words of
Isaiah, he'll be born of a virgin. They remembered the words of
Jeremiah, who said several children, many children, little baby boys,
will die when this one is born. They remembered the words of
Hosea, who said after he's born, he's going to have to be taken
into Egypt for safety. They remembered the words of
the psalmist, he's the son of God. They remembered the words of
Isaiah who said he'll have a forerunner. He'll have a forerunner who will
announce his coming. They remembered the words of
Isaiah again who said he'll be a great preacher. And many other
prophecies. And with all of these promises
of God in their minds and in their hearts, they waited for
Him. They looked for Him. They lived
in expectation of His coming. You see, they believed Him. They relied upon Him for their
salvation. Those folks in the Old Testament,
they weren't saved by keeping the law. There's a certain reference Bible
in the notes in the Gospel of John. Says this guy, he taught
that in the Old Testament people were saved by obedience to the
law. But in the New Testament people
are saved by grace. Wait a minute. Anybody who's
ever saved is saved by God's free grace. Because the law was
never given as a means of salvation. The law was given to shut our
mouths and leave us standing guilty and naked and helpless
and hopeless before a holy God with no way to save ourselves.
Look here in Romans chapter 3. Look at verse 19. Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, It saith to them who are
under the law. What does that mean? Under the
dominion of the law. Under the control of the law.
Under the authority of the law. That every mouth may be stopped,
silenced. And all the world may become
guilty before God. Look at the next verse. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. Now you may think you're justified
by keeping the law, and someone who observes you keeping the
law, they may think that you're justified in that way, but you're
not justified by God by keeping the law, and God's opinion, God's
ruling is the only one that counts. Because you don't stand before
anybody else. You don't answer to anybody else.
You don't answer to me. And I don't answer to you. But we answer to God. And God's
law has pronounced us guilty. And God himself says you cannot
be justified, you cannot be declared righteous by me by any obedience
to the law. Look at the next verse. But now,
but now, don't you love the buts of the Bible? I brought a message
one time and I entitled it, The God Who Buts In. And he does. He does. But now the righteousness of
God without the law, without our obedience to the law, is
manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith, by
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified
freely by His grace. Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, being justified freely, that is, without a cause
in us. There is no reason in you, you
say, I don't know why God saved me. What did I ever do to deserve
His grace? Nothing. If you did anything,
it wouldn't be grace. Well, I don't deserve this great
mercy that is given to me. If you deserved it, it wouldn't
be mercy. It would be a reward. But salvation
is not a reward to us. It is, however, the reward of
our Lord's obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.
So he says, being justified freely, without a cause, by His grace,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation, to be a mercy seat, to be the
satisfaction of divine justice through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. How were those Old Testament
saints justified? Just exactly like we're justified. There's no difference. How were
they saved? Just exactly like we're saved. There's no difference. There
wasn't an Old Testament method and a New Testament method. There's
only one way, one gospel, one grace, one salvation, one savior,
one gospel. It's the gospel of God's free
grace. The same way they were redeemed
is the way you were redeemed by blood. And the same way they were declared
righteous is the way you're declared righteous through the obedience
unto death of our dear, beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're justified on the same
basis we're justified. Now, those folks who lived and
believed before his death, They look to Him just as surely
as we look to Him. They believe Him as surely as
we believe Him. And God forgave them. God received
them. God counted them righteous based
on the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ, though that
death had never yet happened. But it would happen. And God
justified them based upon the fact of what Christ would do
in their stead and in their place. That word, forbearance. Through
the forbearance of God, it says at the end of verse 25, that
means passing by or overlooking not punishing sin. That is, God
did not exact that payment for sins from his people based upon
the fact that in due time his son would pay their redemption
price. And so they were just as safe,
just as saved, just as justified, just as forgiven, just as righteous
as we are. And this ought to give us even
greater assurance of salvation and the forgiveness of sins.
Did you know that? Because if those people, if the
Abrahams and the Isaacs and the Jacobs of the Old Testament,
If those people were justified and they were declared righteous
through the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ based
upon the obedience He would render unto God, that obedience unto
death, how much more confident can we be tonight and should
we be tonight that our sins have been put away. And we are made
the righteousness of God in Him since our Lord Jesus has come. And He has rendered to God that
sacrifice that really got the job done, redeemed us, and made
us righteous. I tell you, these folks in the
Old Testament, they lived in expectation of His coming. fully believing the Word of God
and the promises of God. You're aware of a couple of people
who lived in expectation of His incarnation. Go back to that
passage that our brother read to us in Luke, the second chapter.
Luke, the second chapter. Simeon and Anna. Luke, the second
chapter. Look at verse 25. Luke 2, verse 25, And behold,
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same
man was just. Hey, he's a justified man, and
the Savior hadn't died yet. He's a forgiven man. The blood
hadn't been shed. But you know what? He was justified
because God knew, Christ Jesus, He was good for it. He's good for paying the debt.
He's as good as paid. That's why He's said to be the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. And when our Lord
Jesus stood as our surety and He pledged to give His life's
blood to satisfy broken law, it was as good as done. God knew
it was a sure thing then. It was a sure thing. Well, this
man Simeon, he's a justified man. And he's a devout man. He's careful about the things
of God. I tell you this, if you've been
justified by God's free grace, the Lord Jesus has been revealed
to you, you stand right with God by His blood atonement, you're
serious about the things of God, aren't you? You're serious about
the things, you're careful about the things of God. You're not
careless. You see, the man of the world,
the unbeliever, if I am talking to an unbeliever in this congregation
tonight or by way of the internet, you are very careless about eternal
things. But God's people are careful
because God has given us a sole interest in Christ Jesus. And
we don't take these things lightly. And Christ Jesus, He's all to
us. We're not playing religious games.
We're not just trying to entertain folks on their way to hell. He
really is our all, isn't He? He really is our life. He really
is the reason we live. That's why the Apostle said,
for me to live is Christ and to die, well that's just game. And this man, Simeon, he's a
justified man and he's devout. And watch this, he's waiting.
He's waiting. What's he waiting for? The consolation
of Israel. He's waiting for that real comfort.
Christ Jesus is our comfort. He is the consolation of his
Israel. And I'll show you this. Look
up in verse 38. And this is about Anna. that
she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord,
and spake of Him to all that had looked for redemption in
Jerusalem." That word looked in verse 38, and that word waiting
in verse 25, same word. That's the same word. So you
could read it this way in verse 25, Simeon, he's looking. He's
looking for redemption. And in verse 38, when Anna said
she looked for redemption, she's waiting. They're waiting and
looking and waiting and looking. They went through their lives.
They lived to elderly people, waiting and looking. That's what
all the Old Testament saints did. Living in expectation of
His coming. Will He come today? Will He come
tomorrow? When will He come? When will
He come? And this man Simeon, the Lord
said, He's a justified man. He's a devout man. And he's waiting
and he's looking. He's always on the lookout for
Christ Jesus. That's the way we read the Word
of God, isn't it? We're looking for Christ Jesus.
We've got blinders on when we look at this book. Several years
ago, I was preaching to several preachers up in Michigan. I was invited to speak. I didn't go back after this service for several reasons. But one
of the reasons was there's about 18 preachers there, and after
the service at this church, and this is just a side note, this
is just an interesting story that just popped in my poor brain.
But they served us spaghetti and a salad, and then banana
pudding and iced tea. And then they had a basket, some
ladies in the church had fixed the meal, and then they had a
basket that said, $5 for the meal. Well, that ticked me off. But anyway, that's just a side
note. I remember stuff like that. But anyway, I preached. I preached Christ in all the
scriptures. Well, after we ate that meal,
and it was good spaghetti. At a restaurant, it'd be worth
$5, but not from people who supposedly love the Lord. You can't even
feed the preachers. I don't know why I'm still hung
up on that. I guess I need to get past that. But anyway, what was I going
to say? Oh, yeah. But after that, they
said to him, they said, well, we'll have a question and answer
session. I said, OK. What are the questions? Oh, they
said, you get back behind the pulpit, and the preachers will
ask you questions about your message. I said, oh, I'm going
to be on the hot seat. He said, yeah. Well, one man
got up, and he's a preacher. He said, I've been teaching the
history of Israel. He said, you preached in your
message that we preach Christ, you preach Christ from every
book in the Bible, and literally from every verse in the Bible,
and if you can't see Christ in the passage, and this is what
I'd said, if I can't see Christ in the passage, I'm not going
to preach on it until I see Him. That's fair, and I'm just being
honest. because there are passages we've not yet seen Christ in,
but we know He's there, right? Okay. He said, I've been teaching
the history of Israel. He said, I don't see Christ in
that. Well, I'm just, I mean, I'm already
hot over the meal anyway. I thought, and I just said, how
can you not preach Christ from the history of Israel? Their
whole reason for existing was to bring His Word and for Christ to come through
that lineage. And I said, when you read the Word of God, brethren,
and this was like 18 years ago. I'd only been in Alma about six
months or so. I said, when you read the Scriptures,
read them with blinders on. You're looking for Him. You see,
it's not a history book. It's a story of Christ Jesus.
It's His story. That's who we're looking for.
We're always looking for Christ Jesus. And if you read a passage
of Scripture and you don't see Christ in it, read it again. And ask the Spirit of God to
give you understanding. Because the book is all about
Him. It's just like Malachi said in
Malachi chapter 4. He said, One is coming. Behold,
He cometh. That's the message of all the
Old Testament. Behold, He cometh. And Simeon, he's looking for
him. And Anna, she's looking. They're looking and waiting and
looking and waiting. All these Old Testament saints
did that. And my, what satisfaction these
two saints of God found in this infant brought according to the
law of God. A real baby who nursed at his
mother's breast. And in his infancy, he needed
her. But in his greatness, she needed
him. He's her only hope. He's all
of her salvation. Now you explain that to me, or
you just can't do it. This is way over our heads, isn't
it? that at the very same time when he is taking nourishment
from his mother, he is God over all, blessed forever. Oh my! And this one who was made flesh
grew up and died for sinners like you and me. They lived in
expectation of his coming. Simeon did and Anna did. But I'll tell you somebody that
I think looked for him maybe a little bit more than anybody
else did. She was really living in expectation
of him, and that's his mother. She expected him for nine months. But even before that, she was
looking to him. and expecting Him. Go back to
Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. By a miracle
of grace, Mary became the mother of the human nature of our Savior. You know, when Nancy was expecting
David, he was born in 74, and expecting Susanna, she was born
in 76. Well, I was living in expectation
of the birth of both of our children. And the same way with your children.
You husbands, you fathers, you lived in expectation of the birth
of your child. But there's something about the
expectation of a mother that's even greater. Isn't it, you moms? We don't usually allow you to
amen, but would you agree with me, mom? You live in expectation
of the birth of that one that you are carrying. Mary received a visit from a
messenger of God, Gabriel. And Gabriel had a message for
her. Look back in chapter 1 verse 26. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's
pregnancy, So we know John the Baptist is then how much older
than the Savior? Six months. Born six months before
he was. In the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Gabriel. What does that mean? His name means the man who stands
in the presence of God. I believe this is the Son of
God right here. I believe that's who Gabriel
is. Not merely an angel as in a created being, but I believe
this is the Son of God, the angel of the covenant. Because He is
the one who stands in God's presence. Let me ask you this, do the angels
stand in God's presence? They bow in His presence. They
fall before God. But this one stands in God's
presence because he is God. That's my opinion. But Gabriel
visits her. He visits, verse 27, a virgin,
his spouse, 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 art highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. You're filled with the grace
of God. Blessed art thou among women.
God has blessed you. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. Now let me tell you something.
She's a believer. And she's waiting for the coming
of Messiah. But now she's going to wait and
expect in a different way. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold,
something extraordinary, something wonderful is going to happen.
Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name, all capital letters, Jesus. And His name is Jehovah
who saves. Jehovah is our salvation. He's our salvation from beginning
to end and everything in between. If you say salvation starts right
here at this corner of the pulpit and it ends right here at this
corner of the pulpit, that's all of salvation. Well, I'll
tell you how much of salvation is of this one. From right here
all the way across right there. It's all of Him. He is the only
Savior and He's all of salvation. His name is Jesus. Look at verse
32. 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? How shall this be? And Mary,
she's highly favored of God. She's not deserving of this honor. She didn't seek for it. It didn't originate with her,
this idea that she would give birth to the Son of Man. The Lord sought her out. And
watch this, the angel said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also
that Holy Thing, what do you call Christ Jesus? The Holy Thing. He is the God-Man. There has
never been a case like this and there never will be again. He
is the Holy Thing. which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God." Oh, how favored she was! And the
messenger said, And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also
conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with
her, who is called barren. For with God nothing shall be
impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed
from her. And Mary arose in those days
and went into the hill country with haste into the city of Judah. And she entered into the house
of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her
womb. John the Baptist did. He leaped
in her womb. After all, he's the forerunner
of this Messiah. He's the one who's going to preach
that He's coming to the world. While John the Baptist's message
is going to be, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. And now in his mother's womb,
in Elizabeth's womb, John the Baptist hears the voice of Mary,
and John the Baptist just stirs around. She says, Oh, boy, did
you feel that, Zachariah? Oh, did you feel that? That's
how moms say, Did you feel that movement there? And John the
Baptist, he's just thrilled. Thrilled. Watch this. And she spake with a loud voice
and said, Blessed art thou among women, not above women, but among
women. And blessed is the fruit of thy
womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should
come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice
of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in
my womb for joy, for joy. And blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord." God will always keep His Word. He'll do
what He says He's going to do. Now watch this, and Mary said,
My soul doth magnify the Lord, the sovereign, the disposer of
all things. My soul doth magnify the Lord. Not merely my lips, but my soul
does. I hope we've worshipped from
the inner man today, that our souls have rejoiced in the Lord
and magnified the Lord today. It's one thing to magnify Him
with your lips. It's another thing to magnify
Him from your heart. She says, in my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Savior. Now listen to me. Mary was a
sinner. She was a sinner. We don't believe
that pagan doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Because that, the
title, the Immaculate Conception, that's what the Catholic Church
says about Mary's conception. Mary was a sinner, just like
all of us. And she needed this One that
she is now, that she is going to be expecting. She needs Him. She is relying upon Him. She
is waiting for Him. She is looking for Him because
He is going to put away her sins. Her Savior is her Son. Her Son is her Savior. What a miracle. She says, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Savior, for He hath regarded the lowest state
of His handmaiden. He hath regarded me. And isn't
that what you say about God? He's formed Christ in you? He's
revealed the Son of God to you in His glory, showed you what
He's done for sinners upon the cross, and how He arose again
and He ever lives to make intercession for us. Don't you say, the Lord
has regarded my low estate. The Lord has regarded my vileness
and my unworthiness. She said, I'm so unworthy. I'm
so unworthy. This morning our Sun School class,
go back to Genesis 32. I made this observation from
Genesis 32 to my Bible class this morning, so they are excused
from listening right now. You've already heard this. You
can take a break. But the rest of you got to listen.
They'll listen with me one more time as I go over this. But Jacob,
fearing Esau, he cries out to God. Genesis 32 verse 9, Jacob
said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the
Lord which said to me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred,
and I will deal well with thee. Listen to what Jacob said, I
am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies. Now, what are
the least of God's mercies? Now, all of God's mercies are
wonderful. But what are the least of God's mercies? Well, I'd say
those are temporal mercies, temporary mercies of this life. Those are
the least of His mercies. That's the reason we sometimes
say, anything this side of hell is mercy. Well, I'm not worthy
of any of His temporal mercies. Are you? And I'll answer for
you. No, you're not either. Nobody
is worthy of the least of His mercies. Much less are we worthy
of the greatest of His mercies, which are spiritual mercies and
eternal mercies, and the one in whom all mercies are found
and bound up, Christ Jesus the Lord. We're not worthy of Him. And He said, not only that, I'm
not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies, and I'm not worthy
of all Thy truth, which You've showed to me. You think of how
much truth you know and love. Were you worthy that God would
manifest to you and show you that truth? The truth of how
God can be just and justify the ungodly? The truth of electing
grace? The truth of redeeming blood?
The truth of the regenerating power of the Spirit of God? You're
not worthy. You're not worthy of the least
mercies. You're not worthy of the greatest mercies. And you're
not worthy that God would reveal the truth to you. There's no
difference you see between us and some religious organization
down the road or up the road. There's no difference between
us that God would favor us with a knowledge of His truth. It's
all due to His free and sovereign grace. The only difference Between
us and those who believe a false gospel of works and free willism,
the only difference is due to God's sovereign free grace given
to us in Christ Jesus. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What did you What did you get? What did you receive that you
would work for it or anything like that? It's God who made
the difference in that. So over here in Luke 1, this
is what Mary is saying. She said, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy that the Lord
would do all this for me. Who am I? Look back to Luke 1.49. I'll go quickly. For He that is mighty hath done
to me great things. Holy is His name. And I'd like for you to lose
sight of Mary right now and think about yourself and what God's
done for you. Isn't this your testimony? He
that is mighty, mighty in grace and mighty to save. He whose
name is the mighty God. He's done to me great things. And He's always doing great things
for us in a manner consistent with His holy name. And His mercy is on them that
fear Him. From one generation to another,
He showed strength with His arm. He made bare His mighty arm of
grace. Saved us by His strength. He
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He's put down
the mighty from their seats. He's exalted them of low degree. That's us. He hath filled the
hungry with good things. He made us hungry, then He filled
us. Because though we say, come and
dine, nobody comes and dines but those that are hungry. Oh God, make me hungry. Make
me hungry for the gospel. Then I'll come and dine. I'll
feed on the bread from heaven, Christ Jesus the Lord. And the
rich, those that are self-righteous, He sends you away just as empty
as you were when you got here. And He has opened, He has supported
His servant Israel And He did it in remembrance of His mercy,
in remembrance of the covenant. Oh, don't ever lose sight of
the covenant of grace. Because I promise you, God doesn't. His eye is always on the covenant.
As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. God did great things for Mary. He done great things for us. She lived in expectation of His
coming. And then He came. She rejoiced
in Him. She had believed Him, you see.
She had waited for Him. She had looked for Him. And you
know, as the people of God, we're looking and we're waiting for
His second coming, aren't we? And I say, let's stand on the
tiptoes of faith and say, I hear Him saying, behold, I come quickly. I stand up on the tiptoes of
faith and I say with John, even so come Lord Jesus. And He is coming again. When
all of His elect are safely gathered in, all of the lost sheep gathered
into the fold, that's when the end is going to come. That's
why I believe, don't you? That's when the end is going to come.
Well, God bless you. Let's sing the closing song.
What do you got for us? Number 262.