to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one. And while you're turning, let
me mention Gary Williams. Did he get out of the hospital
this afternoon? He had a stent put in his heart. He got to feeling bad and went
to the doctor while they were in town. And the doctor wouldn't
let him leave and called an ambulance to take him down to Cookville. got down there and he got in
the emergency room and had a heart attack and they took him straight
up and put a stent in his heart. He's home and we're very, very
grateful. It was wonderful that he was
close to his doctor. It's wonderful that the Lord
had an ambulance to carry him down there. And when he got there,
they did what needed to be done immediately. Oh, how merciful
and how gracious. Our Lord is, and I'm so thankful
that it's not that way, that the Lord took care of him as
he has so many among us. I want to read here starting
at verse 46 down through verse 55. Mary said, My soul doeth
magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in my
God and God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaid, For behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is
on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed
them strength with his arm. He hath scared the proud in the
imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled
the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent away.
sent empty away. He hath hope in his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to
Abraham and to his seed forever. Eleanor, as you know, she'd be
with us. She's not feeling well. There
are certain people when they're not here, you know, they're not
well. And she's one of them. Now, I want to bring a message
this evening. It's found there in verse 47,
this will be, I'm gonna preach from these verses here, but my
thought, the title of my message comes from verse 47. My spirit
hath rejoiced, rejoicing spirit, and what there is to rejoice
about. This is called Mary's song. Mary's singing a song here. And then this chapter, this particular
chapter, we have three people singing different songs. Elizabeth,
which was John the Baptist's mother, and her husband Zacchaeus,
or Zacharias, they both sang songs. She sang a song in verse
41, and it went like this, when it came to pass that when Elizabeth
heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb,
which she told her that she was pregnant. And Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice and
said, Oh, she is praising God and singing a song. Blessed art
thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, and
which 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. That's what John the Baptist
did. He heard about Christ, and he was in his mother's womb,
and he leaped for joy. to know that his Savior was in
his heart. And blessed be she that is she
that believeth that there shall be a performance of those things
that were told of the Lord. And then you can read Zacchaeus'
song, and starting in verse 67, you can read that yourself. And
he says a lot of things that Mary said about how God visited
His people to save His people, redeem His people, raised up
Christ to horn Himself in the house of His servant, Dave, and
that He can keep His oath and His covenant with His people.
But I want us to look at Mary's song this evening, Mary's rejoicing. You know, when you look at things,
when they happen to the saints, they often break out in song.
You know, when they came through the Red Sea and got on the other
side, Moses wrote a song and it's in Exodus 15. And the first
thing he says that the Lord hath overthrown the riders of horses,
drowned them and how he saved his people. And so he wrote a
song after they got over through the Red Sea. And when something
glorious and great happens to them, they often break out into
song. And you look at the Psalms. When
in trouble, they would sing of the trouble when they addressed
the Lord. And when they were full of joy,
as these people here were, they would sing praises and bless
the Lord. David said in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul. and all that's within me. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me. And he says,
for the Lord hath redeemed me from the hand of mine enemies.
And that's why he said, I bless the Lord. And you find where
they bless the Lord. And he says, and blessed is the
man who maketh the Lord his trust. So they break out into these
songs. Now here we have Mary's song. And we want to listen to
this song. If you can Let your mind do this. I know it'll be hard but you
think of Mary having this beautiful voice and she's singing the sweetest
song that she's ever heard and she herself is doing and she
has this deep joy and this joy came from God himself and so
she had this rejoicing. She says in verse 47, my spirit
hath rejoiced and that's the first thing about it her spirit
is what rejoiced and she had great rejoicing but her spirit
rejoiced you see she had joy and peace in believing Mary Elizabeth
told her says you know there'll be a performance of all that
things which was told you from the Lord God's gonna do what
he said And the grace of God brought her the good news that
she was going to bear a Savior, and that this Savior would come
from her womb. It would come through the power
of the Holy Ghost, and that she was going to bear a Savior. And
it brought her this glorious news that this was God's gift,
and it made her to sing. And here's what the gospel does.
The gospel doesn't reach the flesh. The gospel only reaches
the spirit. The gospel only reaches the soul,
and the soul and spirit are one and the same. They're interchangeable.
But the gospel reaches the spirit of man, and that's the way it
reached her. My spirit, my spirit rejoiced. You know, and our spirit
rejoiced. I don't know how many times I've
told people, said, it's all I could do to keep from getting up and
hollering. Joe said one time, he said, he'll
get to feeling real good, and he'll get to thinking about,
oh my, I'm you. Well, I sat a while. So you know that's what we do.
Our spirit rejoices in the Lord. And that's what our spirit does. The songs of the world don't
help our spirit. The songs and the hypocrite can't
reach our spirit. Oh, listen, and I like good songs. And I got lots and lots of them,
lots and lots of records. I got lots of them. But the songs
of the world don't reach my spirit. They reach my flesh. They reach
sentimentality. And that's all they can do, just
reach the flesh and make you feel a little sentimental. But
only the gospel reaches the spirit. Only the gospel goes down into
the soul. And that's why He said it divides
asunder of the soul and spirit. It just lays you open. that's why she says my spirit
rejoices in the Lord and oh listen look what else she rejoiced in
not only did her spirit rejoice but look what she rejoiced in
she says my spirit in verse 47 hath rejoiced in God oh when God reveals himself that's
why that Paul told the Philippians, rejoice in the Lord. Again, I
say rejoice in the Lord. And when God revealed Himself,
and He had to reveal Himself to Mary. She had to have a revelation
like you and I have to have a revelation. God had to make Himself known
to her just like He had to make Himself known to us. And when
God revealed Himself, He revealed Himself to her in the gift and
promise of His blessed Son coming through her. And so she rejoiced
in God. And this is true worship. This
is true worship when God reaches the innermost being of a soul.
that it responds with pure, blameless, and eternal joy. I remember reading
that John Calvin says that when you begin to think about God,
and you start contemplating God, and as you think about Him, and
then you begin to think about how great He is, and you get
to think how glorious He is, and how wondrous He is, and how
mighty He is, and how nippeted He is, how He inhabits eternity,
and you get to meditating on God, and after a while, you get
lost in wonder, you get lost in thought. He said that's the
purest worship that anybody ever does. And we worship when God's
present, when God comes down on us, when God reveals Himself. This is true worship, and we
respond with pure, blameless, eternal joy. And I'll tell you
what causes us to rejoice. You keep Luke one here, and look
in Romans chapter five. This is what causes us to rejoice. Romans chapter 5 and verse 11. This is where and how and why
we rejoice in God and rejoice in God. And this is why my spirit
rejoices. My spirit don't just rejoice,
but it rejoices in God. look what it says in verse 11
and not only so but we also joy in God that word joy means the
same thing as rejoice or boast or glory in not only we also
joy boast glory in God how through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement the sacrifice that put away our
sin the atonement that's why we joy in God rejoice in God
So she rejoiced, her spirit did, and then she rejoiced in God. And look what else it says there
in verse 47 of Luke chapter 1. My spirit hath rejoiced, it rejoiced
in God, and look what she says, my Savior. My God, and look what she says,
my Savior. Oh my! How did she become? You know, here's what people
misunderstand. The mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what Elizabeth said
to them. Here comes the mother of my Lord.
My Lord. My God. That's what she said.
Here's the mother of my Lord. Mary, Christ's mother, needed
a Savior as much as anybody else. She needed a Savior as much as
Mary Magdalene did. She needed a Savior as much as
Martha did. She needed a Savior as much as
anybody's ever needed a Savior. And I'll tell you what, people
has took it and venerated her and pray to her and say she's
a co-redemptix with Christ. But beloved, she needed a Savior.
She said, my soul, spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. I need a Savior. And He's going to be my, I'm
going to bear my own Savior. the one that's going to save
me, the one that's going to make me acceptable to God, the one
that's going to wash me from my sins, the one that's going
to make me righteous in God's sight, is in my womb right now. That's mysterious, ain't it?
And you tell a Catholic that and yet go berserk. But that
don't make no difference, let them go berserk. But she needed
a Savior. Oh, the one that was in her womb
was her Savior. He who was made of a woman was
made, was made of a woman. He made the woman, then he was
made of that woman. And oh, she says, my Savior,
my Savior. And I sang right along with her. I rejoiced, my spirit rejoices
in God, my Savior. Christ is God, there's no doubt
about that. And He's also our Savior. Oh,
they asked him when he healed that man, they let down through
the roof of the house and our Lord Jesus Christ said to him,
son, said to him, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. They didn't
let him down through that roof to have his sins forgiven. They
let him down through that roof so the Lord would heal him and
he'd walk out of there. But our Lord, He said, they let
Him down, He said, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins be forgiven
you. There's nothing that you'll ever
hear more precious to your soul in your life when you become
a sinner than to know that my sins have been forgiven. And
they said, well, who in the world can forgive sins but God only?
He said, let me ask you a question. Which is easier, to say, thy
sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise up and walk? It's
much easier for Christ to tell that man to walk. And they said,
nobody can forgive sins but God. And he looked at them and said,
get up, take your bed, get on out of here. I not only did I
forgive your sins, but I'm going to let you walk out of here.
And I tell you what, when Christ forgives us our sins, we walk
different. We walk out of that house different
people, don't we? Oh, we're like Thomas. When Thomas,
our Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I'm not going to believe except
I see the holes myself. Stick my hand in his side. I
was there. I know what happened to him.
And about the time he said that, our Lord Jesus says, reach here
with your finger. And he did, he just backed up
and got down on the ground in front of the Lord Jesus Christ
and said, my Lord and my God. And that's what we do, we say
my Lord and my God. Ain't that right? And this is
so personal. My Savior, my Savior, my Savior. When we talk about people having
a personal Savior, we're talking about Christ making Himself known
to you, and He's your Savior. He's my Savior. I can't make
Him your Savior. He's the only one who can make
Him your Savior. And He's the only one who can make Him to
be my Savior. And that's what she's saying
here. And you know what made her Savior, you know, and blessed
her was this. It was this thing of made us a personal individual
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? Is that she
so rejoiced in the Lord and she said, He's my God and He's my
Savior. And then look what else she said down in verse 46. Here's
another reason that she rejoiced. She says, My soul doth magnify
the Lord. My soul doth magnify the Lord. Everybody knows what magnification
is. You know, you fellas go hunting, you know, and you got your binoculars,
you get them in, you want to bring that deer this way out
there, bring him up here, you see. And you know, they've got
range finders. Well, he's 45 yards away. He's 60 yards away. And they
know what to do, bring it up. And that's why she says, my soul
brings God near. My soul enlarges God. And that's
what it is. We use magnification to take
things far away and bring them near. what God the Holy Spirit
does. God's far away and the Holy Spirit,
we magnify and we bring God near. We can see Him, we can rejoice
in Him, we can find joy in Him and peace in Him and that's what
she said, magnify. Everybody knows what magnification
is. Oh and I tell you we're there's rejoicing in God through Christ
our Lord. It glorifies God, it magnifies
God. And when it says, my soul doth
magnify the Lord, it's talking about, it's an adoration. It's
taken up with him and his glory. You keep Luke one and look with
me over here in Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Here's what I'm talking about.
And there's a soul does one of two things. Hearst, God say,
a man is either a Pharisee or a Republican. He's either bragging
or begging. He's either bragging or begging.
And either a man's magnifying the Lord or magnifying himself.
You can't do both. You can't do both. And a soul
either magnifies itself or magnifies the Lord. But look what he said
here in Psalm verse 2 of Psalm 34. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. If I'm going to boast, I'm going
to boast in the Lord. If any man glory, let him glory
in the Lord. And the humble shall hear thereof. And when they hear about Christ
being boasted in, gloried in, and Him getting all the glory,
the humble, those that hear somebody doing it, they hear and they're
glad. And listen to what he says. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let's make God great. Let's make
God glorious. Let's enlarge His name. Let's
make Him come near to us by the way we praise Him and bless Him
and thank Him. Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
Let us exalt His name together. Together. And that's what He's
talking about. And I'll tell you what, beloved, that's what
it is. It means to magnify. And I tell
you, most folks would rather magnify themselves and let their
light shine as God to be magnified. And I feel sorry for people like
that, that they have to be magnified themselves, make themselves appear
close, make themselves appear big. And that's what magnification
does. It takes things that's hard to
see and makes them easy to see. And our soul, through the preaching
of the gospel, makes God easy for us to see. All right, here's
another thing she rejoices in. Look what it says here in verse
48. Here's another reason she wrote
her soul, spirit rejoiced. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaid. Oh my, you mean she don't have,
she ain't got, sound like she don't have no self-esteem. She
talks about, you know, the lowest state, the lowest state of his
handmaid. Oh my. And that means that she's
way down there. That's the way she felt about
herself. She knows that she didn't merit God blessing her. She knows she didn't merit God
coming to her. She knows that she didn't merit
God's revelation and all the things that God bestowed upon
her. And when she says low estate, what she says is, I'm unworthy,
too far down to even be considered. That's what she said. My estate
was so low, it was too far down to even be considered. And I'll
tell you what, you know how a person ever gets that low? is God the
Holy Ghost makes them that way. They're not going to get down
like that by themselves. Oh, no. Only a revelation from
God would make a man have a true estimation of himself. And she
said, oh, that he regarded the lower state, the lower state,
unworthy. What have I got? Nothing. I'm
a poor woman. I'm going to bury a poor man.
But I'm going to have a glorious Savior and a great glorious God. And then look what she says.
He hath regard the lower state of his handmaid. She knew one
thing about it. She belonged to him. that's why that's why he regarded
her in her lower state because she said his handmaiden oh I'm
his this is why he regarded me at all I'm his by election he
chose me and oh you read over in Matthew I said it says I think
it says over there she was highly favored of the Lord that means
highly graced of God that's what it means And then look at this
reason for her rejoicing in verse 48 again. He hath regarded the
lowest state of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. And they do. They call her blessed.
We call her blessed. God blessed her soul to have
the Savior to come through her. She was blessed indeed. And we
even now consider her blessed. And you know what made her blessed?
You know what made her blessed? It was her relationship to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what made her blessed.
That's what made her be blessed of God. That's why everybody's
gonna call her blessed from now on. It's because of her relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That made her blessed. And that's
why Elizabeth says, blessed is the fruit of thy womb. You know,
it is our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that makes
us blessed. The only reason we're blessed
is because of our relationship to Christ. And I tell you what,
the only reason, and those that are left behind, they ain't gonna
know nothing about that. But I wanna show you something.
Look in Luke 9, talking about this being blessed to the Lord. And she said, oh, for generations,
people gonna call me blessed. And I mean it's like Hannah,
she didn't have a child, but look in Luke 9, 27. Yeah. Nope, that's not it. I'm in maybe,
I'm in eight, nine. Let's look at 10. I thought I
put down the right numbers. Oh boy. Well, I thought I put
down the right number, but evidently I didn't. Boy, this happens to
me all the time. Well, maybe it's eight. Oh, no. Well, let me tell you
what it says. It says this. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was standing outside. And he was preaching. And a woman
hollered and said, blessed is the womb that bare thee and the
paps that thou hast sucked. Talk about how blessed his mother
was. But you know what our Lord said? More blessed are they that
hear the word of God and keep it. He said, you think my mother's
blessed? You're blessed above that if
you hear the word of God and keep it. That's what he said.
How in the world I make the wrong things, I don't know. But I thought
I had it wrote down right. Spirit's willing, but the flesh
is weak. That's no doubt about that. And let me give you another
reason for her rejoicing. Look in verse 49. And oh my,
look here what's the reason for her rejoicing. In verse, for
he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his
name. And she says, oh, for he that
is mighty, he that's got all power, he that has the strength,
he that has the ability, he that has the right, he that has the
power, hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And if you and I were to start
to tell the great things He has done for us, where would we start?
Where would we start? Where would we start? Huh? I
tell you, should we start in eternity where God sent His affection
on us and loved us from all eternity? Should we start in eternity where
Christ was the lamb slain for us from the foundation of the
world? Should we go back into eternity when God chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world? That's great things
that God done before we ever were. And then let's go down
through time. Go down to the time that God
crossed our path with the gospel and spoke to our hearts and spoke
to our souls and taught us some things about himself. and made
us like we'd marry, where we get in the dust and say, why
would God even consider me? Oh my. Go down through time. How many times in time has God
done great things for us? How many times has God done great
things for us? They're more than to be reckoned
up. We can't number them. Huh? And
oh my. So we go down, start in eternity,
go down, and you know what? We can go into eternity future.
Cause we read the back of the book and we know what's going
to happen. We know what's going to happen.
Oh my, there are more than, you know, David said like this, what
shall I render unto the Lord for all of his benefits towards
me? They are more than can be numbered. There's no doubt about it. Great
the Lord hath done mighty and great things for me. Sit down
and just one of these days go through the blessings just go
through the things just spiritual we're talking about spiritual
things and of course the temporal blessings are things that he
gives us to make our journey here set more much more comfortable
and I rejoice in them he can take them away but I'll tell
you I rejoice in the things he's given us to make us comfortable
and enjoy this life to some degree. all the spiritual blessings he's
given us, the spiritual blessings. I know I told you this before,
but boy, last Saturday, a week ago, yes, last Saturday, I was
up in Lexington. I heard four messages, four messages
Every single one of them set me on fire. Just made my heart
like Mary. My soul does rejoice. My spirit
rejoices in the Lord. I rejoiced that I heard that
kind of preaching. I rejoiced that God had men that
could preach like that. And I rejoiced in that they,
beloved, stayed with the Bible and didn't preach their opinion.
And I rejoice that I understood what they said, believed what
they said, and worshipped the God they sent in, and placed
my soul in the gospel and God that they preached, and found
great comfort for my soul. I'm telling you the truth. Just
what he done on Saturday is enough for eternity. I'm telling you
what, just let you hear a message that causes your joy, your soul
to be lifted up. Say, I see the Lord. I see the
Lord. And I tell you, I saw the Lord.
I heard him talk about it, but I actually saw it in my soul.
And that's what I'm talking, that's what she says. Oh, he
that is mighty hath done to me great things. Here's the last
reason for rejoicing. Nope, nope, it ain't. Nope, it
ain't. Let me go over here and show
you another. Oh my. Yeah, I'm down to the
last one, I am. I done done that other side.
I'll be as bad as Scott if I keep these things in order, I tell
you. I was studying, and Shirley come
and said, it's time to get ready and go, and it's 25 minutes after
six, and I was just looking at my notes, and I had them all
mixed up, and she called me, but I tell you all, that's too
much information, ain't it? That's why you get so nervous
up here, you do things like that. Oh my, here's the last one. She
rejoiced that that her rejoicing of her spirit made her give a
grateful and a blessed testimony. First to the power of God. She
said, first of all, in verse 490, he's mighty. He's mighty.
And all listen, look what he says down in verse 52. He has
put down the mighty from their seats. Oh, she's talking about
God's power. And look what he says back up
in verse 51. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts. Put down the mighty from their
seats, the proud in the heart. He scatters their imagination.
Just lets them go on imagining anything they want to. And look
what else he says down there in verse, last part of verse
53. And that the rich he hath sent
empty away. He sent the empty away. Huh? The same God who has the power
to save, has also the power to destroy. To bring down the rich,
send them away empty. Bring down the mighty from their
seats, and to take them proud in imagination, scatter them.
Oh listen, then look at the testimony of what he did for His people.
And verse 50, look what a testimony she gave. And His mercy is on
them that fear Him from generation to generation. His mercy is on
them that fear Him from generation to generation. Oh my! And look what else He says here.
And verse, last part of verse 52. And He hath exalted them
that are of low degree. People that just ain't nobody's
of low degree. People don't have a high estimation
of them. They don't have a high estimation of them. And he takes
them and he exalts them, brings them up. Nobody brings them up. And then look what else it says
in verse 53. And he hath filled the hungry
with good. Huh? Oh my. Fill the hungry with
good things. Such good things. Such good things. You know, He filled us with grace.
He filled us with mercy. He filled us with power. He filled
us with joy. I got a verse I'm looking for
here. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There it is. Talking about this man, that
publican. Our Lord said that this man went
down to his house and justified. One he left to himself and the
other he justified. And all beloved, that's the song
of Mary. She's got a pretty voice, don't
she? She's got a good song to sing. A lot of verses and all
of them was good. Every single one of them was
good. I pray that's a blessing to you. Our Father, in the precious,
holy, glorious, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, our Master, Our Redeemer, the one who gave himself for
us, loved us, washed us in his blood, laved us in his blood.
And our Father, I thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the
message. Thank you for the saints that gathered out here tonight
to hear it. Pray you'd bless it to our hearts. Hope it was
an encouragement and edifying. And Lord Jesus, we pray for those
who weren't with us, for Ruby and Eleanor and others who are
sick and frail among us. Lord, we ask for your grace and
power to be upon them. And we ask that you speak to
the lost, speak to those who don't know Christ, speak to those
who've never trusted Christ in this body of believers when we
gather, speak to them through the word, speak to them through
the gospel. Lord, thank you for meeting with us. Thank you for
your abundance of grace. Truly, truly the mighty have
done great things for us. And we praise you for it in Christ's
name. Amen.