Well, good morning, everyone. Now our lesson is going to be from Luke chapter 1 this morning, but we're going to look first at Malachi chapter 3 if you'd want to locate that. We'll look there first before you move over to Luke. Before we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer.

Our Father, we come into your courts this morning with hearts that are full of thanksgiving, praise, worship. Fathers, we bow before you this morning, how we beg of you that you would give us a spirit of worship this morning, that we could forget about all of the cares of this life. And Father, that you would use this time to open our hearts and reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ, enable us to truly worship you this morning. Make us like the disciples of old that we leave here this morning saying, didn't our hearts burn within us as the word was opened up to us. Father, bless us for Christ's sake, we pray. Father, we are so thankful for our Lord Jesus Christ.

We're thankful for your purpose of mercy and grace to your people. Father, we're utterly amazed that you would be so merciful and gracious to such sinful men and women as we are through the obedience and the sacrifice of your son. Father, how we thank you. We thank you for perfect righteousness in him. We thank you for the forgiveness of sins in his blood. We thank you for life in him. We thank you that you've given us both the desire and the ability to be here to hear of him one more time. Father, we're so thankful. On top of that, how you've blessed us in this life materially, physically, Father, we're thankful.

And we dare not, Father, forget to pray for those of your people, those that we know of, those that we do not know of, who are in times of great trial and difficulty. Father, we hold them up to thee. We know that your grace is sufficient. And we pray that you'd give them a fulfillment of that promise, that your grace is sufficient for the hour. And Father, we thank you for our country, the freedoms that we have long enjoyed here. And Father, we pray that you would, despite our sinfulness, despite turning away from thee, that you would continue to preserve and protect this country as a place of freedom and liberty, a place where we can worship you without fear of reprisal. Father, bless this country for your great namesake, we pray. All these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen.

Now I've titled the lesson this morning, God Finally Speaks Again. And I'd like to first read Malachi chapter three, verse one. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And then look over Malachi chapter four, verse five. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Now that is the last words that the Lord spoke in the Old Testament. And he did not speak again for 400 years. 400 years of silence from heaven. You know, if the Lord is silent to us, the heavens feel like brass to us when we pray. And he does that for four days, we feel like the Lord's forgotten us. 400 years, the Lord did not speak again.

But now, it's come time to act and do what he promised that he would do. And in Luke chapter one, when God speaks again, he says the same thing that he said before. That ought not surprise us, does it? He says the same thing that he said before. Look at Luke one, verse 16.

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. Now Elijah didn't actually come again. What the Lord's telling us is John the Baptist has the same spirit and same power that Elijah had. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This is the promise of the coming of John the Baptist and what the Lord would use him to do.

Now, after 400 years, the Lord finally spoke again. Now, what did he say? When God speaks to his people today, he says the same thing that he said then 2,000 years ago. What is it that the Lord says when he does speak again? Well, number one, when God speaks, he speaks in grace to believers. Look at verse five in Luke chapter one.

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. Now you sometimes wonder about people that you read about in scripture, were these people believers or not? Did they know the Lord or not? Well I know that Zacharias and Elizabeth were believers because look what it says about them in verse six.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. Now here is good news for sinners. It might be kind of buried here if you're not looking for it, but here is good news for sinners. Here's two sons of Adam who are believers. The Lord himself calls them righteous. That tells me the Lord has provided a way for sinful men and women like us to be righteous, to actually be made righteous. And it's not by our words now. It's not because Zacharias and Elizabeth followed all the, obeyed all the law, because you know they didn't. They couldn't do that anymore, and we could. It's not because they went to all the ceremonies. They're righteous by faith in Christ, the same way you and I are made righteous. Christ is the righteousness of every righteous person.

When he obeyed the law, they obeyed the law in him. When he died to the law and satisfied justice by his death, they died in him. When Christ was made sin for his people, he took their sin away from them in his own body on the tree, and he made them the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God. His blood by his death put away all their sin. Now, if the sin of God's people is gone, what's left for them to be? They have to be righteous, don't they? If their sin is gone. And that is the amazing, one of the amazing things about the gospel. How God has made his people what we're not. What we're not by nature, what we cannot make ourselves righteous.

And it says here that they walked in God's commandments and ordinances. Now, you and I can only do that in Christ our representative. He walked in the commandments of God. He obeyed the commandments of God. And when he obeyed them, his people did too, because we're in him. But what is God's commandment? There is one commandment that God has given all mankind. All of the law, all the different commandments of the law, show us the need to obey this one commandment.

To believe on the name of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God the Holy Spirit causes us to be born again, we're able to do what Zacharias and Elizabeth did. We're able to obey God, believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is God's commandment to trust in Christ.

And then he says they're blameless, blameless. You and I can be blamed for a lot, accurately blamed for a lot of different things, couldn't we? But here, Believers are called blameless. Now, how is that possible? Christ took our sin away. Christ took the sin of his people away. Our sin's gone. He put them away so that we can't be accurately, truthfully blamed for any sin because Christ took it away. Blameless. Now, when I look at myself, I mean, I blame myself for everything. I mean, it's just horrible. But when God looks at his people, they're blameless. You think of that, blameless in the sight of God.

Let me show you that in Colossians chapter one. Colossians one and verse 22. Well, verse 21. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. Now we're blamable for all those wicked works. We're blameless for being enemies of God. We're the ones that have alienated ourselves from God. We've separated ourselves from God. We have to bear the blame for that.

But yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable. in his sight. Now if God's made us unblameable, blameless in his sight, that ought to fill us with such joy, such comfort, such amazement to want to worship the God who would make sinful men and women like us blameless.

That's Zacharias and Elizabeth, but that describes every believer. You know, if you're like me, I tend to read about these Old Testament believers and think, you know, they're way better than me. I mean, they have to be way better than me. But the way the Lord describes any believer is true of every believer, blameless in his sight.

And isn't that a gracious thing to hear? God speaks to his people in grace and tells them how he makes them righteous, how he makes them blameless, how he makes them accepted in his sight. But now second, I mean, isn't that a blessed person? Let me go back and think about that for a minute. A person who's been made the righteousness of God. I mean, like there's degrees of righteousness. You're either righteous or you're not. But to be the righteousness of God, that tells us how perfect this righteousness is.

If he's made you perfect, He's made you blameless in His sight. He's made you one of His people. He's chosen you out of the fallen lump of Adam's humanity and made you His, made you His. He made you what He will accept, made you what you're not. You're a blessed person. Aren't you a blessed, I mean, what more could you ever ask for? What a blessed person. But here's the second thing, and this also describes believers, when God speaks, He speaks in grace to a tribe people. Believers, they're righteous in Christ. They're blameless, they're holy, they're accepted, but they're also a tribe people.

Verse seven says, and they had no child because the Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. You know, at this time, being childless was considered to be about the worst trial, especially that a woman could go through. And people today that go through infertility and can't have children, they still think it's a great trial. And it is a great trial. There's the sadness of having no child. I mean, that's a great sadness. That's a great loss for a person.

But especially at this time, when Zacharias and Elizabeth were alive in Israel, it's been 400 years of silence, but they're still waiting for the Messiah. They're still waiting for that Messiah to be born. And every woman hoped, it'll be my child. And Elizabeth now knows there is no way she can give birth to the long-promised Messiah. They're older, it's too old to have children. They're not gonna have children.

And this was considered a great, great trial. Now faith, God-given faith lays hold on Christ. And like I said a minute ago, that makes you the most blessed person on the face of the earth. It really does. If God's given you faith in Christ so that you've laid hold on him, you believe him, you see him, you're blessed by him, God's blessed you beyond words.

But that will not exempt us from trials. Matter of fact, It'll bring trials to us because the Lord's promised his people, in this world you shall have tribulation. And they come, not by accident, but by the Lord's eternal will and purpose. The Lord brings trials to his people to keep us dependent on him.

You think how difficult we would be to live with. If God just heap blessings upon us and we're just happy all the time, never have a care in the world, never have a heartache, never have a problem, we would be impossible to live with. I mean, our head would get so big we couldn't fit through them doors. I mean, it's just awful.

The Lord sends trials to his people to humble us, to keep us dependent on Christ. You know, when we first come to Christ, aren't you dependent on him? just completely and utterly dependent on the Lord and happy to be that way. But then you get a little knowledge. You get a little blessing. You start to learn a few things. And somehow we think, you know, now I'm stronger. I can do some of these things on my own.

And the Lord sends us trials to remind us how dependent we are on him. The Lord sends us trials to keep us laid low at his feet. That's the place of blessing, to be found worshiping him at his feet. He sends us trials to keep us looking to Christ and looking away from ourselves and to wean us away from this world. All those things are good for a believer to learn.

Now, we don't like them. I mean, we do not like them. They're painful. We don't like them. But they are for our benefit. They are for our benefit. And somehow, someway, They're going to work good. They're going to work good. We know they are, because that's the promise of God.

And while that trial is so painful and so difficult, many times we learn something in the fire of that trial that brings us a great blessing, a blessing that we couldn't have learned any other way other than being through the fire of that trial. I can tell you, honestly, I'm thankful for every trial the Lord sent me through. I'm thankful. But being fully honest, I don't look forward to the next one. I just soon skip it. I'm glad that the Lord doesn't leave that up to me. Aren't you?

Well, when they're in this time of great trial, the Lord speaks to them. He speaks to them in grace. And when God speaks to his people, he gives his people precious promises, precious promises of his grace. Look at verse eight. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest office before God and the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. And the angel said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard.

And thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb and many of the children of Israel. So he turned to the Lord, their God, and he should go before him and 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, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Now, Zacharias is going through his responsibilities, what he's done a hundred times before, I'm sure. He's taken that incense to put on those hot coals on the golden altar of incense, and he goes into the holy place. You know, these are real people. This really happened. You think of this.

He goes in, he's going over to the altar, and he sees standing beside the altar an angel of God. I mean, He didn't expect to see anybody in there, much less an angel of God. And when he saw that angel, he was terrified. You know, people say, oh, I saw angels, and they want to see angels, and they talk about angels, angels, angels, angels. Well, I know angels are real. They exist. They serve the Lord. They serve the Lord in the earth. They're about his throne in heaven.

But every single time somebody saw one in scripture, they were terrified. terrified, and the angel told him, fear not. Fear not. This is when God speaks to his people with a gracious promise, statement to his people, fear not. I looked that up, the phrase, fear not, is used 63 times in scripture. And that doesn't count fear ye not or, you know, just fear not. Those two words in that order, 63 times in scripture. I wanna read you a couple of them.

Joel 2, 21. Fear not, O land, and be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Fear not. The Lord has done great things, he is doing great things, and he'll continue to do great things, because he's great. Isaiah 43, verse one. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, Thou art mine. You fear not, you belong to me. And I'm gonna take care of what belongs to me.

Isaiah 43 verse five, fear not, for I am with thee. Now if the Lord's with you, what do you got to fear? What do you got to fear? Luke 12 verse 32, fear not little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God's put you in the kingdom of Christ. Fear not. If you're in his kingdom, what can get you? What can attack you? What can bother you? Nothing, can it? And in Revelation 1 verse 17, John said, when I saw him, the Lord Jesus Christ, it appeared to him on the Isle of Patmos, John said, I felt his feet as dead. And what did the Lord do? He laid his right hand upon me saying, fear not, fear not.

I am the first and the last. I am Alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning of salvation. I'm the ending of salvation. And I'm everything in between. If Christ is all your salvation, what do you got to fear? I'll say the same thing I said Wednesday night. I'm so full of fear and doubts. And I read those statements, fear not. And I forget what I was afraid of. Forget what I was afraid of. as long as I'm looking to Christ. So fear not. Don't fear God condemning you. You don't have to fear that if the son of God is your savior. He's already been condemned in your place. He's just and right and holy. He'll never condemn you for the same thing he condemned your substitute for.

So fear not. And don't fear being left alone. You know, loneliness is tough to deal with. Loneliness, tough to deal with. But don't you fear. The Lord has promised he will be with you. Some years ago, one of our ladies, her husband passed away. The Lord called him home. And I was worried about her. And I would call her every once in a while, see, you know, in the middle of the day when I knew she was alone, you know, and things. And I called her one day and said, how are you doing? She said, Oh, I'm doing so good. She said, I'm doing so good. I'm here with my best friend all alone with Christ, all alone with Christ. He'll not leave you alone. He'll I'll not leave you nor forsake you.

That's the promise of God to his people. And don't fear these trials and troubles. Now, I know they're painful and there's a sense in which we fear the pain of them. But now, the Lord's going to hold you up in those things. The Lord will hold his people up in times of trouble.

He's ordained them. They don't come by accident. The devil didn't do it. God did it. And he did it for good. He did it for good. And he will give you grace for the hour. That's what he promised. My grace is sufficient for thee. That's true of you and me, just as true as it was for the apostle Paul. And this is my advice. Take it for what it's worth.

In times of trouble and trial, when I mean the Lord's latest load, I mean, we're not just having a bad day. The Lord laid us low. I think we're better off. Instead of praying, Lord, deliver me from this trial. Lord, give me grace for the hour. Give me grace for the hour. I can't tell you how many times I've prayed that. And nearly immediately, the Lord gave grace for the hour. If we would plead with the Lord, we're always wise to plead what he's already promised to do. Has he promised to give grace that's sufficient for the hour? Then pray for it, pray for it.

And we could be in a time of trouble and trial right now. But I'll tell you how this thing's gonna end up. We're gonna end up rejoicing in Christ our Savior. He's gonna bring us through this so that we rejoice in him. Well, here's the fourth thing, that when God speaks, we often learn, there's still unbelief in every believer.

This angel came, as we know as the angel Gabriel, and gave this gracious promise to deliver Zacharias and Elizabeth from this years, years, years long trial. How long they've been trying to have a child, and now, She's too old to have children, and this has been going on for years, and he comes and gives them this blessed promise.

Not only is God gonna give you a son, he's gonna be the forerunner of Christ. He's gonna be the one prophesied of all throughout the Old Testament. There are promises of John the Baptist coming to be the forerunner of Christ, and God's gonna give you a son, and he's gonna be the forerunner of Christ. He's gonna be the one who's given the blessed privilege to say, Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. I mean, what a promise. God's gonna cause so many people to turn to Christ through the preaching of this son.

And look what Zacharias says in verse 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel, whereby shall I know this? How will I know that this is true? For I'm an old man and my wife is well stricken in years. This is the promise of God from the angel of God sent to give this promise to Zacharias. And he says, now how am I going to know this is true? How do I know you're not just talking out of the side of your mouth? How do I know this is true?

The only thing you can call that is unbelief. The only thing you can call that is unbelief. And I know there's not one sin worse than another. Every sin is damage. Every sin is reprehensible, but in the way that we look at, you know, kind of rank things, is unbelief the worst sin? Unbelief is the only sin that will send a man or woman to hell. I know that. I know that. Why wouldn't we believe God? Why wouldn't we believe God who cannot lie? It's because we still carry around this wicked heart of Adam. And this is not just some innocent question that Zechariah's asking.

How do I know you're telling me the truth? Now look over across the next page there, Luke 1, verse 34. Here's a better way that this question should have been asked in Luke 1, verse 34. Then said Mary unto the angel, after he came and told her, you're gonna give birth to the Messiah. She said, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

I believe you that that's gonna happen, but how can it be? How can it be? There's a big difference in those two questions in the way that they're answered. How can this be? And usually, the question you and I would ask is the same one Zacharias asked, not the one that Mary asked.

Because every believer has two natures in them. The nature of Adam that we're born with when we are born from our mother's womb, and the nature of Christ that we are born with when God caused us to be born again. And those two natures are gonna fight and struggle for their, both of them pulling in opposite directions, trying to get their way as long as this flesh lives. The only time we will ever be delivered from this civil war going on inside us is when the flesh dies and the spirit goes to be with the Lord. Now, the sin of the old man, the sin of doubt and fear and unbelief, that sin's forgiven. That sin's forgiven. It's under the blood of Christ. It's forgiven. But God will correct us for it, just like he did Zacharias, look at verse 19.

And the angel answering said unto him, I'm Gabriel, the stand and the presence of God. I bring in this message straight to you from the presence of God. And I'm sent to speak unto thee, to show you these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. Now, aren't you glad the angel said it that way?

Aren't you glad he didn't say, well, for your unbelief, now you're not going to have a son. Your unbelief has changed God's will, has changed God's promise. Now you can't have a son. No, you're still going to have a son. God's still going to do what he promised to do. God's still going to be gracious to his people, but you're not going to be able to speak until this child is born. For nine months, you're going to be completely silent.

God corrects his people, but our sin never changes the purpose and promise of God. Our sin never changes or diminishes the grace of God. And that will make no believer presumptuous about God's grace in our sin. We still hate our sin. I mean, aren't you determined not to sin anymore today? I mean, you're not just, I mean, I hope you're not sitting there thinking, how can I get out of here and go sin? Or how can I sin right now? No, the believer is determined not to sin.

But when we do, aren't you thankful for this? It's not changing God's purpose of mercy and grace to us. And then here's the last thing. When God speaks, he sends a message of forgiveness from God. Now here is the promise of John the Baptist. And this, the message that John the Baptist preached is God's message to all his creatures. What is the message of John the Baptist? The message of John the Baptist, first of all, is to repent.

Repent, he's, I mean, John the Baptist looked like a wild man, a crazy man. His hair all wild and uncombed and wearing camel hair coats and dressed, I mean, however he dressed up, he looked like he's a crazy man, a wild man. And he's out there in the wilderness telling everybody to listen to him, you repent. You repent.

And repentance is not being sorry. The word means a radical, Change of mind. Repentance is a 180 degree turn away from what you used to believe in to trust Christ. Repentance is turning to trust Christ alone. Turn to Christ away from your idols. And if you're trusting anything other than Christ alone, it's an idol. It's an idol. But here's the thing about repentance. You and I can't make ourselves do it. We can't turn ourselves to God. God is the one who has to give us repentance. Now, I can't turn to myself and you can't either. But you know what we can do? We can ask God, turn me. Isn't that what Jeremiah said?

Lord, turn me and I'll be turned. Lord, grant me repentance and turn me to Christ so that I trust him. That's the message of John the Baptist and it's the message of the gospel. This is God's message. To all mankind, you turn to Christ and you trust him. Second, the message of John the Baptist was, prepare the way of the Lord. The Lord's coming. The Lord's coming. And he's coming right soon. He's coming right soon. And he is so great. He is He's the son of God.

He's just, I mean, he is so great. You just can't, you can't express his greatness and the reverence with which John the Baptist preached Christ. He's so great, John said, I'm not worthy to untie his shoe. I'm not, I mean, I'm not worthy to be at his feet and untie his shoe.

Now he's coming. You prepare to bow. You prepare to believe on him. You prepare to fall at his feet and beg him for mercy. He's coming. Now you prepare, you prepare to meet Him. And I tell you this morning, you prepare to meet your God. Not in judgment, not after you die, right now. He's being preached right now. Now you prepare your heart to bow to Him and worship Him and believe on Him.

And then third, the message of John the Baptist was, behold the Lamb of God. There's no ambiguity here. Behold the Lamb of God. Here He is. Now you look to Him. Don't look to the law. Don't look to the ceremonies. Don't look to religion. Don't look to anything mad made. Don't look to yourself. Don't look to your works.

You look to Christ. And you believe Him. You look to Him. You follow Him. You trust Him. And you rejoice in Him. In Him. Don't just rejoice in the blessings that God's given you, rejoice in Him. You know why you're righteous? Because of Him, because He's righteous. You know why your sin's forgiven? It's because of Him, it's because of His blood. The Lord speaks to reveal His Son to His people. If God's been pleased to reveal His Son to you, you rejoice. What a sight, what a sight. All right, the Lord bless you.