We had a wonderful conference in Fairmont. It's still going this morning, but Friday night and yesterday morning were so good. I was so glad to be there and just a wonderful turnout. It was a wonderful time. I'm so thankful for it. Let's go to our Lord in prayer.

Our high and holy Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful day, the day that you've made. We thank you for the rain. Thank you for all of your showers of blessings that you send down to us. And we are so grateful, Lord, for the greatest blessing of all.

And that's Christ, our Savior. the Christ who came down to redeem us from our sins. Lord, we are so thankful for the gospel. We're so grateful for the blood and salvation in him. And we are gathered here today, Lord, to bow before him and to worship him and to give thanks for everything that we have in him.

Lord, we are truly thankful for a place to gather in your name and a congregation to gather with and a word to gather around. We are so blessed. more than we could possibly imagine. And we are grateful, Lord. Thank you for everything. We pray, Lord, that you will meet with us, meet with us in this Bible study, meet with our teachers as they teach our children, give them a word and plant a seed in the hearts of these children. We pray, Lord, for every congregation that is gathered in your name. We pray that you will bless your word and bless your people and calls us to turn our eyes to you. We ask, Lord, that you would bless the gospel everywhere you would be pleased to send it. We pray that you might send a revival in the midst of our years of sheep that you have chosen to call to yourself, and we pray, Lord, that you would bless it according to your will. We ask all of these things in Christ's name, amen.

Turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. The verses that we are looking at for this Bible study, they are announcing the birth of John the Baptist. We've already made it to verse 17, and we're about to read to verse 25. But I wanna begin reading in verse one. I want us to get all of this back in our minds again.

So Luke one, beginning in verse one, it says, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, lover of God. that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Now verse five begins this story by saying, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth.

And they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And I just want to reiterate while we're here that the only way that a man or a woman can be righteous before God is in Christ. There is outside of Christ, there is none righteous. No, not one. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's no one in the flesh who could be blameless except for Christ. And the only way we can be blameless is in him, righteous in him, blameless in him. Verse seven says that they had no child because Elizabeth was barren.

And they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while Zacharias executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's 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 on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But 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. He 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, go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elias, Elijah. 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. Prepared for the Lord, and that's God's people, a people prepared for the Lord.

Verse 18, and Zechariah 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 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. And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto 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 that 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. Now the book of Luke is completely filled with the gospel. It's filled with the gospel declaration. It's filled with the gospel announcement.

And here's a little hint. Every book in the Bible is. And Luke is. And chapter one proves that to us. The title of this book, we started going through the book of Luke. The title of this book says, this is the gospel according to Luke. Many before him took it in hand to set forth a declaration of the gospel. And the Lord led and inspired Luke to declare it too. And he did. Luke declared the gospel. And as a result of everything we just read, we're about to see that this woman, Elizabeth, declared the gospel. Luke declared the gospel and Elizabeth declared the gospel. It was to herself. It wasn't outwardly. It was just inwardly to herself, but the Lord openly recorded it for the whole world to read.

And if the Lord is willing for our message in a moment, we're going to see that this angel Gabriel declared the gospel. The servant of God, he declared the message of the gospel. And then the next time that we come back to this chapter, we're gonna see that Mary declared the gospel. Beautifully, all of these people declared it beautifully, perfectly in the very words of God. Luke, Elizabeth, Gabriel, Mary, and then finally we're gonna close chapter one out by listening to Zacharias declare the gospel. Every character in this first chapter ends up beautifully and very boldly, very boldly declaring the gospel of God's.

Glad tidings they are called right here. If you look at verse 19, 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. That is the very definition of the word gospel, good news, glad tidings. That's what the gospel is, glad tidings. The angel said, the Lord God sent me directly to speak to you and to show you the gospel. And I'm just gonna tell you, that's why we're here this morning. We're here to see the gospel. We're here for the gospel.

So, as a recap here, Zacharias, he was a priest, and he and his wife, they were well stricken in years. They were older in age. And Elizabeth was barren. She'd never had any children. And this angel came to them and said, God is gonna give you a son, and you're gonna call his name John. And Zacharias said, how can this be? How can this be? We're old and Elizabeth is barren. And the angel said, because you don't believe my word, you're not going to be able to speak for nine months.

And Zacharias finished his responsibilities in the temple. And he went home to Elizabeth. And she conceived, and in realizing that the Lord God had done this in her, Elizabeth said something in response. The moment that she realized she was pregnant, she said something in response. It caused her to confess something. And her confession is the declaration of the gospel.

Look with me at verse 23, Luke 1 verse 23. It says, And it came to pass that 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, This is what she said, and this is the gospel. If anybody wants to know what the gospel is, if anybody's ever heard the term gospel, we're going to preach the gospel and we're going to sing gospel songs. And all right, here it is. Here's the gospel. Verse 25. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men." That's the gospel. That is the gospel.

She said, I have had a reproach all of my life. I've had a reproach all of my life. The word reproach means a shame. That's what it means. I've had a shame all of my life. And I have too, and you have too. I've had a shame all of my life. The word reproach means disgrace. Disgrace, it means scorn. What was her reproach? What's the reproach she's talking about right here?

It was her deadness. That's what it was, it was her barrenness, it was her emptiness. I have had a deadness, I have had an emptiness, I've had a barrenness all of my life. All of my life. What does this represent? You know, everything in the Word of God represents something spiritually. What does it represent spiritually? It represents sin. That's what it represents, is sin. And that's what every child of God says about himself or herself as a confession before God. I have been a reproach. I've been a reproach. I have lived in reproach. I would love to put on a good front before you, but I cannot put on a good front before God.

He sees everything. He sees what's on the outside. He sees what's on the inside. He sees what's in my heart. He sees what's in my mind. Jesus knowing their thoughts. Isn't that what the scripture says? He knew their thoughts. He knows my thoughts. All I can say is, All I've done is lived in reproach, shame, disgrace. The Apostle Paul, you know, man at his best state. I would think men don't get better than the Apostle Paul. Oh, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? This reproach represents sin and what she's saying is I have been a reproach. I have lived in reproach. I have borne nothing. I have borne nothing but reproach.

But she said bless God. He took it away from me. Verse 25, she said, thus hath the Lord dealt with me. The Lord has dealt with me in the days wherein He looked on me to take away my reproach among men. He did it. I didn't do it. He did it. And that's what every child of God can say concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it.

People want to know, what are you going to do for Jesus? Well, have you seen my reproach? I can't do anything for him. My only hope is that he's going to do something for me. He has to do something for me. He did it. He took away the reproach of my sin. He took away my deadness. You know, people talk about going from death to life. How does that happen? He has to do it. He took away my deadness.

He took away my shame. He took away my guilt. He took away my disgrace. He took away my scorn before God. He did that when he took away my sin. He took away my sin. I'm telling you, I'm a sinner and so are you. And the only good news we have this morning is there is a man who came to take away the sin of his people. When did our Lord Jesus Christ take away the sinful reproach of his people? When did he do that? He did it when he went to the cross of Calvary. How did he take away the sinful reproach of his people?

Let me ask you a question. What happened on the cross? Do you think there's anybody in the world who does not know that Jesus Christ died on the cross? I believe everybody knows that. Let me tell you what I don't believe everyone knows. What happened on that cross? What exactly was he doing on that cross? You say, well, he died to take away our sin. How? You know, I could say right now, I tell you what, I've paid off your mortgage. Does that mean anything? No. No, it doesn't.

And people say he died to take away your sins. And then we go on and we sin and we have a bad thought and we get mad at somebody and we lust. Did He really? I mean did He really take away our sin? What happened on the cross? How did He take away the sinful reproach of His people? Here's how He did it. He took away their reproach by laying it on Himself. He made their deadness, meaning the deadness of His people, to be his own. He made their emptiness to be his own. He made their barren reproach to be his own.

Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 22. The gospel is so glorious. It is so amazing. Grace is so amazing. Psalm 22, now verse 1 very plainly tells us who is speaking here. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, He wasn't born yet. No, He wasn't born of a virgin yet, but God is eternal. Jesus Christ is the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God. And this is Jesus Christ, the Word, speaking the Word. Verse one says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This is the cry from the cross. These are his words from the cross of Calvary. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why did the Father forsake him? Wasn't he the perfect man? Wasn't he the spotless man? Why did God the Father forsake? Is God unjust? Would God punish and kill an innocent man?

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and I'm not silent, but thou art holy. Why, why have you forsaken me?

Here's the answer, here's the reason. It's because you're holy. And there is a sin debt that needs to be paid. Verse three, thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. Watch verse six.

But I am a worm. I fear reading those words. Why would the Lord Jesus Christ say that? Why would he say, I am a worm? Why would he say that? Hold your place right here in Psalm 22 and turn over to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, why would the Lord Jesus Christ say, I am a worm? Look at verse 11, Isaiah 41, verse 11.

Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even them that contend with thee. They that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob.

And you men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer." Who's speaking? The Redeemer is speaking, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel. Why would the Lord Jesus Christ say, I am a worm? Here's the reason why. It's because he was Jacob's Redeemer. Not just anybody's generic Redeemer, he was Jacob's Redeemer. And Jacob was a worm and all of God's spiritual Israel are called sons of Jacob, the children of Israel. And do you know what that makes us in our flesh? Worms.

And in order for Christ to redeem His people, He had to stand in their place. In order to deliver them from their reproach, He had to be made the reproach Himself. That's why He said that. Flip back over to Psalm 22. Verse 6. But I am a worm and no man, he said, a reproach of men. He said, I'm the reproach. He said, I am despised of the people. Isn't that what the scripture says about it? He was despised and rejected. He said, verse seven, all they that see me laugh me to scorn. Isn't that what it said about the cross? They laughed him to scorn.

Why? Why? It's because He chose to deal with us in the days wherein He looked on us to take away our reproach from among men. That's why. In that substitutionary work, He delivered us by the substitution of Him in the stead of His people on the cross of Calvary, He delivered us.

Elizabeth said, that's my good news. This is my good news and that's all of our good news. This is all of our glad tidings. Every soul who has been caused to realize this with Elizabeth can say, that is good news to me. That is good news. That's happy news. That is glad tidings. Glad tidings to me. I'm closing. Go with me back to Luke 1. Luke 1 verse 24 says, And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me.

The Lord gets the glory because the Lord accomplished this work. Who gets the glory in salvation? The Lord does. If any man glory, let him glory in the Lord. She said the Lord gave this life. I didn't make a decision for this life. The Lord gave this life. Verse 25.

Thus hath the Lord dealt with me. In the days wherein he looked on me. It's not that I looked on him. It's that he looked on me. The scripture says, it's not that we loved him. It's that he loved us. With an everlasting love, he said, while we were yet centers, the scripture says. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the victim for our sins. Verse 25, thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men.

To take it away. It's gone. It's gone. Never to return again. Everything, this is, I can't help but have, this is glad tidings to me. That's all I know to say about it. Everything that I feel so guilty about, according to God's word, according to the promise of God's word, Christ took it off of me, laid it on himself, and bore the guilt that I feel.

Acts chapter eight says, in his humiliation, in his humiliation, oh yes, he humbled himself. And he stood before God, you know, he said, this, uh, he said, I'm sorrowing even under death, even under death. Why? Because he was touched with the feeling of Gabe Stoniker's sin. That's the reason why he touched my sin. And in touching that, he said, this, this is making me sorrow even under death. That's what this weekend is supposed to picture. Good Friday. What's good Friday. I mean, that's the day they nailed him to a tree. The day they laid him in a grave. What is Sunday morning on today supposed to mean? What's it supposed to represent?

He took my sin and my sorrow. He made them his very own. He bore that burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. What does that mean for me? Life. My sin is gone. It's gone. What about the sins that you're still going to commit? They're already gone too. The sins that I committed as a five-year-old were gone 2,000 years ago in Jesus Christ. Everything he paid for concerning me was a future sin. And he took away my reproach among men. It's going to be remembered no more. It's gone. He said, as far as the east is from the west, hath he removed it from his people. That's the gospel. That's our gospel, isn't it? It's our good news. To him be all the glory for that. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.