A Beautiful Duet

Q: What does the Bible say about the blessing of faith?

The Bible teaches that faith is a gift from God, making believers blessed to trust in Christ. In Ephesians 2:8-9, we discover that faith is not from ourselves; it is the gift of God. This understanding emphasizes that the ability to believe in Christ comes not from human will but from divine grace. Elizabeth expressed this truth when she said, 'Blessed is she that believed' (Luke 1:45), highlighting that the greatest blessing is being granted faith in the Savior. For every believer, recognizing faith as a divine gift assures us of our standing before God, reminding us of the depth of His grace and mercy in granting faith to those who cannot believe on their own.

Q: How do we know God's promises are true?

God's promises are true because He is faithful and has never failed to fulfill His word. The reliability of God's promises is rooted in His holy character. In Luke 1:45, Elizabeth reassures Mary that 'there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.' This statement reaffirms the certainty that God's declarations always come to fruition. All throughout Scripture, God's faithfulness is celebrated, as seen in His covenant with Abraham, which provides a foundation for the believer's assurance. Every promise, from salvation to provision, demonstrates His unchanging nature; hence, we can rest in the truth that He will keep every promise He has made to His people.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is crucial for Christians as it aligns our hearts with the understanding of God's greatness and our need for grace. Biblical humility involves recognizing our lowly state and God's immense grace. In Luke 1:48, Mary acknowledges her humble position when she says, 'For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.' This recognition allows believers to appreciate God's mercy and grace more profoundly. Humility is essential not only for receiving God's grace but also for fostering unity among believers. It reminds us that we are all dependent on Christ's righteousness rather than our own. When we approach God and others with humility, we reflect the character of Christ, who exemplified ultimate humility in His incarnation and sacrifice.

Q: How does rejoicing in the Lord affect our lives?

Rejoicing in the Lord strengthens our faith and cultivates joy within, transcending life's trials. Rejoicing in the Lord as commanded in Philippians 4:4 brings about a profound inner joy that is not contingent upon external circumstances. As Mary magnifies the Lord in her song in Luke 1:46-47, she demonstrates that true joy springs from our relationship with God and acknowledgment of His attributes. This joy enables believers to endure hardships, knowing that their hope is rooted in Christ. Moreover, rejoicing encourages others and creates a fellowship of praise among believers, reflecting the beauty of God's mercy and grace to the world around us.

Well, good morning, everyone. If you would care to open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter one, that's where our lesson will be from this morning. Before we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we're so thankful that you've allowed us to be here one more time this morning And father to worship you. You know how I pray that you give us this morning.

A spirit of worship. That you enable us as we hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That you enable us to worship in spirit and in truth. How I pray father that you deliver us from just going through the motions of religion. But that you let us hear word from thee and to worship you from the heart.

Father, we're so thankful for a place that you've given to us and how you've preserved us and protected us all these many years. And pray that you keep this place here as a lighthouse of your gospel for your glory and for the good of your people. And we pray a special blessing for our children's class. Father, that you bless this time that you would use the word And so it in their hearts that one day soon it would grow to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you for our children, our homes and our families. The blessings of this life that you've given to us and. Father, I pray that you'd always make us as we go through our daily lives. A good witness of your mercy and your grace. Father, I pray that this morning you might be pleased to show us your glory. Father, it's in Christ's name, for his sake we pray, amen.

Now our lesson this morning begins in Luke 1, verse 39. We're gonna hear two believers talking, Mary and Elizabeth. And you know how it is when two believers get together and talk, the conversation always eventually turns to Christ our Savior. And those two believers, they're going back and forth, talking about the blessings of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord, and something that they have heard or read recently that has blessed them. And that's what happens here in our text this morning. And I've titled the message, A Beautiful Duet.

Now, Elizabeth does not sing her part of it, but Mary does. Apparently, as Mary was traveling to see Elizabeth, She wrote this song of praise, but before we have her song of praise, we have, uh, Elizabeth speaking here and Elizabeth begins in verse 39 and Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and 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 and Elizabeth, was filled with the Holy Ghost. And here's her first stanza. She sings of the Lord's blessings, in verse 42. And she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Now Elizabeth could plainly tell, rightfully so, that Mary was blessed of the Lord.

She was blessed of the Lord to be the mother of our Savior. Of all the women that have ever lived on this earth, there's just one of them that gave birth to the Savior. Just one of them. Just one woman who was able to give birth to the Savior and to raise him to be his mother. Now, Mary was blessed of God. Now, she's not better than any other woman or any other man, And she's not more blessed than any other believer, but she is blessed, isn't she, to be the mother of the Lord. But the thing I want us to see in this verse is this. Elizabeth knew that that child in Mary's womb, that embryo, however small that infant was at that time in her womb, that baby she knew is the Savior. She knew that this is God in human flesh.

You know, I think a lot of times we sell Old Testament believers short in how much they knew and what they believed. They definitely had some understanding, not like we do after we've seen God already do it, but they had some understanding that the Messiah is going to be God in the flesh.

And Elizabeth says, He's come to you. And now you've come here, you brought him to me. We're blessed of God. We're blessed of God to have his presence with us. He's come as the savior of sinners and you're giving birth to him. That's a blessing. And he's come to us. Of all the places that he could have gone, he's come to us.

And of course the Lord had blessed Elizabeth with a child in her old age too. By the time she had long ago given up hope of ever having a child. Now she's having a child. So she can, you see how this back and forth goes. She can tell Mary, oh, you're blessed of God.

And you know what? God's blessed me too. He just, he blesses all of his peoples. So richly there's just a never ending source of his blessings to his people. But even more so being blessed with the child, Elizabeth could tell Mary, We're blessed of God with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. In the one that's in your womb right now, all of God's spiritual blessings flow to us through him. Here he is, he's come to save his people from their sin and to give them every blessing that Almighty God has for a sinner. Now that's a glorious and mysterious blessing. And we give thanks, don't we? She starts out with this blessing, singing about the blessings of God. And on down here, verse 45, she talks about how the Lord's blessed us with the gift of faith in Christ. She said, blessed is she that believed.

You know, even more so than being blessed to be the mother of the Savior, you're blessed that God's given you the gift of faith in Christ. And your son, the one that's in your womb right now, Now what a blessing, what a blessing to be given the gift of faith in Christ. We can't believe him any other way because this flesh can't do it. Even if you try, you can't make yourself trust Christ. The only way that we can trust Christ is if God gives us the gift of faith.

And if God's given you that gift, you're blessed of God. You're blessed of God to believe, to be able to believe on the only Savior of sinners. That's a blessing. And every believer can talk about that. You don't just have to be Mary, the mother of the Lord. Every believer can talk about all the blessings of God, and this one in particular.

He's given me faith to believe him. I really do believe Christ. As I was preparing this lesson this week, I thought about that. I really believe this. I believe this gospel, I believe this word, I believe what we, I really believe this. That's amazing.

The only way that's possible is the blessing of the gift of faith. And then Elizabeth sings in humility, look at verse 43. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me. The mother of my Lord has come to me. You could have gone to see anybody else, so many other people, but you came to me. She's saying with David, who am I? And what is my house that you'd bless me like this? And can't every single believer sing that song? Who am I?

Of all the people who've ever lived in this earth, of all the sons and daughters of Adam, God chose to save me. God sent his son to suffer and die for the likes of me. I'm amazed. I'm amazed that he would do that. And so thankful. And even now, after years ago, whatever, I can't tell you exactly when I first believed Christ, when I was born again, but it's been some time ago. And after growing in grace and knowledge of the Savior, after learning more, of the scriptures and seeing more of Christ, I'm still less than the least of all the saints. I'm still amazed that the Lord would still keep blessing me and keep me by the power of his grace.

The only rightful spot that any believer has is at the feet of Christ, just in just silent awe. It's hard to say while I'm supposed to be talking here for the next 20 minutes, but in silent awe that almighty God would choose to save me, that his son would suffer unimaginable agony, that he shed his blood and die to save the likes of me, that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in my heart. Just amazed. Aren't we just amazed?

And then Elizabeth sings about the joy that there is within, in trusting Christ. In verse 44 she says, for lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Now I can't explain that other than John the Baptist, while he's in the womb, I guess roughly six months pregnant, heard Mary's voice and leaped for joy. in her womb knowing that the Savior was here. The one that he's going to be the forerunner of is here and he leaped for joy in her womb and Elizabeth felt it. Now that's something only a mother knows. No man knows what that feels like to have that babe leap in your womb to move and kick and all the things that a mother knows that feeling of life within her.

But that's a joy that every believer has spiritually. There's a joy that's in us. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And when in the midst of your flesh suffering so greatly, there is still joy within every believer. Joy in knowing Christ, in trusting him, joy in his salvation. There is joy within that this world cannot touch. They can touch our flesh. It can affect our flesh, and our sin certainly does affect our flesh. But it cannot affect that joy within, because if you trust Christ, it's because he's in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And then Elizabeth sings of the Lord's promises to us. In verse 45, she says, and blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Now, obviously, what the Lord sent the angel to tell Mary, he performed. The Holy Spirit came on her, and she was with child of the Holy Spirit. She's gonna give birth to that child, and that child is gonna be the savior of sinners from every nation on earth. He's gonna make the whole world, people from all over the world glad at His presence.

He kept every promise that He made to Mary. And that's because God keeps every promise. Every promise He ever made, God keeps every one of them. You think of all the promises in this book. The promise of salvation in Christ. The promise of forgiveness of sin in His blood. The promise of God's saving grace and mercy. The promise of the new birth, the promise that the Lord will keep you, the promise that the Lord will move you to serve him.

All the promises of this book, the promise that he will be with you in every deep trial, in every deep water, in every fiery path, in every deep valley, he will be with you. The promise of dying grace, the promise of him after you die receiving you into his presence forever. All the promises of this book, God's gonna keep every one of them. He'll keep every one of them. Just go through this book and find all these promises of God and you hang on to them and you apply them to you because if you trust Christ, those promises are to you. Every promise of God.

And you know, as Elizabeth was going, Mary's, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, she's just amening everything Elizabeth's saying, isn't she? Well, now it's Mary's turn. Look at verse 46. Mary starts out with a song, this is her song of praise, that she starts out singing of the praise, how praise magnifies the Lord. Verse 46, Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord.

Now, to magnify something, you make it bigger. Well, we can't make the Lord great. We can't make the Lord bigger. So how is it that we magnify the Lord? Well, several ways. First of all, it's by talking about him in a way that shows his greatness, that shows the greatness of his mercy and grace, the greatness of his redemption. And I know we fail miserably to Show the Lord as great as He really is, but keep giving it your best shot. That's magnifying the Lord. We magnify the Lord by thanking Him. We magnify the Lord by worshiping Him.

But you know how else you magnify something? I can, as I look down here at my notes, I can see Him. But I can really see Him now. Just get so close to Christ that you're looking at Him so closely, He's all you see. I mean, you know, sitting here, this page looks normal. But if I get it up here, it's all I can see. Just snuggle up so close to Christ, He's all you can see. It will magnify Him.

David said in Psalm 69, verse 30, I will praise the name of God with song, and I'll magnify Him. I'll magnify Him with thanksgiving. That's why I said earlier, just thanking God for His mercy and grace and His blessings to you, that's magnifying God. And when Christ is magnified so much that that's all we see, there's gonna be comfort and joy and peace for your hearts. Magnify the Lord.

Then Mary sings a verse of praise that rejoices in Christ. Verse 47. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Now you'll notice here, Mary doesn't say I'm rejoicing that I'm the mother of the Savior. What's she rejoicing in? In God my Savior. She's not even rejoicing in any of the earthly blessings that God's given her. She's rejoicing in the Lord. She's rejoicing in God, my Savior. She's rejoicing in a person, in who he is and what he's gonna accomplish for her and for his people. David said in Psalm 13, verse five, I've trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

Again, not in, now we do, we thank the Lord for all his earthly blessings, material blessings he gives us. And we should thank him because the only reason we have him is he gave him to us. But I mean real rejoicing is in the Lord and in his salvation. That he would save a wretch like me, I rejoice in that.

Psalm 97 verse one, the Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Oh, let's rejoice. Our God is sovereign over everything. and he sovereignly saves his people from their sin. Let's rejoice in that. The world can buck at it and hate that God's the first cause of everything, that he rules over them, that he rules in all the events of creation. Let him. Let's us rejoice. Our God's sovereign. He's sovereign over everything. Let's rejoice.

Paul said in Romans 5 verse 2, rejoice in hope, in the expectation of the glory of God. Oh, rejoice in the hope, the expectation. You're going to see the glory of God. You've already experienced it in His sovereign mercy to you, haven't you? And one day you're going to see it. You're going to see it with pure, perfect eyes and see it face to face, the glory of God. Rejoice, just at all times. Isn't that what Paul said, Philippians 4 verse 4? Rejoice in the Lord. Always. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice.

You know, when we meet here to worship, to preach the gospel, this is serious business. I mean, it's serious, serious, serious business. I try not to be so overly serious. That tends to be my personality. This is serious business, but let's never forget this.

We're also here to rejoice. Rejoice in God our Savior. This ought to make us rejoice, and not some silly acting things, but rejoice in the Lord. And you know the difference. Rejoice in the Lord. Then Mary praises the Lord for how the Lord meets my every need. Verse 48.

For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. 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. Look down at verse 53, she says, he filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he sent away empty. He hath helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.

Mary says, the Lord, he's remembered me in my lowest state. He's regarded me in my lowest, I was so far down, just so low, I'm a nothing. And the Lord regarded me to bless me this way. That word handmaid that she uses, you know what that word actually is? A female slave. Now that's what I am. I'm just by nature, I'm a female slave and the master chose to bless me anyway.

He blessed me anyway. Now that shows his greatness. How far down can he stoop to redeem the lowest of the low, to have mercy on the lowest of the low? That shows God's greatness. And Mary said, I'm just a female slave and Lord blessed me. That's his greatness. She could say with her great great grandfather, David, Psalm 136 verse 23, who remembered us in our low estate.

I don't care whether you're a king or whether you're nobody like Mary, by nature we're in a low estate. I mean as low as you can possibly go. As low in sin and death and misery and unbelief and rebellion against God He hath remembered us in our lowest state. Why? For His mercy forever. It's because of His mercy. His mercy. Everything our God does is great. Scripture talks about salvation as so great salvation. Our Savior is great in redemption. He's great in mercy. He's great in grace.

Everything He does is And he stooped down, way down to where I had fallen in Adam. And he grabbed hold of me. And he lifted me out of that pit and set me amongst his table, amongst the princes at the king's table and filled me. I was hungry. And he filled me with good things.

I was hungry for righteousness because I didn't have any. I was thirsty for righteousness because I didn't have any. and he gave me his righteousness. I was hungry for life, empty of life because I was dead and he gave his life to give me life. I was empty of knowledge. He filled me with the knowledge of who Christ is. I was empty of wisdom and he showed me Christ, the wisdom of God. I was empty. I was in the prison house of sin and could not, could not pay the redemption price. And Christ came and paid it for me and filled me with freedom, the freedom to serve him, the freedom to follow him.

He filled me with good things and everything he's filled me with is him. It's him. Those are the good things. He filled me with them. You know what I said just a minute ago about how the Lord went way down to that pit and lifted me up and set me at the king's table? If you leave the king's table hungry, that's your fault. That's your fault. I don't, I suspect nobody leaves the king's table hungry because he fills us with good things.

Then fourth, she praises the holiness of the Lord. Verse 49, For he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name. His name is holiness and his character is holiness. The Lord is holy and everything he does is holy. It's holy because he does it.

And you know, to a sinner, The holiness of God seems opposed to us, doesn't it? And it is in our sin. God's not gonna let somebody in their sin into his holy presence. But if you're a believer, you love the holiness of God, that he is always holy. And here's why. If he's redeemed you by the blood of his son, he will never condemn you because that would be unholy. If he's promised, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, and then he leaves you, that would be unholy. God will never do it. He'll never do it.

That's why the psalmist said, rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Every time you remember the holiness of God, you give thanks because if God's gonna allow you into his presence, if he's caused you to be born again and he saved you by his grace, you know what he's done?

He's given you a holy nature. And that holy nature is the one that's going to go directly into the presence of God when this flesh dies. To allow us to be in his presence, he has to make us holy. And that's what he does in the new birth for all of his children, so that they can be in his presence. Oh, give thanks at every remembrance of his holiness. His holiness, scripture says, is his beauty, the beauty of holiness.

Oh, give thanks. And then fifth, she rejoices in the mercy of the Lord. Verse 50, she says, and his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Verse 54 says he's helped his servant Israel. Now, why did he do that? It's in remembrance of his mercy, not because Israel was any good because they weren't. It's because of God's mercy.

Now here's one thing every believer, I mean we just, we can go back and forth and talk about this all day, the mercy of God. It's bottomless depths of His mercy. Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. And the only way God could not give guilty sinners like you and me, He cannot give us what we deserve. is if he gives his son, Christ our substitute, everything that our sin deserves.

And that's what the Lord did. That's what the father did to the son at Calvary so that he could have mercy on the likes of you and me. That God could be just and justifier. The death of Christ made it right for the father to be merciful to sinners like you and me. Now God, not giving me what I deserve, Oh, I thank God for it, especially when I think. It's not just that he said, all right, Frank, I'm going to write your sin off to bad debt.

When I was at the warehouse every year, that's what we'd have to do. We'd look at the customers that hadn't paid. You'd be surprised how long somebody owns a store for 25 years and sells it, moves to Florida, and they don't pay the last month's bill. It's like their retirement plan or something.

And you can't find them. You got to write it off to bad debt. They're never going to pay it. It wouldn't be good to keep that on, you know, on your books. Like that's still an asset of yours. The Lord never writes off the sin of his people to bad debt. It must be paid. We can't pay it. So his son came and paid it so that God could be merciful to me.

The songwriter said, depths of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Do you think you're such a bad sinner, God's run out of mercy after 6,000 years of human history? Now God's run out of mercy for you? No, sir. In Christ, there's a bottomless supply of mercy for every sinner. As long as you're a sinner, God has mercy for you.

And then Mary sings the song, a verse here in praise of the Lord's mighty arm of salvation. Verse 51. He has showed strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seats, and he's exalted them of low degree. Now what is this arm that Mary's talking about? Look back at Psalm 98. Her great-great-grandfather wrote of this too, Psalm 98. Verse one. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things.

His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. Well, that right hand, that right arm, that holy arm is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came who's mighty to save. He didn't try to save somebody and then fail. He didn't suffer and die for somebody trying to save them. They're going to go to hell anyway. No, sir. He's mighty to save. Christ, the right arm of God, came and defeated every enemy. He did it for his people without us ever firing a shot, without us ever helping him one bit.

And what's left for the bride to do? Just look adoringly at our hero, the one who came and defeated every enemy for us and put us in his kingdom. And then last, Mary gives thanks for God's covenant of grace, verse 55. What the Lord's done, he did just as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

I tell you, the only reason that God would save me, there's only one reason. It's because he promised to do it before he created the world. It's the only reason. The only reason Christ would come and suffer and die to put away my sin, the only reason he'd do that is he promised to do it.

And the Lord's gonna keep his promise. That's what his covenant of grace is. It's a promise to save his people by the doing and the dying of his son. And the more I learn of it, the more I see it, the more I think about it, the more I hear about it, the more amazed I'm become because the scope of God's salvation is eternal. It's what he promised to do before he created the world and what his people are going to spend eternity doing after the Lord destroys this earth is praising our God. Thank all because that's what he promised to do. And the only thing I can do is rejoice.

You know, just like I'm sure Mary, Amen to every verse of Elizabeth's part of this song. Elizabeth, amen to every part of the song of Mary's, verse of Mary's song of praise too, didn't you? I did, as I read through it and studied this week, and I hope you will too, and I hope that'll be a blessing to you.

A Beautiful Duet

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the blessing of faith?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How does rejoicing in the Lord affect our lives?

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A Beautiful Duet

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the blessing of faith?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How does rejoicing in the Lord affect our lives?

Sermon Transcript

About Frank Tate

Comments

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