If you would, turn your Bibles
with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. I'm going to, Lord willing, preach
this morning on Mary's song of thanksgiving, so I thought it
would be a good way to begin the service reading Hannah's
song of thanksgiving. I'd like to welcome our guests
from Wheelersburg and College Grove. It's always a pleasure
to see you all. This got scheduled before I was
able to print up the bulletin, but we're going to have a men's
breakfast on Christmas Eve at 8 a.m. at the Frisch's in Ironton. That may not be the absolute
best time, but your wives may like to get you out of the house,
or you may want to get out of the house for, you know, a couple
hours on Christmas Eve, and we're all going to get together there.
So all you men, if possible, can come. Frisch's in Ironton
at 8 a.m., and we'll have no service on Wednesday this week,
so everybody can celebrate Christmas. And also we've got scheduled
our New Year's Eve service, which will begin at 7 p.m. on the 31st. So I know we'll
look forward to that. All right. 1 Samuel, chapter
2. And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies. because I rejoice in
thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. Talk no more, succeeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come
out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by
him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they
that were hungry ceased. so that the barren hath born
seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The
Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out
of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set
them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set
the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his
saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by
strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he
shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his
anointed." And we'll end our reading there. All right, let's
stand together as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. For unto us a child is born,
to us a son is given, The government shall rest on
Him, the anointed One from heaven. His name is Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God is He. The everlasting Father and the
humble Prince of Peace. The increase of His government
and peace shall never end. He'll reign on David's ancient
throne as ruler of all men. Upheld in justice, righteousness,
forever his reign will last. The zeal of the Lord God most
high will bring these things to pass. Thank you. You may be seated.
Turn in your hymnal to page 70. 70. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee. resting down their golden crown
around the glassy sea. Jerobim and Zerubbim falling
down before thee, which word and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee. Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see, Only Thou art holy, there is none beside
Thee. Perfect in power, Love and purity Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Let's turn over three pages,
a few pages to 93. 93. Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, Join
the triumph of the skies, With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ
is born in Bethlehem Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the
newborn King Christ my highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold Him come,
offspring of the Virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see, Veiled incarnate, he is he, Pleased as man with men to
dwell, ? Jesus our Emmanuel ? ? Hark, the herald angels sing ? ? Glory
to the newborn King ? ? Hail the heaven-born Prince of
Peace ? ? Hail the Son of Righteousness ? ? Light and life ? Nooo! Mildly lays his glory by Born
that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born
to give them second birth Hark the herald angels sing Glory
to the new Come, desire, come, nations, come, Fix in us thy
humble home. Rise, the woman's conquering
sea, Cruising us with serpents' head. Heaven's likeness, thou
it may, Step thine image in its place, Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love. Hark! there old angels sing,
Glory to You'll open your Bibles this
morning to Luke chapter one. Our reading this morning is going
to come from Luke chapter one. verses 46 through 55. So here we have Mary after her
cousin Elizabeth praised her and spoke about how she was going
to be blessed throughout all ages. And let's see what Mary
sees that the blessing is. Mary said, My soul does magnify
the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced,
and God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. And why is that? 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 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 exalted them of low degree. He has filled
the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has opened his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy. as he spake to our fathers, to
Abraham and to his seed forever. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our most holy and high Heavenly
Father, we come before you this morning so thankful for your
mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ, that through him we might come
before your holy throne in mercy, that sinners such as us can approach
unto thee and call you our Father. Lord, what an awesome fault. Father, we pray that you would
help us to look away from ourselves and look to Christ, the only
hope for sinful man. Father, we confess that our nature outside of Christ rejects Thee,
that we're rebels by birth, by action. but we also confess that
you have sent your son to have mercy on us. Through his righteousness,
we're your sons and daughters. What an amazing, what an amazing
thing. Father, we pray that you would
save us from having pride of grace, pride of doctrine, and to go forth and tell sinners
where salvation is, what You've done for us. We pray that You
would continue to bless this congregation, Lord. We pray that You would bless our
pastor. Leave him not alone as he studies
and strives to feed Your sheep, but give him a word from Thee
And Lord, don't let us sit in the pews with stony hearts, Lord,
but break those hearts. Give us a new heart, a living
heart, spiritual. Lord, feed that spiritual man.
Give us hearing ears and receiving hearts. Father, cause us to love
Christ with a fervent love. Calls us to show the world that
there is a difference, and that difference is Christ, that you've
given us life in Him. Calls us to pray one for another,
calls us to act in love, to lift each other up, Father, for those
who can't be here this morning, we pray that you would watch
over them. Those who are traveling, give
them traveling mercies. Those who are going through difficult
trials, pray that you would have mercy on them and restore them
and that we might worship as one body together in Christ. Pray for our children, Lord,
that you would edge them about. Just as we have to go out into
this world and work, and our children have to live in this
world, Lord, protect us. Keep us looking to Christ for
all things. Pray that you would one day have
mercy on our children's souls, that you would reveal yourself
to them in a saving manner, cause them to run to Christ, to cling
to Him for salvation. Pray that you would Give our
young adults the desire to continue to sit under the gospel. Give
them loving spouses whom they can worship together. What a
blessing in this world to have Christ-centered homes. Lord,
we beg that you would give us that blessing. Once again, we
pray for our pastor as he stands this morning. And we pray for men wherever
they stand this morning, endeavoring to feed your sheep. Give them
a word. Send your spirit to be among
us and apply that word to our hearts. We ask all these things
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. How can I say thanks for the things, Lord, you have
done for me? Things so undeserved, Yet you
came to prove your love for me. The voices of a million angels
could not express my gratitude. All that I am and ever hope to
be, I owe it all to Thee. To God be the glory, To God be the glory For great
things He has done With His blood He has saved power he has raised me. To God be the glory for great
things he has done. Lord let me live. My life, may it be honoring,
Lord, to Thee. And if I gain any praise, let
it go to Christ of Calvary. He has saved me. With His power He has raised
me. To God be the glory. I bet Mike, I've been listening
to you sing that song for 40 years I bet. Just as good today
as it was 40 years ago. Alright, if you would, turn your
Bibles, open your Bibles now to Luke chapter 1. If you were
here last Sunday, you may recall I brought a message on the Lord's
birth from Hebrews chapter 12 on things not shaken. Things
that could not be shaken because our Lord was born as a man. And I told you then that I was
somewhat reluctant to bring a message on the Lord's birth every December. I don't want to make the Lord's
birth seem like a religious ritual and think people think, oh, here
we go again. We've got to have this message on the Lord's birth
in December. And I was somewhat reluctant
about that. But several of our ladies have
convinced me to rethink my position. They told me that the world never
stops flooding our minds with wrong teaching about the Lord's
birth and that they thought it would be a good idea if I taught
the truth of it every year. And I think that is sound thinking.
So this year I want to bring two messages on the Lord's birth. The title of the message this
morning is great things. The mighty has done. I took my
title from Luke one verse 49. Mary says he that is mighty had
done to me great things. Now let me say this about Mary.
This is Mary's. Our text this morning is Mary's
song of thanksgiving and praise, but Mary, is not to be worshiped. Mary is not to be prayed to.
Don't think that you can get to the Lord through his mother.
You know, some of that may she's not to be prayed to. She's not
an intercessor. Mary is not on a higher plane than any other
believer. But Mary is a picture of what
the Lord has done for all of his people. Mary is an object
of God's grace. Look back at Luke one, verse
twenty eight. The angel came in under her and said, Hail,
thou that are highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. Now, Mary is blessed among women.
She's not blessed above other women. She's blessed among women.
But Mary sure was an object of God's grace, wasn't she? It's
gracious that God chose Mary to be the mother of the Savior.
I mean, you think of that. What a blessing. How gracious
that is. Yet Mary still had to be given faith and grace the
same way that you and I do. I mean, the Savior was formed
in her womb. She gave birth to the Savior.
Can you say she raised this? I mean, she watched the Savior
grow from a baby to a man. She watched that and she still
had to be given faith the same way you and I do. That says something
about our nature, doesn't it? And every believer is an object
of God's grace, just like Mary was. Highly favored, that phrase
the angel uses there means graciously accepted and much graced. And that's true of everybody
the Lord saves, isn't it? We are much graced because it takes
much grace to save a sinner like us. And that's the grace God
gives his people. And God graciously accepts his
people. How? In Christ, in Mary's firstborn
son. Not because of what we've done,
in Christ. Now that's grace that God, we
do not deserve for God to graciously accept us, but he does in Christ. That's God's grace. We're much
graced. And God graciously did a work just like we looked at
in our lesson this morning for Mary and in Mary. God chose Mary
to be the mother of the Savior. And he saved her by his grace.
That's a work done for her. And the Holy Spirit conceived
the Son of God in Mary's womb. That's a work of grace done in
her. And this is the work that God does for and in all of his
people. Christ shed his blood to justify
his people, to put their sin away. That was a work done for
us in Calvary's tree. God the Holy Spirit forms Christ
in the hearts of all of his people in the new birth. That's a work
done in us. And I'll tell you what, But that's
better than Mary. It really is. It's better to
have Christ formed in your heart than to have Christ formed in
your womb. It really is. But Mary's much graced. God did
both for her, didn't he? So I want us to look and see
here what the Lord did for Mary by His grace and see that this
is what the Lord does for all of His people by His grace. Every
believer can sing Mary's song of thanksgiving here. So let's
look at it. Here's the first stanza in Mary's
song of thanksgiving. that the Lord has made me rejoice
in God, our Savior. Verse 46, Mary said, my soul
does magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God,
my Savior. By nature, we rejoice in me,
in ourselves. Thus we rejoice in the things
that make me personally happy, that bring me personal glory.
And that's why man's natural religion, the religion man naturally
flocks to, is a works religion. Because if we do enough good
works, God will save us and God will bless us, and I can glory
in that because I did enough works to get it. I did enough
works to earn that. Man's free will religion is based
upon man's free will, what they think is free. So that lets me
glory in my decision. It lets me glory in my morality
that I'm good enough to keep it, you know, keep God's salvation.
Let's just glory in our right doctrine what I know somebody
else doesn't know. But when God saves his people, God saves them
now, not when we come to religion or religious decision, but when
God saves his people by his grace, our tune is going to change.
We're going to rejoice in God, my Savior, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm going to rejoice. See, the
rejoicing in salvation is always in this and the one saved me.
So I'm not going to rejoice in myself anymore, but in him. the
one who saved me. And this rejoicing is not just
a show to impress people. It's genuine. It comes from the
heart. Mary said, my soul does magnify
the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God,
my savior. Salvation is a heart work. Salvation is God giving a new
heart is giving his grace in the heart. See, that's the only
way we can rejoice in God, our Savior. The natural heart is
not going to do it. Oh, God's got to give us a new heart because
by nature we're not going to rejoice in Christ. But when God
gives us a new heart, we will rejoice in him. When God gives
us eyes to see Christ, to see who he is, his person and his
work, what he's done for his people. Oh, we're going to rejoice
in him. We'll rejoice. So many people
at this time of year, Rejoice in that baby born in Bethlehem's
manger. And they, they set them up a
little, you know, shows and they got this little baby, you know,
they buy it down at Walmart, just putting this straw, you
know, it's supposed to be the baby cheese. And they're so happy
about that. And they're so happy about that. I can tell you why.
Because the baby's dependent on you. They like that baby. They don't like the one who rules
and reigns upon the throne. I'm glad. I know people make
an eye out of it, but I'm glad God's son was born in the flesh.
I'm glad he was. You know why? Because since God's
born in the flesh, now he can be my representative. God can't
be my representative. He doesn't have my nature. God
born in the flesh can be my representative. What a miracle of God's grace
that he would do that for me. for the likes of me and you.
You think how God had to humble himself to become an embryo of
Mary's womb and to be born of her and laid in a manger. She
couldn't even go to a nice hospital. She couldn't even get a room
at the nice hotel. The Hampton Inn was sold out.
She had to be down there in a barn, in a horse stall, a cow stall.
And he humbled himself to do that so he could save the likes
of you and me. Oh, I'm glad he came into flesh,
aren't you, Uncle Had? What a miracle of God's grace.
What a miracle that he would humble himself, the son of God
would humble himself now to be made under his own law, to have
to obey his own law, not so he could be righteous because he
already is, but to give that righteousness to the likes of
me, his people. Oh, that's a miracle of God's
grace, isn't it? I rejoice how the Lord Jesus Christ would humble
himself to take my sin to be made sin for his people. See,
God couldn't do that. But God in the flesh came. He
had to be made flesh so he could be my lamb, your lamb, the sacrifice
for the sin of his people. God had to prepare for him a
body that could be sacrificed for the sin of his people. And
that's exactly what he did. He suffered the death. He suffered
the judgment, the sin of his people deserve. So they go free,
free from God's justice so they could live in him. What a miracle
of God's grace. Not just that Christ died, although
that's a miracle enough, but that who he died for, the chief
of sinners. Well, that's a miracle of God's
grace. Aren't you thankful he came into flesh? I rejoice. This is a mighty thing, that
God the Holy Spirit would give me faith in Christ. I told you
before, I tried for years to make myself believe and couldn't.
I mean, I tried for years. I mean, just the gospel that
I heard preached just made sense. I couldn't see how anything else
could be true. This has got to be the truth. And I couldn't
believe it. I could not believe Christ. And
one day I did. I'm not sure the exact day, just
one day I remember realizing I believe Christ. That's a miracle
only God could do. He'd give life to the dead. He'd
give faith to the dead. I'm so glad He did that. I could
not be saved any other way. And you know what? I wouldn't
want to be saved any other way, even if I could. That's a miracle
of God's grace that he would give me life like that, faith
like that. And I rejoice that even right
up to this moment, to the moment I close my eyes in death on this
earth, all I will ever do is sinful. Everything I do is sinful. Yet Christ promised, I will never
leave you or forsake you. I would forsake me. I'm glad
God's not like me, aren't you? He'll never leave nor forsake
his people. That's a miracle of grace. So let's be sure now
that we rejoice. I said this in the lesson. This
is a very, very serious thing. The preaching of the gospel,
the preaching of Christ is so serious, so carefully. guard our time of worship here,
that we don't have distractions. It's weak worship. I mean, it's
so serious, deadly, deadly serious. It's a matter of life and death.
But this is a matter of rejoicing. Let's be sure we rejoice. And
that we rejoice in Christ, that we rejoice in Christ, the person
of Christ. Look over a few pages of Luke
chapter 10. Let's be sure we're not rejoicing in religious things
or religious feelings or even religious truths. Let's be sure
we rejoice and ask the Lord to enable us to rejoice in Christ
and salvation in Him. Luke chapter 10 verse 17. And the 70 returned again with
joy saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy
name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Now don't take
that mean you can go rebuking the devil and you can walk on
scorpions and a snake can bite you and you won't die. Don't
take that to mean that. I watched the, I just could not
help it, this documentary on Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. And
they even said in this documentary that their life is like a car
wreck. You can't help but watch. I thought, that's me, that's
why I'm watching this. I can't turn away. And I saw her in that saying,
I rebuke Satan. I told Satan, you do this and
you do this and you do this. Don't go doing that. And even
if you could, even these men could. Don't rejoice in that.
Look what the Lord says, verse 20. Notwithstanding, in this
rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather
rejoice because your names are written in heaven. That's what
you rejoice in. Rejoice in God's electing grace,
His sovereign electing grace. Rejoice in God's redeeming grace,
his saving grace, his keeping grace. Rejoice in who God gives
this to. Look at verse 21. In that hour,
Jesus rejoiced in spirit. This is what the Savior himself
is rejoicing in. Eric, I believe we ought to rejoice
in it too, don't you? I mean, let's follow his example. The
Savior rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and you've revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Let's just
pray God enable us to rejoice in Christ our Savior, rejoice
in Him in whom all grace is found. I'm thankful. Aren't you thankful
to be set free from rejoicing in self, from being so caught
up in self and rejoice in Him? I'm thankful for that. All right,
here's a second stanza in Mary's song. I am thankful that the
Lord would humble himself to even regard me. Verse 48, Luke
chapter 1. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. Now Mary was of the house and
lineage of David. And at one time David was the
most powerful man on this planet. I mean the wealth and the power
and the opulence of David's life. But at this time, being descended
from David didn't mean much. David's house at this time had
deteriorated to nothing. Scripture calls it a dead stump.
I mean, you just don't even think life's going to come out of this
thing. It's not possible. It just didn't look like anything
good would ever come out of David's house again. It's just nothing.
And that's the way Mary saw herself. She described herself as a handmaid.
You know what that word means? A female slave. That's what she
did. She didn't think she was royal.
I'm not a royal. I'm a slave. That's the way she viewed herself.
But she's praising God for his grace. She said the Lord humbled
himself to even look on me. I mean, not only did the Lord
humble himself to come save me, not only did he humble himself
to suffer and die for me, he had to humble himself to even
look on me. I'm so low down. The Lord had to look way down. Only the Lord can see that far.
Only the Lord can see that far down to where I was to look on
me. And when the Lord looked on me,
when he looks on his people, he looks on them in grace. The
same way he did Mary. Mary said he regarded me. And
that word means to look with respect. The Lord humbled himself
to look on the likes of you and me, his people, with respect.
Respect. Now, the only way the Lord could
look on me with respect, the only way that's possible, is
if he looked at me in Christ. The only way. The Lord can't
look on me with respect if he sees me in my flesh. But oh,
if he sees me in his Son, he'll respect me. And that's grace,
that God would look on me in his Son. I love that song Leah
sings. When he sees me, he sees the
blood of the Lamb. He sees me as worthy, not as
I am. He sees me in Christ. Look back at Psalm 113. You know,
the contrast between who God is and how high He is and who
we are and how low we are, that just highlights and magnifies
God's grace. We just can't even say how high
the Lord is and how low we are. But look what he says here, the
psalmist, Psalm 113, verse 5. Who is like unto the Lord our
God, who dwelleth on high? who humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven and in the earth. Now, if the
Lord has to humble himself to behold the things in heaven,
how much does he have to humble himself to look on the likes
of you and me, how low we are? But he does. And not only did
the Lord humble himself to look upon his people, he humbled himself
to come where we are and become what we are in order to save
us. The Lord came all the way down
to where his people are so that he could grab hold of them, lift
them up, lift them off the dunghill and set them among princes. The
Lord humbled himself to suffer and die as the sacrifice for
the sin of his people. I mean, just how horrible was
that for the Holy Son of God to be made sin? We've got no point of reference
because all we know is sin. Yet he did it so that he'd save
his people from theirs. Now that's grace. Look at Psalm
136. Mary is saying the same thing
that her father David said. Psalm 136. Verse 23, David says. Who remembered
us, he regarded us, he remembered us in our lowest state for his
mercy. forever and hath redeemed us
from our enemies for his mercy forever. God had to humble himself to
even regard us, to remember us because, and he did, because
his mercy is forever. He remembered us and he came
and when he saw his people, he saw us where we were lost in
sin, dead, trespasses and iniquities. And he saw us and he didn't leave
us there. He came where we were and redeemed us from our enemies. Mary says, all generations are
going to call me blessed. And that's true. All generations
will call her blessed. She's blessed of God. But you
know what? All generations are going to
call God's people blessed too. If God's looked on you, if He's
regarded you, He's respected, looked on you with respect, you're
blessed beyond all human comprehension. And all generations for all of
eternity will call you blessed. Blessed Him, God's Son. In verse
49, back in our text, Mary says four. Here's why all this has
happened. For He that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is His name. These are mighty
works that only God is mighty enough to do. And to think that
the holy God would do these mighty works, four and two, the likes
of you and me, that's God's grace. That's God's grace. All right,
here's the third stanza of Mary's psalm. It goes right with what
we read in Psalm 136. I'm thankful that God's mercy
is eternal. In verse 50, Mary says, and his
mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
David has said repeatedly in the Psalms, we just read it.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for his good, for his mercy forever. And especially in that Psalm
136, and I think most other places in the Psalm, we read, His mercy
endureth forever. But you'll notice that word endureth
is in italics. It's been added by the translators
trying to help our understanding of it. And I don't, maybe it's
fine. It probably is. But when you
read it that way, God's mercy endureth forever. We're so self-centered. You know what we think? We think,
well, God's mercy starts here with me. And then it continues,
endures forever. And that kind of mercy will not
save a sinner. That kind of mercy won't save
you now. A sinner needs mercy that doesn't have any beginning.
A sinner needs mercy that began with God. Not begins with me,
but that began with God in eternity, for God created anything. See,
a sinner has to have mercy from God. God had to see me in mercy
before creation, long before I ever came along. Because if
God waited until I came along, or until my father Adam came
along, and then he's going to decide whether or not to have
mercy on me, I'll never have mercy. I'll die in my sins. I'd
have no hope of salvation if mercy had to begin with me. If
I have to meet any qualifications, if I have to jump through any
hoops, if I have to make any decisions and do something that's
good enough in order for God to have mercy on me, I'll never
have mercy. But, if God's mercy is eternal,
it doesn't have a beginning, If God has always seen His people
in mercy, He's always looked on them with regard and respect
because He's always seen them in mercy in His Son, then I can
be saved. Then you can be saved. See, the
only kind of mercy that will save me is mercy that has no
beginning. God had to choose me before He
created anything. He had to have mercy upon me
in eternity. He had to have mercy upon me
because of who God is. not because of who I am. When
nothing existed but God, that's when I had to have mercy. It
had to be because of who God is. It had to begin with God,
not because of who I am. I need mercy that has no beginning
and has no ending. Now that's great mercy. If you
can't measure it, that's great. That's the kind of mercy I need.
And that's the kind of mercy God has on his people. And since
God's mercy is eternal, that means The objects of God's mercy
must be saved. They must be. Since the father
purposed to save his people in mercy and in the fullness of
time, the father sent his son to redeem his people from their
sin. He sent him into this world, made of flesh so that he could
redeem his people in mercy. Then the objects of God's mercy
must be saved. They must be. Now get a hold of your seats
here. This is, this is something that's astounding. You hear me
preach, hear me say this before, but you better get ahold of your
seats again, because if God ever shows it to us, we're going to come
out of our seats. Mercy. Definition of mercy is
God not giving us what we deserve. What do we deserve? Eternal damnation. That's what we deserve. We deserve
eternity in hell for our sin. In order for God to be just and
holy, and not give his people, not give me. I mean, I'm just
talking about me. In order for God to not give
me what I deserve and still be God, still be just, you know
what God had to do? He had to give his son the hell I deserve. I love y'all, but I wouldn't
kill my daughters for one of you. I mean, I'm sorry, that's
just so. I mean, we may as well not lie. It ain't a shame to
lie on Sunday, well, I ain't gonna lie. I wouldn't kill my
daughters for any of you. I mean, I love you, oh, I love
you, but no. Almighty God killed his son so he had mercy on me. So he could not give me what
I deserved. What I deserved got to be poured out on somebody.
He poured out on his son so he could save me in mercy. After the beloved son of God
saved his people in that kind of mercy, by His blood, by His
death as their substitute. Can you imagine for a moment
that Almighty God will run out of mercy and let some of those
people for whom Christ died perish in hell anyway? Not a chance. Not a chance. Is God going to
change His mind and decide there's such great sinners, I'm tired
of them. I'm going to cast them off. Not a chance. You cannot
out sin God's mercy. Because of who died. Who is it
that died? Mary's baby boy. He grew to be
a man. This is the God man. Oh, I give
thanks that God's mercy is eternal both ways. Christ purchased it
with his blood and that guarantees my salvation. Can we say with
David? Oh, give thanks that God is good. His mercy forever. All right,
here's the fourth stanza in our psalm. I give thanks for God's
electing love. 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 has exalted them of low degree. He has filled
the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. Now you notice there's a contrast
here between two sets of people in there. There's a contrast
between the proud and the low, the proud and the humble. There's
a contrast between the hungry and the rich. And there's a difference
between them. What makes the difference between
those two groups of people? There's a difference, isn't there?
One of them's full, one of them's empty. One of them's accepted,
one of them's torn down. What's the difference between
those two groups of people? It's Christ. He's the arm of
God's power. The difference in those two groups
of people is what Christ has done. What He has done for them
and what He's done to them. Now the proud, Mary says, God's
going to scatter them. He's not going to accept them
in his presence. He's going to scatter them. And this caught my attention. This interested me. He's going
to scatter them in their imagination. Sounds to me like God's going
to let them have the way of salvation that they imagined. They imagined
this is the way to come to God. They imagined this is what God
is like. They just dreamed that this is
the way a sinner can be saved. And God revealed His right arm
of power. He revealed the Lord Jesus Christ to this world and
His power to save. Like Brother Henry used to say,
this thing wasn't done in a corner. The name of Jesus Christ is known
throughout this world. And I don't know about every
corner of the world, but I'm telling you especially right
now, you cannot live in this world and not hear the name of
Jesus Christ. It's impossible. I have enjoyed the lead up to
this Christmas more than any that I can imagine. And one of
the things I have enjoyed is driving down the road, turn on
the radio and hearing these hymns on popular radio, singing the
name of the Savior. You can't live in this world
without hearing his name. God's revealed him. And what
have these done in their own imagination? They've rejected
him. They wanted their own way and
God gave them what they wanted. He gave them the way of their
imagination, and they perished. People tell you, Your Honor,
God won't violate your free will. You better hope He does. Because
if we go the way of our imagination, we're going to go to hell. We
better hope God crosses our path, He crosses our will, and saves
us against our will with our full consent. We better hope
that. See, they thought they were mighty. They thought they
were strong enough to stand before God in their own two feet. And
God's going to tear them down. He's going to cast them down.
They thought they were mighty to save themselves and set them
up on those high seats. And God pulled them down all
the way to hell. But here's the contrast. There's
the humble. They know they don't got nothing.
They know they are nothing. And God in his grace lifts them
up. Now, here's grace. They're not
humble because of their own wisdom, their own sight to see themselves
as they are. You know why they're humble? God made them God made
them see that they were humble. He made them see that they were
helpless. He made them cry out for mercy. And then God reached
down and lifted them up. He made them humble and then
He lifted them up because they are humble. That's grace. And then there are the rich.
There are plenty of people who think that they're rich. Now
I'm talking about they think they're spiritually rich. They
think they've made themselves rich in their own works. They
think that their good works have made them rich enough that they
can buy God's favor. That they can buy God's righteousness.
They can buy righteousness and acceptance with God. They think
all their good works are going to fill them up and give them
life. And they're going to come before God in that. Lord, haven't
we preached in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name? Haven't we cast out devils in your name?
And God's going to send them away empty. Empty of righteousness. Empty of life. Empty of mercy. And why would God give them mercy?
They never wanted it. God's going to send them away empty. But
then there's the hungry. The hungry are the people who
God has made hungry. God's emptied them and God made
them hungry. They're not hungry because they got any, you know,
spiritual life in themselves to sense that they're hungry.
No, God made them hungry. He emptied them and he made them
hunger and thirst after righteousness. You know, when you hunger after
something, you thirst after it. It's because your body's telling
you, I don't have enough of it. God made them hunger after righteousness. He gave them life to realize
they don't have any. He made them thirst after righteousness
because they realized I don't have any of myself. God emptied
them and made them cry for mercy. He made them cry, Lord, help
me. I'm empty. I'm hungry. And the Lord filled
them because they're hungry. He filled them because he made
them hungry. That's grace. See, that's God's grace. And
the proud and the rich, they got exactly what they deserve
and they can't complain about it. They got exactly what they
deserve. The whole human race. deserves, has earned hell. And
if God sent somebody to hell, we cannot complain about it.
That's what we deserve. That's the just wages of our
sin. But thank God for His electing love, that He would be gracious
enough to choose a people in His Son. Those people can't save
themselves. They have no strength, they got
no life, they got no power. So God sent the arm of His strength.
He sent His mighty right arm, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come
into this world and do the work. I'm sorry about you left-handed
people, but the right arm is considered to be power. This
is the hand you get the work done with. This is the power.
Christ sent his son to get the work done, to get the job done,
to save his people from their sin by satisfying the father. And the father gives his elect
exactly what they deserve to do. He does exactly what they
deserve, what Christ earned for them. Aren't you glad for God's
electing love? Give His people exactly what
Christ deserves to earn for them. I thank God for His electing,
redeeming, saving, keeping grace. It's the only way I can be saved.
All right, here's the fifth stanza. I'm thankful for God's covenant
of grace. Verse 54. He hath opened His
servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to
our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed, forever. Now this word
hope in here, it means when I first read that, I thought about helping,
but that's not what it means. It means to lay hold of, it means
to embrace and to be a partaker. God has laid hold of his people.
He's laid hold of them in mercy and he's pulled them out of this
world. He's pulled them out of their sin. He laid hold on them
in mercy. The very first time the word
mercy, merciful, is used in scripture is in regard to Lot. The angel
come and told Lot, you got to get out of this place. I'm going
to destroy it. I can't destroy the city till you get out of
here. You've got to get out of destroying this city. Lot knew
God was going to destroy that city and he lingered. And the
angel being merciful laid hold on him. He has laid hold upon his people,
a brand. plucked from the fire. God laid
hold of his people. It's not just he jerked them
out. He laid hold of them in a loving embrace. He holds his
bride to his bosom and he will not let go. You know why he's
done that? Because that's just what he promised
to do. He promised he would save his people in the covenant of
grace. And Christ came in the flesh
because this is what he promised to do. The father elected a people,
he said, I promise I'm going to save these people by the obedience
and the sacrifice of my son. And the son said, I promise to
save them. The spirit said, I promise to
give him faith in life. This is the covenant of grace
between the Godhead and Christ came in the flesh. So he become
partaker of our flesh, partaker of our human nature, yet without
sin. And when he came, he joined himself
to his bride. He became one flesh with her.
So he enabled her to be partaker of his nature, partaker of his
righteousness, partaker of his life, partaker of his mercy and
grace, partaker of salvation in him. And he did all that by
ratifying God's covenant of grace with his precious blood. This
covenant was sealed with the blood of Christ that cleansed
his people from all of their sin. This was accomplished because
Mary's first born baby was born in Bethlehem. That baby boy grew
to become a man. The man. And that man was sacrificed
for the sin of his people. During the Passover. During the
Passover. See, God did this at a time that
more people were coming to Jerusalem at any time of the year. So they
could all pass by those three crosses and behold that middle
man on the cross. And he said, then behold, all
you that pass by. Behold my sorrow. Is there any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done in me in the day of God's
fierce anger? Is there? No, they beheld Him. There's
Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us. The Father killed His
Son to ratify His covenant of grace, to save His people from
their sin. And He did all that because that's
just what God promised to do, promised to do. That's what God's
always, He's always kept His promise, hasn't He? Our God is
a covenant God, especially you young people, children and young
people. You hear preachers say things like that. You're a preacher
saying God's a covenant God. If you ever hear a preacher say,
let me tell you what he means. God's a covenant God. This is what
that means. All it means is this. God's doing what he promised
to do. That's what it means. God's not reacting to what you
and I do. Oh, they did this. Well, then I better do this.
God's not reacting to what we do. You know what God's doing
right now? Exactly what he promised to do in eternity. God purposed
in eternity. This is what I'm going to do.
In all human time is, is God carrying out his purpose. Right
now, God's doing exactly what he promised to do. That's what
being a covenant God means. Well, God's always kept his promise.
You know, we talk about things that God cannot do. God can do
anything. Wait a minute. God can't do something
that violates His character, can He? God cannot lie. God's
never broken His promise. And He's not going to start breaking
it now. Christ has come into flesh and He's ratified, He's
sealed God's covenant of grace in His own blood. God cannot
break that covenant. He can't. He honors His Son too
much. He honors His character too much.
He honors the sacrifice and blood of His Son too much. He cannot
break that covenant. Thank God for His covenant of
grace, because that covenant guarantees the salvation of His
people, guarantees my salvation. The only way I could ever be
saved is if God promised to do it and then kept His promise.
It's the only way. Now I know that the Lord was
not born on December 25th. I know that's a day that began
in idolatry. I know all that stuff. But, you
know, it's just fine with me. It's just fine with me that at
this time of year, the world forces us and forces the rest
of the world to think about Christ at this time of year. Anything
that forces us to think about Christ, it just can't be all
bad. I know I know it comes from a bad root. I understand that.
But it just can't be a bad thing, can it? If we're forced to think
about Christ, if you can drive down the road instead of listening
to classic rock like I like to listen to, listen to joy to the
world, it has to be a good thing. And on top of that, I'm just
all for people getting time off work, getting to come be with
your family. Jane, you're a happy mama. All your family. I'm all
for it. I mean, I'm all for people getting
to spend time with their families, to give presents to one another,
just sit and eat too much and just sit around and talk and
laugh and fellowship together with your family. I'm all for
it. All for it. And if while we do
that, we hear these great songs, joy to the world. Hark the herald
angels sing. And we're forced to think upon
the birth of Christ that we'd be thankful. Thankful for Him. Thankful for the Son of God coming
to flesh to redeem His people. If I could be thankful for that,
and have time with my family, give Janet a present she loves.
Jason, it's got to be the most wonderful time of the year, doesn't
it? Oh, I'm thankful. I'm thankful. By God's grace,
to have this, this gospel, this salvation in Christ, and to have
this revelation of His glory, and all this too? I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And I hope that
you all have the best Christmas I hope you get everything your
heart desires and enjoy this time with your family. We can
do that and give thanks for the Savior. Time well spent. Time well spent. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you. Oh, how we thank you for your
purpose of mercy and grace to your people. How we thank you
that you accomplished your purpose in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, born of a virgin, born in lowly, humble beginnings,
living a life as a poor working man, a poor homeless man, but
accomplishing the redemption of your people by His perfect
obedience, by His perfect sacrifice. And by that sacrifice, you have
eternally redeemed all of your people from their sins. Father,
how we thank you. Great is the mystery of godliness,
that God was manifest in the flesh. But Father, great is the
mystery of everything you've accomplished by your grace, that
you would accomplish such mighty things for such lowly, worthless
people such as we are. Father, we thank you. We thank
you. We pray your continued blessing. Father, continue to bless you.
Continue to reveal your glory and your mercy and your grace
to your people, both here and everywhere your gospel is preached.
Father, bless us, we pray. Continue to bless us with faith
and a sight and a vision and some understanding of who our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is. It is in His blessed name
that we pray and ask these great blessings. Amen. All right, Mike,
you come lead us in a song. Let's stand and sing 449, 449.
Then after we end this song on the last verse, last chorus,
let's go to the chorus of, O come, all ye faithful. O come, let
us adore him. We can do that. Yes, of course. To God be the
glory. Great things he hath done. So
loved he the world that he gave us his Son. Buildeth His life an atonement
for sin, And openeth the life-gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood, To every believer the promise of God, The pilest offender
who truly believes, That moment from Jesus the pardon receives. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, with Jesus
the Son, and give Him the glory. Great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us. Great things He hath done. And great are rejoicing through
Jesus the Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be How wonder our transport when Jesus we see! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice! O come to the Father, good Jesus,
the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O come, let us adore Him, O come,
let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. you