Let's open our Bibles again to
Luke chapter 1. The title of the message is Our
Song of Thanksgiving. After Mary's conversation with
the angel Gabriel, she went to see her cousin Elizabeth. Part of their conversation is
recorded here in Luke chapter 1. And after that conversation
with her husband, Mary gives us her song of thanksgiving. But you know that song is not
exclusively Mary's. Mary's song of thanksgiving is
the song of every believer. Christ being formed in Mary's
womb is a picture of what happens every time God saves a sinner.
God put life in her womb. And God saves His people, He
forms life in them in the new birth. Now of all the women on
earth, it's hard to tell, how many women were on earth at this
time? God singled out one. God chose Mary to be the mother
of our Lord. It had to be that way. The Savior
must be born of a woman. He must be made under the law,
made of a woman. And you think, what an honor.
How God blessed Mary when he chose her for this. In verse
42, this is what Elizabeth said. She spake out with a loud voice
and said, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb. You'll notice that Elizabeth
doesn't say, Mary, you're blessed above women. She says, Mary,
you're blessed among women. Yeah, that's why we don't today,
we don't pray to Mary, we don't ask Mary, you know, would you
go to Jesus and intercede for us, you know, because you got
to, you have better access to him, you've got a better chance
to get him to do what we want him to do, you know, because
you're his mother. We don't need that. A believer does not need
that. How wicked is that? That's another
illustration of men putting something between the sinner and the Savior.
Believer, we have a mediator. We don't need another one. There's
just one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. And when we pray, we pray in
Christ's name. The exact same way Mary did.
Mary needed an intercessor just as much as we do. So she's just,
she's not blessed above women. She's blessed among women. She
was blessed to be chosen by God to give birth to the Savior.
Now what an honor that is. But you know, every believer
is blessed spiritually in the same way. We've been blessed
by God's divine election of a people. There aren't words to express
what a blessing it is for God to choose to save a sinner. And
He did. God chose sinners to save. What
a blessing that He would choose a people. Now make no mistake
about it. If we're the people of God, it's
because God chose us. We didn't choose Him. He chose
us. Just like He did Mary here. And
what a blessing. God has chosen us. There are
many people I'm looking at here this evening. God chose you.
He chose to save you. So Mary's song of thanksgiving
is our song of thanksgiving. I want to point out a few things
about this song. Number one, our song of thanksgiving
magnifies our Lord. He's the theme and subject of
it. Verse 46. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord. Yet my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Savior. Now this is just so. If God saves
you, you will magnify the Lord. If God saves you, you won't magnify
yourself in any way. There's no reason for you to.
You didn't do nothing. He did it all. We just have never
done anything worth bragging about. We're not going to magnify
ourselves because we didn't contribute to our salvation in any way. Only thing you and I have contributed
to this situation is our sin, which needs a Savior. That's
all we've contributed. So there's nothing to brag about.
We're not saved because we made a decision. We're not saved because
we walked an aisle, because we're better than anybody else. No,
we're saved. We magnify the Lord because He's
the one who saved us. He did all of the work of redemption
from beginning to end. He did it for us and then He
put it in us. So we magnify the Lord. A believing
heart magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God my Savior. Now this is not just magnifying
and rejoicing in the blessings that God gives. We're thankful
for them. But that's not the theme of our
song. We magnify the blesser. We magnify the fountain and source
of all these blessings. We magnify Christ our Savior. That's our heart's desire and
our heart's praise. It's Christ our Savior. And I'll
tell you how we magnify the Lord. It's really not very complicated.
We just magnify the Lord by telling what great things the Lord's
done for us. And then when he told that demoniac, that demoniac,
the Lord set him free from those chains. There he sat clothed
in his right mind. And Lord's gonna, these people,
Told the Lord to leave. He said, these people are crazy.
Don't leave me here with them. I'm going to go with you. And
the Lord said, no, I'll tell you what you do. You go home
and you tell your family, your friends, and your neighbors what
great things God's done for you. And you know he did. He ablazed
it abroad. Can't we tell what great things
God's done for us? We magnify the Lord in telling
people. You know God chose to save me.
He didn't choose me because I was any good. God, because of who
He is, His goodness, His mercy, His grace, God chose to save
a poor, vile, wretched sinner like me. Because God's good. That's magnifying the Lord. We
magnify the Lord by telling people how the Lord sent me a messenger.
God one day sent me a preacher and He revealed Himself to me
through the preaching of Christ. We don't know God because we
figured Him out. We don't know God because we
figured out the gospel. Now if we know God, we know God
because He revealed Himself to us and He gave us faith to believe
Him. That's magnifying the Lord. We're
magnifying the Lord by telling how only God has the wisdom to
save a guilty sinner like me and at the same time remain holy,
be both just and justifier. He kept the law. He magnified
the law and magnified and kept his justice through the death
of Christ, my substitute. That's magnifying the Lord. We
magnify the Lord by telling how it's only God who has the grace
and the love and the power to give eternal life to a dead dog
like me. He put life eternal life in me
through the new birth. That's magnifying the Lord. Second,
our song of thanksgiving rejoices in God just thinking about us. Verse 48, for he hath regarded
the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. You know, Mary never did think
of herself is anything special. She never thought of herself
as better than any child of God. You know, like people do today.
People have exalted Mary to this status. She never put herself
there. She never thought of herself
that way. Mary was amazed. The Lord even knew who she was,
that he'd think about her. She's so low and insignificant. The word handmaid Now, when we
use the word handmaiden, that's kind of like a nice term, you
know, a handmaiden, she's a nice young girl. The way Mary used
this word means a female slave. She said, I'm a female slave.
And God thought on me. See, that's magnifying the Lord,
telling how great God is. And she doesn't deny she's blessed.
Absolutely, God's blessed her. But she says the only reason
I'm blessed is the Lord thought on me. He thought on the lowest
female slave. And every object of God's grace
amens her thought. I mean, I'm just amazed God even
knows who I am. Much less that he thought on
me. The lowest, most rebellious God
thought on me. In mercy and grace. Now Mary,
we know, was a physical descendant of David. She's in the lineage
of David. But you know, she's also a spiritual
descendant of David. Remember King David, he came
and sat before the Lord. And he said, who am I, O Lord
God? And what's my house that you
brought me here to? Mary's got that attitude, doesn't
she? Look at Psalm 40, David says this again. Psalm 40, verse 16. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I'm poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer.
Make no tearing, O my God. I am poor and needy, but the
Lord thinks on me. Look at Psalm 136. Psalm of God's
mercy. Psalm 136 verse 23. Who remembered us in our low
estate. He remembered all these slaves,
male and female slaves. He remembered us in our low estate. Why? For His mercy endureth forever. We praise God that He even thought
about us. And because He did, all of eternity
will call us blessed because God thought on us in mercy and
grace. Thirdly, our song of thanksgiving
rejoices in our mighty Savior. Verse 49 of Luke 1. For He that
is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name."
Now, a believer rejoices in a mighty Savior, because it takes a mighty
Savior to save a great sinner, doesn't it? We have a mighty
Savior. Christ, our mighty Savior, has
done great things for us, things we could never do. That word
great, it means magnificent things. And it also means things done
in perfection. Christ our Savior has done great
things, magnificent things, things of perfection by putting away
the sin of His people by the blood of His sacrifice. The sacrifice
of Christ, His blood is such a great thing, such a magnificent,
perfect thing. His blood has made the sin of
His people to not exist anymore. That's a great thing. Christ,
our mighty Savior, did what no man other than him ever did.
He kept God's law. He obeyed it perfectly. And when
he suffered and when he died, he forever set his people free
from the condemnation of the law. Christ, our mighty Savior,
the seed of woman, is going to come and in a few years after
he's born, he's going to crush Satan's head. set his people
free from the prince of the power of the air. Those are great things. Those are great things our mighty
Savior has done for us. But here Mary says, the Lord
has done great things to me. To me. What is it that the Lord
did to Mary? He put life in her womb, didn't
he? In her womb, God put eternal life. He put life Himself. He put the source of all life
in her womb. Now you think of the power it
took to do that. He put life in the womb of a
virgin. Impossible. But God did it. And the Lord in His power does
the very same thing for all of His people. God the Holy Spirit
comes and He puts eternal life in. all of God's elect in the
new birth. Just like Mary was a virgin. It's impossible for that womb
to produce life by itself. It's an utter impossibility.
But God put life in her. You and I are born dead in sin.
It is utterly impossible for us to give ourselves life, to
put life in it. We're dead. But our mighty Savior
has put life That's what He's done to His people. He's caused
them to be born again. The Holy Spirit comes and He
applies the salvation that Christ purchased at Calvary by applying
His blood to our hearts and giving us life in Christ. And only the
power of God could do it. Only God can give life to the
dead. And that's exactly what He does
for all of His people. He's a mighty Savior. Can't we rejoice in that? We
can sing about that. We rejoice in our Savior who
did everything we couldn't do. We couldn't set ourselves free
from sin. Just try not to sin. Try it for one second to not
sin. We can't do it. Sin's got a hold of this flesh.
We can't not sin. Christ set his people free from
sin. He paid our sin debt. An eternity in hell would not
pay for one of our sins. In just a matter of hours, in
his suffering and death on the cross, Christ paid the sin debt
of a people no man can count. He set his people free from the
law, free from Satan. And I tell you why Christ, our
mighty Savior, could do that. Look at verse 37. Elizabeth says,
for with God, nothing shall be impossible. He's so mighty, nothing
is impossible to him. But Mary says something else
here that's very powerful. She says, holy is his name. God did all of this for me and
to me, for a sinner like me, and he's still holy. Here's the
display of God's might. Here's a great thing that God
does to his people, a magnificent thing. He makes his people holy. God makes his people holy because
he can't accept them any other way. He can't love them any other
way unless they're holy. We can't make ourselves holy. So our mighty Savior came and
did that to all of his people. He makes them holy. Now that's
power, to make a sinner holy. Anybody who has that life sings
this song of praise. What my mighty Savior has done.
Fourthly, our song of thanksgiving rejoices in our merciful Savior. Verse 50, and his mercy is on
them that fear him from generation to generation. Now this is something
every son and daughter of Adam needs to learn. It's not all
about us. We go through this life. It's
not all about us. We are so full of self. We think
God owes it. He owes it to us to give us his
very best. How full of self is that? But
God's God. And you and I are the fallen
creature who've rebelled against Him, sinned against Him. God
does not owe us a chance to be saved. God doesn't owe salvation
to us. God doesn't owe us anything but
wrath because of our sin. That's all God owes us. So thank
God He's merciful to sinners. Merciful. I fear a lot of people I hear
talk about salvation righteousness and justification and sanctification,
all these things. They make it very technical. There's nothing technical about
mercy, nothing technical about mercy at all. God is merciful
to sinners. That mercy is from everlasting
everlasting. It's eternal from generation
to generation. God's mercy doesn't have a beginning.
It doesn't have an ending. We just read a verse from Psalm
136. I told you we go through the Psalms. I just plan on doing
a survey. I'm not going to preach in all
of them. I promise you we get to Psalm 136. I'm going to preach
from that. His mercy forever. 26 times the Psalmist said for
his mercy forever. It never ends. Almighty God doesn't have to
say, you're me. God is merciful. He saves sinners,
even though they don't deserve it. That's why Christ came, because
God is merciful, because his mercy is eternal. And Christ
came to accomplish it. Look here at verse 71. Here's
Zacharias, his song of praise. He says that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform
the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. That's why Christ came, to perform
the mercy that God promised His people. If you want to see the
greatest, most clear example, illustration, example and illustration cross,
does that not a good word? You want to see the greatest
display of God's mercy, look to Calvary. God put his mercy
on display for all of creation to see at Calvary. God is merciful
to sinners and God does not give sinners, his people, those people
that he chose to save, God does not give them the wrath and the
condemnation that they've earned because of their sin and their
rebellion against Him. You know why? God does not give that wrath
to His people because He poured it out. All of it. Undiluted wrath. Undiluted condemnation. Everything His people deserve,
He poured out upon His Son at Calvary. Because He made His
Son sin for His people and Christ suffered and died as their substitute
Strict justice. Mercy to sinners because the
father put his son to death. There's nothing technical about
that. Mercy for the miserable. And
every believer rejoices in God's mercy to sinners. It's the only
way we can be saved, in his mercy. We can't earn salvation. If we're
going to be saved, we must be objects of His mercy. Isn't that
right? We can't earn it by anything
we do. If we're going to be saved, we
must be saved in mercy. Look at Matthew chapter 9. Our
Lord tells us this very plainly. You can't earn it. It's mercy. Matthew chapter 9, verse 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus
sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I'm come to have
mercy upon sinners. God is merciful to sinners, doing
for them what they could never do for themselves, taking the
punishment they could never bear. Look here at verse 54, back in
our text. Mary says, he had hopened his
servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. Here's why God
helps his people in remembrance of his mercy. Look over at Genesis
chapter 19. That word hope in there that
Mary used, it means to take hold of in turn. And that is exactly
how the Lord is merciful to his people. He takes hold of them
and he saves them in his mercy. The very first time the word
mercy is used in the Bible is here in Genesis 19 verse 15. This is when the, Lord, these
angels had come to Sodom to destroy the city, but they can't destroy
the city while Lot's in it. And here they are in Lot's house.
And when the morning arose, then the angels hasted Lot, saying,
Arise, take thy wife and my two daughters, which are here, lest
thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. Now you'd think he'd have took
off running, wouldn't you? God says, I'm going to destroy
this place. Get out of here. And poor old Lot lingered. But while he lingered, the man
laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon
the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto
him. And they brought him forth and
set him without the city. That's mercy. That's how God
saves His people. In mercy, He takes hold of their
hand brings them to Christ, puts salvation in them. That's the
only kind of mercy that can save a sinner. You write this down. God's merciful to sinners. God does not help those who help
themselves. No, sir. God helps those who
cannot and will not help themselves. Because God's merciful. Oh, thank
God. for His mercy. Just so we're
real crystal clear about this, mercy, if it's truly mercy, must
be sovereign mercy. Not because we deserve it, not
because we did something to twist God's arm or manipulate Him to,
you know, no, it's sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy just means
this. It's God's choice to show mercy,
not mine to accept it. That's sovereign mercy. Look
at Romans chapter 9. Let's see if this isn't what
Paul says about God's mercy. Romans 9 verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Now that's not difficult for
anybody here to understand. God has mercy on who he will
have mercy, and he hardens on those he passes by. That's sovereign
mercy. Well, where does that leave you
and me? That leaves us at His feet begging for mercy, doesn't
it? That leaves us at the foot of the throne as mercy beggars. And that brings me to my fifth
point about our song of thanksgiving. Our song of thanksgiving praises
a sovereign Savior. Verse 51, Luke 1. He has showed
strength with His arms. He has scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled
the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty
away. Now the proud that she speaks
of here are those who think they don't need God's mercy. And God's
going to destroy them with his mighty hand. If you don't need
mercy from God, God's going to give you justice. They think
they don't need mercy. They imagine that there's something
that they're not. So God comes and puts them off
their seat. Puts them off their high horse
and sends them away low and empty. Look at 1 Samuel 2. Hannah says
this very same thing. All those who think they're something
else, God's going to put them in the dust. He's going to bring
them low. But everyone who thinks they're
so low, that they're so low, they don't deserve God's mercy.
They don't deserve for God to even think on them. God takes
those people and fills them, lifts them up. 1 Samuel 2, verse
6. And it says, 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 hath set the world upon them.
He'll keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail." See, God
uses, Hannah and Mary both say the same thing, God uses the
same sovereign power save his people and destroy his enemies. That power cannot be resisted
and it can't be changed. Well, I got a question. Which
one am I? I'm one of the two. Which one
am I? Am I an object of God's mercy or is he going to destroy
me in his wrath? Well, I can answer that question
with a question. Are you hungry? Are you hungry? This is what a hungry person
knows. A hungry person knows I'm empty. There's nothing there. A hungry
person knows this. The problem is inside of me.
Fancy words, fancy ideas, fancy buildings, fancy restaurants,
fancy napkins and forks and linens and glasses. None of that's going
to do me any good. The problem's in me. A cookbook
won't do me any good. A cooking show where somebody's
whipping up some great thing's not going to do me any good.
I'm empty. And the only thing that's going
to solve my problem that's inside of me is bread. It's the only
thing. That's what a spiritually hungry
person knows. A spiritually hungry person knows
I'm empty. I'm empty of everything God requires.
I'm empty of righteousness. I'm empty of holding us. I'm
empty of obedience. I'm empty of life. And the problem
is inside me. It's not somebody else's fault.
It's not Adam's fault. It's not my parents' fault. The
problem is inside me. And something's got to be done
inside me to solve the problem, because I'm empty. And fancy
religious words aren't going to help. I mean, you can sound
like some doctor of divinity if you want to, but that's not
going to help me none. Religious ideas about how to live a better
life and get more stuff in this world, get more friends. That's
not going to help the emptiness that's in my soul. Fancy religious
buildings, they might draw a crowd and impress the flesh, but they
don't address the emptiness of my soul. The only help for my
spiritually empty, hungry self is Christ, the bread of life. Can you show me somebody preaching
Him? That's where I need to be. That's
where I need to be if I'm empty. And every spiritually empty,
hungry sinner has reason for hope. The Lord said in Matthew
5 verse 6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. They're empty, so they hunger
and they thirst after it. They're blessed, for they shall
be filled. The spiritually hungry always
go away filled because Christ is the bread of life. Look back
at Psalm 107. David says the same thing here,
Psalm 107. Verse eight. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men, for he satisfied the longing soul and filleth the
hungry soul with goodness. Every spiritually empty person
comes to Christ always goes away filled because Christ is the
bread of life. Then last, our song of thanksgiving
rejoices in a covenant savior, verse 55. as He spake to our
fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever." You know why God
remembered His mercy to His people? He promised them mercy. You know
why He remembered that? You know why He sent the Savior
to save them? Because He promised He would. God promised that He
would. And God always keeps His promises. God took Abraham aside one day.
He said, Abraham, through you, Right now, you don't have a son.
You don't have an heir. But through you, I'm going to
send the Savior. I'm going to send the Messiah
through you. And every nation of the world is going to be blessed
in him. Abraham just looked at those stars. Can you count them? Your seed is going to be greater.
That's how great the Savior is going to be. He's going to save
a number no man can number. Thousands of years went past.
I bet people in Israel thought, you know, that's just a fairy
tale. That's just some old tale somebody got up somewhere and
they've given up hope that the Messiah is going to come. And
when the house of David was at its lowest, God sent the Savior
that He promised. He sent that Savior to a people
who were sinful and lost and dead, and He saved them out of
every nation on this earth, just exactly like God promised He
would. And every object of God's mercy knows this. The only reason
I'm saved is because God promised He would. God entered into a
covenant of grace. And that's the only way somebody
like me could have been saved. I couldn't have done anything
after I got here to deserve it. No, it has to be an eternal covenant
of grace. God had to purpose it in Himself
before time began because there's no reason found for salvation
in me. The only reason found that somebody like me could be
saved. All of those reasons are found
in God. He's a covenant God. He promised
that He'd save a people. He sent His Son to purchase it.
He sent His Spirit to apply it. And His Son ever lives to make
sure it lasts to the end. God's a covenant God. He's going
to save His people. And that's why we keep preaching.
That's why you keep supporting the preaching of the gospel.
That's why every day we pray for our loved ones, our friends,
our family, our neighbors. We pray, God, would you be merciful? Would you be merciful to these?
Would you? God promised he's going to save
his people from their sin. Lord, would you save me? Would
you make me part of that number? That's our encouragement to pray.
If I didn't know God was a covenant God, that He cannot fail to save
His people, I'd find something better to do on Sunday and Wednesdays.
Our encouragement to pray, our encouragement to keep preaching
is God's eternal covenant of grace. He will save His people
from their sin. God promised to do it and He
cannot lie. God sent His Son to this world,
born as Mary's son, to ratify that covenant in His perfect,
holy, precious blood that He cannot fail. We can thank God
for that, can't we? That's a good last verse for
a song of praise. Our song of thanksgiving ends
with this. We praise the covenant of God.
Thank God He has it. All right, let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Thank You
for this song of praise that You've put recorded in Your Word
for us to read and to rejoice in. Our God, we thank You. How we thank You that You've
purposed in Your goodness and Your mercy and Your grace to
save a people through the obedience of Your Son, who is obedient
even unto death. And by His blood, You've washed
all of Your people white as snow, clean, white and holy from all
of our sin, that you've given life to the dead, that you've
given us faith to look to and cling to and rejoice in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we beg of you that you
bless your word. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people. Comfort them, encourage them, and call us to
Christ. Bless it for your glory, we pray.
Because in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
pray and give thanks.