Luke chapter 1 and verse 76. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways. This is still the prophecy of
Zacharias that we're reading. To give knowledge of salvation
to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited
us. To give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. and the child grew and waxed
strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his showing
unto Israel. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us. Zacharias has added his praise
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to that of his wife, Elizabeth,
and Mary's hymn that magnified the Lord. And I mentioned last
week that these words from Zacharias, who was a priest who served before
the Lord, seemed to divide naturally into two parts, and we took the
first part last week, and this will be the second part. The
first part addressed the Lord Jesus, who is the horn our salvation
raised up for us from the house of David. And that reference
to the house of David draws us again to remember that this was
according to God's covenant promise, that Zacharias was looking back
on the Old Testament, and we'll see that a little bit more fully
in a moment or two, but he was looking back on the Old Testament
and drawing the various strands that spoke of the Messiah, that
anticipated the Messiah and bringing them together in this beautiful
little, I don't know, you call it a soliloquy or a prophecy
honouring the Saviour. David, you'll remember it was,
who said, God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. And he went on to say that this
is all my salvation and all my desire. And so this reference
to the covenant and David's salvation, the covenant, sure and certain
being the ground of David's hope for salvation. And the reference
to the horn of salvation raised up for us from the house of David
links these two, the words of Zacharias with the promises that
came to David. And clearly Zacharias saw Christ's
coming in terms of covenant grace and the fulfilment of God's promises
of salvation. And then there's the second part,
and this is the part that we're going to think about more particularly
today. And this is that part of Zacharias's
prophecy that begins in verse 76, where he turns his attention
to the role that his own newborn son will fulfil in the Messiah's
saving ministry. Perhaps John was in his father's
arms as the old man uttered these words. It's a prophetic statement
upon the child of promise. I imagine that others were present
at this time. I don't think this was Zacharias
simply speaking to the infant child. I think others were present. I think it's done at the same
time when John got his name given to him and therefore it is those
in verse 66 who are in attendance who wondered what manner of child
this shall be and this is Zacharias answering the question that they
posed in their own minds. And now God the Holy Spirit was
telling them by the words of Zacharias just what kind of child
or rather what kind of man this John son of Zacharias would be. He would have a distinctive name.
Interestingly, it's not what we call him. We call him John
the Baptist, and with good reason. Here, it is John's role rather
than his title that is in view. He would be known as the Prophet
of the Highest because he would be the Prophet of the Highest. And this is a mark of honour
both to Jesus, who is Jehovah, the great God on high, soon to
come in human flesh, and also a mark of honour to John, who
would be known as Christ's prophet, the prophet of the highest. And
later, you'll remember that the Lord himself honoured John, saying
that among them that are born of women, there hath not risen
a greater than John the Baptist. So the greatness of John was
reflected greatness. He shone among men with the glory
he derived from Christ, from going before the face of the
Lord to prepare his ways And this is the best glory to have,
whatever the world has to offer by way of fame, fortune and prestige. This is the best glory to have.
It is the glory with which we are covered now as citizens in
Christ's kingdom. And it's the glory that we will
possess eternally in heaven in his presence. All our blessedness
is derived from Christ. And Zachariah's words that John
would go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways These
are words that are reminiscent of a number of Old Testament
passages. Malachi's prophecy, for example,
where the Lord says, behold, I will send my messenger and
he shall prepare the way before me. He goes on to say, and I
will come quickly into my temple. So this is the Lord Jesus who's
speaking about his messenger who will prepare the way before
Christ. And also Isaiah's prophecy is
alluded to here where we are told of the voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway of our God. And the apostles,
the disciples knew that these were references to John the Baptist
and clearly Zacharias did too. He was drawing on the language,
he was drawing on the anticipation, the messianic anticipation of
the Old Testament prophets and coalescing them in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So these passages from the prophets,
being clearly messianic, show how convinced Zacharias was of
the role that his own son would play in Christ's ministry, the
ministry of the Messiah. And I think we can say here,
quite reasonably, that they reveal the awareness that these believers
had some 30 years before Christ's ministry began. of what was happening
in their own generation, what was happening in their own time.
Such was the heightened anticipation that these were all factors,
these were all elements in the preparation for the coming of
Christ, which, as I say, was not yet for another 30 years.
Christ would come very shortly, he would be born in a matter
of months, but his ministry, he would be hidden all that time,
his ministry would still be 30 years hence. And I doubt very
much if Zacharias was alive to see the start of Christ's ministry. He was already an old man when
John was born. But Zacharias went to heaven
rejoicing, knowing that the Messiah was soon to make the return journey. Zacharias went to heaven and
he knew that Christ would be making the return journey to
earth where he would suffer and die for sin because he knew that
his own son was going to be used in the preparation of that ministry. And that preparation is what
Zacharias speaks about here. The preparation that John would
supply was to stir up an awareness of sin amongst the people, to
preach repentance typified by baptism, and to testify of the
one whose imminent coming would secure the salvation for his
people. And verse 77 is a powerful sovereign
grace verse, I suggest. Zacharias understood that John
would give knowledge of salvation unto his, that is unto Christ's
people, by the remission of their sins. John would give knowledge
of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins. And I think that this verse shows
us two important points, two important points of doctrine.
First, salvation is not something that we get for ourselves. It
is often implied that it is. For example, preachers will say
something like, here it is, come and get it. That's not what Zacharias
says, that's not what the Holy Spirit tells us. The Holy Spirit
doesn't say, here is Christ, come and get him. Personal salvation
has been secured by Christ and an individual's knowledge of
that salvation, an individual's knowledge comes when the gift
of it is communicated to us through the Holy Spirit's quickening
power and gospel preaching, so that Christ has already accomplished
our salvation, and it is gifted to us when the Holy Spirit quickens
our souls, causes us to hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and then reveals to us in the gospel what Christ has already
gained for us. So that's the first point that
we can draw, a doctrinal point from what Zacharias says here. The second one is this, that
salvation is accomplished by the remission of sin or the bearing
away of sin. That is our sin debt. Our sin debt was taken away by
being paid and settled and removed from our account by payment of
Christ's precious blood. And once again, that must be
particular. If the sins of all men and women,
every man and woman, are remitted and taken away and paid for,
then everyone must be saved. So that to my mind, this verse
clearly shows that Zacharias believed in particular grace
as we do. He confirms this by speaking
of Christ's people, his covenant people, collectively
called the flock of his pasture, the jewels of his crown, the
redeemed of the Lord, so that here is Zacharias preaching the
gospel to us of a work accomplished by Christ for the salvation of
his particular people. And the remission of a sinner's
iniquity, the bearing away of sin, is an act of sovereign mercy
with which we have nothing to do. So Zechariah says in verse
78, the mercy of God is distinguishing, personal and effectual. It is
tender mercy, born of love, founded on the gentleness and the kind-heartedness
of our Father's care. And upon that footing, upon that
foundation of God's love, He has sent His Son to deliver His
beloved people, His foreknown people. Upon this footing, the
love of Christ is manifested in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And the Dayspring is Christ,
who has visited his people in the incarnation for their redemption
and remission of their sins, and who continues to visit us
day by day as the sun rises each morning, so Christ, as the Son
of Righteousness, rises daily with healing in his wings, bringing,
conveying, communicating, all the tender mercies of love and
grace and forgiveness and righteousness and truth and holiness from the
father to the children. And the penultimate verse is
also a beautiful testimony I think to God's free and sovereign grace
because it distinguishes between those who are God's chosen people
in covenant mercy and those who are not. Christ has come to give
light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to
guide our feet into the way of peace. And the giving of light
and the guiding of feet that brings a sinner to the way of
peace is a work that is accomplished. Our sovereign God doesn't try
to do things and fail in his attempt. He saves his people
from their sin. He purposes and he accomplishes
all his good will. And there is a darkness that
blinds our eyes until the light of the glorious gospel shines
through. There's a shadow of death stretches
over the souls of all men and women until it is dispelled by
Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. And in all of these
thoughts, in all of these verses, Zacharias shows us a clear understanding
of grace and a strong confidence in the success of the Saviour. John, his son, would minister
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Zacharias rejoiced in knowing
and announced it to those who had ears to hear. This is a mighty
chapter indeed, not only for its size, not only for its length,
but for its content. And Luke 1 concludes with a short
history of John's childhood and early manhood. We're told that
he grew physically in body and he increased in wisdom and knowledge
and courage in his soul. He grew in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord by the ministry of the Holy Spirit upon him. The
reference to him being in the desert, I think, suggests that
he didn't rely on the religious schools or the religious teachers
of his day, but that it was the Spirit who was the teacher and
led him to learn and understand his role and ministry. The reference
to him being shown unto Israel possibly relates to his eligibility
to be a priest after his father Zacharias, but I think more likely
it is to show us that the Holy Spirit began to employ John in
his ministry to prepare for Christ's own ministry and when the multitudes
went out into the wilderness to hear John preach as is spoken
of by the Lord in Matthew 11. So we've come to the end of this
chapter and Zacharias has finished it for us. But while we're grateful
for Zacharias's prophecy and indeed for John's ministry, It
is rather the anticipation of the incarnation of Christ that
is so fully spoken of in this chapter. That's the real message
of the chapter. And this is the mercy promised,
and this is the fulfilment of God's holy covenant. The incarnation
of the God-Man is the mystery of godliness. It is the ground
of our hope. It is the strength of our confidence
in Christ. And God willing, we'll turn to
that in chapter two. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.