Luke chapter 1 and verse 67. And we're speaking about Zacharias
today, the father of John the Baptist. And the last reading
that we had culminated in verse 66 where it says that all they
that heard them laid up in their hearts saying, what manner of
child shall this be? Speaking of John the Baptist
and the hand of the Lord was with him. And then it goes on
to say in verse 67, and his father Zacharias was filled with the
Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began, 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, the oath which he swear to our father
Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. Now I'm just going to make a
break there, actually, for our purposes today. This has been
a chapter of prophetic praise for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
such a long chapter, of course not the longest chapter in the
Bible by any means when we come to the Psalms, the dwarf. everything but here is a long
chapter as far as the Gospels are concerned and yet it has
been full of this theme of praise, prophetic praise for the Lord
Jesus Christ, anticipating the incarnation, anticipating his
coming. And first, of course, we had,
just briefly, a brief recap, if I may. First, we had Gabriel's
announcement to Mary of Christ's birth, in which he, the angel,
the angel that stood before the throne of God, declared in verses
31 to 33, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring
forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. And here's the point
that I want to draw your attention to. He shall be great and shall
be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. So here is Gabriel acknowledging
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Elizabeth sang her own
song of prophetic praise. And in verse 42, we read there
that she said, blessed art thou amongst women, speaking to Mary,
her cousin, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence
is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice
of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leapt in
my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed,
and there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord. So Elizabeth adds her confirmation,
her re-confirmation to the words of Gabriel and then Mary herself
was next, Mary the mother of the Saviour and in her song she
sang also to the Lord's praise and we read about that in verses
49 following. He that is mighty hath done to
me great things and holy is his name His mercy is on them that
fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with
his arm. He hath 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. The rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham
and to his seed forever. So once again, Gabriel, Elizabeth,
Mary, adding these confirmations to the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ at the anticipation of the incarnation and of his coming
into the world as a man in a human body. So that in this moment
in time, in the history of the world, when the Lord Jesus Christ
was revealed from heaven, angels and men, or we should say women,
really, angels and women praised the Lord, praised Him for His
Godhead, praised Him for His glory, and praised Him for His
grace in salvation. and well they might, in this
one single act of the incarnation, the promises of the covenant
of peace began to unfold. The assurances made to men and
women down through the history of the church began to be fulfilled. The hopes, the fear of helpless
sinners was stirred up with expectation. and the captive souls of fallen
men and women found reason to rejoice. And ironically, in all of this,
there was one man who didn't speak a word. And he was the
one to whom the very first indication of the amazing events surrounding
the birth of Christ were communicated. Zacharias's imposed silence was
brought to an end when his son was named John. And the conclusion
of this chapter contains the prophecy of praise that Zacharias
uttered on the occasion of the birth of his son. and it's a
very rich passage of scripture. So I've taken the liberty of
dividing it in two as there does appear, we'll come to this next
week, but there does appear to be a break in the passage and
we'll talk more about that on another occasion. For now, I
just want to draw your attention to a few things from the beginning
of this prophecy by Zacharias. And the first thing is this,
that Zacharias was, like the others, filled with the Holy
Ghost. And that reminds us that all
true worship, because this is what Zacharias is doing here,
he is worshipping God for what God is doing right before his
eyes, what God is doing in the midst of his people in those
days in which Zacharias prophesied. He was filled with the Holy Ghost,
he was worshipping the Lord. And all true worship originates
with the Holy Ghost. In fact, we should say, if the
Holy Ghost does not initiate praise, it is not praise at all. It is not worship at all. And so much that is offered to
God as worship today and probably always has been, is merely a
man-pleasing entertainment. But when a man or a woman or
a boy or a girl is indwelt with the Holy Spirit, then worship
is the blessed spiritual activity that flows from that indwelling. and it is beneficial to the heart
of the man and it is well pleasing to God. So here is Zacharias
beginning this prophecy and it is inspired by God, the Holy
Spirit. And what does he do? He begins
by blessing the God of Israel. That is the God of covenant promise
and covenant grace. Whenever we think of those passages
or hear those passages or read those passages where we speak
about the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
that is a reference to the covenant promises of God to these patriarchs,
these fathers. And of course, we see that in
the prayers, the songs, the prophecies of all these characters in this
chapter. But when we make reference here
to the God of Israel, that is the promises made to Israel,
either Jacob personally, which of course we've We've thought
about on past occasions when God made his promises to Jacob
and they were glorious promises of his provision and of life
and of salvation that came to Jacob, a provision that came
to Jacob all those years ago. Or whether it's not Jacob personally,
but the whole nation of Israel, the children of Jacob, the children
of Israel, more generally, by Moses and the prophets, it nevertheless
stands clear and self-evident that it is the coming of the
Messiah. that was now being fulfilled. And this is what Zacharias understood. He understood that this was the
end of all the waiting. This was the culmination of all
those prophecies. Now, as he blesses God for that,
we should perhaps just take a moment and understand this. Blessing
God does not imply that creatures can add anything to God, enlarge
God or enhance God in any way, his glory in any way. God is
infinite in all of his qualities, all of his attributes, and we
cannot bless him in the same way as he blesses us. He blesses
us by giving us things. We don't bless God in that way.
What we understand by blessing the Lord is testifying to his
truth and his faithfulness and giving him thanks for all his
good gifts and his spiritual blessings and his temporal blessings,
his temporal mercies and especially for the Lord Jesus Christ and
for his coming into the world and for salvation by him. So
when we gather together, like an occasion such as this, and
we speak about what God has done, and we speak about the Incarnation,
and we speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we speak about His
mercy, and the work on the cross, and the accomplishment of the
Gospel in the lives of His people. We are blessing the Lord, and
therefore this is worship and praise. Even Hearing the gospel
is worship and praise. Let's not get sidelined into
thinking it's some form of singing or some form of music or some
form of words or a pattern of ritual. It is hearing the gospel
and it is declaring our gratitude and thanksgiving for what God
has done that enables us to bless the Lord and worship him. Another
thing that Zacharias tells us here is that the Lord has visited
and redeemed his people. And sure it is that God had in
the history of the Old Testament very often visited and redeemed
his people, preserving them and delivering them out of the hands
of their enemies on lots and lots of occasions. But we're
thinking spiritually as far as the words of Zacharias is concerned
here. And God visited his people when
he looked on us in our state of need with his everlasting
love. That was the first visitation
that God made to his church and people. He sanctified us, he
set us apart in Christ in the covenant of grace when he justified
us through the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And the eternal purpose in these
matters is fixed and certain. And now, says Zacharias, they
are being accomplished in time. in the sight and in the presence
of men and women like us. So that in this sense, Zacharias
was prophesying and announcing the event of the redemption before
it had occurred, using past examples, past instances, as assurances
of the future fulfilment of God's purpose. Another thing that Zacharias
tells us in verse 69, he says the Lord Jesus is the horn of
our salvation. anybody's counting this is the
fourth point that I'm drawing your attention to from what Zacharias
said. He says he speaks about the horn
of our salvation being raised up according to promise and I
think it's quite easy to see that this phrase was first used
prophetically of Christ by Hannah, the mother of Samuel, that we've
been speaking about at some length with the young people on the
Lord's Day. But Hannah was the first to use
this phrase prophetically of Christ, followed by David. a generation or two later. And
he explicitly does so in Psalm 132. But both of these Old Testament
believers... knew where their salvation was
to be found. And this reminds us that that's
always been the case for believers. No one was ever saved and redeemed
by their own efforts or their own works or their own obedience.
They always had to look to Christ. They did in the Old Testament,
as we do today. So it was not in themselves but
in the horn that would be raised up that these Old Testament saints
found their comfort. And a horn is a symbol of power
and strength and indeed in that context kingly office and therefore
it is a very fitting emblem of our King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. and it is a testimony to sovereign,
efficacious grace, grace that accomplishes its purpose and
its end. And Zacharias goes on to declare
something else. He says that Christ's coming
and Christ's salvation by his work had been foretold by prophets
from the beginning of the world. There's no getting away from
the fact that these believers, whether it's in the Old Testament,
whether it's at the time of Christ, or whether it's in the Apostolic
Age, they understood the eternal dimensions of this work of grace. And Zacharias here testifies
that these are the promises foretold by prophets from the beginning
of the world. So the fact that it's an ancient
promise is to God's glory. He said it would be when he spoke
to Adam and Eve in the garden, what's called sometimes the Proto-Evangel,
the very beginning, the first suggestion, the first hint that
there would be a salvation found. It is God who said it would be,
and it came to pass as he promised. That's what Zacharias is saying
here. And of course that reminds us
of what the Lord Jesus told his own disciples, that Moses and
all the prophets spoke of him. Here's my next point. Zacharias
was himself a believer and he knew the content of these messianic
promises. He knew that by him, the Messiah
who was coming, the Christ who would come, we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. And that reminds us that we have
enemies. Christ's church has enemies. You, as a believer, have enemies
and so do I. Sin is an enemy because sin wars
against our souls. Satan is an enemy. He's an enemy
who tempts, who deceives, who accuses us before God. The world
is an enemy, being the seed of the serpent, ever ready to do
what Cain did to Abel. And from the law, which is a
killing letter, and from death, which is the last enemy that
is to be destroyed, from all these enemies and more, the Lord
Jesus Christ has come to save us. And Zacharias speaks of the
mercy performed. So this is number seven. I'm
running on in my points. Zacharias speaks of the mercy
performed, which is the salvation of the elect, promised by God
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He speaks of the covenant put
in remembrance, which is the everlasting covenant of grace
by the salvation for the salvation of the elect and it is assured
because God himself in his three persons has entered into covenant
to bring about his desired purpose and the accomplished end and
fulfilment of his love. And then finally we're told that
we're not being left to deduce any of these things for ourselves
because Zacharias tells us in verse 74 and verse 75 that the
mercy performed is the salvation of the elect. It is to this glorious
end that we might serve God without fear and stand before him without
fear and worship him in time and in eternity in holiness and
righteousness. And this is what our Gospel is
speaking about. This is what Christ's work has
accomplished. This is what God has done by
grace. He has made us holy and righteous
before him in love. No fear, no need for fear. Only
worship, praise and adoration that the Lord has done these
things for us. old Zacharias had been through
a lot in the last few months, but his faith, though it was
faltering, did not fail. He knew the truth and now he
was given this opportunity by the grace of God to testify to
it for the comfort of his own soul and for the reassurance
of ours. His prophetic song is a blessed
hymn of praise and we are blessed to be able to hear the words
of this erstwhile dumb man whose mouth was now filled with praise
to Christ by God the Holy Spirit. Amen.