So we're in Luke chapter one,
and I want to read from verse five, and I'm going to read down
to verse 25, because it's kind of self-explanatory, really.
Let's see what the word of God says to us today. There was in
the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named
Zacharias, of the course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters
of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless. and they had no child because
that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken
in years. And it came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord,
and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of incense, and there appeared unto him an angel of
the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even
from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him
in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said
unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old
man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering
said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God,
and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb,
and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be
performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be
fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias
and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when
he came out he could not speak unto them, and they perceived
that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto
them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon
as these days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed
to his own house. And after those days, his wife
Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath
the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me
to take away my reproach among men. Amen. May the Lord bless
this reading of his word. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which the gospel writer Luke here is preparing to share
with us as he wrote to Theophilus and telling him about the gospel,
we touched upon that on a previous occasion, but the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ had long been promised and it had equally long
been anticipated. But here we see in Luke's gospel
that there were also a number of practical components to the
revelation of the Messiah. And not least was the ministry
of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the one
of whom Malachi wrote when he foretold Behold, I send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And John's coming
was preparatory to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here
we find Luke telling us some information, giving us some insights
into the circumstances of John's birth and his parentage. So by what we've read today,
we discover that John, like Isaac and Samson, was a child of promise. These are the three, the Lord
Jesus Christ is there as well, but these are the three men,
in addition to the Lord, whose births were promised before they
happened, and John was one of them. His birth, like theirs,
was foretold. But I want us to note that while
John's birth was foretold, and while it was undoubtedly special
being announced by the angel Gabriel, very likely the same
angel that announced Christ's birth to Mary, it was not in
itself miraculous, it was The birth of Jesus was miraculous,
but the birth of John was a natural birth. John was born of a natural
father and a natural mother in the ordinary way, though we do
recognise that the couple were old and that Mary hitherto had
been barren. But I want just today, because
I really feel that this is a very straightforward passage, I want
just to highlight a number of things that struck me as I was
reading through it, and just leave them with you for your
thought. And the first one is in verse six, where we read that
Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous before God. And I'm also going to touch on
another point, and that is that the fruit of their righteousness
was an outwardly blameless profession, and that's in verse seven. I
want us to just note in passing that John was filled with the
Holy Ghost from his mother's womb in verse 15, that many children
of Israel would turn to the Lord God through John's ministry in
verse 16, and also that Zacharias' righteousness and his profession
did not prevent the sin of unbelief. And we find that in verse 18. So I'm just going to touch lightly
on these five points, and then we'll be through this evening. So the first one is this, that
Zacharias and Elizabeth, we're told in verse six, were righteous
before God. And I think that that is quite
an extraordinary statement if we think about it. And it's a
statement that we should not lightly pass over as being an
example of hyperbole or an exaggeration. Because here, God the Holy Spirit
is telling us that before God, that is, in God's sight, Both
Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous. And what we're being
told is that this married couple were amongst the elect of God. That's what that phrase, they
were righteous before God, means. They were of the elect of God. They were numbered amongst those
who were justified by God before time began. Now this does not
mean that they were sinless in word, in thought, and in deed,
because no person is sinless except the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Paul tells us, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. So it doesn't mean that they
were sinless, but what it does mean is that Christ's righteousness
was imputed to them so that before God and in the Father's sight,
he beheld them in Christ, he saw them in their Redeemer, he
saw them covered in Christ's blood, he saw them clothed in
his righteousness, and he saw them altogether acceptable to
him as pure and holy and perfect in their substitute, in their
surety, in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ, he
saw them righteous. The Lord did for these two saints
what he has done for every elect child of God. He has reconciled
us to God and he has made us acceptable to God by carrying
away our sins and securing for us perfect righteousness that
God is pleased to accept, to acknowledge, and to attribute to his beloved
people, his precious people. God looked upon these two and
he viewed them as cleansed and made perfect. They were his chosen
people made righteous through the blood and sacrifice of their
Redeemer. So that's our first point. God
calls these two people righteous before him, righteous in his
sight. But then we see something else
about Zacharias and Elizabeth. The fruit of their righteousness. was an outwardly blameless profession. And we see that in verse six
as well. I've got verse seven here, I
think that's wrong. Yeah, it's not verse seven, that
wasn't what I meant. Anyway, I think verse six is
what I meant. So they're outwardly blameless
in their profession. Zacharias and Elizabeth were
not righteous because they had an outwardly blameless profession,
they had an outwardly blameless profession because they were
righteous with a divinely imputed righteousness. They Obedience
that they showed in walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord blameless was a fruit of the imputed righteousness
that they had been given. They were not righteous because
they walked blameless, they walked blameless because they were righteous. They were spiritual people. with
whom and in whom God the Holy Spirit revealed his own holy
nature. And actually we're going to see
in a few minutes that Zacharias was far from perfect in himself. He failed to believe the angel
Gabriel when Gabriel declared God's purpose for John's birth. Nevertheless, outwardly, Because
of God's grace in the lives of Zacharias and Elizabeth, they
each maintained a testimony beyond reproach from their fellow sinful
creatures. Their desire was to honour and
serve the Lord and it is always Good, to trace the gracious enabling
of God to its proper source. These people were not praised
by God because they lived well. rather God enabled them to live
well and it is he who is to be praised for the good works and
for the upright testimony that these people were able to bear
in their respective responsibilities. John was the forerunner of Christ
But it was the Lord Jesus Christ himself who was the giver and
the motivator and the enabler of John's parents' faith and
conduct. Zacharias and Elizabeth's public
testimony reflected their desire to honour the Lord and to be
profitable servants in his cause. And that's still God's way. The
law, God's law, the Mosaic law, the patterns of godly living
that we see in scripture, these do not motivate obedience in
themselves. Rather, the law of God condemns
disobedience. It's God's spirit in the heart
of a believer that motivates spiritual service, spiritual
worship, spiritual gratitude, and spiritual humility. And it
is that that leads to good works as an outworking of grace and
as an evidence of true faith. So, here's another aspect. We see, first of all, that Zacharias
and Elizabeth were righteous before God because he imputed
righteousness to them. Secondly, we see that that righteousness
motivated a blameless profession before the world. And another thing I want us to
notice here is just what it was said about John. John would be
filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. And I merely
point out this fact as a subject of interest and information. Age is no barrier to grace. The youngest child can be a child
of God and we ought not to deny the evidence of grace and even
faith where it appears. Some come to the Lord late in
life and some come early. It is always a blessing to see
the children of God's people come to serve the Lord. and John showed very early signs
of a spiritual sensibleness when he jumped in his mother's womb
in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We cannot make our children believers,
but we can train them up in the things of the Lord. We can witness
before them and we can let them see by our worship and our commitment
how much the Lord means to us. We can pray for them. And in
this world where so few seem interested in the things of the
Lord, anyone who is lovingly and faithfully prayed for is,
in my opinion, already blessed above his and her peers. The Lord said, and it shall be
given. And it's an admirable thing to
find a believing parent asking for grace and interceding for
their children as Job prayed and sacrificed for his. May the
Lord be merciful to them. Here's my fourth point. Many
of the children of Israel are said by Gabriel to turn to the
Lord their God because of the testimony of John. Gabriel further
disclosed to Zacharias that this child would bless many in Israel
by being the instrument of their conversion. Many would hear John
preaching and they would believe his words and they would be blessed
by his ministry in believing. Now, I I don't know what that says
to you, but such verses as these always speak to me of God's sovereign
grace. For this reason, how could Gabriel
testify before this child was born, before this child was conceived,
how could he testify to the conversion of many in Israel if turning
to God by faith in Christ is an act of man's free will. Gabriel didn't say there's a
good chance that many will turn or Gabriel didn't say some of
the people of Israel are very likely to turn. He said, many
shall turn and indeed many did turn because they were brought
under the sovereign influence of almighty grace and they were
made willing to come in the day of Christ's power. And then lastly,
Zacharias is shown here as a man who was
both righteous and a man who was blameless in the law and
in the commandments. Blameless in his good works,
blameless in his responsibilities and duties. But that did not
prevent or forestall unbelief in his heart. And we read about
that in verse 18. Zacharias was one of the Lord's
elect. But when an angel brought him
the word of God, an angel mind you, and stood beside the altar
where he was praying, when the angel brought him the word of
God, he did not believe. Zacharias was eager to obey God's
commands, but his faith was weak and his testimony let him down. Zacharias, was disciplined by
the Lord for his unbelief. And I think this shows us two
things. Unbelief is a foe to God's elect. Unbelief is an enemy
of our soul. It brings distress, it brings
confusion, and it brings shame. Even those who are blessed by
angelic manifestations and revelations, if we were thinking about that
in today's terms, we might say, even those who are blessed with
clear gospel preaching are still prone to unbelief. And those
who stand before God, offering up prayers and worship can, in
the very next minute be full of doubt and contradiction. I'm very grateful that we see
our friends sharing in this little service. I'm very grateful that
we are able to pray together and worship together and witness
together. But I am under no misapprehension
that the very same people that are praying right now can be
filled with doubts before we get very much further in our
life's experience. And that brings me to the second
point that I want to say, and then I'm done. Our unbelief,
like Zacharias' unbelief, does not render us guilty before God
or cause Him to reject us. He may discipline us, constructively,
to bring us out of our unbelief, to encourage us into trusting
him. He may bring our unbelief out
into the light where it shall be seen and we will have to repent
of it. But Zacharias was no less righteous
before God because of his unbelief. He was no less righteous, he
was no less loved, he was no less acceptable because of his
unbelief. In fact, Zacharias' unbelief
reinforces the nature of sovereign grace and sovereign goodness. and it reinforces the promise
of the Lord as given to us by Paul. Paul told Timothy, 2 Timothy
2, verse 13. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Zacharias was a true child of
God. He was righteous before God.
and he sought to honour the Lord in his life, in his worship and
in his works. And yet when he was confronted
with the clearest of messages from heaven itself, he could
not believe without doubting. And I am grateful that the Holy
Spirit has seen fit to record the failure of God's elect in
the pages of scripture. Not because we delight to see
their troubles, but because it shows us that we are not alone
in our doubts and in our weaknesses. We share the prayer of the man
who had an audience with Christ and said with tears, Lord, I
believe, help thou mine unbelief. So may the Lord bless us even
by the very difficulties and indeed failures of our brethren
of past times. Amen.