If you will, I'd like for you
to turn with me and follow with me as I read Luke chapter one,
verses 56 through 75. Luke chapter one, beginning with
verse 56. And Mary abode with her, that
is Elizabeth, about three months, and then returned to her own
house. Now, Elizabeth, according to
the scriptures before this, was already six months pregnant. So Mary stayed with her till
she was full term. It doesn't really say if she
was still there when the baby was born or not, but she did
stay with her until she was full term. Now, Elizabeth's full time came
that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son.
And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had shown
great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her. And it came
to pass that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child,
and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father.
And his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called
John. And they said unto her, there
is none of thy kindred that is called by that name. And they
made signs to his father how he would have him called. And
he asked for a writing table. And he wrote, saying, his name
is John. And they marveled all. And his
mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he
spake, and praise God. And fear came on all that dwelt
round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout
all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them
laid up in their hearts, saying, what manner of child shall this
be? And the hand of the Lord was
with him. 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 an 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 swore 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 lives. The title of the lesson this
morning is Speaking with the Holy Ghost. We hear a lot about
that today. If you watch anything, any kind
of religious programming on TV, you're gonna run into this. The
charismatics of our day preach that God reveals things to them
filled with the Holy Ghost. He talks to them. He tells them
what to do. what to tell other people. And
he talks to them on a kind of like on a first name basis. He
just, you know that little song they sing, you hear it. Me and
Jesus got a good thing going. That's how they feel. They feel
buddy-buddy with God and God speaks to them and tells them
things and then they speak to him and tell him what they need
and then he speaks back to them and so on. We're told it's speaking
in a heavenly tongue, a tongue that nobody else except another
who's filled with the Holy Ghost can understand. Speaking with
a heavenly tongue is infallible evidence of salvation. And I
also noticed that the message is preeminently geared around
the Holy Ghost. This is what they talk about.
On the way to Shreveport, there's a building that sits over to
the side, and the name of it is Spirit Wind Churches. Their ministry is geared around
the spirit. Now there are a few people in
the scriptures that we're told expressly that they were filled
with the Holy Ghost. I don't have to speculate on
what a man has to say when he's filled with the Holy Ghost because
God has given us example after example after example. And none of them had anything
to say about the Holy Ghost. None of them. Not one. John the Baptist was filled with
the Holy Ghost while still in his mother's womb. But he gave
no signs of it until Mary gave the good news of Christ being
born to Elizabeth and then he leaped for joy in his mother's
womb. Elizabeth was filled with the
Holy Ghost and blessed the fruit of Mary's womb. That's all she
had to talk about was Christ. And Mary was filled with the
Holy Ghost and said, my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. And when John the Baptist came
of age, he spoke to the people, you can read it for yourself
in Luke 177, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people
by the remission of their sins. And when Peter and the rest of
the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost,
they spake in the native tongues of all the, everybody there could
hear them in their own tongue. and he spoke the wonderful works
of God in Christ. That's what he preached. He preached
the fulfillment of the scriptures and the truth concerning Jesus
of Nazareth, and that salvation was altogether of him, none other
name given among men, whereby we must be saved. So what I want
us to see this morning is what a preacher preaches who's called
of God and filled with the Holy Ghost. And he tells us that Zacharias,
the priest of God, was filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke. What did he speak? Now we know
this is the infallible word of God. We know that this man was
filled with, I don't know about these other guys, but I know
about him. He was filled with the Holy Ghost,
and he gives six things, and that's what I want you to see.
There's six things here that give us an outline of what those
men filled with the Holy Ghost have to say. In Luke 1, verse
68, he spoke and said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for
he hath visited and redeemed his people. That's what the Spirit
spoke through this man. God hath visited his people. How did he visit them? He was
born of a virgin, robed himself in human flesh. The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. He visited his people. All the rejoicing from them who
have the Spirit of God is that God hath visited his people in
the form of a man. I do preach doctrine, but I hope
that doctrine is not all I preach. I'm laboring to preach a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Spirit of God comes
into a man to teach him, that's what he shows him. He brings
him to Christ. I was talking to Winston before
the service today, and I told him, I said, it says, he told
those Jews, he said, murmur not, no man can come unto me except
my Father draw him. As it is written, they shall
all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. He don't go to the Father, he
goes to the Son. He goes to the Son. He is, in every way, the incarnate
salvation of God. His coming was not to inspire,
though we are inspired by Him. His coming was not to encourage
us to keep the law. His coming, Hebrews 10 verse
7, was to accomplish the redemptive will of God. That's why he came.
That's why he robed himself in human flesh. He came as our representative,
a representative man. And in our stead, he didn't have
to become obedient because he was already equal with God. He
become obedient as a man, as a representative man on our behalf. He came to accomplish the redemptive
will of God, that of all which the Father had given him, he
should lose nothing but raise it up again, fully justified
at the last day. He said, by his own blood, he
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. You know, you go into the store
over here, and you see something you really want. And you look
over there, and it doesn't have any price on it. And you take
it up there to the cashier, and she scans it with that little
machine. She said, OK, that's $75. You pay the $75, you don't walk
out of the store. You wait on her to hand you what
you just bought, didn't you? When he said he obtained, that
means he has it in his possession. It's not something he's hoping
to accomplish down the road. He didn't make a down payment
on it. He bought it. It's in his hand, and it's secured
at the right hand of God. And then secondly, those who
are filled with the Holy Ghost, they preach that God hath raised
up a horn of salvation. When you read the scriptures,
you'll soon learn that a horn is a word that denotes power.
That's what it's talking about. It's talking about power. As David was a powerful king
and a man after God's own heart, so Christ is of his house and
Mary of his lineage. And more so than David, he is
a powerful savior. He is a horn of salvation. He
is able, Paul said, to save to the uttermost those who come
unto God by him. Do you think about that? Paul wrote to the Colossians
and he said, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And ye are complete in him, now
listen, who is the head of all principality and power. And no one higher than him. He is the horn of salvation,
as he is the mediatorial king. And there's nothing that's not
under his absolute sovereign power, nothing. And then thirdly,
those filled with the Holy Ghost preach that we shall, through
Christ Jesus, be saved or delivered from our enemies. If it were
lawful today, men would take those who preach the gospel and
do exactly with them what they did in the days of the Romans.
They'd feed them to the lions. They'd open them up and pour
corn in them and turn the hogs loose on them. They'd behead
them. They'd torture them. They'd despise them. Stephen
was doing nothing but preaching. That's all he was doing. He was
just preaching to them. And yes, he had some pretty hard
things to say, but still and all, he was preaching for them.
And then finally, he was praying for them. Boy, don't lay this
to their charge. They stopped their ears. They
ran on him and gnashed on him with their teeth. They hated
him. They couldn't stand him. Why? What did he ever do to them?
All he did was preach peace through Jesus Christ. They despised him,
they hated him, but they can't do anything to you unless he
allows them. He had delivered us from our
enemies. We've got five enemies of our
souls, those that threaten harm to every believer. Sin is our
enemy. It's our enemy. It's against
your soul and threatens to destroy it. Would destroy it if it had
its way. And secondly, Satan. Satan's
our arch enemy. Satan despises mankind. That's
why, actually, if you go back and read I think it's Isaiah
14 where he says, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning? He'll tell you why. Because he
saw God's purpose in a man redeeming men and those men being exalted
above the angels and the angels being their servants. And he
said, oh no, no, that's not gonna be. That's not gonna be. I'll sit on the seat of the congregation. I'll do these things. And he
never actually got to do anything. Just the thought was enough.
God booted him out. And all the rest of them who
were like-minded. Satan, he despises mankind. He's an avowed adversary of every
son and daughter of Adam. And then thirdly, we've got this
enemy a lot of times we don't even think about is the world.
The world. In the world, he said, you shall
have tribulation. You're gonna have tribulation.
The world serves Satan. They walk according to the prince
of the power of the air. They're deceived by antichrist
religion, so much so that they'll kill true believers being persuaded
that they're doing God a favor. This world, even those who don't
attend church, will defend religion, false religion. Did you know
that? You ever had that happen? Be talking to somebody, and this
guy don't go to church, he don't read his Bible, he wasn't raised
in a religious home, nothing, and you stand there talking to
him, and the minute you say something crossways of religion, boy, he'll
stop you right there, and he'll start defending a religion that
he don't know anything about. The world and antichrist religion
are together. That's the two beasts that he
talks about over there in Revelations. Religion has always influenced the world. But our
Lord came into this world and gave himself for our sins that
he might deliver us, now listen, from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. And then fourthly,
those filled with the Holy Ghost preach that Jesus came into this
world to perform the mercy promised to our fathers. That's in verse
72 there, Luke chapter one. He didn't come to try to save
anybody. He came to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers. In the book of Hebrews, it said,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself
when he was talking to Abraham, making his covenant known to
Abraham. Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I'll
multiply you. I'm gonna make of you a great
nation. Christ came to perform that promise. He didn't come to try to do it.
He's not trying to save anybody today. He's saving people. He
came to perform that mercy. And religion's always talking
about what God wants to do and man won't let him. Christ didn't say he came to
try anything. He said, I come to do thy will,
O God, in the volume of the book it's written to me. He said, I come to perform the
mercy promised to our fathers, promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and right on down the line. And this is a blessed thought
to me that when God swore by himself, because he could swear
by no greater, that he was talking to me. You read Romans chapter
four, and he talks a little bit about Abraham. And he said, these
things were not written for Abraham's sake alone. They were written
for your sake too. He come to perform those promises
and let you in on it. Isn't that something? I tell
you, I don't know about you, but that's a blessed thought
to me. In Galatians 3, 24, Paul writes to the troubled saints
at Galatia and he said, for ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. That's how you know you're a
child of God. And if you be Christ, now listen, then are ye Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise. And he came and performed
that promise. He filled it, he accomplished
it. And it's faith in Christ that
manifests our election and tells us to whom God's promises and
covenants pertain. And I listened to men, I was
listening to one in a movie last night, and he said now there,
or no, he was on the news last night, and he said now there's
no doubt, no doubt that everybody is God's child. Did you hear
that last night? I couldn't believe I was hearing
that. That's out of a weatherman, said they. Because of the threat
of a tornado. It might make you feel good,
but it just ain't so. It just ain't so. Biblical promises
are not to all men, but all that believe. God has determined his
heirs as he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the
world. And he secured their inheritance by his life, death, and resurrection,
and his ascension into glory. And having done so, he tells
us in Ephesians 2.7 that in the ages to come, he's gonna show
the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We're talking about what people
have to say who feel with the Holy Ghost, what preachers. I
hear them talk all the time. I'm born of the Spirit. I have
the Spirit of God. And they mumble some unknown
gibberish and then they'll come back and they'll start making
all these claims. We're talking about what do men
do who, real men, feel with the Holy Ghost. Here's the fifth thing. His coming
was to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our
father Abraham. Our God is a covenant God. His
blood, it tells us, I think it's in Hebrews 13, is the blood of
the everlasting covenant. I never heard of a covenant till
I was probably 28 years old before I ever heard, and I'd been in
church all my life, never heard the word covenant one time. Yet
David, a man after God's own heart, his very last words were
about the covenant. He said, although it be not so
with my house, yet hath he established with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things insure, and he said, this is all my hope.
and all my salvation. Why did Christ come? What did
the fullness of time, what was that all talking about? God remembering
his covenant. And that's what he says here. And then lastly, those filled
with the Holy Ghost preach that our Redeemer has accomplished
a salvation. that shall deliver us out of
the hand of our enemies and thereby enable us to serve him without
fear. Now I'm aware and I respect the
power of Satan, but I don't fear him in my service to God. I don't
fear him. He's on a chain and my Savior's
holding the chain. I understand the power and influence
of satanic religion, but I don't fear it in my service to God. I know the power and holiness
of the law, and I know something of my own inability, but with
the mind of Christ, I don't fear it in my service to God. And
I know something of the cursedness of this old nature, but I don't
fear it. in my service to God. Why? John said, "'Cause greater is
he that's in you than he that's in the world.'" Huh? That's exactly right. As sin, Paul said, hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. So all those filled
with the Holy Ghost preach that God has visited and redeemed
His people. They preach that God has raised
up a horn of salvation. He's Lord of the dead and the
living. You think about that. King of
kings, Lord of lords. They preach the Savior reigns,
he reigns in glory, who's able to deliver us from all our enemies. You know, it's a blessed thought
to me that God is in charge of providence. We were having a conversation
over at Walter's the other night and somebody said something about,
well, you have to go where you can take shelter. And that's
true, you do. You don't want to just I'm not
telling you go out here and stand in front of a semi to prove that
God's sovereign. That proof, that evidence of
sovereignty may be when they scoop you up off the road. But
I'm telling you this, I sought comfort and protection when I
sought Christ. I have it in Him. I have it in
Him. And I can relax. I can relax. I mean when things Trembling
and shaking and fire falling from heaven I looked at my rearview
mirror last night over Walters house, and there was the widest
lightning bolt I ever seen I mean it was huge and it hit more over
toward Russell's than it did your house, but over that way
somewhere and I said man I said they're getting it back at Walters
and But I can rest during that, can't you? He's on the throne.
He's arranging it. These things ain't just falling
wherever. He's aiming. He shoots a lightning
bolt. He's aiming. That weather out
there, it turns those hurricanes. And they're all looking at all
these patterns over years and years and years, trying to figure
out exactly. He knows exactly where it's going to hit. He reigns, He rules over these
things. And He's revealed these things
to us in His Son that we can have comfort, that we can have
some assurance, that we can settle and rest, rest our souls in Him. He came to perform that promised
mercy of God and remember His holy covenant. and allow us to serve him without
fear. Without fear. I can stand in
anybody's pulpit and preach his message without fear. Without
fear. Oh, thank God for it. Thank you.