Well, I want to turn your attention
this week to the account of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the birth of
John the Baptist. And I want to look at the idea
of unbelief being overturned. Unbelief being overturned. the
world all around us, the people that we come across every day,
the world all around us, generally speaking, the vast majority,
are lying dead in unbelief. And that's the way they'll stay.
They grow up in unbelief, they live their working lives and
their family lives in unbelief, the deadness of unbelief, knowing
nothing of eternity, knowing nothing of the living God, knowing
nothing of things outside of this temporal realm of touch
and feel and sense, and they die in that condition and go
to a lost eternity. But God's children, God's children,
they also at times fall into unbelief. It's true, they fall
into unbelief. But this is the key thing, they
don't stay there. God's true children don't stay
there. Unbelief is a dreadful thing. It's an evil thing. To not believe God is at the
root of all sin. But God's true children, though
they fall into it because they're sinners in the flesh, they don't
stay there. The lost in the world do. They're
happy to stay in the deadness of unbelief. Now Zacharias is
an example of a believer refusing to believe God. He clearly is
a believer. He knows the gospel of God's
grace. He and his wife, verse six of
chapter one, were both righteous before God, walking in the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. As far as anybody outside could
see, They lived for God, they served God, they believed God,
they trusted Him. He was a priest in the temple.
He was there surrounded by those pictures of the gospel of God's
grace. He was looking forward to the coming of Christ, the
promised one who would come according to the oath that God gave to
Abraham. He knew the history of Israel. He knew the doctrines of grace. He knew the story of Abraham
and Sarah and how they had disbelieved God at one stage. And because
of their disbelief of God concerning Sarah having a son, Abraham and
Sarah's maid, Hagar, came together and Ishmael was born. Completely
contrary to what God had said. Moses fell into unbelief. Peter
fell into unbelief. As we know, Thomas, famously,
doubting Thomas, fell into unbelief. They were all believers, but
they all succumbed to unbelief. And here's Zacharias. fell into
unbelief. Here was this man ministering
in the temple, seeing all the things of the gospel of grace,
clearly a believer. You know you have moments when
you're on the mountaintops of belief, seeing the truth of God
so clearly. And there he is, he and his wife,
were childless and he's ministering in the temple in the holy place
he'd gone in as the priest and the people were waiting for him
to come out and he's by the altar of incense and Gabriel the angel
appears to him and Gabriel says your wife's going to have a son
and he's going to be the one who's going to prepare the way
of the Lord he's the promised one who's coming and what was
Zacharias' response to this? Zacharias said, but we're old,
whereby shall I know this? Verse 18, I'm an old man and
my wife is well stricken in years. And the angel answering said
unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and I'm
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. Here
comes Gabriel from the presence of God. You know, Christ said
he came down. You need to believe him because
he's come from heaven. You don't know about eternal
things. You can't understand this life. Listen to one who
comes from the presence of God. Christ comes down from the presence
of God. And in this case, Gabriel came from the presence of God
with a message. And this man, this believing
man, this righteous man, walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord, blameless yet in that moment in his sinful flesh,
he disbelieved the message from God. and said how can these things
be? He succumbed to unbelief. He
knew the history. He knew the doctrine. He knew
all about Abraham and Sarah and how God did fulfill his promise
with Isaac. He knew about Manoah and his
wife and Samson being born to them. He knew about Hannah, the
mother of Samuel in 1 Samuel. He knew all of these things and
yet he disbelieved when God sent his messenger. He said, no, we're
too old for these things to happen. Even though Gabriel came from
God's presence to tell him. And why did he not believe God? What was the reason he didn't
believe God? What's the reason you or I ever
don't believe God? It's because we lean on human
reason. We look at the factors all around
us in this temporal world. And J.C. Ryle once rightly said,
where reason begins, there faith ends. their faith ends. And yet, in this day of ours,
and I'm sure it's been the same in the past, those who claim
to be evangelical Christians are constantly trying to make
the truth of God appealing to human reason, and therefore falling
into all manner of error and erroneous practice, because they're
looking at the physical things. They're appealing to human reason.
They're trying to make creation a reasonable thing to the fallen
human mind. They're trying to make the gospel
appealing and so they do all sorts of bizarre things to get
people to come to their events because they think that is going
to convert the world. No, where reason begins, faith
ends. He looked at the facts. He was
old, his wife was old, they're never going to have a child.
All of human reasoning, he couldn't believe the message that came
from God. Gabriel said, you didn't believe me, therefore you shall
be done. Do you always believe God? Do
you always believe God? I know you don't. I don't. You're like me. I'm a sinner.
I have an evil heart of unbelief that rises up within me and looks
at the evidence all around and doesn't believe and trust God.
And it's an evil thing. But why should we doubt God?
Why should we doubt? Think about it. You say, oh,
people say, oh, there's not enough evidence. I just can't believe
these things. There's not enough evidence.
If you're a child of God, you have more than enough evidence.
You think about what God has said he would do in his word
from thousands of years ago. What has he said he would do?
What of it has not yet been fulfilled? You know, I believe there's only
one thing that hasn't yet been fulfilled and it's obvious because
we're still here. Christ has not yet come again
to end all things. Everything else has been fulfilled.
All the prophecies of the Old Testament have been fulfilled.
They've all been fulfilled. He did all that he said he would
do. In the detailed history of the world that he gave through
Daniel, every bit of it has been fulfilled. There is nothing waiting
Why doubt God? There's no reason to. Unbelief
is our greatest issue with God. We're so prone to listen to Satan's
lies. Wasn't that the first sin? Didn't
Eve listen? When Satan said, has God really
said? Ooh, doubt. Seeds of doubt. Has God really said? And don't
we do that? We look and say, has God really
said this? Can I really trust him? Can I
really lean on him? However, sound, our doctrine,
in our head, we're prone to fleshly unbelief. We're prone to look
at the things around us, the temporal things. When God's word
tells us that it's eternal things that are enduring truth, And
yet we're always ready to excuse it in ourselves. It's the thing
we're most ready to excuse. Oh, we're just sinful flesh,
so it's so easy to not believe what God says. And yet it's a
terrible thing, is unbelief. That's why the scriptures call
it an evil heart of unbelief. And we're so prone to it. But
if you're a true child of God, he always turns that round. He
always overturns it. He never leaves you lying dead
in unbelief. Zacharias had to feel the chastisement
of God. He had to feel the punishment
of God. Though he was a believer, for
his unbelief, God punished him. with deafness and dumbness you
say well it only says dumbness in verse twenty in verse twenty
of chapter one that's true but if you look at uh... verse sixty-two
the people all around when they were asking him what this child's
name should be they had to make signs to his father how he would
have him called he was clearly made deaf as well as dumb he
was stricken deaf and dumb For the nine months it took for this
child to come along until he learned to believe God. Till
he learned to believe God. Whatever the other physical evidence
said, he learned to believe God. There were some, I don't think
we ever read of Daniel not believing God. Daniel believed God. All the physical evidence was
against him. He was often completely alone, even after his friends
had gone, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And Daniel was
left on his own in the later chapters as an old man. And all
the evidence was against him. And there was all the idolatry
all around him. And all the threats against him
all around him. But he didn't use human reason.
He believed God's word. He believed what God had said.
when all the evidence was you need to do something about this
because you're about to be eaten by lions and all the physical
evidence would tell him the human reason would tell him that if
he went into that lion's den his life would end there in a
violent way and yet he believed God and he went into that den
trusting God and not the reason that was all around him don't
we need to pray with that father in in Mark's gospel chapter nine
said so poignantly, Lord, I believe. Do you believe? Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief. In the case of Zacharias, his
unbelief was dramatically overturned. His nine months of affliction
taught him to believe God's word. In verse 63 he wrote down, his
name is John. Why was his name John? Because
in verse 13 the angel had said, and you shall call his name John. His name is going to be John
because this is what God said. Not according to the traditions
of family names being passed on. His name is John. He'd learned
to believe God and everyone was amazed. And he was released from
his deaf and dumb condition, having learned to believe God.
And what were his first words? We have them recorded in verses
67 down to the end of the chapter. Those were his first words. They
were words of praise to God. for the gospel of salvation.
His words were words of preaching the message to those around him,
preaching the message of salvation to the lost, declaring salvation
accomplished in the one who was coming. This is the core of true
belief. Look at verse 67, let's look
at these verses together and see how the unbelief of Zacharias,
this believing man of God, Though when he believed not, he was
chastised with deafness and dumbness for nine months, how it was turned
over. It was overturned into belief. But what was the core
of what he believed? It was the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. In verse 67, we read, and his
father, the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias, was filled
with the Holy Ghost, with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was clearly forgiven his unbelief. He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And what is this filling of the Holy Spirit? Turning his unbelief
into solid belief. What is this filling? Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 18 tells the saints of God not to be drunk
with wine, the spirit of alcohol, Not to be drunk with wine wherein
is excess. You drink too much of it and
you lose your reason because you're filled with the spirit
of alcohol. He says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the spirit. Be filled with the spirit of
God. Not as the charismatics teach in our day. Not as the
charismatics teach with their emotional, irrational, religious
frenzy that results in senseless religion. No, not in that. be
filled with the Spirit which leads to a life of wisdom in
the knowledge of God, in the knowledge of His truth, in the
knowledge of His Christ. For it is Christ who is for us
wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is wisdom from God and so
filling with the Spirit leads to a life of wisdom in Christ. A life of understanding God's
will. Ephesians 5.17, the verse before. This is being filled
with the Spirit, not senseless religion, not irrational emotional
frenzy, no. Understanding God's will. A life
of giving thanks to God, Ephesians 5.20. A life of submission to
God and to one another, verse 21 of the same chapter. That's
what it is. That's the filling. But also,
it's being filled with the Holy Spirit to do what he did next,
which was to deliver God's word to his people. A filling that
he might deliver God's word to his people. Just these, as Paul
puts somewhere else, we have this treasure of the gospel of
God's grace, and we possess it, you know like you put things
in pots. for safekeeping. We possess this treasure in earthen
vessels, just ordinary common pots of clay, not fine bone china. This is our flesh, earthen vessels,
of the dust you are made and to the dust you shall return.
And we possess this treasure of the gospel of grace in just
ordinary earthen vessels, but nevertheless God is pleased.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to fill men of His
choice with His Spirit for this purpose, that though they be
just earthen vessels, just fit for breaking up, just ordinary
earthen vessels, He filled them with His Spirit. He fills today
with His Spirit, that they might deliver that treasured message
of the gospel of His grace. filled to deliver God's Word.
And his message, what is his message? Were the first words
that he talked about the wonderful experience he'd had seeing Gabriel
in the inner sanctum of the temple? Was he talking about the way
that the nation ought to return to its moral stance and be true
to the law of God? And was he talking about miracles
and all sorts of other things? No. You read these verses, as
I hope to do now. It was all about grace. It was
all about redemption. It was all about salvation. It
was a song of praise. Because he's talking about that
which God has saved his people from. And that where God has
placed his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a Holy
Spirit-inspired message. He's filled with the Holy Ghost
for the purpose of delivering this Holy Spirit-inspired message.
It's a message about God our Savior. It's a message about
God's great salvation. It's a message about God's means
of bringing it about through this child, John the Baptist,
coming into the world as the forerunner of the one who would
save his people from their sins. So let's look at these three
things. It's a message of God our Savior. Verse 68. This is
the words of a man who's been deaf and dumb for nine months.
And God has released him from it. Blessed be the Lord God of
Israel. Blessed. Blessed. Praise his
name, all the blessedness of our God, who has redeemed, visited
and redeemed his people. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. We saw something of this last
week. Who is the God to whom you pray?
Who is the God that you worship? All sorts of people have all
sorts of gods, but this is the God of Israel. The God of the
Israel of God. The Israel of God. as Galatians
chapter 6 puts it, not just those who are Jews in the Middle East,
those who are the chosen of God in Christ before the foundation
of the world. In the promise that was to Abraham,
we'll see more of that in a moment, the promise that was to Abraham
in Genesis 22, following the sacrifice, the obedience of Abraham
in being prepared to sacrifice Isaac on that altar in Genesis
22. The promise then is that he would be the father of many
nations and in him, in his faith, in his seed, would all the nations
of the earth be blessed. Not just Jews, all the nations. That's the Israel of God. The
God of Israel is the God of salvation. The God of Israel is the God
of the promised covenant to save his people from their sins. It's
the God of the Bible. The God of this book is who we're
talking about. Not the God that religious folks
talk about. Not the one that they come knocking
on your door talking about. We had a visit from Jehovah's
Witnesses yesterday morning. And they talk about Jehovah all
the time. But they know nothing. I tell
you, they know nothing of the God of Israel. They know nothing
of Jehovah Jesus, God who is our Savior. No, he's the God
of the patriarchs. He calls himself the God of Abraham,
of Isaac, of Jacob. He's the God of sovereign grace.
He's the God of particular, discriminating grace, particular redemption.
This is the God who he says, blessed be the God of Israel,
Jehovah Jesus, the Savior, and true believers give all honor
and glory to this God of discriminating grace and sovereign mercy. Others
may say they believe in God, But it's not the God of Israel.
You examine what they say. The noble Bereans heard what
Paul said, and they went and examined the Scriptures to see
whether these things were so. And so do we. We examine the
Scriptures. Who is the God of Israel? He's
not the God of this world's religion. Not at all. I don't care what
names they use for him. I don't care how close they think
that they sound to the truth. I don't care what claims they
make about being traditionalist, reformed, believing people. Do
they believe the God of Israel? Is it him to whom, as for Zacharias,
is it him of whom they can say, blessed be the God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people. and they ascribe, these believing
people, Zacharias, they ascribe all praise to God because salvation
is accomplished. He has visited us and redeemed
his people. He's visited and redeemed his
people. Past tense. He's the God who
went out for his people. First Chronicles chapter 17,
21 says, And what one nation in the earth is like thy people
Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people. He went
out to redeem his own people. He accomplished it. This is the God. that Zacharias
proclaims, the Lord God of Israel. Now let's look at his great salvation.
Verse 69, he hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David. He's already talked about it,
redeeming his people in verse 68, and now the house of his
servant David. Is this not speaking of particular
redemption? When God went out to redeem his
people, to save his people, he didn't just go out to make salvation
a possibility. He didn't just go out to make
it so that he could offer it to all for them to make up their
own minds, he went out and redeemed his people. And he went out with
a horn of salvation. The horn is a symbol of power
in the scriptures. A powerful salvation. It is,
as Paul says in Romans 1 verse 16, the power of God unto salvation. He's not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. He's raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And is it something new, verse
70? No, it's exactly what he's been
saying down all the years. As he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began. The scriptures
speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are they, said Jesus, which
speak of me. Beginning at Moses and the prophets,
he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. These things have been since
the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies. Who are our enemies? Who are
the enemies of the people of God? You might think it's just
talking about those ancient enemies of Israel, the Hittites and the
Jebusites and the Canaanites and all of those. No, the enemies
of the Israel of God is Satan. Satan and all the powers of darkness. These are the enemies. The enemies
that afflict us in the darkness of our hearts. From the hand
of all that hate us. He saves us from our enemies.
If you turn over to Romans chapter 8. Just briefly, Romans chapter
8. And you know these words so well,
but it's worth reminding us. How he saved us from all our
enemies. For whom he did, verse 29, whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we
then say to these things? If God before us, what can our
enemies do to us? Who can be against us? He saved
us from all our enemies, from the hand of all that hate us.
If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, because he had
to satisfy his justice. He must be a just God and a savior. He cannot become unjust by pardoning
the guilty. He must punish sin, but he spared
not his own son and delivered him up for us all, all his people.
How shall he not with him freely also give us all things? And
who, which of our enemies shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect. He saved us from the hand of
those that hate us. It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that's died. He
saved us from the hand of our enemies. verse 72 of Luke chapter
1, to perform the mercy. Now, is it new? No, we've already
seen, the prophets have spoken of it. It's the mercy that was
promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. You
see how Zacharias' unbelief is so dramatically overturned. And
when he's released from his chastisement for his unbelief, how he's filled
with the spirit to speak the gospel of God's grace. It's to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, the mercy in the
gospel that was promised to Adam and Eve after they'd fallen,
where God gave them a promise when he clothed them with the
skins of an animal, symbolizing the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he clothed them then, symbolizing the gospel, and he made that
promise to them, that the seed of the woman would crush the
head of the serpent, though the serpent would bruise the heel
of the seed of the woman. That's where it started. And
down through the ages, he promised to Noah and the patriarchs, he
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.
and he made this promise crystal clear to Abraham that the oath
which he swore to our father Abraham, I've already mentioned
it in Genesis 22, that in his seed, the seed of Abraham, not
seeds as of many, the seed of Abraham, in his seed which is
Christ, the son of God, the promised one, would all the nations of
the earth be blessed. Jews and Gentiles, all the nations
of the earth would be blessed. This is the gospel of grace and
think of when it was Malachi the prophet was the last
word spoken in the Old Testament. And then there was the best part
of 400 years of silence. There was the apocrypha but there
was nothing that mainstream religion regards as being the
word of God. There was silence from Malachi
and here we are, they're waiting, some have been waiting, Simeon
in the temple in Luke chapter 2 and Anna the prophet, they've
been waiting, they've been looking, people have been looking, they've
been looking at the scriptures of Daniel, the weeks, they've
been saying it must be about now that it's due to come and
it's the promise that this is going to happen and here he gets
this promise from the angel Gabriel which he doesn't believe at first,
but he learns belief. And he says, God is accomplishing
his purposes. This child being born is nothing
other than the outworking of the oath which God swore to our
father Abraham. Verse 74, 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. Here is God accomplishing
the salvation he's promised. How do I know? A child has been
born who is going to be the forerunner of the one who will be the redeemer.
The one who will make straight the way of the Lord. The one
who will prepare the way for the Messiah to come. the one
who will prepare the hearts of Israel for the salvation that
the Lord is going to accomplish. This is this child that Gabriel's
told him was going to be born and has now been born, and he
holds him. Look, here is the one who is
going before the Lord's Messiah. He's accomplishing the salvation
that he's promised from the beginning of time. that we might serve
him. It's a salvation to serve God. When the whole world lies in
unbelief and doesn't acknowledge God and doesn't know God and
doesn't serve God, oh, to be amongst the people who do know
and serve their God. He says, they that know their
God shall be strong to do exploits. This is the salvation, the great
salvation that God has promised. We now need to see in the final
verses, it's by God's appointed means. How has he done it? How
has he done it? Verse 76, he speaks to the child,
the infant John the Baptist, and thou, child, shall be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways. to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God whereby the day spring 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. By God's appointed means Zacharias'
son is John the Baptist, and he's the prophet, he says, the
prophet of the highest, the prophet of God, the last prophet of the
Old Testament. This is who he shall be, John
the Baptist, because he's been promised by God. Is this in accordance
with the scriptures? Yes, of course it is. Of course,
it's all self-consistent. Malachi, the last words of the
Old Testament in chapter 4 of Malachi, right at the end, God
says this through the prophet, Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. Sending Elijah the prophet is
not reincarnation, it's John the Baptist. It was a promise
that John the Baptist would come to prepare the way of the Lord.
Preparing the way for Christ. Preaching God's salvation of
his people. Verse 77. Why did he come? Why
did John go preaching? To give knowledge of salvation
unto his people. And how are they going to be
saved? Only by the remission. The sending away. The putting
away of their sins. Because if they keep their sins,
they cannot be saved. For the justice of God must condemn
them. This is what he came to preach. preaching God's salvation
of his people by the remission of their sins. And verse 78,
why did God do this? What's at the root of it all?
Through the tender mercy of our God. It's through the tender
mercy, all because of God's tender mercy. You know this, there's
grudging. I imagine in times of war there
are instances of mercy that they're grudging mercy. their irrational mercy. Where
somebody would brutally be killing everybody, he might just say,
oh go on then, go. That's not tender mercy. God's mercy is
tender mercy. God is merciful, he says again
and again, he's a God of mercy. He's only a God of mercy to those
who know their guilt, for it's only those who know their guilt
have any need of mercy. If you don't know your guilt
before God, you will never cry for mercy to God. All that he
would show you, you know, there's that hymn, a sinner is a precious
thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him so. To know his sin, to know
his need of mercy, God is merciful to those who know their need
of mercy. And this tender mercy of God implies God's pity, it's
tender mercy. He pities the people he has loved,
he says in Jeremiah, with an everlasting love. This pity implies
pardon, the forgiveness of sins, the removal of the debt to the
law and justice of God. But it's only by the payment
of a price, for in 1 Corinthians 6.20 Paul says, you are bought
with a price. He is just and justifier because
he's paid in the Lord Jesus Christ the price. And verse 78, how
has it been done? How is this being done that God
can show mercy to those who are sinners? Whereby the day spring
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. The day spring from on high hath
visited us. Christ hadn't yet come. Mary,
the cousin of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was
still with child. Christ had not yet been born.
If he'd appealed to reason only, just a human reason, he might
at best have said, oh, the day spring on high might visit us. But no, the spirit-filled eye
of faith says he has visited us. God has promised. If God
has promised, it's as good as accomplished. He's done it. The
day spring on high has visited. He's not yet born. Doesn't matter.
God has said it. It's as good as done. He has
visited us. It's already accomplished. And
what is the day spring? The day spring is the dawn of
day. You know when you see it, you
can, in these days when it's so dark in the morning, but you
can see, I get on the train and it's pitch dark, and by the time
I get to London, the first gleams of light are coming through.
It was beautiful the other morning, fantastic sunrise. The day spring,
the dawn of day, when darkness turns to light. This is Christ,
for whom John the Baptist prepared the way. He is the day spring,
the dawn of day, from on high. John chapter 1, different John,
not John the Baptist, John the Apostle. John the Apostle, chapter
1, verses 6 to 9, says this, there was a man sent from God
whose name was John. This one, the son of Zacharias
that we're talking about. The same one, John the Baptist,
came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. He, John the Baptist, was not
that light. He wasn't the day spring from
on high, but was sent to bear witness of that light, that day
spring from on high. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. It's in His face,
the day spring from on high, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His
face, we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse
6. He has visited us. How has He visited us? Has He
visited you? He visits His people when the
Holy Spirit comes and gives the eye of faith. gives the eye of
faith, which alone can teach you these things, the power of
the atoning blood of Christ. You look at your sins. What can
I do? What must a man do to be just with God? What can I do
to be saved? Show me what I need to do to
be saved. He shows us these things. He
shows us that the atoning blood of Christ pays the penalty to
the justice of God for the sins of his people. and the glorious
righteousness that is in him for his people. For we must be
made the righteousness of God in him. The Holy Spirit comes
and visits us, and in our hearts shows us this light, that it's
the atoning blood of Christ that pays for our sins, and it's the
glorious righteousness of God in him that is imputed to his
people, given over to his people, that we might be right with him,
that we need not fear the day of judgment. and as objects of
God's grace. When we fall into periods of
unbelief, as we always do, as evil as that be, we fall into
these periods of unbelief, and as we do, we sit in darkness
and the shadow of death. We don't lie down dead because
we're believers, but we sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
feeling it and knowing something of it, as that incoming light
of gospel truth in the day spring from on high. We know something
of it. And he shows us the darkness
in the flesh of the human heart for what it really is. And we
sit in that darkness in these periods of unbelief. But he comes
as the day spring from on high with the gospel of his grace.
We sit down in that situation like the captives, the captives
from Judah in the days of the Babylonian captivity and we read
in the Psalms that they sat down by the rivers of Babylon and
wept when they remembered Zion. They sat down there in a feeling
of yearning and longing for Zion, but knowing that they were in
a place of captivity. And we fall into these periods
of unbelief, this sinful, evil heart of unbelief. that God in
His grace shows us the light from the dayspring on high coming
in. The dayspring on high visits
us with the gospel of His truth, of His grace, gives us faith
to believe and trust, and guides our wayward feet into what it
says here is the way of peace. Peace with God. The peace of
God. What a blessed way that is. Oh,
we all fall into periods of unbelief. Let's not be quick to excuse
ourselves. It's an evil state to be in. Let us believe God. Let us hear what his word says
and trust him and lean upon him. Let unbelief be turned to faith
and light and peace and the knowledge of God and bearing the testimony
of God. Let's pray with that man. Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Amen.