I want to begin reading here
in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1 and verse 67. You'll remember the
context of what has taken place. The angel of the Lord, Gabriel,
came to this man, Zacharias, while he was there in the temple.
And he was burning incense there upon the altar of incense, and
the angel Gabriel announced unto this man, this old man, that
he and his wife would have a child, and then named him John. And
it came to pass that this old lady conceived and bore a son,
her first child, her only child that she had. And this man, Zechariah,
was dumb. He did not believe the angel
Gabriel. And the angel Gabriel smote him
with dumbness and said, You'll be dumb because you believe not
my message from the Lord. But nine months later, this wife
of Zechariah had the son of John the Baptist. And he called for
a writing tablet. He couldn't speak. They wanted
to know what to name the child. The son said, let's name him
Zacharias. And his mother said, not so. His name is John. And
they said, you don't have anybody in your family named John. Let's
name him Zacharias. And they took this writing tablet
to his dad. And his dad wrote on it, His
name is John. His name is John. John the Baptist. And this here is then where we
pick up this story. Suddenly, this is what happened.
This man's tongue was loosed. And here's what happened. And
his father, John's father, the babe's father, Zacharias, was
filled with the Holy Ghost. And he preached, he prophesied,
saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited
and hath 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 life." Now, let's
look at this passage for a few minutes this morning. And I'm
amazed Almost everywhere I read this statement, and it's quite
often we read it in the New Testament, he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, if you know anything about
the Spirit of the living God, that's amazing. He was filled
with the Holy Spirit. Who is this Holy Spirit? Well,
we know that he's the third person of the Sacred Trinity. He is
one with God. The Scripture tells us that there's
three, that by record in heaven, God the Father, and the Word,
which is Christ, and the Spirit, and these three are one. Who is this Holy Spirit? Why,
he's one with God the Father. He's one with God the Son. He
is the third person of this blessed Holy Trinity. And many things
in the Scriptures are attributed to this Holy Ghost. And it shows
us that He's more than just an influence. We've had people tell
us all the Holy Spirit is is an influence. But He's more than
an influence. He's a person. And we can see
by the things that he's done that he's more than an influence.
He is indeed a real person. Because creation is attributed
to him. The scripture says this, By the
Spirit of the Lord were the heavens decorated. He's made the heavens
by the word of his mouth, and all the host of them by the breath
of his lips." Who is it that created the heavens? It's the
Spirit of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, that
influence can't create anything, can it? But a person can. The Holy Ghost is a person. And
Peter says this about Him concerning giving us the Old Testament Scriptures. He says the prophecy came not
in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so often we read of him speaking. He spake by the mouth of David
the prophet. The Holy Ghost spake unto the
early church and said, separate me, Barnabas and Paul, for the
work whereunto I have called him. So he's a person. He can
move people. He speaks. He's more than just
an influence. We read in the scriptures also
that he gives gifts. We read often that the Lord gives
gifts. Brother Graham told us about
that marvelous gift this morning, that God has given his Son the
gift of men, chosen men that he gave to his Son. You know
we read in 1 Corinthians 12 that the Spirit gives gifts. He gives
wisdom, he gives knowledge, he gives faith, he gives the gift
of healing. All of these gives that one and
the self-same spirit, given to every man as he wills. He has a will, he's a person.
The Holy Spirit is said to be the revealer of the things of
God. Listen to this, I have not seen,
it's never entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. It's the Spirit that searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. No man can say that Jesus
is Lord, no man can know Jesus as Lord, but accept this Holy
Spirit, reveal Him. He's a person, isn't He? He's
more than just an influence. And the Lord Jesus said, when
He has come, He will guide you unto all truth. And where does
He come to when He comes? He comes to the heart, doesn't
He? God has set forth the Spirit
of His Son into your heart. crime, father, father. And what
does he do there? He bears witness to our spirit
that we're sons of God. And everywhere he dwells, his
presence brings forth this fruit. And what kind of fruit is it?
Love? Joy? Peace? Long-suffering? Goodness? Gentleness? Temperance? Kindness? Patience? Everybody
that has the Spirit has these fruits of the Spirit. Now, brothers
and sisters in an influence don't have fruit. But he's not an influence. He's a person. He's a person.
And listen to this, he's called not only the spirit of life,
but he's called the giver of life. Listen to this, the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And listen, the letter
killeth, but the spirit gives life. He gives life. And here's a man, here's a man,
Zacharias, that was filled with this glorious eternal Holy Spirit. Now ain't that amazing? That's
amazing. He was filled with this third
person of the Holy Trinity. This divine administrator of
this church age, this revealer of secrets, this giver of gifts,
this giver of life, this sealer of his people. This man was sealed
with this Holy Spirit. Now I think that's an amazing
statement myself. And the more we find out about the Holy Ghost,
the more amazed I think this statement will be. Can you imagine
the joy and the peace and the confidence this man must have
had? Can you imagine the clearness of his thoughts? Of his understanding? Can you imagine how light has
flooded this man's soul? Because he was filled with this
Spirit. I think as close as you and I
will ever get to heaven in this life, when we're filled with
the Holy Spirit. Because he's the Spirit from
heaven. The Spirit of the eternal living God. Think about this
with me just for a minute, too. Think about the joy, the great
joy this man had. For nine months he had been under
this awful chastening hand of God. The angel said as much to
him. He said, because you've not believed
me, you're going to be done until all these things are accomplished.
You ain't going to be able to speak. And in spite of the joy
he had of knowing his wife was going to have a child, I tell
you, this man was still grieved. You say, Bruce, how do you know
that? Because the Scripture tells us that no chastening for the
present seems to be joyous, but grievous. And he had gone with
the hand of God up on him for nine months, whipping him and
correcting him for his unbelief, but here suddenly he was filled
with the Holy Spirit. And his tongue was loosed, and
his spirit was filled with this blessed Holy Spirit. And then
he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. I mean, he went
from one extreme to the other, didn't he? From being under this
awful rod of God, chastening him, to being caught up with
filling with his Holy Spirit, and praising the Lord God of
Israel. Ain't that the way the Lord works
with us sometimes? He uses these extremes, doesn't
he? I tell you, I tell you when the Lord saves a man, you've
never known extremes in your life of being down one second
and being up the next second as the Lord works with His people. They've been talked about being
in this horrible pit. And he said, I couldn't stand
there because it was my place. I just kept sinking, sinking,
sinking in this horrible pit. And suddenly something happened.
He said, God brought me up and set my feet upon a rock and established
my goings and put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto
my God. I remember one of the most darkest
days in my life up to that time is when I was under conviction.
I mean, it was a dark day in my life. I didn't know if the
Lord was ever going to have mercy upon me or not. I began to think
not. And then suddenly, suddenly,
I had no more tears to shed. I had no more prayers to pray. I had nothing else I could do. And there I laid at His feet.
And suddenly, He revealed Himself to me. Took away all my sin. From the depths of almost darkness
and despair to the heights of knowing the Lord Jesus. The Lord
often works that way, doesn't He? Can you imagine when the Lord
Jesus comes again? What a change that will be. You and I have never experienced
such a change as that will be when our Lord Jesus comes again.
And He's going to come in a moment, ain't He? The change is not going
to be gradual, but in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The
Kodak camera company told us several years ago that's the
11th, 100th of a second that it takes you to blink your eye.
That's how fast the Lord Jesus has come. And here we are in
this body of sin, one moment, and the very next moment we look
just like the Savior. One moment we're growing under
this body of death, then the next moment we're in heaven leaping
for joy. What a change that will be! What
a day that will be! When my Jesus, I shall say, and
be like Him. What a change! What a change! Here was this poor man who had
been under God's rod for nine months, and then suddenly he
was filled with the Holy Ghost, and his tongue was loosened.
But there's something else I thought as I read this passage here.
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. And this whole passage,
this whole context of chapter 1 and chapter 2, when you look
at this, who are these people that the Lord is visiting and
filling with his Spirit? Who is Zacharias? He was really
nobody. He lived in the hill country
of Judea. John Gill tells us that there
were so many of these common priests that usually they just
got to serve one time in all their life. He just got to come
there on just one occasion and burn incense on the altar. And
then he went back home. Who was this man? He was really
a nobody. Who was Elizabeth? The scripture
tells us in this chapter that she was filled with the Holy
Spirit. But who was she? She was nobody. Bless her heart,
she was an old lady that had lived under reproach most all
of her life because she had no children. And even her neighbors
looked at her and said, there goes that barren Elizabeth. God
hasn't blessed her. She has no children. And she
lives under that all of her life. And yet the Lord filled her with
this Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was filled with
the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, but who was he? They finally
cut his head off, didn't they? The world didn't like him. He
didn't belong to the Sanhedrin. He wasn't a master of Israel.
Who were these people? And these shepherds, who were
they? They were working night shifts, weren't they? You know
about night shift people. They don't have enough seniority
to get on days. There's a strange lot of people
out there. I used to work night shift. There's some strange people
that worked night shift. These were night shift people.
Who were they? They were nobodies. But the angel
of the Lord appeared to them and announced to them the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what he said to them.
Here's what he said to these common people, unto you. is born
this day. Oh, wasn't that a wonderful announcement
from heaven itself? But who are these people? They're
nobodies. They're common people. But here
the Lord is visiting them and filling them and announcing to
them this wonderful news. Oh, brothers and sisters, I don't
want to be anybody. I don't want to be wise in this
world. I don't want to be mighty. I don't want to be noble. I want
to be a nobody, don't you? God has chosen the foolish things
of this world, the base things, the things which are not, the
things that are. I just want to be a nobody, because
that's who he seems to bless. That's who he seems to visit,
these nobodies. Who was Zacharias? He was a nobody,
but I tell you this, he was a man filled with the Holy Ghost. What's it like to be filled with
the Holy Ghost? How would we describe that? How
would you recognize a person if he was filled with the Holy
Ghost? I ask that because we sometimes
have people tell us, you know, I was filled with the Holy Ghost.
We have people all around us, we see them on TV, we hear them
on radio, and they're professing that they've been filled with
the Holy Ghost, and maybe they are, and maybe they're not. I
don't know. I don't know. But I know this. When you and
I read in the Word of God that these men were filled with the
Holy Ghost, we know they really were. And we can look at them
and see how it affected them, and we can see what a person
acts like, and what he says and what he does when he's filled
with the Holy Ghost. And what did these people do?
What did this man do? Well, we're told here in verse
68, aren't we? Look at it again. Look at our
text. In verse 67, he was filled with the Holy Ghost and he prophesied,
he preached, and here's what he said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, for he hath visited and hath redeemed his people. What does man do when they're
full of the Holy Spirit? Well, we're told right here,
he blessed the Lord. He praised the Lord. I don't know if this has any
physical effect upon this man or not. I mean, I don't know,
when you looked at him, if you could tell any difference. The
scripture says that Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit,
and his face had the appearance of an angel. It probably glowed.
I don't know if Zachariah's face glowed. I don't know if he's
waving his hands. There's one thing that seems
to indicate, from all of these examples in the Word of God,
that a man is filled with the Holy Spirit by what he says and
the boldness with which he says it. That's what seems to indicate
that a man is full of the Holy Spirit. And here was this man
that was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the primary effect
that it had upon him was not in his appearance. It wasn't
what he did with his hands or what his body looked like. But
his heart was filled. Where does the Spirit come to?
The heart. His heart was filled with the
Holy Spirit, and the outward evidence was what he said. And
how he said it. What he said it. That's the way
it always is when we see these men filled with the Holy Spirit.
What do they say? On the day of Pentecost, remember
that day when the Holy Spirit came in power and filled all
of those that were in that house? And there was 18 nations gathered
there that day. And here was Peter. And he was filled with the Holy
Ghost. And they heard him speaking every man in his own language.
But it wasn't so much they heard him speaking in their own language
as what he was saying. And here's what they said, we
heard him speaking the wonderful works of God. You know our poor
dear Pentecostal friends, they emphasize the tongues but they
don't emphasize what he said. What was he saying? That's more
important than anything else. He was telling the wonderful
works of God. And here is Peter, this man that
just a few days before, denied the Lord because he was afraid
of this little man. And now here he stands so bold, and he preaches to those people.
God sent His Son into this world. And you by your wicked hands
crucify him and slew him. But God hath raised him up from
the dead, and set him there upon his own right hand, and made
him both Lord and Christ. Now repent every one of you."
See what he was saying? He preached Christ! And he preached
with boldness and liberty, and preached repentance to them.
And you find the very same thing over in Acts chapter 10, when
Peter went down to Cornelius' house, the Gentiles, the first
time the gospel ever came to the Gentiles, Peter preached
to them. And the Holy Ghost filled those
Gentile people. And those that came with Peter
heard them. speak with tongues, and they
magnified the Lord." It was what they said, wasn't it? They magnified
the Lord. They sung His praises. They spake
of His praises. What I'm emphasizing here this
morning, when these individuals were filled with the Holy Ghost,
it was their hearts that were filled. It was their understandings
that were enlightened. It was their affections that
were set on fire. And their thoughts were centered
upon the Lord, and they were filled with praise. They were
filled with adoration. They were filled with faith.
They were filled with love to God. That's what it means to
be filled with the Holy Spirit. This man was filled with the
Holy Spirit, and his tongue was loosed. And he said, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel. Praise his holy name. Now you
say, Bruce, I'm not a preacher. I'm not a teacher. As a matter
of fact, I'm a very timid woman. How would I know if I'm filled
with the Holy Spirit? Well, that's why I'm emphasizing
this morning. It's the heart. It's the heart
that's filled. And you may never speak a word,
but it's the heart. It's the affections. It's the
thoughts that go out after Him. Paul says it like this, and you
can read this sometime in Ephesians chapter 5. He said, Brethren,
be filled not with wine, don't be drunk with wine wherein is
excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Then what does he say? Speak unto yourself in songs
and hymns and spiritual songs. Listen now, make it melody in
your heart to the Lord. See what it is? It turns the
heart, it turns the thoughts, the affections, the love to the
Lord. to sing to Him in your heart,
to bless Him in your heart, giving thanks always for all things
unto God in the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I think we should
emphasize in this passage this morning. What is it like to be
filled with the Holy Ghost? It turns the thoughts, it turns
the heart from these worldly things, from the cares, from
the pleasures, from the anxieties and the burdens and the worries
of this world, and it turns the thoughts, the heart towards God.
We've received not the spirit of this world, the spirit of
this world is on the face of this world, and is concerned
with this world, but we've received the spirit which is of God, that
we may know the thanks that's freely given to us of Him. What's it like to be filled with
the Holy Spirit? I think this is a good illustration here.
The heart, the affections, the will, the motives, the everything. It just turned upward in blessing
and praise and love to Him. Notice something else here in
our text. You can see this through this entire text, but especially
Here in verses 68-70, notice how Zechariah's thoughts was
caught up, not only with God, Not only just with God, the attributes
of God, the perfections of God, but his thought was caught up
in what God was doing for his people. Notice this. Notice what
he said in verse 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited, and he hath redeemed his people. He hath raised up no horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David." See what
he's saying? He's caught up with what God
is doing. And what's the first thing he
says here? He has visited. He has visited. Isn't that a wonderful blessing,
to be visited? Brother Dave, I was talking with
Dave yesterday in Trench and Green and going over to see him.
Dave was talking about what a blessing it was to have visitors. He said, I'm just here by myself
most of the time. It's a wonderful thing to have
visitors. Isn't it wonderful, brothers
and sisters, when God visits a man? Here was a man that was
filled with the Holy Spirit, and the first thing he took notice
of was this, God has visited. God has visited. And the scripture
has a lot to say about that. I found this definition in Cruton's
Concordance, and it said the definition of a visit was to
go and see someone for a special purpose. Go and see someone for a special
purpose. God has visited His people. And we'll see this special purpose
just in a minute. But let me read some scriptures
to you concerning the Lord visiting people. Do you remember what
He said in Genesis 21 to Sarah? The Lord visited Sarah, and she
conceived and bore Abraham a son. That's an important visit, wasn't
it? In 1 Samuel 2, the Lord visited
Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters.
A visitation of the Lord. When He visits, He does so for
a reason. And listen to this. In Genesis chapter 50, Joseph
told the children of Israel, he said, the Lord will visit
you down in this place. And He will deliver you from
here and take you into the land of promise. He will visit you. And David said this, Remember
me, O Lord, with Thy favor that Thou barest unto Thy people. Visit me, O Lord, with Thy salvation. Oh, that's a visit, isn't it?
Visit me with Thy salvation. And Jeremiah said this, The children
of Israel shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they
stay until I visit them, saith the Lord, and bring them to their
place again. And again Isaiah said, Jeremiah
said, after 70 years will I visit you, saith the Lord, and I will
perform my good work towards you in causing you to return
to this place. For I know the thoughts of my
heart towards you. Thoughts of good and not of evil. Visit. Visit. The Lord your God
shall visit you and turn away your captivity." You remember
Peter, how he said it about the Gentile nations when they were
having that great conference there in Acts chapter 15? And
Peter stood up in the midst of that conference and he says,
Brethren, God has visited the Gentiles. Never had done it before. But Peter says, God hath visited
the Gentiles, and he's taken out of them a people for his
namesake. And brothers and sisters, he's
still doing that today. He is still visiting He's coming
to see people with a purpose in mind. Oh, that's my prayer
for myself. Lord, visit me. That's my prayer
for you, Clarence, and for all God's children. That's my prayer
for you lost here this morning. That the Lord would visit you.
The Lord would come and see you with a special purpose in mind.
To do you good. And what is it? What is it? Here's
a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he says, the
Lord has visited, and look at this, look what he says. In the
last portion of verse 68, he hath visited and hath ransomed,
redeemed his people. He says here in verse 78, he
says this again, look what he says here in verse 77. To give
knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their
sins, through the tender mercies of our God, whereby the day spring
from on high has visited us. We know who that is, don't we?
Sister Elma gave me a Christmas card this morning, such a nice
card. It had that verse on the front of it, You have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. And I started to open it up on
the envelope and it said, Day Sprang. Day Sprang, right on
the back. I thought, I know who that is.
He came down from heaven. He referred to himself as the
bright and morning star. Zachariah called him, you're
the Day Sprang. the Son of God. He's come, and
what's He come to do? Give Himself a ransom to redeem
us. And that's what He did. That's
what we sort of celebrate this time of year. We celebrate it
all year. But the world has sort of set a time this time to celebrate
when Jesus Christ, the dear Son of God, came down from heaven
and took our likeness and He redeemed us. He ransomed us. And we know what ransom is, don't
we? Someone has been taken captive. And there's a price determined
to release them from their captivity. And that's what Jesus Christ
did. We were taken captive by our sins. Captive by the law
of Moses. And it holds us in bondage. Jesus
Christ came to pay a ransom that was determined beforehand. And
what was it? His own self. He gave himself
a ransom. How awful sin must be. What a
great debt it must be to God that it takes such a ransom to
deliver us from it. How strict and inflexible justice
must be that it takes such a ransom, the blood of God's Son on Calvary's
tree, to deliver us from our sin and from the curse of the
law. But that's the ransom. And Jesus Christ did not offer
Himself to the devil. He offered Himself to God. A
ransom. He visited us and He has redeemed
us. And this is what this man said as he was filled with the Holy
Ghost. It only becomes sort of evident here in this passage
what the work of the Holy Spirit is. What does he do when he fills
this man? Well, he begins to talk about
the Son of God. being our Redeemer and ransoming
us. And ain't that the very same
thing that the Lord Jesus said He would do when He came? He
won't speak of Himself. This man didn't jump up and begin
to brag about being filled with the Holy Spirit. He didn't say
the Holy Spirit has come down and filled me. What does He say?
He begins to talk about this day strain coming down from heaven
and ransoming us, redeeming us from our sins and the curse of
the law. He begins to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ just like
the Lord said He would. When He's come, He shall glorify
me. That's what He said. He shall
not speak of Himself. He shall take of mine, He said,
and He'll show it unto you. He spoke of the Son of God. And
look here what he said about him in verse 69. Look how a Redeemer is identified,
and look how this man identifies him. Here's the way you and I
can know that Jesus Christ is the real Redeemer and Savior. Here in verse 69, he gives us
two things that we can know, two ways that we can know the
Lord Jesus is our true Redeemer. Look what he says. Here's the
first thing he says about it. And, here's what he says, God
hath raised up that horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant
David. How do we know that Jesus Christ
is the true Savior? Because He's the one God raised
up? God raised Him up. God set Him up from way back
yonder in eternity to be the Savior of His people. And then
in time, God sent him down from heaven and implanted him, as
it were, in the womb of that virgin. And he came forth from
that womb a little infant. And what did God the Father do?
The Scripture says God protected him. And God made him strong. And God washed over him. And
God raised him up. I love what Paul said in the
first sermon we ever had that the Apostle Paul preached. Now
we have what he said. He made this very statement of
what Zechariah said here. He said that God hath raised
unto Israel a Saviour of the house of David. And he said his
name is Jesus. God raised him up from a low
infant. He raised him up. And then when
men by wicked hands crucified him and they put him in a tomb,
It was said of him that God raised him up from the dead and exalted
him and set him there on his own right hand. Here's the way,
brothers and sisters, you can know if you have the right Savior. Did God raise him up? Or are
you trusting in somebody that you raised up? Do you have a
little Savior that you raised up? He's one of your own imagination,
and you've made Him, and you've reared Him up, or is it one God
raised up? A lot of people have a Savior
that they've raised up themselves. They can see Him, and they pat
Him around, and they use Him like an old spare tire. But the
only Savior that can save us is the one that God raised up.
Jesus of Nazareth. There is no other. And we have
another way that he's identified here. Look at this in verse 7.
Look here in verse 70. Here's what else he said about
him. God raised him up. He was of the house and lineage
of David. And look in verse 7. This Jesus Christ is not a newcomer
on the sea. The whole Bible is about him.
Look what he said in verse 70, "...as he spake by the mouth
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began."
See that? As I read the Old Testament scriptures,
I don't find these men's names like Buddha. Do you? Or Confucius, or whatever his
name was. You read the Bible, you don't
find all these new saviors. You find one Savior. Let's prophesy
that. From all the way back in Genesis
3, verse 15, that He was the seed of the woman, to Malachi,
that tells us the Lord is coming to His holy temple. Just one
Savior. They all spoke of Him. That He
would be born to the virgin, that He would grow up as a tender
plant before God, that He would bear our transgressions, that
He would be bruised for our iniquities. That God would lay upon him the
iniquity of us all, but he would justify us by his own life laid
down. And here this man is filled by
the Holy Spirit and he says, He's coming. He's coming. How do we know? How do we know
that the Christ we're trusting in is the real Savior? We find
Him in the Holy Scripture. We find Him there, don't we?
In prophecies, in pictures, in tithes, in promises. He's there. And look here at
verse 71. I like this. These things were spoken of the
prophets of old, since the world began. Christ is spoken of. And look at verse 71. That we
should be saved from the hand of our enemy. What's the whole Bible about?
It's about being saved, ain't it? I had a fellow tell me one
time, he said, you know, I never used that word. I said, what's
that? He said, saved. He said, I just
don't like that word. What's the Bible about? I would say this with little
fear of being contradicted. That from Genesis to the Revelation,
you don't have one single subject But this right here, are being
saved. That's what the whole Bible is
about. God has written about nothing else but our being saved. You and I should give all the
thoughts that we have to being saved. Because God has written
the whole Bible about us being saved. Brothers and sisters,
give all your energy to be saved. All your time to nothing but
being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can know it's
God's will for you. All your time, all your thoughts,
all your efforts to being saved. Because when God wrote to us
a book in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that's all
it's about. are being saved. The necessity
of it. Saved from what? Look what he
says in the last portion of verse 71. Saved from our enemies. Now who was he speaking of? He wasn't speaking of the Roman
government. They had worse enemies than that.
He wasn't speaking of anything physically. What was he speaking
about? Well, I'll tell you one of our
enemies, and probably the chief enemy, is our sins. Sin is an enemy of the soul.
It lusts against the soul, and it seeks to destroy it, and will
destroy it. It will ruin the soul if a man
isn't saved from it. Hell is created for one reason,
to punish sin. Sin is a man's enemy. The prophet
said of old, turn ye from all your transgressions. Why will
sin be your ruin? What a blessing it is, therefore,
when you and I read that his name shall be called Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins. Sometime in day,
we probably shouldn't do it, but sometime we watch these religious
TV programs, and they've got people being saved from bad health.
They've got people being saved from poverty, being saved from
a bad relationship. But hardly anybody is being saved
from sin. He shall save us from what? Our
enemy, sin. And what else? What about Satan?
He's a roaring lion. He's a deceiver. He's a wise
serpent. He's seeking, any way he can,
to populate hell. Because he hates God, he hates
Christ, he hates the souls of men. To seek to devour the souls
of men. He's the enemy of our souls.
He deceives the whole world about this one thing that we're talking
about this morning, about being saved. were saved from him. Oh, thank
God we're saved from him. There was a time when he blinded
our mind. We couldn't hear, we couldn't
understand, we could not believe the gospel. But now we're delivered
from him. What about this world? This world's
not a friend to God. It's not a friend to the believer.
All that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, it's not of God. And it's not
going to help us to get to God. It's going to do everything it
can to keep you from Him. It's our enemy. Thank God He
saved us from it. He saved us from it. What about
the Law of Moses? Some people say, let the Law
of Moses be your rule of life. My friend, the Law of Moses is
your enemy. If you're outside of Christ,
it's your enemy. You know what it says about the
law. It's a ministration of death. The law kills us. It accuses
you before God. Don't think I'll accuse you,
the Lord Jesus said. There is one that accuses you,
and that's Moses. And whom you trust all to be
delivered from that enemy. The law of Moses. What about
death? What about death? Boy, that's
an enemy, ain't it? I lived a lot of days scared
to death of that enemy. You go to a funeral home, I was
at a funeral home just the other day, and this lady, she made
it a point to tell me, bless her heart, that the person bearing
the casket was much better off. Well, he was, if he was in Christ. But I tell you, if a man dies
outside of Christ, death is his enemy. And death will feed on
him like worms feeding on the dead body. Thank God we're delivered. Christ tasted death for us to
deliver us from fear of death. He delivered us from our enemies. Now, ain't this an amazing thing?
Here was a man filled with the Holy Ghost. And what's he talking
about? He's talking about the very same
things that you and I love to talk about, ain't he? Being saved. His whole aspect and prospect
of being saved. That's what he's talking about.
And that's what you and I talk about all the time. That we should
be saved from our enemy and from the hand of all who hate us. And I want you to note this,
because this is so important, and I want to stress it again. as important as it is in your
own mind and your own heart to be saved. And I'm telling you,
you think about it daily, don't you? There's probably never a day
goes by you don't think about being saved. It's critical to
you. If you ain't saved, you're perished.
You think about this, don't you? It's important to you. But as
important as it is to you and me, it's much more important
to our God. As important as it is to you
to have the assurance that you're saved, it's much more important
to Him to give you that assurance. You say, Bruce, why do you say
that? Because of what's said right here in this chapter. Look
here. Look here in the chapter again,
in verse 72. Look at this. When he talked
about our being saved from our enemies, look what he said, "...to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember
His holy covenant." God's given us promises. And
He's even confirmed His promises by an oath. And he is willing,
brothers and sisters, that you and I should rest ourselves upon
those promises, and believe his word. If salvation didn't mean
anything to our God, he would have never promised it. If he did not care about us living
in the assurance of our salvation, he would never have entered into
an oath about it all. But he's willing to swear to
it that you and I may look at that hope and rest our souls
upon it. God cannot lie. And he's promised
salvation to all that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Has
he not? The promise runs like this. He that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall never come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life." What is that? That's a
promise. That's a promise. God has given
us promises in His Word that you and I may look at these promises
and our faith take hold upon them and live in the assurance
of this great salvation that God has provided for us. To perform the mercy that he
promised. Ain't that the covenant? Ain't
that covenant mercies? He promised mercy. Mercy about
what? About the very thing that you
and I are concerned most about. I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel, he said. And it's this. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. That's a promise. That's a covenant
promise. And he said here that he made
the oath. Remember the oath? Which he swore
to Abraham, our father. What's that oath about? Some
of you know. Some of you know. You remember in Genesis chapter
22 when Abraham went up on Mount Moriah to offer his son. Remember
that, don't you? That's where this oath was made
to Abraham. Abraham was ready to kill his son. Remember, he
had the knife in his hand. He was going to stab him. And
the Lord said, don't touch the lad. I know now that you fear
me. And then he made this wonderful
promise to Abraham. And he swore. The Lord spoke
to Abraham, and he said, Abraham, I swear by myself, because you've
done this thing, you've not withheld your son, your only son for me,
I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make your seed as
the stars in the heavens for multitude, and as the sand which
is by the seashore. You can't even number them, he
said. And then he said this, in your seed, in Christ, shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. What nationality
are you this morning? Well, we're most of us Americans,
aren't we? Living here in this little town
of Newcastle, Indiana. The world doesn't know we're
here, but we have this tremendous blessing. God has sworn to Abraham,
in blessing, I'm going to bless them. I'm going to bless them. Americans, Hoosiers, Hillbillies,
Blarjumpers. I'm going to be merciful to them. Ain't that a wonderful promise?
And here's what this man was caught up with that was filled
with the Holy Ghost. Uh-oh. I'll hurry. I'm not going to preach tonight,
so I'm keeping you a little bit longer this morning. So be patient
with me, okay? I just want to finish this. Look
here in verse 74. Look in verse 74. Here's the promise now. Here's
the promise. Here's the oath. Here's what it has to do with.
He swore to Abraham and said, Blessing. I'm going to bless
thee. What's that blessing all about? Well, here it is in verse
74 again. Look here. That he would grant
unto us. He would give us. Bless us. That
we be delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him
without fear." That's the message. Deliver us. And there are many,
and I can't go into them, but there's one because of this occasion
concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's just
one I want to tell you about, what he delivered us from. And
you can relate to this. I can, and you can too. In Colossians
chapter 1, where he says, giving thanks
unto the Father, which has made us fit to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints and light, who have delivered us
from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son. The power of darkness. You remember
in Isaiah chapter 9, in regard to this darkness, The Holy Spirit
said over there in Isaiah chapter 9, they that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. Do you remember that? He is speaking
of the coming of the Son of God into this world. They that walked
in darkness and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of
death, upon them light has sprung. But when we come over to the
New Testament, in Matthew chapter 3, and we read that, the Holy
Spirit changes the word all together. He doesn't say they walked in
darkness, but He says this, they set in darkness. And they set in the regions of
Judaism. Back over there to the Old Testament,
they walked, but now they set. And you wonder, what happened?
Well, here's what happens. In our darkness, we wander around
in it, and we try to get out of it. And after a while, we're
just so discouraged because we cannot deliver ourselves. We
finally, in despair, just say, I don't know. I bet you there's somebody here
this morning that says, I've got to get out of my lifestyle.
I've got to get out of it. It's killing me. It's going to
kill me. And you've tried to get out of
it, haven't you? You've tried. But you can't, can you? You can't
change. And you know why? Darkness is
a powerful thing. And what you need this morning
is this one thing. You need the light. the saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to shine into your heart. That's what you need. That's
the only thing that will deliver you. You need the light of Jesus
Christ to shine into your understanding. And then, that very thing that
you've been trying to do and you cannot do it, You'll find
out that he's done it in a moment's time. I was there, dear soul. I tried
to do it. And the devil, he always tells
me, you can't live the Christian life. And boy, for once he was
telling the truth. I tried. I tried to come out
of my sins. I tell you, sin is a binding
thing. Habits are a binding thing. Lust
is a binding thing. The scriptures aptly describe
them as cords of iniquity. You can't free yourself. But
the Lord Christ let Him, the day strange from on high, rise
up into your soul and give you an understanding. You're free.
Darkness has to let you go. Yes. And you're translated into
the Kingdom of God's dear Son. The Kingdom of Light. Then what
happens? Well, He tells us right here
in this passage. Look at it. The last portion of verse 74. Being delivered out of the hands
of our enemy. Then what happens? We can serve
Him. We can serve Him. Without fear. Bound by sin. Bound by guilt. Bound by the slavish fear. We
can't serve God like that. We have to be delivered from
it. We have to be forgiven. We have to be regenerated. We
have to have a new nature given to us. A new life. New desires. New motive. And God does that
for us. And then when he does, then we
delight to serve him. Then we serve him willingly and
lovingly. And not just for a few days,
and not with hypocrisy and pretense, and not with ceremonies and outward
show, but look at this, in holiness and righteousness before him.
Isn't that wonderful? Brother Larry told us a few Sundays
ago about this word, sincerity. That's the way we serve the Lord.
You hold us up to the light. And everything about us is exposed.
And that's the way we come before the Lord. We don't hide anything
anymore. We serve Him in honesty and sincerity
and truth. And we can do that now. And look at this, all the days
of our life. I mean, we're never going back
on it. I mean, this salvation that the Lord gives, this ain't
a temporary thing. This ain't a few days or a few
years to say, well, it didn't work for me, I'm bored to death,
I'm out of here. No, no, no. I'm telling you when the Lord
saves you, when He makes you a new creature in Christ, when
He begins to work in your heart, He just keeps on working. And
you keep on coming, and you keep on believing, and you keep on
working, you keep on pleading, the rest of your life. And if I'd have got up here this
morning, and I'd have told you all of this, but I've told you,
you could have left here and said, well, what does that matter
anyway? Bruce, just a rat in a hole. But I've told you what
a man that was full of the Holy Spirit has said. Therefore, brothers
and sisters, you can believe it. You can believe it. Go home and take the Bible out
and meditate upon this. And pray that this same Holy
Spirit that filled this man here will fill you. And what rejoiced
his heart would rejoice your heart. And what he believed,
you believe. And then when life is over, you'll
go to the same heaven he's at. Father, we bless your holy name.
We lift up our voices with this dear man who is buried in your
presence now, praising you as he did you. We lift up our voices
to you. We praise the Lord God of Jacob. We praise you for sending your
Son to redeem us. Praise you for washing us and
making us new creatures. Praise you that, Lord, we have
hope that all the days of our life will continue to worship
you, and adore you, and admire you. Bless you for your word. Take it home to the hearts of
your people that are here this morning. And Lord Jesus, in your
glory, in your goodness, in your love, in your saving miracles,
shine into hearts this morning. Remove the guilt, the fear, the
bondage of sin. and set poor souls free from
being slaves to sin and the devil, and grant them, Lord, what we
trust they really want, to be servants of the Most High God.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.