We are southern. We are really
southern. Thank you so much. So many people
have done so much. I appreciate your invitation,
Todd. Todd asked me the other day,
do you like Americans? That's a tough question, isn't
it? It implies an answer. I love
Americans. That's why I'm here, brothers
and sisters. And I thank you very much. There are so many
of you who have done so much to cause this weekend for all
of us to be such a blessing. And many of you will go unthanked
in proper ways, but I just want you to hear that we appreciate
it very much. And it's just lovely to be gathered, but especially
it's lovely to be gathered to hear the preaching of the gospel. And I wanted to look at a message
which begins with, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed. Praise him. Thank him. glorify Him, raise Him up, magnify
the Lord. I want us to contemplate a gathering
that's very much like this. It was a gathering of the Lord's
people. It was a time of great joy and
wonder, a time when the hand of the Lord was very evident,
and it was a time for God's servant to speak. And this servant is
declared by God to be a righteous man and a blameless man. And that's the only man I ever
want to hear from. I want to hear from a righteous man. Because
a righteous man will tell me, a truly righteous man will tell
me that he has no righteousness of his own, they're just all
filthy rags. A truly righteous man will tell me again and again
and again that the only righteousness I have is the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. A righteousness, a blood-bought
righteousness. God imputing righteousness, a
righteousness that robs sinners like us. The unrighteous, the
unrighteous will tell me what I have to do to be righteous
and how I have to maintain that righteousness by myself. So these
are the words of a righteous and blameless man in the gathering
of God's people. So I'd like you to turn with
me to Zacharias' message and you know the context. For 400
years there's been a silence, for 400 years there's been an
anxious expectation that God would come and visit with his
people. That's a lovely American expression,
we don't have that in Australia, visit with. We don't have it. I wish we did. I love it. I love
it. Visit with people. I've been
visiting with people. The Lord comes and he visits
with his people. And these, these are the first
public words of the gospel. preached for 400 years. And I'm not discounting what
happened in Acts chapter two and all of what followed and
all of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 30 years
after it. But after 400 years of silence, God fills a man. You turn with me to Luke chapter
one, verse 67. And his father Zacharias was
filled with the Holy Ghost. prophesy. So I think these are words of
first importance. These are words that reflect
the foundations. These are words that come directly
from God. I love what Luke tells us. If
you turn back in your scriptures to Luke chapter one, verse three,
he said, he's speaking to, writing to Theophilus, and that means
a lover of God. It seemed good, verse three,
it seemed good to me also having perfect understanding of all
things from the very first, this is one of the very first, to
write unto the in order, most excellent Theophilus,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. We've heard from God over this
weekend. That word certainty means safety, security, stability,
firmness, words of undoubted truth. I like to be secure. I love what Frank told us last
night about the things that we are confident of. We can rest
here, brothers and sisters. We can lay our head on the pillow
of these glorious words. Zacharias was filled with the
Holy Ghost and he prophesied And here we have this word of
this man. And I love the fact that you
know that something of the story of the angel came and spoke to
him in the temple and Zacharias was told this remarkable thing
that he and his very old wife were going to have a baby. A
miraculous baby. It hadn't been one of them for
a long time. It hadn't been a long time since anyone had had an
angel speak to them. And then we know that the angel
shut his mouth for 10 months because of his unbelief. So Zacharias is a sinner. Zacharias
is a sinner. This message comes As a treasure
in vessels, earthen vessels, Zacharias was a sinful man. He
was a weak man. He was a frail man. He was a
man liable to act in unbelief. And yet God speaks through such
a man. You be kind to your pastors,
brothers and sisters in Christ. They're sinners like you. They
are as much in need of grace as we all are. Zacharias is this
man who speaks. And you know the story, the remarkable
things that had happened in this last 10 months or so, the angel
had visited Joseph, the angel had visited Mary, Mary had run
to Elizabeth's house, and as she arrived and spoke, John the
Baptist leapt in his mother's womb. What remarkable things
Zacharias witnessed. What remarkable things he witnessed.
And Mary and Elizabeth speak to each other, but all of those
conversations are private conversations. Zacharias is struck dumb. And
he has this remarkable story. He has a remarkable story of
a miracle birth. He has a remarkable story of
meeting an angel. He has a remarkable story of
the Redeemer being six months old in his mother's womb. And
Zechariah speaks. This is what a righteous man
and a blameless man and a man filled with the Holy Spirit speaks.
Listen to what he says. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Not a mention of all of those
other remarkable things that God had done, but blessed be
the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be the God. The very
first words out of his mouth are the words of God. the words
of scripture it's in Psalm 41 and as you know it's in many
many other places in the scriptures this word to bless God hundreds
and hundreds of times blessed be the Lord God of Israel listen
to Psalm 41 verse 13 blessed be the Lord God of Israel from
everlasting to everlasting amen and amen the very first words All of the scriptures testify
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them are the things concerning
himself. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited his people, he hath visited his people, and
redeemed his people. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for coming. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for visiting His people. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for redeeming His people. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. There's nothing about Zacharias.
In all of this message, Zacharias doesn't speak of himself once. He just, like his son was going
to do, was going to say, behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb
of God. Mary said the same thing privately
to Elizabeth, didn't she? She said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord. That's what this is all about,
brothers and sisters, isn't it? It's about the magnification
of the Lord. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. God is worthy of praise for who
he is. Always he is worthy of praise
and worthy of thanks and worthy of honor and in need of being
magnified before men for who he is. Don't you love the fact
that our God is holy? Our God is righteous. Our God is just. Our God is absolutely sovereign. Our God is faithful. Our God
is truth. Our God is a God of grace and
mercy and love. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for who he is, for the very being of him. And that's why I love
what Psalm 110 says, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power in the beauties of holiness. I just love that phrase,
in the beauties of holiness. From the worm of the morning
thou hast the dew of thy youth. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. And what does Zacharias, what
does God, the Holy Spirit, want us to cause God to be praised
for? For he hath visited us. And that's my prayer, brothers
and sisters, for you as you meet and as you as you go home and
for our fellowship down in Australia, that God would visit us. That
God would visit us. that he has visited his people. This very verse is so gloriously
simple and so gloriously clear of the fact that we have an absolutely
sovereign God. that he comes and he visits his
people and he hath redeemed his people. You see, it speaks of
communion, doesn't it? When he comes, he comes to commune
with his people. It speaks of particular redemption
and it speaks of election. They're the very first words
from a Holy Spirit-filled man for 400 years. And all we want
to do is repeat them, don't we, Todd? We just repeat them again
and again and again. to visit. He doesn't leave us
to ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ. He visits with us. Or almost 100%, I would say 100%
of the problems in the churches would be solved by this one simple
thing, wouldn't it? If the Lord would visit. If two
are having issues, if the Lord would visit, Everything will
be sorted in his presence. In his presence we are made gloriously
to see who he is and who we are. To visit is to look on with a
view to help. It's to look on, to care for,
and to provide for. This is all about grace, brothers
and sisters. This is all about free, sovereign,
successful, electing grace of God. God must visit. He must visit. Because we All
like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his
own way. And we keep doing it all the time. What was the first
result of Adam's sin? And you were there in the garden
according to Romans 5.12. You were there. What was the
first act of sin? First result of that? Shame and
separation. What did they do? They ran to
the darkest place. They played hide and seek in
the garden before an omnipotent, omniscient holy God. They found
the darkest place in the garden and they stitched together fig
leaves for themselves to cover their shame. And God visits. And he visits his people throughout
this time as he visited Adam and Eve. And he says, where are
you? and he brought him to himself, and he showed him his sin, and
he showed him things, but then he did something remarkable in
his visit. He showed him redemption. He
preached the gospel to him. The seed of the woman shall crush,
crush the head of the serpent, and in the process he'll be bruised
in his heel. And then he pictured the gospel
in that visit in the garden, didn't he? He took those people
and he brought them to himself. And he strips them. He strips
them of their robes of righteousness, their fig leaves of their own
workings. And there they are naked before
him. And for the very first time in all of creation, blood is
shed, brothers and sisters. Blood is shed. And these people
are then clothed with that lamb. That's salvation, that's redemption. That's exactly what this, what
Zachariah is saying exactly is a picture of exactly what happened
in the garden. He has to come to us, he comes
to Abraham, he came to Israel, he comes to his people and it's
called the time of love and he comes to his people and he says,
you're mine. And he comes to his people and he says, you're
mine and I've redeemed you. And I'll clothe you with the
very robe of my righteousness. He comes to sinners to reveal
himself. And when he reveals himself,
he reveals what we are. And it's not a pretty sight,
brothers and sisters. He comes to show us what we are. He comes. to show us who he is. And we'll only ever know what
we are and we'll only ever know what sin is when we see him in
the beauties of his holiness. He must come. Praise God that
he does come. That's what Zechariah was saying.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people. His people, Israel, he comes.
for communion, he comes in fellowship. He comes to reveal redemption
finished. He comes to reveal that he has
a people in this world. They're the things we've been
praising God for this last couple of days, isn't it? And Lord willing,
we'll go on through our journey here and we can keep praising,
praising our God. He hath visited and hath redeemed
his people. He's carried it out. Zacharias,
these very first words declare redemption finished, brothers
and sisters. Righteousness established. A people, isn't that wonderful?
His people. He says they're mine, they're
mine. That's what he does when he comes
and visits. No wonder. Throughout the scriptures,
we are called upon to praise him. We're called upon to thank
him. And that's what Zechariah is doing to that crowd that's
gathered. And they could have spoken about all the remarkable
things that have happened in the last 10 months and talked
about the remarkable things that are going to happen. There's
just one message, isn't there, for all of them. Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel. He visits. His visits are always
about redemption. A holy God can only visit and
commune where sin is gone. Otherwise a holy God must consume
those people. His visits are all about redemption. Zacharias is a sinner. Zacharias
is a sinner. When he comes, the Lord God speaks
of mercy. We need mercy, brothers and sisters,
because we are sinners. To be redeemed, that word means
to be released, to pay the price of release, the ransom price,
to be set free. As Zechariah the prophet says, by the blood
of the covenant, I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein there is no water. You have nothing to pay. You
have absolutely nothing to pay. It's in the past tense. The Lord
Jesus Christ is a baby, six months old in his mother's womb. Don't
you love the fact that throughout the scriptures, redemption from
redemption, calling, deglorification, it's always in the past tense.
It's finished, the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. We're declaring a finished work of a glorious
savior. We're not declaring something
that might happen if you do something. He's redeemed, he's set his people
free. If you turn over a page in your
Bibles to Luke chapter four and the first words, the words of this sermon of the
Lord Jesus Christ, speak the same things as Zechariah.
We just hear the same message over and over again. The Spirit
of the Lord, Luke 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because
he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, any poor
here, poor in your own righteousness, poverty stricken, Gospel here
sent me to heal the broken hearted, not the little bit wounded heart,
not the sick heart, the broken heart. To preach deliverance
of the captives and the recovering of the sight of the blind to
set at liberty them that are bruised. To set at liberty We owe God,
brothers and sisters, don't we? The debt is enormous. What do
you owe God? Perfect holiness. Perfect obedience
to his holy law. And not in the sight of men,
but in the sight of God. You owe the very justice of God. Perfect, holily accepted payment
for all of your sins. They are dead, as we've heard
so often. We're born into this world as
Adam's children. We're born dead, dead and blind
and deaf, and we are declared to be lawful captives. We're
dead in transgression, trespasses, and sins, dead in them. And the
Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter eight, unless you believe
that I am, unless you believe that I am God, you shall die
in your sins. That's a very big captivity that
requires a remarkable deliverance, brothers and sisters. He'll redeem his people from
their sins. A great question that Isaac asked
his father. Here's the warden, here's the
fire, where is the lamb? Where is the lamb? He came to
redeem his people. And his meeting and his redemption
are as one in the scriptures. Where does God meet with us?
Where does God meet with you? How can a holy God meet with
us? See, Zacharias and John are Old
Testament prophets. They're the last of the old and
the beginning of the new. Where? Where? Adam and Eve met with God. at the place of sacrifice, at
a blood covering. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
20. Let's see where God has promised
to meet with his people. He'll meet with his people where
he says he'll meet with his people, where he's promised to meet with
his people. You know the giving of the law, let's begin in verse
24. After that, an altar of earth
thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings
and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen in all places
where I record my name. Don't you love that? Where I record my name, a place
where God raises up people to declare the glory of the character
of God, that's his name isn't it, it's all of his attributes,
not divided, all as one. I'll meet with you there and
listen to what he says, I'll record my name, I will come unto
you and I will bless you. And then he says, don't put your
hand to the work, brothers and sisters, this is a finished work.
This is a finished work from the foundation of the world.
This is the work of the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And if thou will make me an altar of stone, thou shalt
not build it of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool,
if you do anything to it, brothers and sisters, you pick up the
hammer and the chisel. Don't you dare. Thou hast polluted it, neither
shall you go up by steps. You can't get there by steps,
not by progressive sanctification, not by making yourself better.
You're dealing with a holy God and you're a sinner. Neither
shalt thou go up by steps, O mine altar, that thy nakedness, as
soon as you go up by steps, your nakedness be discovered. When Moses was to build the tabernacle. You know where the meeting place
is, don't you? Again, this is where God promises
to meet with his people. The place of redemption, the
place of sacrifice, the place that pictures for us and pictures
for those people the glory of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Exodus 25, He speaks of the mercy seat,
and it's a mercy seat of pure gold. It's a mercy seat with
these cherubims. The angels of God were cast in
gold to fix their eyes on the mercy seat where the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ covered the broken law. And finished,
it's finished, isn't it? Thou shalt put the mercy seat
above the ark, verse 21, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee, and there will I meet with thee. That's where he's promised to
meet with these people. I will meet with thee from above the
mercy seat, from between the cherubim, which are upon the
ark of the testimony of all things which I give unto thee in commandment. That's how you're commanded to
come. And how did you get in there, brothers and sisters in
Christ? How did you get in there? There's only one way you got
in there, wasn't it? Your name was written on the heart of the
high priest, and your name was written on his shoulder, and
he went in there with blood. It's a picture of what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done for us, isn't it? He carries us into
the holy of holies. He carries us in to the place
where we meet with God. You'll meet with God when the
Lord Jesus Christ carries you in there. That's where we meet
with him. Where does he meet with his people
now? It's remarkable, isn't it? If
we could see... Heaven's view of what was happening
here and in every place where the Lord God makes his name to
be known, we would be stunned. The angels encamp around, brothers
and sisters. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
promised to be here. And I believe it by faith. And I don't need to see it. And it's true, whether I see
it or not, whether I believe it or not, it's true. He meets
with his people. He meets where he gathers them,
not where they gather themselves to religion, where he gathers
them. Thou inhabitest the praises of
Israel. That's where he meets with his
people. Well, he's praised. No wonder Zechariah said, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.
He inhabits the praises of his people. You know where that's
from, don't you? Psalm 22. He always meets with his people
in the place of sacrifice, in the place of blood, atonement. in the Lord Jesus Christ's promise
in John 12, he said, when I be lifted up from the earth, I will
draw all, the man is in italics, I will draw all, he'll draw all
of his people to himself. I love Ephesians 2.13, but now
in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off. I was a long
way off, brothers and sisters. You're all a long way off, aren't
we? Far off. Are made nigh. Made nigh. Who did the making?
Who's the one that creates? God did it, isn't it? You're
made nigh. What are you made nigh by? You're
made nigh by the blood of Christ. That's where he meets with you.
And if you're made nigh by the blood of Christ, and I'm made
nigh by the blood of Christ, we meet with him and we meet
together. And when sinners get together,
there are some prickles that happen, isn't there? But if God
visits with us, brothers and sisters, we made nigh to each
other. We have fellowship with each other. We commune with each
other. How close is that meeting these days, in this glorious
age where the Lord Jesus Christ has finished his work and gone
up to heaven? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Where does God meet and visit?
In whom? In whom? In him. We have redemption
through His blood. What a glorious word redemption
is. These Old Testament prophets spoke of blood redemption again
and again and again from Genesis 3 on, didn't they? I just do
love that picture of Abraham and Isaac going up there, up to that mountain. Do you reckon
Abraham and Isaac knew all about particular redemption and substitutionary
atonement and the successful and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I reckon on the way down that
mountain, they were singing redeemed. They would have sung with us,
wouldn't they? Redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redemption is the must. the must of carrying out that
for which the atonement of the purchase price is made. It's
a salvation, brothers and sisters, isn't it? For as much, says Peter,
for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation. What
a great description of life in this world. Vain conversation.
That word vain means empty. You gather it all, don't you?
And you run around collecting your morality and collecting
your goods and collecting your... Empty. Brothers and sisters,
that's what God says about it. Vain conversation. You're redeemed
from your vain conversation. Received by tradition from your
fathers. You're not redeemed with those
things, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish or spot." It's redemption of the purchased possession. God redeemed his people. I love to think it's just the
first words for 400 years, and it's exactly what we've been
hearing, isn't it? And it's exactly what you'll hear and continue
to hear, and it's exactly what you'll be singing. We're practicing
singing for heaven, aren't we, brothers and sisters here? They
sang a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and
open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and hast redeemed us
to God. He's redeemed us so we could
meet with him, brothers and sisters. He hath redeemed us. The Lord
Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption for us. I love that. It didn't have a beginning with
me. It had a beginning with God. And the works were done from
the foundation of the world. When the Lord God visits, he
visits to reveal that redemption is done. Redemption is finished. And who are the redeemed? He
makes it really clear, isn't it? He's visited and redeemed
his people. He paid a price for his people. Did he get what he paid for?
He paid a very big price, brothers and sisters. We can talk about
it and we can feel sympathy for him. And all of that is just
so, so, so insignificant compared to what he actually went through.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer is
simple, isn't it? Thou art holy. Did he get what he paid for? He did, brothers and sisters,
didn't he? He's redeemed. He doesn't try
and redeem. He doesn't attempt redemption.
He doesn't put it down on a table as an offer for you to pick up
and take at your will or your time. We declare a glorious, successful,
sovereign saviour who by his sacrifice for sins saved all
of his elect. And we have the most glorious
privilege, don't we, of proclaiming a gospel which is 100% successful
all of the time. All of the time. all of the time. His people, don't you love that?
There are people in this world that he calls his. He says they're
mine, they're mine. How precious are they? How precious
are these people? I have, says the Lord Jesus,
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were and thou gavest
them me. Think about it for a second,
brothers and sisters. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ was the gift of God the Father to his son before the
foundation of the world. Do you think they were precious
to the father to give to his son? Do you think they were precious
to the son to be made a bride given him by his father? We read it in Isaiah chapter
12 last night. We're precious, we're precious
in his sight. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They'll have communion with him. All that the Father giveth me,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Why can't he cast them
out? He has absolutely no reason,
according to all of his holy character, to ever cast them
out. No wise cast them out. What if
they sin like Zacharias? In disbelief in the most extraordinary
circumstances, I will in no wise cast them out. He can't cast
them out, brothers and sisters. He's made a promise. He's shed
his blood for them. He's redeemed them. I will in
no wise cast them out. Redemption by blood is our gospel. Redemption by God alone. 100%
the work of God, 100% the gift of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It's remarkable when you come
across passages in scripture and a verse in scripture that
undoes everything that you ever learnt in religion. You come across it again and
again and again when you're preaching, you think, if the people in the
other churches believed this, really believed just the simple
words that were said, they would give up all of their programs
and all of their activities to try and get men to come and do
things to make themselves fit and right to enter into the presence
of God. It was done. Our gospel begins
where their gospel ends. After all of their works, finally
you're like a piece of ripe fruit ready to be picked and taken
to heaven. We begin. We begin with people
redeemed. Begin with people who are saved
from the foundation of the world. Having established that verse,
I just wanted to very quickly in our last minutes together
just look at the impact of all of this. How does all this work?
Just read these verses with me and I'll just make a few comments.
Well, they don't need many comments. You've heard what they're all
about. This is like the curtain rod, isn't it, that holds all
of the glorious tapestry of the finished redemptive work of God
together. Verse 68, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. The horn speaks of power and
ability, power to perform and power to defend. "'God, the God
of my rock,' says David on his dying pillow, "'the God of my
rock, in him will I trust. "'He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, "'my high tower and my refuse, my saviour. "'Thou saveth me from violence.'"
He's raised up, it seems as if God was asleep for 400 years
and now there's raised up a horn and the very first words are
blessed be this God. In verse 69, as he spake by the
mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. Our God's a speaking God. Thus
saith the Lord. We don't need to add anything
to it. We don't need to take anything away from it. Thus saith
the Lord. But listen to this. You have
heard now seven messages of the gospel. Are they all the same? Listen to what he says. This
is Zechariah speaking. As he spoke by the mouth. All of God's servants have one
mouth. Thus saith the Lord is what they say, isn't it? The
mouth, the mouth. Why do they all speak the same?
Thy watchman shall lift up the voice. Isaiah 52, eight. It's
a remarkable verse of scripture. We lift up the voice. And listen
to what he says, you can turn there if you like, but I'll read
it to you, it's just glorious. Thy watchman shall lift up the
voice. They will. Every time God says
shall, you can write it down, it's done. They shall lift up
the voice. It is the voice, it's the word,
isn't it? The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we'll lift up the voice of
God. And with the voice together. with the voice together they
shall sing. I love to think the Lord Jesus
Christ sang before he went to Gethsemane's garden with those
11 apostles. He sang. He rejoices over us,
brothers and sisters, with Jovi. With the voice together shall
they sing, for they shall see eye to eye. All of God's servants see eye
to eye. Eye to eye. When the Lord shall
bring again Zion. Why do they see eye to eye? Because they're all taught of
God, that's why it's the mouth, all of the prophets, from Moses
through to Malachi, they all spoke the same thing, didn't
they? Jesus Christ and him crucified. The sufferings of Christ, as
1 Peter says, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. This is the glory that should
follow, that the Lord Jesus Christ has his people and he gathers
them. The mouth. We're taught of God,
brothers and sisters. When God teaches, you get the
lesson, and when God teaches, you all get the same lesson.
You all get the same lesson. We have a trust in God, says
Paul, don't we? And such trust we have through
Christ to God, but not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament. That's
the new covenant. The new covenant's the old covenant.
It's new all the time, new every morning. It's the eternal covenant
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes his servants
to be able ministers of that covenant. He speaks, our God,
and he speaks as one through one mouth. His people see eye
to eye. He says they do. He says they
speak with one voice. People want to minimize anything
of the glory and character of God. They destroy it all. It's a yeast, brothers and sisters. The Kesses have a really beautiful
curtain in their family room out there and I have a bit of
an eye for things like this and I've got a carpenter friend staying
with me out there and I was thinking that that curtain rod is just
a quarter of an inch too long. I was going to get Chris in a
ladder and we were going to reduce it. But I want the quarter inch
taken out of the middle. It's only a little bit but I'll
take it out of the middle. Rick's horrified. His bags are packed. But do you
understand what I'm trying to say, brothers and sisters? Just
as Gabe said, when that last piece goes in, it's done. You take one little thing away,
and you be very, very careful about where that yeast grows.
It all holds together as one perfect whole, brothers and sisters. And God's people just love it
that way. Verse 71, and I'll hurry, that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. that
we should be saved, what God, excuse me, what God begins, God
continues. I love the shoulds of God, aren't
they? We should be saved, we should be delivered, we should
be preserved, we should be taken to a place of safety. And we
will be hated like the Lord Jesus Christ without a cause. May the
cause not be in us and the things that we do, brothers and sisters.
They can't get to God and they will get to his people. We should
be saved from all, from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us. We have God watching over us, no harm's gonna come
to the righteous. Verse 72, I just love this verse. To perform the mercy promised
to our fathers. We need mercy, brothers and sisters,
because we're sinners. But we don't just need mercy
offered, I need mercy performed. Mercy performed. What did Bartimaeus cry out? Jesus, our son of David, have
mercy on me. We need mercy because we're sinners,
but isn't it glorious that the promise of God is that he performs
the mercy? I love that, isn't it? Mercy
performed. Sinners need mercy performed.
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. You will. Mercy, what a glorious word. It's great. Mercy's great, isn't
it? It's plenteous, it's tender, it's abundant, it's everlasting,
it's distinguishing mercy. I'll have mercy on him, I'll
have mercy. It's not scattered around all over the place. I
will have mercy on him, I will have mercy. and to remember His holy covenant. It's a holy covenant because
the parties are holy. It's a holy covenant because
it declares the work of a holy God It's a holy covenant because
the performance of it makes the recipients of that covenant holy. It's the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Every time I think of that covenant,
I can rest in the fact that that covenant is a covenant in the
blood. And the covenant is in very simple terms throughout
the scriptures, isn't it? I will and they shall. "'I will, and they shall.'" It's
that covenant that speaks of the blood of redemption, isn't
it? It's the covenant in his blood. Hebrews 13, 20, "'Now
the God of peace that brought again "'from the dead our Lord
Jesus, "'the great shepherd of the sheep, "'through the blood
of the everlasting covenant.'" What's he going to say? Make
you perfect. I like that sort of perfection,
brothers and sisters. Make you perfect in every good
work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing
in his side through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and
ever. Verse 73, he describes this oath
which he swear to our father Abraham. Just as he did to David,
isn't it? God has made with me an eternal
covenant, ordered and sure in every detail. Ordered and sure. God has made with me an eternal
covenant. Not some covenant, conditional
covenant that I make with him. God swear to our father, Abraham. That's the covenant, isn't it? I am, says God to Abraham, I
am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Verse 74, that he would grant
unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies
might serve him without fear. Being delivered, all the deliverance
is his work. Salvation is all his work from
beginning to end. Being delivered, it's in the
passive tense. Being rescued, rescued from sin,
rescued from ourselves, rescued from this world, rescued from
Satan, set free from our obligations to the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
did it all that he would grant to us. He would give it as a
gift to us, not something that we earn, that we might serve
him. That's the word that is often
translated, worship. Worship. If God visits and calls
you his own and redeemed him, you'll worship, brothers and
sisters. You'll worship. The Father seeks such. Do you
think he'll find them? He says they'll worship in spirit
and truth. Do you think they will? They do, they do. We think that our worship is
our gift to God to serve him, but it's his gift to us. It's
part of the eternal covenant. What a blessing, what a blessing
to be able to be gathered. What a blessing it is to be able
to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to sinners. What a blessing it
is to gather together to encourage one another. It's without fear
that at visit and redeemed you'll serve him without fear. And listen
to verse 75, in holiness and righteousness before him all
the days of our life. That's what we do. God says that. I never see that in myself. I
never have. in holiness and righteousness
before him. It's in his presence, isn't it?
He's meeting with us in all the days of our life. All the days
of our life. Faith is believing what God says. It's not presumption. It's believing
what God says. And our God, brothers and sisters,
creates reality by speaking. He creates reality by speaking. In holiness and righteousness. All the days of our lives. Is
that you? Is that me? Was it Zacharias? He'd had 10 months of silence
because of unbelief. What's the in holiness and righteousness? It's in him, isn't it? We're
accepted in the blood, but it's all his work. He comes and there's
communion, there's redemption, there's election. It's a holy visit to redeem his
people. And just briefly, I just want
to read these verses and make a couple of comments, but this
is what Zachariah says of his son, John, that one. who was
to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ publicly again, 30 years later. 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. That's not salvation worked out
by you, that's salvation completed and finished. To give knowledge
of salvation unto his people, through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the day spring on high has visited us. It begins
with a visit and it finishes this glorious sermon with a visit.
And when his visit has come, what happens when the Lord visits
and opens the eyes of our hearts and gives us creates in us that
which is holy and righteous in his sight. It's the new creation
isn't it? He gives light to them that sit in darkness to give
light and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the
way of peace. God has so ordered all of the
steps of all of his people that we will find all of our rest
and our peace in the perfect and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. No wonder John at the Last Supper
just leant back on him. Isn't that amazing? The communion
that the Lord's people have with him. to guide our feet. There is a
way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways
of death. I need to be guided, brothers
and sisters. Dear oh dear, I need to be guided. I'm a wandering
lost sheep. If I'm left to myself, if I'm
left to myself for a second, I need a shepherd, I need someone
to guide, what a glorious promise, to guide our feet not to attempt
to, it's done. What does that look like? Turn
over the page if you're in Luke to chapter 2. There was that man in Jerusalem
named Simeon in verse 26. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him after the custom of the law, then he took him in
his arms. an eight-day-old baby, and blessed
God and said, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according
to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. May God bless his words to the
hearts of his people. The Lord came to despairing Mary
and Martha and said, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, he
shall never die, believeth thou this? Yea, Lord, I believe that
thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into
the world. And he's promised at the tomb,
wasn't it? If you believe, you shall see the glory of God. God commands faith. God gives
faith. God reveals the glorious object
of faith. Thank you, Todd.