Now to refresh your memory regarding
my subject this morning, I want to repeat the text. Luke 1, verse
28, And the angel came in unto Mary,
and said, Hail, thou art highly favoured Thou art highly favored." The
center reference says, graciously accepted. You are graciously
accepted. Or you are much graced. G-r-a-c-e-d,
graced. You have found favor with God. Now, I know, first of all, that
this great announcement has to do with our Lord, the Messiah,
being born of a virgin. I've done my homework. I have very strong confidence
in what the Lord's taught me theologically and doctrinally
and biblically. And I'm not embarrassed at all
to tackle the scriptures and preach from them, and I know
what this is about. In Isaiah 7, 14, he said, Behold,
the Lord himself will give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive
and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel.
In the scripture I read at the beginning of this service, declares
that unto us a child is born, a baby that's never lived on
this earth before, a body that's never existed on this earth,
a body, Christ said, thou hast prepared me. A child is born,
a son is given. Jesus Christ didn't begin his
existence in Bethlehem. He is, he was, he ever shall
be. But he came into this world and
clothed himself or wrapped himself or tabernacled in a human body
and dwelt among men. And that's what this is all about
here. You see, our Lord was not born of a man for several reasons,
the first of which is this, he did not partake of Adam's transgression. He was not born in sin as we
are. And secondly, he's not the son
of man in the sense he was sired or begotten by a man. He's the son of God. That's what
Mary said to the angel, how can I have a son? I don't know a
man. No woman can have a son without
a man. And the angel said, the Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, the fire of the highest shall overshadow
thee and that holy thing. What do you call such a miracle?
Just a holy thing, it's never been done before or since. That
holy thing in thy womb shall be called the Son of God. The
Son of God. And I know that this great announcement
has to do with Jesus Christ being born of the house of David. Our
Lord said, what think ye of Christ, whose Son is he? Even the Pharisees
said he's the Son of David. You see, both Mary and Joseph
were of the house and lineage of David. This great Messiah,
our Redeemer, is to be the seed of woman, the seed of Abraham,
and the son of David. He's to be born of the tribe
of Judah, from which no priest ever came. He's to be born of
the family of Jesse and the house of David. And he'll reign upon
the throne of David, his father, forever and forever. And so this
Jewish maid, her son, not only according to God's program and
plan, but according to her being a member of the house of David,
her son was a rightful king. I know all that. But that's not
my purpose in this text this morning. Hail! I see this angel
coming into this probably teenage, Jewish maiden, poor, very poor. In fact, when she came to bring
her offering at a designated time, she brought turtledoves
and pigeons, not a lamb. Couldn't afford a lamb. When
she and her husband-to-be went to Bethlehem to pay their taxes,
they didn't stay in a motel or a hotel or a hospital. They stayed
in a stable, no room in the inn. They were nobodies. nobodies,
from nowhere, with no influence, no prestige, no power, no possession,
but they were God's people. And the angel said to her, you're
going to have a son. You're highly favored of God.
You're much graced. You're graciously accepted. And
this is what I'm thinking about. Here stands a man who's highly
favored of God. And I'm back here to preach to
a people who are highly favored of God, much graced, if you just
knew how merciful God's been to you. I go through the scriptures,
and I find scripture like this. The angel said, Mary, you're
highly favored. You're much graced. You found
favor in the eyes of the Lord. I think about Noah in that day
of That day of wickedness, wickedness. Scripture says, Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Undeserving, unmerited. Jacob
said one time, I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies.
Just pick out the least little mercy, just not being in hell. The least of your mercies, just
be in five seconds this side of hell. I'm not worthy of that. Anything this side of eternal
condemnation, mercy. Did you know that? Mercy. I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercies. David went and sat before the
Lord and he cried, who am I? Who am I? And what is my house? that we found such mercy, beyond
comprehension, beyond expression, highly favored of God. I prepared this message almost a week ago. Two weeks ago, this Sunday morning,
time was different But two weeks ago this Sunday morning, I was
standing in a place called Sassandra, Ivory Coast, West Africa. And I'd traveled around, I'd
preached in England, I'd preached in different places, I'd preached
in Gayo, Africa, and then I'd gone in the back of a pickup
truck down to a place called Sassandra. We were to be there
Saturday night and Sunday. And we were staying with some
missionaries from Wales, but they were in the house up here
on the hill, and they put Bill and I down here in a little room
where some natives stayed, had a man and his wife and family
beside us, and we'd stay in this little room. No screens on the
windows, flies all over the bed, dirt all over the floor, lizards
on the wall, cockroaches as big as your thumb. But I stood there
in the window that Sunday morning, and I looked out the window.
There was the ocean. It was about, oh, six blocks
from my window, the ocean. But between the ocean shore,
between the beach and right there where that first pew is, there
was a fence about where that pew is. I'm standing here in
the window, and there's a fence. And between that fence and that
ocean, about five or six blocks, was a tribe of Africans. If you've
ever picked up a National Geographic and saw people living in squalor,
poverty, nakedness, want, disease, that's what I was looking at.
In fact, one day Bill and I walked down to the beach and we walked
around through the fence and right down through the middle
of that whole tribe. They had these clay smoking ovens
where they smoked fish. You talk about an odor. Not only
body odor, but fish odor and filth odor. Just came through
the air all the time. But we walked down through that
place, and when I got down to the ocean, I turned to Bill,
and I said, is there any way around that place that we won't
have to go back up through that? He said, there's no way. Even
the essentials of life were missing. I passed by little children,
little boys, standing, little boys and girls, no clothes, standing
around in the field, dirty, flies on them. One little boy's navel
was at least four inches long. He, there's no, they don't take
care of them. They just, all of them bloated
and their navels unprepared. And one native preacher there
told me he had twelve children, six of them were dead. And the whole country, this is
one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, the Ivory Coast. They
have a big city, Abidjan, stayed there three days. But political
slavery, the very rich and the very poor, very few in between. The power structure and the presidency
and the great generals and the military and the businessmen,
they have plenty. They have plenty. But the people
have nothing. political fear and slavery when
we arrived at the airport in Abidjan. And you wouldn't want
to stay there very long. You have to hire somebody to
watch your truck to keep them letting air out of your tires.
And then we got in the truck and rode in the space of two
miles. We were stopped by policemen
four times in two miles. And that goes on all the time.
And then in the next, that morning when Bill preached, that night
when I preached, as the service was over that evening, I looked
out and here comes a parade down the street, a superstitious,
idolatrous parade, led by a woman dressed in a yellow outfit, you
know, followed by a bunch of men dressed in white, all the
people beating on their drums and tambourines and cymbals and
worshipping some kind of idol. even fundamental religion. I
preached at a place called Gognor. And after I brought my message,
a woman threw a fit down on about the third or fourth row. She
started screaming and yelling, and two men went and grabbed
her and took her back to back trying to cast the demons out
of her. And one man said, it's a manifestation of the Spirit.
It's a manifestation of the Spirit. Last Sunday morning I was invited
to, and this is, this is, I was invited to speak at a church's
auditorium, nearly as big as this one, in English. This was a missionary church.
This is an international fellowship of missionaries. Missionaries,
Southern Baptists, Christian Missionary Alliance, Presbyterian,
Free Will, all these different missionaries, they meet there
on Sunday for services. And I was the speaker, Sunday
morning, Sunday night. But it came in Sunday morning
and a young man named Doug was presiding. And he said, you're
our speaker today. I said, yes, sir. He said, we
don't have a pastor. He said, I preside. I said, what
time do you start? He said, 8.30. I said, what time
do you dismiss? He said, 9.15. I said, 45 minutes? He said,
yes, sir. How long do you preach? I said, a minimum of 30 minutes.
Boy, he said, I'll have to cut some things out. They don't preach
that long around here. Well, I said, how long do they
preach? He said, about 15 minutes. Well, I said, you got me for
a minimum of 30. So they had their singing, and
they had their sharing, and they had their requests, and they
had all these things, you know. And finally, he turned it over
to me, and I told him, I dealt with the subject. Let's restore
preaching back to the pulpit. God bless his preaching. Save
men by preaching. I'm going to preach tonight the
message I brought there. But I said you're singing and
you're sharing and you're testifying and these things are not going
to reach men with the gospel. You've got to preach the gospel.
But here's the thing that I'm getting to. When I was going
through this and preaching these places and going to these places
and and seeing the poverty, and the fear, and the sickness, and
the death, and the nakedness, and the organized religion. Organized
religion. It's nauseating. Nauseating. There's missionaries all over
the Ivory Coast, and 80 to 90 percent of them could come home
right there, and they wouldn't miss them. Be better off without
them, really. I'm telling you the truth. I
saw them in operation. But you know where my thoughts
went that Sunday morning? To this place right here. Oh, how blessed we are. We are
so... My one thought, my greatest thought,
my one impression, when I visited that country, and I'll tell you,
even England now, even England, I thought, oh, the people in
Ashland, Kentucky, the people in Ashland, Kentucky, 13th Street
Baptist Church, highly favored of God. That's the Scripture
that came to my mind. Thou art highly favored of God,
highly favored of God. Blessed art thou among men and
women on the face of this earth. Blessed art thou, O bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me, bless his holy name. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who satisfies thy mouth with
good things. Sit down like we do at the meals,
this at noon. Thank God, will you? Here in
these classes, in this morning service, thank God. Look over
there, pat your little son or daughter on the head and just
thank God. Just take hold of them and thank
God. Look around at your brethren
and hear that love the gospel and preach the gospel and just
grab hold of them and thank God for them. How blessed you are. How blessed you are. Oh, above
all people. Who am I? And what is my house
that we have brought together to," David said. Bless God! I hope God will never let me
take for granted what I have again. There was a young lady from here
over in England, she and her husband were over there for three
months. He's a medical doctor. He's over
there studying a certain phase of his work. And they'd been
looking for a place. This is in England. This is where
the gospel used to be. John Newton and John Bunyan and
Isaac Watson and Spurgeon and Gill. This is where all these
fellas prayed. But they'd been over there three months visiting
around here and there trying to find a place to hear the gospel.
And they came over on Sunday Three weeks ago, when I preached
in Welland, England, they came to spend the weekend with us,
and I preached Sunday morning in that church, and they were
there, and after the service, they just grabbed hold of me,
stood there and cried. How good it is to hear the Word
of God. How good it is to hear the Gospel. And one of them said, I'll never
take my pastor for granted again. Never again. Turn to Psalm 65,
verse 4. But this is the thing that overwhelmed
my soul and my mind as I sat in the hotel in Abidjan, Ivory
Coast, and prepared this message over a week ago. I thought, somehow,
if God will let me get across one point, just one point, And
really not just reach your ears or your head or your doctrinal
position, but reach your heart with the message, you're highly
favored, you're much graced, you've found favor with God.
Who maketh thee to differ? What is thou that thou didst
not receive? Weren't you born somewhere like
that? Why aren't we in the bondage of political slavery and fear
and sickness and death and poverty and want and nakedness? Why aren't
we there? By the grace of God. Why isn't
this church given over to cold intellectualism? By the grace
of God, that's why. Why isn't this pulpit a place
where you hear somebody get up and talk about theology instead
of Christ? By the grace of God, that's why.
Why do these men who preach for me when I'm gone preach such
powerful messages, such Christ-honoring messages, such scriptural messages,
such blessed messages? I'll tell you why, by the grace
of God. That's why I bow. Only by the
grace of God. We're highly favored. Highly
favored. He said in Psalm 65, here's just
three scriptures I want to give you. First, Psalm 65, verse 4. Blessed, twice blessed, highly
favored, much grace is that man whom the Lord chooses, and calls
it to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We
shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple. "'Tis not that I did choose thee.
For, Lord, that could not be. This heart of mine would still
refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me.'" Now, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Our
message and our ministry is to all men. Our Lord said, you go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And that's what this congregation is doing by tape, by television,
by radio, with missionaries all over the world, your pastor traveling,
these young men going out and preaching. Our books now, they
soon enter their second printing. They've been translated in French
and Portuguese. This church is known all over
the world. Did you know that? This church right here, for its
missionaries' zeal, for its generosity, for its kindness, for its grace,
everybody knows you. And we preach the gospel to every
creature. And our Lord's merciful to all who come to him. Are you
a sinner? Come to Christ. Are you lost? Look to Christ. He came, he lived,
he died for sinners. And he'll have a people out of
every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. I thought
as I stood there in the wind and looked at those black pagan
people sitting on the ground. They wouldn't even put a chair
down, just sit on the ground, lie on the ground. Their babies
just there on the ground. And I thought, my God's got a
people out of this tribe. Yes sir, my Lord's got a people.
And I'll tell you this, He loves them much as He loves you. That's
right, He loves them. I love them, you love them. I
could genuinely in those black churches hug those people and
embrace them. One fella came up to me, Polo
was his name, he speaks both English and French. Bill translated
me, I preached in English, he translated in French. And Polo came up to me, he owns
a restaurant, he's from Nigeria. Big fella. Has four wives and
21 children. He came up to me and he said,
like you're preaching, He said, he wants to give you my address,
wants you to write to me. Oh, that was to thrill me to
death, as an honor. Found a friend all the way over
there. God, our Lord has a people. And He says, come for all things
are ready. Welcome, welcome brother, welcome
to the chief of sinners. But, let me tell you this, and
I have been and I am today and by God's grace I shall forever
be committed to the truth. That if God Almighty has shown
grace and favor to you, it's not according to your will, but
according to His will. That's why He chose us, we didn't
choose Him. That's exactly right. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as
he chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world,
and hath predestinated us in love to the adoption of children,
according to the good pleasure of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of the glory of his grace, who accepted us
in the beloved. I'm going to preach that. Whether
I'm preaching to the hot and tots or the heathen and ashlen,
God chose me, and God chose you. Is that right? Give Him the glory. If I wind up in hell, it'll be
my fault. If I wind up in glory, it'll
be God's fault. Please God to make you His people.
I'm committed to that message. But I tell you, don't you use
that as an excuse. The election is not for sinners
in Him, it's His spring. It's the only door by which men
are brought to Christ because God chose them. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
chooses. I give him the glory. Do you? I got nice clothes on this morning
by the grace of God. I'm pastor of the finest people
in the world by the grace of God. I have a nice place to live
by the grace of God. I know this book by the grace
of God. I am what I am by the grace of God. We can never praise
Him enough, but let's try, okay? I know we can't love Him like
we ought to, but let's love Him. I know we can't praise Him like
we ought to, but let's praise Him. I know we can't thank Him
like we ought to be thanked, but try, right? Let's try. Let's try. Oh, here's the second
scripture over here in Psalm 32. Listen to this. Psalm 32.
Psalm 32, verse 2. Listen to this. Psalm 32. Blessed is the man. Oh, how blessed
we are. Blessed is the man. And you know,
who knows? I may fall this afternoon in
complete paralysis. I don't know. But I'll tell you,
he's still been blessed. That's right, by his grace. That's
right. God may be pleased to take away
everything I've got this afternoon, but he'll never take Christ away. And I'll tell you, if he never gives me another
blessing, I've had more than any man deserves, haven't we? More than anybody deserves. But
here he says in Psalm 32, verse 2, listen, Blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That word imputed means
to charge or to reckon. It means to lay the blame on
you. It means to hold you responsible. Blessed is that man, blessed
is that woman whom the Lord will not hold chargeable, responsible
for his iniquity. Now let me say three things.
Number one, God forbid that I should ever deny my sins. I say like
David, my sins are ever before me. I don't deny one of them. I own them all. If a man says
he has no sin, he's a liar, and the truth's not in him. If a
man says he has not sinned, he makes God a liar. We're sinners
by birth, by nature, by practice, by thought, by imagination, by
all that we are. We are a body of death and a
body of sin. Secondly, God forbid that I should
ever deny God's justice in punishing, yea, my sins. My sins. David said, you're just when
you condemn and you're clear when you charge me. Yes, sir. He will by no means clear the
guilty. But thirdly, according to the Word of God, The Lord
God has been pleased to lay our sins on Christ. That's what it
says. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes
we're healed. The just died for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Jesus Christ was set forth as a propitiation for sins, that
God may be just and justify folks like me and you. In Christ I
have no sin, and I make no apology for divine substitution. I'll
preach substitution this morning, I'll preach it tonight, and I'll
preach it Wednesday night, and I'll preach it next Sunday, and
the man that takes my place will preach it the next Sunday. Substitution! Christ died for our sins. Christ
died in our stead. Christ died as our substitute.
And Christ died not to win the pity of this world, or to set
an example for this world, or to reform this world. He died
that God may be just and justify sinners like us. He died that
God might be God and save sinners. He died that God's righteous
holiness might be fulfilled. That's why He died. He died unto
the Lord. He's my atonement, my sin offering,
my sacrifice. He's my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. He's my foundation. He's my refuge. He's my hope. He's my life. He's
all! It's in Christ. That's where
He is. Let's preach it. Blessed is the
man. Blessed is the man whom God has chosen. Blessed is the
man who can hear the Word of God. Blessed is the man who can
believe the gospel. Blessed is the man who can lay
hold on that gospel. Blessed, highly favored is that
man who can rest in that gospel. Cease from his labors and enter
into Christ. And be stripped of his pride
and stripped of his arrogance and stripped of his self-righteousness. I'll tell you this, a man wrapped
up in himself is an awful small package. Somebody says he's a self-made
man, and yeah, he reveals his Creator pretty good, too. Pretty good. You only breathe
by the grace of God. The only reason you're not pumped
crazy is by the grace of God. The only reason we're not down
best in an asylum or a prison is by the grace of God. Don't
throw out your chest. It's only by God's grace you're
not in hell. I wish we could see that. It's so hard to look
over the poverty and the want and the sickness and the death
and stare into the eyes of hungry children, women, you women. God help you. Those women over
there, they carry the burdens, they have the children, they
sweep the yard, they plow the garden, they do the reaping,
do the work, they sit on the ground, they nurse their babies,
they cook on the ground, they have nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing. And then we complain because
our car runs out of gas. The next time you say, I got
nothing to wear, I hope your husband pokes you in the mouth. They don't have anything to wear.
The next time you say, I don't know what I'm going to fix for
supper. I just get so tired of trying to plan menus. You don't
have to plan a menu over there. You don't have to. You have one
thing, what you got. That's all. And it ain't much. It ain't much. Blessed is the
man who has some understanding. Turn to Psalm 1. Here it is. Here it is. And I close with
this. And you say, don't think I'm
being hard on you. I'm being hard on me. I'm the
one that learned the lesson. I'm just bringing it home. Trying
to bring it home. And the thing is, we don't learn
it permanently, though, Mike. We don't learn it permanently.
We have to be reminded constantly. But Psalm 1 says, blessed is
the man. Oh, my, blessed is the man. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. Let me tell you something. The
ungodly, the sinner, and the scorner here are all people who
do not know God. That's who they are. the sinner
and the scorner of people, whether in religion or in the world.
It doesn't matter, religion or in the world, who do not know
God. And the ungodly has his counsel. His counsel is his wisdom,
his opinion, his understanding of spiritual matters. The ungodly
has his counsel. He doesn't bow to the Word of
God, he doesn't know the Word of God. He has his ideas about
it. And he'll tell you what they
are. He's dumb as four o'clock, like Don Bell says, he's dumb
as a box of rocks, but his mouth's always open. And he'll tell you
what he thinks. He's got his understanding, he's
got his opinion, he's got his ideas about God and about the
Scripture, and he's always popping off about it, and he twists the
Word of God to his own destruction. He has his counsel. And he'll
be glad to share it with you. And the sinner has his way. His
way is peace when there is no peace. His way is the way that
seems right to him, which ends in destruction. But he has his
way. And the scorner has his seat.
He makes a mockery of the gospel of grace. He makes a mockery
of those that believe it. He makes a mockery of substitution.
But he's sat down, and that's where he's going to stay. That's
where he's going. He's sat. He's in his refuge
of lies. He's building on his false foundation. And he's determined to sit there.
He'll not be moved. He'll not be broken. He'll not
be moved. He has a covenant with death,
an agreement with hell, and when God judges this human race, it
won't come to Him. In fact, that woman said to John
Chapman, don't worry about me. I'll make it to heaven one way
or the other. I got my seat and I'm staying here. Blessed is
the man who does not walk in that counsel of the ungodly.
That understanding, that natural wisdom, his wisdom is Christ. His counselor, counselor, his
name should be called wonderfully, counselor, is Christ. His understanding
is him who has come and given us an understanding that we may
know God. Blessed is that man who doesn't
walk in that counsel. And happy is that man who does
not stand in that way. We have a way, it's not our way,
it's his way. It's the way of the cross. Christ
said, I am the way. I am the way. I am the way! And blessed is that man who does
not sit, sit in the seat of the scorner and the mocker, but he's
seated in Christ at the right hand of God. That's my place. That's my seat, and I shall not
be moved." Peter, whom do you say I am?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, blessed art
thou. Blessing blood didn't reveal
that to you, but my Father which is in heaven. My friends, I leave
with you this thought. The angel said to Mary, When
she came there to her in her poverty, in her place of no recognition,
no prestige or power, just a young girl, and she said, Mary, a lot
of women on this old world, a lot of women under God's heaven,
but you found favor with God. Blessed art thou among women.
And I say to you, there are a lot of towns in this world. It's
a big world. There are a lot of people of
every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, everywhere. White and
black, red and yellow. And here you are, established
in Him, in His counsel, in His way, seated on His throne with
Him. I say to you, blessed art thou
among men and women. You've found favor with God. It shouldn't be hard to praise
Him, should it? It shouldn't be hard. It shouldn't
be hard to have a heart broken in gratitude. I want you to sing
with me number 527. Number 527, I think an appropriate
song for us to try to sing while Mike leads us. From our hearts,
and God knows our hearts, Thanks to God.