And we dare not, dare not worship Mary. We dare not pray to her or in
her name. We dare not make her a mediator
for sinners. This is idolatry. And it's forbidden,
and not only forbidden in the word of God, but it's the height
of folly. It's the height of foolishness. Now let me show you some scripture.
Let everything be established by the mouth of two or three
witnesses. In Revelation, if you'll turn to the book of Revelation,
chapter 19, Revelation 19, even the angels of God refuse to allow
men to bow before them. Even the angels of God. I go
to Mexico, Spain, and other countries. Ireland, and I see people kneeling
before a statue of Mary, and before statues of dead saints,
like St. Jude, St. Paul, St. John. They're
kneeling, actually kneeling before these religious objects, these
statues representing these people. They're not kneeling to that
statue, they're kneeling to what it represents. Listen to this
script. Even the angels wouldn't permit
that. Revelation 19, verse 9. And the angel said unto me, Write,
blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God.
And I fell at his feet, I fell at his feet to worship him. And
he said unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant,
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus, worship
God. You see that? Look, turn now
to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. This is what is
so shocking, my friends, when religious leaders in America
begin to talk about this Pope John Paul being one of the greatest
spiritual leaders of our generation. He allows men to bow before him.
He allows men to kiss his ring on their knee and bow before
him and receive his blessing. He's an antichrist. He's an impostor. He's a wicked man. Even the angels
wouldn't let men do that. And he's certainly not an angel.
He hasn't graduated that much. This Bishop Sheen and all of
these priests that allow men to fall before them, to kneel,
to confess their sins to them, are impostors according to the
Scripture. Now listen to this in Revelation
22, in verse 9, and I'll say this to you. The religious leaders
that brag on them and extol them and exalt them are as in much
darkness as these men are. And they reveal their cowardness
and their efforts to please men by not condemning this thing
that has men in bondage, slavery to religious rituals. Look at
verse 9 of Revelation 22. Verse 8, And I, John, saw these
things, and heard them, and John was overcome. And when I heard,
and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before
the feet of the angel which showed me these things." That seems
logical, doesn't it? An angel from the throne of God
has come down to John to show him some things. He's so overcome
with the brilliance and brightness and beauty and glory that he
just falls on his knees. And he said to me, See thou do
it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets,
and of them that keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. All right, one more scripture,
Acts 10. Turn to the book of Acts, chapter
10. I don't get anything across to you this morning but this. All right, here is who they claim
is the first Pope. This is the man that they've
all followed. I want you to listen to his reaction
when a man knelt before him. I want you to hear what Peter
said when a man called Cornelius, a Gentile, knelt before him in
Acts 10, verse 25. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius
met him. He fell down at his feet. Now,
Peter was an apostle, personally chosen of Christ. the preacher
of Pentecost, the man whom the Holy Spirit came upon and preached
in other languages, Peter, one of the inner circle. And Cornelius
fell at his feet and worshiped him, and Peter took him up, saying,
Stand up! I myself also am not infallible,
a man, not a vicar. And a vicar means
a substitute. That's exactly what it is. Vicarious
suffering, Bob, vicarious is substitutionary suffering. And
when people talk about being the vicar of Christ, talking
about being a substitute of Jesus Christ, taking his place, I'm
the vicar of Christ. They're impostors is what they
are. Peter said, I'm not the vicar. I am a man. You stand up. Don't you fall
before any... I tell you, little children have
more courage sometimes than adults. We fall into custom. Like our
President calling the Pope a holy father. He knows better than
that. There's one holy father. The Bible says, call no man your
father on this earth. Spirit. One is your father, even
God. That's disappointing. Why don't
we adults have some courage of our convictions? I don't mean
to be obnoxious. But I mean just have, there's
no way that I'm going to bow before a man. There's no way
that I'm going to bow before a statue. There's no way that
I'm going to bow before a cross. If it offends you or whoever
it offends, you say, yeah, but when you're in the line of the
state of the Vatican and hear this man's there and what he
represents, not me. By God's grace, I say not me.
There was one of our missionary's children came to the state to
visit her grandmother. Grandmother was a Methodist.
And she came to see her grandmother. She's from a Catholic country.
She sees all this paganism, idolatry, heathenism. So she came up to
visit her grandmother. She went to church on Sunday
morning with her grandmother, one of our missionary's children.
Just a little fella, eight, seven or eight years old. They were
having a special ceremony that morning, and they had a big cross
down at the front of the church. They'd erected a cross. And they
were all coming down the aisle and kneeling before the cross.
So the grandmother came down with a little seven or eight-year-old
missionary child, and there was that elaborate cross all erected
there for the people to bow before, you know, visual aids to help
you, assist you in your worship and so forth. We got a lot of
alibis to justify our paganism. But there was the cross, and
the grandmother came got all of her friends, you know, and
her pastor was doing it and everybody, so she knelt with them and the
little girl was standing there like this. And she says, get
down on your knees, honey. And that, believe me, this happened.
That missionary's child looked down at her grandmother and she
said, Mamaw, we're taught not to worship idols. We're taught not to worship idols.
And we dare not, Mary, let's refuse to worship her, let's
refuse to exalt her, let's refuse to talk about immaculate conception
of Mary, that is, meaning she was born without sin. Let's refuse
to accept the foolish, the foolish tradition that she never had
any other children. She did, she had three or four
by Joseph. Let's refuse to accept the fact
that she's the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God and so
forth. Let's give her the place God gave her. And what a cherished
place it is. Look at verse, if you will, look
at verse 28. This is what the angel said about
Mary. This is sufficient. Let's not
add anything to it. This is enough. My soul In verse
28, the angel came in and saluted her and said, Hail, thou art
highly favored. Boy, that's something. Favor
of God. You found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. How much higher can you get?
God has looked upon you in grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Gideon said he found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. My friend, if you and I have
found favor with God, What a blessing! So Mary, you found favor with
God. Angel went on. The Lord's with
you. The Lord is with you. What an
anointing from heaven! What a blessing! The Lord God
has not left you alone. He's not passed you by. He's
with you! And Mary, you are blessed of
God among all women. I tell you, you dear sweet mothers
that bring to us these precious sons and daughters, I bless you
among women, but think about bearing the Son of God. Has just one woman ever had that
privilege? There was but one man that had the privilege of
leading Israel out of Egypt, that was Moses. He blessed them
all, didn't he? Blessed them all. Only one man
had the privilege of being the King of Israel. and called David,
the man after God's own heart. He's blessed among men. One woman
had the privilege of being blessed of God among women to bear this
child called Jesus Christ. But she didn't call herself a
Mediator, she didn't call herself a Mother of God, she didn't call
herself the Queen of Heaven. What'd she call herself? Let's
look at verse 38. We know what the angel said about her. Now
let's see what she said about herself. And Mary said, Behold
the handmaid of the Lord. I've urged some of you to use
that Strong's Concordance. Look up Hebrew words. You know
what that word is in the Hebrew? Handmaid. Female slave. That's what it is. She said in
verse 38, Behold the female slave of the Lord. Our Lord showed her great courtesy.
his mother, or the woman that bore him, Mary. He showed her
great love. At the cross, even in his agony,
he looked down and saw her, and he looked at John, and he said,
Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother. You take
her into your house and take care of her. But nowhere in the
Scriptures, nowhere in this Bible, is there any indication that
she, that Mary, had any special powers with the Lord Jesus Christ.
No way. Or special influence. Actually,
to the contrary, turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. And I read the story of a Catholic
priest some years ago who abandoned Catholicism when he read this
scripture right here. This is what convinced him. You
know, here's the reasoning they use about Hail Mary, Hail Mary,
Mother of God, pray for us poor sinners. Blessed art thou and
so forth. The fruit of thy womb. What they're
saying is that Bob's mother's sitting here with him this morning.
Say, I don't know him too well, but I know her. But I know this
is what they say, that she has more influence over him than
I have. So if I want anything from you, Bob, go to your mother.
And she can come, and mothers have an influence over sons,
you know. And so if I want anything from
this man, the place to go is not to him. He may not have time
for me, but if I go to his mother and I can convince her to intercede
for me with her son, that's exactly what we say. If she'll go to
Jesus, she may well go, and she can appeal. Now, son, you do
this first. See, that's what they teach.
All right, now let's see what influence Mary has with Christ.
Let's see how much power she has. Matthew 12, verse 46. And
this is what the priest was reading. Matthew 12, verse 46. While he
had talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren,
that is, his real brothers, Joseph and Judah, stood without desiring
to speak with him. Here Christ is speaking to a
great crowd of people. And somebody comes in and tells
him, Verse 47, then one said to him, Behold, your mother and
your brothers stand outside wanting to speak to you. Now that's not
asking too much, is it? They just want to speak to you.
But he answered and said unto them who told him, unto him who
told him, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his believers, his disciples, and he said, Behold my mother
and my brother. Who are, who is my mother, who
are my brother? You see that? For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and my
sister and my mother. There is no closer relationship
to Christ than that of faith. So anytime you think that the
thing to do is go to Mary, that she might have influence, she's
a sinner saved by the same grace you're saved by, redeemed by
the same blood. But you know what human beings
have done? We take every means of grace
and make a god out of it. When they lifted up that brazen
serpent in the wilderness, when Moses said, make your brazen
serpent and lift it up, and they did, and whosoever looked lived,
you say, what ever happened to that brazen serpent? You want
to guess? They made a god out of it. That's
exactly what they did. They preserved and they kept
that thing. And several years later, the
king found them worshiping that brazen serpent. Well, if it had
power at one time to do something, why not later? So they worshiped,
and the king Hezekiah ground that thing into powder, that
serpent of brass, made with the very hands of Moses. How could
he do it? Such a treasure! One of the men
of our church got convicted over these pictures of Jesus around
the house. He had a beautiful Solomon head
of Christ, you know, that sissified-looking picture of Jesus Christ. And
he took it out one day to burn it. And his religious sister
was visiting him, She saw him going out the door with that
picture, and he had a fire in the backyard, and he had that picture
in his hand, and she come there screaming, what are you going
to do? He said, I'm going to burn up this idol. She said, you can't
burn up Jesus! Oh, people, people, people. How could he do it? How, King,
how could you grind in the powder that which Moses made, that which
God instructed in the made, that which saved our nation? Because,
he replied, it's a worthless piece of brass. And Mary, let
me tell you now, and I word this as carefully as I can, highly
favored, God is with her, blessed of women. But as far as salvation
is concerned, and my acceptance with Christ, and my justification,
and me receiving the mercy and favor of God, she's a worthless
piece of flesh. Same thing's true of this water.
Baptism serves a purpose as a means of grace, but don't make it an
end. Same thing's true of that cross. I'm glad they've been
looking for that cross, trying to find it. I'm glad they didn't
find it. That cross serves, and you folks wearing them around
your neck, you go on with your idols. Don't pay any attention
to me. You folks wearing them in your
lapels and hanging them off your Bibles, that's an idol. That's
idolatry. It's a worthless piece of wood.
Christ is to be worshipped, Christ is to be adored, Christ is to
be loved, not these. I'll tell you this, the less
we have in here, the more we have to have of these things.
And the more you have in your heart, the more knowledge of
Christ and love for Christ and faith in Christ, the less you
have to have these visual aids. The more ceremony and processionals
and uniforms and outward visual aids that people have, the less
knowledge of God they have. You mark my word of that, you'll
find that truth. And the more the heart beats
with Christ and the mind thinks on Christ and the soul loves
Christ and the will desires to fellowship with Christ, the less
you have to have of outward show and ceremony and ritual and form. I'll tell you another thing.
Turn to Acts 1.14. This is important. Acts 1.14. Acts 1.14. As far as I can determine, this
is the last time May was mentioned in the New Testament. Acts 1.14. The last time. Now, if she is a mediatrix, if
she is a What do these folks say she is? How come she's not
in any of, not in Romans or any of the epistles or any of the
books of the Bible? Just the last time she's mentioned.
Where is she? In Acts 1.14, these all continued
with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women,
with Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. She was
just one of them. She wasn't sitting on a throne,
she wasn't occupying a place of of power or direction or even
leadership. These disciples were worshiping
and praying together with the women and with Mary. That's it. That's all. Well, after the Lord, the angel
of the Lord, turn back to Luke 1, back to Mary's song. After
the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and told her she was
highly favored of God She told her about Elizabeth conceiving
and carrying a child in her womb who was called Baron. Mary went
to see Elizabeth. And when Mary walked through
the door and greeted Elizabeth, John the Baptist, six months
in his mother's womb, jumped with joy. And Elizabeth, the
Spirit of God came upon her, and she verified what the angel
had said. She gave Mary, we need assurance. We need some assurance. We need
some encouragement. And when Mary came in, here's
a virgin, and you know, she's probably 15 or 16, 17 years old,
according to what most people say, and just a child, trouble. The angel told her Elizabeth
was with child, and looks like to me, Paul, she went down and
found out. She went down to see what was going on. And when she
came in, Elizabeth reassured her and encouraged her. That's why we need the Word of
God. Feelings won't do it. We've got to have some facts,
the Word of God. I can't get assurance from feelings
or from experiences. I've got to have some facts.
And she went to see Elizabeth, and there she was, expecting.
And when she walked through the door, that baby in Elizabeth's
womb moved. And Elizabeth began to say, verse
45, "'Blessed is she that believeth.'" Blessed are you, Mary, you believe. "'For there shall be a performance
of those things which were told you from the Lord.'" Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Zacharias was a high
priest, wasn't he, Cecil? Yeah, he was the high priest.
There was some authority in this confrontation here. This was
the wife of the high priest who was expecting this child in her
old age. And then Mary sang a song. So
this is Mary's song of thanksgiving, and this is my song of thanksgiving.
First of all, I'm highly favored of God, like Mary was, chosen
of God, love from eternity. You are, every believer, highly
favored of God. Secondly, God's with us. He said,
I'll never leave you. My Father and I will take up
our boat with you. Thirdly, we've been blessed among men and women.
Blessed is he to whom God will not charge sin. Blessed is the
man to whom God will not impute sin. And then, how can these
things be? Mary, here she stands, the angel
tells her that life is going to be created within her. Now,
she knows that no one can, you can't have a self-reproduction. There's no way that this woman
could produce life in her. There's only one way to produce
life, and that's life to be put within her womb. There's no way
for her in any way to conceive life. And she said, how can this
be? And here we are. We died in Adam.
We lost life in Adam. We sinned against God in Adam. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. Our spiritual womb is dead. Life,
listen, we can't generate life, we can't beget life, we can't
be born ourselves. This is what is missing in the
average book on how to be born again. Actually, that's a title
that's ridiculous, how to be born again. That's like writing
to a bunch of virgin girls and saying how to produce a baby.
You know, one way you can say to them, you can't believe and
produce one, you can't strive and produce one, you can't follow
recipes and produce one, just one way for that baby to be put
in you, that life to be put in you, and by the will of somebody
else. So we write a book on how are
we born again, okay, but how to be, Darvin, that's ridiculous.
It was only what Mary said, how can it be? And I say this, for
a person dead in sins without God, without life, how can life
be begotten in me and conceived in me and born in me, same way
it was begotten in Mary? She said to the angel, how? This
is not possible. He said, yes it is. With God
all things are possible. With me it is impossible, with
you it is impossible, but not with God, for the Holy Ghost
shall come upon you. You are born of the Spirit, born
of the Spirit, born of the Word. And the power of the highest,
the Word of God, the power of God, the Word of God, shall overshadow
thee, and that which is born in thee shall be called And that's
what I am. I'm a son of God. Turn to John
1. Let's look at this a moment.
How to be born again. They say, go to church and hear
the gospel and believe the gospel, and you're born again. Without
life, you can't hear the gospel. You can hear a man say words. But you can't hear the gospel,
see the gospel, understand the gospel. Christ said, Nicodemus,
except the man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
The word see there is understand, perceive. He can't perceive the
kingdom of God. That's as born of flesh is flesh,
as which is born of spirit is spirit. Look at John 1, verse
11. As many as received him, to them gave he power, right,
privilege to become sons of God. Even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, family inheritance,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of
God. The new birth is very much like
the Incarnation. It's the life of God put within
a human being by the will of God, by the Word of God, by the
Spirit of God, according to the purpose of God. It's supernatural. That's right. You may, and it's a privilege, but you
may not receive these things. But this is what Scripture says. This is what the Word of God
says. You had to equip them who were dead. He equipped them.
We're born of God. Listen to this. Jesus Christ
was conceived in Mary by whose will? By God's will. And it says,
of his own will begat he us through the word of Christ. Now let me
show you over in 1 Peter. Turn over here a moment. 1 Peter.
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 23.
1 Peter 1, 23. being born again. 1 Peter 1, verse 23, not of corruptible
seeds, sperm. That's what that word is right
there. Look, use your concordat. But of incorruptible. We're born
of incorruptible seeds, incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth for us. That's the new birth. God quickens. God makes alive. God conceives.
God begets. God gives us life. So Mary, this
child, this life within her, God came upon her. And this is
the thing, anybody out there this morning that is interested
in this grace, this mercy, Lord, grant that I may be highly favored.
Lord, grant that I might be blessed among men. Lord, make me live. The blind man said, Lord, Christ
said, what do you want me to do for you? He said, I want to
save you. I want to say, the Lord said, be it unto you if
you will. He found a leper and he said, what do you want? The
leper said, I want to be clean. I will be thou clean. He found
a man with a withered hand. What do you want? I want my hand
restored, stretched out. What do you want? Do you want
religion or do you want life? The source of religion is down
front. The source of life is the throne of God. What do you
want? Do you want a good feeling or
do you want Christ? What do you want? Do you want
the preacher to pat you on the head and say, you'll sure meet
mother in heaven, honey? Or do you want to hear God say,
thy sin be forgiven thee? Which do you want to hear? Well, it all depends on what
you want. If you want what the church gives, come down to the
front and get it. And then they'll give you a book out to you. But
I'll tell you where, if I were you, I'd go to the throne of
grace. I'd go to the power of the highest. I'd go to the Spirit
of God, I'd go to the throne of the Lord, and I'd say, Lord,
I want to live. I want to see. I want to be clean. I want Christ. It's not letting
Jesus do anything, it's begging Christ. I hear these poor, blinded
preachers. I saw one on TV recently that
was preaching to a bunch of prisoners, convicts, men in jail for murdering,
robberies, raping, tough guys. He said, how many of you want
Jesus to come into your house? Well, I just let him in. Just
opened the door and let him in. Oh boy, I tell you, a miracle
needs to be performed for me and them. God has to perform
that miracle. A miracle of what? She sang a
song of praise. Look at this verse 46. And she
said seven verses to this song of praise. You won't believe
that I can cover seven points in ten minutes, but I'm going
to show you I can. In verse 46, first of all, she
said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. She's talking about my
great Lord. My friends, the word magnify
usually means to, it usually means to make great or make to
appear to be great. We look through a microscope
and it magnifies something on the slide, makes it appear great. Well, we can't make God greater
than He is. That's not what she said. My
soul doesn't make God greater than He is. My soul doesn't enlarge
the Lord. But we magnify God by having
greater and higher thoughts of our Lord. My soul magnifies the
Lord. My soul does think great thoughts
of God. The thoughts of God and the knowledge
of God in my soul is enlarged and magnified. Turn to Psalm
104. I want you to look at something here. How great thou art. I love that song. The man that
wrote that really captured the feelings of every believer. But
how great. My soul doesn't magnify. I can't
make God greater than he is, but I can think greater thoughts
of God. God is infinitely greater than any thought I have of Him.
God is infinitely greater and more majestic than any conception
that this natural mind can have. But I want my soul and mind to
have greater thoughts of God, and greater adoration for God,
and greater reverence for God, and greater fear of the Lord.
David said in Psalm 104, Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my
God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and
majesty, who covereth thyself with light as with a garment,
and stretcheth out the curtains of heaven like a curtain, who
layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the
clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who
maketh his angel spirits his ministers, a flaming fire, who
layeth the No nations of the earth that it should not be removed
forever. Oh, I tell you, turn over here, verse 14, He causes
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of
man, that it may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine
that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil that maketh his
face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart. The trees of the
Lord are full of sap, and leaven of the cedar which he planted,
verse 28, He says that thou givest them, that thou givest them,
they gather. Thou openest thy hand, and they're
filled with good. Thou hidest thy face in their
trouble. Thou takest away their breath,
and they die and return to their earth. Thou sendest forth thy
Spirit, their Creator. And thou renewest the face of
the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. Verse 33,
I'll sing of the Lord as long as I live. My soul is magnified,
my Lord. Look at the second verse of Mary's
song. She sang of my great God, and then she sings of my incarnate
Lord. She said, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Savior. God is my Creator. God is my
King. God is my Judge. God is my Provider. God is my Sovereign. But that
which makes my spirit to rejoice, God is my Savior. God is my Savior. And I'm singing not of dreams
and fictions and fancy, but of facts and reality. God is my
Savior. He's the Son of God, He's the
Son of Man. Son of God, in that He's perfectly
identified with the Father. I thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. Son of Man, in that He's identified
with me. that He's bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. He is numbered with a transgressor,
Son of Man. He's actually a man, the God-man
in one, two natures in one person. He's the Ancient of Days, but
the Infant of Days. He's the Eternal God, but He's
in human flesh. He's begotten of God, but He's
born of woman. He's the giver of the law, who's
made under the law. He's one with God and one with
man, my Savior. And the more you think upon it,
the more your spirit rejoices. God is my Savior. The Church
is not my Savior. The law is not my Savior. Religion
is not my Savior. God is my Savior. All right,
read the third verse, verse 48. He hath regarded the lowest state
of his handmaiden, his female slave. All generations shall
call me blessed, that is, declare me happy and to be envied. The
Lord hath regarded my lowest state. Let me tell you can you
identify with it? You know what Gideon said? Let
me read you this don't turn to it. I can find it quicker. But
in Judges 9 Gideon said here in verse 15 in Judges 6 verse
15 Gideon said listen my Lord Wherewith shall I deliver Israel?
My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's
house. Who am I? You talk about a nobody. My family,
in all of Manasseh, is poor. And in my family, I'm the least. Oh. You know, if the Lord wanted
a people, why didn't He choose kings? Why did He choose me and
you? That no flesh should glow in
His place. And I'll tell you this, to be a sinner is to be
envious, is to be envious, because he's going to save sinners. And
Gideon was in a good place. He was in a poor family, and
he was the lowest in the family. If God's going to do anything
for the family, that's probably where he'll do it. And then notice
verse 49, she sings of my righteous Lord. He is mighty. He has done great
things to me. Holy is His name. Now, my friends,
listen to me. I don't have time to develop
this. But God's redemption and mercies are always consistent
with His holiness. Always. Holy is His name. He has done great things for
me. But all of it inconsistent with His holiness. Let me ask
you this. Your hope of salvation, Is it
consistent with God's holiness? He's lifted the beggar from the
dunghill and put him on the throne. Is it consistent with his holiness?
What do you mean by that, preacher? I mean this. You've sinned. The Bible says you're guilty.
Have your sins been punished? Have they been paid for? You
have no righteousness. Your righteousness is a filthy
rag in God's sight. Oh, the church brags on you.
They put your name in the bulletin. You've done this and done that
and done the other and given this and given that. It's all
good. Now, wait a minute. In the sight of God, our works
are filthy rags. In the flesh, no man can please
God. So, this righteousness, this acceptance you have with
God, is it consistent with His holiness? God's got to be just
and justified. He's got to be righteous and
redeemer. And that's what Christ did for
us. Christ came down here and in the flesh did what we couldn't
do. Notice verse 50, my merciful Lord. His mercy is on them that
fear him. What is mercy? It's God not giving
us what we deserve. A man is no candidate for salvation
who is not a candidate for mercy. Notice verse 51 through 53, my
sovereign Lord, listen to it, learn it well. He has showed
strength with his arms. He has scattered the crowd in
the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted the one of low degree. He has filled
the hungry with goodness. He did it. He did it. What was
there in you, the poet said, that could merit esteem or give
the creature delight? For even so, Father, thou must
say it seemed good in thy sight." He said, and I'm not the Lord,
can I not do with my own what I will? Notice the seventh verse
of this thing, this song, verse 54 and 55. He hath helped his
servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. as he spake to our Father Abraham.
What are we saying? What's she saying? She's saying
God made a covenant, and his gifts are based upon that covenant. That's right. God made a covenant.
He's a covenant God. Not only that, but he's a Father.
Not only that, he's a faithful shepherd. I can identify with
this song of Mary. I've been in favor of the Lord. God's with me. I've been blessed
among people. I've been begotten within me
life, which is called the Son of God. And I can sing. I can sing of my great God. I can sing of my Savior God. I can sing of my merciful God. He's regarded the lowest state
of this slave. I can sing of my sovereign God.
He did it because He would. I can sing of my faithful God. He'll help me. I shall not walk
for spiritual provision because He leads me in pastures of tender
grass. I shall not walk for peace because
He leads me by the still water. I shall not walk for redemption
because He restores my soul. I shall not walk for anything,
not here or hereafter, for surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Our merciful Lord, let us sing, enable us
to sing, like Mary sang. My soul doth magnify my God,
my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior, for he hath regarded
the lowest state of this slave. By his mercy he hath lifted me,
he hath helped me, he hath promised to be with me, and he will be
faithful to his covenant. We are highly favored among men,
blessed of God, the Lord with thee. Enable every believer here
to sing this song with a sincere heart. And Lord, those who do
not understand, open their minds and hearts. They have eyes but
can't see, and ears they have but can't hear, and hearts they
have, but our Lord said they do not understand. Blessed are
your eyes, they see, and ears they hear. Give life, Lord, give
life. Give a saving interest in Christ.
Move by your power. We don't want to rest in these
rituals and ceremonies and form of religion. We want to know
the living God. In a deep and personal and perpetual
and continual abiding fellowship. In thy name we pray. Amen.