I'm going to speak to us this
morning from the words of her song, which are recorded in verses
46 through 55. But let me point a few things
out to us from the whole passage that we read. First, we say that
God sent one of his angels by the name of Gabriel to a city
of Galilee to speak to Mary, a virgin. espoused to a man by
the name of Joseph. And he told her that she would
be the mother of a son, and his name would be Jesus. Notice that, if you will, in
verse 31. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. That name Jesus means Jehovah
saves. It must have sounded very strange
to her to hear that she was going to bring forth a son and she
should call him Jehovah Saves Jesus. In verse 45, if you notice
that Elizabeth, who we are told above that, had been filled with
the Holy Spirit when she heard the salutation of Mary. But in verse 45, Elizabeth tells
us that Mary believed. She believed, and blessed is
she that believed. She believed that angel. She
didn't understand, I'm sure. In fact, she expressed that when
she said, how can this be, saying I know not of man? Well, this
is something God's going to do, God the Holy Spirit. The power
of God is going to come upon thee. And she believed. Just
to remind us of the place of faith, believing God. How important is faith? No one is saved without it. It's
impossible to please God without faith. The writer of Hebrews
says, do you believe God? You believe Christ. You believe
Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, at the end
of his life, he could say, I know whom I have believed, and I'm
persuaded that he has kept that which I have committed unto him
against that day. She believed. Mary was a believer.
She was a believer. Beginning with verse 46, we have
her song of praise. Mary, when you think about it,
was humanly speaking, she was of the family of David, the greatest
songwriter in the scripture. For how many of the songs, 150
of the Psalms, which are really songs, how many wonderful songs
are in the Bible recorded for us in the word of God. JC Rao
made these comments upon her song. He said, we know these
five things about Mary from what she wrote. First of all, he said,
we know her acquaintance with the scriptures. We know that
she had read Hannah's song of praise, no doubt many times as
we look at her song. We see her acquaintance with
the scriptures. We see her deep humility. Well,
that's true of everyone who believes in Christ. A proud person, God
sends them away empty, as she says in her song. She was one
of deep humility. We see her thankfulness. We see
her knowledge of Israel, the nation of Israel's history. And
lastly, he said, we see her grasp upon Bible promises. Well, we're
going to look at her song today as though it had three stanzas.
And the first stanza, Mary's song is a song. Now listen, this
is the first thing about her song in verses 46 through 49. Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for
he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold,
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for he
that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his
name. Mary's song is the song of a
recipient of God's grace. That's the first thing about
this song. Her song is the song of one who had experienced the
saving, sovereign grace of God. You know, the Apostle James in
his letter said, as any Mary, let him sing psalms. Mary expresses
the joy of both her soul and her spirit. In other words, her
understanding and her affections when she says, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, both
her soul and her spirit, her understanding and her affections. Three things about those words
and these verses that we read here. First of all, she magnified
the Lord. My soul doth magnify the Lord. Psalm 48 and verse 1, the psalmist
said, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. A magnifying glass,
we're familiar with that, aren't we? A magnifying glass makes
something seem larger. Sometimes we have one at our
house that we use when we're looking at something and can't
read the print. We use a magnifying glass to
enable us to to read the small print. It makes an image larger. But we cannot make God greater.
When she says, my soul doth magnify the Lord, you can't make God
greater than he is because he is great. We can't do that. What does she
mean then? We can't magnify him. We cannot
make him greater than he is. We sing that hymn sometimes,
and I love it, How Great Thou Art. How great is God? We can't make Him greater, but
yet we can confess, and Mary does confess, and we can declare
and acknowledge His greatness and praise the Lord for His wonderful
grace and mercy. That's what we do when we worship
the Lord in song, Sing these hymns, we're praising Him, we're
magnifying the Lord. We're not making Him greater
than He already is because He fills heaven and earth. I mean,
how great is He? But we magnify Him and with our
spirit and our understanding. We can't truly magnify the Lord
like Mary did unless our understanding is engaged. It's not just by
rote, you know, repeating something. You can teach a parrot to speak. I've heard you can. I've never
done that. But I mean, you could teach a
bird just to say the same thing over and over and over again. And we might come together and
sing the same hymns over and over and over again, but unless
our understanding, our spirit is engaged, we're not really
magnifying the Lord. She was magnifying the Lord. And the second thing we see about
her is that she confessed that God was her savior. Notice that in verse 47, and
my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior. I want to read you
something that I copied from a book that I've read at least
two times now, 50 years in the church of Rome. It was written
by Father Chinoquy, a French-Canadian priest who was in the Roman Catholic
Church in the 1800s. But he gives this account in
that book. On December the 8th, 1854, Pope
Pius IX was sitting on his throne in St. Peter's in Rome with 500
priests and bishops and cardinals surrounding him. After a few
minutes of silence, a cardinal dressed in purple walked toward
the Pope and prostrated himself before him. And he asked, Holy
Father, tell us if we can believe and teach that the mother of
God The Holy Virgin Mary was immaculate in her conception. The Pope answered, I do not know. Let me ask the light of the Holy
Ghost. The Cardinal withdrew. The Pope
and the multitude of priests and bishops fell on their knees
and a great choir sang, In Latin, glory to God. Silence fell over the scene,
and then that same cardinal approached once again and asked the same
question. Holy Father, tell us if we can
believe and teach that the mother of God, the Holy Virgin Mary,
was immaculate in her conception. And the Pope, again, answered,
I don't know. Let me ask the light of the Holy
Ghost. Again, the choir sang and then
there was silence. The same cardinal came the third
time and repeated his question again. Holy Father, tell us if
we can believe that the blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God,
was immaculate in her conception. This time, the Pope answered
in a solemn voice, as though he had just received a direct
communication from God. Yes, we must believe that the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God, was immaculate in her
conception. And he went on and ended his
saying with these words, there is no salvation to those who
do not believe this dogma. The bells of 300 churches rang
out and cannons were fired. Well, as I read that, I could
just imagine in my mind the beautiful ceremony, very impressive pageantry
that went on. Very impressive to the natural
man. And probably you may have heard
someone say, well, if I was going to be anything, that's what I
would be, because it is so beautiful. The ceremony, and the robes,
and everything that goes with it. It's just so beautiful. It just reeks of religion. I could agree with that. I really
could. But I will say this also. It
was a lie. According to the word of God,
I'm sure as beautiful as the ceremony was, as impressive to
the natural man, things like that are. It was a lie. We have the testimony of Mary
herself. She rejoiced at God, her savior. Who needs a Savior? I need a
Savior. You need a Savior. Why? Because we're sinners. Right? Absolutely. Mary rejoiced in
God, her Savior, because she too was a sinner. And if what
that Pope said there at the end is true, there is no salvation
to those who do not believe this dogma, then I say Mary herself
wasn't saved. She didn't believe that. When
I first heard years ago that statement, the immaculate conception,
I thought at first they were talking about the conception
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought, well, that's true.
He was born of a virgin. He was born without sin. But
no, that's not what that statement means. Immaculate conception
is talking about Mary being conceived without sin. And that is contrary
to the word of God. You say, well, people don't believe
that anymore. Well, I beg your pardon. I read
just this past week this current Pope, Pope Francis, made a trip
to the shrine there in Rome, a big pedestal that they've erected
when the Pope gave forth this dogma of the Immaculate Conception. He was there this past week.
Yes, maybe a lot of people don't know what their church teaches.
That's probably true. But the truth is, my friends,
there's no one been born of man other than Jesus Christ without
sin. And that's all there is to it.
And I would be a liar if I didn't express that, teach that to us. Sometimes people say, well, you
have hard feelings towards Catholicism. No, not towards the people. But
yes, towards the lies that they teach. I do. I feel like it has
deceived many is deceiving many even today. If people believe
what that church teaches. Of course, the greatest error,
in my opinion, is the mass. when they supposedly have the
power to change the bread and wine into the literal body and
blood of Christ. That's just not so. Mary, she
rejoiced in God, her Savior. I rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you? And I have a Savior. I have a Savior this morning.
I need a Savior, just like she did. The third thing, she acknowledges
God's grace in regarding her lowest state, verse 48, for he
hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaking. Now some may
believe here that she had reference to her family, that is the family
of David. You know, David had been a king,
a great king, and Solomon, his son, had reigned after him, and
they had untold wealth. But now that family was reduced
to where she was espoused to a man who was a carpenter. And
it had been prophesied that the Messiah would be like a root
out of a dry ground. So she may have had reference
there to the state of her family, but most likely she's talking
about her spiritual state, her condition. He hath regarded the
lowest state of his handmaiden, that is, of Mary herself, as
a fallen daughter of Adam. And this part especially reminds
us of Hannah's song. If you were to read Hannah's
song, you would see in it, she said, he raiseth up the poor
out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill.
And isn't that what God does when he saves a sinner? Certainly
it is. He lifts up the beggar from the
dunghill. And that's all everyone is that
is saved, is a beggar, a mercy beggar. When we first come to
Christ, when we first trust in Him, we come asking, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. We don't stop asking for mercy,
do we? And we rejoice that the scripture
tells us His mercies are new every morning, because we need
mercy every morning, every day. Yeah. She believed the message which
Gabriel had given unto her, and she recognized the reason why
people would refer to her as blessed. And both Gabriel and
Elizabeth, they both say the same thing. Why would Mary be
referred to today, all generations as blessed? Because as the scripture
says, as Gabriel said in verse 28, the angel came in under her
and said, Thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, not above women, among women. And Elizabeth said the same thing
in verse 42. And she spake out with a loud
voice and said, blessed art thou among women, among women, not
above women. And why was she blessed? because
of the fruit of her womb, because of the son that she brought into
this world, the son of God who became flesh, who made himself
flesh. You know, that's the case of
every person who God saves. That's my case. That's your case
today. Just like Mary said, he hath
regarded the lowest state of his handmaid. He's regarded our
lowest state. Mary was chosen. Out of all the
virgins, all the young Israelite women, God chose this one to
be the mother of his son. She was chosen. And every child
of God is chosen by the grace of God and lifted up from the
dunghill of sin. Look what the Apostle Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians to the church at Corinth, to the believers
in the church at Corinth. Beginning with verse 26, he said,
for you say you're calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not. Why would God do that? He tells
us, doesn't he, to bring to naught the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. God's people, that word glory
means boast, boast. Let no man glory, we read this
in Jeremiah chapter nine, no man glory in his wisdom, in his
might, are in his riches, but we glory in this, we boast in
this, in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Well, let's look
at the second stanza of our song. It's verse 49. Mary's song is
a song of the mighty and holy God. Verse 49, for he that is
mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name. The incarnation of the Son of
God, Mary bringing forth her Son, is the work of Him who is
mighty. And think of the work of a son
being conceived, a baby being conceived without a man. Only this happened this one time.
that he would be the seed of the woman, but a woman doesn't
have seed. A woman has eggs. Oh yes, but
he would be the seed of the woman. That was the first promise, the
gospel promise that God gave to Adam and Eve there in the
garden, isn't it? How great is this work, the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle, Paul wrote in 1 Timothy,
great is the mystery of godliness. And the very first thing he mentions
there, God, God was manifest in the flesh. He told his disciples, when you
see me, you see the Father. This is a great work. A work
that only God could do. And when Mary asked about it,
the angel told her, well, the power of the high shall come
upon thee. It would be a great work, the
work of God being made flesh. God would put forth His power. This would be the infulfillment
of a prophecy. You're all familiar with this
prophecy, but look back with me to Isaiah chapter nine. There's
two of these prophecies in Isaiah that are often used at this time
of the year around the birth of Christ. Isaiah chapter nine,
there's one in chapter seven, but here in chapter nine, And
verse six, for under us a child is born,
under us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. Now, let's stop right there for
just a moment. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. We're talking about this baby,
this son of Mary, the government. is going to be upon his shoulder.
You say, well, certainly the government of the church, he's
the head of the church, his body, yes. That's true. But this is more than that. The
government of the world shall be upon his shoulders. He's at
the father's right hand today. And he has a scepter ruling and
reigning over all creation. He said, all authority, all power
is given unto me, both in heaven and in earth, all authority. And there will come a time when
he will deliver up the kingdom unto the father. But at this
present time, according to the scripture, he's the king of kings
and Lord of lords and reigns and rules over all. of creation. You say, well, is he capable
to have the government upon his shoulders? Well, certainly, because
look at what we are told next. He's a wonderful counselor. He has the wisdom. He is the
wisdom of God. He has the wisdom to reign, to
work all things after the counsel of his will, his father's will. Notice next, not only wonderful
counselor, the mighty God, the mighty God, born in flesh, the
everlasting Father. Sometimes people say, well, how
can that refer to God the Son, the everlasting Father? Because
he was given a seed, because he has a posterity. Spiritual,
yes. but all of the children of God
are his. The mighty father, the everlasting
father, the prince of peace. When Mary sings holy, back in
our text, holy is his name, it means that God himself is holy
and what he has done and what he would do when she wrote this
hymn is in every way pure, because He is pure, holy because He is
absolutely holy, and righteous because He is righteous. Now the third verse of our song,
verses 50 through 55, Mary's song is the song of God's covenant
mercy. Notice in verse 50, and His mercy
is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He
has showed strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He has filled
the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers. God's covenant of mercy, which
he had spoken unto the fathers. You notice that word is plural,
unto the fathers. Well, she would naturally refer
to her father, David, because David had been promised in that
covenant, a son who would reign upon his throne forever and ever. And that's what the angel told
her. In verse 32, he shall be great and shall be called the
son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his father David. But she also mentions Abraham. Abraham, he was one of the fathers
and his seed, not his natural seed, but his spiritual seed,
the Israel of God. John Gill made this comment on
this verse. He said, the mercy of God is
the spring and source of redemption. Mercy provided a redeemer. Mercy provided the ransom. And
it is owing to mercy that the Redeemer came. Mercy. And several truths she expresses
also here about those who are recipients of God's mercy. In
verse 50 she says, his mercy is on them that fear him from
generation to generation. Do you fear the Lord? We're not talking about That
slavish fear, you know that. We're talking about a reverential
fear of God, a respect of God, of who he is. We don't talk about
him as a man upstairs. We don't speak of him as our
co-pilot. We fear God. We reverence God. One of the commands in the covenant
that God made with Israel is thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. We live in a society that continually
uses oh God about everything. Oh God. Most I'm convinced Do
not realize that the scriptures say that his enemies, God said,
my enemies are those who take my name in vain. We reverence
his name. When we reverence his name, we
reverence him. Holy, holy, holy, the angels
sang unto him. Verse 51, he has showed strength
with his arm. Notice that in verse 51, he has
showed strength with his arm. What does the arm of the Lord
mean? Who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the
Lord is speaking of power. A man's arm, he has power in
his arm, and that refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who hath believed
our report? And to whom is Christ revealed? The arm of the Lord revealed.
God must reveal himself unto his people. He bringeth low and he lifteth
up. He does that to everyone he saves,
doesn't he? He brings low first. Man's riding
on his high horse. I don't need God. God needs me. Oh, how foolish. How foolish. Vain man. Like a wild asses. That's what the scripture says.
Like a wild ass. Sniffs at the wind. I'll go. I'll do. I'll be. what I want to be. Well, you
better pray God doesn't leave you like that. And he won't if
you're one of his. He'll knock the wind out of you.
He really will. He'll bring you low that he might
lift you up. But don't ever expect to get
lifted up if he doesn't bring you low. Verse 52, he puts down the mighty,
lifts the weak. And then verse 53, he fills the
hungry with good things. Those that are hungry for Christ,
hungry for salvation, hungry for knowing God, he fills them
with good things. What are these good things? The
sure mercies of the covenant, the sure mercies of David. But
those who are rich have need of nothing. He sends them away
empty. What a psalm did Mary prepare
and does the church still have to study and rejoice in? We're thankful for Mary. Thankful that God used her as
he did. We're thankful for all of God's
people, but we're most of all thankful for her son, who saves
us from our sins. May the Lord bless his word to
those of us here this morning.