Let us turn again this morning
to Luke chapter 1. We'll begin reading in verse
26, Luke chapter 1 and verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. The angel came
in unto her and said, hail thou that are highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. The angel said unto her, fear
not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. 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. And he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever. Of his kingdom there shall be
no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the
sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God,
nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, behold, the handmaid
of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy
word. And the angel departed from her. In God's inspired word, the Bible,
we are told of four appearances of this angel by the name of
Gabriel. Twice he appeared in the book
of Daniel and then twice in the gospel according to Luke. About
500 years before this that we've just read about,
he was sent to Daniel, appeared to Daniel, the prophet Daniel,
and revealed unto him the time, the time when the Messiah would
be born. Now six months before what we've
just read about and we studied from this last time, he appeared
unto Zacharias. and told him that he and his
wife Elizabeth would be parents of the man who would be the forerunner
of the Messiah. Now, it seems to me that he appeared
as a man, this angel. Angels are pure spirits. They
do not have bodies. They do not have material bodies.
But like the angels that appeared unto the women at the tomb, At
the resurrection of Christ, they appeared as men, and it appears
to me that Gabriel here appeared as a man. Zacharias, you remember,
we saw this last week, he was in the temple burning incense
or offering incense unto God, and he saw, the scripture said,
he saw him standing at the right hand or at the right of the altar
of incense. He saw him, he appeared, this
angel did. And when we read here in the
verses we read this morning that Mary was troubled when the angel
spoke to her, it was unusual. In fact, in that society, a man
would not speak to an unwed woman like this. And this was very
much out of the ordinary. that a man would speak to a young
woman. And so I believe he appears,
the angel appears as a man. He did to Zacharias, he did to
Daniel, and he does now to Mary. Now, in the verses we're looking
at today, as I said, he was sent to Mary, who we see was his spouse
to Joseph. We sometimes would Maybe try
to explain that as being engaged, but it was much more than an
engagement like we have today. But they had not come together.
She had not known a man, as the scripture here says. Now, there's
so much in these verses of scripture that we've read, more than I
could possibly deal with this morning. But what I've done,
I've taken, I have four headings to my message, and I want to
point out three things. Three things that the angel said
to Mary. Three words that he spoke to
Mary. And then I want to finish the
last point and look at Mary's response. Mary's response. First, his first word to her,
Thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. In verse 28. Now that word which is translated
favored, thou art highly favored, it's the same word, a different
ending, but the same word that is found in verse 30, and it
is translated favored there, but it is the word that is most
often translated grace. grace. How many times have I
given the definition of the word grace? Unmerited favor. Thou
art highly favored. These are the words of the angel
to Mary. Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Now, Gabriel's words here are
not in reference to God saving grace. not in reference to his
redeeming grace. God's saving grace is common
to all believers. Everyone who is saved is saved
by grace through faith, the scriptures tell us. Zacharias, Elizabeth,
Mary's cousin, they were all participants in the saving grace
of God, just like you and I, if we've been saved. Those of
us here this morning, we've been saved by grace. We've been redeemed
by grace. We've been called by grace. We've
been kept by grace. And we will persevere by grace. Salvation is by grace. It is the work of God. In other
words, none of us deserve it. No one is saved, deserves to
be saved. That's so obvious that we don't
need to deal with that this morning. That's so obvious, isn't it?
Does anyone believe that they merit God Almighty giving His
Son, His only begotten Son, to die and shed His blood to redeem
us, that we're worthy of that? Of course not. It's grace, it's
grace. I love the sound of that word,
don't you? Grace. No, this grace, when the angel
Gabriel said, thou art highly favored, he's speaking about
a grace that tells us she was chosen among all the women, all
the young women who have ever lived in God's world. She was chosen, one among Billions,
right? Billions. God chose her. She was highly favored. And it's
very important to see what the angel said, blessed art thou
among women. It's important to see that he
didn't say blessed art thou above women. Blessed art thou among
women. And I say it's important to see
that for that to register this morning because false religion,
the religion of Antichrist, you know, has given Mary an exalted
place, an exalted position that the Bible doesn't give her. In
fact, she's called a mediatrix. A mediatrix. In other words,
a mediator. Mary is, by false religion, by
the religion of Antichrist. And that's what it is, it's the
religion of Antichrist. She's exalted. People talk about,
well, have you never heard of the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception? Yeah, most people don't understand
that the church, the false church, is saying that Mary was immaculately
conceived so that she came into this world without sin. The Bible
doesn't teach that. She was blessed among women,
not above women. The Bible is crystal clear. I
mean, it couldn't be any clearer. than the fact there's one way
to God, there's one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. And to teach that there's some
mediator between man and Christ. And that's what sometimes they
will say, well, no man would refuse his mother. No man would
ever refuse his mother, so we asked his mother and she asked
him, surely we're going to, no, no. There's no mediator between
us and Christ. He is our savior, he alone. And we come to him, we look to
him, we trust in him alone. I want you to look over in Matthew
with me just a moment, Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, this passage
here explodes that whole idea, that whole false teaching that
we go to his mother and then she goes to him and she intercedes
to him for us. You say, why are you emphasizing
that? Because, my friends, that teaching has and is deceiving
millions of people today, all around this world. Look here
in Matthew 12 and verse 46. While he yet talked to the people,
that is Christ, yet talked to the people, behold, his mother
and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then
one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said
unto him that told him, who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, behold, we could say, if you
just look at me right now, behold, He stretched forth his hand.
Behold, he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, towards
you, you who believe in Christ. Behold, my mother and my brethren. There's one family of God, and
we're all sisters and brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our Savior. Who is my mother? And who are
my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven.
And what is that will? Important we know the answer
to that, right? Important that we know the answer
to that statement. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother. What is that will? What did he
say in John 6? This is the will of him that
sent me, that you believe on him who he has sent. That you believe in Christ. This
is a will of God to believe in him, to trust in him. So let's
go back to our passage this morning. That's the first word. The first
word, the angel spoke unto Mary, Hail thou, highly favored, the
Lord is with thee. Now, the second word in verses
31 and 32. Thou, a virgin, shall bring forth
a son, and he shall be named Jesus, and he shall be great. The angel said unto her, fear
not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. 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. Think with me for just a moment
of the words the angel spoke unto Mary here, he shall be great. He shall be
great. Mary, thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall
be great. I'm going to mention several
ways I can't mention all of the ways that he is great, but I
want to point out several ways that he, this son that she's
going to have, is great. First, he is great being both
God and man. That's the first thing. He's
great being both God and man. And that's really what is named
Jesus there. If you look in your Bible, each
letter being capitalized, that tells us it's Jehovah Savior. That's what that name reveals
unto us. Emmanuel, God with us. You know, John, the Apostle John,
he began his gospel narrative with these words. In the beginning
was the word. In the beginning. The Word doesn't
have a beginning, but whenever there was a beginning, Genesis 1 and verse 1, in the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. John says, in
the beginning was the Word. He didn't begin to begin in the
beginning. When the beginning began, He
already was. He already was. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, has always been with
God, the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. He's one, the blessed
Trinity. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. And then down just a few verses
in that chapter, he makes the most astounding, amazing statement
that could ever be. And the Word, the Word that was
God, the Word that was in the beginning with God, the Word
that is God, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And the Word was made flesh. The word was made flesh. In other
words, this is what Gabriel is telling Mary. She's going to
conceive and bring forth a son, and he shall be great. He is
the God-man. He's great. Now, something to
keep in mind when we think about the God-man. Deity was not turned into humanity. And humanity was not turned into
deity. What takes place here is humanity
is united to deity. Notice the word thing here. And if you look at your scripture
again, Luke chapter one, I believe verse 35. And the angel answered and said
unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the high shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy
thing. Thing. Now for years I thought,
well, that must be, must surely be sun. No, it's thing. The translators knew exactly
why he's called that holy thing. Why? Because in the conception
from the Virgin Mary, that body that was prepared him was not
a person. If that body was a person rather
than a thing, then the Lord Jesus would be two persons. But no. That thing is united to deity
so that there's two natures, yes, but only one person. You see that? You get that? That's
just the truth, my friends. You say, that's deep. No, it's
not deep, and I hope I didn't make it muddy. But that's just
so. When we worship the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're worshiping God. And if He's not God, we're guilty
of idolatry. No, He's God, God Almighty, manifested
in the flesh. He's great, He shall be great,
none greater, none greater. He shall be great. A second thing, he is great being
the one mediator in three offices. I've already mentioned the fact
that there's only one mediator between God and man. If you're
going to God, you're going to go through Christ or you're not
going. And if God comes to you, he's
going to come to you through Christ or he's not coming. That
makes sense. There's only one mediator. There's
only one way to the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, as
a mediator, we know he has three offices, and he was anointed
to each of these offices. He's the prophet. That's one
of his offices. He's the prophet. He came to
reveal God. He told one of his disciples,
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He is the prophet
that Moses said would come. And Moses said this, now listen.
It's in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Moses said this. God's gonna
raise up a prophet. Here he is, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you either hear him or die
eternally. That's what Moses said. You either
hear him or die eternally. eternally. And then he is not
only the prophet, the great prophet, he's a great high priest. You
know, there were high priests under the law. There were high
priests, but there was never a great high priest under the
law. Why? That was reserved for the
high priest. The high priest that all those
other high priests only pictured. No, he is the great high priest
who by one offering, now think about this. Don't let this just
go over your head, please. There'd been high priests for
over a thousand years, and they'd offered animals, they'd offered
blood, and all their blood offerings never took away one sin. Not one sin was ever taken away
by the blood of animals. But this high priest, by one
offering, the offering of himself, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He's a great high priest. And
then he has an office as king, as mediator. He shall be great. He's the one mediator between
God and man. And he has these three offices.
He's a prophet, he's a priest, and he's the king. The angel
told Mary he's going to reign on the throne of David over the
house of Israel. Not the nation of Israel, but
spiritual Israel. He's the king and he comes to
his people and he conquers his people. You know, we are His, those of
us who know Him today. We're His by gift. We were given
unto Him by the Father. We're His by purchase. He purchased
us with His blood. But we're also His by conquest. We were like a wild ass's colt,
the scripture says, all of us by nature. And He came by Spirit. and conquered us, brought us
down just like he did Saul of Tarsus into the dust so that
we cried out, Lord, who art thou, Lord? He conquered us and he
sets his throne up in our heart. He rules, he reigns over his
people. He's a king. He shall be great. Third, he is great being the
only one to ever merit, only one to ever merit this testimony
of God from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Never said that about you. Not
in yourself. Never said that about me. Couldn't
say it about us. Couldn't say it about us. Why?
because by nature we're fallen, sinful beings. Oh, but he said
it about his son. This, he shall be great. He's
the only one who ever merited that testimony from heaven. This,
he's the only one who ever lived on God's earth who could say,
I do always I do always, he said, things
that please him, that is God. Never did anything that didn't
please God. Number four, he shall be great,
being the one who magnified the attributes of God in his crucifixion. You know, if you want to learn
about God, about his characteristics, Just sit down and look at the
cross. In your mind's eye, just sit
down and look at the cross. At the one who's dying there,
this one who is the son of God. And the first, not the first
thing, but one of the things you'll see is the love of God. That God so loved those of us
who by nature are wicked, evil, sinful. that he gave his only
begotten son. If you want to know about the
justice of God, the holiness, the righteousness of God, look
at the cross. Look at that one who's dying
there, that God poured out his wrath upon his darling son. He would not even spare his son
when the sins of his people were laid upon him. We see God's justice,
don't we? And if you want to see the wisdom
of God, his infinite wisdom, look at the cross. God who said,
I will by no means clear the guilty and all of us are guilty. And yet in his wisdom, he has
provided his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would pay for our
sins, take our sins, and pay for them in his own body on the
tree, so that God might be just and the justifier of all who
believe in him. And we could go on at the various
attributes, the characteristics of God, but they're all seen
in him. He shall be great. And he is great in being the
firstborn from the grave, the firstborn. How many men have
been buried before the Lord Jesus Christ, before his body was placed
in that tomb? Thousands, Jay, millions of men,
bodies, men, women, boys and girls, been placed under the
earth, and they stayed there unless they, some of them were
dug up and their burns were burned. Oh no, they never came out of
that grave, did they, by themselves. But we know the Lord Jesus Christ
on that third day. He walked out of that tomb. He
had conquered. He had conquered. He had defeated
death, hell, and the grave. One of the judges of Israel by
the name of Samson, you know, everybody knows Samson was a
very strong man. God gave him that unusual strength. And one time the Philistines,
they had the city in which he was surrounded and they had the
gates locked and everything else, and they woke Samson up and the
scripture says that he got up and took the gates and the post
and everything with him. I'll tell you, the enemies of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they may have looked at his sleeping body
in that tomb. We've got him now. We've conquered
him now. But I'm telling you, on that
third day, he came out of that grave, didn't he? having defeated
all of our enemies. And he shall be great in being
raised to the Father's right hand. That's where he is today.
And the right hand of God is a place of prominence, a place
of power, a place of authority. That's where the Lord Jesus Christ
is. We could go on, but let me just
say this before moving to my next point. He shall be great. He is a great savior for great
sinners. He's a great savior for great
sinners. If I could find a man or a woman
who would tell me this morning, preacher, I hear what you're
saying, but you just don't know my life. You just don't know
the sins that I've committed, the guilt of my life. You just don't know it. I could
tell that person I can assure you of two things. Number one,
you're a lot worse than you think you are. Really, no matter how
bad you see yourself to be, If you could see yourself in God's
sight, you're a whole lot worse than you even think you are.
And number two, Christ is a great savior. There's no sin other
than sin against the Holy Ghost that man can commit and his blood
cannot wash away. I like things clean, don't you?
I do, I like clean things. Oh, but to think of our souls
today, clean, washed clean, like the snow, white as the snow that
has just fallen, clean. How? Through the blood of Christ. He's a great savior for great
sinners. The third word, the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee. I'm not going to say much about
this, only, I did read this, I thought I would point this
out. One of the writers mentioned the fact that this is attributed,
this body prepared of the Virgin Mary is attributed to the work
of God the Holy Spirit. And he said, not to God the Father,
lest it be thought that he is only the father of him as a man. The miracle is not attributed
to God the Son, since to him the human nature is personally
united. It is the Spirit. It is the Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, who is the sanctifier, and who separated
and sanctified this body, the first moment of its conception,
so that it would be free from the least taint of sin, of original
sin, the Holy Ghost. Now Mary, you know, we saw last
week, Zacharias, he didn't believe. Mary, she asked how this shall
be, but it's not in unbelief. No doubt she was familiar with
the scripture in Isaiah 7 and verse 14, behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bring forth a son. No doubt she knew that. But when
the angel announced to her that she was that virgin, how is this
going to be? She's not believing that it's
going to happen, but how? How is it going to take place?
And the angel told her how. God's going to do it. God the
Holy Spirit is going to come upon them. The power of the highest
is going to overshadow them. And just like at the cross, now
think with me a moment. Just like at the cross, when the Lord was hanging there,
suffering and dying for his people, there was darkness. There was
darkness that covered the earth for three hours. What does that
tell us? It tells me there were things
that were going on there between him and his father that we can't
possibly enter into now, that we can't understand. He had to
satisfy God first. Before he could do something
for me, he had to do something for God. Right? He had to satisfy God. And God pulled darkness over
the earth. And the same thing I believe
here, in the conception of this body that was being prepared
him, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the
high shall overshadow thee. There's things about this that
we can't possibly explain. We'd just be a fool, I would,
if I tried to explain this, but I know that Jesus, from his conception,
is a holy son of God. The last thing, fourth point,
is Mary's response. Oh, it's so beautiful. Would
to God, would to God that every one of us this morning could respond to our Lord like
she did, her submissiveness to the will of God. I see a picture
here of how a sinner should come to Christ. Here I am with all
my sin. Here I am. Don't even think of
approaching unto God or believing in Christ and not confessing
that you're guilty, that you're a sinner. If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if
we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all iniquity. Here am I, O Lord, like Mary
of old, due unto the handmaid, as seemeth Good, I see a picture
of Christ here, don't you? When in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he prayed, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Mary said, behold, the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. Be it unto me. Can you say that this morning?
Can I say that? Be it unto me according to thy
word. Thy will be done. Whatever it
is, thy will be done. Thy will. I pray the Lord would
bless this word.