It's good to see you all out
this morning. Remember those who've requested prayer. Add
to the prayer list Maurice Kalanahusky's family, lost a loved one. John Queen's family also, remember
them, continue to remember Arlene and her family. Next Sunday's
October 29th, it's the last Sunday of the month, so we'll have the
Lord's Table and dinner, but no evening, afternoon service.
Sunday, November the 12th, that's a couple, three Sundays away.
Yes? Jerry Dugan died, that's Joyce Dugan's husband? Who? Jerry Dugan, Joyce Dugan,
you know, she was our neighbor. Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, it's the
Dugan family, all right. All right. Oh, and a couple,
three Sundays down the road, November the 12th, I'll be preaching
at 13th Street Baptist Church. Brother Sam Vance will be preaching
that day. It'll just be service only at
11 o'clock, no dinner. So that's on November the 12th. That's a good ways away. Miss Kennedy? For the Kennedy
family. How's your knee? Oh, good. Glad to hear it. Okay, that's all the announcements.
We don't have any birthdays today, so let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 242. 242. Jesus, I come. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and
night Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy freedom, gladness, and
light Jesus, I come to Thee Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shame, for someone
lost, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. ? And bane of thy foe thy cross
? ? Jesus I come to thee ? ? Out of thy sorrows into thy power
? ? Out of life's storms and into thy calm ? Out of distress
to jubilant song Jesus I come to Thee Out of unrest and arrogant
pride Jesus I come, Jesus I come ? Will to abide ? Jesus, I come
to Thee ? Out of myself to dwell in Thy love ? Out of despair
into raptures above ? Ah, lay on wings Jesus, I come to Thee Out of
the fear and dread of the tomb Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
Into the joy and light of Thy home Jesus, I come to Thee out
of the depths of ruin untold, into the peace of Thy sheltering
home. ? Jesus, I come to Thee ? After
scripture reading and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 258. If
you have your Bibles, turn with me to Luke chapter one. I'm going to read you verse 28
and read through verse 56. And the angel came unto her,
that is Mary, and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, thou
art graciously accepted. 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. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou
shalt call his name Jesus. And 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 for ever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall these things be, seeing I know not a man? The angel answered,
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 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 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.
And Mary rose in those days, and went into the hill country
with haste into the city of Judah, and entered into the house of
Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, and when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. She spake
out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women.
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that
the mother of my Lord should come to see me? For lo, as soon
as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe
leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed
that there shall be performance of those things which were told
to her from the Lord. And 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 unto me great things, and holy is
his name. 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 rich he has sent away empty. He hath hope
in his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And as he spake
to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever, Mary abode
with her about three months and returned to her own house. Let
us pray. Our Father in heaven, we bless
you and thank you for this glorious record of the birth and incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the testimony of his mother
concerning her estate before God. We are thankful, Father,
that we know that our Lord was born of a woman, born under the
law to redeem them that are under the law. He is that seed of woman
promised in Genesis 3 that would bruise the serpent's head. He
is that seed that upon belief in that seed, Abraham's faith
was accounted as righteousness. We are thankful, Father, that
all the blessings of God are in Jesus Christ. We are thankful
that you came down from heaven and laid aside your glory. The
ever-present praise of angels and came to this world poor. You came to this world in the
likeness of sinful flesh yet without sin. You came to this
world to die. with the intent and sole purpose
to go to the cross of Calvary and there be the perfect sin
offering for your people. We thank you, Father, that we
can even think such things when we know that in and of ourselves
there is nothing good, there is nothing that would recommend
us to you, but even as with Mary, You have graciously accepted
us in Jesus Christ. Help us to worship you this hour.
We remember those who are sick and going through trials. We
know that trials for your children are appointed. They are often
painful, but the end result is always the same. It brings your
child to the feet of Christ to plead for mercy and grace for
their hour of need. We pray for those who lost loved
ones. We ask the Lord you'd be with them, especially with our
dear sister Arlene, the loss of Fred. Pray you would help
her, strengthen her and be with her family. We all feel the pain
of this loss. We thank you, Father, that you
allowed him to be among us for the time he was. Help us now
to remember each other in prayer. call each other's names out to
heaven to love each other and love you supremely. We pray in
Christ's name, amen. Hymn number 258. A wonderful
Savior is Jesus ? A wonderful Savior to me ? He
hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock ? Where rivers of pleasure
I see ? He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock and shadows
of my thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand and covers He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as mighty. He hideth my soul in the cliff, He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers ? With numberless blessings each
homily crowns ? ? And filled with his fullness divine ? ? I sing my rapture, glory to God,
for such a redeeming grace ? He hides my life in the depths
of his love And covers me there with his hand And covers me there
with his hand When clothed in his brightness,
transformed did I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful
love, I'll shout with all millions on high. He idled my soul in
the cliff of the rock that shadows out my thirsty mind. He idled my life in the depths
of His love and covers me then with His hand. and comes back with his head. Let us pray, Father in heaven,
we come again in the name of Jesus Christ, our great and merciful
Savior, who gave himself for us, freely who died in the room
instead of his people and paid the debt that they owed that
they could never pay you've given him to your children
the unspeakable gift and with him you've freely given them
everything we thank you father for your great gift as we render
to thee that which belongs to you let us do so with joy we
pray in Christ's name me me I invite your attention back
to Luke chapter one. Mary, according to the Holy Ghost,
inspiring Elizabeth, was blessed above all women.
She was highly graced, or graciously accepted, and immediately that
tells us something about Mary. If she has received the grace
of God, it is unmerited favor. So Mary was like you and me.
Though she was a virgin, and there was a reason for that,
so that Christ would not receive the taint of Adam. Her father
was the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, was God the Holy Ghost. She was blessed but she was graced. As is every sinner. Now Mary
is a unique character in scripture, there's no doubt about that.
She's very unique. And what is said of her can be
said of no other woman who's ever lived upon the face of the
earth. She has become a goddess to many.
There's a church in Maryland that has a picture of Diana,
the goddess of Ephesus, with a bunch of stars circling her
head, and the title on the picture on the wall is Mary, Queen of
Heaven. The term Queen of Heaven is only
used twice in Scripture, both times in the prophet Jeremiah,
and both of them refer to Ashtar, where we get our word Easter,
who is the goddess of fertility which God rebuked Israel for
worshipping. Romanism has made her take an
even higher place. She has become the mediator between
men and Jesus Christ. She's called co-mediatrix. In
other words, Christ is said to be the only mediator between
men and God, according to 2 Timothy. But Romanism has made her a mediator
between men and Christ. And it's kind of a sick thing
because they say when Christ gets angry with His people, His
mother takes Him to her breast and nurses Him and calms Him
down and so He don't get mad at His people. She's said to
be a co-mediatrix. And the most recent popes have
established or asserted that she is a co-redemptrix. In other
words, she took part in the redemption of the people of God along with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Romanism also makes her to have
been immaculately conceived. Most people think when they hear
the word immaculate conception, it's talking about Jesus Christ.
That's not the Roman doctrine. The Roman doctrine is that Mary
was immaculately conceived. There is no biblical support
for that. The reason they do that is because
they don't understand sin and the imputation of sin and original
sin and what happened to the Garden of Eden. They believe
in order for her to be a proper vessel to be the mother of God
in order that Christ would be born He would have to be born
without sin and so she was sinless but sin is not transferred through
the woman. Sin is imputed through Adam just
as righteousness is imputed through the last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ, sin is imputed and charged through Adam. Now, the words
that she speaks in our text make that doctrine utterly false.
If she was born sinless, she would not say she had received
the grace of God. Another thing that they evidently
don?t It also proves that the papal dogma of original sin is
void of understanding. Sin is not transferred from mother
to child, but from father to child. Scripture nowhere says
nobody died in Eve because of what she did. Nobody
died in Eve. The fact that Christ was born
of a woman is the reason that he's not the recipient of Adam's
transgression. not because of her presumably
purity of Mary. Eve died in Adam. When Adam died, Eve died. But
she died in Adam. Her virginity is important because
it is a fulfillment of Scripture. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel,
that is, God with us. Secondly, her virginity was important
so that the issue of the Father of Christ could never be called
into question. And thirdly, the emphasis that the birth of Christ
was miraculous, and it was. Even the angel, as he spoke to
Mary, telling her what was going to happen, how she was going
to conceive, the angel called Christ that holy thing. didn't quite know what to say
about it. I imagine it was a wondrous thing when the angels watched
as God the Son left Heaven and came to Earth. I imagine it was
an amazing and wondrous thing. The angels said that holy thing
formed in you is going to be the Son of God. That holy thing.
That holy thing. She was a virgin. She was the
mother of our Lord, but she was not to be esteemed. as perfect
or deified to any degree. She's not to be prayed to. I
looked up the Mary prayer this morning just to see what it said
and there's three of them, but most prominently is one. It starts
with the actually what the Lord told the disciples how to pray. When he said, lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. That's the first part of
the prayer to Mary. That's praying to the wrong person,
don't you think? That was a prayer to God. And it says, Mary, mother of
God, not found in scripture. Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Pray for us. Mary's dead. And I believe she's in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ and she ain't praying for nobody. She ain't praying for nobody.
Scripture says simply that she was highly graced, graciously
accepted, and blessed. And we know that ALL spiritual
blessings are in Jesus Christ, according as God has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. She was blessed. She was CHOSEN of God as a vessel. by which God split the heavens
and entered into this world of sin to by Himself redeem His
people by His shed blood. She was a virgin when she was
overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and conceived the Christ of God. She did not remain a virgin because
Scripture declares that she had other children born of her union
with Joseph, her husband. The Bible speaks of our Lord's
earthly brethren, but she was a virgin when she conceived Christ. Mary was a sinner saved by grace. That is what Mary was. She was
one of us. We esteem her for the wondrous thing that God did
for her, but we do not hold her above any other sinner because
neither does God. In Christ we are all one. We
are all the same. There is neither male nor female,
bond nor syntheon, Greek or Jew. We are all one in Jesus Christ.
Mary's confession, or these words that she speaks in verses 46
through 56, is the gospel. It is the confession of a saved
sinner. The language certainly proves
that. When Mary heard the gospel, the good tidings of Christ's
Incarnation, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was
six months pregnant at the time with John the Baptist. And she
stayed with her until the delivery of Babs. She stayed with her
three months. The conversation of these two women was about
the marvelous things God had done for them. Both were joyous because they
believed God. They believed God. That's what
Elizabeth said, Thou hast believed. Thou hast believed. Mary's confession
is a declaration of one who has experienced the sovereign grace
of God. Mary was a remarkable woman. She was a believer. She believes God's Word concerning
the truly amazing, unprecedented and scientifically impossible
matter that approached her life. In verse 35, it says, The angel
answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.
The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, that
holy thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Look over at verse 45. Blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things which were told
her from the Lord." She believed it. That's quite a thing. That's kind of a miracle. You
think about it. For a human being to be told
that and to believe it. I'm going to be the mother of
the Christ. Mary was a believer. Mary had
a sound understanding and knowledge of the Word of God. And Mary
makes this confession throughout, though she's a very young woman.
She reveals the true grace of the Old Testament Scriptures.
She quotes the Psalms in her words. She refers to God's works
of old. She refers to His goodness to
Leah, and repeats many of the words of Hannah's prayer. In
her confession of faith, Mary had a firm grasp of the promises
of God in the Bible, and these undergirded her faith. Mary was
a woman of real and true humility. One writer said, she who was
chosen of God to the high honor of being the Messiah's mother,
speaks of her own low estate, and acknowledges her need of
a Savior. She does not let fall a word
to show that she regarded herself as sinless or an immaculate person. On the contrary, she uses the
language of one who has been taught by the grace of God to
feel their own sins. And so far from being able to
save others requires a savior for her own soul. Mary was a
grateful sinner. As all people who are truly saved
by the grace of God, one thing you can mark about them is gratitude.
When a person says they're a child of God shows ingratitude, I got
to wonder about them. Because the message of the child
of God is always thank God for what he's done for me. Thank
God. You look at the times, the disciples,
and the epistles, the disciples, what they said they thanked God
for. It ain't, they don't, material
blessings are nowhere in there. Nowhere, no material things are
nowhere in there. Temporal things are not involved
at all. One of the things is that I thank thee, O God, that
thou hast taken thy power to thyself and has reigned. One of the chief things every
child of God is thankful for is that God rules this world.
I was talking with Wayne yesterday at the Solid Care. We were talking
about the sovereignty of God, and he was laying there on his
bed rejoicing in the sovereignty of God, knowing that he's gonna
stay there till it's time for him to go, and when it's time
for him to go, that's when he'll be gone, not a minute sooner.
Talked about the glories of Christ, read the scriptures for him,
prayed together. He's a thankful man. Why? Because he's a man that God has
shown grace to. God has shown grace to her. Mary was poor. She was a contented
believer, but she was poor. There's no indication that her
blessed estate improved her financial status. But on the contrary,
Scripture indicated that she was always poor. When the Lord
died, He committed the care of His poor mother to John to take
care of her, He said, from the cross. Yet Mary was perfectly
content. Christ was her Savior. She wanted
no more. As her words clearly declare,
she said, My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. In verse 56 we read that Mary
returned to her house, returned to her house. Though she was
extraordinarily blessed, she did not require a castle or even
a little home in the corner of glory. She did not require an
entourage, but he had to go back to her modest home and become
the wife of a simple carpenter, as was Mary, the mother of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I saw the other day, I was looking
at some show about South America, and they had some kind of festival.
And they had thousands of people walking down the street, and
in the middle of them was, many people were carrying this statue
of Mary. And they were reaching up and
touching it and running and kissing its feet and things like that.
None of that happened in Scripture or ever by a child of God. Consider this confession of faith.
Note the words of this confession for the most part are spoken
in the past tense. What God hath done for her. That's
how she words it. My soul doth magnify the Lord,
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded
my lowest state of the handmaid. 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. Hath. That's our story. That's the
gospel, if you will. It's not a story of what things
are happening. or even what things shall happen.
The gospel is a report of something that has been done. It is news. That means it's already happened.
Now it's going to be reported. It's news. Good news. Mary's
words exemplify what it is to praise God. The sacrifice of
praise of God continues, the fruit of our lips, the thanksgiving
to His name. She has a seven-fold confession
here. First, Mary gives praise to God
because her Savior was presently abiding in her womb. Think about
that. Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. This
is a wonder. She's carrying three months now
a child in her womb, and she says, He's God my Savior. He's God, my Savior. Here is
reason to rejoice. Christ is my Savior. Note the
manner of her praise. She spoke in true reverence.
My soul, she said, my soul. Down deep where I live, my innermost
being, my soul doth magnify the Lord. She declared a personally,
deeply heartfelt interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. God, my
Savior. God, my Savior. She exalted and magnified the
Lord. She acknowledged Him as her Lord and ascribed greatness
and deity to Him. God, her Savior, was in her womb
at the moment. Her rejoicing is singular. She
rejoiced in the Lord. The word rejoiced means danced. That's what the word danced. When I was a Southern Baptist
back in the day, we didn't dance. Dancing was forbidden as much
as drinking beer. But I danced, anyhow, because
I liked to dance. She danced before the Lord. She
rejoiced in the Lord. She danced before the Lord. What a thing. She's been taught
of God, she's happy. People who are happy dance. One
thing I love about the Cherokees, I like to watch them dance. Why? Because they're joyous. It's
a joyous time. David danced before the Lord
when he returned to the ark. Michael, his wife, thought he
was a crazy man and foolish. And he said, well, God chose
me before he chose your father. When did he choose him? Before
the foundation of the world. That's a long time before he chose her father
as king. He danced before the Lord, she danced before the Lord.
Secondly, Mary's heart of praise was the result of being divinely
taught of the mystery of godliness. She was taught of God. Mary believed
the report that the angel Gabriel, and this put music in her heart.
This put music in her heart. Emmanuel has come. She's bearing
Emmanuel, which is interpreted God with us. You see, up until
this point, God hadn't been with us. God's out there. separate
and holy, way out yonder, unreachable and dwelling in a light where
unto no man can approach, far above the heavens. He's out yonder. Now he's left some stuff written
on stone and continually convicts us. But he's not here, even though
he's omnipresent and all around us. We don't know anything about
him. What Christ said in John 17,
he said, I've come to reveal the Father. That's what I've
come to do. I've come to save His people.
I've come to reveal the Father. What do you mean? He hadn't been
revealed yet. He wasn't revealed until the
Son showed up. Because if He's a Son, He's got
to have a Father. Mary believed the report that
was given to her. Thirdly, Mary's song is a song
of praise for God's distinguishing grace. In verse 48, she says,
He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. Think of Spafford who wrote,
It is well with my soul. One of the lines of the psalm
is, Christ has regarded my helpless estate. It is well, it is well
with my soul. He regarded. Well, what would
happen if he hadn't regarded? She'd perish and go to hell.
God must regard you. in His purpose, in His predestinated
purpose, or you are in trouble. He hath regarded my low estate. God chose her to be the mother
of our Lord. She was blessed of God in Christ.
She was blessed because Christ was in her by a supernatural
work of grace and power. She is called blessed because
of God's goodness to her as the object of His grace. When was
she chosen? Before the foundation of the
world. So is every believer, and thus we have the true reason
for praise. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to that cross I cling. Fortunately, Mary praises the
Lord because He's holy. He's holy. What she says in verse
49, for He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and
holy, holy is His name. This knowledge caused Moses and
Isaiah and Daniel to tremble and to quake because they feared
God. Because God was still out there
then. He wasn't manifesting Himself. And they didn't know a whole
lot about Him except what He had told them. And they feared
and quaked and Mary didn't. She didn't fear and quake. She
danced and sang for joy, and called Mary to rejoice because
she saw clearly that God in His holiness had entered this world,
had entered this world to be the substitute for sinners. Holiness
viewed through the blessed crimson tide of Calvary is the singular
source of pure comfort and delight in this old dark world. To know
this, and Jesus Christ Very God of very God has entered into
this world on behalf of wretched sinners to save them. You look
around you. News ain't good, is it? What's
going on don't look good for nobody, for nothing. But it's
good. You know why? Because God's coming
to save. God has entered this story. God
has entered the story. He didn't write the story. He
put himself as a character in the story. Think about that. Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays,
but Shakespeare was never in any of his plays. He wrote about
characters. But if he was going to be in
one of those plays, he would have to put himself in the play
as a character. In the great scheme of salvation,
God wrote beforehand what was going to happen. He declared
in purpose of all the characters that would be involved in the
future of this thing called the earth and the world and the universe
in time. All of that was written from
Genesis to Malachi, hence here and hence there. But when did
it all happen? When did it all come to fruition? when God entered the world. Put himself in the mix. Come
in the likeness of sinful flesh and died for sin. Mary was rejoicing
in God her Savior. The Holy One had entered this
world. Fifthly, Mary's praise was about
the great things that God has done. Verse 49 through 53 says,
For He is mighty which hath done to me great things. Holy is the
name, and his mercy, another thing that sinners talk about,
his mercy upon them that fear him from generation to generation.
He has showed strength in his arm. As often said in Isaiah
and Jeremiah speaking of the salvation of the elect, he has
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. The gospel not
only is a saver of life, it's also a saver of death. He hath
put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree. To the mighty he says, I came
not to call the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he
sent away empty. Those who depend upon himself
and trust in anything other than Jesus Christ are empty, but those
who have nothing are filled. Those words are almost the same
words as Hannah's prayer. He is hoping his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy. He did it because he remembered
his covenant of mercy. That's why he helps us. That's
why he helps us. He's helped us. He's helped us. This word hoping is an interesting
word. Not just, doesn't just mean giving
aid and helping. Remember an old song, he reached
way down for me. I was lost and undone, without
God and his son and he reached way down. That's what that word
means, hoping. It means to reach down to the
fallen, the prostrate one. Put your hand under his back
and lift him to his feet. God has done this for his people.
That's what it says in Psalm 40. He lifted me out of the miry
clay and has set my feet upon the rock. He never forgets for
mercy for his elect. He said, you might fail. You
might disobey me. I might have to bring the rod
out on your transgressions, but I'll tell you this about me.
I'll never allow my faithfulness to fail. God is in the heavens. He has
done whatsoever He has pleased. Our God is a consuming fire,
but God does not change. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed, even when we don't believe, which is much more often
than we care to talk about. He about us is faithful. He cannot
deny Himself. Finally, Verse 55, Mary's words
of praise for the Lord's covenant promises and his faithfulness
to them. She says, He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to
his seed forever. His seed. What seed is that? It's the seed of the woman. The
seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3.15 that would bruise
the serpent head. He's the Lamb provided. God will
provide Himself a Lamb, He said to Abraham in Genesis 22. It's the blessings of grace,
for it's not unto seeds, but seed, it says in Galatians 3,
even in Jesus Christ. God is to be praised for His
faithfulness. If we are faithful, it is derived
faithfulness because God has gifted us with faith. His faithfulness
is intrinsic to His being. He cannot change. If he has set
his hand to a thing, he's never going to let it go. Never going
to let it go. This is a safe sinner's confession. And the stanzas praise him for
who he is. For all that he has done. For
his distinguishing grace. And for his great faithfulness.
Listen to it. My soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Savior, for he hath regarded my lowest state of the 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. And his mercy is upon them that
fear him from generation to generation. He has showed strength with his
arms, He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them
of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with
good things. The rich he hath sent away empty. He hath opened
his serpent Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our
father's Abraham and to his seed forever. You are a child of God. sinner saved by grace. This is
your testimony. This is your confession. Father,
bless us to our understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
All right. Let's do it.