SPEAKER_00: If you remain standing, please, as the children remain dismissed for kingdom kids, turning your Bibles to Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 1, we're going to be continuing and reading through the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be reading, I'll be reading as you're listening to Luke chapter 1, verse 67.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 1, verse 67.
SPEAKER_00: And the scripture says that his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me, please?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for the way you move.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the way you put the pieces together and the way that we get to glorify you and praise you and see your mercy and your grace.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for the next few moments as we dig a little bit into this specific passage that you would be our master, our teacher, our counselor, and we would be your servant.
SPEAKER_00: We would be your student.
SPEAKER_00: We would be your disciple.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we have started the Gospel of Luke, and I thought when we started the first of the year, I had grand aspirations.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get, maybe we can get to the crucifixion by the time we get to Easter.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, I'm going to be happy if we get to crucifixion by Easter of 2027, the way that we are going through this, but I'm thrilled that we get to kind of slow down a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So what often happens is when we study the incarnation and we study Jesus coming in the flesh and the prophecies, Luke chapter 1, the beginning of the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about uh during the time of Christmas and we try to cram everything in just a few weeks and all of the holiday hustle and bustle.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a bad idea to look at this maybe with a little more breathing room, with a little less pressure, to be able to take our time and to kind of walk through it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about the praise that came from the lips of Mary last week, and today we're going to be looking at the praise that comes from Zacharias, the father of John, who we call John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you his last name was not the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: He was a baptizer, so we call him John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: But as we're looking in this, I want to remind you, because it's been a month and a half since we started, I want to go back to the very few verses of Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to remind you of what Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Luke was doing as he was writing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a copy of the scripture in front of you, I encourage you to get a Bible and a pew back in front of you, or just be really nice to the person next sitting next to you, just lean over.
SPEAKER_00: And if they read too fast or turn the page, tell them turn that back.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't done.
SPEAKER_00: But right here, Luke chapter 1, verse 1, he says, Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses, excuse me, and servants of the word.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent theophilists.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you understand, this is not just a hodgepodge of man-made ideas and myths and theories.
SPEAKER_00: This is inspired.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from God, it is it is breathed out by him.
SPEAKER_00: We have this as inspiration without error, without fault, because of what we have from him.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Luke, the author of Luke Acts, he is writing with a purpose as a scientist, as a as a man of medicine, of saying, I took all of the information and I'm giving it to you point blank.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you what the truth is.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to you want to talk about truth, this is truth, not man's opinion, not ideas or opinion or philosophies or worldviews that go against the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is truth.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says in verse 4, so that you may know the exact truth about the things that you have been taught.
SPEAKER_00: So we aren't talking about some sort of fantasy or mythology or imagination.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the exact truth that builds upon the foundation of faith.
SPEAKER_00: So he's writing to Christians, he's writing to Gentiles, he's writing to those who have heard this story and have been transformed by the power of God, saving them.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's saying, I'm going to put all this together and I want this to build up your faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want it to strengthen you as followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So now we get to Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We talked last week about Mary and her response to the grace of God, the mercy of God in her life, and how she said in verse 50, and in the Magnificat, in verse 50 of chapter 1, and his mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see in the in the scripture we just read in chapter 1, verse 72, and then later we're reading a moment, verse 78.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 72, to show mercy toward our fathers.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 78, he says, Because of the tender mercy of our God, we're going to keep the same theme we had from last week.
SPEAKER_00: We want to magnify the awesome mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: God has showed up.
SPEAKER_00: He has showed out.
SPEAKER_00: He has shown himself for who he is and what he is doing.
SPEAKER_00: After 400 years of silence, the Spirit of God is speaking and moving.
SPEAKER_00: The forerunner, John, is coming.
SPEAKER_00: He's been the angel Gabriel has told Zacharias, he has moved in the body of Elizabeth, and now we're about to have a birth, and God is moving in ways that they they were dreaming about and hoping for generation after generation after generation.
SPEAKER_00: The mercy of God showing up so that they needed this more than anything or anyone else, something they've been anticipating, looking forward to, and they're eager for, and now it is here.
SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you of the story of what happened just a few months earlier in Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read through this rather quickly, but we we talked about it over a month ago, so we wanted to look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 1, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Zacharias is serving at the altar.
SPEAKER_00: He is he's he's about to offer the prayers.
SPEAKER_00: He's inside privately.
SPEAKER_00: It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he is as he is in there.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's some 18,000 priests, and you get to do it one time.
SPEAKER_00: It was rare to do it once, much less more than once, and here he is in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: An angel of the Lord appeared to him.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't expecting it.
SPEAKER_00: God showed up, standing to the right of the altar of the incense.
SPEAKER_00: Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.
SPEAKER_00: But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias.
SPEAKER_00: For your petition has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.
SPEAKER_00: We know that he'd been praying for his son, but we also know he'd been praying for the nation of Israel, and both petitions were being heard there.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
SPEAKER_00: 14, then verse 15, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.
SPEAKER_00: It is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is coming to fruition, has been prophesied about.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are, we're ready.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it usually works out well until we say something.
SPEAKER_00: We look so smart and we act so intelligent and with it until we actually open our mouth.
SPEAKER_00: But here it is, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Zacharias said to the angel, How will I know this for certain?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: He's doubting the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: How will I know this for certain?
SPEAKER_00: For I am an old man and my wife has advanced in years.
SPEAKER_00: The angel answered and said to him, I am okay, this is this is putting you in your place.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.
SPEAKER_00: Now, nine months later, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: Zacharias has gone home, he hasn't uttered a word.
SPEAKER_00: Things have been quiet on his front, but things are happening with Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_00: The baby is about to be born.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about Mary coming to visit Elizabeth last week, and now pick it up in chapter chapter one, verse 57.
SPEAKER_00: Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son.
SPEAKER_00: Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed his great mercy toward her, and they were rejoicing with her.
SPEAKER_00: And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father.
SPEAKER_00: But his mother answered and said, No, indeed, but he shall be called John.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.
SPEAKER_00: And they made signs to his father as to what he wanted him called, and he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, His name is John.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all astonished.
SPEAKER_00: And at once his mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: Fear came on all those living around them, and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea.
SPEAKER_00: All who heard them kept him kept them in mind, saying, What then will this child turn out to be?
SPEAKER_00: For the hand of the Lord has certainly was certainly with him.
SPEAKER_00: So Zacharias, sitting there quietly, a part of it, but not a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't think he could speak as well as here because they made signs to him.
SPEAKER_00: And now as all of this comes to fruition, I I wonder about this, and I'm I won't belabor this, but I really am curious.
SPEAKER_00: What business is it of the community what they named the boy?
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was kind of their business, but that that that okay, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying he's gonna name him Zacharias, which is really kind of strange because if he was Zacharias in the Hebrew, uh Aramaic Hebrew, it would be Zacharias Ben or Zacharias Bar or Zacharias.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, they they don't have any other ideas, so they take it upon themselves to name the boy.
SPEAKER_00: The mother has the has the courage and the tenacity and the boldness to say no, his name is going to be John, but they want to make sure they get it from Zacharias.
SPEAKER_00: So Zacharias comes, they go to him, they make the signs, they try to understand.
SPEAKER_00: He gets this little piece of wood, it's not a tablet.
SPEAKER_00: Please, all ears, it's not a tablet like today.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have that kind of tablet, but it was a it was a piece of wood with a piece of wax over it, and he would he wrote the name.
SPEAKER_00: His name is John.
SPEAKER_00: As he writes that, God answers what he said was going to happen nine months before, Gabriel in his presence, saying, You're not going to utter a word.
SPEAKER_00: And the first words that come out of Zacharias's mouth, as soon as the prophecy is fulfilled, as soon as all of this comes to fruition and things are the way that they're supposed to be, the first thing he does, according to verse 64, is he began to speak in praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: He got it.
SPEAKER_00: He understood.
SPEAKER_00: By the grace and the mercy of God, he realized what was happening and what he was a part of and who his son is going to be in the whole mystery and the economy of the gospel and all the things that God was going to do.
SPEAKER_00: He saw all that.
SPEAKER_00: So what I want to do just for a few moments is I want to talk about what he praised God with, the song that he sang, what he said.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to break this down just for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: So go go with me now to the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've read this earlier, but we're going to go through it really quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is, verse 67.
SPEAKER_00: And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's huge.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I say, 400 years, but now God is speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's here, he's telling us what we want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is, prophesying in verse 67.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: For he has visit visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, blessed be.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to verse 68.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hadn't been born yet.
SPEAKER_00: John was just freshly born, eight days.
SPEAKER_00: This is all new, this is all raw, this is all real.
SPEAKER_00: The things hadn't totally come about, but there's this element of both seeing it with your eyes, but also knowing by faith that something is about to happen, that we're in the middle of something huge.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's praising God for here in verse 68, he's saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.
SPEAKER_00: But he hasn't totally done that, but he is.
SPEAKER_00: He's not done, but he's working.
SPEAKER_00: He's moving.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is the redemption for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding what he is going to be doing, what he is going to be about.
SPEAKER_00: Zacharias is praising the Lord, saying this because of who you are and what you're doing, the promises that you are about.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's easy, especially when we're reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to go through verses and passages and scripture and just read the same words over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to just for a moment put yourself in the position of this elderly father with an elderly mother with a brand new baby.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, by God bless you, you're raising your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are helping raise your great-grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: But that's about the same age equivalent.
SPEAKER_00: Brand new little baby.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't even get up or down without groaning, and you've got this little baby, and you've got to do all that you've got to do for a baby.
SPEAKER_00: But you're holding this baby, and it occurs to you that all that God has promised from the very beginning of creation, especially through the prophecies through the Old Testament, it's now.
SPEAKER_00: It's come, it's time.
SPEAKER_00: All you've been praying for, all you've been anticipating, all you've been hoping for, and for the last nine months, you've had to stay quiet because your faith was weak, because you wanted to question God instead of trust him, because you're being disciplined, because you haven't been about his business, you've been about your business.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of seeing who God is, you've spent more time looking at who you are.
SPEAKER_00: But now Zacharias has the baby, has the proof of the prophecy, and he's holding the baby, and he's saying, What I see here is so much more than just a tiny little human being that I'm way too old to figure out how to take care of.
SPEAKER_00: But here I am with a tiny little human being, and what I'm seeing is more than just a baby.
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing a God who is so good and so gracious and so merciful that he is helping me even when I'm too blind or too selfish or too self-centered to know what's going on around me.
SPEAKER_00: He is still God, and he is going to do what he's promised he will do: redeem.
SPEAKER_00: The word redemption, when it says redemption for his people, it's the it's the idea of buying, of purchasing, of getting back.
SPEAKER_00: You were lost, but now you're found.
SPEAKER_00: You you were abandoned, but now you're owned.
SPEAKER_00: You were an orphan, but now you're adopted.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I knew what you were before, I knew what where your condition was, but because of who I am, God speaking, and my faithfulness, I am going to visit you and let you be mine the way I created you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters in Christ, that's enough to praise God.
SPEAKER_00: To realize that he has given us more than we could ever ask for or imagine, that he has provided us an entrance into his presence, a communion with him and his love and his grace and his provision.
SPEAKER_00: He has visited us, he has accomplished for us what only he can do.
SPEAKER_00: So he's going to keep going, he's going to keep praising God.
SPEAKER_00: He's still holding on to that little baby, but he's looking back.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, all of the prophecies, all of the all of the prophets and all of the scriptures and all of the psalms and all of the Torah, all of that pointing to this day as this begins, and he looks here, he continues in verse 69.
SPEAKER_00: Because of this, he's raised us, raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant.
SPEAKER_00: Not talking about John, he's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us that we, being rescued, there it is, the redeemed, rescued, brought back, rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.
SPEAKER_00: See, he had a lot of fear nine months before.
SPEAKER_00: He had a lot of hesitations, he had a lot of concerns, a lot of questions.
SPEAKER_00: But he said he didn't save me to sit soaking sour.
SPEAKER_00: He saved me so I could serve him.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 75, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
SPEAKER_00: He redeemed by back so that we can know him.
SPEAKER_00: So the period of prophecy, the period of promises is now a period, is an epic, is an era, is a time of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's saying, It's come.
SPEAKER_00: We're here.
SPEAKER_00: We're here now.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's looking back in the praise, but as you continue in what he's he's prophesying, what he's praising, he's gonna start looking forward.
SPEAKER_00: So you pick it up in verse 76.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just so you know, and this might be TMI, but if you're taking notes, this is something to look at later.
SPEAKER_00: This whole passage, verse 67 to 75, is one verse in the original language.
SPEAKER_00: And so you've you've got he's got this one thought.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's gonna give the second thought beginning in verse 76.
SPEAKER_00: He says, And you, child, holding that baby, looking down at little John, you, child, will be called the prophet of the most high.
SPEAKER_00: For you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's John's agenda, what John's mission, what John's purpose is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at the baby, saying, This is what God is telling us.
SPEAKER_00: All those prophecies, all the scripture just flooding in their minds and their background and their education.
SPEAKER_00: This is the baby that we've been waiting for, the forerunner, the prophet, the final prophet, transitioning, bridging the old to the new.
SPEAKER_00: As he's saying, as he's looking at this baby, this is the this is the revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God's going to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to redeem his people, praising God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But he's also going to give revelation for his people.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to let John be the first one to come in and say, This is how it's going to be.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to do it in the spirit of the prophet Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: So if you you hold your place in Luke, you don't have to go forward, but just go to the last chap last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and I'll just show you a few of the verses, because this is what Zacharias is referring to.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi is the last prophet in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who has spoken to this.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 3, he says, Behold, I'm going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
SPEAKER_00: All of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many times Zacharias read that, Malachi chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: But he's holding the baby that's going to be the forerunner, the messenger to tell the truth of Jesus coming.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go over to chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff, and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
SPEAKER_00: But for you who fear my name, for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that John jumped in the moon.
SPEAKER_00: This this is this is all coming together.
SPEAKER_00: Skip about like calves from the stall.
SPEAKER_00: You will tread down the wicked, for they will for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
SPEAKER_00: What John is Zechariah holding this little baby and saying, Malachi said he was coming, and here he He is.
SPEAKER_00: Proclaiming the truth of the great day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Repent for the kingdom of God is there.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding what he's going to say and why he's going to say it.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to show you something in Malachi chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: This won't take but a moment, but it's worth the time to kind of make sure we got this on the same page.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me back in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I am going to send you the Elijah of the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the forerunner, this is the prophecy, this is what he's going to do and who he's going to be.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, part of the preparation, part of what John is going to do, Malachi chapter 4, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_00: The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_00: Because the sun will start to shine, the darkness will dissipate.
SPEAKER_00: And because the sun will start to shine, they will start to see by his revelation the truth of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_00: And when this starts to happen, as the way is starting to be prepared, the conviction of the Holy Spirit will come, repentance will come, faith will come, obedience will come.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is happening because Malachi prophesied it, and now the truth is showing, but all of this is happening because God has foreordained it, and now all of these pieces are coming together, and Zachariah realizes that he gets to be a part of this, that he gets to be a part of this ongoing story, of the his story, the history that God has done through his creation.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're in the praise.
SPEAKER_00: And as he continues in verse 77, he says, to give his people the knowledge of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: See, it wasn't enough just to talk about a savior, it wasn't enough to talk about Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't enough to just say that there'll be a day where he'll come and save the people.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna give you the revelation, a knowledge of his salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
SPEAKER_00: When the light of God, and there's so many imageries through Scripture, but especially in the Gospel of John, when the light of God starts to shine, you start to see it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't do it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You can't see it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You're blind without Him, His light, without His illumination.
SPEAKER_00: But when His light starts to shine, verse 79, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, the healing, uh the sun begins to rise with healing and swings.
SPEAKER_00: The shadow of death starts to dissipate, and he starts to guide our feet into the way of peace.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, no offense, uh usually when somebody starts with that, then it means it's gonna be offensive.
SPEAKER_00: I really don't mean this offensively, but we're not good enough or smart enough or quick enough to get all that he's giving us.
SPEAKER_00: And what he is showing us here is that in the midst of your darkness, in the midst of your confusion, in the midst of your depravity and deprived, all the things that you are, he's going to come and he's gonna turn the light on.
SPEAKER_00: And when his light flips on, in the beginning was the word, and the word is with God, and the word became all of that became flesh, dwelt among us, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: When the light comes on, it's going to dissipate the darkness so that we can see him for who he truly is.
SPEAKER_00: The sun is going to start to shine, and we're going to understand, we're going to understand who our Savior is.
SPEAKER_00: He finishes in verse verse 79.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The shine upon us then in verse 80, and the child continued to grow and become strong in spirit, and he lived in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So all of this is happening, the praise of God, Zacharias holding this baby.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought about it, I heard a commentator or a pastor talk about this recently.
SPEAKER_00: At their age, John probably didn't have his parents very long, relatively speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, I wonder what it was like having this calling and having the faith of your family in the rear view mirror and not there with you as he's starting.
SPEAKER_00: But the assurance in verse 80, the child continued to grow and become strong in spirit, and he he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance.
SPEAKER_00: That's the precursor.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting ready for when we're going to hear about him, how he dresses and what he says, and all the things that are coming in the chapters to come.
SPEAKER_00: But now we're getting ready for it.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: What what does it matter what some elderly man with a baby said 2,000 years ago?
SPEAKER_00: Because when the mercy of God overwhelmed this man, he understood who he was because he first understood who God is.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about the mercy and the grace of God, sometimes we use those words so commonly, so flippantly, we fail to realize the width and the breadth of what they are, how how they impact us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when we talk about the grace of God, that's a that's an unmerited gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that we didn't deserve, that we didn't earn, that we could never get on our own.
SPEAKER_00: It's God saying that I am going to provide for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I've heard the acronym about God's riches at Christ's expense, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But it's talking about what we get because not we didn't earn it, but because in his grace, his love for us, he gives it to us.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we meld the word grace with mercy and we fail to realize that just like God gives us something we don't deserve, the mercy of God comes along in our misery and in our shame and in our sin, and he does not give us what we do deserve.
SPEAKER_00: So the grace of God is the gift of him coming and providing for us.
SPEAKER_00: The mercy of God is him withholding his hand and replacing what we deserve with imputed righteousness so that by his grace we receive not the punishment we deserve, but he gets the punishment we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get what we do deserve, and we do get what we can't ever earn and would never deserve on our own.
SPEAKER_00: The grace and the mercy of God walking into this scenario, into this scene, is how you and I can see the praise of God, praising God for who he is and what he is doing.
SPEAKER_00: But I gotta tell you, if you and I don't see the need, we're not gonna appreciate the remedy.
SPEAKER_00: If you and I are not convicted by the sin, then we're just gonna nod and grunt, and okay, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00: Good on you, good, good.
SPEAKER_00: It's not until we see the need for the grace and the need for the mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not until we understand that we are condemned, shamed, guilty before a holy God that we could never get there on our own.
SPEAKER_00: So in his mercy, he says, I'm not going to give you what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He's still just, he's still holy, he's gonna provide the forerunner, he's gonna provide the messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to be, Jesus is going to be the answer.
SPEAKER_00: He is the answer.
SPEAKER_00: And in his grace, he's going to say, I'm going to let you take this, not because you've earned it or deserve it, but because I'm going to provide it for you.
SPEAKER_00: What the Bible, when it talks about this, it's talking about this obedience of faith, of walking with him and trusting him and letting him be our Lord and our Savior, our master, our guide, our provider, all because of his grace and his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And I got to thinking, how can I tie this all up?
SPEAKER_00: And I can't, but I'm going to give you just a piece of it.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn with me.
SPEAKER_00: The last passage we're going to look at, we'll be finished this morning, is Titus chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not familiar with the scripture, Titus is at the tail end of what I call the T section of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: If you find a Thessalonians or a Timothy, you're real close to Titus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not around to T, then keep looking, but it's right there kind of in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: And I love, I so appreciate the length.
SPEAKER_00: The longer ones are the Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_00: It gets shorter for Timothy's, and then you got the it'sy bitsy one, Titus.
SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
SPEAKER_00: Um that was free.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Titus chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 2, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: For the grace of God, right what I just said about what the grace of God is.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the presentation.
SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta pause there.
SPEAKER_00: I thought just getting a gift was getting a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I thought unmerited favor was unmerited favor.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what kind of love would God give us if he gave us such a precious jewel, such a treasure, such an overwhelming gospel, good news, and then say, well, don't worry about living however you need to live.
SPEAKER_00: Just do your own thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'll catch you on the tail end.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be fine.
SPEAKER_00: His grace is so strong and so loving and so providing that when he sees us going outside of his holiness and his goodness and his mercy and his grace, he's not okay with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a parent who would stop your child from drinking poison, and you think, what a terrible parent for keeping their children from doing what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good parent who keeps a child from destroying themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And God, who is a good, good father, in his grace, he looks down and he says, okay, those things that are going against me, verse 12, those desires that are killing you, enslaving you, hurting you, those are the things that I'm coming here to help you with, to guide you through, to help you to grow out of, to be sanctified, to become more like me.
SPEAKER_00: So he says in verse 12, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.
SPEAKER_00: If you get the idea reading verses like this that God is some sort of cosmic killjoy, then you're missing the point entirely.
SPEAKER_00: He wants what is best for you.
SPEAKER_00: The problem isn't in how we how God loves us, but in how we interpret his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to think, well, if he really loved me, he'd let me do what I want.
SPEAKER_00: That's not love, folks, that's entitlement.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's spoiling.
SPEAKER_00: To love us is to see us where we are and want what's best for us to be, for us to be whole, for us to be at peace, for us to be complete.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's telling us in Titus is he's gonna see us, he's gonna see where we are and what we need, and he's gonna provide for us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: To live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.
SPEAKER_00: Looking for the verse 13, looking for the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: His mercy and his grace is not for naught.
SPEAKER_00: He gives to us because we have something both we're enjoying now, now, and the not yet, what we are anticipating, this blessed hope that Jesus Christ is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes, this appearing, the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then he's going to testify.
SPEAKER_00: Titus is gonna uh Paul is gonna write to Titus about how God has done this.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 14, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself, to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens, I don't know, I don't know why we do this, but it is so it's it's pretty normal to make it right, but it's pretty average.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to think, let me just get heaven insurance or hell insurance so I can go to heaven when I die.
SPEAKER_00: When he buys you, when he redeems you, when he saves you, you belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's doing with us as the body, as his children, is he's he's didn't just redeem us more for first first verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: He says, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed.
SPEAKER_00: He bought us back for a reason to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.
SPEAKER_00: And then scoot down to chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 3, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, we we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
SPEAKER_00: But when the kindness, when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind mankind appeared, he saved us.
SPEAKER_00: Not on the not on the basis of the deeds which we have done in righteousness, those are filthy rags, but according to his mercy, you have grace and mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's very possible, probable, I think it's it's pretty likely that you came into the sanctuary, some of you, here this morning, and you have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and you have known the joy of forgiveness, repentance, forgiveness, new life.
SPEAKER_00: You've known what it is to trust him and to obey him and to walk with him, but something has started to cloud your brain lately, your heart has become hard.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you've got a pet sin, maybe you've got an attitude issue.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, you know, God knows.
SPEAKER_00: But something's going on inside of you, and somewhere along the way, instead of continually abiding and trusting in his mercy and in his grace, praising him for who he is and what he is doing and depending upon him, somewhere along the way you started to kind of do your own thing thing.
SPEAKER_00: And as you start to do your own thing thing, you realize you're feeling pretty dry.
SPEAKER_00: Almost like you're not abiding, and you're losing the spiritual joy and the energy and the lifeblood that you need to walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you lost your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I think the Bible's clear on that.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm suggesting is that there may be some of you here this morning who need to have a refresher course, myself included, in the mercy and the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we try so hard to do our own thing that we fail to realize how precious he is.
SPEAKER_00: And he is teaching us and training us right here and right now.
SPEAKER_00: And what you may be interpreting and understanding as an end-of-the-world crisis, he may be in his sovereignty and his love and his wisdom and in his power, he may be using to remind you that his mercy and his grace are more than enough.
SPEAKER_00: That his mercy is new every morning, that great is his faithfulness, that he takes care of us day in and day out, and not for our glory but for his, not by our strength, but by his, not for our praise, but for his.
SPEAKER_00: That could be you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that you came this morning and all these words and the singing and the drama and the hymns and all the offering, all these pieces and parts, you're not really sure how it fits together.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not really sure what to do from here.
SPEAKER_00: And if if you haven't zoned out yet, it it I realize some of you may already be gone.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're physically here, but you're you're gone.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but if you haven't zombed out yet, you might be wondering, well, well, Pastor, what do I do?
SPEAKER_00: What do we how do I deal with this?
SPEAKER_00: How do I let God do all these powerful things he's talking about in Titus 2 and 3?
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the beauty of being a part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a bunch of Lone Rangers who are just doing your own thing and trying to do the best you can with what you got.
SPEAKER_00: We have men and women sitting around you right now who have walked the same path you're walking, who've experienced similar, if not identical, life situations.
SPEAKER_00: And they have a savior who has provided for them his grace, his mercy, and they would love, love to walk alongside you in what you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: We have deacons and pastors who would be honored, and I'm not saying that tritely or flippantly, they would be honored to share with you the riches of their Savior, to brag on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they could help you connect the dots.
SPEAKER_00: We have a ministry called biblical counseling where it's more in-depth, it's more formal, but it's more intensive, but it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: It's a discipleship where we're able to come along someone on a regular basis for however long it takes, usually just a number of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And we we open the scripture and let the Spirit of God work through the Word of God for the children of God, and we let God move by His Word.
SPEAKER_00: It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: We're just starting, it's it's it's it's getting in the training phase right now.
SPEAKER_00: Lord willing, after Easter, we're gonna have a program called Freedom That Last, which will be for any addiction, whether it be pornography or or um drugs, any kind of things that enslaves you.
SPEAKER_00: And what we tend to think is it's just for the big ones, but you could be enslaved by that little device you carry around in your pocket and you need freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You could be enslaved by a credit card, you need freedom.
SPEAKER_00: The freedom isn't something that we just hand to you like a three-step plan, all you gotta do is step one, two, three, and everything's gonna be grand.
SPEAKER_00: The freedom is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of all that we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: His grace, his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So Zacharias is standing there with this brand little, brand new little baby.
SPEAKER_00: And he, his father, as a as as a as a proud daddy, didn't think it would ever happen.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's happened.
SPEAKER_00: Proud daddy didn't think that the time would ever come, but here he is holding this little baby, and the tradition and the and the system of naming the child on the eighth day of the circumcision, all of that's taking place right here, and he's got this little baby, and he looks in the eyeballs of this baby, and he and that baby share something that you and I can only only begin to understand.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's not how great this little boy is, it's how great this God is who made me and this little boy and allowed us to know his mercy and his grace.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have that same privilege.
SPEAKER_00: We get to worship the same God who takes care of us day after day after day, who provides for us.
SPEAKER_00: In just a few moments, I'm gonna have you stand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask that that as you stand, we're gonna have a word of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do it yet because you'll be standing by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't asked you to stand yet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to stand.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna have a word of prayer that's gonna close the service, but it's not gonna close the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is that you might be at a point, and uh it it's okay wherever you are in this.
SPEAKER_00: You might be at a point in this conversation, in this progress of sanctification, that you might be thinking, okay, this is good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take these tools and I'm gonna work on this, I'm gonna take it to my life group, I'm gonna take it to my home, we're gonna study this, I'm gonna let God work in it, my prayer closet, amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: But you might be in a position where you need to come alongside someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we do is we have deacons and pastors who come to the front, and after after the prayer, they're gonna be down here.
SPEAKER_00: They'll pray with you, they'll counsel you, they'll talk to you, they'll love on you, they'll help you, whatever it is you need, because we don't want you to leave without the next steps that you need in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You see, I I love the way we get spiritually arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: We think we I it's almost like we wear our hand out, patting ourselves on the spiritual back.
SPEAKER_00: We think that we are so special because we got up on a Sunday morning, got dressed up, and came to church.
SPEAKER_00: God is special because he deserves this and so much more.
SPEAKER_00: We think we're so smart because we figured out to read the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Whose grace and mercy opened your eyes to the need for that?
SPEAKER_00: We we think that we've got it figured out when he provides for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not us giving God a favor or doing something for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's always about what he does for us.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me, please, as we close in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for the next few moments.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for the individuals who don't need to leave quite yet, that need to come forward and have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for the conversations that are going to happen in the moments after the amen.
SPEAKER_00: That they honor you.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for the next few hours and the next few days that we learn to worship you in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: To give us what we need by your grace and your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And you allow us to take these jewels, these crowns, these praises, and we just put them right back at your feet.
SPEAKER_00: And we say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You are so good, and we are so grateful.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.