Luke is coming to his account number two, and we're so glad to have visitors today. We have been going through the gospel of Luke. The Lord is helping us as we traverse at a quite steady pace, taking large sections. I'm much more comfortable with a verse or half a verse, but I pray that this has been beneficial to us all. Both of these accounts have involved a majestic angel. an angel by the name of Gabriel. Both seem to be parallel accounts as they relate to us and are organized such as Luke has brought these together.
Let's pray before we begin. Father, as we Read your word as we sit under the preaching of it. I pray that you would cause our ears to be open, our minds to be clear, and our hearts to be receptive to your wondrous truth. Lord, may you cause each one of us to realize the magnitude of the word before us today. May we each behold the Savior, and may we praise to our God in Jesus' name. Amen.
As we read in the response of reading our text, I considered not reading it, but as is the habit of ours, I want to read the scripture and then preach, if nothing else, for my own benefit and for my own soul, but I know it would be for your benefit as well. And so let's read our text once again this morning from Luke.
Now in the sixth month, that is the sixth month of Elizabeth, remember the news had come to Elizabeth, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great. and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.
Mary said to the angel, how can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. May God write his eternal truth upon our hearts this morning. May the Holy Spirit do a work in each and all of us.
The God of impossibilities is who we are looking at this morning and every Lord's day. Without a doubt, the greatest announcement ever made, ever delivered. We come across this many times at the time of Christmas, which is nearing upon us. But as we go through the Gospels, and we look in Matthew, and we look in Luke, and we see the importance of what's occurring here in the whole scope of the Gospel. But this greatest news is the greatest news that the world has ever heard or ever will hear. This news that Luke is narrating of this second event, if you will, in redemptive history.
Remember, Luke, the doctor Luke, the historian Luke, says, I want to give you this account from the very beginning. And he started with the announcement to Zechariah. that she would bear a son in her old age and him in his old age. Bear a son through natural conception, natural childbirth. And then six months later, the same angel comes here to this humble, very young virgin. This one who, no doubt, was somewhere 12, 13, 14 years old. We're going to look more at this, but the context is in the sixth month. Remember, Elizabeth is pregnant, and so I want us to look at this portion of Scripture with three headings. First, we want to see an angel, secondly, a virgin, and third, a God of impossibilities.
We look at the angel, here's this angelic visitation. These are not angels like you might see in some cartoon sketch of a little fat baby. No, these are fearful, angelic beings who have come delivered from God, who leave the presence of God and come down to man, and there is always fear. associated with this. And so the angel is going to say in very similar language to Mary as he did to Zacharias, as he did to Daniel, as he did to the shepherds, and on and on, do not fear. But notice here who this angel is, Gabriel. This is the same angel that came to Zacharias. If you wonder when have we heard of Gabriel, we heard of him in Daniel. And there was a time when Daniel was praying for the salvation of his people and the deliverance of his people, and he prayed and he fasted, and not only did he pray and fast, he confessed the sins of the people, much like we ought to do, is confess our own sins as we do corporately many times, as we ought to privately often. Why often? Because we sin often. You can't confess our sins often enough, I think.
But Daniel was answered the prayer through this same angel who talked about, and you remember it was talked about the weeks of coming, really the prophecy of the Messiah to come. This is the angel who delivered to Daniel.
Remember there was 400 years of silence too, but between this time of these visitations and any word from God to the nation of Israel. The last one was Malachi, who was prophesying the forerunner to come, who Zechariah would be the father of.
Well, here, the angel of the Lord, it says he was sent from God. He's not there just on a random mission. He's not there of a, well, I wonder if this is true or not. No, he has left the very presence of God and says, listen, Mary, I have come from the presence of God and I have been sent with a great announcement from God himself. And so you do well to listen. We do well to listen.
He sent to a city in Galilee. Now, we might think, well, Galilee, sure, it's in the Bible, we know, but to the time of this, Galilee would be just the backwoods, nothing, you know, remember, was it Nathaniel? What good could ever come out of Galilee or Nazareth? Nazareth was a little nothing town. It'd be like, I'm probably gonna insult somebody if I even say this, but it'd be like the, The area of Ohio and the town of Lima or somewhere. Who's ever heard of that? So that's what this is, Nazareth. It's like, who's ever heard of it? What has ever come out of Nazareth? The Messiah was to be from Jerusalem. What is this, Nazareth? Well, this is where Mary lived.
Now, we're going to explain who this Mary is. even before I do, Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9 prophesy, Isaiah 7 specifically, I shall go there, because we need to hear this before we proceed. It'll be a reminder, but if you want to look there, look at Isaiah 7. So first, Isaiah 7, if you look at verse 10, the Lord was speaking to Ahaz, and the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God. And then he goes on, verse 14, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. El, God, God with us. So this is a prophecy to come. Those who had the scriptures ought to know from a virgin, when this happened, there should be alarms going off of what this is.
But track with me a little further to Isaiah 9. And the reason I want to say this is because this is an important scripture also. All scripture is important, but to this text.
Chapter 9, verse 1, prophecy, but there will be no more gloom to her who was in anguish. In earlier times, he, the Lord, treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. So this would be the northern part of Israel. But later on, he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
This is 700 years before this, before we are in Luke. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. This is Galilee. Those who live in the dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation. You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your, God, presence. And with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
He goes on, for you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff of their shoulders, the rod of their oppression. And go on to verse six, the verse we all know. For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
And there will be no end of the increase of his government or of his peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on forevermore. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this.
" a Gentile, no doubt, but knew the Jewish scriptures is pointing back to this. He's taking us back. He's taking the reader back to this. And if you didn't know the old scriptures, you'd go and you'd search it. There it is. This is what Luke is drawing us to, the Galilee, the place called Nazareth. And look at the recipient of the angel. The angel bringing the news. Who's the recipient? To a virgin. And we just saw in Isaiah 7. This is not coincidence. This has never happened before. To a virgin. And the virgin we're gonna see is Mary. Engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David. You just heard Isaiah 9. Descendant of David. Okay, now we're seeing all these connections. Could it be? Is this it? Yes. The son of David and the virgin's name was Mary.
Okay, second time he's used the name virgin. He's going to do it again a third time. That's not coincidence either. Luke is a doctor. You think Luke didn't understand what it meant to be a virgin? You think Luke didn't understand, well, The birds, no, Luke was a doctor. He understood the conception to the delivery, everything in between. And there's a reason that the doctor here is saying again, three times, virgin, so that you won't miss it. You might've missed it the first time, but a second time, a third, you won't miss it a third time. Luke is not, this is not an unessential component. We're going to see, as we look at the incarnation, how important this is, how necessary this is for the narrative.
Virgin, this means he's never been with a man. But aren't to be with child? You can see where the question would come from. And the angel greets her and coming in he said, greetings favored one. Grace, favored, the word charis, grace, favored one. This doesn't mean, oh, we've been looking for the perfect person and now we found her. No, this is one who has no merit in herself, who is a sinner just like you. Greetings favored one, grace, that means unmerited favor. Favor from God has been given, bestowed upon you. The word, the introduction is just like, hello, greetings. But it's from this angel. Greetings favored one, the Lord is with you. You believing one, the Lord is with you. Jehovah, the covenant God is with you.
Great words of comfort here to this little young virgin in this humble town of Nazareth. These words bring assurance to her and I pray they bring assurance to you. If you are in Christ, the Lord is with you. When you go through the dark valley, when you go through the struggle of raising your children, when you go through the struggle of loss of family and loss of job, you name it, the Lord is with you if you're in Christ. Reassurance. Remind yourself, based on the word of God, the Lord is with you, brother and sister. Great comfort, great comfort to this version and great comfort to the believer who is hearing me now.
And he says, after the Lord is with you, notice the initial reaction. Of course, it's fear. Mary's initial reaction, remember the word I gave you last week, terrazzo? It means troubled, perplexed, shaken, like you can't, I gotta hold on to something because I'm shaken. And I described even my own conversion of, of realizing that this terrazzo word explained what I went through. Well, this same word, but it's amplified. There's a dia in front of it, and it magnifies very troubled. But notice she's not troubled at the sight of the angel. Zechariah was troubled at the sight. She was troubled at the word. She was shaken at the words and she kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
I love how the scriptures speak of Mary. Mary was a ponderer. She was a thinker. She pondered up all these things in her heart. We'll read later. She thought. She considered and deliberated what was the meaning of this. She wasn't a Peter just to blab her mouth at the first thing that came. No, she pondered, what was this? What was this announcement? And her initial reaction was fear. When you have an encounter with God, there is fear. For you are a sinful being. And God is holy. And this angelic being was holy. There's only two angels. There's ones who are holy without sin, pure, and there's those that are waiting in chains that are awaiting eternal torment for all those who are other sinners who will not believe. But this angel was pure, and so she was afraid.
But notice the first words, do not be afraid. Common words from an angel to a sinful creature, do not be afraid. I have not come to judge you. Angels might. If you were outside of Christ, you might hear a very different calling. But for those in Christ, it is do not fear. Settle your soul. The Lord is with you. Be still, my soul.
You have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He's announcing to her Mary's service. Mary, you who have believed upon God and wanted to serve him, and I've come to you to give you this news that God has appointed, God has ordained this be your service. What service? To bear a son. Not just any son. Don't phase out as you have heard this story many times. Even unbelievers have heard this. And you have heard this, I know, but there is much for us to gather from this.
There is no ordinary son here. There is no natural occurrence by any means. Now, we saw a great miracle in the passage before of someone who in their 60s, 70s, or maybe older, way past childbearing. And God did a miracle, you shall bear a son naturally, you shall conceive. And it happened. Six, we're past six months now. But this is something way, that's a theological term, way different. I need a better word. This is not, this is out of this world. This doesn't happen. Some say this can't happen. Well, I've never seen it before. God, how could you do this? I've never experienced that. Job, where were you? When I said the oceans could go this far, where were you? Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?
This is no ordinary son. No. He told Mary His name. God says, this will be His name. It shall be Yeshua, Jesus. This name means He shall save His people from their sins. Jehovah saves. Mary would have known the Hebrew. She would have known what this means. Jehovah saves, this is my son's name. Joshua, Hosea, these came from the same derivative. His name shall be Jesus. That is one who is savior.
But he shall be born according to me, Mary's thinking, so he shall be man. You see where the dilemma is happening. Jesus. The whole premise that Jesus needs to save us from our sins declares something very important. Number one, you are sinners, not just you, me too. We are sinners and therefore we need a savior and the savior was long awaited and the angel is telling Mary that this is he. He goes on. He doesn't just stop. He doesn't just say that. His name is Jesus. Well, well enough. Go along. No, he says more. This announcement is full. His position is delineated to us. His position, he shall be great.
Where do we start? I thought about this. He shall be great. Jesus. Let me say a few words about how great Jesus is. How much time do we have? Do we have enough books? The greatness of this statement, he shall be great. Now we heard earlier that to Zacharias that John, his son John, John the Reformed Baptist, He is to be great, but this is something different in greatness. The word magos, this is something much different. This is the Lord of glory, this is the sinless Son of God, God of very God incarnate, the one who made the world. It's going to come into the world. The one who stands outside other than is going to transcend, going to condescend, come down to come into his creation. Yes, he's great. You better believe he's great. Now that's, I'm speaking of the divinity. He is God, but he's going to be great in his humanity. I think this is what he was trying to convey to Mary. Yes, his divinity is great, amen. He shall be great, but according to his humanity, he shall be no ordinary son.
John the Baptist was a preacher, a preacher of righteousness, but he was a sinner. This one, no. This son, no. No sin. Perfection. This is a greatness far exceeding the forerunner, and John the Baptist knew this. He said, I must decrease. He must increase. Jesus, this all-perfection in heaven and on earth, the perfect man. It's not in some GQ magazine. The perfect man is in Scripture and is here. This is He who Adam should have been and whom you should have been in perfection as God had created Him. but He's also divine. This is light of light. This is very God of very God. This is equal with God, one with the Father. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
That kind of greatness, infinite, immeasurable, incomprehensible, truly the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, the exact image of God. Here He is, great, yes, but the Lord Jesus also is a man, or I should say yet. He's great as God. God is great, but here He is as His full humanity, perfect and truly God, and truly and really man. Well, my mind can't understand this, so away with that stuff. We will be trying to understand this for all eternity. Faith believes, faith understands what God has said, and I struggle when I come to speak of these things, of the incarnation, and I come before you with fear and trembling many times because one little slip of a word, heresy forms quickly.
So I want to say a little bit about this. It's important from the Virgin that the reason is because he would come in without sin. All of your little children, oh, how precious they are. Oh, they're beautiful. Some of them even a mother could love. But they're sinners. You don't have a holy child. Just wait a few minutes. But this one was a holy child, a sinless child. What? Have you seen one of those? No, because there was only one. Adam came as a mature man. There's only been one. Listen to how I, these are not necessarily my words. These are words of Orthodox Christianity, but he was not humanity deified. He was not God humanized. There's no confusion of his substance in Jesus. He is God and he is man. He is 100% God and 100% man. You say, well, mathematics don't, that doesn't make sense. He is all that God is. And he is perfection in man as he ought to have been. He wasn't created. He came into this world. The second person of the Trinity came in to his creation and he was not created. This is a wonder of wonders. This is an amazing thing. Nothing can compare. What shall be compared with Jesus? We have nothing.
The greatness of his person, the greatness of who he is, the greatness of his offices. He was the prophet perfection, the priest perfection, the king. The king whom God's people needed. The prophet who was the word, is the word. The priest who would not only provide the sacrifice, but would be the sacrifice. that would reconcile God's pinnacle of creation, image bearers, with God. This is how he did it. This is the originating event of the gospel of salvation. It had to be this precise way. He is Redeemer. He is Savior, He is Lord, He is wonderful deliverer, friend of sinners, great conqueror. The theme of His greatness can never be exhausted. Not now, not from this pulpit, not for eternity I don't think. We will gaze at this glorious Savior. As all of us are around His glorious throne, we will magnify, we will exalt Him. Words cannot be uttered of His greatness.
But what about something else? His pre-existence. What? Pre-existence, like when did it begin? It didn't. It didn't. He will be called the Son of the Most High, El Shaddai, God. This is not, there's other places where we see a son of God, a believer as a son of God, but this is the Son of God. This is the Son of the Most High. The babe in Bethlehem is the Lord of glory. I feel like my head is going to explode when I contemplate some of this.
The eternal Son, the one with the Father and the Spirit, the one who had no beginning and no end, the uncreated one, the begotten, not made, comes in to the virgin. The Son of the Most High comes into a poor, humble virgin. You parents, don't you want to give your children good things? The best circumstances, the best... God sent his son into this type of humble beginnings. Poor. May we not make little of those who are poor. Mary was very poor. Very poor family.
And the Son of God, it would have been a humiliation of humiliations for Him to come as the greatest king and the greatest, wealthiest, most prominent person ever. For Him to come from heaven and come down would be a huge condescension, a huge humiliation. But He came to this little virgin, this poor, unwed, unmarried at this time person. She was betrothed. We're going to get to that. There's so much in this passage.
The throne of his father David. This speaks of his reign and rule. This babe is going to reign and rule. The descendant of David, we could look at multiple passages of scripture. I'll just read a few, jot some of these down. Go to 2 Samuel 7 and look at 12 to 14. I'm not gonna read it today. Psalm 89.8, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations. I already read Isaiah 9.6, for a child will be born, a son will be given. He goes on about the increase of his government.
Isaiah 11.1, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, that's David's father, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Jeremiah 23 is another one. Behold, the days are coming. I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he will reign as king and do justice and righteousness in the land. All of these are bringing us back to what this angel is saying. Even Micah, in Micah 5 too, but as for you, Bethlehem, Eparthath, too little among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. Notice this, his goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. No beginning.
That was the Old Testament. The New Testament. Romans, Romans 1, Paul starts off his letter, Romans 1, 3, concerning his son, who was born of the descendant of David, according to the flesh. 2 Timothy 2, 8, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel. All of these connections are coming together to affirm that this is God's Messiah. This is God's savior of the world.
Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. Psalm 45. I could go on for a long time of all the scriptures that affirm what this angel is prophesying is going to happen and is going to happen just in the next chapter. He will reign forever and his kingdom will have no end. reigning even now, reigning in heaven. He is working out His new creation as He is saving sinners, as He is bringing people to believe upon His name.
And look at Mary's inquiry. Let's go to Mary for a moment. This is a believing inquiry. She's not doubting like Zechariah. She says this, Mary said to the angel, Mary's in astonishment at this point. Think of just what I just shared with you, that she would have been a very, she would have been a young girl who grew up in the Hebrew scriptures. These would have been jumping out at her as he's saying these. Of course, she's astonished. She's not doubting, but she has this question, how can this be? Since I'm a virgin, that's the third time. I've never been, I'm engaged. Back then, the family would arrange these marriages. There was a betrothal period, and they're in this period, and can you imagine her thoughts? Like, I'm gonna, surprise, you're gonna be pregnant. Which thoughts would come first? Will my husband to me think? How am I gonna explain this to, Dad, how's this gonna go over with all the people? I don't know. But it's a valid inquiry. How can this be? This is not natural, how can this be? There's much mystery in this.
But Mary's reaction is not to be made light of, is not to think that she was doubting, because she wasn't. She had a question for the angel. And the angel, we come to our third section, it is a God of impossibilities. The angel answers her. And he answers her, it'll happen like this. It'll happen according to the counsel of God Almighty. It'll happen to His wise providence and plan, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Will come over you. The third person of the Trinity will come over you, and the power of the Most High, of God Himself, will overshadow you. The cloud, the Shekinah glory coming down over the temple that it would cover. That glory. The Holy Spirit, we go back to Genesis and it says that the Spirit hovered over the water. Mary, that's going to happen to you. The first creation, the Spirit hovered. The second, the new creation in Christ, the Spirit hovered and for that reason, The Holy Child will be called the Son of God. The second person of the Trinity, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the first person of the Trinity, God the Father and His ordained plan here. This is how this will happen. She will conceive by the power of the Most High of the El Shaddai. That the Holy Spirit, the Shekinah Glory, the presence of God will do this. He doesn't elaborate anymore. We want more. Maybe Mary wanted more. I don't know. I'm sure. But this is what it says.
Because this is the way that God could come into his creation, that God could come into his creation, that God could also be man. And he gives her some assurance. He doesn't just run away and leave. He says, behold, your relative Elizabeth. She might not have known this yet. This wasn't, let me send an email. I mean, they had to walk places and send messages that way. Behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived in her old age. Old Elizabeth. And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. Impossible. Elizabeth, Mary probably thinking, do I go to Joseph? Do I go to Pop? Do I go to Mom? Do I go to the priest? I can go to Elizabeth. Elizabeth might understand. You have gone through some terrible tragedy and no one understands. Someone else maybe. Pastors, when we get together, many times the congregation doesn't know what a pastor goes through, but the pastor would get together and they could talk and they could share. I imagine it was something like that.
But he gave her this assurance that this miracle had been done by natural conception, not by eternal generation that you, Mary, are going through, but you'll help each other by knowing this. Notice what he says about God's power at the very end. She conceived at an old age. Wasn't supposed to happen. The Holy Spirit's going to overshadow you. I don't know what that is. Nothing will be impossible with God.
This is the clarion cry of every believer, every Christian. Nothing is impossible with God. Now, we struggle. We say, well, I don't understand. How can this be? How much of this Bible do you have trouble not understanding? I mean, that Christ is going to come back in the clouds? That Christ rose as they saw Him? That He rose from the dead? That God gave Himself up on a Roman cross? That Elizabeth, in her old age, that Mary, that God spoke the world into existence? Which part have you all figured out? That God did it in six days? Did He need six days? Could He have done it in 60 billion years? Could He have done it in one day? Yes, but He chose because He's God and this is what He ordained.
In fact, this is We talk about statements of faith. This is God's statement of faith. Nothing is impossible, He would say, with me. Even to the vilest sinner, He can save. Even to the one that thinks, well, I'm just so good, I don't even need... No, He can show you your sin and bring you to the Savior. The one who says, fill in the blank, nothing. will be impossible with God. God is a God of impossibilities. We talk about natural law, supernatural things. Everything God does is supernatural. He's created this world in a natural sense, and we see things, but the conception by the Holy Spirit? I can't fathom that, okay? Fathom this. We know how a baby happens, but tell me, how does it happen? Like the bones grow. Doctors don't, they know that these things are happening, but they can't tell you like, whoa. God is amazing.
And so the next time you're stumped by something of God, join the club. God is amazing. If we understood all that God was, you'd be God. God is glorious. But look at this true servant's trust. Look at Mary in her response. And finally, she just says, behold, the word is doule, means female slave, slave of the Lord. Do with me as you wish according to your word. May it be done. Amen, she says. Lord, you are good. And I know this doesn't look very good from my end right now, How is this gonna be received? Father, let me explain. An angel just came to me and says, Mary trusted in God.
This is a faithful response of a believing one. The response that you and I ought to have, a resolute trust in God's perfect will, that he is good and he does all that is good. And even though that I can't understand where I'm at right now, and I can't see the end from the beginning, and I don't know how I'm ever gonna get out of this, God does, and I trust Him. And so friends, we need to believe in an infinite God. That's what the scriptures talk to us about. And there's going to be mysteries in knowing Him. There's a mystery in incarnation, no doubt. There's a mystery of how God operates and who He is, but there's no bounds to our God. He has no limits. He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing, and there are going to be things that are beyond my comprehension, and I'm okay with that.
There's nothing too hard for God. Listen, it's not a problem of faith to believe in the virgin birth. It is a problem of faith. We ought not doubt. We ought not doubt God. We ought to worship and adore God. Come before Him with praise and adoration at how amazing our God is.
And it's okay to be struck with how amazing this But don't put God to the test and question Him. Give Him glory. Give praise to our God that He is so magnificent. There's no task too difficult. There's no mountain too high. There's no mission too impossible.
And so when He sends you to serve Him as He did Mary, He's going to send you to serve Him in some capacity if you're His. We are to trust Him knowing that God's will and His purposes are unstoppable because He is the God of impossibilities. Praise Him. Glorify our God. Join me as we do this.
Our God works the natural and the supernatural. The Lord calls you to believe Him. Trust Him, follow Him, serve Him with all your mind, with all your days, with all your heart. The gospel delivered by Luke here, just like he was calling Theopolis to believe, he calls you to believe.
To believe all that God has said and to believe in His Son and through which You will be saved. You will be granted eternal life and you will be reconciled to a holy God whom you have been separated from. You will live for eternity with Him, with all of His saints and we will glory in all He has done for all eternity and it will be without end as we rejoice in the power of our God. Amen.
Father, we are in awe of who you are and what you have done. The feeble words that have been spoken are completely unsatisfactory to the greatness of the work that you have accomplished. Father, help us to be faithful in believing. Help us by the faithful example of Mary to be able to say, may it be done according to your will. May it be done according to your word. Lord, I am your servant. Do with me as you see fit.
And even though we can't see through the storm, even though we can't see through the struggles we are going through, we can trust in God. We can throw our anchor out upon Christ and we can put our whole life, for this life and the next, upon what a glorious Savior He is. Lord, help us to believe. Help any who are yet to believe and draw them to your Son. Bring them to the end of themselves. Let them see and be convicted of their sin and their disposition before a holy God.
Lord, save them for your glory. Save them by your grace alone. Give them faith and repentance to believe upon you. And we will rejoice with all the saints when one comes to repentance. Lord, we thank you that you have saved so many within our own congregation. You are a great God. Thank you for loving us. It's in your son's name that we pray, amen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_5iYMZ5p-I&t=173s
