Hello. RT Hull Ministries is grateful and humbled to be part of your sanctification today. We invite you to review our other sermons online, but also want to stress the importance of being joined with a biblical local church. Our website is rthullministries.com. That's R-T-H-U-L-L-M-I-N-S-T-R-I-E. ministries.com.
Well, good morning again. It's wonderful to be with you this Lord's Day. We're glad for all of you to be here. I know some have been sick last week and I'm glad you're better. Those that are still ailing, we want to lift them up in prayer. Time of year with the holidays here, people are here, there and yonder seeing family, but we're glad that all of you are present today and pray that it'll be that way the best you can through the rest of this year.
We have been in the gospel of Luke and so I pray that It seems for me that usually when Christmas appears or happens, I'm always startled by the soonness of it, but I pray that our time in Luke will have us well prepared as we come into this Christmas season. Thanksgiving, this coming week. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here. We have much to be thankful for. I was just thinking of, our last Thanksgiving, and we were hurriedly preparing and shuttling around trying to get here. And to get here, in fact, we began December 15th, so that's coming up too, or I began pastoring this church and coming just not very long ago. So it's much to be thankful for on our account, and hopefully that's shared, but definitely from our side.
Well, as we look into our text this morning, remember Luke is giving us an orderly account. He is checking with many eyewitnesses. No doubt as we come to this section that one of the eyewitnesses was more than likely was Mary. Who would have known the things that are presented by Luke other than Mary? She was present at these different amazing things that have happened.
We have heard of two angelic visitations. We have heard of these two miraculous conceptions, two miracles in the womb. In fact, two women that God is using in a miraculous way. And before I even read the text, it's noteworthy, and you might wonder why is this noteworthy to even mention, but it's noteworthy that Luke is mentioning these two women particularly, and many other women in scripture.
The reason I say that is because in the time, as in these times, as Luke starts his gospel and he says, in the days of Herod, well, in this time, Women would have been not given as much notice as men. They would have been maybe not heard. In fact, they were not even declared to be witnesses in a court of law. Because of that, it's unique that Luke is bringing out how important it is in God's economy and how women are important in God's economy. And now there's roles and there's duties that are different between men and women, but how God is showing us how important women are.
In fact, if we look at all of the redemptive accounts that we see, when we look at, for instance, the birth, the pre-birth, the birth, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. One thing you'll see is that women were present, witnessing And Luke is not bashful in bringing this out. How women were present as witnesses in the worship of Christ. How much we can learn from women as they knelt before Christ and worshipped Him. And Mary and Elizabeth specifically as we come to this text. I just wanted to alert us to that, to look at the worship and the serving of women in the Bible and their self-denial and cross-bearing. And we see this example prominent for us this morning in this account where we notice Mary and Elizabeth. Let's read the text. We're in verses 39, and we will read through verses 45.
Remember that the angel has just appeared to Mary. And she asked the question, how can this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. And he mentions the angel in verse 36. 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 what is Mary's statement of faith? Behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.
Picking up in verse 39, hear the word of the Lord. Now at this time, Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. Amen. Thus ends the reading of his word.
Pray the Lord would imprint it upon our hearts this morning. You have heard God's word. Let's pray this morning. Father, help us by your spirit reveal the the length and the height and the width and the depth of what pronouncement has been made and the examples before us in scripture. And Lord, so much to glean. Pray that you would be the one that instructs us today. Instruct us from your word. May your spirit illuminate for us. Father, I ask that you would speak through me and may the words that are heard be from you. May you speak to souls today. And Lord, may your servant not be a hindrance. Help us, I pray, in Christ's name, amen.
Well, you've seen the title of our message, The Blessedness of Belief, and I want us to look in three parts, if you will, three headings that'll help us, guide us through the text, and pray that the Holy Spirit will be our main guide. We're going to look at the benefit of fellowship beginning and after the benefit of fellowship, the believing joy. And then thirdly, the blessing of belief. And so let's start at the benefit of fellowship.
What we see in these first two verses, verse 39 to 40. Notice what, at this time, at the time of the angel's departure, Mary is departing. She arose and went. Went where? Well, he's going to tell us where. But I want us to realize that this hurrying in haste to the hill country, Mary, when she heard the news and she believed, Overthink it. She didn't procrastinate. She didn't say, well, I'll check this out later on down the way. She immediately arose and went. Went to who? Went to Elizabeth because this was the last thing that the angel told her. Behold, your relative, who was barren, is pregnant. Pregnant, not only that, she's conceived and she said, in her six month, So there's a sign being given to Mary. And don't you know, Mary believed, but she also wanted to go see this sign. This older relative, you know, 60s, 70s, maybe older, with child? Well, I better lay eyes on this. And Mary goes in a hurry with haste. That is timely, immediate action. When God sends you, when God reveals things to you and directs you, is there immediacy to your action? Or is there doubt? Is there unbelief? Remember Zacharias not too long before this, and what happened to him and his unbelief? He was made mute, made to not hear. In fact, probably this whole episode, Zacharias was not even able to experience in his own house. Here, Elizabeth is receiving Mary.
And so we see the faith of a believer, Mary, leads to obedience. Obedience, following what God has said. You may say you have faith, but do you follow? If you are not following and obeying, then your faith is for naught, and ought to examine your own life.
But notice what happens next. We see true haste, and then we see this travel. She arose, so right away, no procrastination, no faltering or wavering, no questioning. Did I really hear that? You see, if you look at the men and women in the Bible, when they have heard from God, they always know that it's from God. Have you ever noticed that? There's no doubt. You think Moses doubted? I mean, he might have, in his mind, doubted. But the more he realized what was happening, he knew that God was speaking. And Mary knew that this angel was from the Lord himself. And so she goes right away.
It's no easy journey, by the way. We have very ease of travel. Most of you came here with air conditioning or I should say heated, maybe even heated seats and four wheels and Zoomed here, even though you were probably late and you accelerated to get here, right?
Well, here she's going to see her relative and there was not ease of travel, no easy commute here, no quick shuttle or transportation. This young girl, I think she's probably 13. And I want you to realize, I'll give you a slight geography lesson. We were gifted and blessed to go to Israel at one time. So I'm going to use my hand as my geography lesson. All right, so if you look at Galilee, Galilee is up here somewhere in the first joint of my middle finger. If you look here, the Jordan River is going to be coming down here. All right, the Mediterranean is over here, the Mediterranean Sea. So Galilee's up here, Judea's in the mountain region in here. So she's got to climb, they got to go up to Jerusalem, climb. But Judea would be in this area. So mountains, hills, Galilee is more farmland, beautiful. Think of green, beautiful Ohio and farmlands and crops as far as you can see. Galilee is very pretty, actually. And it's where the Sea of Galilee was. And you come down the Jordan and you get to the Dead Sea.
But in order to go, it would have been probably 60 miles. Now, as the crow flies, it would be not too far. But you don't just go through the mountain. Think of travel in Colorado. Things can be close, but take you a long time to get there, because you have to go around the mountains. So she has to come down to the Jordan, through the plains, come up to the hill country. Remember, Zacharias was in Jerusalem in the temple, so he would have lived in the Judea region. So that would be southern Israel. Galilee would be north. So here she's taking this three-day travel. That's going some 18 miles a day. So this is, you know, we're not told who she traveled with or what. Surely she had someone with her. I can't imagine a 13-year-old going, but who knows?
But the point is, she was going there to see her relative Elizabeth, and her destination was Judea. And she's coming from Galilee. Remember, she's up at Nazareth. So here she comes, she's coming to Galilee, and what's the first thing? She goes 60 miles. How many of you walked 60 miles in the last three days? Probably not many. And she's conceived by this point. shows up and greets Elizabeth.
Do you think they were just greeting from afar and, hello, how are you doing? I mean, there was probably an embrace, wouldn't you imagine, of relatives. And first, the shock of seeing this older relative in six months. Think of it, and so there's an embrace, and they greet one another, and here it says in verse 41, we see this believing joy. These believers have embraced and they're spending time together.
What a blessing it is just to stop for a moment and realize the blessing of believers in fellowship with one another. Of being able to go to another Christian's home and talk and confess and share about our Lord and to share the experiences that God has brought you through or is bringing you through. You might have a wonderful experience and we do as God deals with us personally. And you might not even be able to express what God has done to you personally, but when you go and you meet with another sister, my sisters, or you go to another brother and talk, that joy becomes exponential. It becomes multiplied as we share and we're edified by what God has done in the other, and he in me. and we talk of these things and there's an embracing, there's a joy, a koinonia, the word fellowship is happening here.
But this fellowship is unique in many aspects. Both of these women have conceived miraculously, one through natural procreation, but not so natural because they're in their elderly stages. Those of us who are experiencing people who have grandkids, great grandkids, and then someone that age is all of a sudden pregnant, this is a little extraordinary, to say the least. You don't see that ever, or very seldom. I guess in the Bible you've seen it a few places and other places with Sarah.
But here, Mary, who has never been with a man, Think about, we talked about this last week, who would she have talked to? Could she have gone to one of her other 13-year-olds? Well, let me tell you, I know I haven't been with Joseph, but guess what happened? They'd be like, what have you been eating? Have you been drinking something you shouldn't? Or are you gonna go to your father and say this? Dad, I'm pregnant. How's that gonna go over? Mom, guess the news? But she knew that Elizabeth, who she just heard this wonderful news from the angel, if anyone could understand, it was going to be Elizabeth. And she goes there and sees this pregnant woman, and what is Elizabeth, it says here the baby leaped in her womb. The baby that was in Elizabeth, John the Baptist, leaps in the womb. This is fulfillment of prophecy given to us earlier in Luke 1.
What is Luke 1, 15? to Zacharias. Now Zacharias probably told Elizabeth, he can't tell her with his mouth, but he could have written it down of what happened. The angel told Zacharias he will be great in the sight of the Lord, he will not drink wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. And so here Mary comes, the Son of God is in her womb, that being Jesus, there's an embrace, The baby in Elizabeth's womb, John the Baptist, is jumping as there's connection in the presence of Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of the Most High, the Anointed One. I mean, his messianic ministry of being the forerunner has already begun.
I gotta turn this off, I'm losing everything. Excuse me. Like a whirlwind up here. I like that because I get warm in a hurry, but here we have Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as well.
Elizabeth here, this believing woman is filled with the Holy Spirit of God and here she has a child Parents, this is not a normal occasion that the Holy Spirit is indwelt in John the Baptist, but in this occasion it is so. I'm not saying it's impossible, but generally people come to salvation through the Word and the Spirit of God working through that Word. Another subject in itself, but here in this One instance we have in the scripture, the Holy Spirit has come in the womb to John the Baptist and dwelt with the Holy Spirit. That means being converted, being in faith in Christ here, regenerated, born again. and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit, marry this believing."
So this is this joyous occasion. You might say with these two women, there's more than that happening. There's four, because you have two babies and you have the Holy Spirit. I mean, you've got a congregation here. You've got congregational rejoicing. I mean, think of the corporate rejoicing. This ought to be the type of rejoicing in our midst, when we gather on the Lord's Day, when we gather on Wednesday night, when we gather together of believers in the Holy Spirit with the Word of God open, and speaking of Christ, there should be jumping of joy. When we sing, get to sing praises to God.
And can you imagine this scene of this elderly mother, this young, innocent, or I say innocent, this young little girl, and both of them, all of them, filled with the Holy Spirit, and not only that, but the Holy Anointed One in their midst. In the flesh, not out of the womb, but the incarnate One here, pre-incarnate, I guess I should say, among them. What a scene of sanctified communion of believers. rejoicing together and the mutual gain that they're gaining from being with one another.
What a great means of grace God has given to us of you to me and you to one another and us to all. You see, this is beautiful that we have fellowship. It's not just a word we talk about. It's not just because we share a few meals together. It's more than that. We're sharing in the love of Christ, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, in the love of God. Oh, it's a blessing of all blessings. And many times it causes us to reach to the mountaintops as we rejoice with each other. Even when we go through trials together, what we gain from one another as we share in what God is doing.
And so we see the benefit of fellowship, the believing joy, and we come now and we'll spend the majority of our time looking at this blessing of belief. Recall that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Usually when, I was going to say usually when women don't get together and you don't talk real loudly, but that was probably not correct either because we were at dinner the other night and there was a group of women and they were very loud. But here, she cried out with a loud voice and what he's saying, This loud voice that she's crying out with, she is filled with the Holy Spirit. What she is saying now is from the Holy Spirit. This is God's word that she is actually speaking. There is a prophetic thing happening here. There's prophecy happening. And when we look at the Old Testament, it tells us that in those days that your sons will prophesy and your daughters will prophesy. And here, this, Older Saint Elizabeth is proclaiming God's word as she is speaking to Mary and as God is speaking to us right now. And she declares a hymn of praise. She's going to praise God for what is happening as Mary greets her.
And I want us to spend the rest of our time looking at this praise. We could call this an early beatitude. Beatitude, when we think about the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes, blessed are you. Remember when Jesus spoke? Matthew 5, maybe. Blessed are you, and he said all the blessedness, and here she starts out, blessed are you. This beatitude upon the mother and the son. Blessed are you, Mary. Blessed are you among women. How highly favored you are. And blessed is the fruit of your womb. Blessed is the Son, the Son of God, who is incarnate, coming into man. And God has chosen you, Mary. Blessed are you. Not as if, like, well, there was something so special about you that God just had to have you. No, it's the blessedness of unmerited favor. It's grace, how graced you are, Mary, that God would so visit you in this way, that God would so use you in this way. And so you are blessed among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Elizabeth here is acknowledging acknowledging the incarnation of Christ. She's going to say things like the Lord next, so we can see that, but she's also declaring by the Holy Spirit the union of the divine and the human in Mary, by her words. How would she have known this? She wouldn't. The Holy Spirit is filling and working and proclaiming and testifying to this. Many times the prophets of old spoke. Did they know what they were speaking? God spoke through them. The Holy Spirit carried them along. And this is what is happening here in this beatitude.
Secondly, when we come to verse 43, Notice the self-forgetting humility of this older saint. Now, this older saint has experienced a wonderful miracle. I mean, probably, she had hid herself for five months, so it wasn't like she was like, hey, look at me, look at my... tight clothes and look at my old face. She wasn't doing that. She was probably hiding herself. Most people didn't see pregnant people at her age, so there was a hiding. But something had happened wonderful to her. She was now pregnant. She had been barren for all this time. My reproach has been lifted. But she doesn't go to herself in this instance. She doesn't say, well Mary, now sit down and let's talk about what God has done in my life first. She doesn't do that. She goes, and what does she say? How has it happened to me? Like me, of the least of the least, that the mother of my Lord would come to me.
When she says the mother of my Lord, I want you to think back to David, hundreds of years before Christ. Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord. He is speaking of Jesus, the Son of God, who would come. The Lord said to my Lord. David had a Lord. David was king of Israel, but he had a Lord, and he saw him through eyes of faith from afar. And here Mary says, how is it that this would happen to me? Like, I'm nothing. And here you've come to me. Joy. that they have in this situation. How has this happened to me? The humbleness of even being included in God's plan. The humbleness of even being looked upon by God. And she exclaims next, to Mary and to all of us, this joyful jumping. She says this, for behold, the sound of your greeting reached my ears and the baby leaped in my womb for joy.
God is so gracious to give this assurance to her. Assurance to Mary and assurance to Elizabeth of all of these things that they have heard. I mean, can you imagine hearing from the angel and you're saying, I believe, but Lord help my unbelief. Did I hear right? And God is so gracious to confirm to them these things, this supernatural response.
You see, Mary didn't know the child was jumping until Elizabeth told her. We heard it twice, but here Elizabeth is telling her, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. The word for joy here is exceeding joy. It's salvation joy. It's when one comes to faith in Christ, that kind of joy, jumping joy. And this is what John is already in the womb as he's pointing others to Christ. He's pointing Elizabeth to Christ and Mary to Christ by his jumping. This is the pulpit in the womb, if you will, even before the wilderness that John is proclaiming already, because he is filled with the Holy Spirit as well. And he's saying, this is the Christ child. This is a early testimony to Jesus from John before he could speak.
And this ecstatic joy, this salvation's joy that's happening. In verse 45, this beatitude of the blessing and believing, this, and blessed is she who believed. Not blessed is she who did this and who was so wonderful in this, but blessed is she who believed. Blessed is she who had faith, the gift of faith, to believe and to trust that what God has said is true, that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. The angel was sent from the Lord. And her highest praise is not because she is some sort of extraordinary specimen of humankind, but because of her belief. She's praising her believing. She's praising her faith that is given to her from God.
This faith that is universal amongst Christ's believing people. Universal amongst God's elect that they will believe, that they will have faith. This kind of faith, this kind of belief is worthless to the world. But it is precious as gold. It is precious more than gold to the believer. It is of eternal value to any who are blood-bought sons and daughters of Christ. Faith. Faith that looks beyond what we can see. Faith that has communion with the God who made us because we are made in His image. Faith that has eternal value and will be fully realized when we see him in eternity.
Elizabeth had faith, Mary had faith, you who are even sitting here now who are of faith, blessed are you. This is for you as well, this beatitude, blessed are you who believe. Blessed, it means highly favored, because you believed, because God chose you before the foundation of the world. Not because you were so great, not because you had some sort of merit, but because he loved you, because he desired to redeem you, to save you from your sins, to bring you into his fold. It is all grace. Blessed are you who believe.
Now, I would be negligent if I didn't bring the other side of that. Cursed are you who do not believe. Damned if you do not believe eternally. If you live this life and stay in unbelief, that you will be condemned justly by a holy God. But it ought not be. The Bible says to believe. just like Elizabeth believed, just like Mary to believe, to believe that there will be a fulfillment of what has been spoken by the Lord, to believe what the Lord has said, to believe His word, to take it as the gospel truth, because it is.
We have before us the truth of who God is, of who we are. of why we're here and what this all is about, what our purpose is, what God has created us for. God has given us his answers. He has given us his truth. And he calls us to believe his word. And when we do, there's joy in heaven. There's joy amongst one another as we joy even in this picture in the womb and joy out of the womb.
The work of the Spirit has done this in this scene between Mary and Elizabeth and the baby who is to be Jesus and John the Baptist who is to come out of the womb. The Holy Spirit is filling these believers. The Holy Spirit is the reason that they believe. It's not as if they well up this desire and this, I'm just gonna pull up my bootstraps to believe what I don't believe. That's not what happens.
But we all come into this world in unbelief. We come into this world with the unbelief of Zacharias or worse. And God awakens us. God causes our spirits to come to life, to where we can believe, to where we come to see our sin for what it is. And we don't excuse it anymore. And we come and we seek the Savior. We seek forgiveness.
Sometimes when the Spirit is working in someone and where the sin is revealed, there's two paths that one can take. We can learn of our sin and we can say, I don't want to hear about that. And I shut my mind and I shut my spirit and I go the other direction. I don't want to hear about that. It makes me feel bad. But there's another. Yes, the sin makes me feel bad. It makes me see the disgustingness it is before God. But I turn to the Savior. I come to repentance. I turn and I turn to Christ and I believe upon his word. And he saves that one, that one who is humble.
The first person who went away was proud. He said, well, my sin's not that bad. I just don't want to address it. I'll keep going. I'll suppress the truth. I'll close my ears, and maybe it'll go away. It will not go away. It will not go away because we have to stand before a holy God. We live before Him every day. In fact, the sin that was exposed to you has already been exposed to God. He already knew it. We need to confess it. We need to be confessors of our sin before the one who knows all anyway.
This is the work of the spirit when he causes us to believe, when he causes sinners to come to saving faith. And I also want to let you know, as we proclaim to others or as we receive the gospel, the spirit of God works regardless of the giftedness of the preacher or the messenger. Regardless of the ungiftedness of the preacher, I should say too, the Spirit can work through a donkey. He doesn't need me or you. Now he chooses to use his vessels to proclaim the Word, but he doesn't need that. The Spirit produces believers. The Spirit awakens believers. It is God who saves.
The Spirit When the Spirit works this salvation and causes someone to come to life, there is confession in the Lord Jesus Christ. The confession that's happening in Elizabeth, the confession in the leaping of the womb of John the Baptist, the Spirit is doing these things. And Mary in the next section is confessing and giving glory to God. Zacharias should have, he will down the road after John's birth, but before that, His lips were closed because he was unbelieving. Elizabeth is confessing the Lord God when he is still in the womb. She didn't see. She didn't have sight to see. Remember, Thomas, he believed. My Lord, my God, when he touched the wounds, what did Jesus say? Blessed are they who have not seen and believed. You and I see Christ with eyes of faith through the scriptures, and the Spirit has awakened us to believe.
Elizabeth spoke by the Holy Spirit. She believed. In fact, flesh and blood did not reveal this to her. We're not told Mary said it. Jesus said, my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. Just like when he asked Peter, who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. It is the Spirit's work. The Spirit brings to life.
So as we look at this passage and the passage that went before us with Zacharias, Unbelief brings speechlessness. Belief brings confession. Belief brings proclamation. It brings confession of our faith. Unbelief makes closed lips. Belief, we have to tell. You can't hide these things. When someone comes to faith, you can't hide these. The idea that, and you hear this in some circles of, well, we just need to help people be able to say these words so you can know what to say when you come to faith or how that comes. When you come to faith in Christ, you have to tell people. It comes out. It must come out. You can't hide this light under a bushel. It will come out. You will proclaim. You must tell people. Believing makes confessors. To come from darkness to light, we will tell people about this.
And the attitude that happens when someone does come to faith is the attitude of Elizabeth, it is humility. It is humility, how that you would come to even me. And we're gonna see the humility in Mary, even me. There's not this attitude of, well, I'm glad, God, you finally noticed me. Like, I know you wanted me on your team. It's good I'm there. No, that's pride. That's arrogance. That's not a believer. God will dwell with a contrite and lowly of heart, not with the one who thinks he's all that. I'm glad you noticed all my gifts, and now I'm on the right. No. It's how would you come to a sinner like me? a worm as I, that you would extend to grace to someone as low as me, that you would bring mercy upon one who deserves judgment. The believer acknowledges that. We acknowledge our sin and we come as humble people.
Elizabeth came as a humble servant. Mary as a humble servant. Zacharias was being humbled, no doubt. And when that humbling period was over, he's going to testify too. He will open his mouth in praise and confession. But I want you to know that true faith will never produce pride and arrogance. I'm not saying we won't be prideful or arrogant at times because we are sinners, but it will not be the pattern of a believer. The believer who says, you know, look at my great gifts and aren't my great gifts, look at what I have. That's not what you see in the Bible. That's not what you see in Elizabeth. Notice that there's no envy in Elizabeth. I mentioned this earlier, she didn't say, well Mary, hold on a second, let me tell you what God, look at the gift God has given me. She doesn't even, she's completely self-removed. And all she cares about is that Messiah has come. And he has been so kind to visit me. Come to lowly Elizabeth. What privilege I have. What privilege, Mary, you have. There's no envy. There's no self-absorption. There's no, look at all my gifts. What reassurance we get from this text.
God is a God of encouragement. He's encouraging these two ladies, encouraging them on their walk. giving them assurance, helping them come to this humility and belief. They came and they just wanted to talk about what a glorious God they serve. They didn't come together thinking they had all the answers. They didn't come together, well, let's talk about the... how God is omniscient and go through all these specific doctrines and things like that. Doctrine's good and it's wonderful to teach about the things of God, but they just wanted to worship God. They wanted to glory in Jesus. They wanted to talk about the salvation that had come to sinners. And they wanted to praise God together. They wanted to exclaim to one another that they weren't worthy
What was the thing that brought them most joy? What was the one thing, these two ladies, that brought them the joy? It was Jesus in their midst. It was fellowship with Jesus in their midst, that He was theirs, that I am His and He is mine. And they were celebrating in joy that Jesus, who is the very gift Who is the gift of joy? He is the essence of our joy. He is the only thing that brings joy. And these ladies are glorying in God their Savior. To know Him personally. Do you know Him personally? Is He your joy? Exceeding joy? Jumping joy?
Friend, if you do not have This joy, if you do not have Jesus, then how will you stand on the day that you meet God? Jesus has come to forgive us of all of our sins, to justify us, to make us right before a holy God, to give us His own righteousness, to clothe you in the robes of Jesus. And how is He to do this? How is He to be just and the justifier? It is through the incarnation. It is through the work of coming into His creation. This is the way that it only could be done. And you can believe that truth and glory and confess this to others and to the world and to God. Or you can be in unbelief and say, well, that can't be. I can't rectify that in my mind, so it can't be.
Well, that's the way we all start. We pray that God would grant you mercy, that God would grant us all mercy to believe on his word, to come to faith in Christ, to trust him for this life and the next, for everything, to stake our whole lives and our whole claims upon it. We have these witnesses that Luke has given us, that the Holy Spirit has given us so that you may believe, so that you may see the very, very beginnings before even Jesus was born, how all this came to be. We'll see his life all the way to his death. And glory to God, his resurrection and his ascension, his promise that he's going to return.
Do you believe that? Do you believe like Mary? Or are you hesitating like Zacharias? I can't answer that for you, but you can. And you know, pray that God would give you the belief and the faith of these two ladies. And that's where blessedness is. That's where favor is. It's in believing. We can't even believe until we are blessed with faith, with being regenerated and born again. But glory to God that He does this in our lives and He causes an amazing miracle. The new birth is a miracle. As much a miracle as the birth of these two that we're talking about with Elizabeth and Mary is when one comes to faith in Christ and believes by faith that Christ is the Son of God. Come to man to save sinners. Hail the incarnate deity, as we sang earlier.
So as you think of this time as we celebrate the birth of the Savior, remember that this is how God has chosen to save a hell-bound mankind. So let us proclaim Him and give Him glory for all that He has done. May we all believe.
Father, I thank you that you have given us your infallible, inerrant word, that you have not left us without a sure testimony, that you have given us the firm foundation that we can stand on, Lord, that you have given us faith to believe, faith like Elizabeth, faith like Mary, May we jump for joy like John. May we testify and proclaim like John and Elizabeth and Mary. May we give God glory.
Lord, cause us to be proclaimers. If our lips are shut, I wonder if we have faith. For the shut lips are lips of unbelief. May we confess Christ. May we testify to the good news that Jesus Christ come to save sinners.
And Lord, I pray that there not be a soul here that is hearing this and that you speak to, Lord, that you would draw them. I pray that they would make sure that they would get right with our God today, that there would be a reception of the gospel, a coming to belief, a coming to realize their sin before a holy God.
Lord, would you save today? Pray that you would open hearts. Lord, strengthen our belief as we seek those who are in Christ to walk with you. Reassure us again. Help us to follow you as Mary did. Give us hearts to obey. We thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
