[0:00] Let's begin with the Word of God. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, turn to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1.
[0:15] We're going to be reading verses 26 through 56. In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
[0:39] The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
[0:56] But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
[1:09] He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
[1:21] His kingdom will never end. How will this be? Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin. The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
[1:38] So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God.
[1:56] I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.
[2:15] When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.
[2:30] But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
[2:44] Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. And Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
[3:05] From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him.
[3:17] From generation to generation, he has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but he has lifted up the humble.
[3:31] He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.
[3:47] And Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, and then returned home. One of the things that makes Isaiah the favorite Old Testament book of the Bible to me is the fact that it has four songs about the servant of the Lord.
[4:07] Some 700 years before Jesus' birth, we have these songs about who he is and what he's going to do when he comes. And it's interesting that the New Testament gospel of Luke gives us at least four songs surrounding the birth of that servant of the Lord.
[4:26] We have Mary's song, Zechariah's song, the angel's song, and Simeon's song. And so my aim for the four Sundays in December is just to take one of these songs each week and we'll see what they tell us about our great God and his anointed son, Jesus Christ.
[4:47] And since Luke's gospel gives them to us in chronological order, that means today we're considering Mary's song. So I'd invite you to open your Bibles and see the very words of the Holy Spirit describing this song.
[5:07] Luke chapter 1, and verses 46 to 55. Now before we actually come to her song though, we're given some very important information about Mary.
[5:20] And it says in verse 26 that in the sixth month, that's a reference to her relative Zechariah and her pregnancy with John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ.
[5:35] And the same angel, Gabriel, that told John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son in her old age as a barren woman, now comes to Mary.
[5:52] Mary in Nazareth of Galilee. We're told that she was betrothed, is the word. The NIV says, pledged to be married. To a man named Joseph, betrothal was a much more serious thing in that day than our engagements are today.
[6:10] In fact, in Matthew's account, Joseph is already called her husband, though he's her betrothed. In other words, vows had already been taken, promises given.
[6:25] All that remained was the wedding day when the marriage would be consummated. But even to break a betrothal required a divorce. And if someone was found to be unfaithful during the betrothal, it could be the death penalty.
[6:43] So, again, I say, this was the situation as the angel Gabriel came to Mary. She's a betrothed woman to this carpenter, Joseph.
[6:57] She learns from the angel that she's highly favored by God, that out of all the women in Israel down through the ages, she of all of them has been chosen to give birth to the Son of God.
[7:10] This long-promised servant of the Lord, the Messiah King of David, who would reign forever and ever, that's who your son's going to be.
[7:22] And so, he will be called the Son of the Most High. Now, Mary has one question. I'm sure I would have had a dozen or more.
[7:33] She has one question. How will this be since I'm a virgin? Would you not grant her that this was a legitimate question for her to ask? Since no one in all of human history, no virgin, had ever given birth to a baby as a virgin.
[7:52] And so, she's told in the answer by the angel that her pregnancy would come about by the power of God himself, his spirit overshadowing her, such that the Holy One to be born to her would be called the very Son of God.
[8:12] And then the angel, reflecting the graciousness of God in heaven, gives her something to strengthen her faith and reminds her that her relative Elizabeth, barren, old, beyond bearing children age Elizabeth, is already pregnant, six months into it, and is going to bear a son because nothing is impossible with God.
[8:40] So, right at the beginning of Luke's gospel, we are put on notice to expect surprises, to expect the supernatural, miraculous, the impossible in this salvation that God is bringing to earth.
[8:56] A supernatural virgin birth begins the New Testament, even as a supernatural creation begins the Old Testament.
[9:07] And so God in the gospel is requiring you to believe what you've never seen with your eyes. And so salvation is by faith and not by sight. And so is every step in the Christian life.
[9:22] Now Mary's response then to God's word is amazing. Don't think that all of her questions were answered by that one answer that was given to her.
[9:34] There was no way that she could understand all that that meant for her. In fact, I'm sure it raised dozens of questions in her mind that she could not understand.
[9:48] What's going to happen to me and Joseph? Is this the end of our relationship when he finds out I'm pregnant? What about my life?
[9:58] What about my future? What about that happy life I had envisioned with Joseph? It's all under a cloud now, under a darkness of questions, the shame of being pregnant out of wedlock.
[10:18] Many unanswered questions, and yet I say her response is amazing with all those questions remaining. She says, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me according to your word.
[10:30] Isn't that beautiful? I wish I could respond to all of God's words and providences in my life with that same spirit. Notice her self-conscious identity of who she is.
[10:43] I'm my Lord's servant. Servants don't get to choose to live and do the things they want to do. They exist for the master, and I have the best of masters.
[10:58] I'm the Lord's servant. And here is this sweet surrender of faith. Faith surrendering all that she is to the Lord.
[11:09] faith that does not know still bows in surrender. Luther said it's the glory of faith not to know.
[11:21] And so as one not knowing what all this would mean, she nevertheless humbly surrendered to the Lord. And then we're told of her visit to her relative Elizabeth.
[11:32] She's six months along in her pregnancy, and at the sound of Mary's greeting the baby in Elizabeth's womb, leaped for joy, and Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.
[11:49] And why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord, isn't that a wonderful revelation from the Spirit, that the mother of my Lord should come to me.
[12:02] Blessed is she, notice now, who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. we've seen Mary bowing in submission to the Lord's will for her, and now we see Mary's unwavering faith in God's word.
[12:22] I mean, her questions are not really fully answered in terms of how is it that a virgin can give birth to a baby. She's just told God is the God of the impossible.
[12:35] trust Him. And she believes all that, that it will happen just as God has said it would.
[12:48] Now, has the Lord chosen a path for you? Has He written into your storyline things that you don't want and things that, that you've got big questions. How is this going to end and what's this going to mean for the rest of my life?
[13:01] has He given you assignment, something to do, something to suffer? Remember Mary. Remember who you are, Christian.
[13:13] I am the Lord's servant. Then let it be to me according to your word. Maybe the difficult thing for you is believing God's word. That all that He's promised will come true and that you too will see that everything happens just as He said it would.
[13:35] Well, remember He is such a God that you can take Him at His word and believe that everything He said will be accomplished. So we come then to Mary's song, the song itself.
[13:48] I'm just dividing it up into two stanzas this morning. The first is what God had done for her, verses 46 to 49, and then what God had done for all of His people down through history.
[14:00] even to this very day. Now many commentators have noted Mary's familiarity with the Old Testament in this song. Her song is just full of quotations and allusions to the Old Testament, verses there, and we're not going to take the time to look them up or even quote them.
[14:18] There are dozens and dozens of them, but just to say this, that Mary obviously had been taught the Holy Scriptures. Mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, never forget the importance of teaching little children, your little children, your little grandchildren, the Word of God.
[14:42] Mary was soaked in the Scripture. She's a young teenage girl probably, and yet she's full of Scriptures. She believed them, she treasured them, she hid them in her heart, she memorized them, and obviously had thought long about them.
[15:01] It was said of John Bunyan that he was so full of the Bible that wherever you pricked him, he would bleed bibline. And I think that's what we're seeing in Mary here. The same thing, that as her heart is now overflowing with praise and worship for her great God, what comes out of her is bibline.
[15:21] It's the Bible, it's the very words and phrases of Scripture, that she makes her own and pours into those words all of her heart and worship for her God.
[15:32] It was from Scripture then that Mary got her view of God. Not from her own thoughts, not from her own assumptions, not from her own ideas of what would you like God to be.
[15:49] There's an awful lot of creating gods like we would want him to be, being done today, not Mary. It's obvious her view of God came from the very words of God that reveal God to us.
[16:06] Oh, be sure that your view of God is coming from the Scriptures themselves. And so that explains why and how her song makes such use of the very language of Old Testament Scripture.
[16:20] So let's look then at the first part of the song, Mary's personal testimony of what God has done for her. Her opening line tells us the most important thing about her song, verse 46.
[16:36] What it tells us is that this song is not about Mary, but is about Mary's God. Notice it. My soul glorifies the Lord.
[16:49] That tells us what this song is going to be about. Not about me, but about my Lord. My soul glorifies, praises. I think a better translation and one that is often used is magnifies.
[17:05] Megaluno is the Greek word mega. You can see my soul makes great, magnifies the Lord. Not like a microscope in which you put something tiny and small on the slide and then the microscope makes what is small look big, but rather like a telescope.
[17:28] And you focus it upon that little speck out there in the night sky called Jupiter. And what does the telescope do? It magnifies what is big and shows you just how big that little speck is.
[17:43] In that way, Mary is saying, my soul magnifies the Lord. It makes much, it makes God great, this God in heaven.
[17:54] I'm going to magnify him, I'm going to show you, I'm going to tell you how great he is. So Mary is magnifying the Lord and focusing her praise on him to show us how great he really is.
[18:09] Now I point this out because down through the ages, and especially at this time of the year, people are giving honor to the point of worship to Mary, people are praying to Mary, people are asking Mary to bless them, and so on and so forth.
[18:27] But if we'll listen, nobody opposes that more than Mary herself and in this very song. to be sure, Mary mentions herself in this first stanza, it's a personal testimony of God's mercies after all.
[18:44] So you do talk about yourself in a personal testimony, don't you? But she only mentions herself in so far as it further magnifies the greatness of God.
[18:56] Think of the testimony of Saul of Tarsus. You know he gave it three times, it's found three times in the book of Acts. We had it in the Sunday school hour in one of his epistles and other epistles.
[19:07] He gives us bits and pieces of his personal testimony. And yes, Paul's testimony does speak about himself. It's a personal testimony after all.
[19:20] But let me ask you, does what Paul says about himself make you come away thinking more highly of Paul or more highly of the God who saved Paul? what strikes you is the amazing grace of God to show such sovereign mercy upon this wretch named Saul, a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man, enemy number one of the church of Jesus Christ, the chief of sinners.
[19:54] And so Paul's words about himself make us think less of him and more of the God who had mercy upon him. Now that's what we're reading here in Mary's song.
[20:07] Yes, she's talking about God blessing her and what God has done for her, but all that she says only magnifies the greatness of the blesser, the God who has blessed her.
[20:20] She's not magnifying herself. She's just a mirror in that telescope to show you how big and how great and how good God is. So the parallel phrase, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
[20:38] God my Savior. She's rejoicing not in herself but in God her Savior and by calling God her Savior she's confessing herself to be in need of him as such. Now there's a sense in which God is Savior and that he is a deliverer.
[20:54] I need to be delivered and saved from myself every day. there is that sense. He delivers us out of problems and troubles and but let's not forget that in Matthew 1 21 when the angel came to Joseph and told him the reason that they would call him Jesus he said because he will save his people from their sins.
[21:18] Not just getting us out of tight squeezes in life yes that but primarily he is our Savior Savior to save us from our biggest problem our sins and Mary is confessing her need of such a Savior when she calls him God her Savior she's blown away that this great saving God should choose her out of all the women in Israel to give birth to the Savior notice what she says in verse 47 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant notice again her self conscious identity the servant that's what I am his servant but and a lowly one at that a humble servant a humble virgin betrothed to a poor village carpenter in a despised Nazareth can anything good come out of Nazareth there she is a nobody to the world but
[22:18] God my Savior has been mindful of me he's taken notice of me he thinks of me you know that was David's amazing awareness too when I consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and stars which you put in place what is man that you're mindful of him that you even think of him much less that you would care for him and so Mary rejoices in the amazing kindness of God to even take notice of her that Mary of Nazareth is known in heaven Christian has that ever rung your bell John Heaney is known in heaven your name is known in heaven you are known in heaven dear believer beloved of the Lord and she's blown away by that fact that he's seen her and he's seen her humble state that she's a poor and lowly needy woman and that
[23:19] God would stoop that low to make her the mother of Messiah my soul magnifies the Lord you see now Elizabeth has just called her blessed in verses 42 and 45 and Mary now says as well from now on all generations will call me blessed somebody said ah there she is boasting about herself not so quick to be blessed is not drawing attention to herself but to her blesser the one who has blessed her the one doing the blessing for without doubt Hebrews 7 7 says that the lesser is blessed by the greater and so they will all call me blessed she doesn't say they will pray for me to bless them no they will call me blessed now notice why Mary goes on to say what she goes on to say yes all generations will call me blessed but notice why not because of my great holiness worthiness or sinlessness not because of anything
[24:28] I have done for him but because of what the mighty one has done for me that's why they'll call me blessed for the mighty one has done great things for me holy is his name his mercies extend to those who fear him verses 49 and 50 so God's blessings to fallen sinners are never earned they're always mercies blessings are mercies and the scriptures speak of them as such there's nothing in self to boast about for having been blessed been shown mercy I'm I'm the enriched one I'm the blessed one the benefited one the undeserving one no Mary is saying praise God from whom all blessings flow and they flow as mercies to me she's magnifying him for his might and his mercy you see it there in verse 49 50 the mighty one has done great things for me holy is his name his mercy extends to those who fear what a combination in the perfections of God mighty and merciful meekness and majesty lion and lamb in the one person in perfection it sets him off from all others and makes her cry holy is his name and here
[26:11] I don't believe she's thinking so much of his moral quality as she's speaking of that sense of holy in the sense of being set apart from all others none like him there's none like him in might what great things he's done for me unbelievable things impossible things his might and there's none like him in his mercy look how low he stooped to not just notice me but to actually set his love on me and grace on me this humble poor woman and to make me the mother of Messiah amazing mercies so Mary knows her place before God don't you get that in this song she knows her place before God holy he little me mighty he lowly me master he servant me savior he sinner me blessing he blessed me merciful he and unworthy me so stanza one then is taken up with the great things that the mighty
[27:31] God has done for Mary now her horizons extend and she magnifies the Lord for what he has done for all of his people down through history to the present day verse 49 says his mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation you see the extension of what she's saying here these mercies aren't just something for me his stooping low to show his might and mercy is not something unique to me but rather is consistent with his habit consistent with his ways of working the way that he treats all those who fear his name in every generation that is with all who hold him in the highest esteem with loving awe that's how he shows himself to them with might and mercy now we ask how is
[28:36] Mary so familiar with the works and ways of God down through the centuries that she can speak like this well again I just remind you that Mary grew up on the scriptures her Old Testament was her Bible and she knew it she had heard it she had meditated on it and thought of it and was singing it and so on and she's learned God's ways she knows her God she knows what he's like she studied his works and ways she's noticed what he does both his mighty mercies toward his people and his mighty sternness toward those that do not fear him she's noticed both you know that's the same lesson that Paul tells us we can learn when we look back at history Romans 11 22 consider Paul says he's just laid out the history of Israel and the Gentiles and he says consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God consider both the kindness and sternness of God sternness to those who fell but kindness to you provided that you continue in his kindness otherwise you also will be cut off
[29:56] Mary also as she looks back at Old Testament history sees these two ways of God the way he treats God fearers and the way he treats those that do not fear him and what she does is she puts them side by side in her song she magnifies how wonderful God's mercies are to us brothers and sisters we little know how great the mercies of God to us are until we've seen them right up close against what we deserve from God and how God treats his enemies that's that should have been me that should be how he treats me but no look what I've got and then do the mercies of God shine forth beautifully in our eyes and so she says in verse 51 he's performed mighty deeds with his arms and that might can be used both to save and to destroy both to uphold and to scatter and it's these works and ways of God that she has learned from her
[31:07] Old Testament Bible she couldn't help but see that the righteous poor and needy lowly people are often the ones that are under the heel of the rich and the high and mighty ones but also she noticed how God delights to reverse the fortunes of these two people notice verses 51 and 52 he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts he has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble she couldn't help but notice that the high and the mighty and proud and the lowly God fears and yet how God delights to do that there's Joseph he's he's bullied and persecuted by his powerful older brothers and they sell him off into slavery where he's further humbled down he goes thrown into prison falsely accused he's down and out and then
[32:19] God reverses their fortunes and humble Joseph makes his way into the palace and is second to Pharaoh and those high and mighty brothers of his are brought down to beg from him for their very food and existence Mary noticed that note to Mary God reverses the fortunes of people there's puffed up Pharaoh in Egypt not about to bow to the command of some God of Israel he knows nothing about while the poor Israelite slave nation was beaten down under his heel and what did God do he reversed their fortunes with ten plagues that left Egypt in ruins and a walk through the Red Sea that left Israel exalted free and on their way to the promised land and
[33:20] Pharaoh's army drowned at the bottom of the sea the reversal of fortunes ah yes I see that says man there's the high and mighty king Saul brought down from his lofty throne well poor persecuted humble shepherd boy David lifted up to be king over Israel and to actually have promises made that he would have a son who would reign on his throne forever and ever proud builders of Babel they've got their building project going to build right up to the heavens make a name for themselves and God frustrates them by confusing their languages and scattering them that's what she says he scatters those who are proud in their inmost thoughts and years later in Babylon you hear Babel Babylon here's proud Nebuchadnezzar king conquered the world walking out and enjoying look at this
[34:25] Babylon city that I have built with my power and my wealth God humbles him he brings him down from the throne he takes him from the throne he strips him of his sanity he sets him out to feed with the cattle until he learns that God is sovereign over all the nations of the earth and gives them to whomever he wants he's able to bring them down from their high and lofty thrones indeed everything that is lifted up must be brought down Isaiah chapter two says that's just the way God does things in his world and Mary knows it she's seen it in the scriptures and she knows that her God does not change so there was also a barren and sad Hannah wasn't there mercilessly persecuted by her husband's rival wife Penina who had tons of children and just took every opportunity to rub it in to poor
[35:27] Hannah barren Hannah she's the high and mighty poor Hannah she can't even eat anymore she's weeping and what does God do he reverses the fortunes he gives her a son Samuel who goes on to be the leader of Israel and gives her many other children as well and you know her song has been noticed to have many of the same themes as Mary's song here because who is lower than Mary a nobody from nowhere yet walking humbly with her God and she's the one that's lifted up and blessed to be the very mother of Messiah while the proud socialite women of Jerusalem are passed over and that was not lost on Mary that lesson she says now I see that what God has done to me is not something just unique to me but that is his way that's the way
[36:30] God works that's the way he is it's the pattern of his ways with mankind and it's exactly what the Lord Jesus says that whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted there's the reversal of fortunes again blessed are the meek why because they will inherit the earth and so on and so forth now movies and literature all over the world are full of this storyline aren't they the underdog the weakling the despised the oppressed who against all odds triumphs over the high and mighty proud ones and it strikes a common chord of delight in all of our hearts doesn't it we never tire of hearing about made up stories and about those kinds of stories in real life poor humble
[37:30] Cinderella despised by her arrogant favored sisters who treat her like dirt until their fortunes are switched and they're passed over and she's the bride of the prince that's just borrowing a page from God's book the holy scripture and from the Lord Jesus himself who is the great original of that in whom the greatest reversal of all is coming in himself was there ever a birth more humble than Jesus' birth life I mean for crying out loud he's laid in a cattle trough place where cattle lick up their food he's the Lord of glory but oh he's he's he's humble a humble beginning here in this life parents that are poor carpenters and and and then he's despised and rejected by who by the high and mighty leaders the
[38:49] Jewish leaders the religious leaders who condemned him to death by crucifixion then what did God do well he reversed their fortunes he he raised his son from the dead you've weighed in on what you think of him you put him on a cross you rejoice to see him dead and buried now let me weigh in on what I think of him what's really true of my son and he raised him from the dead and he lifted him up to the highest place to his very own throne in heaven where he now sits and reigns on God's throne given the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus yes those scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees that cried for his blood must come and fall down on their knees and with their tongue shame in shame confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father what a reversal and folks it's not over it's this this is not over by any stretch yet as we heard in the song finish then your new creation there's much more of this reversal to come it's seen as well in verse 53 he's filled the hungry with good things but he sent the rich away empty not only true of physical hunger but also of spiritual hunger blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they sense they need it they have a sense of their need and they hunger and thirst for it whereas the proud have no sense of their need we are rich we have need of nothing they think and whereas those who sense their need and hunger for righteousness and thirst for righteousness they will be filled there it is from here to here filled whereas those who think they have righteousness and need nothing will be spit out of his mouth brought down revelation chapter 3 sent away empty so that's
[40:53] God lifting up humble nobodies like Mary confounding the proud who think they're somebodies he opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble and so I say the reversal of all things has begun with the incarnation of God's son the great reversal is coming even yet when the first will be last and the last will be first Mary sees it she sees it in herself she sees it in history so Mary knows her God to be one who mercifully singles out the lowly for his favor and blessing who mightily reverses their fortunes with the high and mighty proud and lastly who faithfully keeps his covenant promises notice verse 54 and 55 he has helped his servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever even as he said to our fathers you know those promises to Abraham were over 2,000 years old and in the birth of my son he's now remembering to keep them he hasn't forgotten every word of
[42:11] God will be fulfilled what was the promise Genesis 12 3 that in you Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed and the new testament reveals that that seed of Abraham is one it's Jesus and that in him all the families of the earth not just Jews Gentiles all the families of the earth are blessed with salvation blessing all those who have faith the faith of their father Abraham for Galatians 329 says if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's seed and heirs to the promise this promise to Abraham reaches right down to us in 2021 and sweeps us up in its embrace what can we say but great is thy faithfulness and that's what Mary sees so that's Mary's song and each of the four songs will tell us a little bit more about our God and a little more about her son what have we seen this morning
[43:21] Mary's song song teaches us about God and her coming baby first that this is just God doing what God does lifting up the humble putting down the proud we've seen that this birth is nothing less than God showing his might and mercy to save his people and lastly we've seen that this birth is the faithful God remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants just as he promised in that covenant with Abraham and his seed the baby to be born is that coming redeemer that was promised to Abraham to bring salvation blessings to all who by faith belong to him now though this is Mary's song then can you brothers and sisters not see that there's much here that is your song this is your God and we were the lost and helpless nobodies we were the ones without strength the nobodies of the world and God in mercy chose to set his love upon us and sent his son to be damned and cursed for us then sent his spirit to quicken us and regenerate us bring us to new life so that we would trust in this savior and repent of our sins and then to indwell us to help us on our way to heaven he took the righteousness of his son
[44:48] Jesus and he put it to our account in heaven and declared us righteous and then he adopted us right into his family we're sons of the living God we're heirs of God co-heirs with Jesus Christ how's that for honor from what we were now here we are co-heirs with Jesus of an eternal inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade reserved in heaven for us now you've noticed as John 1 John 3 says that the world is not treating you like the royalty that you are royal sons and daughters of the king of kings but we know that when he the reason they don't treat you well is because they did not know Christ when he visited but we know this that when he appears then we will appear with him in glory right now we're the scum of the earth we're the off scouring of this world we're the butt of their jokes they hate us they despise and reject us we're lowly in the world's view but the great reversal is going to happen when Jesus comes back and he will own us before the watching world as his own and we'll appear with him in glory and he'll say these are mine over here on my right come you who are blessed by my father blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world you see there will be this great reversal and then it will put right all that the fall put wrong and then will enter into his presence forever dwelling with him in a new heaven and a new earth the home of righteousness enjoying him who is the crown of heaven the lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land and so can't we say like Mary did that the mighty one has done great things for me can't we say as lowly as we still appear in this world's eyes this is our God and what he's done for us is downright amazing and so my soul magnifies the Lord there's no might like his mighty to save even me there's no mercy like his that would stoop so low as to save me and make me his child there's no faithfulness like his that he has never broken one promise and that promise to
[47:32] Abraham is now 4,000 years old over 4,000 years old and yet the salvation blessings of Abraham's son Jesus Christ are still being offered today do you know him have you trusted him you know the proudest thing you can say is I don't need him I'm doing fine without him because the reality is you do need him no one can come to the father except through him so come to him he's gentle and lowly in spirit and you'll find rest for your soul isn't this a God you can trust in believer isn't this a God you can say whatever my God ordains for me is right and I will say Lord I'm your servant may it be to me according to your word isn't this a God whom we can believe that everything he has said will be accomplished just as he said it oh then let's let's make that surrender of faith afresh this morning and bow to him let's let's take him at his word delight and all that he has said is true of us and that will be true of us the mighty one has done great things for us and we are glad and it's because of what that mighty one did in
[48:51] Jesus Christ and that coming redeemer that we can stand and sing today there is a redeemer there is one he has come he is Jesus God's own son stand and sing it from the overhead there is a redeemer thing