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ប្រតិចារិក
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This morning's lesson or scripture or sermon, I teach so many classes during the week I forget that I'm not doing a lesson, but the title of today's sermon is Setting the Stage. For those of you who may have missed a couple of weeks or maybe you have not been a part of our groups here, we are studying the life of Jesus Christ through a harmony of the gospels. We're going through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, And we're taking all of the scriptures that the apostles have given us, and we're gonna combine them into one chronological life story of the life of Jesus as he was here on earth, born of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, buried, ascended into heaven, and now sits at the throne of his father in heaven, ruling and reigning. And so we wanna learn more about our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we do that through studying the scriptures. And we're doing that through studying a harmony of the gospels. Now, for those of you, I wanna thank the faithful of you that have been here every week. Y'all will actually realize that we have only been in Luke 1 for about five weeks now. So that's the way it works when you teach expositionally through the Bible. When you go line by line, word by word, it takes a while to do it. But we've got until the Lord returns, and maybe that'll be today. But if not, we're gonna do what we can to learn more about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So with that said, let's go ahead and we'll, We're gonna read the scripture through, and then I'll give you some introductory statements, and then we'll break down the passage that we read. This is Luke chapter 1, verses 57 through 80. Luke chapter 1, verses 57 through 80. If you have your Bible with you, please turn there. If not, we do have it on the board behind me here. It says, now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth. and she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her, and they were rejoicing with her. And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias after his father. But his mother answered and said, No indeed, but he shall be called John. And they said, There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name. and they made signs to his father as to what he wanted him to called. And he asked for a tablet and he wrote as follows, his name is John. And they were all astonished. And at once his mouth was open and his tongue was loose and he began to speak in praise of God. Fear came on all those living around them and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, What then will this child turn out to be? For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father. to grant us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and in righteousness before him all our days. And you child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His way, to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit. And he lived in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel. We've titled this sermon, Setting of the Stage, and for the last couple of weeks, we have been setting the stage for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are celebrating the Christmas holidays in this month, and we want to make sure that our focus is on the reason why we celebrate. And today we're gonna see some of that. So I have three points that I wanna bring up to you. The first one has nothing to do with the text. I wanna give you a backdrop. And then we're gonna look at the birth of the Baptist. And finally, we will look at the benediction. So there's three points that we're gonna look at today. Number one, we're gonna look at the backdrop. Now again, for some of you, I do wanna apologize. Some of this will be refresher material, but if any of you are like me and your mind works like mine does, a refresher is not gonna be a bad thing. All right, so first of all, we need to realize that John, who we're talking about here, is portrayed as an Elijah. who will point us to God's work in history while looking forward to the fulfillment of his prophecies. So remember in the Old Testament, Elijah was a prophet of God and all of the Old Testament saints, or not all the Old Testament saints, but all of the writers of the Old Testament were prophets. The word prophet means one who speaks for God. And so God gave them words to speak so that not only could we know God, but that we can know ourselves and know the world around us. And so that we could know who he is and what he has promised to do. God made a promise through his word in the very beginning and said, if you walk with me and follow me, you will have eternal life. If you disobey me and turn from me, you will find eternal death. And instead of trusting God's word, Eve turned away from God's word and turned to the questioning nature of the serpent. Did God really say that you can't eat from all of the fruit? Once she began to question God's Word, once she began to question what God said, she turned away and was tempted. She took the fruit, she ate of the fruit, and she handed it to her husband, Adam, who was with her. Guys, we can't blame the woman. He was standing right there watching her do it. If he really loved her, he should have stopped her, but he didn't. He let her do it. And when she didn't drop dead, he grabbed that fruit and he ate too. and by them disobeying God and turning away from Him, they brought a condemnation and a death not only upon themselves, But the entire world around them, all of the creation that God had placed them in charge of, the reasons why you have to get out and rake leaves in the fall is because the tree leaves die and they fall off of the trees. And the reason why we lose our pets and the reason why we lose our loved ones and the reason why we get sick and the reason why we die is all based on the fact that we are all condemned in original sin. Because Adam and Eve turned, now all of Adam's seed is dead and trespasses in sin. But immediately after that, we learn in Genesis 3.15 that God said that the seed of a woman, the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. He would bruise his heel, but he would crush his head. So the promise is, is that, okay, Satan, you've tricked Eve, but one day that woman that you deceived is gonna have a baby that's gonna get you. And so all through the Old Testament, all of these prophets are prophesying about this coming seed who will come and deliver his people. And all through the scriptures, all through the Old Testament, God has sent His prophets to proclaim these truths to His people. And we have the Old Testament and we have the New Testament now to understand that God is a God who keeps His promise, a promise of death to those who reject Him and a promise to life everlasting to those who turn from death and turn back to Him. And those promises were given to us through the prophets. So John, this prophet, is just like Elijah. He's come to call out the world on their sin, and to point them to the promises of God. We learned that the appearance of John the Baptist signifies a renewal of prophecy and salvific acts of God. Remember for 400 years from the time of Malachi, the book of Malachi until the book of Matthew, there was about 400 years there, no visions, no angels, no prophecies, nothing. And what we need to understand is the people in Israel at the time of the coming of John, the people at the time of the coming of Jesus were just like us today. They were in a world that was full of famine, disease, pestilence, earthquakes, wars, darkness. And all they had for an answer was dead orthodoxy. And all they had was their rituals and their traditions. And they had taken the very word that God had given them, the very words that the prophet had given them, and had turned them around and used them to glorify themselves instead of to glorify God. And so this coming of John is an announcement in the same way that Elijah came and proclaimed the word of God, John is now going to come and proclaim light out of darkness. When Jesus comes, he is going to be a light in the darkness. In the same way, at the very beginning of the Bible, we see God said, let there be light. That's exactly what happens when the word of God comes. When Jesus comes, he brings light with him. So John signifies that God is fixing to carry out or continue on with the promise that he has made to his people. We also need to realize that in my last couple of weeks we've talked about this angel Gabriel who has come both to Mary and come to Elizabeth. Next week we'll see that he's come to Joseph. And this angel is coming and giving the people a message. And the same thing happened in the Old Testament. If you read the book of Daniel, if you go to Daniel 8, Daniel couldn't figure out these visions that God had sent him. And so God sent the angel Gabriel to help Daniel to know that, yes, your people are in slavery in Babylon, but I have a plan and it's a long-term plan and it's gonna take a long time to happen, but this is the plan. And Gabriel came and helped explain that plan to Daniel. Remember the word angel means a messenger and God sent his messengers to come and let Daniel know that God was about to do something about the captivity of his people in Babylon in the same way that God came and spoke to Moses in the Old Testament in the bush and said I'm fixing to do something about my people who are in slavery. And so with the background of the Old Testament, we need to remember that Jesus is coming, that John is coming to announce Jesus, and Jesus is coming in the same way that Moses came to deliver the people, in the same way that God came and delivered his people from Babylon, in the same way Jesus is coming to deliver his people, to save them from their enemies. We also have learned in the last couple of weeks that at the coming of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit is intensifying, is it not? When we think about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, we immediately go to the book of Acts. We see where God poured His Holy Spirit out on the church and 3,000 were saved in one day. But the reality is that God's Holy Spirit is the eternal Spirit of God and He has always been with us. When Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle, it said that the workers that were building the tabernacle, the two men that were doing it, were filled with the Holy Spirit so that they could have the knowledge to do what they'd done. And God uses His Spirit to fill His people. And so we're seeing this intensifying of the Holy Spirit. Who have we seen so far that has been filled with the Holy Spirit? John the Baptist, right? In the womb. In the womb, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His mother, Elizabeth, has been filled with the Holy Spirit. And Mary has been filled with the Holy Spirit. And today, we're gonna see where Zachariah is filled with the Holy Spirit. And you know what happens to people when they're filled with the Holy Spirit? They begin to proclaim the praises of God. And that's what we're gonna see. And not only that, today in our pastor, we're gonna see where Zachariah is proclaiming the glory to God, but he's also proclaiming truth of what God has done in the past and what he will continue to do in the future. So we see an intensity in the presence of the Holy Spirit. One of the things that I've said over and over again here, and I hope that you can hear what I'm pointing at, but we've talked about this in the past, but I wanna make sure that we know that this theme of barren wombs, that Elizabeth was barren. She couldn't have kids. Mary was barren. Why? Because she didn't know a man. And we've seen this over and over through the Bible. Rebecca, right? Sarah, Abraham's wife, couldn't have children. Rebecca, Isaac's wife, couldn't have children. Rachel couldn't have children. The mother of Samson couldn't have kids. Hannah couldn't have children. All of these barren wounds and God stepped in and did something about it. But remember in those cases where he stepped in and did something about it. What did he do with Samson when his barren mother bore him? She bore a hero that would come and deliver his people and set them free, right? What did he do? We're studying this in our Bible studies on Monday nights. What did he do with Rachel, who is the favorite of Jacob? Now remember, Judah comes through Leah. But Rachel had a child that was very important. Who was it? Joseph. And so through that barren womb, God stepped in and they had a child. And what did that child do? He was sent ahead of his brothers into Egypt to deliver his people from a famine. And so God steps in in our barrenness and brings forth fruit to his praise and to his glory. For every one of us in this room, if you are here today and you truly are a born again, blood bought child of God, God and his spirit stepped into the dead barren womb of a heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh, and filled you with His Spirit, and set you free. And out of all of that death and barrenness, God brings forth fruit. And so we see this, we see these barren wombs over and over again, and it's a reminder to us, it's a reminder to us that God always keeps His promises, and that the presence of God for His people is an underlying theme in all of these stories. God's will is being done. Then we saw, I want to turn to a passage of scripture really quick in Isaiah to remind you about this barren womb because look what the prophet Isaiah says. It says, the children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, the place is too cramped for me, make room for me that I may live here. Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and I am barren? I am in exile and a wanderer. And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone. For where did these come from? And so this is, the children of Israel are living in idolatry, they're living in slavery, they're living in death and destruction and wars and pestilence, and they are a barren people. And the prophet Isaiah is promising that one day that out of that barrenness would come many children. Out of that barrenness would come many children and that God would produce a people for himself. All right? And so with that said, we see that we were reminded last week that Jesus comes through Davidic descent. that he was promised to be great, that he would come from the throne of David, that he would be a divine son. He would not only be a son of David, but he would be the son of God. And so all of this backdrop comes into play. We've got the scene set behind us now for now the birth of John the Baptist, and immediately next week after the birth of John the Baptist, we're gonna see the birth of Jesus. So God has set, he is setting the stage He is setting the stage to redeem His people just like He promised. And we can take that and we can apply it to today. God is setting the stage today. His Son sits at His right hand and rules from on high and the Father and Son have sent the Holy Spirit to this earth to continue that work, to redeem a people for Himself. To pull a people out of darkness and bring them into the light. To set the captives free. To set us free from our enemies. You have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And they're doing everything they can to destroy you. But God and His Holy Spirit is keeping His promise. And remember, God did not just save you from hell, which He did. That's very important. But he also saved you and set you free from your enemies. You no longer have to serve sin. You no longer have to serve the world. You no longer have to serve your flesh. He set you free to be his people. And so all of this backdrop is a reminder that God is continually keeping his promises. His son Jesus ensures that for us. So, with that said, we've seen the backdrop. Let's look at the birth of the Baptist. In Luke chapter 1 and verse 57, it says, Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. Well, how do we know it's a son? They didn't have a reveal party. How do we know that? How do we know that? Well, because in our last lesson together, we saw where Gabriel came and said what? You're gonna have a son. And there was no gender misrepresentation, right? No gender confusion. He's a boy. John was a boy. The time was fulfilled and she gave birth. Remember, all time is God's time. And his plan is being worked out just like it's supposed to. When we live in doubt and fear of our lost loved ones who are out there struggling in sin, we need to understand that there is a God who is at work and His work will be done. It will be done in His time and it will be done in His way. You are to pray. You are to trust Him in whatever comes. But God's work is being done and we need to simply trust Him and allow Him to work. So the time was fulfilled, she gave birth to a son. Verse 58 it says that her neighbors and her friends recognized God's mercy in her life and they were overcome with joy. With mercy comes joy. Now the question I ask you this morning is do your neighbors and your friends see the joy in your life? Do they know that God has been merciful to you? When God is at work, there is mercy involved. There is the law and justice and judgment, but there is also mercy and forgiveness. And His law drives us to His mercy. And when we find His mercy, we find joy. And if He is at work in my heart, He should be at work in my mind and in my words and in my thoughts and my deeds and my actions. And the people around me should notice that. Do people around you see God's mercy and joy in your life? Her family and her friends recognized God's mercy. In verse 59 it says this, And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias after his father. So, on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. All right, let's look at a couple of passages of Scripture. Why are they doing this on the eighth day? Why did they bring this child to the Temple of the Circumcised on the eighth day? And what we're going to find out is, is that Elizabeth and Zechariah were faithful and righteous people, and they walked in the promises of God, and they looked to God's promises, so they followed those promises. Well, what do we see? We see nothing. Oh, sorry. Can you find it? It's the Genesis 17, 12. All right, so in Genesis 17, 12, every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or is brought with money from any foreigners who is not of your descendants. So this is the promise, this is the covenant seal for Abraham and the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham. He said, all of your kids are going to be circumcised, right? And now it's very notable that in general, the child would be named at their birth. But in the examples of John and Jesus, both of these boys are going to be named at their circumcision. Well, this may be pointing to the relationship to Abraham because we know that when Abraham was circumcised, his name was changed from Abram to Abraham. He got a new name at his circumcision. And so there may be some significance pointing back to the fact that John the Baptist is the foreteller or the forerunner of Jesus who is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Remember what he said, and to every male among you who is circumcised, they will be circumcised, but God made a promise to Abraham and said, to your seed, through your seed, all of the nations will be blessed. And we talked about that last week. Who is the seed of Abraham? Jesus himself. He's the very seed that it points to. And so Jesus was circumcised, John was circumcised, all of these boys were circumcised, I want to remind you of a couple more things. Let's look at the other two passages there. So they're following the scriptures. What does it say in Genesis 24? Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. When there's mercy and joy in our lives, when we're walking in righteousness, then we follow God's word. And what are his parents doing there following God's word? In the book of Leviticus, what does it say? On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. So this was a covenant sign to all of the male children that they were children of the promise. The problem with that is, is that it takes more than just cutting a man's skin to make him a child of God. It was an outward seal of what was supposed to be an inward sign. Because remember Ishmael was circumcised, and so was Isaac. But Ishmael was not the child of promise. It was Isaac who was the child of promise. And so I want to look at a couple of New Testament passages to remind you of this. We want to see that circumcision was a very important seal to the Abrahamic covenant, but The implications are deeper. I want you to turn with me first to Romans chapter two. This is the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. And a matter of fact, he reminds us in his letters that he was circumcised on the eighth day. Like, he's legit, okay? Physically, he's legit. But look at what Paul is reminding us in the letter to the Romans. Look what he says. For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, nor is his circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but of God. So, who gets credit for the circumcision of the heart? God. Now go back to that first passage again, the Romans. Now watch this. Now, we're not supposed to add or take away from God's Word, and I'm not doing this, but I want to point out something to you, something significant. Remember, in the same way that Israel was struggling, the church today struggles in the same way. Could I not read this in a common way today for us. I'm just going to do this and I want you to see if it applies to you. For he is not a Christian who is one outwardly, nor is his baptism that which is of the outward flesh. But he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and the baptism is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter, and his praise is not for men, but of God. Well, why did I bring that up? Because all of us Baptists are very quick to point out that we came down that aisle and accepted Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, and we were baptized, and most of us have a little letter that says we were baptized. You see? But in the same way that the Jew was not necessarily a true child of Abraham unless he had the faith of Abraham, a Christian is not a true Christian unless he has the heart of Christ. The work has to be on the inside. Now, listen, we are commanded to be baptized, and it is very important. But it's the baptism of the heart that saves you, and that's the work of the Holy Spirit. You see? Again, it is very important that we be baptized. Because it is the command of God and it is your first opportunity as a child of God to profess your faith to your fellow man. But it's the work of the heart that matters. And that's what Paul is trying to point out to these people. Just because you're circumcised in the flesh does not make you a true child of Abraham. A true child of Abraham is one who has the faith of Abraham. that's what he was telling them and it applies to me and you just as much it's faith that we are saved all of the other stuff, the outward things come we're gonna do an outward sign of our covenant with Christ today as we take the Lord's Supper but what matters most is have I fed spiritually on the blood and the body of Christ? do I know Him? is He my Lord and Savior. That's where it matters. All right, so, let's look at one more passage just to emphasize that a little more. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and it says this, Therefore, remember that formerly you, now Paul is talking to the church at Ephesus and this is a Gentile church, so he's not necessarily talking to a bunch of Jews, he's talking to a mixed congregation and it's mostly Gentiles. And look what he says, Therefore, remember that formerly, this was before you were saved, that you Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. So let me summarize that. He's saying you're Gentiles and they're Jews. And they're calling you uncircumcised because in your flesh you are uncircumcised. but they're talking about a circumcision that was made with hands. You see, look at it again. Remember that you were Gentiles and the flesh were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed by the flesh of hands. So there was a bunch of people that were bragging and boasting on the fact that they were physical kids of Abraham. And Paul's saying, watch, what did he say next? Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ Excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. All right, the Commonwealth means the state of Israel and Strangers to the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world. All right, but now in Christ You who were formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ For he himself is our peace. That's one of the things we celebrate at Christmas, the peace of Christ. Who made both groups into one and broke down the divine wall. You see what he's saying there? That it's the work of God that makes us a child of God. We need to grasp that. It's not what we do outwardly that makes us a child of God, it's who we are inwardly. But if God is in me, he comes out of me. We are saved by faith through grace. It is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But, the next verse says, but we were created unto good works. God saved me so that I could work. God saved me so that I could be an expression of his light and love in the world around me. That salvation starts inwardly and works its way out. For the Jew in the Old Testament, their idea was it starts on the outward and works itself in. And it never works that way. It's always the work of God that starts the work of salvation. In verse 60 and 61 it says this, but his mother answered and said, no indeed, but he will be called John. Why are they naming him John? Why don't they just name him Zacharias after his dad? Well, those of y'all who were here last week, we learned what? Gabriel said, you will call his name John. He will be a boy and you will call his name John. And so then they thought his mom was just fooling. They were like, you don't even have anybody in your family by that name. So they turned to dad, and why doesn't dad answer? He can't talk. He got his tongue zapped because he didn't trust God when God said something to him. So his mouth is closed. He gets a tablet, and I'm sure it worked better than mine did this morning, right? And he wrote down what? His name is John. Not it will be John, it is John. Why? Because God had already named him in the womb. God had already sealed him and claimed him for itself. His name is John. He knows his sheep and he calls them by what? Name. Amen? So look what he says there in verse 62 and 63. And they asked for a tally. He wrote his name as John. And they were all astonished. And what happened? And at once, as soon as he gave glory to God, His mouth was open, his tongue was loosed, and what happened when God loosed his tongue? He began to praise God, right? When God sets us free, the praises start flowing. So, fear came upon the people, and these matters were talked about, and then in verse 66 they ask this, what will this child be? The hand of the Lord is with him. So they ask a question. What then will this child be for the hand of the Lord? So they knew that God was at work here, but they were asking, what will this child be? Well, Zechariah's tongue has been loosed. John has been born, his tongue, Zachariah's tongue has been loosed, and when God loosed our tongue, what do we do? We praise God. So watch, now we're gonna see, we've seen the birth of the Baptist, now we're gonna see the benediction. We're gonna see Zachariah give praises to God for what he has done. At the end of our service today, we will have a benediction. All right, the last thing we do is I'm gonna read a verse of scripture to you. It is a blessing from the word of God that is offered to you to receive. A benediction is words of blessing. And that is exactly what Zachariah is gonna do here. He's got a baby boy from a barren womb. He's got the joy of God in his heart and his tongue has been loosed to sing his praises. And because the spirit of God has filled him, the spirit of God is gonna come out of him in the words of God. The benediction focuses not on John as the individual baby, but on God and his mighty acts on behalf of his people. The filling in verse 67, it says, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. The filling of the Holy Spirit and the appearance of prophecy point to the arrival of a significant period of salvation history when the mighty acts of God are evident to all. We're gonna skip the Psalms passages, but these blessings to God is a theme that goes all through the book of Psalms. And it's thanks to God for what he has done for his people. And again, what is the theme of what he's done for his people? He has rescued his people. You in this room, he rescued you out of death and darkness. To the children of Israel, he rescued them out of slavery. To the children of Babylon, he rescued them out of slavery. God is constantly stepping in and doing things for his people. And when God does for his people, They praise Him in thought and word and deed. Let me say that again. When God sets His people free, when God works in His people's lives, their thoughts, their words, and their actions reflect that in who they are. All right, so that's what this benediction is about. It says in verse 69, that the horn, he has raised up a horn for salvation for us in the house of David, his servant, all right? Now a horn was a symbol of power and might, right? He raised up a horn, he's raised up this power, this son, right? Again, it's not talking about John, it's talking about Jesus who is to come, and it's also talking about God who has continually raised up his power to deliver his people. It's talking about this horn of salvation that would come from David's line. From the tribe of Judah, from David, a son would come to set his people free. And then verse 70, look what verse 70 says. It says, he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. If you don't hear much else that I said today, please hear this. God always works according to his word, his name, his promise. The prophets spoke the promises of God and God always works according to his promises, right? We have been given his name. We are his children. Every one of you in this room have a last name and you got it from your dad or your husband. But if you are a child of God, you have a name too. And it's the name of Christian. It's the name of child of God. And when the Ten Commandments tell us not to take the name of the Lord God in vain, it's not just talking about saying GD or OMG. It's talking about the fact that you are walking around with His name on you and you are not to live an empty and vain life with that presence. God always works according to His Word. Look what He said again in verse 70. He said, as he spoke by the mouth of his prophets from old. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Is that not there? Y'all might not have noticed, but anytime that y'all are looking at these references that we're putting them on the screen, y'all see how that's in all large letters? Well, most of the older crowd won't know this, but if you're in the younger crowd, you know that if somebody texts you like that, they're yelling at you, right? Or if you're on social media and you type in all caps, they're screaming. It's a raised voice. But in the translation that I used, that is simply a quote from the Old Testament. That's what that's doing. It's saying that this is a direct quotation from the Old Testament. And again, it should be screamed loud, shouldn't it? Because this is a promise of God and He is declaring that it is being fulfilled now. And so in the same way that a lot of us grew up with the old King James Bibles with the red letters, right? And the red letters symbolizing all the words that Jesus spoke. Well, the reality is, is Jesus spoke everywhere from Genesis to Revelation 22, like everywhere is his. But I think these are cool because it reminds us that God is constantly keeping his promises and that the Bible is one big story with one main character. and it's all God's word, but that's what that's saying there. So that's, it's the reply from the book of Psalms that God saves us from our enemies. Who have we said that are our enemies? The world, the flesh, and the devil. And Jesus has come to set us free from that power. Jesus has come to set us free from those things. So God always works according to his word and his promise. The language of deliverance from those who hate us comes from the book of Psalms, right? The world, the flesh and the devil hate you and are trying to destroy you. Verse 72 says this, to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember his covenant of grace with his people, to remember his covenant. So the Abraham and the Davidic covenants were covenants of grace. The covenant that God made with Abraham at the very beginning is the covenant of grace. He said, through you, all of the nations will be blessed. And he made a promise that God would graciously act through Abraham. In verse 73, he swore to Abraham. Right, see that? 73, the oath which he swore to Abraham. What did he swear to Abraham? That through your seed, all of the nations will be blessed. And when Jesus comes next week, when we get into that sermon, we're gonna realize that the seed of the woman who's gonna crush the serpent head has been delivered. He's come. So he swore to Abraham. Verse 74 and 75 said, we are rescued from our enemies that we might serve. Look at it again, 74 and five. He grants us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear. We've talked about this over and over in the past. We are saved by grace, but we are saved to work. Our works do not save us, but if we are saved, we do work. God's mercy sets us free to serve him. God's mercy sets us free to serve him. The purpose of divine deliverance has been formulated throughout the Bible. Let my people go. That's what Moses said to Abraham, didn't he? Let my people go, but then what did he say? That they may serve me. Remember what Moses said to Pharaoh? Let my people go that they may serve me. And that's been a theme throughout the Bible. God sets us free that we might serve him. A couple more verses and we'll wind it down. Verse 76, says that the child now, so the focus has been on what God is doing. Now it's going to focus a little more on John the Baptist. It says, the child will be called the prophet of the most high. All right. Jesus will be called the son of the most high. John is going to be called the prophet of the most high. And we've talked about this in the past in the book of Isaiah and in the book of Malachi, it is prophesied that John would come as a forebearer of the Messiah that is to come. Verse 77, to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. How do we know we are saved? We know we are saved when we are forgiven for our sins. John came preaching and teaching a knowledge of salvation. And you know what John's message was? God loves you? No. It was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Stop living for yourself. Stop living for the world. Stop living for the flesh and the devil. Turn from sin, self, and you and turn to God and He will save you. That is the message that John the Baptist brought. And he didn't go to the temple to preach it because nobody in the temple wanted to hear that. He went out into the wilderness and he went and he found the people that were struggling in sin and famine, and death, and hunger, and starvation, and over-taxation, and they were crippled, and lame, and blind, and haught. And He went to those people and said, Turn from sin itself and receive the kingdom of God. And to anyone who will turn to Him, He will save you. He will forgive you. So John came preaching a knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sin. John comes preaching repentance. Verse 78, because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet in the way of peace. All right, I want to turn to Isaiah 9 and look at this really fast and then we'll close. Again, he's reminding us of Old Testament promises. But there was no more gloom for her who was in anguish. Now remember, this is written 800 years before Jesus was ever born. But it's a prophecy of a come and promise. There's no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In early times, he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. We know who Naphtali and Zebulun are, don't we? If you come to our Bible study on Monday night, you know who they are. All right, and it says, 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. Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Where's that light coming from? You shall multiply the nations. Not just about the Jewish people, is it? I can look around this room today and tell you it's not just about the Jewish people. There's people from every nation, tribe, and tongue that are going to be bowing around at the throne shouting, holy, holy, holy. You shall multiply the nations. You will increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of a harvest as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you will break the yoke of burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressors as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tunnel and the cloak rolled in blood will be for burning fuel and fire. The wars are going to end. 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. There will be no end to his government. increase of his government or his peace. On the throne of David over his kingdom, he will establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So at Christmas time, we often quote that verse, for unto us a son is born and to us a child is given. But if you take it in the entire context, we're realizing that it's because of a promise that God said in the land of Galilee, a great light is going to shine and all of the nations will be blessed through the shining of that light. Then it brings up Jesus, that He's born, He's the Son of God, that He is the mighty, wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. And then it reminds us that His kingdom will be established when He sits on the throne, and that His peace would have no end. And so all of it is a promise about how God keeps His promises. So, with that said, we will call it into our lesson for today, our sermon for today. But a couple things to remember. One mainly. God always keeps his promise. And the more you read his word, the more you study his word, the more you understand those promises, the more blessed assurance you will have. And so that's why we're here. We're here to celebrate the promise of God. And with that said, and it being the first Sunday of the month, we will prepare to take the Lord's supper.
Setting The Stage
ស៊េរី Whitemarsh Island Baptist
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old— (Luke 1:70)
លេខសម្គាល់សេចក្ដីអធិប្បាយ | 124232141511936 |
រយៈពេល | 47:39 |
កាលបរិច្ឆេទ | |
ប្រភេទ | ការថ្វាយបង្គំថ្ងៃអាទិត្យ |
អត្ថបទព្រះគម្ពីរ | អេសាយ 9:1-7; លូកា 1:57-80 |
ភាសា | អង់គ្លេស |
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