I invite you to look with me in Luke chapter 1. Once again, we're going down through this song of Zacharias. Just like we sang this great hymn, there's a fountain filled with blood. And there's meaning in every line. Even more so here, because this is the inspired Word of God. And so we can't just rush through it. like we just sang this glorious hymn in less than three minutes, four minutes, and move on. Here's the Word that we have before us. And so we're taking it in bite-size bits that we can, by God's grace, take and savor and chew on, the Lord being our teacher. But let's read here from verse 68 down to verse 71, particularly, even though it goes all the way down to verse 80. So we'll just take a little bit of time. But this is my text here, and I want to speak with you on the horn of salvation. Zacharias, it says there in verse 67, filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied. That's what it takes, the Spirit directing our minds and tongues. And he said, verse 68, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people. So that's the truth we saw last time with reference to Christ. But now we see the explanation. And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us." How wonderful to see the unfolding of prophecy in Scripture. Now having said that, I know there are a bunch of prophecy mongers out there that as soon as you announce your title that we're going to be studying prophecy, they come a running because they want to know how this Scripture pertains to what's going on in Israel, what's going on in Iran. Back when I was going to school, the big thing was the United States versus Russia. And now today, you kind of look at that and think, Where's Russia? The Lord dismantled it. Soviet Union. Heard more prophecy messages on the Soviet Union and how the end times were coming and Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, Israel and Egypt. I remember one preacher saying, if they ever sign an agreement, then we're out of here. The rapture is coming and everything. So they went and had this big agreement conference and everybody is standing and looking up at the sky. Oh, nothing happened. Okay, let's go back and look again. The problem is they're studying Scriptures from the wrong perspective. Because prophecy of Scripture, even as here in verse 67 where it says, the Holy Ghost filled Zechariah and caused him to prophesy. I want to tell you, dear friends, Any prophecy of Scripture that we read here is not about people and events and times and seasons. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to show that to you just in a couple of Scriptures because that's what we're seeing here. When his mouth was opened, he wasn't exalting Israel as a nation. He said, Bless be the Lord God of Israel. There's a difference. He hath visited and redeemed his people. It's not everybody, but they're not all Israel that are of Israel. So there is a specific salvation. And now he says even further, and hath raised up a horn of salvation forth. Bob just read about that. All the way back there in 2 Samuel 22, where David looked forward to this horn of salvation that would be raised up. He wasn't talking about himself. He was just but a small cameo, if you will, of what Christ would accomplish when He came. That's how we're to read the Scriptures. Let me show you that. 2 Corinthians, keep your hand here because we'll come back, but 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 20. There are a lot of promises and prophecies that we find in the Scriptures? How are we to interpret them? Well, we don't have to go far. Let's begin in verse 17. Paul's talking about his having come their way to preach. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 17. He said, When I, therefore, was thus minded, did I use likeness? Or the things that I purposed? Did I purpose according to flesh? He had purposed time and again to come their way, but the Lord hadn't permitted it. And some were just criticizing him for not sacrificing enough or whatever. And he said, well, wait a minute. I've never used lightness when it comes to this matter of preaching the gospel and where the Lord directs me to preach it. And he says that with me, there should be yay, yay, and nay, nay. In other words, constantly changing our position or our mind. But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. Here it is, verse 20. For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him, amen, under the glory of God. So this matter of coming to the Scriptures and preaching the types and the pictures and the prophecies and the promises of God, dear friends, they're all summed up in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him they are yea and amen. I'll never have to change a prophecy that I declare unto you if I point you to Christ. Now if I get off into tangents and start preaching Israel and Syria and Iran and Iraq and all this stuff. I'm telling you what That's all yay nay because no one has a clue No, I remember back years ago when I was in high school and got all caught up in this stuff and this author knew how to get you to buy the next edition because every year he came out with a new edition with a little code of updated prophecies that was in a sealed envelope in the in the back of the book and And you had to buy the book. You weren't allowed to stand there in the bookstore and open it and kind of peek in to see, okay, how's he relating the prophecy now that a year's gone by? He had people buying that book. That guy's a retired millionaire. But his prophecies were yea, nay. That's what you get when it's not Christ. But found this message, this book, everything on the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is and what He accomplished, you'd never go wrong. Look also in Revelation chapter 19. Then we'll get back here to Zechariah, but Revelation chapter 19. Now this is the marriage feast of the Lamb. This is where it's all consummated. The Lord has already redeemed his people. He's already been espoused to his bride. The payment has been made. But there remains what's described here as the marriage feast of the Lamb, the celebrating, the glorying in what He's done. And in verse 7 of Revelation 19, we'll just jump in here. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted. See, how did she make herself ready? It wasn't her going out buying a bride's dress. No, to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. What's that? That's the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What God imputed to his church upon completion of Christ's work there at the cross. And it says, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. It's not saying it's their personal righteousness. It's saying the only righteousness they have, even to be called saints, is this righteousness that God imputed to their account. Now look at verse 9, And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's a specific people that have been called to it by His grace. And he saith unto me, These are the true saints of God. Now, when John heard this, look at the response. Whenever the Spirit of God directs our hearts to Christ, this is what you will have as a result. And I fell at his feet to worship him. But what's the problem? The messenger that brought it, it was at his feet that John fell. And he said unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus." We get in trouble whenever we begin to exalt a preacher, elevate a preacher. I don't care how clear on the gospel that preacher is. This messenger that brought John the message, it so impacted him that he fell at his feet to worship him. And that messenger, just like John the Baptist, he said, no, it's not about me, it's about him. He must increase, I must decrease. And he says very clearly here, worship God. I trust that's why you're here today. Worship God. Now notice, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus. all that pertains to the Lord Jesus. What does Jesus mean? Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. That, dear friends, if you make that the key to reading all of Scripture, I don't care, from Genesis to Revelation, you can never go wrong. You'll never have to back up and say, oh, well, I meant, you know, I thought it was this, and now it's this. It's Christ and Him crucified. Stay with it. That's the key of David. That's what's missing. in men's preaching. But it's not missing in the Word. And so we come back here to Luke chapter 1. And that's the first point I want you to see here. You can see why I broke this down. Because we're just now getting to the meat here in verse 69. "...and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us." Here's the first point. That the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is that horn of salvation. It says, "...and hath raised up a horn." This wasn't people going around and voting on Jesus to declare Him to be Lord. That's what we've got today. Preachers running around, won't you please believe in Jesus? Come on, we need your vote. It's like he's running for a campaign or something. No. It's too late. God has already established His King on His holy hill. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us. Zechariah's here is prophesying concerning what was about to happen, even though it had not yet happened. And yet the Spirit in him directed him to go back and read the Scriptures and from those Scriptures understand that what was about to take place was the raising up of the horn of salvation, the fulfillment of what the Scriptures had declared concerning the Messiah that should come. But who raised him up? God. This was God's doing. And it says there in the house of his servant, David, well, that goes all the way back there to what the scriptures said that of the seed of David, Bob, you read it in second Samuel 22, that of the seed of David, the Lord would raise up one to sit upon that throne. And he did in the Lord Jesus Christ and would be conceived of a virgin of his house. You know, it wasn't just happenstance that it happened to be Mary. She was of the house of David. Mary was. Every detail. And who in a little time would be born in Bethlehem. The city of David. That's what Bethlehem is called. The city of David. Do you suppose it was a mistake that the decree went forth that everybody should be taxed. The word means to register. They should be registered by the Roman government. At that time where Joseph and Mary would have to leave their town of Nazareth. He wasn't to be born in Nazareth. He was to be raised in Nazareth. But he was born in Bethlehem. Why? City of David. That's how the Scriptures look at it. And therefore he's called the Horn of Salvation. Now think with me just a little bit about this. Horn. We're not talking about blowing a horn and making noise. In scripture, the word horn, when it speaks of horn of salvation, it denotes power. Think about animals that like to fight the ram. What do they have? Horns. Think about the buffalo. What's he got? Horns. And so the horn, to the beast, what it is to the beast, is as the arm is to man. It talks about strength. It talks about defending oneself. It talks about pushing down enemies. This is a metaphor that you will find throughout Scriptures concerning animals. Just look with me for a few Scriptures in Psalm 18 and verse 2. Psalm 18. In verse 2. Verse 1 says, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and what? The horn of my salvation and my high tower. Look what it's found in the middle of. Fortress. Strength, butler, these are all words that relate to defense, battle, strengthening, armament, but the horn of my salvation in my high tower. So, when Zacharias here was saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath raised up a horn of salvation, he's talking about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in his strength. He was strengthened in this mission and coming as a man to accomplish all that was necessary for the salvation of his people. I would also tell you that in the word horn, think of sacrifice. Because when they would offer sacrifices, you remember a lot of the feasts in the Old Testament required the priest to sound the horn. Where did they get those horns? They were made out of ram's horns. That meant there was an animal that had been sacrificed and the blowing of the horn was a signal that the sacrifice had been made. Back then, atonement. But a forward look to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. So think of it in that term as well. But the second part of this in Luke 1 and verse 69, hath raised up a horn of salvation. That's what this is all about. The need to be saved. And dear friends, here again, it is showing in this one statement that it is entirely the work of Christ. The same One who was raised up came for one purpose, and that was to save His people from their sins. That was the reason He was raised up. He didn't come just to be an example. He certainly didn't come just to lay down His life as a martyr. Men can cite different men down through history. I hear them all the time talk about, well, this one was a martyr, that one was a martyr. and they have people following them as martyrs, but that's not salvation. Salvation is in this one that God the Father raised up and whose Savior He is. Attached to the word horn of salvation, a mighty salvation. When I hear of preachers today talking about a Savior that would like to save but can't, I immediately come back here to Scripture and say, well, they must be talking about somebody else. It's kind of interesting, you go out and Google your name on the internet and you find out there's like hundreds of people that have your same name across the United States and I've often wondered what if I got one of their summons to court or something because they thought it was the, this is the Ken Wymer. I'd have to answer to it and try to prove. That's what they do in identity theft. Go out there and take your name and start opening up accounts and buying stuff and next thing you know, They're knocking at your door saying, do you need to collect? And you're saying, well, wait a minute, that's not me. The same thing is true with regard to salvation. People, everybody in the world talking about Jesus right now. Jesus this and the little babe in the manger and all this stuff. And you stop them, it's like you've rained on their parade. Now, wait a minute, what are we talking about? What Jesus? People like to hear about a little baby Jesus boy born in a manger and little drummers and all this stuff had nothing to do with the Christ of Scripture. I'd like to hear about the horn of salvation. I'd like to hear about a Christ who came and who is mighty to save and has saved and in His coming, doing, dying and rising again. There's no salvation in a manger. Now it's all about Him being born and humbling Himself that He might lay down His life. That's the message that people hear. There's nowhere in Scripture that we're ever taught to celebrate Christ's birthday. And they've got the date wrong anyway. It's just the church named December 25th, so everybody's all excited about it, but it has nothing to do with the Christ of Scripture. I'll tell you, the thing over and over again that you're going to find in Scripture that we are to look to and celebrate is His death. And that salvation that He came and accomplished, whereby the sins of His people, He put away their sin and made reconciliation for them. All of that is summed up in the Horn of Salvation. You talk about strength. That's what it took. That He might be the mighty Savior. Just think about your own sins. See, we spend time thinking about everybody else's sin, but think about your own sin. Had everybody else in the world been perfect and righteous except for you, it would not have required one drop of blood less for God to save you than what Christ shed for your sin. He paid your debt. You stop and think about that. It's not just that he died, but whose blood was shed when he died. and undergoing, obeying the precepts of the law, undergoing the penalty of it. You talk about all that was required. See, we quickly pass over. Okay, yeah, Jesus died for our sins, so let's get on to the next point. Stop. Whoa, wait a minute. You stop and think about a holy God, a just God, and what it requires for God to be just and save a sinner like you and me. It'll give you pause if the Spirit teaches you to think, It required a mighty Savior. The horn of salvation. You see, that's what we see there. And deliverance. Deliverance from sin. Deliverance from Satan. But dear friends, even deliverance from the law. Do you realize when Christ paid the debt, it was in answer to the very law of God? Had it not been answered, God could not save you or me. What a mighty horn. And no other way could it be done. So when you think of him being the horn of salvation and you think of an animal defending its territory and coming in and striking with that horn. And we're talking about Christ the Lamb of God. And taking on the sin of his people. Just like a grappling. The Scriptures say that he was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin. I'm thankful that my salvation doesn't even depend upon me seeing how sinful I am in order to be really, like we do with our kids, are you really, really sorry? If you are, then okay. That kid's going to say, I'm sorry. They can even cry crocodile tears. Okay, I'm ready to go out and play. That's the way people are before God. Okay, God, I'm tired of the pressure. I'm sorry. God would have to condemn us to hell for our greatest repentance. It's not my crying and my tears. It was His taking on the law and satisfying it. is all of my salvation. It's conquering. These are terms that you'll find in Scripture. Spoiling the enemy. The principality. Destroying it. There's a battle. And all of that was summed up in this horn of salvation. So, when it says here, and hath raised up a horn of salvation, think in this term. Strength of salvation. Where is the strength of salvation? It's in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mighty to save. meaning none other than the Savior himself, Christ himself. Look at Luke chapter 2 and verse 30. Luke 2 and verse 30. Remember old Simeon? He was brought to the temple. It says there in verse 25, Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was waiting for that one to Scripture set forth. And the Holy Ghost was upon him. So there again is proof. In Scripture, when the Holy Spirit is upon someone, they're not falling down and talking in tongues and having all this gyrations and hoopty-doo like you hear people talking about. He was directed to the Savior. He was waiting as he read the Scriptures, waiting for the hope, the consolation of Israel. He had no hope in himself. And it says in verse 26, it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Look how that's put. God Himself needed a Savior. God Himself, to satisfy that law and justice and know that He might be just and justified, needed this One called Christ, the Anointed One. It says, He came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him after the custom of the law, even from His childhood Christ had to fulfill the law and justice. Then He took Him up in His arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, Notice, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. What was he looking at? A babe in arms. But the Spirit was showing him, just like Zacharias over here in Luke 1, showing him that this one who was to be born was to be none other than Christ the Savior. So, the word horn signifies authority, power, and honor, dignity, All of these things that describe and picture our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our time is about gone, but come back here to Luke 1 and verse 70. Because it says, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. That's the second point that I want you to see here. That Christ is the horn of salvation, is the fulfillment of Holy Scripture. as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets. Holy, not in themselves, but holy because they have been sanctified and set apart for this one mission, and that is to declare Christ. And it says there, doesn't it, which have been since the world began, go all the way back to creation. In every book of Scripture, it has but one thing pointing to Christ. You think about in Genesis, what? The seed of the woman. Right from the beginning. Right from the fall. Genesis 3.15. That should bruise the serpent's head. Crush the serpent's head. That was spoken right from the beginning. Even Adam, you know, it seems that he had respect to Christ when he called his wife Eve. Because Eve signifies what? And what he was saying in declaring her Eve was that that seed that God had promised would come through her. And she should be the mother of all living is the way the Scripture is saying. But I understand it to mean she would, through her seed, the seed of the woman, all the way pointing to the virgin, Mary, would come forth that one of whose seed would be all of the living. that Christ should make alive. There's a lot there. Scripture speaks of Enoch, the seventh from Adam that prophesied of Christ and His coming. And even little things like in the book of Genesis, Lamech, who was Noah's father. Do you ever look up some of the names? Noah? Do you know what it represents? What it means? It means repose. It means rest. There's some that think just like When Eve brought forth Cain and she thought of that seed, she thought that was perhaps the seed for I've gotten me a man. Every generation was looking for this seed. And certainly all the way through Scripture, Lamech may have well thought that that seed might be that one that was, because they were orally transmitting this message. There's a seed coming, there's a seed coming, there's a seed coming. And dear friends, that's what the Scripture's about. All the way from Genesis till when Christ came, just like here in Zacharias, when he says, here, which have been since the world began, Christ set forth, preached by these prophets, the Spirit of Christ being in them, every one of them, in anticipation of this one who should come. Someone has said the Old Testament speaks of the one who should come and would come. Gospels declare that He has come, and the epistles declare that He's coming again. I like that. That's a good summary of all. You want to know how the Bible is set forth, that's it. The One who would come, should come, has come, and He's coming again. Here in Luke 1, again in verse 71, and Christ said that. In Luke 24, you can read it from Moses and the prophets. He showed them of Himself in the sufferings that He should suffer. But in Luke 1, verse 71, and we'll pick up with this next time, here it is that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. Christ, the horn of salvation, means effectual salvation. Not a hope-so salvation. Not a want-to salvation. Or woulda, coulda, shoulda salvation. If man had done this or that. No. The horn of salvation that says that we should be saved from our enemies. And I'll just leave this for you to think about. Because when Christ came to this earth, they kept thinking in terms of someone to deliver them politically. Israel. They kept looking for Him to overthrow that Roman government to deliver physically Israel. But that's not what it means here when he says that we should be saved from our enemies. Our enemies are sin. Our enemies are the law. Our enemies are Satan. Our enemies are the world. But because of Christ's death and what he accomplished, we are more than conquerors. And Lord willing, we'll take a closer look at that next time.