Thank you so much for your singing this morning. Young folks are making their way downstairs for junior church. I invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter one. I apologize again for my voice. It's better. It was really rough Wednesday evening, but it's still not back where we want it to be. I will do my best and Lord being gracious will not have too many episodes of coughing that will be distracting from the message. Luke chapter 1. We want to finish our study of Luke chapter 1 this morning. Timing-wise it is setting up December well because next week we would anticipate him being in chapter 2 and of course you know what happens in Luke chapter 2. So timing-wise it's working out well in our run-up to And so we're glad for the timing of that. But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. And by that I mean that this latter portion of Luke chapter one, we've been in Luke chapter one for quite a while. I told you when we started that Luke being really the longest book, it would take us a while to get through Luke. And so we're gonna be here And maybe even next year we'll still be finishing up the Gospel of Luke because we'll be taking time to go hither and yon as necessary as well. But the latter part of this chapter really is important because it is, in a very important way, it is setting us up for what happens in chapter 2 and beyond. You'll recall that as we began looking at this chapter, there were a number of things, the book of Luke in general, a number of things that we noted. One of which was that what Luke is doing is providing the fruit of a research project that he had been led to do by the Holy Spirit. And so he has a number of resources that the Holy Spirit has then used him to record for us. And one of the big truths that comes out of all of this is the simple fact that when God says he's going to do something, he will do it. And we've talked about that at various portions through this chapter. And coming here today to this portion, we see it again. Now, that's not the focus of our message, but it is still a fundamental truth. God had told Zacharias that something was going to happen, remember? And then Zacharias suffers because of his unbelief about whether God could actually do what He said. Well, here in the latter part of this chapter, we see both of those coming together. God did exactly what He said in both cases. And it is the psalm of praise that we hear from the lips of Zacharias after nine months of being unable to speak. And it would appear from the text, even being unable to hear, suddenly his tongue is loosed and he is able to praise God as the angel said that he would. The theme of the message this morning, and really setting us up for what begins next week and beyond, is simply this. It is the fact of God's tender mercy in salvation. That really is the message. That is the takeaway. Here we see the praise of God for His tender mercies. that have resulted in the salvation of sinners like you and me. Now, I'm going to begin reading in verse 57. We're going to read down through the end of the chapter. So a number of verses, but important for us to read these. And then I'll be making reference in running as we get into the message itself. But as I read, I want you to follow along with me. I want you to listen and I want you to think about the words, the phrases that are used that would have reference to salvation or some aspect of salvation, because that is what this portion of the chapter is pointing us to. So, I'll begin reading in verse 57 of Luke, chapter 1. Now, Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so. He shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father that he would have, how he would have him called." Making signs, this is why we say he may not only have been unable to speak, but unable to hear because they're getting his attention. Hey, they need him to address the question. And so then, And he asked for a writing table and wrote in verse 63, saying, His name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an 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, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant. the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him. all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert still the day of his showing unto Israel." May God bless His Word to our hearts. Let's ask His blessing on our time here together today. Father, once again, we are so grateful for the opportunity we have to spend these next moments of our time looking into Your Word and considering the passage that records for us the promised birth of John, the forerunner, the one who would come before the Lord. We thank You for that record, and we thank You for Zacharias' prophecy. for this hymn of praise that He shares as He acknowledges salvation, as He acknowledges your grace, your tender mercies. And, Father, I trust that by Your grace we would learn from this this morning. May we be encouraged as we are reminded of truth that we all know already, and yet we can sometimes be distracted from. May we not be distracted here this morning, but more importantly, may we not be distracted through this Christmas season by all of the trappings and all of the things that go into the season that might distract us from what the real purpose of the birth of Christ was. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for so loving us that you gave your only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank you, Father, for saving sinners like us. We pray this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. By way of introduction this morning, let me just share with you a story that Deborah doesn't remember, I know my kids always go, oh no, what's he gonna say now? But many years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, Jan and I were driving back from the morning services in the first church that I pastored, Hilltop Baptist Church in Big Ugly, West Virginia. That's right, I was a Big Ugly pastor at one time. And as we're driving along, the church was in Logan County, West Virginia, and we lived in Mingo County, West Virginia, which means nothing to you, but this is the pertinent point. Between those two counties, at least to get where we lived, we had to cross something called Horsepin Mountain. Now Horsepen Mountain gets its name from an Indian situation back in the 18th century. So that's not pertinent either. But what is important is when you drive up the Logan County side of the mountain, it's fairly good roads, a little bit curvy, but nothing really bad. But when you get to the top and you drop down in Domingo County, West Virginia, it's an interesting drive. Deborah will tell you it is still to this day one of the worst places that she's ever had to drive or ride in a car as a young lady. What makes it bad is that side of the mountain was originally made by pick and shovel by old timers back in the olden days. The road is wide enough for two vehicles to pass, but so narrow that oftentimes 18-wheelers that see US Route 52 think, oh, it's a major US highway. Surely it's a shortcut. No. It is a trap for larger trucks that cannot go on that part of the road. It isn't wide enough. And on one side, it simply drops off. It is a dangerous place on one side. On the other side, you have the hill. What makes it even more interesting is that in order to use pick and shovel, they didn't fill in the areas where the road would have to go back into the hillside because of where the water would run off. It simply followed the contours as it goes down. from one of the higher peaks in that part of the state down to the valley below. It's a little over a mile from the top to the bottom. And there are, because of that, many blind curves. Now here's why I'm telling you all of that. Here's why I'm describing that. My dad had told me that when he was a young man, he and his brothers at the top of the mountain, kicked their vehicle into neutral, and coasted down through all of those blind curves to see how far they could coast when they got down into the valley without any motive, just coasting from the momentum from coming down the mountain. Now, you know, when young boys do that, when teenagers do that, not really smart, right? But okay, that's a guy thing. On that particular day, when I was driving after church with my baby daughter, she would have been maybe two years old at the time, my baby sister, who was about 12 years old at the time, and my lovely wife, who was being very gracious to have left big city life to live in southern West Virginia, Deborah's dad got the bright idea that, you know, I bet we could go further than my dad did. Not a very smart thing to do, but yes, 20-something guys are not always as smart as they should be. So we got to the top of that hill, and I put my K car in neutral. I just dated myself. Some of you remember the K cars, not really sporty vehicles, little boxes. OK, if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. But we started down that side of the mountain. Now I knew that if I'm gonna beat my dad, I'm gonna have to cut all of those blind curves on the inside lane, which means I don't know, I can't see if anything's coming from the other side. The only thing that I can trust is that I am smart enough and my reflexes are quick enough and that I am the superior driver and I will be able, if I see a vehicle at the last minute, to be able to get out of his way without going over the mountain. Now, I'm proud to tell you that we went about two miles from the bottom, after we got to the bottom, we went about two miles before I finally had to kick it back in gear again. I beat my dad. That's all I was worried about at the time. But here's something that has gnawed at my conscience now for probably 40 years. How stupid to take the life of my baby girl, the life of my baby sister and the life of my beautiful wife into my dumb hands so that I could prove a point that I can do it. You see, I knew that I could take all those curves and cut them on the inside because I'd been doing that for years, only I was doing it alone and not taking the lives of others in my hands. Now, I'm simply describing that to you to say that God has convicted me that if I could somehow speak to my younger self, I would say, don't be stupid. Your responsibility is to take care of your wife, your child, and your sister, and not hazard their lives to prove just how manly you are, right? Guys, if you have no issue with that, you know, fine. Some younger guys here who would feel the same way. Because guys feel invulnerable, right? I can do it. I can trust in myself. Let me use that to make this statement to lead into our message then. There are far too many people today who are coasting down the side of the mountain. They're trusting when they come to blind curves in life that they will be able to navigate those blind curves. That they will be able to cut on the inside and take a chance that there's no one coming up the mountain that they could not see until the last minute. They're trusting in their own good works. They're trusting in their own abilities. And if they think at all about the danger of the situation, their calculation is that they are superior to the people around them. And they will be able to make life work. The truth is they are oblivious to the fact that God's judgment is around one of those curves. that God was gracious and merciful to that 25-year-old Dana. I thank God for that, and I have through the years as I've thought about that day. But the truth is, the path that every man and every woman is traveling today, and as they go down the mountain of life, and as they are descending toward the inevitable, the judgment of God is what is lying in wait. And around any one of those blind curves, and they'll never know which one until it happens, they will meet that inevitable crash, trusting in themselves to navigate the blind curves of life. It's foolish, it isn't really smart, and the end is inevitable. Well, the fact is, Zacharias could have seen himself as one who was in control of his life. He could have seen himself as someone who could navigate those blind curves in life and that he would be able to handle it. On what basis could he have made that calculation? Well, he was a faithful Jewish man. Earlier in the chapter, he is introduced to us in that way, isn't he? He is a faithful priest. He is serving in the temple. Surely, a faithful priest who is a faithful Jewish man would not have to be worried about navigating life like others. He and his wife had kept the Lord's commandments and ordinances. Verse 6 tells us that. He was a godly man. He wasn't godless like the pagan Romans who occupied the Jewish homeland. He wasn't a religious hypocrite like the profane Herod. Zacharias could easily have thought of himself as a man who was secure in his own ability to navigate those blind curves in life by his own good works, that he had nothing to fear from the judgment of God because he had done everything right. He could have trusted in himself. But thankfully, Zacharias did not see himself that way. He knew what the blind curves hid. he saw himself helplessly drifting downward with increasing speed, he understood that without God, there would come a day when he would meet destruction in one of those curves. And so when God revealed to him that he would have a son who would be the forerunner of Messiah, the Savior, We find that in verse 67, He breaks forth in a beautiful psalm of praise. It is a prophecy, but it is a psalm. He is extolling God's great tender mercy in sending the Savior who had been promised to the fathers centuries before. You saw that as I read through the passage. You'll recall that though he was a godly man, Zacharias had doubted the word of the angel. When Gideon came and said, this is what God is going to do, God has answered your prayer. Though you and your wife are beyond the age of having children, you will have a son, and he will be the forerunner of Messiah. And we are told that his response was a response of unbelief. And to discipline him, the Lord caused Zacharias to be deaf, and as I mentioned through the reading, likely, or being dumb, not able to speak, but also deaf as well. The promised son had been born, and at his circumcision, you can see the people are all gathered, and the custom would be that he would be given a family name. And so someone says, well, we should name him Zacharias, because that's his dad's name. And Elizabeth responds, no, he's not Zacharias, he's John. Well, okay, fine, Elizabeth, what does Zacharias want, because he's the one that gets to really be the person to name the son. I'm sure they were thinking maybe kindly as family members do that, you know, Elizabeth is kind of emotional and we need to help this family do the right thing. So they say, hey, John, hey, hey, hey, look over, the name, what do you want to name him? John says, can, ooh. So they give him something to write on and he writes on there, his name is John. Because that's what the angel said, that they were to name their son. And the moment he does that, his tongue is loosed and he breaks forth in this torrent of praise to the great God and his great salvation. Salvation is the theme of Zacharias' prophecy. Verse 68, he speaks of redemption. Verses 69, 71, 77, he speaks of salvation. Verse 74, he speaks of being delivered. The main message is God's tender mercy in providing salvation for sinners. Now, Recognizing that as the theme, there are five points I want to share with you briefly here this morning about this idea of salvation. None of these are new. They shouldn't be. They can't be, right? because every one of us who is a redeemed child of God here this morning, we understand something of these five points. We all have room to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, but these are very foundational points to the whole idea of salvation. So let's think about them quickly here this morning. Number one is the simple idea that salvation comes to the desperate. Salvation comes to the desperate. You see, it is a wise father and husband who would look at Horsepin Mountain and say, I need to go slowly and carefully as I descend this side of the mountain, because I understand that there is danger if I cut the blind curves. It is someone who understands that danger exists who will recognize the need to do the right thing. Zacharias states that God has, in verse 68, he says that God has visited and redeemed his people. God has accomplished redemption for his people. Nine months earlier, he doubted the word of God. Now he believes so strongly that he speaks of the future. He has redeemed his people. When will the work of redemption take place? When did the work of redemption take place? At the cross. That's why when we celebrate Christmas, we always try to carefully point out the reality that Christmas is meaningless if we don't understand what Easter represents. Because it's not just the birth of a baby. It is the reality that this is God in the flesh who came, having lived a perfect life, that He could willingly, as a substitute, taking our sin upon Himself, pay the penalty of our sin at the cross. We recognize it is at the cross that the work of redemption is accomplished. And yet in this prophecy, in this song, he represents that he has redeemed his people. It is an aspect of his words that convey the idea that he is so confident that God is going to do exactly what he said he was going to do. It's as if it has already been done. He is going to redeem his people. By the way, the word redemption, it's a word that you and I banter about in Christian circles all the time, right? We are the redeemed of God. But what does redemption imply? Redemption implies bondage. A free man doesn't need to be redeemed. Only a slave needs to be redeemed. When we claim that we are the redeemed of God, we are claiming that we were once in bondage, that we have been purchased out of that bondage, we have been redeemed through the blood of Christ, and we now have standing with God as His sons and daughters. Slaves need redemption. God's salvation comes to those who understand that they have a problem. They understand that they are hopeless. This is further underscored twice by stating that God is saving His people from the hand of their enemies who hate them, verse 71 and 74. While this salvation obviously has a national political aspect, it'll be fulfilled when Christ comes the second time to deliver Israel from her enemies, establish His millennial kingdom, It also has a personal reference, as verse 77 talks about the remission of their sins. Paul reminds us that we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, but against the powerful spiritual forces of evil. Satan and his forces are behind both the political enemies of God's people and their spiritual bondage before they are saved. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." The point is this, those who need God's deliverance, those who are in desperate straits, those who are in bondage to sin, those who are oppressed by the devil, by the grace of God, they come to a point where they realize that they are in darkness. and they need to come to the light. Their desperate condition is further described in verse 79. He says, to give light to those who sit in darkness. The picture here, by the way, of those sitting in darkness in the shadow of death is the picture of a traveler. It's the picture of someone who is lost on their way in the wilderness and night falls. Now for you and me living in our modern world, we have, living in the suburbs, we have light all around us, right? I mean, you go out at one o'clock in the morning and there's still light. And then we have these gadgets called flashlights, and we have cars with headlights. And so we live in a world where we don't really understand what darkness would be like on a common, everyday basis. Because not having the modern conveniences of light that you and I enjoy, we don't know what it's like to wake up at one o'clock at night on a moonless night when it is absolutely pitch black. Can you imagine being lost in the forest at night, and you don't have a flashlight, you have no means of light, you're groping for the path, you don't know where the path is, and you're just trying to feel your way along, and finally in despair, you know you can do nothing, and in that time and in that place, you recognize that you need to just sit. And you need to try to pull yourself in, to hold in as much warmth as you can, and every time that you hear the wolf and its howl you shudder because you realize in this darkness you're surrounded by wild animals. That's the graphic picture that we draw from this passage. Those who are sitting in the darkness and the shadow of death. that comes from sin. They're lost in darkness. They don't know which way to go. They're afraid of the death that lurks in the shadows. They're in a desperate situation. The common element with each of these metaphors is that those in these straits know that they need God's deliverance. They know they're in bondage. They know their enemies are too strong for them. They know they're lost in darkness. If the morning doesn't dawn soon, They will die. They know that the deliverance they need is beyond their own ability to accomplish. If God doesn't break into their situation, they're doomed. Remember, in the very first message in the Gospel of Luke, what was the... This is a good test, I suppose. What did we say that Luke was noting? that this was a book about how, at certain times, God intentionally breaks into history, right? And so here we are, 400 years of silence, 400 years with no prophet, 400 years from Malachi to Matthew, if you will, but to the Gospels. And now after 400 years of silence, God breaks into human history. And He must do so or there would be no hope for men and women. Zacharias, described as a righteous and blameless man in verse 6, knew that he desperately needed God's salvation. One evidence that God is about to accomplish His redemption is that the Holy Spirit opens eyes to the guilt of sin. We were blind, but now we see. We sing that, don't we? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. We talk about how we were lost and now we are found. It is all words that are intended to convey the idea of how hopeless and helpless we are apart from the work of God. We cannot deliver ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We are in a position where we have no hope. And we are totally incapable of changing our circumstances. Just like cutting blind curves on the inside lane to keep our momentum going downhill. All of our good works will never deliver us. all of our good works will fall short of the perfection of God's righteousness. So the first point is simply this. We're desperate. We need a savior. We have no hope. We are going down the side of the mountain, trusting in ourselves, but ourselves are incapable. of ultimately bringing a position where we can stand before God. That brings us to the second point. Salvation is God's work. If it were up to us to save ourselves, we would be doomed. Isn't it wonderful to know that it's not up to us? Isn't it encouraging to know that our salvation and our standing before God is not based upon how faithful we are? Now, I know we all like to think, well, I'm a good Christian man, I'm a good Christian woman. But really consider, before a holy, absolute, just God, what standing would we have if we simply trusted in ourselves? None. That comes through strongly in this verse. Verse 68, you'll notice he says, blessed be the God of Israel, for he had visited and redeemed his people. Verse 78, he says, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high have visited us. This idea of God visiting us, this actually is an echo to the Old Testament. Consider with me in Genesis, and you don't have to turn there, but I'll read it for you. In the book of Genesis, chapter 50. Now, hopefully you're familiar with Genesis chapter 50, and there's some important things happening. The death of Jacob, of course, the fear of Joseph's brothers who say, now that dad's gone, he's gonna get revenge. Joseph will get revenge on us. And Joseph saying, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. I'm gonna take care of you. You have nothing to worry about. But in that context, In verses 24 and 25, listen to what Joseph says. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. He was concerned that when the day came, when God fulfilled His promise, when He put them back into the land, that His remains, His bones would not be brought with them to the promised land. He wanted to be buried in the promised land. Here is an act of faith on his part. He actually believed that God would do what he said he would do. And he would visit them and take them back to the land. And so he says in verse 24, God will surely visit you. And in verse 25, God will surely visit you again a second time. Here's what's interesting about that. When he makes this statement predicting this, We recognize the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was done in Alexandria, Egypt, during those 400 years of silence. We find that during that time when they did this, they used a Hebraism to translate those words. In visiting God, and it's emphatic. In visiting, God will visit you. It's saying, God will surely visit you. God will do what He said. And as Joseph repeats at this visitation, carry my bones to Egypt, he is acknowledging what Moses then says in Exodus 3, verse 16. Some 400 years later, we hear Moses saying in Exodus 3, verse 16, God is speaking to Moses and Moses records God saying, visiting, I have visited you. God made a promise. He would not leave them in that place of bondage. He would visit them and He would bring salvation. And so when Zacharias Now, all these many centuries later is talking about God visiting. He is acknowledging that just as He saved His people out of Egypt, so too, God is going to save His people in our day. Now, this is an allusion, of course, not simply to knocking off, throwing off the Roman yoke of oppression, but it's a recognition that Messiah is coming. Zacharias would have been fully aware of Mary's visit to Elizabeth. I'm sure if he was not an eyewitness, Elizabeth would have told him, Mary came to me, and the Holy Spirit helped me to understand that the baby she is carrying is Messiah. And our baby, John, leapt for joy, even though he was still in her womb. I'm sure he was fully aware that God was visiting, that God was doing exactly what he said, that in his tender mercy, verse 78, he was providing salvation for those who were in a hopeless and helpless place. We cannot and we can never save ourselves But when we think about the birth of Messiah, when we think about the work of our Savior on the cross, we recognize that our hope doesn't lie in ourselves. Amen? Our hope lies in Christ. Our salvation is not accomplished through any good things we can do, it is accomplished through Him alone. Verse 68, basically, He accomplished salvation. Verse 69, He speaks of raising up a horn of salvation for us. The horn of salvation is a symbol of the strength of an animal such as a bull, Psalm 132, Psalm 18. It points to the fact that salvation requires God's mighty power because our enemy is too strong, but God did it. God brought salvation for us. Alfred Edersheim, back in the 19th century, was a Jewish convert, one who was steeped in the Old Testament from the Jewish perspective, and having come to Christ, then did a study of the Old Testament, with the knowledge that he had gained as a Jew and now as a believer. And he has recorded 400 messianic prophecies, 400 specific prophecies in the Old Testament pointing to Christ. We find this as a prophecy that flows from the very earliest chapters of Genesis all the way up till we come to Zacharias at the birth of his son. Remember when Zacharias says this, Jesus hasn't been born yet. Jesus would not be born for another six months. And so in this timeframe, Jesus is still in the womb. but here Zacharias is acknowledging God's promise. Messiah is coming, salvation is coming. To put it another way, what God says he will do, 2,000 years before Christ was born, God chose Abram, a pagan from Ur of the Chaldees, and promised to make a great nation out of him. Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abraham, 2,000 years later, is the Messiah through whom all men will be blessed. God raised up John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ in accordance with the prophecies made hundreds of years before. We could get into all those prophecies here this morning. Our time is ebbing away. The point is simply this, God planned it, God prophesied it, God carried it out. God is the one who accomplished the work of salvation in our lives. Number three, the salvation that is accomplished as a work of God is accomplished through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we've touched upon that. Let me very briefly highlight it once again. Jesus' name is not mentioned specifically in Zacharias' prophecy, but it's very clearly there, isn't it? This horn of salvation is from the house of David. was Zacharias and his son John from the house of David. What house were they from? The house of Levi. So clearly when he talks about this salvation is from the house of David, he isn't talking about John, but he is recognizing that as the angel said, John would be the forerunner of Messiah. Messiah was to be a son of whom? David. And so this is a recognition, Messiah is the son of David. And of course we know that our Lord Jesus, from the human perspective, was the son of David. The coming savior is none other than God in human flesh. John went before the Lord to prepare his ways in verse 76. The Lord who is God is Jesus. Did John recognize this by the way? John is six months older than Jesus. So in a society that would say that the eldest is always to have more honor than the youngest, who should have more honor, Jesus or his cousin John? Well, from the human perspective, John. But John said he was not worthy to loose the sandal off the feet of Jesus. In fact, John even says that Jesus is higher in rank than him because Jesus existed before him. John, who had been conceived before Jesus from the human perspective, who had been born six months before Jesus from the human perspective, says that Jesus existed before me. What is John recognizing? He's recognizing the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zacharias refers to the Savior as the sunrise from on high in verse 78. That's a reference to Malachi 4, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Jesus claimed in John 8, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness. Clearly, Jesus Christ is the Savior of whom Zacharias speaks. Number four, salvation means the forgiveness of sins through God's tender mercy. When we talk about salvation, what is happening? And again, nothing new, but we recognize that we are dead in trespasses and sins. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Isn't that the message? When we talk about the gospel, what does the word gospel mean? It means good news. Well, what is the good news? Hey, a baby was born and we get to have a special day once every year to celebrate his birth and we can exchange gifts and take time off from work. That's good news. No, that's just the human side of merchandising everything. The reality is we understand the gospel means good news because you and I who are lost in our sin, helpless and hopeless in our sin, facing the wrath of a holy God in our sin, We have been enabled to turn to the light who is Jesus and recognize that He who so loved us that He came into this world and took upon Himself human flesh, made in the likeness of men, humbled Himself, the God of glory and the God of creation, clothing Himself in human flesh. Can I understand that? No. He was both God and man, the God man, fully God and fully man, living a perfect sinless life. And then willingly allowing himself to die on the cross where he took my sin upon himself. And he paid the penalty of my sin. It would have taken me eternity to taste the wrath of God for my sin. And yet in that short time on the day of his crucifixion, he paid every last ounce of my debt. And yours too, if you're a child of God this morning. Jesus saved us from our sin. It is God's tender mercy for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Therein is the point. These who are drifting down the side of a mountain, cutting blind curves, trusting in their own ability to navigate the danger that could be around every one of those blind curves, they are willingly ignorant that they are unable to truly face what is around the next bend. Only through the grace of God, only by the grace of God, Can you and I have our sins cleansed? Can we be redeemed out of that slave market of sin? Can we become the regenerated children of God? There are all these words that we use for salvation and each and every one of them is important. Regenerated, we were born once in the flesh, but we were dead spiritually. We've been regenerated, born again. Spiritually, I now have standing with God because of the work of my Lord Jesus Christ. He saves us from our sin by his tender mercy. And then let me quickly mention in closing, salvation results in a changed focus. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, it doesn't mean that we understand everything that we need to understand at the very moment that we exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are undergoing a process of sanctification, a process of change, a process of growth spiritually. I understand that. But what is it that we should increasingly become aware of? It's simply this. What is the primary purpose of our salvation? For far too many of us, we are under the impression that the primary purpose of God saving me is to help me be happy. And we have many today who preach a gospel of prosperity that is all about you supposed to be happy, and if you're not happy, then you are not accomplishing the will and purpose of God. But the reality is, God didn't save me so that I would be happy. Now, let me qualify that for a moment. The Christian life is a blessedly happy life, isn't it? And it's full of joy and full of gladness, but that is a by-product. That is a wonderful by-product. of what God is doing in my life, but it isn't my chief focus. What is the chief focus for every believer? What is it that we should increasingly be understanding? It's simply this, that God's purpose for my life as his redeemed child is to glorify him, to glorify him. Isn't that what the scripture says? Therefore, whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, We do all to the glory of God. I've not found a verse that says, whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, strive to be happy because that's what God wants you to be. Now, what we find in Scripture is my life increasingly should be a life where my focus and my heart's desire is to honor Him, to please Him, to lift up His name. We've talked about the idea of glorifying God. And sometimes we get it in our minds that when we glorify God, we're giving something to God. But can we give God something? No, God is who He is. My bringing glory to God is not me making Him honorable or worthy of glory. He already is worthy. It is me recognizing what is already true. Bringing glory to God is not me adding something that He lacks. He lacks nothing. Bringing glory to God is me understanding that I have been bought with a price and I am to glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are His. God, You saved me. I am Your child. Anything that is accomplished in my life for now or eternity is because of who you are and what you have accomplished. I am kept by your power. You are worthy to receive my praise. You are worthy to receive my love. adoration for my soul. I should seek to honor you and lift up your name so that all men might see who you are. I simply, in the words of Paul, I can adorn the gospel. My life is not making the gospel beautiful. My life is simply demonstrating the beauty that already exists. The beauty of God. And so, why do I seek to honor Him? Because I love Him. So do I come to church to be happy? Well, if I don't go to church, you know, the preacher's gonna be talking about me and criticizing me. You don't come to church to keep somebody else from criticizing you. You come to church because you love God and you want to please Him because He is your God. You want to glorify Him. And as a byproduct of that, how great is it that it's not a chore? It's not a burden. See, this is where our enemy can sometimes muddle our thinking. We think it's a chore and a burden and a labor. Because I'm supposed to bring glory to God, so I guess I need to go to church when they open the door. I need to read my Bible. I'm supposed to pray. It's a burden. It's something laid upon me that I have to do. When in reality, it is a privilege. God loves me. And through the blood of Christ, I can come boldly into His presence. and I can seek to please Him in my life, and the choices that I make, and the relationships that He has brought into my life, and as a by-product of my seeking to honor Him in all of the things of my life, I can enjoy a happiness. Because it's not based upon my ability to always perform. We hear today about relationships aren't supposed to be performative, right? Well, my relationship with God is not performative. I don't do these things to, in some way, show that I'm his child. I do these things because I love him. Not to gain something from him, but because I love him. That should be the burden of our hearts. And the byproduct of that is if we can get a hold of that secret, if we can recognize God's love and the salvation that he has brought to us in Christ, then just like Zacharias praising God in his prophecy, you and I can praise God. with a bounce to our step, with a smile on our face, not because life has no problems, because life will always have problems. And the older you get, the more you're going to find parts of your body ache that you never knew existed before. But in spite of all of that, we have joy. We have happiness. It's a byproduct of our loving Him and seeking to please Him. I hope we get that. Because if we're really going to grasp in chapter two, when we hear the angels talking about joy to all the world, if we're really gonna grasp what our salvation truly should mean to us, we have to get that point. It's not about, you wanna be happy, come to Christ. It's about, you're a sinner. And the judgment of God is hanging over your head because you are a sinner and God will judge sin. but Christ died for you. Trust in Him. Trust in His work finished on the cross for you. He died and He rose again the third day. He's ascended to heaven. He is our great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us. We have joy and peace and contentment because we know that we are the sons and daughters of God. And that will produce the happiness. It's a by-product. May God help us to enjoy the by-product because we have the right focus. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for this passage. And Lord, I know there's so much more here that I didn't have time to really dig into this morning, but I pray that you'll help us to get the point. It is by your tender mercy that we are saved. We don't deserve it. We can never earn it. It is your tender mercy, it is your grace, unmerited, undeserved, that you so loved us that you gave your son. And those of us who now have been redeemed, purchased through the blood of Christ, we are your children here today. Help us, Father, to seek with a proper focus to live lives that are pointed in the right direction because we love you. and because we acknowledge that you are worthy of all that we say and do to lift up your holy name. And Lord, any happiness that comes as a by-product is just something that much more as icing on the cake that we can rejoice in. So help us, Father, to think of the season about salvation, about what you have done in saving us, and help us to be grateful. and to lift up Christ for our friends and family and neighbors to see, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.