We will read verses 26 through 56. Luke one, we begin to read at verse 26, and the text is fairly lengthy, so I will not reread it. And that's almost at the end there from 46 to 55. So we begin to read Luke 1, verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the tribe of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom There shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord, Be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste unto a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in the womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And now the text is Mary's words. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For lo, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm, He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich hath he sent empty away. He hath opened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed, forever. And Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house. So far we read God's holy word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the context of these words of Mary is a most astounding chain of events as God prepared for the fullness of time when his son would be born. The angel Gabriel appeared to a young woman in Galilee, a virgin named Mary, and told her the most astonishing news. She was highly favored among men, among women rather, he said. She had found grace in God's sight. And why is that? Because she would be the mother of one who very clearly was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises. She would be the mother of the Messiah. The words of the angel were overwhelming. stunned, she asked, how shall these things be? And the answer is even more amazing. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. And therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And what's more, said the angel, your cousin Elizabeth has conceived in her old age. She who never had any children now has a son that she is carrying. She's in her sixth month. This is another miracle for, said the angel, with God, nothing is impossible. So Mary had gone to visit her cousin, Elizabeth in the six months to see this power of God and to talk with Zacharias and Elizabeth. And there another striking event, because as Mary was coming up to the house and coming to the door and called out a salutation, a greeting to her cousin, Elizabeth, the baby within Elizabeth leaped for joy. The baby, of course, is the one that would later be called John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus. He was the one whom God would send to prepare the way to announce the coming of the Christ. And now he is announcing it. He's announcing by his leap of joy that the conception of which the angel spoke had already occurred in Mary. She did not know that. There was no way of knowing when the events that the angel talked about would actually happen. And so now John the Baptist, the forerunner who would later cry out, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world has announced that the conception has happened and Mary is carrying the Messiah. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, speaks in response to that, verses 42 and following. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And then Mary could speak. She had been forced to be silent. From the time that the angel told her on the way to Judah, to the place where Elizabeth was, she had kept it all pent up inside her. Who could she tell? How would she explain? Who would believe what had been told her? She had told no one. Until now, she can express the thoughts of her heart. My soul is magnifying the Lord, is how she began. The words that we consider as the text for the sermon tonight are known as the Song of Mary. The church has sung these words put to music in one way or another for centuries. It's known as the Magnificat, which is a Latin word for magnify, because in the original, It isn't my soul doth magnify the Lord, but she starts out magnifying the Lord is my soul. That's how she starts out with the word magnifying. And that's therefore the word that was often used to describe the song. As far as the content of her words, are these inspired words? Are these the words of a Holy spirit? The Bible does not expressly say, but it's obvious that they are. Because Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Ghost, that is mentioned expressly, and she speaks then her words, and Mary's response clearly is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And that's why the church has sung this song. It is the words of the Holy Spirit. Definitely it is an Old Testament song, an Old Testament song. They are standing yet in the Old Testament. They are standing in the shadows and surrounded by pictures. Christ was not yet born, much less crucified and risen and exalted into the right hand of God. That's really where the New Testament begins. When Christ has ratified the new covenant, that's the New Testament, the new dispensation. So her language, Mary's language is very Old Testament language and from the point of view of the Old Testament saints. The song captures the whole matter of salvation from that perspective of the Old Testament. And it's evident from the fact that much of what she has to say is near quotations out of Psalms and other prophecies. of the Old Testament. And three main ideas come out then. First of all, God is the Savior, her personal Savior. Secondly, God is powerful to save. He destroys the wicked. The Old Testament theme is Zion is redeemed through judgment. The destruction of the wicked is the salvation of the church. You can hear that in her song as well. And then that God is faithful to his covenant, to his promises. That's how she ends her song. So tonight we consider the Song of Mary praising God, her savior. The Song of Mary praising God, her savior. We'll notice in the first place, a personal awe her own personal awe, secondly, powerful salvation, and thirdly, promises fulfilled. Mary's personal awe comes out, doesn't it? She is all but overwhelmed by the grace of God that has been given to her, that she should be the woman that would carry the Messiah and give birth to the one the church had been waiting for for centuries, thousands of years. She is deeply conscious of her low estate. As she sings herself or says herself, he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. The word for handmaiden there is a female slave A slave, that's how she looked at herself, her lowly condition. She was, in common language, a nobody. That's a bit hard for us who were born in America to comprehend the depth of her feeling. because America does not have the kind of domineering class system that is found in so many places, especially in the old world, and definitely was in Israel in her day. It is true, of course, that in America there are certain social lines, but they're a bit fuzzy. The Constitution guarantees equality among all the citizens, but in Israel and in other old world countries, you cannot move freely through society. Your birth, your family, your wealth, where you live, that controlled your social life, and you could not simply travel to a different place and be accepted in another social group. And she was very conscious of the fact that she was from a lowly, a low station, from a social point of view. You might say, but wait a minute, she was of the house of David. And that's true, of course, but the house of David was of little consequence in Israel at this time. Who in Israel cared about the house of David? Rome ruled, Rome with its emperors and power and majesty, they ruled. They had taken Israel into their empire and controlled her totally. They set their own King Herod and Edomite on the throne in Jerusalem. And the Sadducees who ran the religious side of the country, they were not from the line of David whatsoever. There had not been a man from the line of David for hundreds of years sitting upon the throne in Jerusalem. So being part of the family of David hardly meant anything. Mary was poor. She was dirt poor. She lived in a despised province of Galilee, far from Jerusalem. She was the last of a forsaken, ignored, and for many, unwanted royal line of David. She was engaged to a carpenter who was also very poor. So poor he did not even have the money to build a house so that they could live in a married state together. Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but they didn't live together as husband and wife. They didn't have the money. They had no earthly hopes, no grand aspirations. They would get a place there in Galilee somewhere and have children and raise them and they would be of that lowly status all their life. But God ordained Mary to be the mother of his son. Jesus, that's what comes out here. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. He hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. Of all the women in Israel, of all the women in Israel, women of noble birth, daughters of the high priest, daughters of the elders of the people, rich women whose daughters lived in fine homes of all the women in Israel. God chose Mary. He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden in spite of her lowly estate. God did not pass over her. We would, if we were looking around all of Israel and said, now, who would be the kind of woman we would want to be? The mother of the Messiah. I doubt that we would have chosen Mary, but God did. She understood this astounding grace given to her, this favor given to her. Behold, she says, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed. Elizabeth had just called her blessed. She said, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. Totally unexpected blessing that came to her through the word of the angel and now the conception She would be honored. She would be well spoken of, not because she did anything great, not because of anybody that she was an important person. She is not. But simply because of the great gift of God giving to her the privilege of carrying the Messiah. That's grace. And that great, amazing gift of God makes her think of the whole of her salvation. Her rejoicing is not merely that God honored her, but her rejoicing is in God, my Savior, my Savior. That's true, isn't it, for any one of us? When something notable happens, when a man is for the first time elected to be an office bearer in the church and he recognizes God has given me this privilege. Or when a teacher is hired and begins to teach and recognizes the tremendous privilege of teaching covenant children, or when a mother has her first child and she holds that child, in all those situations we think, God has given me this. And then we think, He gives me everything. And then we think, but it's my salvation of all the things God gives me. That is most important beyond compare. And that's what she does as well. David did that after God told him, David, you will not build the temple, but your son will. And not only that, but the line of your sons will be a king who will rule forever. That's the Messiah. When God said that to David, we read, then went David, King David in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I? Oh, Lord God. And what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? or Hannah after she prayed for a child and God gave her Samuel. And she said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. Thy salvation. And so Jesus also pointed that out to his disciples when they came back all excited. We went out preaching and even the devils were subject to us in thy name. And you remember what Jesus said to them, said, rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven. There is no greater blessing than that. Our salvation is the cause of all our rejoicing. And that was Mary's joy. God, my Savior. Again, the Church of Rome has this so wrong. And they exalt Mary to the heights and put her right next to Jesus. And they say she didn't even have any sin. Mary knew she had sinned. She said, God is my savior. I need to be saved. And he is my savior. My soul doth magnify the Lord. Magnify, exalt, extol praise. That's that's the idea. And and when she says, my soul is made or doth magnify, you understand it is a continuous action thing. It's not one burst of praise. And now she's finished. This is this is her life. It is continuously magnifying, extolling the name of God. Her spirit, she says, is rejoicing, literally, upon God. That's the object of her delight. The spirit within her, that part that reaches up to heaven, the part of our soul that is spiritual, is rejoicing, she says, upon God. Beautiful praises coming out of her own personal awe and reverence. This teaches us a lot, first of all, about the way God works, the way God works. God uses the lowly. God uses the weak, the despised, for his purposes. God said to David, I took thee from the sheep coats from following the sheep to be ruler over my people over Israel. You remember Children all remember how Samuel went to the house of Jesse and God said, I'm going to have you anointed king today. And so there comes the the sons of Jesse and he goes to the firstborn. There's a tall young man, strong and handsome. Ah, this would be a good king. And God says, no, not that one. Well, the next one, he looks pretty good, too. No, not that one. And not the next and not the next. And and finally, Samuel says, well, don't you have anyone else? And and Jesse said, well, yeah, our youngest, but he's out taking care of sheep. That's the one. That's the one. Because as God reminded Samuel, man looks on the outside, but I look at the heart. I look at the heart. That's the way God works. The weakest means. Fulfill his will. That's the preaching of the gospel that it looks like foolishness to the world that God uses to gather his church powerfully from sin unto salvation. Jesus said the same thing. He said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise. And that's true all through God's work of salvation, even coming to Jesus. Jehovah salvation he is. And how would he save his people? Not by coming down with a mighty show of power and accomplishing a great work in front of everyone so that they would all be impressed with his power. But by being born. As a baby. In poverty. Living his life in poverty. living under the law among sinners, living like everyone else in his day and would save them by his humiliation, by his suffering, by being condemned as a criminal to the death of the cross. That was God's way of saving his people. God uses the lowly and the despised. Second, it's the lowly and the despised that God saves. You know, in Old Testament Israel, there was this nation and God said, You are precious. You are the apple of mine eye. Now, understand, Israel, it's not because you are a great nation. You are, in fact, the smallest nation on the earth. That's not why I chose you, but I chose you because I loved you. I loved you. So it also is, always. In 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote in chapter 1, you see your calling, brethren. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobles are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and the base things of the world and things that are despised have God chosen. And yea, things which are not to bring to naught things that are. And you know how that ends. that no flesh should glory in his presence. God chooses the weak and the lowly. That's the position he gives them in this world. No one in heaven will ever brag, I know why God chose me, because I was important. No, the poor and the lowly, Verse 50, his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. The mercy of God is that which lifts up. And it's those who fear him, those who stand in awe of him, who reverence him, those are the ones that know his mercy, those who are lowly. So we can sing with Mary. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. He that is mighty hath done to me great things. So that's her personal awe. But she also describes in this a powerful salvation, powerful salvation, worked by a great and mighty God. The description that she gives emphasizes that, is power. Verse 49, he that is mighty hath done to me great things. That was the emphasis of the angel too. Nothing is impossible with God. He is almighty. What must be done? God is able to do it. He has all power. He had demonstrated that repeatedly in the Old Testament. And now Mary brings that up. He is the mighty one. Verse 51, he showed strength with his arm. Well, the arm of God, that's a figure of speech, of course, and the arm is what we use to do things. Well, the arm of God was the way that he delivered his people oftentimes out of their difficulties, their oppression. He had gathered his people out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched out arm, and surely she has a remembrance of that as well. Not only is he mighty, but he is holy and holy is is a word that really describes all the infinite perfections of God put together. The holiness of God is what separates him from everything that is creature. He is infinite in his perfections. He is the holy one as compared to everything else. He's mighty. He's the holy one. And he demonstrated his power by scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts. That's what she sings. The proud are those that put themselves above others. They despise others. They trust in themselves. God had done this so many times. You think of the nations of the people, the millions of people at the time of the flood who cursed God, who broke every commandment of God and the little tiny church over here that they could kill any moment that they wanted to. So they thought until God destroyed them all with the flood with the Tower of Babel, where they built a tower, they said, we'll go up to the heavens so that we will stay together. We will be strong and God scattered them in one night. Or Egypt, proud Pharaoh thinking, who is the Lord that I have to listen to him? And God showed him. And then into the land of Canaan where the nations were armed to the teeth with their high walls. And God gave the land to Israel. Recall Absalom and his tremendous pride. He would gain all of Israel to himself. God brings down the proud. Psalm 2 speaks of that. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. But the Lord laughs. In verse 9, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. God's mighty power brings down the proud. And He's doing that right here with the gift of His Son. Mary understands that. The proud, the wicked rulers in Israel, corrupt. clearly hypocrites who said they were waiting for the Messiah, who said that they were God's people, but lived very differently. They imagine they don't need a Savior. They are strong enough. Their good works can get them into heaven if they even believed in heaven. They didn't want this Messiah. But God is confounding all their plans the Messiah they were looking for that would be rich and well healed and that would welcome them into his kingdom and destroy the nation of Rome and build Israel that that was not the Messiah but someone born of a very poor woman a virgin this Messiah though Mary didn't couldn't see the future, this Messiah would turn on its head the entire religious order of the day. Because the salvation of God is always antithetical. Zion is redeemed through judgment. That's how the church is saved. And that's why the contrasts in Mary's speech, the contrasts, First of all, it talks about what God puts down. Verse 52, he hath put down the mighty from their seats. Verse 53, the rich he hath sent away empty. Of course, the rich are those who are rich materially, but not spiritually, and they would leave empty. They would have nothing. But on the other hand, listen, He hath exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things. Of course, it's picture language. We're in the Old Testament yet. Those are pictures of God filling them with food, giving them their spiritual needs, abundantly supplying them. The rich and those who are wealthy, they will have nothing, but the poor God fills with spiritual blessings. The bottom line, he has helped. I don't know if the versions in the pulpit, in the pew rather, have the word hopin' there. My Bible does. Some of the King James versions were adjusted and that word was changed to helped. But the word literally is to take hold of something and to embrace it and therefore to help. To help, he has helped. And again, this was true all through Israel's history. He literally delivered Israel from Egypt and brought them to the promised land. And later on, when Israel departed from him and he had to chastise them and bring them to Babylon, yet he preserved a remnant and brought them back. He delivers. But Mary knows that what's happening here goes far beyond those pictures of God destroying the wicked and lifting up the poor and the lowly. What's happening here goes far beyond that. Those are pictures she's carrying. Jesus. Jehovah's salvation, that's what the angel announced to her. Your son will be called that Jehovah salvation. the son of God who would sit upon the throne of David forever. God indeed had come to help his people. God was in her. Come to save his people. That's her great rejoicing. That's why she bursts out into this song of praise. because of the powerful salvation. She was filled with awe about the tremendous grace that God gave to her, but it's the salvation that stands out. And then, the third thing, God has fulfilled His covenant promises here, and that's the third point that we look at tonight. That's where she ends. as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. The promises. And as soon as you hear the word Abraham, you think that's the covenant. That's the covenant, God saying to Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. That's what Mary is talking about. Promises passed on to his children. To Isaac, to Jacob, to the nation of Israel. God revealed his promises to them. I will be your God. You will be my people. That's the covenant. God kept his promises all through the Old Testament. He kept his promise, first of all, by saving Israel from various trials and circumstances and preserving them so that he taught them the law. And he gave them the pictures of his covenant. There is the temple of God. He's dwelling in your midst. This is the way that you can approach to God by means of a sacrifice, the shedding of blood. He was preserving them, teaching them, his people in the Old Testament. God kept his promises by preserving the line of David. Think of what that meant from Abraham through Judah all the way to David. And if you go through the Old Testament, you just are. It's a horrible thing to see the sin, the corruption, the vile iniquity all through that line. until this time when that royal line of David is down to Mary, a virgin. But God would keep his promises. The seed would come from David. It would be born of Mary of the line of David. God remembered his mercies to the seed of Abraham, the mercy of God, as we said, it's an attribute of God where God has a desire to bless. It arises out of his tremendous love that he has for his people and that when he sees them in their lowliness, in their grief and their suffering, he determines to lift them up out of that and to bless them. And the great mercy of God is that his people are in the misery of their sin. And God determines, I will lift them up out of that. I will bless my people. God remembered his mercies. That he promised all the way back to Abraham. The covenant promises. And the seed, remember. Which he mentions. The promises, he remembers his mercy as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And ultimately the seed is Christ. The promises are to him. Now God has fulfilled those promises in the coming of Jesus Christ. Mary understood that. She didn't see, she couldn't see how God would do this. She could not see the humiliation and the rejection. She could not see the suffering, the shameful death, the unspeakable agony, all the horrible abuse that her unborn son would have to endure. She couldn't possibly see that. But she didn't have to. She knew that the one she was carrying was the fulfillment of all the covenant promises. That she understood. It was a remembrance of the mercy spoken to Abraham and to his seed forever. You said Mary couldn't see all of that, but we are privileged to see that. We have the revelation and we see the significance of the incarnation, God coming into the flesh, the one that would be very God, very man, the only one that could possibly accomplish salvation, the infinite miracle of the God that cannot be limited, the infinite God joined with mere human flesh, the way the bodies we have And then the finished work. We can see the atonement. We can see Jesus being a substitute for his people. We can see Jesus making a payment for their sins and taking care of the debt and earning a righteousness which can be applied to his people that we get to see. For whom for a definite people for the the seed of Abraham, all those who are in Jesus Christ. And we get to see not only that, but the glorification. We get to see God raising his son out of the grave as a stamp of approval on what Jesus had done and then lifting him up to the height of heaven and putting him at his own right hand. Besides that, we know all the blessings of the covenant that are ours in Jesus Christ. And yet, better things are coming. The glory of heaven and all that Jesus has earned, all that is packed into this, the great salvation God accomplished through Jesus Christ. So we very much can join with Mary and sing this song. My soul is magnifying the Lord and my spirit is rejoicing in God, my savior. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy abundant goodness to us. As we are reminded through this passage of scripture of thy amazing goodness to thy people and the wonder, the wonder of salvation through Jesus Christ. Impress that upon our hearts and minds and make us to live out of that. As we hear children singing praises to may this constantly be on our mind and go with us day by day. What a glorious salvation we have. in Jesus. We thank thee again, and in his name we pray. Amen. We sing Psalm 144A. 144A. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, my might, my constant helper in the fight, my shield, my righteousness, my strong high tower, my savior true, who doth my enemies subdue, my shelter in distress. We sing the first five stanzas, one through five, of 144 A's. I see the Lord my rock, my light, my constant helper in the fight, my shield, my righteousness, O Lord, what is man? What hath he wrought? The Son of Man that did thy like a breath of sun, his gaze on earth has quickly gone as shadows o'er Over the highlands, in my descent, I saw the hills, the mountains break, and they shall smoke and flake. And there, O Sen, I bind thee down, to put thy enemies to ground. and fill thy walls with shade. Transform thy hand and rescue me from some old, stark, and raging sea. I sing I know And bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his grace All His creatures let His name be honored and adored. Let all that breathe embrace you, and to glorify The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.