Our Bible reading this morning, if you want to turn in the Word of God, to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 1, and reading verse 46 to 55. Luke 1, beginning at verse 46. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humblest state of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word that's so true, inspired word of God. Lord, we ask in these moments that you will speak to us now. May your spirit teach us, bring us closer to the Lord, and we pray for the salvation of that dear soul that's yet to come to faith in Jesus. And we pray it will be done in every heart we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. There is something we don't know for sure. We don't know the actual birth date of the Lord Jesus. The Bible does not give us that information. December 25th was adopted for various reasons. I guess probably putting it on the calendar, someone thought, well, maybe that will help people to remember. Well, we have something better than a calendar. We have the word of God. Knowing the actual date is not important. Knowing the fact that he did come into this world is important. And the Bible says in Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. When the fullness of time had come. And I don't know, maybe the Lord knew that there'd be a lot of commotion about if he gave the exact date for us to know. People might would idolize the day and get so crazy about the day and not realize the true meaning of why Christ came into the world. Here's the thing. We do not worship a particular day. We do not even worship or even celebrate the event that we know is Christmas. We worship the Christ of Christmas. We worship Him who came and we celebrate Christ. All the other is just some trappings that's been added. And so some put on a lot, some put on a few lights, some people put on a whole lot of lights. But the main thing is we worship the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior who came into the world. But you know, I still love the Christmas story. I love to hear it because it's the word of God. I love to read it. I love to hear it. I love because it's the greatest story, I believe, the greatest story that's ever been told. And we worship Christ, the one who came. This story, you know how Joseph and Mary, how they traveled so far. From Nazareth, they came to Bethlehem, they traveled like 70 to 90 miles. That's a long way, especially when your wife is expecting. And Mary was expecting with child, and so they traveled that great distance because they were to go and be a part of a census and pay taxes. But really it's fulfillment of prophecy in the book of Micah that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. And I like to read about that and also like to read about the shepherds. You know, after Jesus was born, the shepherds one night, they were out there on the Judean hills. And all of a sudden there came all of these angels. They announced to these humble shepherds about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the shepherds made a visit to the manger. They made a trip there to see the baby Jesus that they had heard from the angels. And then I liked the other story. I liked about the wise men, or if you want to call them magi, or the wise men from the east. They traveled a great distance to come, and they had some insight. They had some knowledge about this one that was going to be born. They traveled so far. They followed a special kind of a star that guided them, and they came to see Jesus as the baby. They brought some gifts. They brought gold and frankincense and myrrh that was in that song of Silent Night and had some special meaning. You know, there's so much to learn about the the Christmas story and the text that we have in the word of God. But this morning, I wants to look at something I haven't studied in a good while, and that is this song called Mary's Song of Praise. Or maybe in your Bible you may have a heading that says. Magnificent. Magnificent. That's a Latin word. It's a Latin word. That means the first verse that I read, my soul magnifies the Lord. That's what Magnificat means. Took me a while to try to pronounce that, but that's that's it. It's the it's Mary's song of praise. And so I want to look at that this morning here in Luke chapter one deserves our careful consideration because it has some great truths, some wonderful things about our salvation. But, you know, a lot of people, you know, they don't realize what God did and to what extent he went to purchase our salvation. It's a thing that we need to understand here. A lot of people this time of year, they're all caught up with gifts, gifts under a tree. But I tell you what, the Lord Jesus is the greatest gift that you could ever receive. And he's not a gift under a tree, but he is one who was nailed to a tree. He was nailed there for our sins and by his blood he purchased our redemption. So as we begin to look at this and some of the verses we did not read in Luke chapter one, we have to kind of back up a little bit. I want to begin, first of all, as an introduction to Mary's song of praise. There's some background. to this hymn of praise to the Lord. It's like a lot of good hymns. They have backgrounds. I think of one of the most beloved hymns in the Christian community is the song Amazing Grace. You all know that, don't you? Amazing Grace. Well, there's a story behind that hymn Amazing Grace. It was written by John Newton. John Newton, many years ago, he was a very wicked man, very rebellious in his sin. and he was a slave trader. He went out in the ocean, he went to other parts of the world to to get slaves, and he was part of that very disgraceful, vile business called slave trading. But out one time, out in the sea, there came up a storm that was so perilous that his life was in jeopardy. There he got on his knees and realized how much of a sinner he was. He surrendered his life to God because he remembered some things that his mom talked to him about, and he gave his life to the Lord Jesus. And later on, he wrote that song Amazing Grace. Well, Mary's song of praise has a background to it. It has a background to it. First of all, if you recall, you can skim back there. You remember the angel Gabriel, the angel Gabriel came to her and said, announcing to her, listen, you're greatly favored, Mary, you're going to have a baby. And although of course this left Mary, she was perplexed by this. She was very disturbed about this. And she says, How can this be since I am a virgin? I'm not even with a man yet. How can that happen? And the angel reassured her and said, listen, here's what's going to happen. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and the therefore the child that will be born of you will be called Holy, the Son of God. And so the angel says that to her. But you know, there's something else that Angel Gabriel said to her that sometimes we forget about. Gabriel went on to say this. It's like he gives proof to Mary about the miraculous work of God. And he said, You have a relative named Elizabeth, your cousin. I don't know if you know this, and this I'm paraphrasing it real bad time. She's gonna have a baby too. And I could see Mary stepping back, oh no. She's old. How can an old woman like Elizabeth? She's well up in years and she's barren. She's been called that nickname barren. You know, everybody knew that she had that stigma. She had that reputation. She can have no children. Yeah, she's going to have a baby. And by the way, this is six months in her pregnancy. Oh, that's what the Gabriel told Mary. And so what I believe the Lord was doing was assuring Mary that through the message of the angel Gabriel, that she herself would bring forth a son unaided by a man not conceived by Joseph, but conceived by the Holy Spirit. And I got some more evidence for you. Go down there and say, why don't you go see your cousin? You haven't seen her in a while. Well, that's what she does. And she goes down to see Elizabeth and there is some rejoicing when she meets Elizabeth. I'm going to read that in verse 41, back up in chapter one, verse 41. There are three people rejoicing. When Elizabeth, that's verse 41, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, I mean, she came in the door, Elizabeth, I'm going to have a baby. I don't know if you know that. And it says, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby in her womb leaped. Now, since I don't know the experience of having, uh, I don't want to have the experience, but I've heard some, some moms to be say, Oh, what was that? Oh, the baby leaped in her womb. The first person to rejoice with Mary was the baby, the baby. I stay with me on that. He's still in the womb, six months, but he's rejoicing, jumping up and down, rejoicing with the exciting news of a coming Savior that's coming. This unborn baby, unnamed at this point, but we know he's going to be called John the Baptist. That's going to be his name, John the Baptist. He is the forerunner of Jesus. He's the one who's going to announce to everyone of the coming of the Messiah. He's going to do that. I think he's getting some practice in, don't you? He leaped in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth. Now someone says, that's silly. Baby at six months can't do that. Is it true? Let me ask you a question. Is it true that an unborn baby at six months is unaware of his or her surroundings outside of the womb? Well, I want to know the answer to that question. I did some research. I went to Google. And I asked this question, does an unborn baby at six months respond to the environment outside the womb? I want to give you word by word what Dr. Internet said, Dr. AI, whatever. He said this. Yes, an unborn baby at six months responds to the environment outside the womb. By this stage, the baby has developed enough awareness and feelings to respond to external stimuli, such as sound and light and touch. The baby can hear sounds from around 20 weeks gestation and may respond to familiar voices or music. The baby can also sense touch from around eight weeks gestation and may respond to gentle caresses or strokes. These responses indicate that the baby is actively engaged in the process of development and is sensitive to the environment around it. That tells me that unborn baby, even at eight weeks, it's not just a clump of mass of flesh. It's a human being. And by the way, my trust is not what I find on the internet. My trust is what I read in the word of God. And let me read to you. It's in verse 37. For nothing will be impossible with God. God can do whatever he wants to. If he wants a baby to jump up and down, he can do all he wants. He can do it if he wants to. Luke 1, look at verse 43. And why is this granted to me? Elizabeth is speaking. Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came in my ears, the baby of my womb would leap. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. So now we have the baby rejoicing. And person number two is Elizabeth. She's rejoicing. when she hears Mary, knows that Mary's gonna give birth to the Savior, and now who's the third person rejoicing? Well, that's what this song's all about. It's Mary. And we're not gonna get to all of it, but we'll get as much as we can. We're gonna learn some things here. There's some important things to consider here. Number one, Mary's song of praise expresses depth of feeling. depth of feeling. Notice how she says it there. In verse 46, Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. What we have here is Mary's song of praise, and she's expressing it in depth of true faith. It's based on truth. She is convinced in her heart that what Gabriel said and confirmed by Elizabeth, she is convinced beyond a doubt she is going to be the mother of her Lord. And she, down in the depths of her being, my soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in the God of my Savior. I want you to notice those two words, my soul and my spirit. I may not be all dogmatic about this, but it seems like it may be a distinction between those two things. First of all, my soul, soul, soul refers to your mind. It refers to your intellect. It refers to your feelings. It's how we respond and how we relate to people. It's by our soul, you know? So that is who we are, our inmost inner being. But spirit, has a much higher way of thinking. Your spirit is more at the ability to perceive, and it helps us to come to terms with things that we can't see. It gives us the capacity to worship God. Jesus says we must worship in what spirit and in truth. That's how we relate to God in our spirit. So. Here, Mary is expressing the depth of feeling, in the depths of her soul, in the depths of her spirit, she gives praise to God. And that's the way it ought to be. Paul spoke about this, about our worship. You know, and listen, I've been guilty. I've been guilty. Oh yeah. I'll come to church and I'll pick up the hymn book and sing. Okay, I'm being funny, right? You know, my mind is a million miles away. My heart's not even in it. You know, I hope you'll never see me that way. I might be sick or something. But praise to God should be depth of feeling because our soul and our spirit and Paul spoke about this in Ephesians. Chapter 5, verse 18, he says, Be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with what? Your heart. In the depths of your heart. Mary wasn't speaking just words. She spoke from the heart. And her praises to the Lord went high because her faith went deep. She really believed some things. And I believe our praises to God will go high when our faith goes deep into God's word. It happens every time. So there's nothing superficial about her worship. It wasn't just a trivial experience. It was for real. And that should be the way we magnify the Lord. The Bible says in Psalms 105 in verse one, Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. That's what we ought to do. Second thing in verse 48, Mary's song of praise was toward the Lord. If you notice in verse 48, For he has looked on the humblest state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed." And here we see the praises of Mary. She didn't draw attention to herself. She didn't magnify herself. The Bible says there she magnified the Lord. That verse 46 is what I should have read. My soul magnifies the Lord. Her praises was to the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God. Say it is to God. She magnified God because the Lord was looking up on her. Her humble estate. She was a humble servant of the Lord. And it is true that Mary would have a special place in the history of redemption in that she was the mother of Jesus. And it's true, as we read here in the scriptures, from behold, you see the word behold, from now on, from all generations will call me blessed. We'll call Mary blessed. And if you want to call her the blessed Mary, I guess that's OK. But this is here. It's a mistake, though, to read, because the Lord has looked upon the humble state of service. She was not a queen. She was not somebody of it was real famous. She was not somebody that had a lot of money. She was not well known. She was a poor young woman. And there is no riches. No riches tied to her name. Yet, the Lord blessed her out of all women and chose her to be the mother of the Lord Jesus. Now notice it says she magnifies the Lord. Not that she can add anything more to the Lord's greatness. She cannot magnify and make the Lord greater than what He is. But magnify, think about a magnifying glass. Mary in her song, she could be a lens, a magnifying glass by which she can praise the Lord and make God great in the eyes of those around her. And that's how she's magnifying the Lord. But something more personally here before we leave that verse. uh, 40, uh, 47. And that is that personally her song was to the Lord because she sees him as God, my savior. If you notice there, he says, my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. What does that mean? Mary was a sinner. Mary was a sinner in need of a savior. Now this does away with the heresy. that I'll mention to you. It's called the Immaculate Conception. Immaculate Conception, which is a teaching from the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that Mary was free from original sin and she never committed a sin. But she says, I'm rejoicing in God, my savior, because she needed a savior. She had sinned. She was a sinner. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Now, if Mary was perfect and with no sin, what did Jesus die? Why did He die? Did He die to save Mary from anything? The Catholic teaching says Mary eventually died. Well, why did she die? If she never committed a sin, If she never committed a sin, why did she die? Because the Bible says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the Catholics do teach that she did die. Some people get real nervous when we talk about Catholics. I have to bring that up because that's what they're teaching. And I love Catholics. I'm not declaring war on Catholics. I love them. And I believe there's some that love the Lord. But this is in their book. We never elevate Mary as someone above a sinner. We don't pray to Mary. Mary was a sinner because the Bible says all have sinned. All have sinned. Read it in Romans chapter 3. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If Mary never sinned, it would read all have sinned except Mary. All generations, she says, will call me blessed. That doesn't mean we give Mary our prayers. That doesn't mean we give Mary our petitions. She's called blessed because of the great honor of bringing Jesus into the world. That's as far as it goes. That's it. Now listen, if you meet her in heaven one day, we can say, Thank you for your service. But turn to Jesus and bow your knee to Jesus. Does that offend anyone? Number three, Mary's song of praise also serves to exalt and magnify the Lord's attributes. Notice what she says now in verse 49. For he who is mighty has done great things. I want you to think about that word mighty. And then look at the word strength in verse 51. He has shown strength with his arms. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God is all mighty. And the Hebrew word for this El, E-L, the Hebrew word Elohim. He is the strong one. He is the mighty one. God, our Lord, is all powerful. And Mary says, God has done great things for me. That's her testimony. And she's heard about that in the past. She's heard about God's powerful works in the past. But this is her personal, this is real personal to her, because she has no power to save herself. She has no power to bring a baby into the world. But with God, all things are possible. And God brings salvation to the weak, to the humble, to the lowly. God is a savior. But God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. But God gives grace to the humble. You know, our world today is looking for something powerful. They're looking for some powerful personality. They're looking for something powerful, like some powerful tools, powerful machinery, powerful weaponry. They're looking for power in politicians. They're looking for powerful strategies to get things done. But here's the thing. The pride of man, God will scatter and disperse. Only the Lord Jesus Christ has power to change the world. Only Jesus has power to make peace on the earth. Man can't do it. No way. There is no peace for the wicked. But I'll tell you one thing, for the child of God, there is peace when they know Jesus, who is the prince of peace. God is almighty, and I'll tell you what, he has given us a powerful salvation. That's a powerful salvation. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God on the salvation to everyone who believes first Jew and also to the Greek. It takes the power of God to deal with sin. It takes the power of God to deal with Satan, who's over the realm of darkness. Our salvation is not some wimpy transaction. What it is, it's a mighty deliverance that's given by a mighty Savior, our God. And then look at the word holy in verse 40. 49 holy is his name. Not only is God almighty, he's also holy, holy, holy is his name. I think of that passage in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and he hears these angelic beings, seraphims, and they're constantly crying out and they're saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. He is holy. God's name is holy. You know, sometimes people get stuck with a nickname. You know, maybe you've got a nickname. I don't know. I had a classmate I saw recently, and I remember when he brought it up. He's a muscular guy in high school, worked out all the time, played football. He could beat everybody in arm wrestling. He was a strong guy. He got a nickname, Twig. Someone asked him, I asked him, listen, how did you get the nickname Twig? He said, I don't know, but I think I do. I think someone said, don't mess with him, he'll break you like a twig. Our Lord God, holy is His name. His name is holy. We ought to be reminded that every time you repeat the Lord's Prayer, you say, Our Father who art in heaven, what's the next thing you say? Hallowed be your name. That's holy. Holy is His name. His name is holy. Now, let me ask you this question. What does God's holiness have to do with our salvation? What does God's holiness have to do with our salvation? God has the power to save us, but His holiness cannot overlook sin. God hates sin. God is opposed to sin. He's actively opposed to sin. Someone is real critical of Franklin Graham when he got on national net, wherever I can read here, Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse. God loves people, but there are some things God hates. Oh, that was a flag that went up. God hate, you shouldn't have that in the same sentence. God hates sin. Always has! God hates sin. And that's why God sent Jesus into the world. Because sin cannot exist in the presence of God. God is holy. And Jesus came and He came to deal with sin. And Mary sings this song of praise, magnifying, rejoicing in God. My Savior, Jesus as God in the flesh. God in the flesh came to deal with sin. John the Baptist made it clear. He said in John 1, verse 29, the next day he saw Jesus and he said this, Behold, another one of those beholds, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Aren't you so glad he took away your sins? Now, before God could save poor sinners, there's another attribute that we've got to look at. You see it in verse 50? His mercy, and His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. If God only had the attribute of Almighty and Holy, He could never save us. We'd be in big trouble. But thank God He has the attribute of mercy Because of our sins, He has mercy, He has compassion. His power to save could not be extended to us unless He was a merciful God. His holiness would have prevented the Lord from looking upon the humble estate of His servant, as Mary said there in the text. This attribute of mercy must be expressed by our Lord to save a world of sinners. And it's hard to speak about mercy unless you talk about grace. Mercy and grace kind of go together. There is a distinction there. Mercy. Mercy means God displayed His compassion in withholding judgment and wrath on sinners. Or you could say, put it this way, it's not getting what we do deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. And then grace means God giving you favor. He's giving you blessings. He's giving you salvation, which you don't deserve. Or as we could say, it's receiving what we don't deserve. Thank God for his mercy and his grace. There is mercy in a temporal sense for all people is mercy that God doesn't send people to hell immediately. God gives people another opportunity to be saved. God gives them another day to live. God and His mercy on sinners. Thank God for that. We sing that same only. Trust Him. Come every soul by all prayers. There's mercy with the Lord and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His word. So saving mercy is for all those who trust Him. to all those, he says here, who fear Him. That is to those who believe in Him. Believe in Him. Believe in God, my Savior. I want to ask you this question. Are you trusting in Christ to save you? If you are, you're part of that generation of the redeemed. He says it's from generation to generation. You see that? From generation to generation. Desperate sinners have found mercy in the Lord Jesus from generation to generation. What generation are you in? Well, the world says you are in a certain kind of generation. I don't think anybody here is in this generation. It's called the lost generation. They all died out in 1900. I don't know if anybody's in the greatest generation. They lived through the World War II era. The greatest generation. Maybe you're here, maybe you're part of that silent generation. That's after World War II. Or maybe you're part of the baby boomers. That's me. Maybe you're part of that generation. Maybe you're generation X. Millennials. Generation Z. or a Generation Alpha, or if you're born in 2025, you're part of the generation called Generation Beta. And you know what? Regardless of what group you're assigned to, you must be a member of the generation of the redeemed, or you don't go to heaven. From generation to generation, God is calling out His redeemed. And I close with this attribute here in verse 52 through 55. And it says there, He's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He's filled the hungry with good things. The rich He sent away empty. He's helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever. That is a description of the faithful God we have. You go down through history. It's just a history. And here, Mary's song of praise is saturated. It's saturated with scripture. There's Psalms in here. Psalms 22, Psalms 44, Psalms 103. Psalms 105 and other Psalms, and even Hannah's song of 1 Samuel. She's pulling from all the scriptures. It's saturated with scriptures, and scriptures is a history lesson to teach us God is faithful. He mentions about Abraham in the last verse there. Abraham found God to be faithful. Many times Abraham was not faithful. But he found God to be faithful. God helped his servant Israel. God is faithful. You look in the Word of God. Every page of the Word of God you read. God is faithful to who He is. God is faithful in what He does. And it's so clear. And you can know this morning that God is faithful to save you and forgive you. 1 John 1 verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.