Well, good evening to you this Tuesday evening. We welcome you to our service, whether you be at home or whether you be here. And we pray that our Lord will bless you and help you and be with you as you listen, wherever you are. We'll bow our heads in prayer. Our Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you now through our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for another opportunity to meet, to meet, to worship you, to gather round your word, to pray. We pray, Lord, that you would be very present with us, Lord. Lord, we are a needy people. Without you, we can do nothing. But we pray, Lord, that you would especially touch us now as we gather together around your word, Lord. and that the Lord Jesus may bless us wherever we are. For we ask these things in his name. Amen. I'm going to read our first hymn for tonight, which is, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. O come, O come, Emmanuel. and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, O come, thou Lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's height In ancient times didst give the law, In cloud and majesty and awe. O come, thou rod of Jesse, Free thine own from Satan's tyranny, From depths of hell thy people save, And give them victory o'er the grave. O come, thou Dayspring, Come and cheer our spirits by thy advent here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight. O come, thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heavenly home. Make safe the path that leads on high, And close the path to misery. We'll continue before the Lord now in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you to bless you. Indeed, that Emmanuel has come and that all the things desired in this Old Hymn have come to pass. And for this, we worship you, that your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ has come to this earth, has come and lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death and then risen again. Lord, that we might come to know you, that we might experience the blessings of your grace of your Word. And we bless you for this. We thank you for him. who has come to ransom captive Israel. We thank you, Lord, that he is the stronger man who has defeated Satan. He is the conqueror who has ridden forth triumphantly to redeem a people to himself. we worship you and we praise you for this. And we come, our Father, as a needy people this night. We need you, Lord, to have dealings with us. We need you, Lord, to minister to us in our several needs, Lord, our several concerns. Lord, we need your Spirit to help us We can do nothing without you, Lord, but we thank you, Lord, that you are the all-conquering One, Lord, and that your people are willing, Lord, through your great mighty power. Lord, we think of those who cannot be with us tonight, Lord, at home. We pray that you would minister to them in the power of the Spirit through your blessed Son, the Lamb of God. We pray, Lord, for those who have particular needs this night. We pray for our sister, Joy Harrison's father, who has been diagnosed as having COVID, Lord, and is in hospital at this time. We pray, our Father, that you would have mercy on him. Lord, that according to your grace and will, you may touch him, Lord. Lord, to minister to him. If it be your will to raise him up again, Lord. But also, we would pray for his spiritual state. Lord, this is the more important thing, the most important thing. we pray, Lord, that you would have mercy upon him, that you would send your Holy Spirit, our Father, and that, Lord, you would grant him a new nature, that he may respond to the gospel, even to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he may come and turn from his sins and simply trust in you. Look to you for full salvation. We thank you for our sister Joy, we thank you for her faithfulness and we pray, Lord, that you would strengthen her, our father, with your Holy Spirit, Lord, at this time and be with her and indeed be with the family. We pray also at this time for the family of Ted Bagley, Alan Bagley's brother. We've heard, Lord, of the passing of Ted and Pat's beloved son, Stephen, in hospital on Boxing Day. Lord, taken by Covid. Lord, we thank you for Stephen's life. We thank you, Father, for that constant love he has received from Ted and Pat and we pray, Lord, that at this time you would be very, very close to them. Lord, that they may rest on Jesus' bosom, Lord, in their pain and distress. We pray too for their daughter Charlotte, who is allowed to go into hospital with him, Lord, and be there in his last days. And we pray for Charlotte that you would minister to her. Lord, she has seen some very distressing things. we pray that you would have mercy and grace upon her, Lord, and grant that this grace may lead her to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we pray too, for our sister Lucy Wilkes, Stephen Wilkes' wife. Lord, we thank you for them. We pray, Lord, as she comes to, I think, a pause in her medication, Lord, that you would help them, Lord, that you would strengthen them, that they may put all their trust in you. We thank you for the work of your Spirit in their lives at this time, and we pray that you would have mercy and grant grace and peace, healing and strength to them and to their family. We pray, Lord, for our workers who are involved in serving you on the front line, our nurses and all those who are performing a service to yourself in various ways, We thank you for them, Lord. We thank you for your goodness, Lord, and we pray that you would keep them safe, Lord, and that you would give them strength and that they, Lord, would be fully aware that though they serve us, Lord, they're also serving the King of Kings. We pray, Lord, that you would help them. We pray, Lord, for our country at this time, this perplexing time with regard to COVID. We pray, Lord, that you would have mercy upon us. Lord, that we would not be rash during this time, that we would take the necessary precautions, Lord. We pray, Lord, indeed, that the vaccine may be of a great help, but we know that ultimately our hope and our help is from you, and we pray, Lord, that you would have mercy. We pray, Lord, that you would bless your church universal, and your church in this place. Lord, we pray for the saints in Utty. We thank you for them. We praise you for your work there. We pray, Lord, that they may grow closer to you and closer together at this time. And we pray for your dear church here at West Park. We thank you for our saints, Lord, for those who have trusted in you. We thank you, Lord, for the work you've done in their lives and we pray, Lord, during this difficult time that those who cannot get out may know your ministry to them and may know a longing to be back with the people of God, Lord, worshipping together. May they have their portion as we ask that we too may have our portion from your good hand. We ask all these things with the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. Amen. We'll now turn to our reading which is taken from the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 1 And verse 67 to verse 79, this is the prophecy of John the Baptist's father, Zacharias. Hear the Word of God. Now his father, John's father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who 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 to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. We'll turn again, if you have the information on your phone, to the 177th hymn that's in Christian hymns. To us a child of royal birth, heir of the promises is given. the invisible appears on earth, the Son of Man, the God of heaven. A Saviour born in love supreme, he comes our fallen souls to raise. He comes his people to redeem with all his plenitude of grace. The Christ, by raptured seers foretold, Filled with the eternal Spirit's power, prophet and priest and king behold, and Lord of all the worlds adore. The Lord of hosts, the God most high, who quits his throne on earth to live, with joy we welcome from the sky, with faith into our hearts receive. And now would you turn back to your scriptures, please, to John chapter 1, verses 68 through to 75. And we're only going to look at part of the prophecy tonight. That's verse 68 to 75. Let's bow our heads again. Lord God of Scripture, we bow before you and ask that you would help us now to understand your word, Lord, that it may do us good and draw us closer to you. For your great name's sake. Amen. Well, we're going to look at this very famous prophecy of Zacharias. When I was in the Anglican Church, this was what was known as a canticle. in the Book of Common Prayer, it's known as the Benedictus, but we don't know it as that. We know it as the Zacharias prophecy. And we're going to look at this in a number of ways. We'll look at it like this, I shall repeat this at the end, but the prophecy, which is a wonderful prophecy, is the result, the fruit, of God's chastising his child Zacharias. It is the fruit of the discipline of God. It is a most positive, positive witness to the loving nature of God's chastisement. Then we shall look at what the prophecy is about, which shows Zacharias praising God for fulfilling his promises that he made to the Father in the sending of a Redeemer, that is Jesus Christ. And then we will see that the prophecy also is concerned to extol the grace of believers serving God. The prophecy extols the grace to believers of the privilege of serving the Lord. And that's what I seek to outline for you. Well, the background you will know very well. The account of Zacharias is very familiar, particularly it's read during the Christmas period. But I would remind you that Zacharias was a godly priest. His wife was godly. They walked in all the commandments of the Lord, but they were childless. You'll remember that. But the Lord sent the angel Gabriel to Zacharias when he was burning incense in the temple. And the angel appeared at the right side of the altar, he says, with wonderful information for old Zacharias and his wife, that Elizabeth, Zacharias' wife, would bear a son who would be the Lord's forerunner, the one who would prepare the way for the Lord with a ministry of repentance Now, Zacharias is, we know, a godly man because the Scriptures tell us so. But the message of the angel was met with unbelief. You will recall that he demanded, he required, he wanted proof. And the angel, to punish him for his unbelief, struck him with dumbness. until the promised son, that is the future John the Baptist, was born. Indeed the angel instructed Zacharias that the boy's name was not to be that of his father, but John. But Zacharias didn't believe, he wanted proof and to discipline him, Gabriel, obviously fulfilling the Lord God's command, struck him dumb until his boy should be born. That was the Lord disciplining Zacharias. And we know that soon after that, it's all very familiar this, that Elizabeth conceived. In the sixth month of her pregnancy, Gabriel was sent to Mary. and who was a relation of Elizabeth, announcing that indeed Mary would bear a son, the Messiah, who would reign over the house of David forever. And that this child was to be born through the action of the Holy Spirit. that he would be called the Son of God. This child would be the God-man, even the Lord Jesus Christ. And his Godhood is attested by Elizabeth when she met Mary because the child in Elizabeth's womb jumped for joy. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, you will recall, said this, but why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Now, three months later, Zacharias and Elizabeth's son was born. At his circumcision, again, you will remember this, Zacharias still dumb, indicated that he should be named John in accordance with Gabriel's command. And when he indicated this, his dumbness was taken away. And filled with the Holy Spirit, he uttered the prophecy, which is the subject of our sermon tonight. And in this prophecy, it's very interesting. He blesses the God of Israel for giving a saviour to us even before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. God has been at work in this man's life through this disciplining to make him, if I can say this, more of a man of faith than even this godly man was before. And the proof of this, that Zacharias blesses God for the Lord Jesus Christ before Jesus is born, is seen in verses 68 and 69. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, says Zacharias, for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of salvation that is a Redeemer for us in the house of his servant David. Zacharias praises God's raising up of this Saviour even before the Lord Jesus is born, showing clearly from this that Zacharias chastened for his unbelief has been so moved, changed by the Lord that from unbelief he has now moved to praising God. Because of the Lord's chastening, he is no longer disbelieving but he is adoring the goodness of his God. Showing that, of course, and that the chastening proved to be a tremendous blessing to Zacharias. The initial discipline, as we've seen, was followed by the unfolding of God's plan through Elizabeth's pregnancy, through Elizabeth's meeting with Mary and what she would have told Zacharias, to Zacharias' obedience over the calling of the name of the new child. And this all leads, with the miraculous restoration of Zacharias' ability to talk, to, on the part of this man, believing praise. He has, before our eyes, if I can suggest this, even this godly man has grown in grace and faith. We see God's dealing with his unbelieving child, chastening him for his own good, and a proof that Zacharias was a true child of God, in that God so dealt with him. The Lord changing this godly man for good, shaping him more into the Lord's image. And as I've said, what's wonderful is we actually see this process in the Scripture. This is God's chastening which leads to spiritual growth and the praise of God. And that's an encouragement, I think, for believers as we look on to see the doctrine of the disciplining of God, the chastening of God, unfold before our eyes. If you turn to Hebrews 12, of course, the doctrine is outlined for us there. I'm going to read from the passage, some of the verses from that passage. Hebrews 12, and I'll pick some verses from it. This is the writer of the Hebrews talking to the Hebrews themselves. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. Zacharias is treated, of course, as a son of the Lord. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. and scourges every son whom he receives. And then moving on to verse 9, we've had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits? and live. For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them. But he, the father of spirits, the Lord God, the God of Israel, for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. to those who have been trained by it. It was a mark of God's love that he treated his child Zacharias in this way and it was to Zacharias' great, great benefit. Well we turn now to look at the words of praise in the early verses of this prophecy, really from 68 through to 7073. Here we see that Zacharias is praising God for redeeming the Lord's people, raising up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And later on, God has remembered his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham. The heart, the beating heart of Zacharias' praise is the faithfulness of his God. the faithfulness of the living God, the God of Israel. And this is very much a feature of what we read. As we've already said, he praises God for effectively the birth of Jesus Christ in that wonderful verse and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, which is of course the Redeemer. Our Lord Jesus comes from the house of David, not yet born yet. Notice the expression there, he has raised up a horn of salvation. Now I looked this up in one or two commentaries and was informed that the horn is used here as indicative of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. An old preacher commented thus, The horn of an animal is its weapon for defense and vengeance, its ornament and its beauty too. Sometimes it is used metaphorically to describe the power of the strongest empires. And this writer goes on to say in his quaint way, in the same sense, we are to understand it here. By this image, the horn of our salvation, of course it's an image of the Lord Jesus, we see the exceeding greatness of the Redeemer's strength and the never-ceasing exertion of it on behalf of his church. They're signified, so our writer says, by this use of the term horn of salvation. Hendrickson puts it more simply. It symbolizes the Lord Jesus' power, that all-conquering power that he has. And notice that this horn of salvation, the Redeemer, has been raised up in the house of his servant David. And the purpose of this is being raised up, you can see in verse 71, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us." That, of course, is one of the great aspects of salvation. Saved from Satan and his allies, this is Hendrickson, sin, death, the grave hell, and all the hosts of evil by the mighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the hymn that we read at the beginning of our service really is very helpful in understanding this, our Lord Jesus' power. It is written, of course, if you like, showing the people of God longing for the coming of the Lord Jesus when he will do tremendous things Hear these words, O come, thou rod of Jesse, come, and free thine own from Satan's tyranny. From depths of hell thy people save, and give them victory, or the grave. The Lord has come. He has done this. Again, verse four. O come, thou dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here. This isn't something to come, it's already been accomplished. And we receive the fruit of this great power. O come, thou key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home. He's done it. He's accomplished it. Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the paths to misery. The great horn of salvation, our Redeemer, has actually come and done all these things so that we are, if we trust him, saved from our enemies and the hands of all that hate us. This appearance, as our text goes on to show, of the great Redeemer, is a fulfillment of God's promises. Such a saviour was promised to David, that this saviour who would reign forever would come from David's flesh, his descendants. He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. That's referred to in 2 Samuel. And this promise has now come true, been fulfilled. The promise of Isaiah, which godly Jews would have looked at for many centuries of the coming of David's greatest son, is now an actuality. This is what Zacharias is praising God for in his great prophecy. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice, from that side forward even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this, and indeed the zeal of the Lord of hosts has performed this in the birth of the God-man, Jesus Christ. And Zacharias is praising God for the fulfillment of these and other promises of the coming of the Messiah. He remembers his holy covenant. He's remembering his oath that he swore to our father, Abraham. God has kept his promises He's kept them to the letter. Now, these promises of God are fulfilled, fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ. But we move on from there and we think, well, there are many other promises to be fulfilled. And of course, the faithful God will fulfill all those too. He will fulfill them because he is God and he has said so. But we can see also that he has fulfilled all the promise concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in his first coming. And that gives us confidence as well. So the God that Zacharias praises for keeping his promises in the coming of the Lord Jesus, this same God will fulfill all his promises that he has made in the scriptures. And we should, of course, that should cause us to praise, praise the Lord. So we have this mighty fulfillment, God's promise of a saviour. But for what purpose? Well, you would say so that men, women and children would be redeemed to him. And that we have the great privilege of worshipping this great God as new creatures in Christ. But what this verse, what the passage says, says something else. And that's very interesting. It's not just worship. You'll find that elsewhere. But he's performed the mercy to our fathers to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. So he comes, he comes to redeem, that we might serve him, that we might serve the Lord, that's the sense of this passage, without fear. Serving the Lord. Those who trust him, he is our Lord. We're no longer slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil. Sin doesn't have dominion over us, for we're not under the law but under grace. but we're called, we're granted that we might be of service to him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. And here is a blessing, a privilege that only Christians can understand. Such service has no attraction to the ungodly. But to the godly, it is a most tremendous privilege serving the Lord. It's one of the chief purposes of salvation. And there is no higher privilege than serving the living God here and in the world to come. Only believers are granted this privilege. And to do this, to serve Him, we serve Him in so many ways. As we walk in obedience to His Word, as individuals in our personal walk with the Lord, we serve Him in the church by serving Him and His people, in our homes, in our work, in our studies, at school, in our relationships, in our witness. This is the privilege that we're granted as believers. There's a wonderful hymn by Philip Doddridge, which I think we must all aspire to. It begins with these words, my gracious Lord, I own the right to every service I can pay, and call it my supreme delight to hear thy dictates and obey. Well, of course, we struggle with the old man, don't we? But that's something to which we must aspire. And I love verse four, which I shall read to you. Tis to my Saviour I would live, To him who for my ransom died, Tis to my Saviour I would live, To him who for my ransom died, Nor could untainted Eden give Such bliss as blossoms at his side. So we are saved to serve all our days in holiness and in righteousness. We can only truly serve the Lord, firstly, if we're converted, if we turn from our sin and trusted alone in Jesus Christ and his shed blood. And we can only truly serve the Lord if we serve in righteousness too, if we walk according to his word. And these are just ordinary requirements for the Christian. And that when we do our work, if you like, for the Lord, when we do serve him, of course, because whatever we do is still sinners in this world, we offer up our service through the sprinkled bread of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the righteousness that he has given us. But that's, I mean, that's just normal, ordinary Christianity. That's how we come to prayer when we pray, and that's how, when we serve, we offer our service. But the privilege is absolutely immense. Whatever our serving, here are just some ordinary examples, stewarding, visiting or phoning, hospitality, witnessing, working to provide the wherewithal for the families that the Lord has given us, missionary work, writing, or whatever it is. It's our privilege when we do these things in the power of the Spirit, in holiness and righteousness, that we may do these things to the glory of God and as part of our service to him. This is the normal Christian life. And it is a privilege to which no one else is called. It's a privilege for believers to do these things. Well, that is really what I think I want to say from this passage. Perhaps, Lord willing, at another time I'll look at the other verses. But what I've really said is that Zacharias' prophecy, which is wonderful, is a fruit of God's discipline to Zacharias. It's a prophecy which adores God for faithfully keeping His promise with regard to the sending of a Saviour and the liberation of His people. And it's a prophecy which extols the grace and the glory of serving the Lord. May God, God our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Scripture, so enable us that we may delight more and more in our God, in his faithful promises, and in serving him for his glory's sake. Amen. We now turn to our final hymn. I expect you to sing of course which is silly really because you're not going to. To hymn 773 which you will have I think on your mobiles. It's a hymn by Wesley about serving the Lord. at 7.73. Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go, My daily labour to pursue, Thee only Thee resolve to know, In all I think or speak or do. The task Thy wisdom has assigned, O let me cheerfully fulfil, In all my works Thy presence find, And prove Thy good and perfect will. Thee may I set at my right hand, Whose eye my inmost substance see, and labour on at thy command, and offer all my works to thee. Give me to bear thy easy yoke, and every moment watch and pray, and still to things eternal look, and hasten to thy glorious day. For thee delightfully employ, whate'er thy bounteous grace has given. and run my course with even joy, and closely walk with thee to heaven. Let's close our eyes in prayer. Indeed, Lord God of Israel, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may this be so for Jesus' sake. Amen.