Well, good morning, church. Open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one. We're gonna finish chapter one this morning. I'm gonna be reading verses 57 through 80. If you're borrowing a Bible from the PURAC in front of you this morning, that'll be on page 856, and I'm gonna start reading in the top right-hand corner of the page. And if you do not have a Bible of your own, we would be glad for you to take that one home with you as a gift from us to you. Luke chapter one, starting in verse 57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. And they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father. But his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loose, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be 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 from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that 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 our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people and the forgiveness of their sins. because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Well, this morning, I wanna just address a word that we hear often in our lives, in our culture. When you hear the word bless or think of blessing, what do you think of? What comes to your mind? I think this word has become overused in our culture, so much so that it hasn't escaped the attention of those in the secular media. A woman named Jessica Bennett, she writes for the New York Times. Back in 2014, she observed a trend that was happening in her social network. This is what she had to say. Here are a few ways that God has touched my social network over the past few months. He helped a friend get accepted into graduate school. She was blessed to be there. He made it possible for a yoga instructor's Caribbean spa retreat. Blessed to be teaching in paradise, she wrote. He graced a colleague with at least 57 Facebook wall postings about her birthday, so blessed for all the love she wrote to approximately 900 of her closest friends. God has, in fact, recently blessed my network with dazzling job promotions, coveted speaking gigs, the most wonderful fiancés ever, front row seats at Fashion Week, nominations for many a 30 under 30 list, and blessings aren't limited to the little people either. He blessed Macklemore with a wardrobe designer and Jamie Lynn Spears with an engagement ring, hashtag blessed, hashtag blessed, hashtag blessed, she wrote on Twitter. He has been known to bless Kanye West and Kim Kardashian with exotic getaways and expensive bottles of champagne, overlooking sunsets of biblical proportion, naturally. Now, I'm not declaring a war on the word blessed. Don't take that away from the pulpit this morning. In fact, in Scripture, we see this word, to be blessed by God or receive God's blessing, sometimes occurs in the context of what we just read about. Material possessions, fortunate circumstances, these are all things that Scripture says God blesses people with. But what you notice, and what Bennett goes on later in her article to say, is that this word blessed that she's noticing is really just being used as some kind of approved humble method to brag about oneself. You see, there's no reference given to the blesser or the one who blesses in these words. Last week, our brother faithfully preached a sermon title called The Magnificent. It comes after the Latin word for Mary's use in Luke 1 46, where she says, my soul magnifies the Lord. And this sermon title is the Benedictus, Benedictus, however Southern you want your Latin to be. The traditional naming of this passage is based on Zechariah's use of the word, blessed be the Lord God of Israel there in verse 67 that we just read. Now, I think it's a good question to ask. We sing about it all the time. We just sing about it here. We read about it in our Bibles. What does it mean to bless the Lord? As we just saw, our culture has kind of tried to figure out this sometimes mean God's help, maybe he's given us some strength, he's given us gifts, and although they don't recognize him, kind of pervades through the thinking. But what does it mean for us to bless God? Are we giving God help? Are we strengthening God in some way? Are we giving him something like a gift, like something he didn't have already? Romans 11 says, for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid, for from him, through him, and to him be all things, to him be glory forever, amen. So it doesn't seem like we can really help God out in any kind of way, at least not in a way that he needs. So what does this mean in these scriptural passages we read, this one included, to bless God? I think John Piper provides a helpful definition here, just out of the gate, just to kind of wrap our minds around the concept. He says, to bless God is to recognize his great richness, strength, and gracious bounty, and to express our gratitude and delight in seeing and experiencing it. Our passage this morning. has one of the great blessings of God by his people in all the scripture. And I think what we're gonna see this morning is God's people can bless him because he has blessed us with an incredible mercy. God's people can bless him because he has blessed us with an incredible mercy. We see three aspects of God's mercy this morning. The first thing we notice is that God's mercy is great. His mercy is great. Verses 57 and 58, now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son and her neighbors and relatives heard the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her. The promise to Elizabeth and Zechariah is that they would have a child. There's a pregnancy, the baby leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb. He's even filled with the Holy Spirit in utero. But God's promise is finally here. Elizabeth has born the son that she was promised. Gone are the days of ridicule, gone are the days of human judgment, and gone are the days of barrenness. The people are here, we're told. that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. The word here that is translated shown in the ESV is actually the same word that Mary used to magnify the Lord. So another way you could read this, possibly translate this, is that the Lord magnified his great mercy towards Elizabeth. Now, mercy is an interesting word. We usually think of it in the context of some kind of judicial punishment, maybe the passing over of a sentence of some sort. Perhaps a judge, if once a person has been convicted of a crime, if the judge gives something less than the maximum sentence, maybe we could say that judge has been merciful. What's interesting about the use of the word here is it doesn't seem like Elizabeth has really done anything wrong, at least in the way that we would think about it. In fact, Scripture records that she and her husband Zechariah were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. We may say the Lord was kind to her, maybe he was gracious to her, but why would this be an act of mercy? Not just mercy, but great mercy. I think what we need to solve this dilemma is a refocus, a shift of our posture and attitude sometimes towards God. You see, buried in this thought that this is possibly not an act of mercy as we would define it, even though Scripture explicitly declares that it is, is an idea that God owes us something. We can go back to the culture's definition of a blessing and begin to talk ourselves into an idea that if God withholds something from us, that he's not being fair. Or maybe we're not receiving something that we so rightfully deserve. Maybe you've even had something good happen to you in your life, and maybe somebody has said to you, you know what, I'm really glad to hear that, you deserved it. If there's anyone in scripture that maybe was owed something from God, you could make a case for Job. God in his conversation with Satan says, there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. Do you hear the similar language between Job, Zechariah, and Elizabeth? We know what happens to Job. Perhaps one who is blameless, upright, who fears God, turns away evil, ought not to have deserved the things that Job went through. Now, Job's faith is amazing. It's great. We read about it. It's one of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible. He hears about his misfortune and he says, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return. And then the famous line, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. But like any human, over time, Job starts to break down a little bit. Job starts to contest his circumstances. Listen to this in Job 23, two through seven. Today also my complaint is bitter. My hand is heavy on the account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with him and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Now, lots of things going on right here, but one of the things we shouldn't miss is Job is kind of saying, God, this isn't fair. I don't deserve this. Now, Job's human. I'm not going to rag on him too much. I think that any one of us put in the same situation over a certain period of time would probably come to the same point that Job comes to. Some of the young people, this is a phrase I've come to know recently. coaching baseball and stuff, little kids, is that Job found out in chapter 38. See, we go through all this and then God finally speaks to Job. Now remember, God has not revealed himself really at least in spoken form to Job this whole entire time. And this is the first thing that he says to Job. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. The Hebrew phrase is literally gird up your loins, Job. I really actually kind of like that phrase. I coach baseball. I think I might use that next time a kid gets hit by the ball, you know, and they start to kind of like just yell from first base, gird up your loins kid, get down to first base. I've got two sons, they could probably hear it more too. After this, we see 70 verses of reproof. God is basically reproving Job for his statement back in 23. And you think God may be done. Job maybe has learned his lesson. In fact, Job says, I cover my mouth, I'm not gonna speak anymore. You'd think that, and you'd be wrong. Chapter 46 through nine. Then the Lord answered Job out of the world and said, dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his? After this, we get 48 more verses of reproof from God to Job. Brothers and sisters, it's one thing to seek God in grief and ask why we should do that. It's one thing to pour out your heart to him in the midst of your suffering so that he can take that suffering and focus his affections on you. It's quite another thing to say, I don't deserve this. The moment we cross that line, we put God in the wrong and ourselves in the right, just like Job did. We must always remember, church, that God owes us absolutely nothing. Even the next breath of air that fills our lungs is an unspeakable mercy from God. God had great mercy on Elizabeth because as faithful as she was, he gave her something that she didn't deserve. And until we realize how truly unworthy we actually are, we can never understand how great God's mercy actually is. We see another example of mercy in these few verses. We see that God removes the discipline punishment that he gave to Zechariah back in verse 18 when he made him mute and most likely deaf as well given the fact that the people had to make motions to him to ask him the question. This is the more classical way we think of mercy, that God gave him a punishment and then he removed it. Now it would be correct to imply that this is a response to Zechariah's obedience. Zechariah writes on the tablet, his name is John. He's speaking in the present tense, as in this is already done. There's no more need for discussion. John's name is not up for debate. Zechariah is faithful in obedience to the Lord. And the Bible records that Zechariah's tongue was immediately loosed. He spoke, blessing God. Once again, we see the great mercy of God in providing something for Zechariah that he didn't deserve. Zechariah didn't deserve to have his punishment taken away, even in his obedience. Zechariah's lack of faith, we could look at maybe other examples throughout scripture and see people that got much worse punishment, much worse discipline than what he got. but God's mercy is great. He graciously gives undeserved fruit to the barren and pardon to the guilty. Church, may we never forget that God owes us absolutely nothing. We owe him absolutely everything, yet he gives us everything and we can only give back to him that which he has already given us already. John Calvin is right when he opens his institutes of the Christian religion. He says this, we cannot aspire to him in earnest until we have become displeased with ourselves. God's mercy is great, church, because he has shown favor on a most unworthy and rebellious people. The second reason we see God's people can bless him is because his mercy is sure. His mercy is sure. We saw a trend last week in the Magnificat that shows up here in our text. Remember how Mary, speaking of things that were coming in the future, speaks about them as if they are in the past tense. These Greek grammarians, these people who spend their entire life studying the Greek grammar, bless their hearts, Describe this as the paradigm whereby the author stresses the certainty of an event by picturing it as if it was in the past. Verse 68 shows on the explicit inspiration of the spirit what these events are. The Lord has visited his people, visited his people. Now the Lord's visitation in scripture normally occurs for one of two reasons. It's either for judgment or it's for blessing. In Exodus chapter 12, We see God visits Egypt to slay the firstborn of that land. He comes in judgment. And then one chapter later, he visits the Israelites in pillars of cloud and fire to lead them through the desert and protect them from Pharaoh's army. This was actually in fulfillment of what Joseph said 400 years earlier, God will surely visit you and you shall carry my bones up with you. from here. Zechariah's declaration of this visitation can be either really good or really bad. The type of visit we see is in the next clause and following, verse 69. He 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 from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and all who hate us. Here we see these images of God's promise to Isaiah in chapter 59. This visitation comes with redemption. God has visited and redeemed his people. In the end of Isaiah 59, it says the Redeemer will come to Zion. The Redeemer is not going to just do it from somewhere else. He's going to come to Zion. We see a hearkening back to Hannah's song. in her own barrenness and that her horn is exalted in the Lord, Yahweh, because she rejoices in his salvation. We see mention of God's promise to David that one day a man from his body, his offspring, will sit on the throne and his kingdom will be established forever. These things God spoke were reminded through the mouth of the holy prophets. All these things are so certain to imminently happen that Zechariah speaks of them as if they're already done. The reason for this certainty follows at the beginning of verse 72, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. The Greek translation of the Old Testament that was commonly used in Jesus' time, actually translates the word for God's covenant, faithfulness, and it translates it pertaining to God's mercy. Zachariah leaves us no doubt here in 72 that this is exactly what is happening. Why is God's mercy so great, so sure that Zachariah can speak of it in the past tense? Because God is faithful. He always remembers the promises he makes to his people, and he, unlike us, always makes good on those promises. How often, church, do we doubt the promises of God? Because we've seen people, fallen human beings in this world, break their promises to us. And we take that and we translate it to God. God's mercy isn't like that. It is promised. He remembers. God is always faithful in keeping his promises. This promise mercy has a description, what it is, and a result. What's the description? oath that he swore to our father Abraham. oath that he swore to our father Abraham. This is the oath that said, I will bless you and multiply you. This is the oath that said, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you. This is the oath that said, look up at the stars, Abraham, count them if you can, so shall your offspring be. It's the oath that said, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, kings will come from your line. It's the oath that said, Sarah will bear a son. And it's the oath that said, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. when we consider this list of the oaths given to Abraham Church, when has God ever failed to fulfill even one of the things that he's promised? Maybe you could make a case for the people in this day that even though the nation of Israel had been a blessing in that they were a reflection of God's law and his character to the nations around them, We could argue that maybe this last one, all the families of the earth would be blessed, maybe was still yet to come. Yet Galatians 3, for us today, shows us that with Zechariah's prophecy, this one is fulfilled too. It says, know then that there's those of faith who are sons of Abraham, and the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. We see the oath sworn to Abraham. God is fulfilling his promises. What is the result? to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Notice how the scripture says to grant us. None of those things in that list that we just read are innate to you and me. They're not naturally ours, nor are there anything that we could do to earn those things. Holiness, righteousness, it's been granted to us. It is a gift. It is a great, faithful, surefire mercy. We can serve God without fear because he has granted it. We can be holy because God has granted it. We can be righteous because God has granted it. Those who are condemned, cut off from God, they should live in constant fear of him. His wrath and his judgment rightfully falls upon them. But for those who are in God's mercy, it's a completely different story. He brings his people back to the first reason that Zechariah gives for blessing them. He has visited and redeemed his people. Isaiah 59, going back to there, verse two says, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. This separation is there, but this visitation however it's going to happen, however it's going to come, is going to eradicate that separation. His presence is no longer fear of wrath and judgment. It's a fear of wonder. It's a fear of awe. It's a fear of adoration. I think one of the best ways to see this is to remember a story from Mark chapter 4. In Mark chapter 4, if you remember, the disciples, these fishermen, experienced as they were, were on the lake, Sea of Galilee, and they are going out and Jesus is asleep and all of a sudden this storm rises up and it's beating the boat all around and the disciples are so scared that they think they're about to die. Now, these disciples have probably been on this lake hundreds, possibly thousands of times before, and they've seen lots and lots and lots of storms. Now, what is going on with their heads in this moment is that no matter what they've seen before, they think they're about to die now. So they go down and they wake Jesus up and they say, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? It's not to say, Jesus, get up and do something. It's to get up and say, Jesus, wake up, die with us, conscious. You don't deserve to be asleep. You should die with us. The end of the story is Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind and the waves, and he rebukes the disciples for the lack of faith. And he says, why have you so little faith? And the reaction of the disciples is fascinating. However scared they were before, when the boat was being beaten and they were afraid for their lives, they are more scared now that the wind is calm and everything seems to be fine. The Bible says they feared a great fear. They feared a great fear because they realized the presence that they were in. They were not afraid that Jesus was going to send a lightning bolt from heaven and strike them down in wrath and judgment. They looked on him and said, who then is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. This fear is one of awe, adoration, and wonder because they realize they're in the presence of a holy God. Church, do you fear your Lord like this? We don't have to serve God with fear of wrath and judgment. We serve him with this fear that he is holy, that he is good, and that his presence is awesome, in the truest sense of that word. Why can we serve him without fear? It's because God has granted us a set of partners, this holiness that Zechariah talks about. God has claimed us and he separated us as one would separate sheep and goats, as Jesus would go on to say. We've been given a righteousness along with that that we know cannot come from us because scripture says time and again, there is not one righteous, not even one. We remember from Isaiah's fear in chapter six of his book, he meets the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord visits him, and he cries out, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. Isaiah is afraid of God, and rightly so, because he is unholy, and he is righteous, and God is infinitely both. But by his visit, however this is going to take place, God will be sure to do a work that will make us both holy and righteous so that our reaction will not be the fear of Isaiah for our lives, for judgment, it's going to be a fear of all. wonder and praise that is due to our God. We can bless God today because his mercy grants us all of these things and provides us with the certainty that they will be ours both now and for all eternity because God is always faithful. This eternal aspect brings us to our last point this morning. God's people can bless him because his mercy is eternal. It's forever. Starting in verse 76, we see a change from the past tense to the future tense. Solely prophetic from that point forward. Zechariah looks at his son and declares that he will begin this merciful work that God will do. He launches into a list of things for his son. And then he talks about another son that is to come. Verses 76 and 77 say that he's going to prepare the Lord's ways. He's going to give knowledge of salvation. for the forgiveness of sins. Now, what does that mean to prepare the Lord's ways? We read all over scripture, specifically in Psalm 18, and then again in 2 Samuel 22, that the Lord's way is perfect. Why does John need to do any kind of preparation for the Lord's ways? How does this grant knowledge of salvation? What does this mean for the forgiveness of sins? I think the answer lies in a return to Isaiah 59. In fact, I think we'll see the rest of Zechariah's song is kind of dedicated to reversing a lot of the things that we see in that passage. You can turn there if you want, if you got a ribbon or you want to put your finger over there in that passage. I'm going to be referencing verses 7 through 20 throughout the rest of the sermon from Isaiah 59. Verses seven and eight talk about how we've created a path, a path, a way that runs to evil. It says the highways lie in desolation and destruction. There is no justice in the paths. Instead, the roads are crooked. Now, anyone who's ever driven on a road that needs extensive work knows how miserable the driving experience can be. You've got potholes, you've got cracks, lots and lots of different things, maybe uneven pavement. But more than just a miserable driving experience, given enough time driving over roads like that, it'll actually start to do damage to the vehicle. It will be very, very bad. It has serious consequences for the machine. John is not here to correct the Lord in any way. He's not here to do anything to help Jesus out. The path he will walk, that's Jesus, our Lord, the ways that he's preparing, is imaging the people that he's going to go to. That group of people needs some potholes to be filled. It needs some fresh asphalt. It needs major reconstruction. We know that John goes to preach a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. People will flock to him. They will confess their sins to him as they turn the path for the son who's going to be born later, that we'll see in a second. It's straightened and it's smoothed out in the form of this person that Malachi promised at the conclusion of the Old Testament. He said, behold, I send my messenger, he will prepare the way before me. Later clarifying, this is going to be fulfilled in saying, behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Isaiah 59 11 says that the people that we're talking about, they hope for justice, but there is none for salvation, but it is far from us for our transgressions are multiplied before you. That's God. And our sins testify against us. And we know our iniquities transgressing and denying the Lord and turning back from following our God. This verb no is not just, Oh, I know that I have sinned. This is, I know this way. This is my way. This is all that I know, this path of sin and treachery. Zechariah says John will give knowledge of salvation to God's people and the forgiveness of their sins. Notice the difference between Isaiah 59 and Luke 1. In Isaiah 59, we only have a knowledge of sin. In Luke 1, this visit and redemption from God, however it's going to take place, brings knowledge of salvation. Its transgression is before the Lord, but we know that John will come and cry out, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's gonna say, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. He's going to conclude, he who is from above is above all. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son will not see life. God's wrath abides on him. Sin, transgression, iniquity, they bring death. The only knowledge that sin can have is that of itself. John will reveal that there is a way one can know salvation apart from sin because there's a lamb who's come to take away that sin and the forgiveness of those sins so that those sins might be before God no longer. Verse 78. brings Zacharias Benedictus full circle. With another mention of a visit. This is actually a literary technique that Hebrew poets used to use. It's called an inclusio. He starts the poem with one word and he ends it with the same word. We've got this idea of a visit in 68 and we've got an idea of a visit in 78. This was used to create emphasis of a certain concept or theme. In our passage, it's the visit from God. In this visit, at the end, we're told it's from God himself in the beginning, but in this last passage, we see that it's a visit in the form of a sunrise. We're told it's from on high. Its purpose is to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The bad news in Isaiah 59, verses nine and 10, is that these people who have been separated from God because of their sin, they hope for light and behold darkness for brightness, but they walk in gloom. Sunrise at the end of Luke one comes in the hope of what our brother Jason reminded us last week and Malachi's promise. But for those of you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing and its wings. I know some of you made a road trip last month to see the total solar eclipse. I did so myself with my oldest son. We went to Pocahontas, Arkansas. It's a real city. What we found out is that even when the sun is 99% covered by the moon, it's still too dangerous to look at. And in fact, there's no real noticeable difference in the amount of light that comes through. The sun is incredibly powerful. When the sun rises, church, there's nowhere for darkness to go. There's nowhere for the shadows to hide. Indeed, when the light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it. The second result of this visiting sunrise, the people in Isaiah 59, it says, they grope for the wall like the blind. They stumble at noon as in the twilight, so much so that they do not know the way of peace. Our sunrise, when he appears, guides their feet in the way of peace. Now, let us not think this peace is like the tranquil yoga sitting on a beach somewhere as the sunrise goes down. That's not the peace we're talking about. It's the peace that ends our war with God. Paul's letter to Rome tells us that at one point we were God's enemies. We need a truce. He says that we were God's enemies, but now we have been justified by faith and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, while we're God's enemies, We cannot create peace. In fact, Isaiah 59 makes this observation. It says, there was no justice, no righteousness, no truth, only evil. In verse 16 it says, he saw that there was no man and wondered why there was no one to intercede. If you and I are counting on our righteousness, on our merits, on our achievements, on our negotiations, on our terms to make peace with God, we're gonna end up on the wrong side of his righteous sword. The good news ends Isaiah 59 in our passage today. I'm gonna read verses 16 through 21. I'm sorry, verse 20. than his, that's God's own arm, brought him salvation. His righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak according to their deeds so he will repay. Wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies. to the coastlands who will render repayment, so they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun, for he will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives, and a redeemer will come to Zion to those and Jacob who turn from their transgression, declares the Lord. It's God's own arm that brings salvation. His righteousness is the means. His glory is from the rising of the sun. The beauty of this is, once again, in the grammar. As an engineer, I never thought I would say that so much. The verbs to give light, to guide, they're in the infinitive. There's no end to this mercy the sunrise will bring. There's no stopping its power or force, and there's nothing to limit its duration. The Redeemer is coming. God visits his people, and the tender mercy he brings with him is not here for a while, and then it's gone. It's forever. It's eternal. Our story ends in verse 80, says that John grows up and God's plan for him is that he's going to go into wilderness until the day of his public appearance. God's plan of mercy is now in motion. It's coming with greatness. It's coming with certainty and it's coming with eternality. The movie, uh, Maybe you guys are watching it too. Movie Gladiator was on TV the other day. Gladiator is one of those movies where I think men, if it's on TV, you'll just watch it. There's no real reason for it. You've seen it a million times. In fact, you probably got the DVD that you could pop in and you could watch without commercials, but we don't. We just watch it on TV. It's kind of like, I think there's a conspiracy because I always see like Tombstone, Braveheart, Gladiator. These are the movies that men will just sit and watch. If you notice, they're just, that was just one word. Men are very simple people. There's a lot of violence in the movie. I wouldn't recommend it to younger audiences, but there's one particular scene that struck me as I was preparing for the sermon. There's a gladiator. His name is Maximus and he finds himself as an enemy of the emperor and as an enemy of the emperor, The emperor wants to execute him, but he can't because the people love him. So if he executes Maximus, then he's going to lose the people. So his solution is he's going to have Maximus fight this undefeated champion in the arena, and then he's going to have these tigers try to come out and attack him too. So his plan is that it's, it's been fixed. It's been arranged. Maximus's death. And all the battle happens and Maximus prevails. He actually ends up killing one of the tigers and then he fights back this undefeated champion. And he gets to the point where he's stepping on his neck and he's got the battle ax in his hand. And he looks up at the emperor while the crowd is shouting, kill, kill, kill. He looks at the emperor and the emperor kind of does his little thumb and he gives him a thumbs down indicating he wants Maximus to execute the man that he was supposed to be killed by. The emperor thought this was arranged and now he's angry so he just wants to get rid of this champion. Maximus raises the axe and he just throws it to the side. And somebody in the crowd shouts, Maximus, Maximus, the merciful. If we consider this an act of mercy, Church, how much greater is the mercy that God provides us who willingly warred against him and rebelled against him in our sin and our transgressions? I don't know who this is for, but if you're here this morning and you've never blessed the name of the Lord, if your soul is the one who has their throat pressed and is awaiting final judgment, God's mercy is foreign to you. Like the people of Isaiah 59, you're steeped in transgression, walking in the crooked paths of darkness. My prayer would be that you would see this great display of God's mercy that we've read this morning. We talked about a visit, the son who is to come, the sunrise, and the good news this morning. is we have all of these mysteries revealed to us. You see, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He visited us. He became God with us. He is the light of the world. Whoever follows him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You may be dead in your trespasses this morning, but God can make you alive together with Christ, having forgiven all of your trespasses by canceling the record of debt. that stands against you with its legal demands. This, the scripture says, he set aside, nailing them to the cross. Jesus says, whoever hears my word, believes him who sent me, has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. There's only one way to mercy. There's only one path to blessing God. The salvation we preach this morning is found in no one else because there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Our prayer as a church, my prayer as your preacher this morning, is that you would repent of your sin, confess Christ as Lord, believe these words today. My prayer is that you would receive this great mercy. Brothers and sisters, we've been given great mercy. It demands we pour out our words of blessing to our God. And of course, the scriptures are the best way to see how we do this. If we wanna bless God properly, lots of places we could go. But if you wanna turn with me to 1 Chronicles 29, I'm gonna read verses 10 through 13. This is how David blesses the Lord. Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you. You rule over all. In your hand are power and might. And in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. What a mighty blessing to our Lord. David reminds us later in the passage that God owes us nothing. We owe him everything, yet he gives us everything and we can only give back to him that which he's already given to us. It is in this posture, this humility church, that we can bless God because he has blessed us with his wonderful mercy that he has magnified to his people. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I pray for those in here who don't know your mercy. I pray that you would change their hearts from stone to flesh, that they would respond this morning in repentance and faith. Father, for those in the room who do know your mercy, will we use this passage this morning to always remember who we are and who you are, and how great a mercy you have shown to us, how you have always been faithful in providing a certainty of this mercy, and Father, how you are going to carry it out in this time and forevermore, forever and ever, would you posture our hearts, our attitudes to love you, to praise you, and to glorify you in this way. Father, we thank you for this time. We give you the glory and we pray these things in the name of our Redeemer, our sunrise that visited us from on high, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.