His Mercy Extends

Luke 1:46-55 & 67-79

The song we sang earlier is a really good song. It says, “Come though expected Jesus, come to set Thy people free.” And in Acts chapter 3 it’s really interesting because it says that Jesus actually came into the world to bless us by turning us away from our sins. And so I think that’s really cool just to remember that is one of the ways God’s been merciful to us, is that He blessed us to turn us away from our sins. And as that song said He came to set us free. So that’s God’s mercy thinking about how He doesn’t really give us what we deserve. If we turn from our sin that means that we are not going to get what we deserve which is an eternity in hell. So that’s really cool to realize this Christmas season, even as we look at the topic today of His mercy, the fact that His mercy extends. Let’s look in Luke Chapter 1. As you turn there I will open us up in prayer.

God, we just thank you for this morning. We just really pray that you would speak to our hearts. Pray that you would remind us of how great your mercy really is. How you have been merciful to us over and over and over and over. God I just pray that you would help me to step aside this morning and let you speak God and take away any desire that I might have that would want people to look at me God but I just pray that people would look at you this morning God. That we just really meet together this morning so we can bring attention to you. So we can lift you up so we can magnify you. And God I pray that we would open our hearts to your words and that you would cause us to be people that would be changed. And we just give you thanks. Amen.

In Luke chapter one, we are going to look at a couple of different stories here or a couple of different passages. It starts out in verse 46.

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate 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.” Luke1:46-55

And Zechariah goes on in verse 67,

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 in 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." Luke 1:67-79

The message this morning will in one sense make you sober and joyful at the same time. Afraid and yet relieved. Make you feel guilty and set free. I think it will be like walking into a courtroom knowing you are guilty and at the end of the day walking out a free man or a free woman. And I will just be honest with you, when I don't remember God’s mercy or appreciate God's mercy what happens is I am not merciful to others. I think of that story in Matthew 18 where the man who owed his master like lifetimes worth of money, lifetimes worth of salaries and he couldn’t pay him back. But the master forgave him and so he went out and basically choked the first person who owed him just a few pennies compared to what he owed his master. And I think I find that if I don’t appreciate God’s mercy then I am not merciful to others. And also when I don’t appreciate God’s mercy I think I tend to turn God’s mercy into rights that I deserve.

I think of when Sarah had pneumonia back last year. God was just reminding me that she was a gift. She was gift from God to us. It’s not like we deserve to have Sarah; it’s not like we deserve to have a child. Actually the Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord. Or different times that you think about when we don’t get the money that we want, or we may not get the job that we want. Or we may not get the relationship that we want. And I think I have found that when I don’t personally appreciate God’s mercy what happens is I turn the things that are His mercy into rights that I think I deserve. I don’t deserve to have children and the one thing the Bible says that I deserve is death. That’s the wage of sin. So anything above and beyond that in a lot of ways is God’s mercy.

It’s God’s mercy that I wake up each morning. Its God’s mercy that I am married, I don’t deserve to have a wife; I don’t deserve to have a child. I don’t deserve to have a job. I don’t deserve to have money. I don’t deserve all these things. Really when I forget God’s mercy and I don’t appreciate it I think just from a personal point, turn those things into rights and I feel like when I don’t get what I want, when I don’t get what I think I deserve then I get anxious. When I don’t appreciate God’s mercy I think that I become anxious. That is a root cause of anxiety for me; to feel like I am going to lose something or I am not getting what I think I deserve or what I want. So because of that, and because I am not grateful for what God has already done I become anxious because I am afraid I am going to lose something or I feel like I am not going to get what I deserve.

In According to Matthew 5:7 Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” I think if I don’t appreciate God’s mercy then at times I don’t receive all the mercy that God wants me to have. God has been so merciful. God is more merciful than He ever needed to be. He didn’t have to show me any mercy, but there is a promise there; blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. And if I am not appreciating God’s mercy then maybe I’m not, in one sense, experiencing all the things that God wants me to experience. But if I do appreciate God’s mercy then it causes me to worship. I think that’s what we’ll see here with Mary and Zechariah, that they worshipped God. That was actually a response of God extending His mercy and showing mercy.

When we come to the Christmas season, we are tempted to lose the wonder of the mercy of God. In the Bible it doesn’t really give us a command to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us to remember His death and His resurrection through taking the bread and the cup, the Lord’s Supper, the communion. We are not necessarily commanded to remember Jesus’ birth, but we can, we want to, that’s what we desire. But even in the process of that what I know for sure is that God does want us to remember His mercy. And in this Christmas season that is really what the Christmas is about, God's mercy. It is God extending His mercy, God showing His mercy.

It’s a story you have heard numerous times, depending on how long you have been in church, and it’s easy if we’re not careful, to take God’s mercy for granted. And if we are honest we will admit that sometimes we come to a church meeting and it’s easy to get in a rut because you don’t feel what you used to feel because this is something that you’ve done week after week, month after month, year after year. It is easy to lose the edge. We don’t sing with the same joy, listen to the Word with the same faith, love others with the same fervor and our worship, that was once focused and contagious, has become monotonous. We forget how awesome God is or how much mercy God has really shown us. And as I have studied this it has been really good for me to go over this because I have been able to remember God’s mercy and as I have gone back over all the mercy God has shown me it has caused me to worship. It has caused me to really appreciate this time of the year.

I think about this, G.K. Chesterton once said,

“A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still…The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE.”

As I studied the passage in Luke 1 I saw three things in the lives of Mary and Zechariah that would help us keep or regain the heart of the Christmas season. The question we must ask is what caused Mary and Zechariah to worship God? 

The first thing is that they knew God. They really knew what God was like. It wasn’t like God was just a name on a page or a book to read. They really knew God. And you have to ask the question, according to what Mary and Zechariah said, what is written down in the Bible, what is God like? Who is God in this passage? So I thought it might be good if a couple of you wanted to share, from what we just read in Luke1:46-55 and 67-79, what are two or three things that you notice that you could share with the rest of us as far as what you see the passage says that God is like, or who He is.

“Merciful”

“Merciful to those who fear Him”

“Keeps His promises”

“He’s the Mighty One”

In verse 46 Mary said He is “God my Savior.” In verse 49 it says “He who is mighty.” Verse 49 also says “holy is His name.”

The knowledge of God, I believe, caused Isaiah to worship God and to work for God. Look in Isaiah chapter 6. Some of you are probably familiar with this story, but I think it is really good to remember what happened when Isaiah met God and when he found out what God was really like.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." Isaiah 6:1-8

So at the very end we see that Isaiah was saying, “I want to go. Let me go.” It was like he wanted to be on mission but what caused him to be on mission was the fact that he met God. He had an experience where he found out what God was really like. And here in that passage in verse three he says, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” God was Holy and he had a better understanding of who God really was. Once that happened he knew he was unclean. Because he understood who God really was it gave him a better picture of who he really was. He was not as good of a person as he really thought he was. Then he realized that all the people around him were in trouble too. He says, “I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” and all this resulted because of how he saw God.

A.W. Tozer, in his book, “Whatever Happened to Worship”, said this:

“We all should be willing to work for the Lord, but it is a matter of grace on God’s part…A worshiper can work with eternal quality in his work. But a worker who does not worship is only piling up wood, hay and stubble for the time when God sets the world on fire…Practically every great deed done in the church of Christ all the way back to the apostle Paul was done by people blazing with the radiant worship of their God.”

In Luke 1:68 Zechariah says he is “the Lord God of Israel”. We looked at who Mary said God is and now Zechariah says “The Lord God of Israel”. In verse 78 Zechariah says that God has “tender mercy”. He is a God of tender mercy. And as was mentioned earlier, God is a promise keeper. In verse 55 he says, “...as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” So here Mary and Zechariah are talking about how God has already made a promise. In verse 70 it says, “...as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old.” In verse 72 it says, “...to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant.” Again in verse 73 it says, “...the oath that He swore to our father Abraham.” So here time after time after time we see how Mary and Zechariah just go back to who is God and what is He like.

In verse 46 it says Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” and in verse 68 Zechariah says, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” So both of them had a heart of worship but it flowed out of the idea that they knew God and the fact that they knew what He was really like; He was a promise keeper, the fact that he was merciful, all those things that I just listed, the fact that He is mighty, that He’s Holy. I think that is one thing that was really true about Mary and Zechariah was that they really knew God. But they were also able to remember His mercy. That’s the second thing.

The first thing is that they knew God. The second thing is that they were able to remember the mercy that God had shown. That is the main thing I want to get at this morning, especially in these two passages, is God’s mercy. It is true that they really knew God, but at the heart of what they were so glad about was the fact that God was so merciful to them.

When you look in these two passages the word mercy is mentioned four times. It is from the Greek word eleos which means kindness or goodwill towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. In a lot of ways too it is like not getting what we deserve. It is God withholding things we deserve. We deserve the wrath of God. We deserve the judgment of God, but God hasn’t given it to us.

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

I think to worship God with all my heart I believe that I need to appreciate God’s mercy and remember God’s mercy more. But before we can really remember, or before we can really appreciate God’s mercy more, I really personally feel like we have to know God’s justice.

Earlier this week I was sharing the Gospel with this guys Stacy. He’s somebody that the NC State team, Grace Community Church, that came down in October, met.  I think they were just out doing some questionnaires and after it was all over we followed up with him. Jean and I drove by and talked to him. I think we might have given him a book and just got to know him a little bit. Later on Miriam and I and Sarah went by and gave him some cookies and he just seemed to be a real personable guy. Then I lost his phone number and I forgot about him. I felt so terrible. I thought here I am, I am supposed to be this professional Christian and be able to follow up people (I just say that jokingly, I am not really a professional Christian.) but here I am, this is my job to go after people and to share the Gospel and I haven’t even called this guy in like two or three weeks and I lost his phone number and I felt bad about it. Then all of a sudden his phone number just appeared on the table one day. I don’t know how it got there. I don’t know if it just fell out or if God just put it there. I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden his number just was right there on the table and I was like oh yeah I need to give this guy a call.

So I called him up and he said he wanted to meet and as we started talking.  I was sharing some things about God’s will for his life and he wasn’t’ sure if he was going to go to heaven. There was just some unsuredness there. So after I finished, I went through the gospel with him, and I was talking to him about God’s law and about judgment day and about the wrath of God, you know, real light hearted stuff, and I asked him if he felt like he would be innocent or guilty on judgment day if the ten commandments was God’s standard for judgment. He said he’d be guilty and I said, “Well how does that make you feel?” And he said he was terrified. I kind of got the feeling that he felt like he had been a Christian. I told him, “You may totally be a Christian, I don’t know what’s going on between you and God, but you have got to make sure.”

I made a decision when I was a little kid to become a Christian, but I’m not really sure if that was genuine or not. But when I got to college I know I put my trust in Jesus Christ. So that I know that I know. And I told him, “Whatever happened then and now, I wouldn’t worry about it, just know that you know that you know, right.” He said, “Yeah, I know.” It was really cool. We started talking about it and he ended up putting his trust in Jesus Christ. He ended up becoming a Christian.

I thought he really appreciated God’s mercy and God’s grace as he started to understand God’s justice and the fact that he would be guilty, that God’s not going to sweep any sin under the rug. It doesn’t take away from the fact that God is very merciful and God is very forgiving, but it’s hard to understand God’s mercy when we don’t understand God’s justice.

Think about this, there is a sermon from Charles Spurgeon, it’s kind of a light hearted sermon called “Turn or Burn”. This is a sermon Charles Spurgeon gave in the 1800’s. He was a pastor out in England and he is known as the prince of preachers. He’s known for all of his fiery sermons, he wrote all his sermons down and you can get his sermons for free on-line. He was preaching on a Psalm which says,

“If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready.” Psalm 7:12

What it is saying is if people don’t turn from their sin God will whet his sword, he has bent his bow and made it ready. When it says he has whet his sword, it is the word whet, which is a whet stone that you would use to sharpen a sword. So what he is saying there is God is getting ready for judgment. God is getting ready to use the sword of judgment if sinners don’t turn from their sin. He goes on to say,

“If the sinner turn not, God will whet his sword." So, then, God has a sword, and he will punish man on account of his iniquity. This evil generation hath laboured to take away from God the sword of his justice; they have endeavoured to prove themselves that God will "clear the guilty," and will by no means "punish iniquity, transgression and sin." Two hundred years ago the predominant strain of the pulpit was one of terror: it was like Mount Sinai, it thundered forth the dreadful wrath of God, and from the lips of a Baxter or a Bunyan, you heard most terrible sermons, full to the brim with warnings of judgment to come. Perhaps some of the Puritanic fathers may have gone too far, and have given too great a prominence to the terrors of the Lord in their ministry: but the age in which we live has sought to forget those terrors altogether, and if we dare to tell men that God will punish them for their sins, it is charged upon us that want to bully them into religion, and if we faithfully and honestly tell our hearers that sin must bring after it certain destruction, it is said that we are attempting to frighten them into goodness. Now we care not what men mockingly impute to us; we feel it our duty, when men sin, to tell them they shall be punished, and so long as the world will not give up its sin we feel we must not cease our warnings. But the cry of the age is, that God is merciful, that God is love. Ay; who said he was not? But remember, it is equally true, God is just, severely and inflexibly just. He were not God, if he were not just; he could not be merciful if he were not just, for punishment of the wicked is demanded by the highest mercy to the rest of mankind. Rest assured, however, that he is just, and that the words I am about to read you from God's Word are true—"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God;' "God is angry with the wicked every day;" "If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors."

I think in this story in these two passages, we see God’s covenant mercy. There are two types of covenant mercy that we see in this passage. The first is the Abrahamic covenant.

“He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” Luke 1:54-55

So there it’s showing that there was a covenant that God made with Abraham and it was a promise and Mary and Zechariah were remembering God’s mercy through the covenant God gave through Abraham.

“...to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to for 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.” Luke 1:72-75

So what is the Abrahamic covenant? It is basically four things. Number one is seed. It has to do not with many seeds  but descendants. There was a promise of “a” seed, which we learn in Galatians 3 has to do with Christ. That he would come to save the world and to take away the sin of the world. So there was a promise of a seed in the Abrahamic covenant, something that God promised that He would fulfill.

There was a promise of land to the people of Israel, the people of Abraham, that God would give them land. But also that they would be a nation. So there is the seed, the land, the nation and then there is the fourth thing, the promise of blessing and protection.

You can look in the book of Genesis and find where it talks about this but basically these are four things that God has promised. In his mercy God is doing things to fulfill his promises. What Mary and Zechariah are doing is going back and remembering what God had already said.

There is a second covenant promise I think in this passage. In Luke 1:68-71 is the Davidic covenant. That is when God promised to David that a king form his line would rule on the throne forever.

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for 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 those who hate us.” Luke 1:68-71

What’s cool about the Christmas season is that in this story it’s showing that God is fulfilling his promise to show mercy on the people of Israel and the whole world by bringing his son though the line of David. Now I think inherently in the definition of mercy is the fact that someone is in some kind of trouble. This could be physical trouble, like you’re homeless or you’re without food. It could be Spiritual trouble like we know we are going to be in trouble on judgment day without Christ. Mankind is under the wrath of God, those things we have already talked about. But the fact that we need a Savior means that we need saving. Sending Jesus and John was actually an act of mercy.

“God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” Acts 3:26

That’s a blessing. The fact that God is turning us from our sin means that we won’t get what we deserve and that’s what mercy is right? If we turn from our sin we don’t get the judgment of God, we don’t’ get the wrath of God. Just the fact that the Father sent his only son means that we don’t have to get what we deserve.

This is heavy stuff. Like I said earlier, this is stuff that will make you feel sober and joyful at the same time. It will make you feel guilty and this kind of talk, at the end, will help you feel like you have been set free. It is kind of a roller coaster when you talk about the mercy of God and the justice of God. So in all seriousness I want to share something on the lighter side.

There is somebody I feel like is the kind of guys that some people think of as the man’s man. He is somebody who shows no mercy to anyone. Some of you know him as Chuck Norris. For those of you who don’t know who Chuck Norris is, he is an actor that used to be in all kinds of T.V. shows and movies. He has this terrible round house kick that will knock people dead. So he’s this real tough mans tough man. Well, Chuck is so tough and he shows so little mercy that I can give you ten reasons why I believe he knows no mercy. Just to give you an idea of someone who knows justice and don’t know any mercy.

1. Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

2. Chuck Norris is allergic to mercy.

3. Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.

4. In an act of great philanthropy, Chuck made a generous donation to the American Cancer Society.  He donated 6,000 dead bodies for scientific research.

5. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

6. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

7. Chuck Norris doesn't mow his lawn; he dares it to grow.

8. Chuck Norris is a very generous man -- every day, he allows billions of people to continue to live.

9. Chuck Norris doesn't dial the wrong number. You answered the wrong phone.

10. Chuck Norris can ace a test by writing "Violence" for every answer, because violence is the answer.

Just remember Chuck is a good picture of someone who knows justice but knows no mercy. Thank goodness that even though God is completely just, and perfectly just, he is merciful too. He is full of love and he is full of compassion.

Let’s think about what kind of specific events they remembered. If they remembered God’s mercy, if they thought about how merciful God really had been to the people before them and even in their own lives, what did they remember?

In verse 51 Mary says, “He has shown strength with his arm”, and “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” Something else he had done, in verse 52, “he has brought down the mighty from their thrones” and also he “exalted those of humble estate.” Again this is some of the list of  God did this, God did this, God did this, over and over again it is remembering how God has acted. He didn’t just say, "I feel for you, I hope everything works out for you okay."  He did more than that, he actually did something. He didn’t just wait. When you think about when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God was quick to provide a solution. He was quick to initiate, to do something.

In verse 53 Mary says he has “filled the hungry with good things.” And in verse 54, he has “helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.” In verse 68 Zechariah said, “...he has visited and redeemed his people” and “he has raised up a horn of salvation for us” in verse 69. It was like a big long list of Thank you God that you did this and you did this and you did this remembering God’s mercy.

There is a story of a pastor in England; it is a true story, where he got a phone call from a nurse at the local hospital. The nurse said there was an old man there; I think he was like 94 years old, pretty old, but he wanted to see a priest. He had some questions and concerns about God and wanted to see a priest. So the nurse called the pastor because she knew him. He said, “I’m not a priest but I will come anyway.” So he came and the old man was laying there on the bed and he said “Why?” That was the first things he asked when the pastor came into the room and he thought why what? And the man said, “Well why am I in this bed? I have been in this hospital bed and I want to know why God has put me here. Why do I have to suffer?” And he went on and on and on and finally the pastor kind of interrupted him and said, “What’s wrong?” And the guy told him and he asked “How long have you been her?” And he said, “Well I got here yesterday.” And the pastor asked, “How long are you going to be here?” And the man said, “I will be here for 10 days.” The pastor asked, “Have you ever been in the hospital before in your whole entire life?” And the man said, “No this is actually the first time.” And the pastor asked, “How old are you?” The man said, “I am 94 years old.” And so there in this guy is wondering why did God let this happen to me. He was so bitter and so angry and the pastor was able to show him you’re 94 years old and you haven’t been in the hospital your whole entire life. Can’t you see that is mercy? Can’t you see God is being merciful to you? That you really haven’t gotten all the things that you deserve?

I think in the center of all this, God extending his mercy, is the idea that God has done more than one thing to help us. God has done numerous things. We can’t even list them all out. When I don’t appreciate God’s mercy then those things that God has done in mercy, those things became rights. Those become things I feel like I deserve and then that is when I get anxious, that’s when I get angry. Then is when I have trouble because I have forgotten God’s mercy.

So they knew God. They remembered Gods mercy. And I think remembering God’s mercy is a huge thing. That was one of the main things that I feel really caused them to worship. It called them to be glad for what God was doing. I think the last thing is they were confident in God’s Word.

Now, Mary and Zechariah believed that the Bible was actually a reliable source of theology and an accurate account of history. If they didn’t believe those things then they couldn’t believe that God was who the Bible said he was because it wouldn’t be accurate it would just be another book. They couldn’t believe that god was just because the Bible said he was just. They couldn’t believe that he was merciful because the Bible said he was merciful. They couldn’t believe that he was a promise keeper because, you kind of get the picture, because in the Word it says that God is a promise keeper, he’s merciful, he’s just, so it all went back to their understanding of this is true. This is not a myth this is not a fairytale. And the fact that they actually knew that the promises were true they must have believed that this book, the Bible, was telling the truth about God and history.

That was history. They are talking about things that happened in the Old Testament. There was a guy that I talked to a few weeks ago. I shared the gospel with him. He is a Chinese student, a grad student. He doesn’t believe that there’s a God. He doesn’t believe that there’s absolute truth. He doesn’t believe that the Bible is reliable. Those things started to come out as we were talking. As I was sharing some verse with him he basically was just saying that’s what you believe, I don’t really believe that. I’d share another verse, that’s what you believe I don’t believe that. Basically he was saying I don’t believe that’s true. I don’t believe the Bible is true. So we started talking more about the reliability of the Bible and we had a chance to talk more about that and one thing I want to encourage you to do, especially as I look at a lot of you young people that you haven’t’ left home yet, just remember you are going to have some doubts in life. It’s not a terrible thing that you might have some doubts. It’s not the end of the world that you are having trouble believing something like some older people do or maybe your parents do. But one thing I will say is if you do have some doubts, talk about them. Look them up. There are a lot of Godly people, pastors, I can talk to you, whoever, just get some help and do some research.

I have talked to people on a weekly basis, shared the gospel on a weekly basis, and people bring up questions about the Bible. They talk about this contradiction and that contradiction in the Bible and I will ask them what contradiction are you talking about? Where at? And they say I don’t know I’m not really sure because they never know the contradictions. I have probably only run into one or two people in the last eleven years who have told me which contradictions they are talking about. Most people it has just been somebody else told me or my professors told me or whatever but they haven’t really read it for themselves. So you have to read the Bible for yourself and figure it out for yourself. And another thing is you have to get help to find the right answers. Look at the fruit of the life of the person you are asking advice from.

In James 3 it talks about wisdom from above is peaceable and gentle. People say you need to look at both sides of the story. I don’t know because there seems to be 4 million sides to the story with the internet out there if you know what I’m saying. You can get all kinds of information out there, but look at the source of where you are getting the information from especially if you are a young person. I will say this; you won’t find any reasonable doubt that will discredit the Bible. I will just go ahead and tell you that. As you go through and look at the Bible you may have questions, you may have things that you don’t understand. There are still some things I don’t understand about the Bible, but don’t let what you don’t understand keep you from growing in what you do understand already. You don’t have to know everything about the Bible in order to be confident that it is God’s Word. You just have to know enough. You just need to know that this is God speaking to me, it is reliable. When you start looking at passages that you scratch your head and say that’s kind of out there, the Adam and Eve story, the Noah story, but if you understand that as a whole the Bible has been so reliable, I think that really helps us be at peace with the areas that we might struggle with.

On one of the tables over there we have some books, they are called “More Than A Carpenter” they are actually two books in one, but if you want to look at that issue in more detail about gaining confidence in God’s word, there is actually one chapter that I would encourage you to read. It is called “Is the Bible Reliable?” And author Josh McDowell goes into it and talks about why I believe this is true, that this is really God speaking to me. If we run out we have plenty more in the library that we can give out for free.

So how well did Mary and Zechariah know God’s word? We can see that throughout scripture, especially when you look at what Mary said, what she said really echoes a lot of verses that are in the Old Testament. They may not be word for word, but you can tell that she was familiar with her Bible. She was really confident with it.   In Luke 1:46 we see “My soul magnifies the Lord…” where in Psalm 34:2 we see something very similar to it, “My soul makes it’s boast in the Lord.”  InLuke 1:47 Mary says, “…my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” Habakkuk 3:18 says “…yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation."  She said in verse 48, “…for He who has looked on the humble estate of his servant…” 1 Samuel 1:11 Hannah says this, “Oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant…”  In Verse 48 again, Mary said, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed…” in Genesis 30:13 “Happy am I for the daughters will call me blessed.”  In Verse 49, “…for he who is mighty has done great things for me…” Psalm 126:3 it says, “The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad.”  In verse 49, “…holy is his name…” Psalm 111:9 says, “Holy and revered is his name…”

And then Zechariah says in verse 70, “…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.” So here he is saying this is what God has already said, the holy prophets from of old. In other words this is what has already been said, I trust what has already been said. That Chinese student I was talking about, he can’t worship God. We can’t worship God unless we really know what God is like. We can’t know what God is like until we realize that this book is telling us the truth about God.

Zechariah believed that. In verse 72, “…to show the mercy promised to our fathers…” again it’s something else that was already said to his fathers and written down in the Old Testament. In verse 73, “…the oath that he swore to our father Abraham…” in verse 76, talking about his son John the Baptist, he says, “And you, child, will be called the Prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways…” in Malachi 3:1 it says, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me…”

See God was going to send a messenger, John the Baptist, that’s who that person was. And Malachi 3 was a prophecy about someone to go before the Messiah and preach repentance and that’s what John the Baptist did. So in God’s mercy, he sent John the Baptist to preach about sin and sent Jesus to take away the sin of the world. In Acts 3 that was a real blessing because if people turned away from their sin and really turned to Christ, that meant they didn’t get what they deserved. If we turn away from our sin, and really trust in Christ, that means we’re not going to get what we deserve. What we deserve is death, what we deserve is hell and the judgment of God. But in God’s mercy he initiated so that we wouldn’t have to get what we deserve.

I feel like this is really helpful for me, just going though these two passages just remembering how God has really shown mercy to me how God is not only a God of justice, but he is a God of mercy. To think that it is not one sided, it’s not like he just show mercy and not justice, or He just shows justice and not mercy, it’s not like he is unbalanced. He is both. I think in order to understand his mercy we need to understand his justice.

I feel like as a result, for me personally, I realize I need to know God more and more. As I am reading the Bible, just taking note of what he is like and who he is and to be able to remember God’s mercy to be able to be grateful and appreciative of all the things he’s done. Then also, I need to continue to grow in my confidence in the Bible. I mean, I am confident, I know that this is God’s word, but to continue to grow in that. I think as those things happen he gives me more confidence to worship. It causes me to worship more, especially as I remember his mercy.

Let me pray for us.

Lord we pray that you would remind us of your mercy. God, how you have acted how you have moved, how you have initiated. Thank you for what you have been showing me recently. How you have blessed me by turning me away from my wickedness. That is so key for me understanding how merciful you really are. And God for any of us who are still wrestling with any of these things, God I pray that you would reveal what you want to reveal this morning a whole lot better than I did. I pray they would do more than just take my words to heart Lord I pray they would take your words to heart. That they we would all make a real effort this Christmas season to remember your mercy and to be able to appreciate it. God we thank you that as we have gone through this talk, God, there are some pretty heavy things to feel guilty and yet by the end to feel like we have been set free. Lord, just to know what we have been set free from. If we have never been in jail we won’t be grateful for being set free. I pray that we would just be so grateful that you have set us free. And I just pray this in Jesus name, Amen.