We turn tonight in the Bible to Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 1. We are considering Zechariah's prophecy here in verses 67 through 80. This is Luke chapter 1, page 1089 in your Blue Salters. And then we'll read together Lord's Day 14 in the back of the Blue Salter hymnal. Let's give our attention tonight to God's Word. 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 and the child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to israel may the lord bless the hearing of his word and now let's turn to the back to page 21 of those blue psalter hymnals and we will just confess together question in answer 35 and 36. Page 21. If you'll reply with the answer. What does it mean that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, that the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself through the working of the Holy Spirit from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, a truly human nature, so that He might become David's true descendant in all things like us, His brothers, except for sin. How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you? He is our mediator, and with His innocence and perfect holiness, He removes from God's sight my sin mine since I was conceived. The theme tonight from Luke chapter 1, actually the theme of both messages together today is really the same. It is the single truth that we just sung out about in that song that God has kept His Word. God has fulfilled His Word. God has been faithful to His Word. The challenge, of course, as we look at this tonight and we look at what we looked at this morning is for us, as we go forward, to see that. What does that mean for us going forward? How do we look at things now that God has fulfilled His Word? You can't even really begin to appreciate what that means until we have, as we looked at this morning, a sincere trust and a hearty faith, a belief, a trust in His Word. The entire Word of God is calling us to believe Him, to trust Him. And I think by now, as we've gone through Genesis, you have learned that living by faith in a daily way, learning to trust the Lord when everything around us, every circumstance around us, tells us a different story, is no easy thing to accomplish, is it? In fact, it's so impossible for us, we have to remember that the Lord told us that even the faith that we have is a gift from Him. And tonight what makes Zachariah's song so beautiful is that he is now standing and he is looking at things now in the day of fulfillment. That's why I love to study these songs, in the day of fulfillment. He's looking back over the history of redemption now with the come and God has been faithful to fulfill his word. That means something more for us now, doesn't it? That has a special place for us now. That means that the way we think going forward is unique. It's special. It means so much in light of what the Lord has said. And his song tonight is expressing for us what the blessings and the benefits are that now, because the Lord has come, because God has fulfilled His Word, what the blessings are and what we now get to enjoy in this life. What we, in the day of fulfillment, get to see, get to live in light of, get to know. The position that we're in. Remember, all the law and the prophets looked for this. They wanted to see this day. They would love to have been in this position to see the fulfillment of all of this, and we get to see it. That's where we stand. That's where we are. God has kept His Word, and the song that we consider tonight is expressing not what God will do. The song tonight is expressing what He did do and what that now means for you. that's the beauty of this but interwoven into this is zachariah's own struggle to believe this fascinating i can't help um but feeling like god is reminding us through this tonight of the story of abraham and i know i have a lot of abraham on my mind but i really think i have a biblical warrant for saying that tonight. Because really what I come away with in Luke chapter 1 is there really is no more excuse for unbelief. Not that there ever was before, but now that it's happened, there's absolutely no excuse for not trusting and believing the Lord at his word. So listen to what this means for you tonight. Consider what he's done for you and enjoy what he's given you. That's the beautiful message of Luke 1. Enjoy this. Think about it. Believe it. Receive it. Trust Him and enjoy the riches that are now yours in Him. The Christian life is indeed one of worshiping and praising the Lord God without fear. Without fear. I don't see tonight how you could begin to really step into this song without considering what happened to Zachariah before this. Luke's gospel opens up with this man. And so if you turn back to chapter 1, we have a very fascinating story of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. He was, in the days of Herod, a priest in the temple, serving in the temple. And in chapter 1, we read that the lot had fallen to him to take care of burning the incense in the holy place. Not the most holy place, the holy place. As he's doing this, the angel Gabriel appears. And Zachariah is deathly afraid. Great fear falls upon him. Now I want you, if you have Luke chapter 1 open, I want you to look at Gabriel's words. We'll be referring to this a few times tonight. And I want you to see, there he is at the side of the altar. and in verse 13, this is what we read. Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer is heard, has been heard. And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. Now Gabriel just said your prayer is heard and the first thing I come up with, what prayer is he talking about? What kind of prayer is Gabriel referencing here? Well, I believe if you go back up to verse seven, Luke tells us, but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years. Gabriel says, you will have great joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth. He will be great in the sight of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. And here is his mission. Here's what your son's mission is. His mission is he is going to turn the hearts of the children of Israel back to the Lord their God. He's going to go before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the father to the children and the disobedient to the way of the just, here it is, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Your son, Zechariah, you're getting much more than you knew. your son has the specific mission that he's going to be the one to prepare the way for the Lord. Israel's in so much darkness. Your child, your son, is specifically chosen by God to make God's people ready to hear the Son of God. They're not ready. And he's going to come and make the way. He's going to prepare the way. He's going to open up ears so that they will hear the true Son of God. Now, what happens? Look at verse 18. And Zachariah said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years. My wife is old. I'm old. And you're saying as an angel on behalf of the Lord to speak the word of the Lord, you're saying I'm going to have a son. But how can I really know? Now I'm going to pause for a congregational test for a moment. Does any of this sound familiar? I couldn't have said that had we not gone through Genesis, could I? This is deja vu. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who's a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? So Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I'm worn out, the Lord, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? Is anything too hard for the Lord? So he came back. At the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. Now, why would God record this again in Luke 1? The same problem, the same issue. Why would God put this here right at the beginning of the birth narratives? In the first scene in Luke, you have the story of Abraham and Sarah relived. At the heart of this, what is Zechariah's problem? Unbelief. How does Gabriel respond to this? Look at verse 19. And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and to bring to you glad tidings. God sent me to speak his word. I stand in his counsel so that you would have gospel, that you would have glad tidings, that you would have joy. But behold, you shall be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place. Here it is. Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. I am going to take away your ability to speak, Zachariah. And the next time you speak, you'll see this. You're going to laugh. I ask myself again, why does God put this here? Why this? God has been forbearing with this sin a long time and you see this was the sin of israel's unbelief for a long time this was reflective of abraham's children the darkness that they were in they were in darkness and there was a long history of unbelief on the part of israel and what does all of this mean as we open up the gospel here it is tonight god's done with that. In other words, using the words of Romans, in his forbearance, God passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, now in the time of fulfillment, God, everything that God promised all these years over and over and over and over, it's come. And he wants you to know now what he really thinks about the laughter of unbelief. There's no excuse. There never was before. But now that the seed has come, now that the day of fulfillment has come, now that it's arrived, we should see that in Zechariah, God does not endure unbelief. He hates unbelief. He can't listen to the laughter of unbelief. And so he immediately shuts up Zechariah. Stops it up. Not going to listen to it. Not going to listen to that laughter. The day of darkness has passed. The day of light has come. And the Lord has fulfilled his word. And now the song takes on so much meaning, you see. Notice now, we come to our text tonight. All of a sudden, in verse 64, we read in this section here that his mouth was opened and his tongue is loosed, and he spoke praising God. And we read in verse 67 that he's filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what God wants on the lips of his people. This was to be something that all the people saw, the muting, and then all of a sudden the breaking out of praise in the life of Zachariah. This song is hearty trust in the gospel promises. You know, I was thinking this morning, we've really been emphasizing faith. And, you know, it's fascinating to me when I ask young people, well, define faith. It's always a struggle to define faith. But don't you see now that our Heidelberg is so beautiful in question and answer 21? What is true faith? True faith is not only a knowledge and a conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. It's also a deep-rooted assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel that out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. It's a knowledge and a conviction, a deep-rooted assurance. God's Word is true. True. now this is where we are tonight i believe it's highlighting here we think about the muting and now the opening the song is broken up into two parts the first he he praises god for sending um his son for fulfilling his word and then he praises god for for from him sending the forerunner sending john the baptist but that's not how i want to break it up tonight i want to break it up tonight this way. First, he praises God. He blesses God for visiting us. And then he blesses God for keeping his promise. And then he blesses God for opening up his mercy to us. Look at verse 67. Visiting, keeping, opening. And his father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. I believe Zacharias for some time has been thinking a lot about the story of Abraham and Sarah. It happened in his own life. And I believe Genesis 21 was on his mind way back in these days. Why do I say that? There's one word here that stands out. Blessed be the Lord, for he has visited us. Remember this morning in chapter 21? And the Lord visited Sarah, and she conceived and bore a son. It's fascinating that the Septuagint uses the very same word. Greek Old Testament. Notice here, the very same word. He says, blessed be the Lord, praise Him, bless Him, make His praise glorious because this God of Israel has visited with this very birth all of His people and redeemed them. Isn't it amazing that Zachariah tonight is taking the very story of Abraham and Sarah and remembering all the joy that happened when that son came and all of their unbelief, all of their pains of not trusting and all of it's extinguished in a moment when God fulfilled his word their sorrow is turned to joy and notice what he's saying this is not just for them it's for all of us this visitation it didn't just belong remember this morning after all that hardship after all that waiting that that Abraham and Sarah had this great moment of joy and he just said that's not just for them that's yours in other words he did it he answered Gabriel says I stand in the presence of God I see he told me to come down and to give to you all glad tidings of great joy it's yours Zachariah because you didn't believe you're mute he must have thought a lot about this and what Gabriel said is as he held the child who was to be the forerunner of the long-awaited son of God the very joy that Abraham and Sarah enjoyed he had just received remember um this morning in Genesis 21 6 all who hear about this will laugh with me. Gabriel just said rejoice. You know that's the same word, root word in the Septuagint used in Genesis 21 where Sarah says all who will hear will laugh with me. That is the very same word. This joy, this laughter is yours. Rejoice. God's done it. We have the son of laughter. The true son. And then look at what the Lord does for us. This is verse 69. And He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. Horn means the power of His strength. The strength of His salvation has come. Verse 70. As He spoke by the mouth of His prophets, His holy prophets from old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. God visited. God's given us laughter. He's done everything just as He spoke. You're looking at everything now in fulfillment. Everything that He ever said that He would do over and over and over and over all throughout history that He would deliver us, that He would save us. I mean, imagine what's on their minds looking back at the Exodus and remembering God pummeling the strongest and most powerful nation of the earth, Pharaoh, knocking them down, delivering them, plundering them, drowning them in the sea, bringing them through. All these stories over and over. Now, it is saying it has come. The time has come. Your son has done this. It's yours. It's your deliverance. How much conflict surrounded the birth of God's son? All the enemies wanted to kill him. Remember this? But there's one laughter I didn't talk about a little bit today, did I? there's one laughter of an attack on his son that happened in heaven they took their stand against the lord and against his anointed and he who is in the heavens did what wow now think of genesis 21 in the midst of all of the turmoil of the nations sodom and then this powerful nation with abimelech and conflict and all of this political conflict fast forward here we are in rome think of the strength of rome at this day nobody could touch rome and look who was sitting on the throne in israel an edomite imposter herod and in the midst of all of this he who was in the heavens laughed and he said i'm going to show you i'm gonna send my son in a manger in flesh and blood taking to himself flesh and blood as a baby and they won't even be able to snuff his life out you watch this i'm gonna do something marvelous they can't touch him they couldn't take his life and then he goes to the cross and what they thought was the great victory and right then and there the message is he disarmed principalities and powers. He triumphed over them in it, making a public spectacle of them to release captives. And Zacharias is saying, the victory's come. Every victory that we ever saw in the Old Testament with Gideon's army, every victory that we've ever studied, this is it. The joy the Lord wants us to have. And what does that remove? Fear. the first thing that happens to Zechariah here is that he blesses God and he's filled with joy because this son has won the battle. This son is conquered. But he now really believes it. And I think that's such an important point tonight as we've looked at these two texts and we've considered this, that this is, again, the Lord calling us to receive this and believe this. This is the belief he desires that breaks out in this kind of joy, in this kind of faith. understanding the wonderful things the Lord has done for us, not questioning, will he do this? He's done it for you. I mean, this is all over the New Testament. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You're more than conquerors through him who loved us. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. So you see, all these benefits now that Zacharias is realizing what this means for us, what does he now say in verse 72? God kept his covenant. Look there. 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 end of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days you find it remarkable that in the first two songs here in luke's gospel that mary and zachariah are focused on abraham in other words remember what god did for abraham in Genesis 15. This is the heart of the covenant of grace. And God, remember, cut it. Remember the rose? Abraham sleeping? And He cut that covenant. And He made an oath that day and He passed through with the pillar of fire and remember He went through the middle representing the two, if you will, legs of God in oath stance, swearing the oath that He would fulfill this and that he would do everything needed for us to be delivered and saved. And Zacharias is saying, he did it. He did it. The Son has come. And how does God want you to receive that? So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, that's you, children who are free, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he's not reneging. He guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things, for it's impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have today strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that's set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul that you might be sure. This is why He did this. God swore this oath and passed through. And then verse 72 says, he performed his mercy. What a beautiful section of scripture. And what does that mean for you today? Notice how this just keeps growing here. What that means is, now because that's done, I don't have to worship him. I don't have to have fear with regard to this God. In other words, you have a long history of people being kept away from God. And when the garden scene happened, Adam and Eve were booted out of the garden and you had cherubim set up and you had temples and tabernacles and veils and distance and distance and distance. And now he's saying he's performed the mercy. I can worship him now without fear. Perfect love is casted out. Do you have fear of God? Now Mary said we should fear God. You see the difference here, right? Not the fear of unbelief. We don't have that anymore. It's the kind of fear that reverences him that he's after. We can worship, cover. He himself is our peace. God has kept his word. We have victory. He's kept his oath. That means we can draw near and worship with no more fear. And now he says one more thing tonight that completes his joy. He now looks at his son. And from the womb of Elizabeth comes this son named John. They named John. He calls him the prophet of the Most High. And what will this son do? Verse 76, 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 in the way of peace. My son says Zechariah is the one to prepare the way. And he's going to give the knowledge preparing the way of forgiveness of sin. You know how the Old Testament ended, boys and girls? This is Malachi. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord, the day the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of their fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter desolation. You better hope he comes. Zechariah just said, my son's the one. signaling He's not striking with curse. He's coming with blessing. There's one last phrase tonight. We'll close with this. I can't get over this phrase. This is what stood out to me in the song. There's so much that stood out. But this stood out, really stood out. Because of the tender mercy of the Lord. The word means His entrails. Because of the tender entrails, the insides of the Lord. It's a remarkable statement. He desires that we have the knowledge of salvation and that we know and believe in the forgiveness of sins. And where does that all come from? Why? What does that say about God that he wants us to enjoy that and to know that and to live in light of that from the bowels of his mercy? Charles Simeon said it really well. Conceive of God as looking upon our first parents after the fall and saying concerning them as he did concerning the people of Israel, How shall I give up on you, O Ephraim? How shall I deliver you up, O Israel? My heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. Yes, indeed, this will give a just view of the compassion which moved Almighty God to send His Son for the redemption of a ruined world. God looks down and He says, He wrestles and He thinks, I will not give them what they deserve. And from His entrails, whatever that means, He sees all of this sin and rebellion and moved he showers down upon you great mercy saying i will give my son so that they never have to taste what they justly deserve how deep the father's love for us and the son has visited us so that we are no longer in darkness i mean you're not in the darkness you're evidence of the light instead he has promised to lead you the way to glory notice verse 17 to guide your feet in the way of peace to give you in fullness joy and peace this is zachariah's song sung immediately after his tongue had been muted for unbelief because god wants that old leaven done. It's not a question of whether God will send his son tonight. It never was even then God promised it. But the truth is that God has sent his son and he's already paid the price, which means that his son has to come again and take those for whom he purchased and forgave back to be with himself it has to occur but until that happens until he comes he just told you today twice that he wants you to live by faith believe him what i've done for you you could never do and so why would you ever try it yourself trust me you've heard the question do you believe in the lord jesus christ you've heard that all your life you believe in the lord jesus you believe in the lord jesus christ do you see tonight as we've looked at these passages together the kind of trust and faith he wants from you now i know abraham you fear god can he say that of you do you believe him we share today with all of the people of god in the celebration of the coming of God's Son to us and for us. And God says to you tonight, I want you to go forward in joy. I want you to go forward in gladness. Let this song of laughter be on your lips and in your hearts. And may you learn then what this means for life in whatever state you are in. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I will say, rejoice. Let's pray together. Lord, we rejoice in the Lord. We praise the God of our salvation. You have been faithful. You have kept your word. Forgive us for the sin of unbelief. And let us never use our lips to run around speaking unbelief. May the praise of God be on our lips today, tomorrow, until the day that the Lord Jesus comes in confidence and in boldness. Because you have visited us, you have kept us and kept your word, and you have, from the bowels of your mercy, lavished down upon us the kind of love and grace that we can come to you without fear and worship you knowing that we are received. Thank you for instructing us in your word today. We bless your name and send us out in another week. rejoicing in the name of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.